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This edition is no longer updated but can still be downloaded.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	Alpha: February 11, 2013[2]
Size	~4 MB
License	Proprietary
Source available	Partial
Links	Website

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Minecraft: Pi Edition is a cut down version of Pocket Edition v0.6.1 alpha developed for the Raspberry Pi. It was intended as an educational tool for novice programmers and contains a revised feature set and support for multiple programming languages. As Raspberry Pi hardware was relatively slow at the time, this edition also served as a way to play Minecraft on the platform.

Although officially discontinued, it is still available to download for free and was also preinstalled in default installations of Raspberry Pi OS. Potential users are encouraged to interact with the game using an API.^[3]

Gameplay

Pi Edition had similarities to Pocket Edition. 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 not 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 drawn back until selecting another item or exiting 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 Programmer Art textures unless otherwise noted.

Changes From Pocket Edition

• Survival mode is disabled and survival mode servers cannot be joined.
  • Existing Survival mode worlds can still be opened, though certain parts of game logic behave like Creative mode.
• The Xperia Play UI is used instead of the touch UI.
• Signs are always blank when placed and cannot be edited without external tools.
• There is no option to select the world name or seed. world is the default name.
  • The world is always visible over a LAN connection and this setting cannot be changed in the pause menu.
• When playing in a multiplayer world, there is no option to quit and copy the world in the pause menu.
  • The world is still saved as _LastJoinedServer in the worlds folder but does not show up in the select world screen unless renamed.
• A custom pointer is used instead of the OS pointer.
• The language file has been updated from v0.6.1 alpha.​^{[more information needed]}
• There is no sound, despite the presence of a mute button 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 shortly, 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 is 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 be spawned only by loading a Pocket Edition world with mobs or by using a nether reactor in a survival world.
• Survival mode and other disabled features can be downloaded as mods.^[8]

Technical

• Steve's appearance can be altered by editing data/images/mob/char.png.
• Sprite sheets in the data folder can also be edited like data/images/terrain.png and data/images/gui/items.png. When using the Raspberry Pi OS package, the data folder is /opt/minecraft-pi/data.
• Instead of the regular Creative mode, Minecraft: Pi Edition internally uses a "Creator Mode" that 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 not 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 links only against OpenGL ES 2 despite requiring OpenGL ES 1.

Gallery

• 
  Minecraft: Pi Edition logo
• 
  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

• 
  terrain.png in this edition
• 
  items.png in this edition
• 
  Pointer in this edition

See also

• Pi Edition protocol

Notes

References

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