Java Edition removed features

Since the beginning of the development of Java Edition, 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: 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. See Java Edition unused features for features that are still currently in the game.

Horse saddle


Horse saddles were items added along with horses in 13w16a. Horse saddles 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 later referred to the armor stand in versions up until 1.13.

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

Studded armor


Studded armor were several sprites that were added in Java Edition Indev 0.31 20091231-2. They were taken from Notch's unfinished game, Legend of the Chambered, along with other armor sprites. The sprites were added for testing purposes, didn't have armor health, and were eventually removed.

Infinite water source
The Infinite Water Source was a block that would create infinite water, which would replicate infinitely to fill up volumes. Mojang removed this because of problems and glitches when they were placed next to each other. They were added originally in Indev 0.31 (January 24, 2010) to allow for infinite lakes on floating maps.

It was available as block ID 52, prior to being replaced with the spawner in Infdev 20100625-2.

Infinite lava source
Similar to the infinite water source, the Infinite Lava Source was a block that created infinite lava which would replicate infinitely to fill up volumes. It was also added in Indev 0.31 20100124.

It was available as block ID 53, prior to being replaced with oak stairs in Infdev 20100629.

Locked chest


Locked chests were an April Fools block added in Java Edition Beta 1.4. They would spawn rarely and emit a light level of 15. Pressing on the chest would bring up a screen, and clicking on the "Go to Store" button would forward the player to the "Minecraft Store", where the player could buy a number of fake products. They were subsequently removed from normal gameplay in Java Edition Beta 1.4_01, but it remained within the game's code until it was removed entirely in Java Edition 1.7.2.

It was available as block ID 95, prior to being replaced with stained glass in 13w41a.

Powered comparator
During the development for Java Edition 1.5, the comparator at first used two separate block IDs to represent its powered and unpowered states, with names  and , and numeric IDs 149 and 150 respectively. As of 13w05a, the  block was removed from use in the game, replaced by a powered block state on the   block. It is removed completely in the 1.13 snapshot 17w47a, as of The Flattening.

Reverted potions
Before the Java Edition 1.9 snapshot 15w31a, potions had a form known as "reverted". In the inventory, reverted potions looked identical to their base potion, much like mundane and mundane (extended), and their usage was also identical to their base potions, with the exception of turning into reverted potions rather than base potions. The only difference was data values.

There were two general methods to create reverted potions, one of which involved the addition of fermented spider eyes. Reversion, in general, referenced changing a longer, upgraded potion into its original weaker potion (for example, changing from a potion of poison (extended) into a potion of harming (reverted) by adding fermented spider eye).
 * The first method involved adding glowstone (typically) to an already upgraded tertiary potion. Since these tertiary potions have already been modified with redstone (typically), they could be changed to their original (revert) unmodified states depending on which modifier was added previously. Not all potions could be reverted (or react, for that matter) when glowstone powder or redstone dust was added to an upgraded tertiary potion (for example, adding redstone to an already redstone-extended potion did not yield a new potion).
 * The second method involved the addition of fermented spider eyes, followed by glowstone (usually). Method two worked by adding a fermented spider eye to an extended positive potion (i.e. an extended tertiary potion). In almost all cases, this would corrupt the potion and produce a negative potion of equal strength (in this case, extended). Then, glowstone (depending on the recipe) was added to the extended negative potion. Since these negative tertiary potions (regardless of origin) have already been modified with redstone, the addition of glowstone would revert the potion to a potion of lesser duration.

A good example of this process at work is the reversion of the potion of weakness. A potion of weakness can be made in two ways. The first method is by adding a fermented spider eye to a mundane potion (water bottle + ghast tear/glistering melon/blaze powder/magma cream/sugar/spider eye), then adding redstone to produce a potion of weakness (extended). The second method is by adding (again) fermented spider eye to either a potion of strength or a potion of regeneration. Potions of strength and regeneration, in their base or extended forms, will produce potions of weakness with equal magnitude (for the sake of this example, fermented spider eye is added to a potion of strength (extended) to produce potion of weakness (extended)).

