Minecraft is basically a game about punching trees and hiding from green exploding bushes. At least, that’s what it looks like on the surface. But if you dig deep enough—past the diamonds, past the Bedrock, and into the logic of Redstone—you find something terrifyingly complex. People are literally playing Minecraft inside of Minecraft. It sounds like a "Yo Dawg" meme from 2011, but it’s a legitimate feat of digital engineering that has evolved from simple flickering lights to fully functional 2D and 3D engines running within the game's code.
The community calls this "computational Redstone." It’s a niche where players treat the game as a hardware development kit rather than a sandbox survival experience.
The Logic Behind the Madness
How do you even start? You can't just place a block and expect a screen to appear. To understand how players achieved Minecraft inside of Minecraft, you have to look at the Redstone torch. It’s a binary switch. It’s either on or off. That is 1 and 0. Once you have that, you have the building blocks of a computer.
Engineers like Sammyuri and the team at the Open Redstone University don't play the game like we do. They build ALUs (Arithmetic Logic Units). They build RAM. They build program counters. They spend months, sometimes years, wiring thousands of blocks of redstone dust, repeaters, and pistons to create a machine that can process logic.
Most people think of Minecraft as a 3D world. To the Redstone engineer, it's just a medium for electricity. They’ve built 8-bit and 16-bit processors that, while incredibly slow compared to your phone, follow the exact same architectural principles as an old MOS 6502 or a Zilog Z80.
The Breakthrough: Sammyuri’s "Chungus 2"
In 2021, a player named Sammyuri revealed a project that honestly shouldn't exist. He built a 1-hertz processor called the CHUNGUS 2 (Computation Humongous Unconventional Number and Graphics Unit). This thing is massive. It’s a virtual computer the size of a city.
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Why does it matter? Because he used it to run a version of Minecraft inside of Minecraft.
It wasn't just a video playing. It was a 2D version of the game where you could move a character, mine blocks, and place them. The "screen" was a massive wall of Redstone lamps. Each "pixel" was a lamp being turned on or off by the processor's output.
Imagine the lag.
Actually, you don't have to imagine it. The game runs at a fraction of a frame per second. To make the video look fluid, they have to use "Server Side" mods like Mause or Carpet Mod to speed up the game’s tick rate by 10,000% or more. Without those mods, moving your character one block would take you a lunch break.
How the "Graphics" Work
You’re looking at a 32x32 pixel screen. Each pixel is controlled by a memory address. When the "player" moves, the processor calculates the new coordinates, updates the RAM, and sends a signal to the lamp array. It’s raw, it’s noisy, and it’s beautiful.
The Difference Between "Real" and "Fake" Versions
We should be clear about something. There are two ways to see Minecraft inside of Minecraft.
The first is what I just described: Vanilla Redstone. This uses no external code. No command blocks. Just the game's internal physics. This is the "Hard Mode" of gaming history.
The second is using VM Computers or similar mods. These mods allow you to "order" a computer part from a virtual tablet and build a PC that actually runs an ISO of Windows or Linux.
- Redstone Version: Built with logic gates. Purely internal.
- Modded Version: Uses a VirtualBox or similar "bridge" to run your actual PC's hardware within the game.
- Command Block Version: Uses "magic" code blocks to teleport entities and swap textures.
The Redstone purists usually look down a bit on the modded versions. Why? Because anyone can run an emulator. Building a working CPU out of dust and torches is a different level of obsession.
The Technical Hurdles of "In-Game" Computation
The biggest enemy isn't the Creepers. It’s the "Unloaded Chunk."
Minecraft only processes things happening near the player. If your Redstone computer is a kilometer long, the back end of the CPU will literally stop existing if you stand at the front. Players have to use "chunk loaders" to keep the machine "alive."
Then there’s the Update Order. Redstone isn't instantaneous. It travels. It has a speed. If a signal reaches an "AND" gate a millisecond late, the whole computer crashes. This is called a "race condition." Engineers have to spend weeks "timing" their wires to ensure every bit of data arrives at exactly the right tick.
