The game port, originally introduced on the Game Control Adapter, is a device port that was found on IBM PC compatible and other computer systems throughout the 1980s.

A 'Y-splitter' cable used to connect multiple devices to the same game port The game port first appeared during the initial launch of the original in 1981, in the form of an optional US$55 expansion card known as the Game Control Adapter. The design allowed for four analog axes and four buttons on one port, allowing two joysticks or four to be connected via a special 'Y-splitter' cable. At the time there was no sort of industry standard for controller ports, although the closest was the. This was originally introduced in 1977, on the, and by 1981, was used on both Atari gear and the. But it could not be considered truly widespread until around 1983, when it appeared on the and several other platforms. In contrast with the IBM design, the Atari port was primarily designed for digital inputs, specifically eight-direction joysticks. It did include two analog inputs as well, which could support a single analog joystick, but these were not widely used.

The also sported a joystick port with enough channels for two joysticks, but only one button per stick. The had a similar port to the IBM design, even using the same 15-pin connector, but was wired in such a way to support only one fire button per stick. In most respects, the IBM design was similar or more advanced than existing designs. Originally available only as add-on that took up an entire slot, game ports remained relatively rare in the early days of the IBM PC, and most games used the keyboard as an input.

IBM did not release a joystick of its own for the PC, which did not help. The most common device available was the Kraft joystick, originally developed for the Apple II but easily adapted to the IBM with the addition of another button on the back of the case. When IBM finally did release a joystick, for the, it was a version of the Kraft stick. However, it connected to the computer using two incompatible 7-pin connectors, which were mechanically connected together as part of a larger multi-pin connector on the back of the machine. This eliminated the need for the Y-adaptor. Adaptors for Atari-style 'digital' sticks were also common during this era.

The game port became somewhat more common in the mid-1980s, as improving electronic density began to produce expansion cards with ever-increasing functionality. By 1983, it was common to see cards combining memory, game ports, serial and parallel ports and a realtime clock on a single expansion card. The era of combo expansion cards largely came to an end by the late 1980s, as many of the separate functions normally provided on plug-in boards became common features of the itself. Game ports were not always part of this supported set of ports. However, the game port was given a major boost in usage in 1989, with the introduction of the first. As sound cards were primarily used with computer games, took the opportunity to include a game port on the card, producing an all-in-one gaming solution.

At the same time, they re-purposed two otherwise redundant pins on the port, 12 and 15, to produce a with enough performance to drive an external port adaptor. Previous MIDI systems like the used their own separate expansion cards and a complex external adaptor, whereas the Sound Blaster only required an inexpensive adaptor to produce the same result. By the end of the year the Sound Blaster was the best selling expansion card on the PC, and was almost universal on new machines, and the game port was finally widespread. With the exception of laptops—for which companies released joystick adapters for parallel or serial ports, which needed custom software drivers —through the early 1990s, the game port was universally supported on sound cards, and increasing became built-in features as motherboards added sound support of their own. This remained true through the second half of the 1990s, by which time integrated sound support had displaced the 3rd party sound card to a large degree. By the early 2000s, such support was so widespread that newer sound cards began to dispense with the game port as it was certain the machine they would be used in already had such support, including MIDI. The introduction of the first USB standard in 1996, was aimed squarely at the sort of roles provided by the game port, but initially had little market impact.

The introduction of the, which was based almost entirely on USB expansion, began a rapid expansion of USB in the market. This led both to new gaming devices using USB, as well as the profusion of adaptors. For instance, the 1997 was re-introduced in a version that used a game port connector, but also included a USB adaptor in the box. The rapid takeover of USB meant that this was superfluous when the Precision Pro 2 was released the next year in 1998. By 2000, game ports were purely for backward compatibility with now outdated devices.

Discontinued support for the game port with, though USB converters can serve as a workaround. Hardware [ ] The game port's connector includes inputs for a total of four analog channels and four buttons. These were almost always implemented as two joysticks with two buttons each, but it is also possible to support four each with one button using the same inputs.

The port includes redundant pins, including a total of four +5 V supplies, and separate grounds for most of the buttons. In most similar game ports, like those on the Atari, a single +5 V and ground is used for all the channels. The game port was originally mounted on a dedicated card. Since the early 1990s, when the game port moved from dedicated expansion cards to PC or, these connectors have usually doubled as connectors for instruments; two of the redundant +5 V and GND pins of the original standard were rededicated to MIDI input and output to make this possible. To use a game port with MIDI instruments a cable is required with a male and a female DA-15 and two male 5-pin.

The drivers and hardware for the game port midi capabilities are based around the Roland MIDI interface (in UART mode only). The analog channels are read by sending voltage into the line, through a in the controller, in this case 100,000 ohm, and then into a capacitor.

