Tutorials/Rube Goldberg machine

A complex redstone device might not be every miner's cup of tea, but a giant chain reaction device can be a quite entertaining thing to build and test, and you can learn a lot from it. On this page are some ideas and tips that could make your RGM one to be noticed. Who knows, maybe you could become the Sprice of Minecraft!

Ideas
If an idea's title is extra bold, it is only possible in the PC version.

If an idea's title is italic, it is only possible in the PC and console versions.

Zombie Maze
Show off zombie path finding by making a small maze with a trapped villager at the end. Near the end, make the zombie step on a pressure plate.

Variation
Make one exposed to the sky so they burn, causing them to find shelter with pressure plates.

N-ice items!
Droppers can be used to shoot items over ice that has water on top. Make an item slide onto a pressure plate that triggers another dropper to shoot more in a different direction.

Yes you can-non
Sand and gravel cannons could shoot a block over to an area that has a powered repeater with a redstone dust missing. Once the block falls in place it will be electrified and will conduct power. You can also use anvils to crush a mob, and make its drops fall into a comparatored hopper.

Greenstone
A neat type of wiring can be made with cactus, sand and torches. Place a cactus, add sand on top, add a torch in the sand, and place a sand on the torch. Where the sand will fall, add another cactus. Rinse and repeat.

Bluestone
Water can knock out torches. Use a water device that knocks out a torch supporting sand/gravel, making it fall 2 blocks. This will continue the water flow.

Sandstone
A piston pushing sand over a hole with a powered repeater on one side of the sand's destination before it falls and a line of repeaters on the other side can make some short pulses, especially if a lot of sand is used.

Pistone
Redstone blocks are a source of power, and we'll take advantage of that in this. Make a piston push a redstone block into the rear end of another piston that will push a redstone block into another piston... Also, you could place a piston where the redstone block originally was, so when the piston pushes it, piston 2 unpowers. You could make it a sticky piston that pulls a redblock away from another piston...

You could also replace the redstone blocks with opaque blocks with a torch below. (Makes this compatible with xbox edition)

Oh, shoot.
Make a dispenser shoot an arrow/snowball/egg/potion/anything else that is shot as a projectile when put in a powered dispenser at a painting or item frame. This will knock it off onto a pressure plate/comparatored hopper, sending redstone signal to the next part of the contraption.

Sheep+Arrow=RedWool
Killing a mob with projectiles or an anvil making its treasure fall onto wood pressure plates and/or a comparatored hopper can be a funny way to add some depth into your complex device. The arrow can come from the Oh, shoot trick.

Variation
Dip the local snowman in water.

Hot Gravel
Placing a one tick piston that pushes away the torch in front of it that has gravel on top can be useful. On this gravel, there will be a torch on the side holding up another gravel, etc. You could even make a message with these, by stacking gravel and sand, to write something like "THANKS FOR WATCHING". This will not be visible when in its "torches" state, but when everything falls into place, everything falls into place.

♪
Why not add music into your Rube Goldberg devices? Get creative with note blocks! It doesn't stop there; things that make other noises (DROPPERS!) can sound quite melodic when mixed in with note blocks. And they could contain stuff in them to jump right into the N-ice items! trick. And shot arrows make a whole different sound. So you can leap straight into the Oh, shoot. Technique. Or you could go with the classic Sheep+Arrow=RedWool technique. Keep in mind pistons are melodic as well (carry on into Pistone) and so are doors (release the zombie into a maze!)

Minecart Marble Run
You can use minecarts with redstone and detector rails to change the path for every minecart that uses the rail. Each should end up at a different destination, and all of them must be there to complete the circuit. Since you have no detector rails in the Pocket Edition, a redstone alternative can be used by making the minecart pick up a mob, and then at the end of the track the cart falls onto some farmland, which transforms into dirt causing a block update.

Source-ry
You probably had that terrible moment where you were building a sink bowl in a mob farm when all the water turned into sources. And then your keyboard found itself lodged halfway through the monitor. Well, you can still use the source trick as a mob farm component. Make an almost-complete sink bowl, and then add a Dispenser that will add water in the right way to turn the whole bit into a huge source. This will allow the water to wash away a sand-supporting Torch on the other side.

In real life
Sure, Minecraft rube goldbergs are epic, but what about in real life? Where there are more possibilities? Such as this one: make a heavy marble roll onto your mouse (PC version players) or the break block button (Xbox/PS3)? So you can carry on your RGM in two separate dimensions, one with dominoes and the other with cubes! I blew your mind.

Tips and tricks

 * On Xbox 360 edition, you can exit without saving after testing the RGM so you don't need to reset it.