Porting wizard pushes Minecraft to the limit by cramming 25 million blocks into their GameCube demake - beating the Switch version in the process

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The process took "a month of extensive optimization"

Minecraft Steve
(Image credit: Mojang Studios)

Now rivaling Skyrim's sweeping tour of platforms, Minecraft has been (kinda) ported to another console - one that came out in 2001, I might add.

Since beginning its blocky domination during its 2009 early access period, Minecraft has made its way to pretty much every gaming platform on the market from Xboxes and PlayStations to the 3DS and PS Vita. Now, one indie developer is using Minecraft Beta 1.7.3 as a bedrock to make their own block-based game on the GameCube and Dreamcast.

Developer Meesedev is making a "Minecraft-inspired" game on the retro consoles, and building a custom engine from scratch to get it done. But for now, they're using Minecraft assets and gameplay mechanics to show what the engine is capable of, and you'd barely be able to tell the difference based on the clip below.

"Crammed 25 million blocks into 24 MB of RAM and boosted render distance to 12 chunks on the GameCube, now surpassing the render distance of Minecraft on Xbox 360, PS3, Wii U, and matches the Switch (docked)," the developer recently tweeted. "Achieved through a month of extensive optimization."

"Chunks" aren't referring to edible meat chunks or chunky voxels in this context, but Mojang's very special unit of measurement that refers to a procgen 16 x 16 segment of blocks. Next-gen Xbox Series and PS5 versions render around 30 chunks, for example, making this demake all the more unbelievable.

For clarity, once the unnamed game is finally ready for the public, all the Minecrafty bits and blocks and rectangles "will be removed and replaced with original content." Meesedev says "You won't be punching trees with your fists in this game. The only similarity will be that it's a block game set with some nature. By original, I mean the gameplay must be entirely different to ensure this project doesn't go to waste."

Another Minecraft modder basically made “Minecraft 2” by replacing everything in the game with the number 2.

Kaan Serin
Freelance contributor

Kaan freelances for various websites including Rock Paper Shotgun, Eurogamer, and this one, Gamesradar. He particularly enjoys writing about spooky indies, throwback RPGs, and anything that's vaguely silly. Also has an English Literature and Film Studies degree that he'll soon forget.