Java Edition pre-Classic rd-131655

Unreleased

rd-131855 is the first unreleased pre-Classic version officially known as Cave game tech test&#8202; or Cave Game tech demo. It was made on May 13, 2009, at 16:55 UTC. This version was never released, but was recorded by Notch from around 17:00 UTC and uploaded at 17:36. It is the earliest known version of Minecraft, or what was then known as Cave Game, to have been recorded.

Development of this version started around May 12 at the latest and continued up to May 13, 2009. Features were added that would be later seen in the Cave game tech test video released on May 13, 2009.

Blocks

 * Blank.png Air
 * Not listed as a block at this time.


 * Grass Block JE1.png Grass block
 * Made with the same graphics from RubyDung.
 * Grass generation is randomized, but it will only generate on fully lit tiles. The higher the Y level is, the more chance there will be of grass generating. At the top of the map, grass will generate on all fully lit tiles.


 * Stone JE1.png Stone
 * Made with the same graphics from Notch's game RubyDung.
 * Its texture at this time would later be repurposed for cobblestone.

Non-mob entities

 * Player
 * Currently has no model.
 * Has a height of 1.7 blocks.

World generation

 * Chunks
 * Take about $1/10$ of a second to generate each.
 * The size of each chunk was 16×16 blocks.
 * Chunks are 16×16 blocks instead of 8×8 because 8×8 chunks decreased performance.
 * Chunks are loaded in order of their proximity to the player.
 * Make a 256×64×256 tile map.
 * The game takes 20 seconds to generate a 256×64×256 map.
 * It was possible to fall out of the world.
 * Falling off the edge of the world will not kill the player.


 * Caves
 * Reached down until a few blocks before the last layer of cobblestone, making a ravine.
 * Caves were generated using a "cellular automaton" like algorithm, where random blocks are picked and if they have more stone surrounding them than air, they become stone, and otherwise, they become air. Iterating through all the blocks many times resulted in smooth looking caves.

General

 * Lighting
 * The lighting engine in Classic and Pre-Classic was simple, with only 2 light levels, bright and dark. "Sunlight" is emitted by the top edge of the map and hits any block that is under it, regardless of distance. It passes through transparent blocks to light blocks underneath. Blocks that do not receive light are in a dim shadow that remains at the same level of brightness no matter how far they are from a light source. Blocks which are darkened also have a layer of thick, black fog applied to them, appearing darker when looked at from further distances. This caused weird visual glitches.


 * Creative mode
 * This was an extremely basic version of it. The player could not fly or place/remove blocks and there was no inventory or hotbar to get them from.


 * Respawning
 * The player can respawn by pressing R, teleporting them to the world they were in.

Video

 * Original


 * Archive