Before we do anything, create an account on CurseForge that you will be publishing with.

Unfortunately, because CurseForge was owned by Twitch until mid-2020, you will need a Twitch account to login. Currently, there are no other signup options.

If you don’t already have CurseForge downloaded, you can do so through their website. Once the download is finished, move on to the next step.

Now you’re ready to add mods to your modpack! The easiest process is through the CurseForge app. Below are the steps to creating a profile and adding mods:

1. Upon first opening, you’ll need to choose Minecraft as a game and where you’d like the files to be saved.
2. Click the Create Custom Profile button at the top right of the window.
3. Fill in the name and correct Minecraft version. If you’re hosting a server, make sure the Fabric or Forge modloader versions in CurseForge match the version of the server.
4. Click Create. CurseForge will create the profile and once complete, click into the modpack.
   

   

   
   
5. Click Add More Content as shown in the image above.
6. Search and browse to find the mods you’d like to add. You can add mods to the modpack by clicking the install button. If you need help deciding what mods to add, check out one of our Minecraft mod guides!

The average PC can handle up to 100 mods in a modpack, so try not to go much higher than that. Make sure you test out the modpack before exporting to make sure there are no mod conflicts or glitches!

Once you’re satisfied with your mod list, we’re ready to move on to the next step!

Click the triple dotted button beside the Play button to open up the modpack menu. In the drop-down, choose Export Profile.

1. In the pop-up that appears, name your pack in a way that will make sense to you. For example, the first version of this modpack could be named “Howchooers 1.0”.
2. Make sure the checkbox beside “Mods” is checked off and click Export.
3. Download the file to wherever you’ll find it quickly later.

Note: If you include a mod that requires configuration before publishing the modpack, do so now. When you export the profile, be sure to check off the config file for that mod.

Contrary to what you might assume, the modpack file isn’t the only requirement to upload and publish to CurseForge.

In order for your modpack to be approved, you’ll need:

• Logo that is 400×400 pixels and cannot be a blank image or just the modpacks name.
• Written Description that details the modpack, its purpose, and anything else the players might need to know.
• A summary that is a one line explanation that offers a sense of what your modpack offers.

Take note that the modpack name cannot include the game name, game versions, or file versions.

It’s finally time to begin uploading. Go to curseforge.com/minecraft/modpacks and click the Start Project button at the top of the page.

Fill in all the information you’ve already prepared! When choosing a main category, pick the one that has the most mods supported. You can choose up to five additional categories as well.

Once you’ve filled in all the required information, click Start Project at the bottom of the page.

Now is a great time to see if your description needs any fixing. To do so, click the Manage Project button as shown in the image above.

On this page you can update the modpack’s description, logo, license, and more! Make sure to click Save Changes before leaving the page!

Now we have to upload our modpack ZIP file to CurseForge. Click the File button at the top of the page, as shown in the image above.

As shown in the image above, upload the modpack file you save in Step 4.

Choose a Release Type:

• Release: Syncs to the CurseForge App by Default. These are the files that will auto download when a user clicks the default download button on a project. You must have at least one of these files for the project to be available on the website and client.
• Beta: Will not sync to the CurseForge App unless the user chooses to receive Beta files.
• Alpha: Will not sync to the CurseForge App instances set to receive Alphas.

Make sure to choose the correct game version based on your modpack’s original profile. You don’t need to fill out the Related Projects section, as once your project is approved, it will automatically populate.

Click Submit when you’re done!

CurseForge staffers will now review your modpack. This process can take anywhere from a few minutes to a couple of days. If your modpack is approved or rejected, you’ll receive an email or notification on CurseForge’s website. You can view a full list of your projects here.

If your modpack is accepted, then you’re ready to share it with the world!

If your modpack is rejected, the team will let you know why and what changes need to be made. View their Moderation Policies for more explanation.

Check out our published modpack called Howchooers!

Updating a modpack is nearly identical to publishing for the first time.

1. Repeat Step 4 of exporting the modpack from the original one you made in Step 3. Make sure to label the file you export with a version number, so you don’t get confused when uploading.
2. While on your project page, repeat Step 8 to upload a new file.
3. Within the Changelog box, add in anything players should know. For example, what mods were removed or added.

The updated file will go through the approval process once again. Usually it takes a couple of hours for the CurseForge app to recognize the modpack had an update, but don’t be surprised if it takes 24-48 hours either.

Sync is one of the biggest competitors to Dropbox and Google Drive, providing their users with a powerful base of security, massive storage space, collaborative tools that interface with the Microsoft 365 suite, and all for a lower cost than any of the big providers. In every way, this service is setting the bar for what high-security cloud storage means.

Security

Sync.com uses both end to end and zero-knowledge encryption meaning that any data you upload or download is protected both in transit and at rest, and, furthermore, it means that even sync.com can’t look at your data without access to your private key. Granted, that means that if you lose your key you can never get your data back, but that’s just a solid reason to have a good password manager to store all your important login information in*.

Sync.com also offers full versioning of files, with the free plan receiving 30 days of storage for these versions, and the normal paid tiers receiving 180 days of stored versions. This is the ultimate in protection against accidental deletions, glitches with programs, or the unlikely but terrifying prospect of getting hit with ransomware.

Features

Free accounts start with 5 GB of storage space, full sharing and collaboration support, real-time backup and sync, and auto-camera upload support! But, jump to their lowest paid tier and suddenly the support shoots through the roof, with full Office 365 compatibility, two terabytes of storage space, and unlimited data transfer something very few security-focused services offer. If you’re looking for a collaborative option, teams also get a whole suite of powerful admin features for a very reasonable price (at a minimum of two team members this service is the same as a single solo-account for Dropbox).

Sync.com also offers unlimited file size storage, which is a pretty neat feature you’re not going to find elsewhere too often.

Cons?

If there is a drawback to Sync.com, it’s that there’s no monthly option. You can try their services for free and all their paid services have a money-back guarantee, so there’s no risk, but you do have to pay a lump annual sum. That’s actually fine by me, considering how great their service is.