The value is read by timing how long it took for the voltage in the capacitor to cross a certain threshold. The rate varied depending on the resistance, and thus physical position, of the potentiometer. In the Atari port, which had similar analog channels, there is a convenient timer available in the form of the video clock circuitry. In the PC there is no similar clock because video functionality is normally provided on an expansion card. Instead, these timers are provided by a separate chip that combined the voltage readers and timers.

When the trigger voltage is reached, the resulting value is copied into a where it could be read out at any time. The value was being constantly updated by the hardware, but it is up to the software application to poll the value often enough for smooth movement. Software [ ] Initially there was no standardized software for running the joysticks, applications would poll the known ports associated with the sticks as part of their game loop. This did, however, leave the implementation of a lot of housekeeping tasks to every application that used them, like looking for and enumerating the active devices, and calibrating them. This changed in, which introduced standardized entries to hold these values and make it easier for applications to find these devices. Further expanded the options with the 'joystick minidriver' with a number of new capabilities. Among these were support for up to six analog axes, a point-of-view hat, and up to 64 buttons.

It also supported up to 16 such devices, which could be connected using any interface, not just the game port. See also [ ] • References [ ].

• ^ Lemmons, Phil (October 1981).. Retrieved 19 October 2013. • Calvert, J.

(18 August 2002).. A Review of Electronics. Usenet newsgroup Apple II FAQs. 21 August 1998. • (PDF) (Technical report). Nerdy Pleasures.

10 February 2012. • 'Super 12 Pak Multi-Function'. 17 April 1984.

• Petzold, Charles (28 April 1992).. Computer Gaming World. November 1993. Retrieved 28 March 2016. • Edwards, Benj (15 August 2008)..

Retrieved 2015-11-11. • Rivera, Andre (11 September 2006).. Archived from on 2008-12-31. Q: Are MIDI/game ports supported under Vista? A: We've removed support for these types of devices, in favor of USB connected devices.

MIDI Association. Microsoft Hardware Dev Center. External links [ ] • •.

Contents • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Gameplay Minecraft is a game that has no specific goals for the player to accomplish, allowing players a large amount of freedom in choosing how to play the game. However, there is an system. Gameplay is in the by default, and players have the option to play in third-person. The game world is composed of rough 3D objects—mainly cubes and fluids—representing various materials, such as dirt, stone, ores, tree trunks, water and lava. The core gameplay revolves around breaking and placing these objects. These blocks are arranged in a 3D grid, while players can move freely around the world. Players can 'mine' blocks and then place them elsewhere, which allows for constructions to be built.

The game world is virtually infinite, and, using a, as players explore it. The map seed is obtained from the at the time of world creation unless manually specified by the player.

Although there are limits on vertical movement, Minecraft allows for an infinitely large game world to be generated on the horizontal plane, only running into technical problems when extremely distant locations are reached. The game achieves this by splitting the game world data into smaller sections called 'chunks', which are only created or loaded when players are nearby.

The world is divided into ranging from deserts to jungles to snowfields; the includes plains, mountains, forests, caves and various water bodies. The in-game follows a day and night cycle; one full cycle lasts 20 real-time minutes. A few of the hostile monsters in Minecraft, displayed from left to right: zombie, spider, enderman, creeper and skeleton Throughout the course of the game, players encounter various known as, consisting of animals, villagers and hostile creatures. Passive mobs—such as cows, pigs, and chickens—can be hunted for food and crafting materials. They in the daytime, while hostile mobs—such as large,, and —spawn during nighttime or in dark places, such as caves. Some hostile mobs, such as zombies and skeletons, burn under the sun.

Some creatures unique to Minecraft have been noted by reviewers: the creeper, an exploding creature that sneaks up on the player; and the enderman, a creature with the ability to and pick up blocks. The game's physics system has often been described by commentators as unrealistic. All solid blocks except sand and gravel are not affected by gravity.

Liquids continuously flow for a limited horizontal distance from source blocks, which can be removed by placing a solid block in its place, or by scooping it into a bucket. Complex systems can be built using primitive mechanical devices, electrical circuits, and logic gates built with an in-game material known as redstone. Minecraft has two alternate dimensions besides the main world—the Nether and the End. The Nether is a -like dimension accessed via player-built portals; it contains many unique resources and can be used to travel great distances in the overworld. The End is a barren land consisting of many islands. A dragon called the Ender Dragon dwells on the main island. Killing the dragon cues the game's ending credits, written by Irish novelist.

Players are then allowed to teleport back to their original spawn point in the overworld and continue the game indefinitely. The game consists of four game modes: survival, creative, adventure, and spectator. It also has a changeable difficulty system of five levels. For example, the peaceful difficulty prevents hostile creatures from spawning, and when playing on the hard difficulty players can starve to death if their hunger bar is depleted. Survival mode.

The Minecraft crafting screen, showing the crafting pattern of a stone axe In survival mode, players have to gather such as wood and stone found in the environment in order to craft certain blocks and items. Depending on the difficulty, monsters spawn in darker areas outside a certain radius of the character, requiring players to build a shelter at night. The mode also has a which is depleted by attacks from monsters, falls, drowning, falling into lava, suffocation, starvation, and other events. Players also have a hunger bar, which must be periodically refilled by eating food in-game, except in peaceful difficulty.