Why Do People Actually Do This?
Honestly? Because they can.
It’s the ultimate flex in the technical community. But it’s also a teaching tool. Many of the people building Minecraft inside of Minecraft are actual computer science students or electrical engineers. They use the game to visualize how a "Carry Look-ahead Adder" works in 3D space.
It’s one thing to see a diagram in a textbook. It’s another thing to walk inside the CPU you’re designing. You can stand inside the Register and watch the data (the Redstone signal) pulse past your feet. It makes the abstract concept of computing feel physical and tangible.
The Evolution of the 3D Engine
We've moved past 2D.
Recently, we’ve seen projects that attempt 3D wireframe rendering. It’s not "Minecraft" in the sense of the full game, but it's the math required for it. They are doing matrix transformations. They are doing vertex calculations. All using Redstone.
When you see a 3D cube spinning on a Redstone lamp screen, you’re seeing a machine solve trigonometry problems. In a game about blocks. It’s absurd.
What You Can Do Next
If you want to see this for yourself, you don't need a PhD. You just need patience.
- Visit the Open Redstone University: They have servers where you can walk through these computers. Looking at the "Chungus 2" in person is a humbling experience.
- Learn the XOR Gate: Every computer starts with logic gates. Look up a tutorial on how to build an XOR gate in Minecraft. It’s the foundation of binary addition.
- Check out LogicalGeekBoy or Mumbo Jumbo: While Mumbo is the "famous" one, LogicalGeekBoy often dives deeper into the "how" of the logic.
- Try the VM Computers Mod: If you just want to play Doom or Minecraft on a screen in your base without learning 10 years of engineering, this is the way to go.
Playing Minecraft inside of Minecraft isn't just a gimmick. It’s a testament to how deep the game’s "simple" mechanics actually go. It turns a $30 sandbox game into a $0 (plus a lot of time) degree in computer architecture.
The next time you see a Redstone torch, don't just think of it as a light source. Think of it as a single bit of data. Somewhere, in a world made of blocks, that torch is the difference between a character jumping or standing still in a game-within-a-game.
Specific Milestones in Redstone Computing
Let’s talk about the Redstone Computer v2 by Legundo or the work of Capt_S0ul. These aren't just one-off projects. They are part of a lineage.
Early on, we were impressed by calculators. A machine that could add 5 + 5 was a miracle in 2011. Then came the "Word Processors" where you could type on a keyboard and see letters appear.
Now, we have "GPU" equivalents in Minecraft. These are dedicated Redstone circuits designed specifically to handle the "drawing" on the lamp screens so the main "CPU" doesn't have to. It's the same architectural evolution that happened in the real world in the 80s and 90s.
The Verdict on Performance
Is it playable? No.
Not in the way you play a normal game. It's a proof of concept. It’s "playable" in the same way a sundial is "readable." It works, but it takes its time.
But as hardware gets faster and Minecraft’s engine becomes more optimized, the gap is closing. We are seeing more efficient designs every year. The "Redstone-to-Gate" ratio is improving.
Actionable Steps for Aspiring Engineers
If you’re sitting there thinking you want to build the next Minecraft inside of Minecraft, start small. Don't try to build a 16-bit processor on day one.
- Master the "Full Adder": This is a circuit that adds three bits together. Once you can build this, you can build a calculator.
- Understand "Bussing": Learning how to move multiple bits of data across long distances without them interfering with each other is the biggest hurdle in large-scale builds.
- Use Litematica: This is a mod that lets you see "blueprints" of builds. Use it to study how the pros layout their wiring.
- Join Discord Communities: The "TIS-3D" and "Open Redstone" communities are where the real innovation happens.
Building big things in Minecraft is easy. Building "smart" things is where the real game begins. The community has proven that the only limit to what you can do in the game is how many chunks you can keep loaded at once.