Likewise, as might be expected from a service that places security-first, some easy sharing options you might be used to with Google Drive are absent — and, of course, there’s no integration possible with Google Drive since that service is fundamentally not secure in a number of ways.

The biggest thing I think Sync.com lacks is support for using your synced material as part of a home network attached storage (NAS) (this means no live linking it to your Kodi player). There is also no support for WebDAV or FTP, which is pretty common for most file-sharing and storage services, but especially those which are focused on security.

MEGA is the successor of the old Megaupload service that got squashed due to copyright claims from major corporate lobbyists. The service has got great security features, a massive amount of free storage space compared to literally any other trusted provider, and integration with Mozilla Thunderbird for sending huge files via email easily. There are some issues in the form of high costs and limited collaborative functionality, however.

Security

With full end-to-end encryption and zero-knowledge encryption, MEGA does well on the security and privacy front. Even they can’t read your data. Other more commonplace features, like two-factor authentication, help to ensure that your data is as safe as can be while hosted on their service.

It’s worth noting that MEGA does keep track of more of your meta-data than some services on this list. Though they can’t access your actual encrypted files, they can get a lot of information about your account, including emails you contacted through MEGA (including shared files), basic account settings and your avatar, and the IP addresses of the devices you’ve used to access your MEGA account. They also store information on file sizes of uploaded files. There’s also been some concern over the influence that Chinese business figures have in the company, which shouldn’t matter too much due to the zero-knowledge encryption, but if you’re eager to keep your data as far away from China as possible it’d be better to go with a different service.

Features

MEGA’s smallest plan comes with 400 GB of storage and 1 TB of data transfer allowed per month, and their next tier, which is comparatively priced to Dropbox’s basic plan, provides double those limits. This is also backed up by full file versioning, secure file sharing (through password protection), a private message system, and a secure video conferencing system. You’re not getting anywhere near as much storage space for the same price as a service like Sync.com, but features like chat, video-conferencing, and media playback from within the apps all stand out as desirable features.

Cons?

The aforementioned metadata collected by the service and the potential issues with the business-side of the company might be important depending on your threat model. Their lack of integration with 3rd party applications makes their service a bit frustrating for those who are used to instantaneous collaboration provided by Google Docs.

pCloud is nearly unique in the field of cloud storage because it offers “lifetime” plans to users. Combined with a large suite of sharing and collaboration tools, this makes it a great option for many… just beware of the flaws, such as the fact that zero-knowledge encryption is an add-on, not a base service, and that using that encryption renders most of pCloud’s impressive sharing options inoperable.

Security

Like with all cloud hosting providers that try to lay claim to privacy and security, the true test is do they offer zero-knowledge encryption? Your data is only secure, after all, if you’re the only person who can see it! The good part is that pCloud does offer this, but the downside is that it’s only offered as an additional product that integrates with your base cloud storage service.

The company also collects a fair amount of usage data from its users, including IP address and information about the devices that access their service. They are based in Switzerland, which has historically solid privacy laws, but that shouldn’t be the only thing one relies upon. There have also been a number of complaints on Reddit by users who feel they had their accounts deleted unfairly due to misidentified copyrighted material showing up on their accounts. pCloud representatives stated that accounts aren’t “deleted” in such cases, merely suspended for review, but that begs the question: how does pCloud know what you’re uploading? The answer comes in the form of a “hash” a unique coded identifier that corresponds to a piece of data, such as a pirated film. The owning company will release hashes of their films to services like pCloud who then use automated monitoring to detect data being uploaded with such a hash. This isn’t pCloud’s fault, by the way, but is a problem inherent in laws like the DMCA and the EU directive “Article 13”.

This shouldn’t be an issue unless you plan on doing nefarious things, but it’s a point to consider for many users looking for truly private service.

Features

Media players are where pCloud excels, especially within the realm of a built-in audio player that allows users access to advanced search and play functions from within pCloud itself. There are no good app integrations with pCloud, sadly, so it’s not the best application for collaborative work, but it does offer all the usual elements like password protected sharing.

The best part is their “fair share” system that allows one user to share a folder with another, and anything the second user places in that folder doesn’t count against their account — only the original sharer’s.

Cons?

The aforementioned limitations to the zero-knowledge system, as well as automated hash scanning, and the collection of a fair amount of metadata are all bad from a privacy and security point of view. The customer service for pCloud is also notoriously lacking, with no live support and limited responses from their phone support line. You can email, but expect to wait at least a day for a response.

A major annoying feature of their 10 GB free tier is that half of that space is locked until the user jumps through various hoops, like referring a number of friends to the service.

Trusting a service to do all the heavy lifting on your most precious files isn’t a good idea, no matter who they are. The best way to handle encryption is to handle it yourself right from your computer before you even upload. That way, you can maintain zero-knowledge encryption of your files no matter the service you use!

Cryptomator

Cryptomater is a free and open source (FOSS) program designed to easily encrypt your files on your computer, including files that you send to the cloud. Being free affords it a nice advantage over competing products that charge for their services, and it’s trusted by users worldwide

Cryptomator can’t encrypt entire discs, nor does the desktop version interface directly with cloud services (the mobile versions, however, do). Once you’ve encrypted your files, you can access them again by using any of the Cryptomator applications. I found this program to be a bit finicky to install, and the mobile versions do appear to cost a one-time fee to download, but it still beats out the competition in many ways — especially because it’s open source and (largely) free.

Boxcryptor

A paid service, Boxcryptor provides you with super easy client-side encryption, but it goes beyond that by also including encrypted file-sharing capabilities. It also natively integrates with numerous cloud storage providers and a service called Whisply that will allow you to securely share your files with anyone (no matter if they have Boxcryptor or the same cloud storage service).

Boxcryptor does have a superb free plan that allows you to connect to a single cloud storage service and encrypt your files there (or you can, instead, choose to only encrypt locally, which would allow you to still place encrypted files into the cloud but with reduced functionality). Paid accounts allow you to connect to as many cloud storage providers as you wish, as well as work with locally encrypted files.

