The Story of Minecraft’s UNRELEASED Developer Versions…

There are many early versions of minecraft which are missing nobody seems to have the files on their computer anymore and as such they are lost to time it’s unfortunate that we don’t have a complete set of minecraft versions available to us but alas nobody could have predicted the game would become so

Popular but what about minecraft versions that were never intended to be released to the public versions of the game which only notch and other minecraft developers such as jeb had access to versions of the game with features never released publicly or even publicly accessible you see there exists a series of minecraft pre-release

Versions known as developer builds you may have unknowingly seen footage of developer builds before such as the md3 test video on notch’s old youtube channel nizarch but what’s unknown to the vast majority of the playerbase was that there was a long list of developer versions which have only been scarcely

Documented on notch’s old blog and in his older videos with majority of them not even having wiki pages until now method a member of the omni archive a group of minecraft archivists who scaled the internet in search of minecraft’s missing versions has put together an extensive list of developer versions

Documenting their various features even going as far as recreating almost all of the developer builds block for block what did the enderdragon first look like and do before it was added to the game what were the first ever minecraft skins and the story behind them what did the

Creeper look like when notch first accidentally added it to the game what ever happened to minecraft’s sky dimension since when could potions be created in cauldrons there are so many things in these developer versions that i’ve never even heard of before in my 10 years of playing the game that never

Made it into public minecraft versions today we’re going to talk about some of the most unknown minecraft versions to ever be created this is going to be a good one so strap in and let’s begin oh and to the 87.1 percent of you haven’t subscribed yet i think you already know

What to do no pressure though so let me first give you some background on how these developer versions work for many earlier minecraft versions such as classic 0.0.2 there exist various pre-release versions only ever showcased by notch or other mojang employees in videos blog posts and screenshots never released to the

Public for example classic 0.0.12a has three developer versions dev1 dev2 and dev3 much of the original media is low quality and as such i’ll be using recreations of these versions to better display the features i’ll be talking about in conjunction with the originals of course method has worked on

Recreating dozens of these developer versions for over two years so be sure to check out his channel which covers many historical versions in detail a lot of hard work went into them there’s a link in the description i’ll put a little bit of text at the top of the

Screen whenever i use footage from them so you know it’s not content from the original versions i should also make it clear that i’m not going to be covering every single developer version in this video as some only had tiny changes but rather i’ll be talking about the most interesting and unique ones

Anyways only two developer versions are available in the minecraft launcher but have been mislabeled classic 0.0.12a dev1 is available in the launcher mislabeled as classic 0.0.11a classic 0.0.128 dev2 is not in this developer version water would update very fast making it look like it would teleport instead of flow naturally it

Would also generate on the side of the map thus flowing inwards and flooding the entire map classic version 0.0.13 dev1 is the only other version available in the official launcher labeled simply as 0.0.13 a this version featured long and flat level generation dev 2 is of a similar story except the worlds were

Twice as wide and no longer flat generating actual terrain notch would mention in an irc chat shortly after that he just tried making a 1024 by 64 by 64 map stating and i quote it’s nuts 0.0.14a dev1 introduced a variety of cool minecraft features most notably trees which had these unique square tree

Canopies as was the first ever introduction of gravel and sand textures dev 3 is probably one of the versions which you would recognize being the famous vertex and color offset build which nosh uploaded a video of this developer version has one of the most interesting features which understandably never made it into a

Public release it makes you motion sick playing and is a completely unenjoyable experience 0.0.18as their version is one of the most historical on this list this was the first version of the game to add skin support and this screenshot right here was posted to notch’s blog a couple

Days before the version was released publicly two players test van and meso were given these skins which were created by notch in order for testing as you can see the skins are very reminiscent of steve with similar facial features and clothes with major differences being variances in color

What you’re looking at right here are the very first skins to ever be created and used in minecraft making this a one-of-a-kind historical minecraft screenshot 0.0.198 their version featured the first ever glass texture which was altered not long after classic 0.24 dev 1 is the first ever survival version of minecraft

Well sort of as in this version the player cannot die and has no health but has finite resources and blocks also as an oversight or maybe as a feature notch hadn’t decided on yet there was no item stack limit meaning blocks in the hotbar could go up to 1000 plus health would be

Added not long after in 0.24 dev6 but the only way to recover health would be to respawn by pressing r 0.24 dev7 is an interesting one this dev version added sign entities which could be spawned in by pressing h the signs were unbreakable with spawning with the default text