If the hunger bar is depleted, automatic healing will stop and eventually health will deplete. Health replenishes when players have a nearly full hunger bar or continuously on peaceful difficulty. Players can craft a wide variety of items in Minecraft.

Players can craft armour, which can help mitigate damage from attacks, while weapons such as swords can be crafted to kill enemies and other animals more easily. Players acquire resources to craft tools, such as axes, shovels, or pickaxes, used to chop down trees, dig soil, and mine ores, respectively; e.g. Tools made of iron perform their tasks more quickly than tools made of stone or wood and can be used more heavily before they break. Players can construct furnaces which can smelt food, process ores and materials, among others.

Players may also trade goods with villager NPCs through a bartering system involving trading for different goods, and vice versa. The game has an inventory system, and players can carry a limited number of items. Upon dying, items in the players' inventories are dropped, and players re-spawn at their, which is set by default where players begin the game, and can be reset if players sleep in a. Dropped items can be recovered if players can reach them before they. Players may acquire by killing and other players, mining, smelting ores,, and cooking food.

Experience can then be spent on tools, armour and weapons. Enchanted items are generally more powerful, last longer, or have other special effects. Hardcore difficulty is a survival mode variant that is locked to the hardest setting, and has, where the world is deleted if the player dies. When a player dies on a server set to hardcore mode, the player is put into spectator mode. Other modes Creative mode. An example of a creation constructed in Minecraft In creative mode, players have access to all resources and items in the game through the inventory menu, and can place or remove them instantly.

Players can toggle the ability to fly freely around the game world at will, and their characters do not take any damage and are not affected by hunger. The game mode helps players focus on building and creating large projects. Adventure mode Adventure mode was added to Minecraft in version 1.3; it was designed specifically so that players could experience user-crafted custom maps and adventures. Gameplay is similar to survival mode but introduces various player restrictions, which can be applied to the game world by the creator of the map. This forces players to obtain the required items and experience adventures in the way that the map maker intended.

Another addition designed for custom maps is the command block; this block allows map makers to expand interactions with players through scripted server commands. Spectator mode Spectator mode allows players to fly around through blocks and watch gameplay without directly interacting. In this mode, instead of having an inventory, players have the ability to teleport to other players. It is also possible to view from the perspective of another player or creature. Multiplayer Multiplayer in Minecraft is available through player-hosted and business-hosted servers and enables multiple players to interact and communicate with each other on a single world.

Players can run their own servers or use a hosting provider. Single-player worlds have support, allowing players to join a world on locally interconnected computers without a server setup. Minecraft multiplayer servers are guided by server operators ( op for short), who have access to server commands such as setting the time of day and teleporting players. Operators can also set up restrictions concerning which usernames or are allowed or disallowed to enter the server. Multiplayer servers have a wide range of activities, with some servers having their own unique rules and customs.

Combat (PvP) can be enabled to allow fighting between players. Many servers have custom plugins that allow actions that are not normally possible. In 2013, Mojang announced Minecraft Realms, a server hosting service intended to enable players to run server multiplayer games easily and safely without having to set up their own. Unlike a standard server, only invited players can join Realms servers, and these servers do not use IP addresses. Realms server owners can invite up to twenty people to play on their server, with up to ten players online at a time. The Realms servers do not support user-made plugins, but players can play custom Minecraft maps. At, it was announced that Realms would enable Minecraft to support between Windows 10, iOS, and Android versions starting in June 2016, with Xbox One and Nintendo Switch support to come later in 2017, and eventually support for devices.

On July 31, 2017, released the beta version of the update allowing cross-platform play. Markus 'Notch' Persson, the creator of Minecraft, at GDC in 2011 began developing the game as a project. He was inspired to create Minecraft by several other games such as,, and later. At the time, he had visualised an isometric 3D building game that would be a cross between his inspirations and had made some early prototypes. Infiniminer heavily influenced the style of gameplay, including the first-person aspect of the game, the 'blocky' visual style and the block-building fundamentals. However, unlike Infiniminer, Persson wanted Minecraft to have elements.

Minecraft was first released to the public on 17 May 2009, as a developmental release on TIGSource forums, later becoming known as the Classic version. Further milestones dubbed as Survival Test, Indev and Infdev were released between September 2009 and February 2010, although the game saw updates in-between.

The first major update, dubbed version, was released on 28 June 2010. Although Persson maintained a day job with Jalbum.net at first, he later quit in order to work on Minecraft full-time as sales of the alpha version of the game expanded. Persson continued to update the game with releases distributed to users automatically. These updates included new items, new blocks, new mobs, survival mode, and changes to the game's behaviour (e.g. How water flows).