Verdict

Either service is superb, but Boxcryptor is just a hair easier to use for most people. That said, it costs a pretty penny, and it might just be easier to choose a service like Sync.com that already comes with its own zero-knowledge encrypted folder.

Best Film

• City Lights
• Director: Charlie Chaplin
• Featuring: Charlie Chaplin, Virginia Cherrill

City Lights is an enduring piece pf comedic genius from that unparalleled savant of the silent age, Charlie Chaplin. The Tramp (Chaplin’s iconic character) falls in love with a blind girl and becomes oddball friends with a millionaire drunkard. Though sound films were becoming a thing by 1928, Chaplin decided to forge ahead with City Lights as a silent film. To accent the action, Chaplin composed his own film score. It was Chaplin’s act of defiance against the loss of a whole style of silent filmmaking, and remains one of his best-loved epics.

In 1934 the Motion Picture Production Code (also known as the Hays Code) was finally enforced in full. The Code, an example of religious intervention for the sake of “morality”, stopped so many powerful stories from being told.

I love pre-code films because they offered such a different view of the world. By the late 1930s, the role of women was frequently reduced to wife, femme fatale, or general airhead — but in the late twenties and early to mid thirties we saw examples of powerful women leaders in films, characters that were complex and intriguing and very often far surpassing their male leads. Homosexuality, relationships between black and white people, and a whole host of subtlety and innuendo were all banned by the Code, leading to the exclusion of many minority communities from mainstream recognition and acceptance.

Clever filmmakers and writers would find ways around this, but the era of films as a great wealth of social revolution were at an end. Until 1968, when the Hays code was finally decimated for good, the whims of a religious minority held back the cultural growth of the country (and therefore helped to perpetrate widening gaps between races, sexes, and to dampen the growth of gender expression beyond the “acceptable norm”).

Luckily, we still have a huge range of pre-code films to watch and adore—films like City Lights, and some of the other award winners from 1931. Films such as Cimarron, an epic pre-code Western, or A Free Soul with the genius actor Lionel Barrymore. A huge library of these classic films still exist, and their themes and powerhouse scripts make them accessible and fun for modern viewers in a way that films from a decade or two later not always are.

Best Film

• Grand Hotel
• Director: Edmund Goulding
• Featuring: Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, Joan Crawford

Grand Hotel, based on a novel by Vicki Baum, featured the breathtaking acting of an all-star ensemble cast, and went on to win Best Picture. Each actors story comes to life through their connections with others in the hotel, and the passionate drama of their lives brims over in a dramatic tale of heartbreak and love.

Best Film

• Dancing Lady
• Director: Robert Z. Leonard
• Featuring: Joan Crawford, Clark Gable

Dancing Lady featured the brilliant acting of Joan Crawford, Fred Astaire, and a young and dashing Clark Gable. A musical drama, the film produced a hit soundtrack and was the debut for dancer Fred Astaire (who appeared as himself). It also featured an early appearance of the comedy trio The Three Stooges. When the Hays Code got its hands on the film, anti-Hitler political commentary inherent in the script was removed.

Best Film

• It Happened One Night
• Director: Frank Capra
• Featuring: Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert

It Happened One Night tells the tale of a spoiled rich girl who tries to make it on her own, and the down-and-out skeevy reporter who she meets along the way. It’s one of the very last comedies produced before the Hays Code came into full enforcement (about four months later) and is widely considered one of the best films ever made, as well as prime example of the “screwball comedy.”

Best Film

• The Informer
• Director: John Ford
• Featuring: Victor McLaglen, Heather Angel

The Informer deals with the Irish War of Independence in 1922 and was adapted from the Liam O’Flaherty novel of the same name. A dramatic and action-packed tale of war and resistance, it was a major award winner and has remained a significant film from the era.

Best Film

• The Great Ziegfeld
• Director: Robert Z. Leonard
• Featuring: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Luise Rainer

The Great Ziegfeld is a hit musical drama featuring the darling couple of the age: Myrna Loy and William Powell. Acclaimed at the time as the greatest musical biography in history, it remains a foundational piece of musical film that helped shape the genre. Loy and Powell, already starring on screen together in other series (like The Thin Man series) shine in all their interactions.

Best Film

• Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
• Director: David Hand
• Featuring: Adriana Caselotti, Lucille La Verne

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs changed the world of animated film foreverafter, proving that cartoons could not only be successful in feature form, but could be phenomenal at pulling in the audiences. The film was made possible by unique advances in animation fostered by Walt Disney, as well as by the individual talents of thousands of men and women, including Helen Ogger an animator and inker of unparalleled skill who is responsible for creating Snow White’s unique pink blush one cell at a time.

Best Film

• The Adventures of Robin Hood
• Director: Michael Curtiz, William Keighley
• Featuring: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Basil Rathbone, Claude Rains, Una O’Connor

The Adventures of Robin Hood gave the world a swashbuckling adventure like no other, leading to millions of young people suddenly discovering a deep passion for the art of fencing and the glamor of resisting corruption. Though not the first tale of Robin Hood to make it to the silver screen, this version did set the tone for all that came after.

Best Film

• The Wizard of Oz
• Director: Victor Fleming
• Featuring: Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr, Jack Haley

The Wizard of Oz is, according to the Library of Congress, the most seen film in all history. A modest commercial success upon its release, and a blazing critical success then and forever after, this sprawling tale of the fantastic journey Dorothy takes into the land of Oz transformed the landscape of cinema in vital ways, and even more impressively altered forever the landscape of American cultural mythology.

Many film historians call this the greatest year in film history, with a host of incredible releases including Gone With the Wind and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, as well as MGM’s first successful animated character, and the sprawling series success of Nigel Bruce and Basil Rathbone’s film portrayal of Dr. Watson and Sherlock Holmes.

Best Film

• The Great Dictator
• Director: Charlie Chaplin
• Featuring: Charlie Chaplin, Paulette Goddard

The Great Dictator is probably the greatest piece of 20th century film satire, and features one of the most iconic and moving monologues in all film history. Chaplin’s first full-sound film proved that he could move as deftly within the landscape of “talkies” as he could the old silent era, landing him in the position of being the only silent actor to break through in both climes.

