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There are other Minecraft versions (e.g., on mobile devices) but they require different software. We are going to setup a Minecraft server for the old-school Java-based Minecraft. It took me a couple of long evenings to set things up, but if you follow my instructions, you can probably get it done in a couple of hours, once you have assembled all the material. So I thought I would contribute my own technical guide. There are many guides to setting up a Minecraft server on a Raspberry Pi, but the information is all over the place, and often obsolete. And you can expose your kids to servers, Linux and so forth. So, putting two and two together, you can build cheaply a little box (not much bigger than my hand) that can be used as a permanent, low-power, perfectly silent game server.
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Meanwhile, you can order neat little Raspberry Pi Linux computers for less than $50. Since it is written in Java, it can run easily on Linux. Minecraft sells its client software, but the server software is freely available.
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My kids are gamers, and they love Minecraft.
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