Oakland. The town. Birthplace of Luke Skywalker and MC Hammer. The city of champions and the Golden State Warriors. An enterprising group of Minecraft enthusiasts sought to recreate it over the past 10 days in the game, and their work goes into a museum this weekend.
The kicker is that most of the team building the city’s landmarks — Tribune Tower, City Hall — are not from the city. The Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment recruited Minecraft fans from Reddit to build the city. Many took up the challenge, using Google Maps’ street view, and other source materials, as references.
The Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment (MADE) will showcase that work at the Oakland Museum of California from Friday through Sunday. Patrons will be able to play the Oakland Minecraft map, with the opportunity to build, modify or destroy parts of it for themselves.
But as the images here show, they’ve done a good job including the landmarks that locals will recognise and enjoy, like the Oasis dance club, the Alameda County Parking Garage and Heliport, the AT&T building at 17th and Franklin, and others. I didn’t see the Coliseum Swap Meet, a ridiculously congested 880 or the cranes that inspired George Lucas to make the AT-ATs, but there appears to be plenty of local flavour to amuse those who live in or know the city.
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