A tour de force that took aim at fascism well before the United States came into direct conflict with Nazi Germany, and while significant support for Nazi Germany still bubbled beneath the surface of American politics. It’s a poignant and gripping comedy that aches with the dramatic tension of its subject matter, brought to life in such a brilliant manner by Chaplin’s grace and ever-relevant wit.

Best Film

• Citizen Kane
• Director: Orson Welles
• Featuring: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten

Citizen Kane is a modern American story about a man named… Kane. Charles Foster Kane. In the middle of an age of growing war-fever (approaching the attack on Pearl Harbor), Citizen Kane arrived amid a slew of war-obsessed films. Orson Welles’ masterpiece offered something different, something enigmatic, and twisted, and powerful, and vague; it offered changes to the entire film genre, from technical changes like the use of deep focus, to a whole different (and complex) style of visual storytelling.

Best Film

• Casablanca
• Director: Michael Curtiz
• Featuring: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman

Casablanca has become known as one of the greatest films of all time, a romantic melodrama that captured something essential about the Golden Age of Hollywood, with its action, cast of remarkable actors, and ability to capture the emotional zeitgeist of 1940s America.

Best Film

• For Whom the Bell Tolls
• Director: Sam Wood
• Featuring: Gary Cooper, Ingrid Bergman

For Whom the Bell Tolls brought to life Ernest Hemmingway’s novel of the same name, and the stars were themselves handpicked by Hemmingway for their roles. It tells the story of an American International Brigades volunteer fighting for the socialist cause against the Fascists, who falls in love with a charismatic young guerrilla fighter. In the middle of a sea of pro-war films, this one managed to play out more subtlety and wit than its competition.

Best Film

• Double Indemnity
• Director: Billy Wilder
• Featuring: Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck

Double Indemnity offered one of the best noir stories of the 40s, slipping through beneath many critics’ noses while flat stars like Going My Way gathered up the Academy Awards and the bulk of popular attention. This tale, a dark and twisted riot of murder and mayhem, a story cleverly written and filled with delicious, slightly over-the-top acting, provided something ultimately far more lasting.

Best Film

• The Lost Weekend
• Director: Billy Wilder
• Featuring: Ray Milland, Jane Wyman

The Lost Weekend was a powerful noir film in the golden age of noir, a tale of the darkest side of humanity… and a film that ignited so much anger in the alcohol industry that they lobbied to have it shelved (as did, ironically, temperance leagues).

Best Film

• A Matter of Life and Death
• Director: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
• Featuring: David Nivan, Roger Livesey, Raymond Massey

A Matter of Life and Death was a post-war fantasy that captured a surreal semi-satirical snapshot of the world’s feeling after World War II. A dashing airman falls to his death, taking his last conversation with a beautiful American switchboard operator with him to they beyond… only, no angel comes to collect his soul. Instead, he is offered the chance to prove his love for this woman he has never met, in echange for which he will be granted a second chance at life. With breathtaking cinematography and stunning special effects for the era, this Technicolor masterpiece paints a picture of love more powerful than death, and tapped into the immense feeling of loss felt by so many after that terrible conflict.

Best Film

• The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
• Director: Norman Z. McLeod
• Featuring: Danny Kaye, Virginia Mayo, Boris Karloff, Fay Bainter, Ann Rutherford

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, based on a 1939 novel, brought the inner world of a pulp storywriter to life—an inner world at odds with his meek and weary existence. Chance, love, and his incredible imagination might just be the way out of an existence rule by the whims of others, and Walter Mitty’s daydreams might even stop a conspiracy at the same time.

Best Film

• Bicycle Thieves
• Director: Vittorio De Sica
• Featuring: Lamberto Maggiorani,

Bicycle Thieves was a look into the harsh world of Post WWII life on the European continent through the eyes of Antonio, a man desperate for work to support his family. When his bicycle is stolen, and along with it his only hope of caring for his family, Antonio sets out in search of the thief, encountering the hostility of his fellow human beings, and his own weaknesses, along the way. Considered one of the greatest masterpieces of the era, this film is gripping and heartwrenching in the most powerful of ways.

Best Film

• The Third Man
• Director: Carol Reed
• Featuring: Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Orson Welles, Trevor Howard

The Third Man is a powerful noir film now considered one of the greatest British films ever made. When Holly Martins, a pulp writer coming to post-war Vienna, finds out that Harry Lime, the friend he came to meet, has died under suspicious circumstances, he elects to carry out an investigation himself. But what really happened to Harry Lime, and will Holly find out before the seedy streets of post-war Vienna drag him down?

Best Film

• Sunset Blvd.
• Director: Billy Wilder
• Featuring: William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim, Nancy Olson, Fred Clark, Lloyd Gough, Buster Keaton, Jack Webb

Shortparagraph was a powerhouse noir film that linked the worlds of the classic silent films and the fast-approaching modern age. It’s a dark and twisted tale, but one that captured something important about the changing landscape of the Hollywood film scene — and, therefore, society as a whole.

Note: 1950 was an amazing year for film, and there are so many greats that I skipped over. My tie for this slot is certainly Rahsomon, directed by the incredible Akira Kurosawa.

Best Film

• The Day the Earth Stood Still
• Director: Robert Wise
• Featuring: Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal

The Day the Earth Stood Still offered the world a big-budget science fiction experience and a cautionary tale of self-serving politics, warfare, and humanity’s reliance on weapons of mass destruction. Humanity’s fear, says the film, will be its undoing. In best sci-fi style this amazing movie offered a far more poingant contemplation of the early Cold War era than many others of its time.

Best Film

• The Greatest Show on Earth
• Director: Cecil B. DeMille
• Featuring: Betty Hutton, Cornel Wilde, Charlton Heston, James Stewart

The Greatest Show on Earth is Cecil B. DeMille’s dream of keeping the magic of the circus alive, his belief that the whole world could be inspired to feel magic by the incredible feats of acrobatics and comedy found beneath the big top. The story is there to hold a moviegoer’s audience, carrying tension as the circus tries to stay afloat in the post-WWII economy, but the true joy of the film is the circus itself, which is shown in all its magnificent pageantry.