Now, there should be two Potions of Weakness (4:00). Glowstone dust could be added to the Potion of Weakness (Ext) which reverted the potion into a normal duration (1:30) Potion of Weakness. The act of reducing the duration from 4:00 to 1:30 was reversion.

Generic Dead Coral Block
In snapshot 18w09a, all coral blocks had the same texture, colored differently. Because of this, there was only one dead variant needed. By the time of snapshot 18w10a, each color of the coral block had its own unique texture, but would still all die into the same generic dead coral block from the previous snapshot. The generic dead coral block was removed and replaced with dead variants for each color in snapshot 18w10b.

Rose
The rose was removed from Java Edition in 1.7.2 snapshot 13w36a, and the rose was replaced by the poppy, which had the same function: crafting red dye.

Six-sided blocks
The following blocks existed in the game at some point before being phased out with the advent of block states. Whether they will return is not known. Interestingly, other six-sided blocks resulting from similar circumstances such as wood and smooth stone were not removed, as they were made into craftable items in later updates.

Blocks previously obtainable as items
for a full list of unobtainable blocks

The game prevents certain blocks from being obtained through normal gameplay methods, such as crafting, the creative inventory, the pick block key, and the silk touch enchantment. It also prevents such blocks from being given through less conventional methods, such as inventory editing, mods, and commands. Until release versions 1.7.2 and 1.8, there had been a wide variety of blocks that could be edited into the inventory; over time, however, the game was developed so that these blocks became entirely unavailable, even through editing.

Currently, the game only accepts name IDs (such as ) in most commands, and uses only name IDs when assigning blocks to the inventory and save files. The old method of obtaining a block via numerical IDs is no longer an option. In addition, the game automatically removes blocks with illegitimate name IDs from the inventory, so using inventory editors is also no longer an option. Furthermore, certain blocks such as  cannot be obtained in their block form; however, since the game has a corresponding item named , the item form is given instead.

Obtainable until Java Edition 1.7.2
In snapshot 13w37a, the command was modified so that it would notify the name of the item in chat. Due to this, 26 blocks were made unavailable:

Air block
The air block was briefly available as an item during Java Edition 1.7.2 snapshot 13w38b, while Grum had been redefining the code that represented air in-game. This availability only lasted for one snapshot, as it was the focus of several bugs, most notably a bug that made mobs drop air upon death.

Obtainable until Java Edition 1.8
In snapshot 14w25a, changes were made to the way the icons of items were rendered, and the way block data was internally represented. Due to this, 12 blocks were made unavailable:

Obtainable until Java Edition 1.9
In snapshot 15w49a, 1 block was made unavailable:

Chain armor
Since shortly after their introduction in Indev, and until snapshot 14w25a for release Java Edition 1.8, chain armor was craftable using fire. As of that snapshot, fire can no longer exist as an inventory item, even with inventory editing, and the recipe itself was removed from the game's registry of recipes.

Chain armor may still be obtained in other ways.

Enchanted golden apple
Since their introduction in Java Edition 1.3.1, and until snapshot 15w44a for release Java Edition 1.9, enchanted golden apples had a crafting recipe: an apple surrounded by 8 gold blocks.

Enchanted golden apples may still be obtained in other ways.

Horse Armor
In the 13w16a snapshot of Java Edition 1.6.1, a crafting recipe for horse armor was added to Minecraft. In the 1.6 snapshot 13w18a, the crafting recipe was removed; it is unknown why Mojang did this.

Leather horse armor was added to the Bedrock Edition just over three years later, and had a still usable but different crafting recipe.

Horse armor may still be obtained in other ways.

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. The pyramid's base was usually 64 × 64 blocks and was 64 blocks high. Whenever it spawned on top of a large body of water, it would usually add to the amount of bases.

Indev House


The Indev House was a structure available in Indev versions. It was spawned in when the player first started a world.

When the player started a world in the original Indev version, the house would spawn in as a mossy cobblestone house with two torches and the player would have flint and steel in their hotbar.