Reading this is a test of the signs each line can be 15 characters because the signs in this div version are entities rather than blocks you can do some pretty funky stuff which i could honestly see modern day builders utilizing this dev version also added the flashing health bar when taking

Damage as well as shaking when on low health 0.24 dev 8 is also very notable as it’s the famous developer version which added the most recognizable minecraft mob to the game the creeper although it wasn’t so recognizable at first with this first ever screenshot here posted by not in an irc only having

The creeper body shape and not its distinguishable textures and colours as i’m sure you know notch was trying to make pigs but screwed up the model resulting in this since the original creeper was based off of pigs they were also passive in this developer version two dev versions later

In 0.24 dev 10 notch would finally be successful in his attempt to add pigs to the game but they were kind of derpy with this slightly different texture that only lasted one day the final four classic 0.24 dev versions dev 11 12 13 and 14 all added significant features to the game which

Are core even to this very day saplings could fall from trees monsters could now spawn naturally you see this thing yeah the held block was finally visible players can damage mobs although there was no knockback boom now there is knockback and creepers are officially added to the game although they only

Blow upon dying attacking players like zombies and looking very depressed also brown mushrooms could be used to heal a player whereas red mushrooms would damage them but most strange of all is that notch would upload his first and only vimeo video showcasing creepers that’s right the first ever footage of

Minecraft’s most recognizable mob is on vimeo 0.26 dev 3 added and i kid you not der slabs all dirt blocks were converted to half tile or slab form although you couldn’t climb over or break them dirt slabs were quickly scrapped by notch as they didn’t look good in the terrain

In dev developer versions now in dev 200 91207’s developer version is also known as md3 test likely one of the most known developer versions with a video by not showcasing how we added various models from the game quake 3 arena to the game in dev 2010108 had a developer version which

Tested fire fire looked slightly different as it used to render as a torch and also spread very quickly in this version 2010125 dev is the only version of the game where the predecessor to redstone cogs were legitimately obtainable without the use of mods or other inventory editing methods the player

Would spawn with 99 of them in their hotbar 2010205 dev is a cool one as i’m sure you know giants have become somewhat of a mythical being in minecraft with much speculation behind why they haven’t been able to naturally spawn in any version of the game well this developer version

Is the only minecraft version in existence where giants could spawn naturally a truly one-of-a-kind version furthermore the player also spawned with a bow and 64 arrows as we move into inf-dev developer versions the terrain and world generation would increasingly become like what we have today imp 2010226 was the first inf dev developer

Version and is the very first minecraft version in existence to support infinite terrain generation however the terrain was just an endlessly repeating 4×4 pattern inf 2010326’s developer version introduced what was known as 3d purlin noise based generation which meant that terrain could have overhangs like so and just

Looked more interesting in general also did you know that in all infidel virgins up to 2010330 when firing an arrow from a bow a random mob would be spawned upon the arrow hitting the ground skeleton arrows also did this though and if this feature carried over into modern minecraft i

Can’t imagine the havoc you could cause with a simple skeleton grinder this feature was included at the time as a temporary method of getting certain items that could only be obtained through mob drops as mobs did not naturally spawn yet imp 201048 developer version introduced big oak trees created by paul spooner

There’s an interesting and unknown story behind paul spooner who was a 3d artist contracted by mojang spooner wrote a variety of scripts for minecraft that would alter procedural generation in minecraft’s level files he would create some awesome procedurally generated structures especially at the time but most notably these massive and gorgeous

Looking trees notch liked the trees so much he would incorporate a part of it into the latest version of the game at the time and thus we got big oak trees alpha 1.2.0 dev1 was the first version to add what we now call the nether into the game there were no portals yet

However meaning that you would always spawn in the nether alpha 1.2.0 dev 2 first added biomes to the game as you can see in this first ever biome screenshot however grass and leaves would not tint or change color based on the biome yet fun fact in alpha 1.2.0

Dev 3 you could fly despite being in survival mode and creative mode not existing yet alpha 1.2.0 preview was the preview version of the game given to pc gamer designed to show off the new hell dimension or as it was known at the time the slip in this earlier version pigmen

Didn’t hold any weapons and had a bloodier texture later changed as not slaughter was too gory glowstone also did not drop glowstone dust but rather just a glowstone block the player would start with 64 obsidian a diamond pick and an unbreakable flint and steel likely added so pc gamer could get to

The slip right away beta 1.4 dev 1 was one of the earlier beta developer versions this developer version first added wolves which look significantly different to what they would look like when first added in public releases these wolves were also passive untameable and made no sounds beta 1.4