Best Film

• Ugetsu
• Director: Kenji Mizoguchi
• Featuring: Machiko Kyō, Mitsuko Mito

Ugetsu brought Kenji Mizoguchi into International light for his directorial brilliance, the film’s otherworldy themes blended with powerful social commentary of what happens to women when war sweeps a land. A stark piece of antiwar cinema, it’s a brilliant work that still shines today.

Best Film

• Rear Window
• Director: Alfred Hitchcock
• Featuring: James Stewart, Grace Kelly

Rear Window is one of Hitchcock’s great masterpieces, a blend of deep suspense and human introspection. A tale of romance and dark secrets hidden behind the curtains of ordinary lives, Rear Window will rivet you to your seat and make you want to pull your window shade tight when the sun goes down.

Best Film

• Marty
• Director: Delbert Mann
• Featuring: Ernest Borgnine, Betsy Blair

Marty is one of the most heartwarming romance tales around, diving into the heartbreak of feeling like you’re a reject from society, and the joy of finding someone who can see you for who you really are.

Best Film

• La Strada
• Director: Federico Fellini
• Featuring: Giulietta Masina, Anthony Quinn, Richard Basehart

La Strada is one of the most powerful, heartwrenching, and intense films you’re likely to ever see—but also one of the most powerful windows into the darknesses and lights of human life. It’s a masterpiece of the cinema that everyone should see.

Best Film

• The Bridge on the River Kwai
• Director: David Lean
• Featuring: William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, Sessue Hayakawa

The Bridge on the River Kwai is one the great prisoner of war films, an exploration of the madness of war and the sickness that can overtake men under both threat of death and the threat of leaving nothing of themselves behind.

Best Film

• The Defiant Ones
• Director: Stanley Kramer
• Featuring: Sidney Poitier, Tony Curtis

The Defiant Ones offers a powerful look into the concept of race at a time when racial tensions in the United States were as high as they had ever been—a time when a brutal and casual racism simmered beneath the surface veneer of popular culture and media. Chained together, a white prisoner and a black prisoner escape, only to find out that the chains binding them are deeper and stronger than steel.

Best Film

• Some Like it Hot
• Director: Billy Wilder
• Featuring: Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon

Some Like it Hot was a piece of blockbuster comedic action that took the world of 1959 by storm. With Marilyn Monroe driving the heart and soul of the film in her usual “blonde bombshell” role, backed by the witty comedic subtlty of Curtis and Lemmon. The film is also notable as a major defeat of the already flagging “Hays Code” a morality code in United States cinema that tried to keep homosexuality, sex, and various supposedly “harmful” behaviors out of the limelight.

Best Film

• The Apartment
• Director: Billy Wilder
• Featuring: Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine

The Apartment stole the hearts of moviegoers everywhere with its warm-hearted central theme, but Wilder’s fantastic film also shot through the heart of the corporocratic ladder’s effect on human lives. This message, carried within a melodrama romance, hit harder than some films that went in for a straight punch.

Best Film

• Breakfast at Tiffany’s
• Director: Blake Edwards
• Featuring: Audrey Hepburn, George Peppard

Breakfast at Tiffany’s is notable for capturing a certain 60s vibe that is so totally different from the films of the 50s; its a glitsy, glamorous film that doesn’t follow all the usual romance story conventions, perhaps because the original source material was a tragedy. It’s Audrey Hepburn who makes this film gold, however, delivering a powerful performance that can’t be forgotten.

Note: So many strong films this year! Some runner-ups, for me, include the shatteringly dark Two Women, the whimsical 101 Dalmatians, and the powerful war film The Guns of Navarone.

Best Film

• Lawrence of Arabia
• Director: David Lean
• Featuring: Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn, Omar Sharif, Peter O’Toole

Lawrence of Arabia is a cinematic tour de force unlike any other, a modern myth, a historical drama that breathes within the tension of war, the power of belief, and the very concept of heroism. Incredible cinematography and superb acting make this one stand out forever.

Best Film

• Tom Jones
• Director: Tony Richardson
• Featuring: Albert Finney, Susannah York

Tom Jones took raunchy period dramady to a whole new level, with evokative English landscapes providing the backdrop to a madcap tale of bawdy adventure and wistful dreaming. It feels quintessentially early-60s to me, a film that breaks the 4th wall and, at times, indulges in itself far too much — but it’s a window into the mind of an era and is too often forgotten on lists of this kind.

Note: We’re in the heyday of some classic works of genius, so picking one skips on so many like 8½, Cleopatra, and The Great Escape.

Best Film

• Mary Poppins
• Director: Robert Stevenson
• Featuring: Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke

Mary Poppins was pure musical gold, offering all of Andrews’ superb presence as a balm to capitalist ills and the importance of a little magic in everyone’s life. Pamela Lyndon Travers’ books came to life in a remarkable way through the Disney adaptation, and thanks to her involvement the film retained a unique quality despite its Disneyfication.

Best Film

• The Sound of Music
• Director: Robert Wise
• Featuring: Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer

The Sound of Music is one of my favorite films, remarkable because I’d somehow avoided watching it until just a year ago! Some of the golden age classics slip us by… but this one needs to be seen to be understood. It offers so much more than just a wonderful romance and an unforgettable soundtrack; The Sound of Music is a dream of opposition to brutality, small-mindedness, and the threat of totalitarianism. It suggests that art, and love, and sheer vibrant joy of living can be antidotes to the ills of society and, should darkness come anyway, those lights of art and human happiness are what will keep us striving for a better end.

Best Film

• The Spy Who Came In from the Cold
• Director: Martin Ritt
• Featuring: Richard Burton, Claire Bloom, Oskar Werner

The Spy Who Came In from the Cold is one of the best spy films ever made, based on the novel of the same name by John le Carré. In an era of normalized color productions, a black and white film like this captures the world with a different eye, and it dives deep into the psychology of spywork and twisted nature of espionage.