When the player started a world in version Indev 0.31 (January 24, 2010) to the beginning of Infdev, a planks house with two torches would spawn in with the floor made out of stone.

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, as it was only found in Infdev (February 27, 2010).

Old Village
Old villages and Old zombie villages could generate in plains, savanna, taiga, ice flats and desert biomes. The type of the village, and therefore the style of all structures within it, was determined by the biome where the village well was located. All village biome variants were essentially palette swaps of each other, with the exception of one house in the old ice flats village, which would generate with randomized crop items such as carrots and beetroot. The Old Villages were not known as such until the Village and Pillage update.



Far Lands


The Far Lands was the area that formed the "edge" of the "infinite" map in Java Edition versions prior to Java Edition Beta 1.8. They initiate differently depending on the game's version. In Infdev (February 27, 2010), there was a wall of stone that generated 33,554,432 blocks away from spawn. In a later version of Infdev, this changed to where the Far Lands we had till Java Edition Beta 1.7.3 began at about 12,550,820 blocks from the center of the world (0; 0) These Far Lands had two kinds: Edge Far Lands (The Loop) and Corner Far Lands (The Stack); both feature extremely strange terrain. They are known to have several impacts on the gameplay, including floating-point precision errors and huge framerate/tickrate drops due to excessive coordinates, and the farther from the world center, the worse the effects, until the game freezes and crashes. Beyond X/Z 32,000,000, the chunks are just fake chunks, causing the player to fall through the terrain.

When mods like the "Cubic Chunks" Mod came out, a new set of Far Lands called the Sky Far Lands was discovered. When the height limit is removed completely, the Far Lands continue to generate upward until they eventually collide with the Sky Far Lands 25,101,640 blocks upward or to the Void Far Lands 25,101,640 blocks below the world.

In Java Edition Beta 1.7.3 (and probably as far back as Java Edition Alpha v1.2.0), there existed another set of Far Lands called the Farther Lands, which was found very recently after the discovery of the Far Lands, and generate approximately 1,004,065,600 blocks away from the world center. This set combines with the previous Far Lands to create an even more strange mixture. In this set of Far Lands, the terrain is very smooth and hardly changes its shape. Every block would appear 2 dimensional. This is especially noticeable in the Corner Farther Lands.

The Far Lands were removed in Java Edition Beta 1.8. But they still exist in Bedrock Edition.

Monoliths
These were glitched areas of terrain circa Java Edition Alpha v1.1 which resembled chunk errors, with the terrain abruptly kicking up to the height limit, with natural grass and ore generation. Below the monoliths it was completely hollow except for the water generating at the sea level and a layer of bedrock at the bottom, making the normal terrain seem like inverse monoliths. On very large ones, it is very possible to find small crevices where normal terrain has generated within. They tend to generate around flattish terrain. They were caused by an error in the Perlin Noise generator.

By setting Biome Scale Weight to negative values in customized worlds, they can generate in versions 1.8 snapshot 14w17a through 1.13 snapshot 18w05a, but with the removal of the Customized functionality altogether in 1.13 snapshot 18w06a, this can no longer be recreated.

These can theoretically generate infinitely upwards.

Trees
Some types of trees can no longer be grown with saplings, and no longer generate naturally in new terrain. They were often the result of the fact that new log and leaves types had not yet been added; new trees subsequently "borrowed" logs and leaves from other trees. For example: acacia trees, when they were first added, used jungle logs and oak leaves.

Glass Pillars
Glass pillars were added in Java Edition Beta 1.9 Prerelease 3. They were used to mark the location of strongholds, as the eye of ender was not yet added. They were removed in Java Edition Beta 1.9 Prerelease 4, due to the addition of the eye of ender.

Isometric screenshot


In the Indev versions of the game, players can take a screenshot of the map from an Isometric perspective using F7. When the game captures an isometric image, it will save the current location of all mobs and show any and all alterations to the map the player has made that would be visible from the perspective of the sun (at sunrise). The player will not be visible unless the player was in third person view before taking the isometric screenshot.

