I love the engineering hubris of seeing a device and saying “I can run Doom on that”, but I never thought 2009 sandbox game Minecraft would become a similar measuring stick. Ever since one engineer got the game running on a Game Boy Color, I’ve found myself wondering ‘what’s next?’
YouTuber Game of Tobi recently shared their work, and it’s a thing of beauty (via RetroDodo). They didn’t just want to approximate Minecraft in a 2D environment; they wanted a game that actually looked and felt 3D.
As they point out, the Game Boy Color launched hardware generations before we would get portable tech hardware intended for 3D games. They say, “Honestly, I wasn’t sure if it is even possible to have something like this on the Game Boy because it is in 3D, and it is recognisable as a 3D world where you can walk around.”
Though it is worth noting that Game of Tobi’s port isn’t the full Minecraft. You can choose from a couple of worlds, and it doesn’t seem to have a health or inventory system. You can also break and place blocks, but it doesn’t appear to have mobs or secrets.
Tobi is not done here, though. “Of course, I could just call it a day with all of these features, but let’s just be real. I really want to do something with this. So, I also added a Nether, of course. Not a lot of stuff you can do there, but it does work.”
With the Game Boy Color’s limited controls, it does look a tad awkward to navigate. It seems like the D-pad controls movement, and then you hold another button while pressing the D-pad to look around. This means looking around and moving at the same time seems impossible to do on the 1998 bit of hardware.
If you fancy giving the game a go for yourself, you can download it for free via Game of Tobi’s Patreon. The game itself comes in a .gbc file format, so to play it on the original Nintendo hardware, you will need a flash card and a little technical know-how.
Textures are off by default, and Tobi explains this is because it slows the game to a crawl. Rather impressively, at half the speed and in black and white, Tobi’s Minecraft ROM even works on the original Game Boy, the Color’s 1989 predecessor.
Still, this is one of those experiments that seems to come out of wondering if something can be done, rather than because it offers a better experience. Minecraft runs on both Nintendo Switch consoles, plus the majority of handheld gaming PCs, plus it even runs on phones.
If porting Minecraft becomes anything like modders’ fascination with running Doom on random hardware, I’m hopeful we’ll see a port to a vape or a charging station by the end of the year.
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