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Comment by Clewza313 | Hacker News Reader

This seems like a pretty myopic view. I'll take Minecraft (aka building virtual endless Lego) any day over what passes for children's TV programming these days.

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Sure, the author’s point is only that you should put Minecraft on a large screen you can see, not a small tablet which you cannot.

So maybe get the Xbox version of Minecraft—or the Raspberry Pi version—instead of the iOS one.

or you know, the 'original' minecraft with all the mods, on a PC... so the kids can learn stuff can be modded, not just 'buy a skin'-ed.

Absolutely, as long as you have a PC connected to a TV!

That’s as cheap as a Raspberry Pi 4 for $35 and a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse for $35, or an old game controller for even less.

FWIW: Minecraft: Pi Edition is discontinued. It only saw a single release (0.1.1 alpha) in 2013. More info over at https://minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Pi_Edition.

Aww, I'm sure a child would have plenty of content to enjoy in 2013-era Minecraft Pocket, but it's a shame they disabled survival mode, I didn't realize that.

but is has a nice Python API https://github.com/martinohanlon/mcpi

Minetest probably runs on a pi. It is open source.

Have you tried playing Minecraft on a Pi ?

You won’t be running modded minecraft on a Pi.

I feel like most people on this site could afford a small gaming machine, though.

> "I feel like most people on this site could afford a small gaming machine, though."

Always check if one of your local universities has a "University Surplus" store or similar. Many universities try to recoup some of their expenses by selling their old computer (and other) hardware when they upgrade, and it's usually ridiculously inexpensive to find a decent PC tower that you can toss a hard drive in and have a mostly pretty tolerable little gaming rig. A couple upgrades later and it can be a totally tolerable gaming rig. I've found many decent bargains at my local University Surplus store in the $50-ish price range for a working starter tower with motherboard, CPU, RAM, etc.

That's not very challenging to set up. Especially if the PC happens to be a laptop.

These days many TVs have an RGB input among the many input options, and many PC graphics cards have an HDMI output (which of course nearly all TVs these days have at least a couple HDMI inputs if not more), so yeah. "That's not very challenging to set up." indeed. Plug in a cable, and rock and roll… :)

Good for a grade school kid but a bit much for a preschooler.

Which version of minecraft can still be modded? I'm seriously asking cause my son has been playing it on xbox which obviously cannot be modified and I was trying to find which pc version to get but it's so confusing I am not sure which or if any official version still allows modifications

The Java version is what you are looking for.

Well, the fact that there is still no official modding API tells you quite a lot about how much modding there would be if the Java version didn't exist.

The largest modpacks seem to be sticking to 1.12 for at least a little while longer, due to heavy code organization changes in 1.13, but you can easily play stable modpacks running on at least 1.16.5..

None of these are officially allowed mods, for that stuff you need to go to resource packs and/or data packs, which provide a sanctioned, but (AFAIK) is more limited ability to extend the game.

Look into the FTB modpacks (or darkosto’s modpacks like skyblock or sevtech) they (like most modpacks tbh) come with a launcher that selects the correct minecraft version and assembles all the mods.

I’ve been running at least two modpack launchers, and playing around 5-6 modpacks in addition to vanilla since the start of covid and it’s generally quite smooth (had to restore from backups a few times, but the backups themselves were automatically created by mods included in the pack.)

Edit:

If you want an amazing experience from caveman to rocket scientist, try Sevtech: Ages.

If you want to learn how all these techy mods work, try FTB University (maybe FTB Academy first.)

If you want to play on 1.16.5 try FTB Endeavor.

If you wanna try a large stable ungated modpack, try FTB Revelation.

(There are lots of other modpacks that are great, but these I have recent experience with.)

Minecraft: Java Edition is what you're after. Depending on your child's ability or familiarity with programming, I'd also look at CodeKingdoms. I've found it's been an excellent way to introduce young children to programming. And with its structured "projects", there are clearly defined objectives with guidance on how to achieve. Likewise, they take care of hosting a Minecraft server and mod deployment. I was skeptical at first, but it's proven to be an amazing tool for my children.

I play Minecraft with my kids. Small(ish) screens, but we're still "together" building stuff.

Only if it’s single player and survival mode where you are forced to make decisions about resource limitations.

Multiplayer Minecraft just looks like crack for ADHD children.

You would be surprised at what you can learn from Minecraft. At age 6 my children knew that you made glass from sand, something I was not aware of until I was probably 10 years old. Even if it teaches them something incorrectly it gets them asking questions about how you would do that thing in the real world.

They'll be in for a surprise if they ever try punching trees though.

Playing Minecraft as an adult was the first time I'd heard of lapis lazuli, which is a real thing used to make blue pigment.

Everquest used lapis lazuli.

Multiplayer Minecraft is how I played with other kids from the neighborhood when ~7year old, except minecraft has better toy variety. Its a social game first.

>Multiplayer Minecraft just looks like crack for ADHD children.

What makes it addictive? The social aspect?

I guess it's the clear rules and structures that ADHD children like

That does not sound at all like ADHD. The constant stimulation from discovery and creation is a more likely reinforcer.

The headline does say 'preschooler'. Minecraft is awesome for kids probably around 6+.

My childhood LEGO sets might have stated 6+, but nothing stopped me from building them as a preschooler :)

The article specifically notes that preschool age children have difficulty learning about 3D from a 2D screen.

Do you have children and let them ply Minecraft? How old?

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