Dev 2 made wolves hostile when attacked and tameable with bones also featuring the wolves newer texture in this version players could also fly in survival mode once again even though creative mode still wasn’t a thing beta 1.5 dev introduced achievements which looked quite different initially in the first ever video footage showcasing

Achievements uploaded by jeb on the now official minecraft channel we can see that you could access achievements of the statistics through a button in the inventory where it would look like this also in this version weather was first added beta 1.6 test build 3 is a non-public version of the game which was

Actually found and already playable in this version you would spawn facing a row of chests filled with every single item in the game beta 1.6 dev 2 is one of the only versions in existence showcasing the sky dimension which was a planned dimension intended to be the opposite of the

Nether the player would always spawn in the sky dimension in this version as well eventually rebranded and altered to the end notch would later tweet that a skyland’s dimension was probably still in the making and would exist separate of the end but jeb would later follow up

Mentioning that it was no longer planned interestingly the original ava mod one of the most famous mods in existence used the original sky dimension code for its terrain generation beta 1.8 dev is where things start to get interesting this version introduced the first ever form of strongholds which

Used to generate on the surface and would look like this this developer version also introduced villages which looked noticeably different as well as more spread out interestingly in this image we can see that big mushrooms of mushroom trees may have generated with the villagers and the villagers also

Seem to be able to generate over multiple types of biomes endermen also had green eyes in this version beta 1.8 was slightly controversial as it changed the terrain generation style to be very flat and uninteresting far more underwhelming than the large mountains and overhangs we saw throughout prior

Beta versions well in beta 1.8 dev instead of terrain being boring and repetitive as well as mostly flat the terrain was a mix of both beta 1.7 and beta 1.8 terrain featuring new biomes with older terrain generation this meant that the terrain while still having some boring flat elements was actually much

More interesting and it’s a shame this wasn’t the final generation style chosen for beta 1.8 beta 1.8 also had a special developer version called the height limit and hunger test where notch increased the game’s height limit to 512 blocks which mind you was only 128 at the time he

Would tweet this image stating yeah the level generator isn’t exactly tweaked for 512 height and as such we didn’t hear anything more about this version after beta 1.9 beta 2 was the first version of the game to feature hardcore mode which could be toggled on and off

Originally also many of you may not know that spectating a world after dying in hardcore wasn’t a feature until minecraft 1.9 released in early 2016 and back then the only option was to delete world beta 1.9 pre-release 2 dev had unique potion mechanics brewing stands did not exist yet but cauldrons did

Cauldrons could be right-clicked with brewing ingredients upon being filled with water to make it into a potion contained within the cauldron by right-clicking the cauldron with a water bottle you would get that potion meaning you could get five potions from a cauldron better value than the three we

Now get from brewing stands beta 1.9 pre-release 3 dev1 man these versions are becoming a real mouthful to say out loud added enchanting tables and brewing stands enchanting tables were originally craftable using cobblestone instead of obsidian and would look like this brewing stands also look quite different

Missing its legs or stand and having larger visible glass bottles both enchantment tables and brewing stands were not functional yet in this version though alright so finally today we’re going to be talking about beta 1.9 prerelease 4 dev 1 through the dev4 this right here is the first ever image of the ender

Dragon which originally looked like this being completely white meaning it had no texture furthermore the ender dragon had a different model shape with a much longer lizard-like neck and it could also spawn in the overworld not just the end in beta 1.9 prerelease for dev2 the end the dragon would be altered once

More this rainbow version of the enderdragon was used as notch was testing code that applied different parts of textures to different parts of the ender dragon model kinda creepy i know dev3 changed the texture once again and now we had a completely grey textured ender dragon with a noticeably long neck

Now this great texture looks bland at first but it actually was going to serve a function at the time notch originally planned to have dragons that spawned in the overworld and was going to tint the great texture depending on what bim the dragon spawned in those plans were

Scrapped however in favor of the current one dragon boss we have today finally dev4 added the dragon texture and model we all love but the dragon could still spawn in the overworld and can destroy all blocks it comes into contact with and that about wraps it up for the

Developer versions today on your screen now are all the individuals who helped method in recreating many of the developer versions once again make sure to check out method’s channel he’s done some incredible work with these recreations that took a serious amount of time if you enjoyed this video then

Be sure to subscribe it took a lot more time than normal so it’s greatly appreciated join my discord and follow me on twitter thank you all so much for watching