The isometric screenshot will save to their local user folder as "mc_map_####.png" where #### represents the number of the screenshot starting at 0000 up to 9999.

There are some limitations that existed with the screenshots:
 * Can only capture the player's sprite when in 3rd person mode.
 * Due to a glitch the screenshot will only render blocks that are in the player's FOV, and everything else will either be black or show blocks under the ground.

Indev map shape


The map shape is the general dimensions the level generator uses to create maps. It was added in Indev 0.31 and it alters the length, width, and height of the map. There are three kinds of shapes:


 * Square is a map of equal length, width and height.
 * Long is 2 times the length and $1/2$ times the width of a normal map.
 * Deep is 4 times height and $1/2$ the width and length of a normal map.

A small, square map is 128&times;128 blocks wide, a normal square map is 256&times;256 blocks wide, and a huge square map is 512&times;512 blocks. All square and long maps are 64 blocks tall.

Indev map theme
A Theme is the general style the level generator uses to create maps. Added in the 0.31 update on January 7, 2010, it dramatically affects Indev mode's game mechanics (such as monster spawn zones and boundary liquid). Paradise and Woods themes were added in the Indev update on February 14, 2010. Themes were removed for later on in the middle of infdev and are comparable to Biomes in Alpha, Beta, and current Minecraft versions.

Normal


The default map theme. Overground, one will find sporadic Trees and generally favorable space. The weather is constantly partly cloudy, and the lengths of night and day are equal. Underground, ores of all types can be found and Lava is generally found near the Bedrock.

Boundary Liquid: Water.

Hell


The second map theme introduced with the Theme feature. Hell features significantly less lighting during the day, where Mobs of all types will spawn at any time. All water is replaced with lava, grass is replaced with dirt and grass is only spawned instead of sand during map generation. Mushrooms are abundant on the surface. Farming works at a much slower rate (one plant stage per day cycle). This is comparable to The Nether.

Boundary Liquid: Lava.

Paradise


The third map theme is more relaxed than the other Themes. It features larger beaches and plentiful flora compared to the Normal Theme, and the time is always set to "Noon" (the sun never sets); hostile Mobs will only spawn underground. Farming works at a much faster rate (from planting to harvestable in 30–45 minutes).

Boundary Liquid: Water.

Woods


The fourth map theme is a middle-ground of challenge between Normal and Hell, providing constant overcast during the day that reduces light, and tree density is at a higher rate than the other themes, resulting in the land space becoming smaller. Additionally, Mushrooms are spotty throughout the overground areas.

Boundary Liquid: Water.

Indev map type


The map type is the general format the level generator used to create maps. Added in 0.31 20100106, it dramatically affected Indev mode in the availability of water, sand, and gravel. The further the player traveled towards the end of the map, the slower they moved. There were four map types:


 * Island is the default map type featuring minor hills and water existing at the borders.
 * Floating is similar to the floating islands in buffet world type today — it contains multiple floating islands. Falling from these islands results in death as the surface is covered in bedrock. Floating gravel and sand is common, while water is rare.
 * Flat is similar to superflat world type today — it features flat grass with flowers, trees and a starting house.
 * Inland features a slightly hilly landscape, which is essentially the Island map type with infinite flatland at its borders as opposed to water. Sand and gravel are common.

Winter mode


Winter Mode was a randomly occurring map type for Minecraft Alpha. It was added on July 9, 2010 in Alpha 1.0.4 and was the first "biome" to appear in Minecraft.


 * Differences between Winter Mode and the normal map type

One of the differences was snowflakes, which fell constantly. There were four different kinds of snowflakes. These snowflakes would create snow tiles on any block that was directly exposed to the sky, provided that it was solid.

The second element unique to the Winter Mode was ice. When a map was generated, most exposed water blocks would be frozen into ice. The water does not freeze completely near gravel beaches.

In Winter Mode, passive mobs would not spawn as frequently as in normal map types.

Because all the water turns into ice it is really hard to find reeds in this world type.

The Winter Mode was removed in Halloween Update (Alpha 1.2.0) with addition of proper biomes.

