Java Edition Alpha

Alpha is the fifth phase in the development cycle of Minecraft, after Infdev. There was only one type of game mode playable in this version—Survival—and was the fourth Minecraft development stage to have some of its versions released to the public.

During the Alpha phase, Minecraft was updated very frequently due to Notch working full-time on Minecraft since May 29, 2010, and having a small company made later. Bug fixes and tweaks could happen throughout the week, appearing on the game's development blog, with major additions and changes appearing in 'Seecret' Friday updates, leaving the game's players to discover the included new features.

On December 11, 2010, Notch announced that the game would enter the Beta stage of development on December 20, 2010, at which point the price would increase to €14.95.

Features

 * Multiplayer (Survival). Currently, the only way to connect to a server is to find out the IP of it to connect.
 * The Nether - A realm accessible with Nether portals that contains blocks and mobs (i.e. ghast and zombie pigmen as of yet) not found in the normal world, and allows for fast travel (1 block traveled in the nether is equivalent to 8 blocks traveled in the overworld.)
 * Biomes - Different environments that differ as location/chunk/temperature changes.
 * The addition of redstone circuits, a logical I/O system including switches.
 * The following items from the Halloween Update: netherrack, glowstone, soul sand, pumpkins, and the jack o'lantern.
 * Improved AI pathfinding and spawning.
 * New sounds for caves and mobs.
 * The addition of snowy and icy terrain, plus craftable snow blocks.
 * The addition of boats.
 * Cow, slime, and chickens.
 * New music.
 * More paintings.
 * Increased world height to 128 blocks from bottom to top.
 * Press F1 to remove the inventory display and the player's arm (the HUD, or Heads Up Display).
 * While holding down F1, press F2 to take a screenshot. The images are saved in .minecraft/screenshots.
 * 40 inventory slots instead of Beta and later's 36, since one could hold items in the crafting slot.
 * Stairs are introduced into the game.

Trivia

 * It is now possible to play Alpha within the current launcher.
 * The player originally spawns in the world at 0,0,0 and then immediately gets teleported up; creating a world while the game is out of focus shows this.
 * Before the Halloween Update, Alpha had several "biomes", such as:
 * Woods
 * Plains
 * Treeless Mountain
 * Woods Mountain
 * Beach
 * Ocean
 * Cactus Beach
 * Original (Land with a medium amount of trees)
 * Original Mountain
 * Overhang
 * Cliff
 * Upon world creation there was a chance that the world would be a winter world, consisting of these biomes;
 * Winter Mode Woods
 * Winter Mode Plains
 * Winter Mode Treeless Mountain
 * Winter Mode Woods Mountain
 * Winter Mode Beach
 * Winter Mode Ocean (Frozen Ocean)
 * Winter Mode Cactus Beach
 * Winter Mode Original
 * Winter Mode Original Mountain
 * Winter Mode Overhang
 * Winter Mode Cliff
 * On September 18, 2010, the Minecraft authentication server broke. Notch turned this into a free weekend where everyone could download and play the game. This got Minecraft lots of free press coverage and made lots of new players buy the game afterwards.
 * The price for Minecraft Alpha was €9.95 (£8.95/$11.54).
 * All versions of the game before Alpha are still regarded as old-alpha by the launcher, regardless of their development stage.