Best Film

• The Graduate
• Director: Mike Nichols
• Featuring: Anne Bancroft, Dustin Hoffman, Katharine Ross

The Graduate is a film that has managed to not only age well, but become even more deeply poignant as the decades have slipped by. Not only is Dustan Hoffman superb, but the excellent cinematography and the gorgeous soundtrack make it a winner for the ages.

Best Film

• 2001: A Space Odyssey
• Director: Stanley Kubrick
• Featuring: Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood

2001: A Space Odyssey changed film forever, providing a new landscape for cinema as a whole while simultaneously proving to a recalcitrant ivory-tower elite, and the general public, that science fiction mattered. Known for being both profound and timeless, this film dared us to see the world in new and unexpected ways, bringing cinema into the future.

Best Film

• Oh! What a Lovely War
• Director: Richard Attenborough
• Featuring: Maggie Smith,

Oh! What a Lovely War was a shining satire of World War I and the failures that surrounded it, and other major conflicts of the 20th century. It’s a painfully tragic allegory of war and political fakery that governments use to bring people into the arms of the army. Considering the disasterous mid-century conflict in Vietnam, this was a timely film, and heralded the beginning of an age of war-farces that explored through a tragi-comic lens a darker side to service than popular culture had previously entertained.

Best Film

• M * A * S * H
• Director: Robert Altman
• Featuring: Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould

M * A * S * H gave the world a dark comedic look at war unlike any other. Based on Richard Hooker’s 1968 novel MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors, MAS*H proved a blockbuster hit that would go on to become the beloved series of the same name.

Best Film

• Harold and Maude
• Director: Hal Ashby
• Featuring: Ruth Gordon, Bud Cort

Harold and Maude is a film about the inescapable certainty of death, the uncertainty of life, and all the joys that come from simply living with the unknown. It’s a hilarious film, dark and wistful, happy and wrenching; colorful in all the best ways and splendid in a way that no other film of 1971 managed to be.

The best way to get inspiration or guidance is by watching Minecraft videos or following builder social media accounts. Consider watching builders like Fwhip, Pearlescentmoon, or GeminiTay. Also watch one of the many seasons of Hermitcraft because some of the greatest Minecraft builders have participated in the SMP series!

This could be different for everyone or per build. Before building in survival, create a mock-build in creative mode first. This way, you don’t have to worry about fall damage when trying to decide on a theme. It also is quicker to get rid of blocks in creative, rather than mining them in survival.

Some fun ways to plan builds are:

• Pinterest board
• Reference photos
• Concept drawing/sketch

Before diving into larger builds, make a wireframe of them! Wireframes are a general outline or sketch of the build. Wool is a great block to use because its easy to break down or chant. This method is great for planning out where buildings or features will go before placing down harder to mine blocks like stone or glass. Wireframes make it easier for you to visualize the final product and test out height and width.

Regardless of what you’re building, sight lines are important to high quality visuals. This is especially useful when the build location is a forest or mountain biome. GeminiTay does a great job at talking about line of sight in the video below:

Before you get into the meat of building, make sure you know what blocks you plan to use and their available variations. It’s a good idea to go in with a specific theme and color scheme in mind. I also recommend placing down a palette of blocks in front of your build to have a reminder of your original vision. Block Palettes is a great site to find inspiration from!

Don’t be afraid to explore and test build with blocks you normally wouldn’t. There are some beautiful railings that can be made with lecterns or anvils!

I’ve yet to find a block that’s as versatile as trapdoors. They make great shelves, flowerbeds, or window shutters! When in doubt, add a trapdoor.

The details and decor for builds shouldn’t make up the entire structure or distract from it. Start simple and add sparingly to make the build visually appealing.

Rather than making a square house, consider adding more lines and dimension to it. Add a side porch or a second floor that’s off-center! Aside from urban areas, structures are rarely simple squares or rectangles, so take inspiration from every day life.

Rather than leveling off an area, think about how neighborhoods or cities are built in real life. Usually they’re on different levels of elevation. Keep interest by building a house on a different level than your farmland or barn. Don’t forget to keep line of sight in mind!

First, you’ll need a few things before you can increase enchantment levels. Below is a list of blocks and tools you’ll need to gather:

• Anvil
• Duplicate enchanted books
• Experience points

How many books do I need?

In order to increase the level, make sure the books have the same enchantment and enchantment level. Otherwise, you won’t be able to combine them.

Below is a chart on how book combinations work to help you calculate just how many books you’ll need:

How many experience points do I need?

Keep in mind that combining enchanted books cost experience points.

Below is a chart that shows an example of enchantment cost based on the output level for the Efficiency enchantment:

After you’ve placed down the anvil, right click to bring up the anvil GUI. As you can see above, the Repair and Name menu is visible, and you can also see all the books in your inventory.

Place a book in each of the first two slots. When you hover over the slot on the left, you’ll see that the output is a level higher version of the enchanted books inputted.

Once you click on the upgraded variation, your experience points are spent, and you can place the book in your inventory. You can now add the higher level enchanted book to your items through the anvil!

Craft the needed amount of concrete powder using the recipe shown above.

Before you begin, you’ll need to gather the following supplies in order to prepare an area to mine concrete quickly.

• Water bucket
• Pickaxe (the higher the level the better)
• Shovel

Once you have all the supplies, move on to the next step.

Find somewhere in your world that you can dig. Mine out a 1×2 space and place down a water source on the farthest spot from you. The space closest to you is the one where you’ll place the concrete powder later in this guide.

Use the above photo as a reference on how this is meant to look.

There are two ways to do this. The first is to click and drop the concrete powder into the offhand slot. The other option works if concrete powder is in the hotbar. Simply scroll so that the concrete powder is in the right hand, then press the F key.

Now you’re ready for the fun part!

With your pickaxe in the right hand and aimed at the space where you’ll place the concrete powder. Hold down both mouse buttons at once.

While your left hand places a block, your right hand will mine it! Simple as that!