To back the development of Minecraft, Persson set up a video game company,, with the money earned from the game. On 11 December 2010, Persson announced that Minecraft was entering its beta testing phase on 20 December 2010. He further stated that bug fixes and all updates leading up to and including the release would still be free. Over the course of the development, Mojang hired several new employees to work on the project.

Mojang moved the game out of beta and released the full version on 18 November 2011. The game has been continuously updated since the release, with changes ranging from new game content to new server hosts. On 1 December 2011, took full creative control over Minecraft, replacing Persson as lead developer. On 28 February 2012, Mojang announced that they had hired the developers of the popular server platform 'CraftBukkit' to improve Minecraft 's support of.

This acquisition also included Mojang apparently taking full ownership of the CraftBukkit modification, although the validity of this claim was questioned due to its status as an project with many contributors, licensed under the and. On 15 September 2014, announced a $2.5 billion deal to buy Mojang, along with the ownership of the Minecraft. The deal was suggested by Persson when he posted a tweet asking a corporation to buy his share of the game after receiving criticism for 'trying to do the right thing'. It was completed on 6 November 2014, and led to Persson becoming one of ' 'World's Billionaires'. Audio Minecraft 's music and sound effects were produced by German sound designer. The in Minecraft is non-lyrical. On 4 March 2011, Rosenfeld released a, titled Minecraft – Volume Alpha; it includes most of the tracks featured in Minecraft, as well as other music not featured in the game.

The video game blog chose the music in Minecraft as one of the best video game soundtracks of 2011. On 9 November 2013, Rosenfeld released the second official soundtrack, titled Minecraft – Volume Beta, which includes the music that was added in later versions of the game. A physical release of Volume Alpha, consisting of CDs, black vinyl, and limited-edition transparent green vinyl LPs, was issued by acclaimed indie electronic label on 21 August 2015. Release Personal computer versions The game runs on multiple, including,, and.

Apart from the main version, there are other versions of Minecraft for PC, including Minecraft Classic and Minecraft 4k. Minecraft Classic is an older version of Minecraft, available online for players. Unlike newer versions of Minecraft, the classic version is free to play, though it is no longer updated. It functions much the same as creative mode, allowing players to build and destroy any and all parts of the world either alone or in a multiplayer server. There are no computer creatures in this mode, and environmental hazards such as lava do not damage players. Some blocks function differently since their behaviour was later changed during development.

Minecraft 4k is a simplified version of Minecraft similar to the classic version that was developed for the 'in way less than 4 kilobytes'. The map itself is finite—composed of 64×64×64 blocks—and the same world is generated every time. Players are restricted to placing or destroying blocks, which consist of grass, dirt, stone, wood, leaves, and brick. Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition is a version exclusive to Microsoft's operating system. The for it launched on the on 29 July 2015. This version has the ability to play with friends, and to play local multiplayer with owners of the Pocket Edition. Other features include the ability to use multiple control schemes, such as a gamepad, keyboard, or touchscreen (for Windows Phone and ), and to record and take screenshots in-game via the built-in GameDVR.

Console versions An version of the game, developed by, was released on 9 May 2012. On 22 March 2012, it was announced that Minecraft would be the flagship game in a new Xbox Live promotion called Arcade NEXT.

The game differs from the home computer versions in a number of ways, including a newly designed crafting system, the control interface, in-game tutorials, split-screen multiplayer, and the ability to play with friends via. The worlds in the Xbox 360 version are also not 'infinite', and are essentially barricaded by invisible walls.

The Xbox 360 version was originally similar in content to older PC versions, but is being gradually updated to bring it closer to the current PC version. An version featuring larger worlds among other enchantments was released on 5 September 2014. Versions of the game for the and were released on 17 December 2013 and 4 September 2014 respectively. The PlayStation 4 version was announced as a launch title, though it was eventually delayed. A version for was also released in October 2014.

Like the Xbox versions, the PlayStation versions were developed by 4J Studios. On 17 December 2015, Minecraft: Edition was released. The Wii U version received a physical release on 17 June 2016 in North America, in Japan on 23 June 2016, and in Europe on 30 June 2016.

A version of the game was released on the on May 11, 2017, along with a physical retail version set for a later date. During a presentation on 13 September 2017, Nintendo announced that Minecraft: Edition would be available for download immediately after the livestream, and a physical copy available on a later date. The game is only compatible with the 'New' versions of the 3DS and 2DS systems, and does not work with the original, 3DS XL, or models. Pocket Edition On 16 August 2011, Minecraft: Pocket Edition was released for the on the as an early alpha version. It was then released for several other compatible devices on 8 October 2011.

An iOS version of Minecraft was released on 17 November 2011. A port was made available for shortly after Microsoft acquired Mojang. The port concentrates on the creative building and the primitive survival aspect of the game, and does not contain all the features of the PC release. On his Twitter account, Jens Bergensten said that the Pocket Edition of Minecraft is written in and not Java, due to iOS not being able to support Java. Gradual updates are periodically released to bring the port closer to the PC version. On 10 December 2014, in observance of Mojang's acquisition by Microsoft, a port of Pocket Edition was released for.

