Minecraft: Pi Edition is an edition of Minecraft developed for the Raspberry Pi. It is based on Pocket Edition Alpha v0.6.1 but slightly cut down, containing a revised feature set and support for multiple programming languages. Pi Edition is intended as an educational tool for novice programmers. 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Pi Edition never received any subsequent updates and is no longer updated. Despite this, it was included by default in Raspberry Pi OS (formerly Raspbian). However, it is no longer supported.

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:

“	The original team has stopped supporting it and starting with 0.9 MCPE became a lot more ambitious technically, which also means that it became a lot harder to strip down to run on a Raspberry Pi. Actually, we finished removing all Pi related code to reduce complexity in 2015. Maybe someday we'll revisit it but I wouldn't hold my breath :P On the other hand, Win10 runs on the Pi so you can run the Win10 version there! ... I guess it's something	„
	— Tommaso Checci on the discontinuation of Pi Edition[6]

Gameplay

Pi Edition was very similar to Bedrock Edition in many ways. Like older versions of Bedrock Edition, (then called Pocket Edition) only 256×256×128-block old worlds could be generated. The player's skin is always the default "Steve" skin. 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 will hold 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

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

Blocks

All blocks use old Java Edition textures unless otherwise noted.

• Cobblestone
• Regular, mossy, and cracked stone bricks
• Mossy cobblestone
• Planks
• Bricks
• Stone
• Dirt
• Grass block
  • Uses the old texture from Pocket Edition v0.6.1 alpha.
• Clay
• Regular, chiseled, and cut sandstone
• Sand
• Gravel
  • Uses the old texture from Pocket Edition v0.6.1 alpha.
• Oak, birch, and spruce wood.
• Nether bricks
• Netherrack
• Stairs, cobblestone, wooden, brick, sandstone, stone brick, nether brick, and quartz variants.
• Slabs, stone, cobblestone, wooden, brick, sandstone, and stone brick variants.
• Block of Quartz, quartz pillar, and chiseled quartz block
• Coal, iron, gold, diamond, lapis lazuli, and redstone ores.
• Block of Gold
• Block of Iron
• Block of Diamond
• Lapis Lazuli Block
• Obsidian
• Snow Block
• Glass
• Glowstone
• Nether reactor core
  • Will not activate without API/Mods.
• All 16 colors of wool
• Ladder
• Torch
• Glass pane
• Oak door
• Oak trapdoor
• Oak fence
• Oak fence gate
• Red bed
• Bookshelf
• Painting
• Crafting table
  • Cannot be used as there is no crafting.
• Stonecutter
• Chest
  • Uses the old texture.
  • Cannot be opened.
  • Appears as a full block.
• Furnace
  • Cannot be used as there is no smelting.
• TNT
  • Cannot be lit without using the API to change the data value to explode on block break or modding.

Plants

• Dandelion
• Rose with the old blue Pocket Edition exclusive texture.
• Brown and red mushrooms.
• Cactus
• Melon
• Sugar cane
• Oak, birch, and spruce saplings.
  • Only grow with bone meal.
• Leaves, oak, spruce, and birch variants.
• Wheat Seeds
  • Only grows with bone meal.
• Melon seeds
  • Only grows stem, and only grows with bone meal.
• Bone meal
  • If used on a grass block, only grows flowers as there is no tall grass.

Tools

• Iron hoe
• Iron sword
• Bow
  • Does not fire arrows.
  • Held back indefinitely until the player either logs off or switches to another item.
• Sign
  • Cannot be written on.

Technical blocks and other unobtainable blocks

• Water
  • Cannot be obtained without modding.
• Lava
  • Cannot be obtained without modding.
• Update game blocks
• Camera
• reserved6

Changes From Pocket Edition v0.6.1 Alpha

• Survival Mode is forcibly disabled.
  • Opening an existing Survival Mode world will load it in an unusual half-Survival/half-Creative state where some things will follow Creative Mode logic while other things will follow Survival Mode logic.
  • It will refuse to join Survival Mode servers.
• The Xperia Play UI is used instead of the normal UI.
• Signs do not open a UI when placed and are always blank unless modified using an external program or modding.
• The create new world button immediately creates a world named world with no option to select the name or seed.
• 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.

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 Minecraft version of the game Snake.
• 
  Screenshot of the Minecraft: Pi Edition Inventory

Trivia

• Despite Pi Edition technically being a modified version of 0.6.1, Pi Edition had sneaking two years before it was added to Pocket Edition in 0.12.1.
• 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.^[7][8]
• 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.

Technical

• Instead of the normal Creative Mode, Minecraft: Pi Edition internally uses a new "Creator Mode" which appears to be identical except for the API's checkpoints.
• 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 is hard-coded to always be in "Creator Mode" even if the world or server has its data set to Survival Mode.
• 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, Spawning, and Bow firing.
• It only links against OpenGL ES 2 despite requiring OpenGL ES 1.

References