raspberry Pi projects

I have three groups of students working on raspberry pi projects currently, and all the projects have failed... one in one way, but they have a number of specifications that will help the projects of the future.
Minecraft - the students thought this would be teh easiest project, install mine craft and then play on it for 4 weeks... however, they have minecraft running on raspberry pi, with pi-minecraft, however it fails on a lan, slicing the map. I have tried to get the students to look at mods for it, however with limited success.
Digital Signage, we have looked at xibo, and with contacting them on facebook it is a no go at present, this would have been the easiest setup and the students would have been installing it around the school at present. However we have looked at a couple of other systems, one which worked well, however it is just a one screen solution. We need multiple screens controlled by one server. The lastest idea using concerto seems like a likely one. However the students are busy setting up the server, working on these projects for 40 minutes a day isn't long enough, considering when it took 1 hour to install and setup the LAMP.
MAME project, we are currently waiting for the controllers to arrive from china. The students are now testing a variety of games and seeing if they can get the sound working. They are working on their specifications and project documentation at present.