On 18 January 2017, Microsoft announced that it would no longer maintain the versions of Pocket Edition. On 2 April 2014, a version of Minecraft based on the Pocket Edition was released for the. On 29 July 2015, a version of Minecraft based on the Pocket Edition was released for.

On 19 December 2016, the full version of Minecraft: Pocket Edition was released on,, and, along with the release of the game based on the Pocket Edition for the. Raspberry Pi A version of Minecraft for the was officially revealed at 2012. Mojang stated that the Pi Edition is similar to the Pocket Edition except that it is downgraded to an older version, and with the added ability of using text commands to edit the game world. Players can open the game code and use programming languages to manipulate things in the game world.

The game was leaked on 20 December 2012, but was quickly pulled off. It was officially released on 11 February 2013. Virtual reality Early on, Persson planned to support the with a port of Minecraft, however after Facebook acquired Oculus in 2013 he abruptly canceled plans noting 'Facebook creeps me out.' A modification known as Minecraft VR was developed in 2016 to provide virtual reality support to the original Java version of Minecraft oriented towards Oculus Rift hardware.

A of Minecraft known as Vivecraft ported the mod to, and is oriented towards supporting hardware. On 15 August 2016, Microsoft launched official Oculus Rift support for the Windows 10 Edition of the game. Upon its release, the Minecraft VR mod was discontinued by its developer due to complaints issued by Microsoft, and Vivecraft was endorsed due to its Rift support and being superior to the original mod. Also available is a port, titled Minecraft: Gear VR Edition. Downloadable content. Main article: A wide variety of user-generated for Minecraft, such as modifications, and custom maps, exists and is available on the Internet. Modifications of the Minecraft code, called, add a variety of gameplay changes, ranging from new blocks, new items, new mobs to entire arrays of mechanisms to craft.

The modding community is responsible for a substantial supply of mods from ones that enhance gameplay, such as, waypoints, and durability counters, to ones that add to the game elements from,, and. To make mods easier to create and install, Mojang announced in November 2012 that it planned to add an official modding (API). Texture packs that alter the game's textures and are also available, as created by the community. In July 2013, texture packs were replaced with 'resource packs', which have the same role as texture packs, but allow custom audio as well. Players are also create their own maps, which often contain specific rules, challenges, puzzles and quests, and share them for others to play.

In August 2012, Mojang added adventure mode for custom maps and in October 2012, Mojang added command blocks, which were created specially for custom maps. In February 2016, Mojang added 2 new versions (Repeat, and Chain) of the classic command block, which were also created specifically for custom maps.

The Xbox 360 Edition supports downloadable content, which is available to purchase via the; these content packs usually contain additional character skins. It later received support for texture packs in its twelfth title update while introducing 'mash-up packs', which combines texture packs with skin packs and changes to the game's sounds, music and user interface. The first mash-up pack (and by extension, the first texture pack) for the Xbox 360 Edition was released on 4 September 2013, and was themed after the franchise.

Unlike the PC version, however, the Xbox 360 Edition does not support player-made mods or custom maps. A cross-promotional resource pack based on the franchise by Nintendo was released for the Wii U Edition worldwide on 17 May 2016. A mash-up pack based on Fallout was announced for release on the Wii U Edition. In June 2017, Mojang released an update known as the 'Discovery Update'. The update includes a new map, a new game mode, the 'Marketplace', a catalogue of user-generated content that gives Minecraft creators 'another way to make a living from the game', and more. Reception Commercial On 12 January 2011, Minecraft passed 1 million purchases less than a month after entering its beta phase. At the same time, the game had no backing and has never been commercially advertised except through, and various unpaid references in popular media such as the webcomic.

By April 2011, Persson estimated that Minecraft had made €23 million (US$33 million) in revenue, with 800,000 sales of the alpha version of the game, and over 1 million sales of the beta version. In November 2011, prior to the game's full release, Minecraft beta surpassed 16 million registered users and 4 million purchases. By March 2012, Minecraft had become the 6th of all time.

As of 10 October 2014, the game has sold 17 million copies on PC, becoming the best-selling PC game of all time. As of 10 October 2014, the game has sold approximately 60 million copies across all platforms, making it one of the. On 25 February 2014, the game reached 100 million registered users. As of February 2017, over 121 million copies had been sold, making it the to date and the second of all time behind.

The Xbox 360 version of Minecraft became profitable within the first 24 hours of the game's release in 2012, when the game broke the Xbox Live sales records with 400,000 players online. Within a week of being on the Xbox Live Marketplace, Minecraft sold upwards of 1 million copies. GameSpot announced in December 2012 that Minecraft sold over 4.48 million copies since the game debuted on in May 2012. In 2012, Minecraft was the most purchased title on Xbox Live Arcade; it was also the fourth most played title on Xbox Live based on average per day.

