Java Edition Classic

Classic is a title given to game modes released before Indev. It was the first 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 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 It is no longer updated and only kept for historical purposes.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Because of its outdated status, it does not support many of the main features in the current versions such as crafting, inventory, or dynamic lighting.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 are gradually making Classic mode redundant; however, many players still used Classic for building things that would take too long in Beta. It later became completely redundant when Creative was added to Beta in 1.8.

History
Sand has been available for use since Classic Mode. 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 it is 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 mode 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 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.

Advantages of Pre-Purchasing
Although this mode is free to the public, there are several advantages made available to those who have pre-purchased the game. Some of them are the ability to:
 * Use custom skins in both singleplayer and multiplayer.
 * Save maps made in Singleplayer Creative Classic to the online server.

Trivia

 * 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.