This Minecraft Map That Recreates One Of History's Most Notorious...

Kowloon Walled City in Minecraft is a feat of virtual architecture, but it's missing one crucial ingredient.

Weird Weekend is our regular Saturday column where we celebrate PC gaming oddities: peculiar games, strange bits of trivia, forgotten history. Pop back every weekend to find out what Jeremy, Josh and Rick have become obsessed with this time, whether it's the canon height of Thief's Garrett or that time someone in the Vatican pirated Football Manager.

Like roughly half of the internet, I am fascinated by Kowloon Walled City. Built on the site of a military fort, the Walled City was a Chinese enclave situated within former British Hong Kong. Its existence was tolerated by Britain provided China made no effort to exercise its jurisdiction. This peculiar legal status left it largely ignored by both nations, and as such it became the site of rapid, unplanned urban development through the latter half of the 20th Century.

At its height circa 1989, Kowloon Walled City was the most densely populated place on Earth. More than 35,000 people lived in an area of six and a half acres, giving it a density ten times that of Earth's most tightly packed cities like Giza and Manila.

Classified as a slum, Kowloon Walled City suffered from destitution and poor sanitation, and was rife with illegal trading, prostitution, and at various points, organised crime. It was also architecturally unique, its distinctive facades concealing a maze of tight alleyways and buildings interconnected with ladders and informally constructed bridges.

The Walled City's distinctive architecture and labyrinthine layout make it a natural setting for a video game, and it has appeared in virtual form numerous times. The city forms the basis of a level in Call of Duty: Black Ops, while a fictionalised version of the Walled City (simply named Kowloon) appeared in Shenmue 2. Pretty much any cyberpunk-themed game is likely to have a little Walled City in it too, whether it's Cyberpunk 2077, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, or 2022's futuristic feline adventure Stray.

Nonetheless, I've always wanted to see a game that goes all in on Kowloon Walled City, that meticulously recreates its alleys, apartments, and many informal pathways and lets you explore them freely. That game still doesn't exist. But thanks to one intrepid Minecraft builder, you can now wander the streets of Kowloon Walled City in virtual form.

Sluda Builds is a qualified architect, Minecraft builder and YouTuber who specialises in ex

Source: PC Gamer