As of 4 April 2014, the Xbox 360 version has sold 12 million copies. In addition, Minecraft: Pocket Edition has reached a figure of 21 million in sales. The PlayStation 3 version sold one million copies in five weeks. The release of the game's PlayStation Vita version boosted Minecraft sales by 79%, outselling both PS3 and PS4 debut releases and becoming the largest Minecraft launch on a PlayStation console. The PS Vita version sold 100,000 digital copies in Japan within the first two months of release, according to an announcement by SCE Japan Asia. By January 2015, 500,000 digital copies of Minecraft were sold in Japan across all PlayStation platforms, with a surge in primary school children purchasing the PS Vita version. Minecraft helped improve Microsoft's total first-party revenue by $63 million for the 2015 second quarter.

Critical reception. This section is incomplete. This is because it does not provide sufficient information on each version of the game's reception. (October 2017) Reception Aggregate score Aggregator Score (PC) 93/100 (PS4) 89/100 (XONE) 88/100 (PS3) 86/100 (NS) 86/100 (PSV) 84/100 (X360) 82/100 (WU) 77/100 (N3DS) 63/100 (PE) 53/100 Review scores Publication Score A+ (PC) 9/10 (PC) 10/10 (PC) 9/10 (Xbox 360) 9.25/10 (PC) 8.75/10 (Xbox 360) 8.5/10 (PC) 7.0/10 (Xbox 360) (PC) 9.0/10 (PC) 7.5/10 (mobile) 8.5/10 (Xbox 360) 9.5/10 (PS3) 9.7/10 (PS4) 9.7/10 (Xbox One) 9.5/10 (PSV) 96/100 Minecraft has been praised for the creative freedom it grants players in-game, as well as the ease of enabling. Critics have praised Minecraft 's complex crafting system, commenting that it is an important aspect of the game's open-ended gameplay. Most publications were impressed by the game's 'blocky' graphics, with describing them as 'instantly memorable'. Reviewers also liked the game's adventure elements, noting that the game creates a good balance between exploring and building.

The game's multiplayer feature has been generally received favourably, with IGN commenting that 'adventuring is always better with friends'. Jaz McDougall of commended Minecraft, deeming it 'intuitively interesting and contagiously fun, with an unparalleled scope for creativity and memorable experiences'. It has been regarded as having introduced millions of children to the digital world, insofar as its basic are logically analogous to computer commands.

Reviewers have said the game's lack of in-game tutorials and instructions make it difficult for new players to learn how to play the game. IGN was disappointed about the troublesome steps needed to set up multiplayer servers, calling it a 'hassle'. Critics also said visual glitches that occur periodically. In 2009, said the game has an 'unfinished feel', adding that 'some game elements seem incomplete or thrown together in haste'. A review of the alpha version, by Scott Munro of the, called it 'already something special' and urged readers to buy it. Of also recommended the alpha of the game, calling it 'a kind of generative 8-bit '. On 17 September 2010, gaming Penny Arcade began a series of comics and news posts about the addictiveness of the game.

The Xbox 360 version was generally received positively by critics, but did not receive as much praise as the PC version. Although reviewers were disappointed by the lack of features such as mod support and content from the PC version, they acclaimed the port's addition of a tutorial and in-game tips and crafting recipes, saying that they make the game more user-friendly. Minecraft: Pocket Edition initially received mixed reviews from critics. Although reviewers appreciated the game's intuitive controls, they were disappointed by the lack of content.

The inability to collect resources and craft items, as well as the limited types of blocks and lack of hostile mobs, were especially criticised. After updates adding more content, Pocket Edition started receiving more positive reviews. Reviewers complimented the controls and the graphics, but still noted a lack of content. Awards In July 2010, listed Minecraft as the fourth-best game to play at work. In December of that year, selected Minecraft as their choice for Best Downloadable Game of 2010, named it the eighth best game of the year as well as the eighth best indie game of the year, and Rock, Paper, Shotgun named it the 'game of the year'.

Awarded the game the 2010 Indie of the Year award as chosen by voters, in addition to two out of five Editor's Choice awards for Most Innovative and Best Singleplayer Indie. It was also awarded Game of the Year by PC Gamer UK. The game was nominated for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize, Technical Excellence, and Excellence in Design awards at the March 2011 and won the Grand Prize and the community-voted Audience Award.

At 2011, Minecraft won awards in the categories for Best Debut Game, Best Downloadable Game and Innovation Award, winning every award for which it was nominated. It also won 's video game arts award.

On 5 May 2011, Minecraft was selected as one of the 80 games that would be displayed at the as part of exhibit that opened on 16 March 2012. At the 2011, Minecraft won the award for Best Independent Game and was nominated in the Best PC Game category.

In 2012, at the, Minecraft was nominated in the GAME Award of 2011 category and Persson received The Special Award. In 2012, Minecraft XBLA was awarded a in the Best Downloadable Game category, and a Games Industry Award in the Best Arcade Game category.

