Minecraft now has slot machines, if you’re willing to go through the overtly complex effort of figuring out how to make them. With a recent update, the game’s developer, Mojang, introduced shelves, which some players have co-opted for non-shelf-related fun.
In a YouTube video, user Guppyduck shows over 16 minutes how exactly he managed to craft a fully working slot machine. Minecraft’s world is built up with blocks, which can be used to build forts, villages, or whatever the heart desires. Some players take it a step further, using what the game calls “red stone” to manipulate the world with automation. Flip a switch, and something will happen.
Guppy, however, uses “command blocks”, which are only available in Minecraft’s Creative Mode. This mode allows players to be as free as they want, without the fear of the main mode, Survival, encroaching on their fun. These blocks involve some basic coding skills and are key to getting the slot machine functioning as intended.
The video goes into heavier detail, but what Guppy manages to do is set a scoreboard that ticks down to zero, simulating a slot machine. Behind the scenes, multiple command blocks are assigning random numbers and timed so that it emulates the second and third slots going longer than the first.
It’ll even need an emerald to play the game, with code set up to swipe one from the player every time they hit the button. If you don’t have the gems, you can’t play. The entire slot machine is more like an elaborate Rube Goldberg machine, and just another example of Minecraft players doing far more than intended with the game.
Bearing in mind, all of this is built with the core item of a shelf, used to store multiple items that you might acquire in-game.
Minecraft was snapped up by Microsoft in September for $2.5 billion and has become a major pop culture hit. The movie was released this year to mixed reviews, but spawned a trend of going crazy in the cinema whenever actor Jack Black would say particular phrases.
