Pi Edition

This page describes an edition of the game that has been officially discontinued.

 

This edition is no longer updated but can still be downloaded.

Minecraft: Pi Edition

Author(s)	Mojang Studios Key staff members Markus "Notch" Persson Aron Nieminen Daniel Frisk
Platform(s)	(ARM only)
Written in	C++[1]
Latest version	v0.1.1 alpha
Release date	Unreleased (Alpha: February 11, 2013[2])
Size	~4 MB
License	Proprietary
Source available	Partial
Links	Website

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Minecraft: Pi Edition is an edition of Minecraft developed for the Raspberry Pi. It is a cut down version of Pocket Edition Alpha v0.6.1, containing a revised feature set and support for multiple programming languages. Pi Edition is intended as an educational tool for novice programmers. Given that the Raspberry Pi hardware was relatively slow at the time, this edition was also the only reasonable way to run Minecraft on a Raspberry Pi. Although officially discontinued, it is still available to download for free, from the official downloads page, and users are encouraged to interact with the game using an API.^[3]

Pi Edition is no longer updated. Despite this, it was included by default in Raspberry Pi OS (formerly Raspbian).

Gameplay

Pi Edition was very similar to Pocket Edition in many ways. Like older versions of Bedrock Edition, only 256×256×128-block old worlds could be generated. The player's skin is always Steve. The title and the world selection screens were identical until Pocket Edition updated to Pocket Edition v0.7.0 alpha.

The player has the ability to sneak but cannot sprint. Mobs do not spawn, even though the player starts with an iron sword in the hotbar. A bow is also available, but when used, the player holds the bow back indefinitely until they select another item or exit the world.

Pi Edition includes all blocks from Pocket Edition v0.6.1 alpha. The only game mode is creative mode and there is no crafting or smelting.

Biomes

• Beach
• Desert
• Forest
• Legacy Frozen Ocean
• Ocean
• Plains
• Tundra
• Snowy Taiga

Items

All blocks use old Java Edition textures unless otherwise noted.

Changes From Pocket Edition v0.6.1 Alpha

• Survival mode is forcibly disabled.
  • Opening an existing Survival Mode world loads it in an unusual half-Survival/half-Creative state where some things follow Creative Mode logic while other things follow Survival Mode logic.
  • It refuses to join Survival Mode servers.
• The Xperia Play UI is used instead of the normal UI, similar to Pocket Edition v0.1.0 alpha.
• Signs do not open a UI when placed and are always blank unless modified using an external program or modding.
• There is no option to select the world name or seed. world is the default name.
• There is no option to change LAN server visibility in the pause menu, the LAN world is always visible.
• When playing in a multiplayer world, there is no option to quit and copy the map in the pause menu.
  • Just like v0.6.1 alpha the map is still saved as _LastJoinedServer in the worlds folder. However, it won't show up in the select world screen unless you rename it.
• A custom cursor is rendered behind the system's mouse cursor.
• The language file included is different than the one included with v0.6.1 alpha.
• There is no sound despite a mute button being in the pause menu.

Development

Release

Minecraft: Pi Edition was originally announced on the Mojang Studios website on November 24, 2012.^[4] There was a compiled build labeled 0.1 on the Mojang repository, albeit encrypted until the game's launch in February 2013, making it inaccessible. When it was first uploaded, however, it was unprotected for a short amount of time, allowing for the download of the game before its true release. On December 20, 2012, Mojang Studios released a post on their official site announcing the release of Pi Edition. However, it was promptly removed and no game release was made.

Minecraft: Pi Edition was publicly released in Alpha on February 11, 2013, as version 0.1.1, and the previous release announcement post was restored.^[2] However, the Pi Edition website still lists its post date as December 20, 2012.

Addition to Raspberry Pi OS (formerly Raspbian)

On September 15, 2014, the Raspberry Pi Foundation announced that Minecraft: Pi Edition would be installed by default with their new versions of Raspberry Pi OS.^[5]

Discontinuation

Pi Edition never received any subsequent updates, and its developers gave no further insights as to whether they were still developing the version. When brought up to Tommaso Checchi on Reddit on January 25, 2016, he stated the following:

In August 2021, when Raspberry Pi OS Bullseye was released to the public, Pi Edition was officially removed from both the Games Folder and the Recommended Software page because Bullseye dropped support for the graphics API that Pi Edition depended upon.^[7] The game is still playable by using a previous version of the operating system. Fortunately, due to advancements in Raspberry Pi hardware, both Java Edition and Bedrock Edition are playable on a Raspberry Pi, albeit potentially requiring some tweaking, depending on the Raspberry Pi model being used.

Trivia

• The player's name is always "StevePi."
• Although there is no survival mode by default, the player can still die by falling in the void.
• All mobs for Pocket Edition v0.6.1 alpha are still in the game's code but they can only be spawned by loading a Pocket Edition map with mobs or by using a nether reactor in a survival map.
• You can download mods to get Survival Mode, as well as other disabled features.^[8]

Technical

• You can change the player's skin by editing data/images/mob/char.png.
• It can be re-textured by replacing files in the data folder like data/images/terrain.png and data/images/gui/items.png.
  • When using the Raspberry Pi OS package, the data is located at /opt/minecraft-pi/data.
• Instead of the normal creative mode, Minecraft: Pi Edition internally uses a "Creator Mode" which appears to be identical except for the API's checkpoints. This is hard-coded, even if the world or server has its data set to survival mode.
• Unlike Pocket Edition v0.6.1 alpha, Pi Edition has its symbols stripped, something Minecraft: Pocket Edition did not do until Bedrock Edition 1.13.0.^[9]
• The file data/lang/en_US.lang is included despite the code to load it not being implemented.
• It uses Raspberry Pi-specific GPU code preventing it from being easily emulated without modding.
• Textures for Fancy leaves and clouds are included despite Fancy Graphics being impossible to enable without patching.
• The scripting API's Java port includes a class called pi.Item despite the API having no means to interact with items.
• Most disabled features are still present in the code like Survival Mode, the Pocket Edition v0.6.1 alpha touch UI, mob attacking, Fancy Graphics, mob spawning, and bow firing.
• It only links against OpenGL ES 2 despite requiring OpenGL ES 1.

Gallery

• 
  Minecraft: Pi Edition logo
• 
  First screenshot of Minecraft: Pi Edition from Mojang's blog.
• 
  An image from the removed blog post, appearing to show a recreation of the game Snake.
• 
  Screenshot of the Minecraft: Pi Edition Inventory
• 

Textures

See also

• Pi Edition protocol

Notes

References

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