[HN Gopher] Minecraft HDL, an HDL for Redstone
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       Minecraft HDL, an HDL for Redstone
        
       Author : sleepingreset
       Score  : 84 points
       Date   : 2025-10-30 18:59 UTC (4 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (github.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
        
       | dang wrote:
       | Related:
       | 
       |  _Verilog to Minecraft Redstone Synthesizer_ -
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25195802 - Nov 2020 (12
       | comments)
       | 
       | (Reposts are fine after a year or so!
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html)
        
       | paulwetzel wrote:
       | Super cool project :) Just the right level of, objectively
       | useless - but really fun!
        
       | throwaway290 wrote:
       | Minecraft circuits can't have feedback? That's pretty sad:(
        
         | melncat wrote:
         | They can. It's just that this specific program is not capable
         | of translating it.
        
       | 8note wrote:
       | Optimizing passes for this would be interesting.
       | 
       | Describing a flip flop as a villager minecart with some number of
       | NaN minecarts beside it seems challenging to pick when to use it
       | vs a copper bulb.
        
       | gatane wrote:
       | Amazing project!!
        
       | Arch-TK wrote:
       | This is an amazing timeline. I still remember the day redstone
       | was added to Minecraft. I spent the entire evening and many days
       | afterwards on the forum brainstorming how to implement various
       | things. I think I had one of the first if not the first T flip
       | flop, it "took an entire room" and was slow. It has been crazy
       | watching things get compacted, repeaters getting added, pistons,
       | comparators. I remember when BUDs got discovered and then
       | eventually just added as a block.
       | 
       | Now* we have an entire HDL.
       | 
       | I honestly stopped keeping track of things around 2012 so I am
       | completely lost looking at modern redstone contraptions.
       | 
       | *8 years ago
        
         | Dylan16807 wrote:
         | This is a cool tool but compared to modern redstone
         | contraptions this is a sidegrade, not an upgrade. It's
         | straightforward torch and dust logic, with each torch being a
         | nor gate and dust being wires. And it doesn't consider timing
         | at all. This could have been made the week redstone was added
         | (with minor adjustments to not have repeaters).
        
       | Sweepi wrote:
       | > _A 2-bit 7-segment display decoder in action (the display
       | itself was not generated by MinecraftHDL)_
       | 
       | Lame!(/s) I did this vanilla Minecraft(1.12?), _including_ the
       | display itself.
        
       | eirikbakke wrote:
       | In case anyone needs a minimal CPU implementation in 65 lines of
       | Verilog: https://people.csail.mit.edu/ebakke/fic/
       | https://people.csail.mit.edu/ebakke/fic/code/Fic.v
       | 
       | (I wonder if it would convert cleanly to a redstone circuit...)
        
         | lpribis wrote:
         | This compiler does not support sequential logic, meaning no
         | flip flops/registers.
        
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       (page generated 2025-10-30 23:00 UTC)