In 2013 it was nominated as the family game of the year at the. Minecraft Console Edition won the award for Game Of The Year in 2014. In 2015, the game placed 6th on 's The 15 Best Games Since 2000 list. Decompiler Installshield Switches there.

In 2016, Minecraft placed 6th on 's The 50 Best Video Games of All Time list. Minecraft was nominated for the for Favorite App, but lost to. It was nominated for the for Favorite Video Game, but lost to.

The game later won the award for the Most Addicting Game at the. Spin-off games Minecraft: Story Mode. Main article: Minecraft: Story Mode, an episodic spin-off game developed by in collaboration with Mojang, was announced in December 2014.

Consisting of five episodes plus three additional downloadable episodes, the standalone game is a narrative and player choice-driven, and it was released on Microsoft Windows, OS X, iOS, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One via download on 13 October 2015. A physical disc that grants access to all episodes was released for the aforementioned four consoles on 27 October. And Nintendo Switch version were also later released The first trailer for the game was shown at MineCon on 4 July 2015, revealing some of the game's features. In Minecraft: Story Mode, players control Jesse (voiced by and ), who sets out on a journey with his or her friends to find The Order of the Stone—four adventurers who slayed an Ender Dragon—in order to save their world.,,,,,, and portray the rest of the cast. Minecraft: Education Edition In January 2016, Microsoft announced a new tool for education, called Minecraft: Education Edition or MinecraftEDU, planned to be released in 2016.

Minecraft has already been used in classrooms around the world to teach subjects ranging from core topics to arts and poetry. Minecraft: Education Edition will be designed specifically for classroom use. The Education Edition gives teachers the tools they need to use Minecraft on an everyday basis.

There are few differences between Minecraft and MinecraftEDU. The main concept is the same, an open sandbox world. The students' characters in MinecraftEDU will be able to retain characteristics.

Students will also be able to download the game at home, without having to buy their own version of the game. Finally the last large difference is that students can take in-game photos. These photos will be stored in an online notebook with the students' online notes. These online notebooks will be shareable with other students. MinecraftEDU has brought some partnerships from other traditional publishers to bring educational content within the game.

Developed a full version of within MinecraftEDU, keeping the entirety of the original game while adding other educational activities alongside it. Cultural impact Social media sites such as,, and played a significant role in popularising Minecraft.

Research conducted by the 's showed that one-third of Minecraft players learned about the game via Internet videos. In 2010, Minecraft-related videos began to gain influence on YouTube, often made by commentators. The videos usually contain screen-capture footage of the game and voice-overs.

Common coverage in the videos includes creations made by players, of various tasks, and parodies of works in popular culture. By May 2012, over 4 million Minecraft-related YouTube videos had been uploaded. Some popular commentators have received employment at, a gaming video company that owns a highly watched entertainment channel on YouTube.

Is a British organisation that regularly produces Minecraft videos; their YouTube channel has attained billions of views, and their panel at MineCon 2011 had the highest attendance. Other well known YouTube personnel include, who has created many Minecraft, including 'Minecraft Style', a parody of the internationally successful single ' by South Korean rapper. Herobrine is a major community icon of Minecraft, who first appeared as a single image on 's /v/ board. According to rumours, Herobrine appears in players' worlds and builds strange constructions. However, Mojang has confirmed that Herobrine has never existed in Minecraft, and there are no plans to add Herobrine. Minecraft has been referenced by other video games, such as, [ ],,,,,,, and. It was also referenced by electronic music artist in his performances.

A simulation of the game was featured in 's ' music video. The game is also referenced heavily in ', the second episode of the of the animated television series. ', the seventeenth episode of the of the animated sitcom was inspired by Minecraft; Persson responded by tweeting 'I'm not sure how I feel about it.' Clones After the release of Minecraft, some video games were released with various similarities with Minecraft, and some were called ' of the game.

Examples include,,,,, and Total Miner. David Frampton, designer of, reported that one failure of his 2D game was the 'low resolution pixel art' that too closely resembled the art in Minecraft which resulted in 'some resistance' from fans.

A adaptation of the alpha version of Minecraft for the, titled DScraft, has been released; it has been noted for its similarity to the original game considering the technical limitations of the system. In response to Microsoft's acquisition of Mojang and their Minecraft IP, various developers announced even further clone titles that were being developed specifically for Nintendo's consoles, as they were the only major platforms to not officially receive Minecraft at the time. These clone titles include UCraft (Nexis Games), (), Discovery (noowanda), Battleminer (Wobbly Tooth Games), Cube Creator 3D (Big John Games), and Stone Shire (Finger Gun Games).

Despite this the fears were unfounded with official Minecraft releases on Nintendo consoles eventually resuming. Adaptations In 2012, Mojang received offers from Hollywood producers who wanted to produce Minecraft-related TV shows; however, Mojang stated that they would only engage in such projects when 'the right idea comes along'. By February 2014, Persson revealed that Mojang was in talks with regarding a Minecraft film. And by that October, it was 'in its early days of development'.