Rather than making a whole set of wood tools, just make a wooden pickaxe mine stone. This will speed up your process of getting iron tools, so you can mine to your heart’s content and be safe from mobs with iron armor.

Iron tools you should craft:

• Pickaxe
• Sword
• Shovel
• Axe

Iron armor you should craft:

• Chestplate
• Boots
• Leggings
• Helmet

Before building a home, find the nearest cave first. If there’s no caves near your spawnpoint, then just dig into the ground! This strategy will ensure you have enough coal for torches, an iron set of tools, and some extra goodies that you can find.

The most valuable ores are found:*

• Coal (Levels 5-52)
• Iron (Levels 5-54)
• Lapis Lazuli (Levels 13-17)
• Diamond (Levels 5-12)

*Spawn levels are set to change in update 1.18.

Within the first few minutes of playing in a modded server or world, you’ll have some questions. Don’t hesitate to disconnect and do some research on what a mod or item does. It’s better than finding out in-game that crocodiles can, and will, drag you into the depths of the river and kill you.

If you’re in a modded world that adds the crocodile or alligator mob, don’t even go near them. They’re more terrifying than the Ender Dragon, and they hiss at you.

Check out our guide for mods that add entities or mobs in Minecraft!

Whenever I start a new Minecraft game, I always adjust my Sneak and Sprint keybinds. Personalize your settings for accessibility and comfort!

Some other settings to adjust:

• Go into fullscreen mode
• Lower music volume
• Adjust brightness
• Turn off camera shake
• Turn on subtitles (located in the Accessibility menu)

Whenever you’re planning to explore dimensions or mining, make sure you bring a crafting table with you. Unless you find a mineshaft, you won’t find wood underground. This will save you the time and trouble when needing to make a new tool or weapon!

Another fantastic thing you should bring when exploring? A bed! You can either craft one from sheep’s wool or steal one from a village. Whether you’re in a singleplayer world or on a server, having a bed in your inventory is useful when you’re stuck out in the open just as it turns to night.

Seriously, whatever you do, don’t dig straight above or below you. If you happen to come upon a mine or cavern, you could fall and losing all your inventory. Digging straight up risks gravel or sand caving in above you, causing you to also die and lose your inventory. As tempting as it is, it’s just not worth the risk!

While many will say a village is the best place to get early game provisions, its not always the closest place around spawn. For those who need food or supplies, look at the surrounding ground! Grass is the prime supplier of seeds to help get your farm started. This is an especially good tip for modded servers as well, since there’s a high probability of a food mod included its pack.

There’s nothing quite as enjoyable as finding your first diamond. However, where there are diamonds, there is lava. By mining around the diamond ore, you’ll be able to check if there’s any lava underneath that the diamond could drop into. Also, make sure to have a water bucket on hand just in case you do find lava.

The Raspberry Pi ships by itself, without a case. I recommend you buy a case to avoid damaging your Pi. Using a screwdriver, place your Raspberry Pi into its case. Some cases do not require the use of a screwdriver — however, I prefer cases that use screws to secure the Pi for extra stability.

If you’re using the Raspberry Pi 3 or 4, I recommend choosing a case with a built-in heatsink. I highly recommend this FLIRC case since it provides passive cooling for the Raspberry Pi 4. Basically, the entire case is a giant heatsink, keeping your Pi cool. There’s also a version for the Raspberry Pi 3.

Used here

See all

Raspberry Pi 3 Flirc case

Check Price on Amazon

Raspberry Pi 4 Flirc case

Check Price on Amazon

If you don’t use a passive cooling case, you’ll want to pick up a case that comes with heatsinks. If you’re using a Raspberry Pi Zero, you can also use an NES cartridge as a case for your RetroPie gaming rig.

RetroPie is a software package for the Raspberry Pi that is based on the Raspberry Pi OS, a Linux distribution. It combines a full suite of tools and utilities that will allow you to quickly and easily run retro game ROMs for various vintage gaming emulators.

We’re going to perform our RetroPie setup using an SD card image — essentially a snapshot of an entire working installation of RetroPie rather than doing a manual RetroPie install.

Because the Raspberry Pi doesn’t have an internal hard drive, it uses a microSD card for storage of the entire operating system and all files contained therein.

To set up RetroPie, Download and unzip the latest RetroPie SD-Card Image. There are two versions of the RetroPie SD-Card Image:

• One for the Raspberry Pi Zero, Zero W, A, B, A+ and B+
• One for the Raspberry Pi 2 and Raspberry Pi 3
• One for the Raspberry Pi 4

Select the appropriate image for your Pi.

First, you’ll need to format the SD card as FAT. Insert the SD card into your SD card reader. Your SD card will now show up as a mounted drive on your computer.

Format Type

If your SD card is 32GB or smaller, we’ll format it as MS-DOS (FAT). If your SD card is 64GB or larger, we’ll format it as ExFAT.

Formatting on Windows

Open up Explorer, locate the SD card, right-click it, and select Format from the context menu. Select the desired format and click the Start button.

Formatting on Mac

Open Disk Utility by navigating to Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility. Select your SD card in the left pane. Click the Erase button, select the desired format, give it a name, and click the Erase button. For OS X Yosemite and older, you’ll need to navigate to the Erase tab first.

To install RetroPie, we’ll use a third-party utility called Etcher. Etcher works on both Windows and Mac.

Download and install Etcher, open it, and select your SD card drive and downloaded image to “flash” the image to your SD card.

Safely eject the SD card and slide it into your Raspberry Pi.

Next, connect your USB game controller and connect the HDMI cable to a monitor or TV. Finally, connect the MicroUSB power supply. Always connect the power supply after connecting your other peripherals so that your Pi will detect all of the peripherals properly on boot.

Your Pi will now boot!

I recommend connecting your Pi to the Internet to more easily add game ROMs and access additional features such as game rating and description scraping. Also, connecting the Pi to your network will allow you to access it remotely via SSH to perform remaining configuration without needing a keyboard.

If you have a Raspberry Pi Zero W, 3, or 4, you have built-in Wi-Fi!

