Woolworths gets into Minecraft with its Ancient Animals collection

It wasn’t enough to have us lined up at the checkouts asking for “the cards” when the kids aren’t with us, or having the kids put on a cute face hoping for one or two extra collector cards than we’d earned – now Woolworths has embraced one of the hottest games for the youngest generation : Minecraft – and it’s likely to be more compelling than the collector cards themselves

For a while now, on and off, Woolworths have been giving out collector cards based on a theme to shoppers in their Supermarkets. From Aussie Animals to Dominos kids have been asking their parents to go shopping at Woolies so they can collect cards or dominos, then trade them with their mates to get the complete set.

Then of course there’s the extra items Woolies will sell you to really enhance the experience. With dominos it was bridges and stands, with the cards is books to keep them in.

Their latest series of collectables are the “Ancient Animals” collection. A large set of cards to collect, coming in packs of three with a nice little sticker too. Drawing on the overwhelming popularity of Dinosaurs among the youngsters this was always going to be a hit.

Each card has an image, name, pronunciation and information about the animal – whatever you think of the concept it sure is educational.

When Woolworths told me they had a “Minecraft Mod” to go with the series I had no idea what that meant.

I play Minecraft with my 9 year old Jackson all the time, he loves it, I wanted to know what it was so I played it and we play together, lots of fun. The younger ones also play it, but on mobile devices, not the computer.

I downloaded this “mod” from the Woolies website – a huge file. The instructions are not easy, but once you take your time you’ll get it done.

For Windows users, press the WINDOWS key and R at the same time. In the box that appears type this:
- %appdata%/.minecraft/saves and press enter
For Mac users, open a Finder window, and click GO up the top of screen. Select “Go To Folder” and type this:
- ~/Library/Application Support/minecraft/saves
Inside the ZIP FILE you downloaded is a folder called “Woolworths Dino Map” and copy that into the SAVES folder you just opened.

Now all you need to do is open Minecraft, choose Single Player Mode and open the Woolworths map on the next screen.

What happens from here is mind-blowing. I have no idea how much this cost Woolworths but it’s amazing. I also had no idea this was even possible in a game of Minecraft!!

You enter the world in the front of a Museum. The building alone is one of the most impressive things I’ve seen built in Minecraft. There is a man at the start who you can take instructions from and he tells you how the game works.

After that, you’re on your own. Some instructions from other characters, and you enter the museum (again, WOW, IMPRESSIVE!) and then make your way out in the world to find the Ancient Animals, explore how and where they live and collect items to return to the Museum.

You’ve even got a “Bone Crafter” crafting table to get you through.

It’s a deeply immersive experience, so much more so than what I was expecting.

If your child plays Minecraft on your (or their) PC, and has an interest in Dinosaurs and or the Ancient Animals collector cards, you are going to win Parent of the Year by installing this mod!