The film will be released on 24 May 2019, and is being co-directed by and and written. In addition, a documentary about the development of Mojang and Minecraft was released in December 2012. Titled, the film was produced. In 2014 an attempt to a through was shut down after Persson refused to let the filmmakers use the license. A physical prop of a diamond sword A Lego set based on Minecraft called was released on 6 June 2012. The set, called 'Micro World', centres around the game's default and a creeper.

Mojang submitted the concept of Minecraft merchandise to Lego in December 2011 for the program, from which it quickly received 10,000 votes by users, prompting Lego to review the concept. Lego Cuusoo approved the concept in January 2012 and began developing sets based on Minecraft. Two more sets based on the Nether and village areas of the game were released on 1 September 2013. A fourth Micro World set, the End, was released in June 2014. Six more sets became available November 2014. Mojang collaborates with, an online game merchandise store, to sell Minecraft merchandise, such as clothing, foam pickaxes, and toys of creatures in the game. By May 2012, over 1 million dollars were made from Minecraft merchandise sales.

T-shirts and socks were the most popular products. In March 2013 Mojang signed a deal with the, a children's book publisher, to create Minecraft handbooks,, poster books, and magazines. Main article: is an official dedicated to Minecraft. The first one was held in November 2011 at the Hotel and Casino in.

All 4,500 tickets for MineCon 2011 were sold out by 31 October. The event included the official launch of Minecraft; keynote speeches, including one by Persson; building and costume contests; Minecraft-themed breakout classes; exhibits by leading gaming and Minecraft-related companies; commemorative merchandise; and autograph and picture times with Mojang employees and well-known contributors from the Minecraft community. After MineCon, there was an Into The Nether after-party with deadmau5. Free codes were given to every attendee of MineCon that unlocked alpha versions of Mojang's, as well as an additional non-Mojang game,, developed by Oxeye Game Studios. Similar events occurred in MineCon 2012, which took place in from in November.

The tickets for the 2012 event sold out in less than two hours. MineCon 2013 was held in in November as well. MineCon 2015 was held in in July. MineCon 2016 was held in in September. MineCon 2017 was held as a instead of being held at a show floor. Titled 'MineCon Earth', it was streamed live on November.

Applications The possible applications of Minecraft have been discussed extensively, especially in the fields of and. In a panel at MineCon 2011, a Swedish developer discussed the possibility of using the game to redesign public buildings and parks, stating that rendering using Minecraft was much more user-friendly for the community, making it easier to envision the functionality of new buildings and parks. In 2012, a member of the group at the, Cody Sumter, said: 'Notch hasn't just built a game. He's tricked 40 million people into learning to use a.' Various software has been developed to allow virtual designs to be printed using professional or personal printers such as and. In September 2012, Mojang began the Block By Block project in cooperation with to create real-world environments in Minecraft.

The project allows young people who live in those environments to participate in designing the changes they would like to see. Download Free A Certain Ratio Shack Up Rar. Using Minecraft, the community has helped reconstruct the areas of concern, and citizens are invited to enter the Minecraft servers and modify their own neighbourhood.

Carl Manneh, Mojang's managing director, called the game 'the perfect tool to facilitate this process', adding 'The three-year partnership will support UN-Habitat's to upgrade 300 public spaces by 2016.' Mojang signed Minecraft building community, FyreUK, to help render the environments into Minecraft. The first pilot project began in, one of 's informal settlements, and is in the planning phase. The Block By Block project is based on an earlier initiative started in October 2011, Mina Kvarter (My Block), which gave young people in Swedish communities a tool to visualise how they wanted to change their part of town. According to Manneh, the project was a helpful way to visualise urban planning ideas without necessarily having a training in architecture. The ideas presented by the citizens were a template for political decisions. In April 2014, the Danish Geodata Agency generated all of Denmark in fullscale in Minecraft based on their own geodata.

This is possible because Denmark is with the highest point at 171 meters (ranking as the country with the ), where the limit in default Minecraft is around 192 meters above in-game sea level. Minecraft has also been used in educational settings. In 2011, an educational organisation named MinecraftEdu was formed with the goal of introducing Minecraft into schools. The group works with Mojang to make the game affordable and accessible to schools. In September 2012, MinecraftEdu said that approximately 250,000 students around the world have access to Minecraft through the company.

A wide variety of educational activities involving the game have been developed to teach students various subjects, including history, language arts and science. For an example, one teacher built a world consisting of various historical landmarks for students to learn and explore.

With the introduction of redstone blocks to represent electrical circuits, users have been able to build functional virtual computers within Minecraft. Such virtual creations include a working, an 8-bit virtual computer, and for the (by ) and.

In at least one instance, a mod has been created to use this feature to teach younger players how to program within a language set by the virtual computer within a Minecraft world. In September 2014, the in London announced plans to recreate its building along with all exhibits in Minecraft in conjunction with members of the public.