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MineClone2 is pretty much as close as you can get to Minecraft without playing Minecraft. It's free, open source and runs on the Minetest voxel game engine. A new release is now available with version 0.81.0.

I doubt it will need much of an introduction for people new to it: a sandbox game where you go and do whatever you want. The new release requires either 5.5.1 or 5.6.0 at a minimum.

Some of the main highlights from the new version include:

  • A rewrite of signs, including coloured text.
  • Villager schedule implemented, villager fixes.
  • Nether terrain generation improved for a lot more open space.
  • Nether bulwark (mini-bastion) added.
  • Nether bridge fragment.
  • Strider mob added.
  • Raids added.
  • Axolotl mob added.
  • Beehives and honey added.
  • Ocean temples added.
  • Lots more including various AI improvements.

Minetest has quite a lot of mods, and a few big game packs like this. If you've not tried Minetest or MineClone2 for a while, it looks like a good time to jump back in.

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Izaic Dec 6, 2022
I imagine it has really wonky movement and doesn't feel as smooth as the real Minecraft. That's been my experience with Minetest modpacks.
Beaky Dec 6, 2022
What differentiates this game from minecraft?

Or rather, why should I play this when the real Minecraft exists?


Last edited by Beaky on 6 December 2022 at 1:31 pm UTC
gaboversta Dec 6, 2022
Quoting: LeflWhat differentiates this game from minecraft?

Or rather, why should I play this when the real Minecraft exists?

Not getting banned from playing multiplayer because someone "hacked" mojangs chat reporting system sounds like a great feature to me.

There also seems to be a significant focus on open source with minetest in general.
MayeulC Dec 6, 2022
Quoting: LeflWhat differentiates this game from minecraft?

Or rather, why should I play this when the real Minecraft exists?

Minetest is much more than a single game, it's closer to Garry's Mod. It has first-class mod support, and isn't much without them (it's more of a game engine indeed).

So you can mix-and-match mods to play the game however you want, and play multiplayer with other people on the same mods.

Mineclone here tries to reproduce the base Minecraft games, and is a collection of mods for minetest that add blocks, mobs, mechanics, etc. You can also pick a few of these pieces individually, and/or build on Mineclone to create new experiences closer to modded classic minecraft. With minetest mods.

Also, it runs better on low-end machines in my experience, though the sort of low-powered machine that can barely run minecraft is getting harder to find, thankfully :P

In Minetest terminology, Games are collections of Mods, that aim to provide a playable (fun to play) set of defaults. Mods provide functionality.
whizse Dec 6, 2022
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Quoting: LeflOr rather, why should I play this when the real Minecraft exists?
No Microsoft account needed?
1xok Dec 6, 2022
I played it often with my nephew. He only has a Raspi 400. Minecraft doesn't run very well on it, but Minetest does. Another advantage with an even younger child: the mods are all loaded from the server. There are only zeroconf vanilla clients. You don't even need a password. So I prepared the server and my nephew just connected to it. (I might need to note that I use a dynDNS based firewall. The Raspi updates its IP every 5 minutes via cronjob).

The main problem of Mineclone are bugs. There is Mineclone2 and Mineclone5. The latter implements Minecraft rather more freely and offers more content (and more bugs). Mineclone2 focuses mainly on version 12.2. The world generation is sometimes much more impressive than in Minecraft due to the world size of 65536 blocks in all directions.

Even though there is no way around Minecraft in the end, Minetest is a fantastic alternative that I can highly recommend. Support for mods is built in. These are simply programmed in Lua. What a boon when you compare it to Minecraft.
Sil_el_mot Dec 6, 2022
Quoting: LeflWhat differentiates this game from minecraft?

Or rather, why should I play this when the real Minecraft exists?

I liked the android version and crossplay with PC a lot
Nezchan Dec 7, 2022
Quoting: 1xokThe main problem of Mineclone are bugs. There is Mineclone2 and Mineclone5. The latter implements Minecraft rather more freely and offers more content (and more bugs). Mineclone2 focuses mainly on version 12.2. The world generation is sometimes much more impressive than in Minecraft due to the world size of 65536 blocks in all directions.

As I understand it, that's no longer the case. MineClone2 is not focusing on any particular version now, having pretty much hit their baseline for parity, but they are more interested in stability over frequent releases.

For instance, from the current update, Beehives are a 1.14 element and Axolotls are 1.17.
fireplace Dec 7, 2022
You should also check out MeseCraft. Fedora ran a Minetest server with it for the release party. It was very polished, and I honestly don’t miss Minecraft anymore :p
soulsource Dec 7, 2022
Quoting: whizse
Quoting: LeflOr rather, why should I play this when the real Minecraft exists?
No Microsoft account needed?
This is imho a _very_ big plus. Microsoft has been pushing very hard to use a single account in all their products, and they didn't care a bit about compatibility issues... Soo, now one is forced to constantly change passwords, because product A does not allow to input password characters that are perfectly valid in product B....
(As an example: If you change your password in the browser, you can set characters that simply don't exist on the on-screen keyboard of the Xbox 360.)
It would be hilarious, if it weren't so annoying...
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