Java Edition version history/Pre-classic

A (?) denotes version's info here is guess-work, possibly incorrect.

If a version has (^) next to it, then this version is in the launcher.

The Pre-classic development phase started on May 10, 2009 and ended on May 16, 2009, meaning that this phrase lasted 7 days. It was the first half of the first stage in the development of Minecraft and was followed by Classic.

The first 2 numbers from "rd-xxxxxx" are from the day number the version was made and the last 4 numbers are from the hour digits (24-hour based) from when the version was made (GMT+01:00 timezoned), while the "rd" stands for "RubyDung". Version rd-20090515 has the first 4 digits as the year (2009), the 5th and 6th digits as the month (May), and the last 2 digits as the day (15th). That makes the uptate released on May 15, 2009.