This guy built a working word processor inside Minecraft

This is a fully-functioning word processor built out of Minecraft blocks. Screenshot: Cult of Android

This is a fully-functioning word processor built out of Minecraft blocks. Screenshot: Cult of Android

Playing games and being productive are two activities that just don’t mix, but thanks to a Minecraft player that goes by the name of Koala Steamed, you can now construct a fort while you type up your class papers. Steamed has spent two years building a word processor inside the hit game that really works.

Built inside Minecraft’s creative mode, Steamed’s word processor has a display and functioning keyboard, and supports uppercase and lowercase text, numbers, and symbols. It also loads files from its 1600 bit memory, and is capable of displaying up to 50 characters at a time.

It’s “not the fastest of word processors,” Steamed says, “but every single bit of data comes through a single line of redstone.” Redstone is a transparent block inside Minecraft that can be used to transmit power.

The incredible feat is demonstrated in Steamed’s near six-minute YouTube video below.

Minecraft players have long been building amazing contraptions out of virtual blocks — such as the replica Apple HQ and a “working” iPhone — but Steamed’s functioning word processor has to be my favorite. And it’s only going to get better; despite spending two years on it already, Steamed has no plans to give up on it now.

Eventually, the plan is to turn it into a working computer; Steamed is currently working on adding RAM, a CPU, and an arithmetic logic unit, as well as more sophisticated command functions.

If you want to try the word processor out for yourself and see how it was made, you can download a copy of Steamed’s Minecraft world now.