To connect, simply select the RetroPie menu icon and then select WIFI.

Then, connect to your Pi remotely via SSH by opening Terminal (Mac) or Command Prompt (Windows) and then running:

ssh pi@retropie # default password: raspberry

Note: If you’re using an older Pi or one without built-in Wi-Fi, you can still transfer ROMs via USB. But if you still want to add Internet functionality to one of these older Pis, simply connect an Ethernet cable or USB Wi-Fi dongle.

If your SD card is larger than 4GB, you must expand it before your Pi can use the remaining space. To do this, you’ll need to launch the Raspberry Pi configuration tool (raspi-config).

You can use the Retropie interface to do this. On the main screen, select the RetroPie menu icon and then select RASPI-CONFIG.

Then, choose either Expand Filesystem or expand_rootfs from the menu (this option will vary based on your Raspberry Pi model). You now need to restart your Pi. You may have noticed there’s no reset button (unless you’ve added one).

We now need to connect to your Raspberry Pi from your computer so that we can copy over game ROMs and easily edit configuration files.

Again, this step is optional as you can also transfer ROMs via USB and accessing your configuration and other additional features isn’t strictly required.

There are numerous ways to do this; my favorite method is via SSH/SFTP using an FTP client. As far as free FTP clients go, I recommend FileZilla since it’s very well documented and supported and is available for both Mac and Windows.

Download FileZilla from their downloads page and install it. I recommend you uncheck all the “additional components” that FileZilla will ask you to install, such as the Yahoo search page and toolbar crap.

**Note: As of the latest version of Raspberry Pi OS, SSH is disabled by default for security purposes; you will need to enable SSH on your Pi before proceeding. Thankfully, this process is super easy and painless.

Use the following credentials to connect to your Pi. The default Pi username and password are pi and raspberry, respectively.

Host:  (see below) Username: pi Password: raspberry Port: 22

For security purposes, I highly recommend you change the default Raspberry Pi password to something else. It only takes a minute.

To find your Pi’s IP, open Terminal (Mac) or Command Prompt (Windows) and enter the following command to ping your Pi and return its network IP:

ping retropie

or, for older versions of RetroPie, use:

ping raspberrypi

It may take a few tries to get a response. If you see a “Request timeout” response when you run the ping command, then the command has failed. If you have a USB keyboard handy, you can boot up your Pi, press F4 to get to the shell, and run the following command:

 ifconfig

This alternate method will list your Pi’s IP immediately after inet addr: under eth0.

You’ll now want to configure your USB gamepad to work with your Pi. I recommend the Buffalo Classic USB Gamepad since it’s inexpensive, highly compatible with the Pi, and comes in sweet Japanese packaging. You can find an Amazon link to that USB controller at the top of this guide.

You can use any type of USB controller — including a USB NES controller, though your games are more limited since it has fewer buttons than most newer games use.

Be sure to check out our guide to the best RetroPie controllers!

To configure your controller to work with the menu system and games, boot up your Pi. Your Pi will automatically launch the RetroPie UI where you will be prompted to configure the controller. If you mess up, don’t worry — you can access this configuration menu again later by pressing Start in the RetroPie UI.

A ROM is an entire port of a particular video game. RetroPie contains a copy of EmulationStation, which both provides the user interface for your new retro gaming rig and interprets these ROM files appropriately. RetroPie comes with a few games preinstalled — such as Quake, Duke Nukem 3D, and Cave Story. These games are best played using a keyboard, however, since the gamepad doesn’t have enough keys to map the controls for some PC-ported games. You can emulate just about any console using the built-in RetroPie emulators.

A Legal Note

Most retro games are owned by a company (yes, even the very old ones!) and are protected by copyright laws. Thus, unfortunately, downloading ROMs for those games constitutes piracy.

While you can find tons of RetroPie ROMs on any Torrent site, keep in mind that you should not download any copyrighted titles.

Free ROMs

Luckily, there are some free ROMs out there that we can use for now! MAMEdev.org has a nice list of these free, legal ROMs. We’ll use these as examples and you can find more ROMs on your own.

Our list of the best of the video games from the year you were born contains links to some old arcade ROMs.

Let’s use Gridlee and Super Tank as examples. Download each ROM.

ROMs can be installed via SSH/SFTP (over your network) or by plugging a USB flash drive into your USB port. Additional methods for copying ROMs to RetroPie can be found on the RetroPie Wiki.

I wrote a separate guide on installing RetroPie ROMs using a USB drive. Or, if your Pi is connected to the internet, you can use the instructions below.

Reconnect FileZilla and browse to the following directory:

/home/pi/RetroPie/roms

Unzip each game ROM and upload each game folder into its respective game system folder. For example, if you had a Super Mario Bros 3 ROM, you would upload the game’s folder into the “nes” directory.

Gridlee and Super Tank go in the “mame” directory since MAME handles the arcade emulation for most vintage arcade-style games that don’t belong to a specific home video game system such as the NES, SNES or Atari.

After you’ve copied these directories over, restart your Pi.

Your Pi will boot into RetroPie automatically. Bask in the glory of simple graphics, bolstered by highly addictive gameplay. Whether you’re playing on your couch or building a RetroPie arcade cabinet or bartop arcade, I hope this guide was helpful to you!

Looking for that perfect controller?

Want a great classic or contemporary controller to play those new RetroPie games? Check out our list of the best PC gaming controllers that will work with your new setup.

To exit a game, press the START and SELECT buttons at the same time. This will bring you back to the RetroPie UI.

Check out my other guide on saving games in RetroPie to learn how to save and load saved games!

Now that everything is configured and working splendidly, I recommend you back up your Raspberry Pi’s SD card image. This way, if you’re feeling adventurous and want to attempt some further Retropie customizations, you have a safe restore point.

I’ve written a short guide on how to back up your Raspberry Pi.

Post in the comments section below and I’ll be sure to help you out. Also, stay tuned for more guides on customizing your RetroPie installation.

Did you know you can play games on RetroPie with your friends? Check out our guide to learn how to set up multiplayer on RetroPie.