Java Edition Classic

Classic is a title given to game modes released before Indev. It was the second development phase in Minecraft. This phase was unnamed until 28 June 2010, when a blog post was written to name the development phases. Creative, and later Survival Game modes were introduced in this version.

The releases of the survival mode in Classic were conducted in a test named Survival Test. It is a very early version of the game mode. The test had a points-based system, where the player gets points from killing some of the few early mobs. Even after Classic was phased out, the Survival Test could still be played until the 16th December 2010, when the website received a major overhaul. This mode was quietly removed from the website so people took little notice of it.

The latest version of the Classic Creative game mode is, however, still playable for free on Minecraft's website. It is no longer updated and only kept for historical purposes. According to Notch, he plans on "...slowly phasing it out. I won't remove it, though. Just hide it." It is playable in both singleplayer and multiplayer variations. There are mods which have been added in the multiplayer, making the game more varied in gameplay. Some special custom game modes like Lava Survival, TNT Wars or Zombies have also been created.

Because of its outdated status, it does not support many of the main features in the current versions such as crafting, inventory, or dynamic lighting. The lack of sneaking and the addition of Dyes to Beta gradually made Classic obsolete; however, many players still used Classic for building things that would take too long in Beta. It later became completely obsolete when Creative was added to Beta in 1.8.

History
Sand has been available for use since Classic. During that time, Sand blocks were rare and only appeared naturally in one block-thick beaches (usually by water or in the middle of a landscape). These beaches were always level and below Ocean level. Sand instantly appeared at the lowest point it could go when placed above an air block without any sort of falling animation. Destroying a pillar made from sand from the bottom would cause the sand to disappear from the top first. Gravel and sand "fell" when placed in mid-air by moving directly above the nearest block directly below them, instead of turning into falling block entities and falling. These attributes were present until the release of Infdev.

An old glitch in Classic allowed players to raise the height of a fluid block by placing Sand (or Gravel) over it. The Sand block would stay suspended in mid-air until it was broken. When broken, a fluid block corresponding to the type below the Gravel or Sand would appear where the block was. The suspended fluid block would remain immobile until a block was placed next to it, causing a flood. This bug has since been fixed, but has been reported that it has happened before.

An interesting and often humorous quirk in Classic is that whenever the player moves, they will swing their arms wildly around. This was changed in Indev and removed in because hands and blocks in hand would've moved tirelessly back and forth, ultimately blocking the player's view.

On August 8, 2012, the link to Classic was removed. It was re-added after many complaints. On July 1, 2013, however, the link to Classic was removed again. It can still be played by going to this site, or simply from the launcher if Alpha versions are enabled. Classic, Infdev, and a few Pre-Classic versions (but not Indev) are included under "Alpha". The version numbers between 0.09 and 0.30 are Classic.

Trivia

 * Player Skins that are used for the full game are synced with Classic mode. Thus, custom skins can be used in both singleplayer and multiplayer versions of Classic mode for premium users.
 * In the classic jar files, sprites for several mobs can be found. Playing a Survival Test map in normal Classic will preserve mobs, and also lets you have multiple blocks of the same type (or none at all) on the hotbar.
 * Classic mode uses very old liquid physics, making it possible to flood the whole map with water or lava from just one block of the liquid. An example video is shown below.
 * When mobs were added and first survival test was created, it was possible to copy some files into the game client or browser client and play it in classic multiplayer, allowing player to do same things as in survival test, but with other people and on custom maps. However, the mobs appeared in other locations for each client.
 * In Classic mode, the game world is not infinite. It is a cube made out of naturally generated blocks and surrounded by infinite water and bedrock.
 * When Beta 1.8 came out, sounds no longer worked and saving levels to the online server for premium users became impossible because Mojang removed its resources directory and addresses it was referring to for saving, possibly as a step towards phasing it out. Worlds that were not backed up locally were lost.