Java Edition removed features

Since the beginning of Minecraft's development, there have been a number of features that were removed from the game. These features may have been replaced, or a developer decided against the feature later on.

Note that this page only documents game features that were removed, features of a particular game element that were removed are noted in that element's history.

Brick pyramid


For a brief time, brick pyramids were large structures that generated far away from the spawn point. These pyramids were completely solid; they had no interior rooms. A strange quality about these pyramids is that if one dug under it, a layer of dirt and stone extended under the pyramid. This suggests it spawned right on top of the terrain instead of being a complete pyramid with the bottom underground (such as desert temples). Pyramids were removed in later versions of Infdev.

Horse saddle


Horse saddles, were items that were added along with horses that worked just like regular saddles, but for horses instead of pigs. Taming a horse was required before putting a horse saddle on it. The horse saddle was craftable using the following recipe:

The item ID used was 416, which refers to the Armor Stand in current versions.

Horse saddle items were later removed from the game, and the same saddles are now used for both pigs and horses.

Obsidian wall
Obsidian walls were used in Infdev to mark the positions of the cardinal directions. This created two intersecting planes extending just above the surface of the solid material that surrounds them. This has long since been removed.

Unused
These features never had any use in game.

Cog


On January 25, 2010, Notch posted a video of the gears being placed onto the wall of a cliff.

In Indev on January 26, 2010, the code for gears was added. It could only get obtained by inventory hacking and was invisible in the inventory. When hacked into the game, gears could only be placed on a side of a block, placing them in a space where two sides are next to each other would cause two gears to appear on both sides. Placed gears were impossible to destroy; any mining directed at a gear phased through to the block behind it, much like Water. If the block a gear was on was destroyed, the gear was not removed, but oddly, was invisible. The gear still existed in the map and would show up again if a solid block was replaced. Gears placed in mid-air using a map editor were also invisible and would show up if a block was placed next to them. Gears can be only removed using water to flow on them. A gear's sprite consisted of two parts; the center rod and the animated gear.

In Infdev on February 27, 2010, the gear renamed to Cog, and later on June 27, 2010, it was removed.

Cogs had a data value of 55, which was replaced by redstone in Alpha 1.0.1.

Crying Obsidian


Crying Obsidian was a texture in Minecraft for an abandoned project to implement a spawn-point changing obelisk. It was abandoned after the introduction of beds. It would have been crafted with an Obsidian block and Lapis Lazuli.

The texture for crying obsidian was removed in Beta 1.5.

On February 9, 2012, Jeb was asked "Can you bring back Crying Obsidian or add some new color/texture blocks?" to which he responded "As soon as I've made preparations for more texture space."

Furniture


In Indev's terrain.png were two textures which might be interpreted as a chair (side and front). The actual purpose of those textures is unknown. The 2nd texture might be the side view of a table. On Word of Notch, furniture, and more specifically chairs, is mentioned a few times.

Pigman
Minecraft user Miclee came up the idea for Pigmen. He was given the Bacon Cape as a reward, but when Notch was asked for personal capes by other users, the Bacon Cape was taken away from Miclee to prevent further commotion.

Notch mentioned April 25, 2011 that he might add Pigmen as villages' townspeople. Althoughl in the Beta 1.9 pre-releases, a different villager mob was introduced.

In 1.6.2, the texture file was removed from Minecraft.

Play Tutorial Level button
An unclickable Play Tutorial Level button was added during Indev. It could be found on the main screen. It was finally removed during the transition from Alpha to Beta stage, but no such tutorial level existed between Indev and Beta.

Skis


A texture known in the game files as "skis.png", was added in the Christmas/New Year update. Its textures were added by Dinnerbone as a red herring. The texture was removed in the Horse Update.

Studded armor


Studded armor was several sprites that were added sometime around in items.png. They were taken from Notch's unfinished game, Legend of the Chambered, along with other armor sprites. The sprites were never implemented into gameplay and were eventually removed.

Cyan flower
The cyan flower was was replaced with the poppy in 0.9.0. However, Johan said it may return.

Camera
The camera entity was never properly implemented, only available in game through inventory editors. In 0.9.0, the camera entity was removed, however Tomasso said that he thinks it will be back "when have shaders, sharing and redstone".

At the Minecraft Pocket Edition panel at MineCon 2012, as well as one of Jbernhardsson's livestreams, it was stated that future plans include trying to have a proper use for cameras, perhaps an easier way to take screenshots and share them with others. In the BlockTalk Q&A, the camera was briefly mentioned as part of a broader "sharing" theme planned for MCPE in the future.