Markus “Notch” Persson, the creator of Minecraft, did not develop a traditional compiler. However, during the development of his ambitious space-themed game 0x10c, he designed a fictional 16-bit CPU architecture called DCPU-16. This virtual CPU was intended to be programmable by players within the game, allowing them to write code to control their in-game spacecraft systems.
Although 0x10c was eventually canceled in 2013, the release of the DCPU-16 specifications sparked significant interest within the programming community. Enthusiasts began creating assemblers, emulators, and even compilers for the DCPU-16, effectively building a software ecosystem around this imagined hardware. This initiative showcased Notch’s innovative approach to integrating programming and gameplay, blurring the lines between game mechanics and real-world coding.