Minicraft for GBA
A downloadable game
This is a demake of Minicraft by Markus Persson (aka Notch), a game made for Ludum Dare 22 in two days.
My aim is to make a version that is as close as possible to the original. Of course, the GBA has some hardware limitations but, since the game isn't too complex, I could port it without too many problems. When the limitations were impossible to overcome, I had to hack a few things, change others, put limits and so on.
To improve the experience, I also added a pause menu and a way to save and load the world.
Git repository: https://github.com/Vulcalien/minicraft-gba
Download
Install instructions
To run the game, download the zip file first, then extract the ROM (minicraft.gba).
If you want to use an emulator, then run the game with it. If you don't have an emulator, I highly recommend mGBA.
You can also run the game on hardware, if you have the means.
If you have any trouble with the save files, try to manually set the save format to 128 KB Flash ROM.
Comments
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hi there, just wanna ask if you can build a base on this game, i can't seem find a way to place wood everywhere or craft plank, is there something i need to do? btw great game:)
What I usually do is grow trees around to make walls and dig holes to make a floor in which mobs can't spawn. The original game's support for building is quite limited. Glad you enjoy the game!
First off, Amazing game! I was able to get it run with no issues on my retro pocket 2+! For the love of god I cannot get the saves to work. No way I can commit a play session, then lose all that I’ve created. Please help on how to set up a save file on the retro pocket 2+. It’s Very common emulator . I’ve never had a save issue before.
Hey, glad you are enjoying the game. I've had a similar issue reported some time ago. I'm fairly sure of how to fix it, and have already made a modified version with the fix. I have no way of testing it (lack of such devices), but you can try it and see if it works.
minicraft_2023_12_24_exp_saving.zip
I'd appreciate if you could tell me if it works, so I can apply the patch to the next version to be released, or try something else if it doesn't work.
Edit: I changed the link to a newer experimental version that has checksum verification built in.
I’ll definitely try this tomorrow! Thank you for the response!
Happy holidays! It makes me excited to see that you’re still keeping up with this page and fan comments! Just wanted to say that I was experiencing the same saving issue while playing the game through the Analogue Pocket - and sadly the update you have here did not correct. It isn’t much of a problem because the pocket has save states and I personally like to run the game in one setting - but I know not all emulation devices do and I figured I’d give some feedback!
Absolutely loving the game so far ! Feeling inspired to take on my own programming challenge to see how much could be added to a game like this if we were to remove the save functionality. Would love to be able to build in the environment with wood and stone and find a use for cloth!
Thank you for your work!
Thanks for the feedback! I was hoping to have the save problem fixed with that update. I'll have to figure out what is causing the problem.
About modifying the game, I can give a few hints. There is much space left for items, entities and crafting recipes. Tiles and levels are more difficult, because the memory is already maxed out as is (that is the reason why the level size is 112x112 instead of 128x128). To add more tiles, you would need to either find more memory (e.g. use the save memory as RAM) or find a fast-to-process compression to store the tile data with.
unfortunately I did not get this to work. Game runs flawlessly at max frames on my retro pocket 2+ other than reloading save files… no idea if it’s me or not. I even added auto save in retroarch. No fix. Maybe someone can chime in if they’ve gotten it to work on this emulator? I probably wont play it until I can get a file save to load. Really looking forward to it. I love it.
not sure if you saw my comment above - but as of right now it seems like saves aren’t functional on most emulators / emulator based hardware as I am having the same issue on the Analogue Pocket! Does the emulator you’re using support save states? I’m taking advantage of those for the time being just to save process!
yeah I’m not sure. I think retroarch does though. That’s the emulator that essentially runs minicraft. I enabled auto save but it doesn’t correspond properly with the game itself. I’ve had the auto save feature work just fine with PS1 games.
As far as I know, saving works on emulators. Not sure how auto-save works on RetroArch, but the the standard saving (in-game pause menu) should.
Love this game! Do you have any plans to expand on it? Eg. add a map?
Hey! Not right now, but I may work on it some time in the future. My goal was to keep it as close as possible to the original Minicraft, but at some point I may make a version with more features.
this might, no, WILL, be a big request. what if you could port minecraft to... PS1?
there are mods to emulate the game in a PS1 style - not the same as playing it on the hardware of course - but there are mods that can replicate this era currently available!
This is amazing! It certainly exceeded my expectations. Definitely on my top 5 gba homebrew list.
Thanks!
How did you do this? I was wondering if you could port minicraft+ because it is a great mod. Otherwise, how did you port this, I could attempt to demake minicraft+ myself.
Minicraft+ has a lot of additional features. Adding them wouldn't be impossible, but it would take quite some time to get right.
To make this demake I had to learn how to program the GBA, and plan a lot of things beforehand (eg. the save system is made for exactly this number of tiles; adding new tiles would mean change a lot of the save system).
There is a lot of space for new entities and tools though.
As for how it was made, I had to rewrite the game from scratch.
Oh wow, that's impressive, I thought it was just some kind of simple ROM conversion. I don't really know how all that works of course. I have an Analogue Pocket, so that has saving built-in, so perhaps you could find a way to make a larger amount of items, by sacrificing saves.
Sorry for the dumb question but where do i find gold and gems? I looked around inside the caves for a good time but i haven't found anything yet, i created 3 different worlds already but still nothing, can you help me with this?
After you enter the first underground level, you'll have to find other stairs going down to the second and then third level. Each underground level has unique characteristics and ores.
Thanks!
Сan I save the game after defeating the boss of this game?
Yes, but the boss will not respawn.
okey
That looks like a damaged save file. Maybe the game was closed while saving.