Biomes prior to 1.7.2
Versions prior to 1.7.2 had many biomes that were removed in later versions.

Biomes removed in 1.7.2:
 * Mountain Edge (still exists in buffet worlds.)
 * Frozen Ocean (restored in Java Edition 1.13.)

Pre-Beta 1.8 biomes
In Beta 1.8, biomes received a major overhaul, removing and changing many biomes. Prior to these changes, there were 13 biome types that were much smaller and less distinct.

Gravel path
Before Java Edition 1.10, villages used gravel paths as roads; however, in 1.10, grass paths were added as village roads.

Savanna Village
Prior to 1.10, villages that would generate in savanna biomes used oak logs, oak planks, oak fences and oak stairs, but this village type was replaced with the acacia village.

Customized world type
Customized was a world type that gave control over many settings that affected terrain generation, such as ores, sea level, biomes, structures, and many variables that govern the random shape of the terrain. It was introduced in snapshot 14w17a for Java Edition 1.8, and was removed in snapshot 18w06a for Java Edition 1.13.

Beast Boy, Black Steve, Steve, and Rana
Beast Boy, Black Steve, Steve, and Rana were human mobs originally [ in-game] as a test during the Indev phase. They were made by "Dock", Minecraft's past artist, and were removed from the game when Dock left the development team in early 2010. These mobs had no animation and glided around in the same pose. Upon death, Beast Boy could drop 0–2 feathers, Black Steve could drop 0–2 sulphur (this item has since been renamed "gunpowder") and Steve could drop 0–2 string, while Rana could drop 0–2 apples, 0–5 roses and 0–2 feathers. Beast Boy, Black Steve and Steve each had HP while Rana had. Beast Boy is a DC superhero and member of the Teen Titans, and Rana is an original character of Dock. "Rana" means frog in Spanish. When hurt, these mobs make the player's hurt noise. Rana is never in any of the same versions as Beast Boy, Black Steve, or Steve.

Human


Humans were passive mobs who took the form of clones of the default skin. In Classic, humans could be spawned by pressing, and would run around aimlessly. From 0.24_SURVIVAL_TEST and onwards, there was another mob called "Monster" which looked like a human, but would attack the player. The monster was the result of trying to spawn the base class for hostile mobs as an actual mob, a similar situation would become the same thing later for humans too. Their ID, as well as the Monster's ID (Monster) existed until 1.11, which entity IDs were converted to use Namespaced IDs, and the IDs   and   were removed.

Zombie drops
Prior to Beta 1.8, zombies dropped feathers. In Beta 1.8, this drop was replaced by rotten flesh.

Zombie Pigman drops
Prior to Beta 1.8, zombie pigmen dropped cooked porkchops. In Beta 1.8, this drop was replaced by rotten flesh and gold nuggets.

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 25, 2010, the code for gears was added. It could only be obtained by inventory editing and was invisible in the inventory. When edited 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 was renamed to cog, and later on June 27, 2010, it was removed.

They had a data value of 55, which was replaced by redstone in Java Edition Alpha v1.0.1.

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 was added in Java Edition Beta 1.3.

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."

Chairs and other 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 Notch's blog, The Word of Notch, furniture, and more specifically chairs, are mentioned a few times.

Grass Shrub


While looking at one of the chests in the Java Edition Beta 1.6 Test Build 3 version, a weird-looking green textured dead shrub could be seen. It is unknown what this was used for. It most likely resulted from the game attempting to apply biome coloring to the dead bush sprite since the dead bush sprite, at the time, was used for tall grass with a data value of 0. This was scrapped for unknown reasons. It was last seen in the release of Java Edition 1.7.

Paeonia


Paeonias were an unimplemented block that was replaced by the two-block-high peonies.

There was only one screenshot of the block released by Jeb. When held in the hand, its height was level to the player's shoulder. The texture could still be found for this block called  until it was removed in the 17w47a snapshot for Java Edition 1.13.

Armor in Survival Test
In early versions from 0.24_SURVIVAL_TEST through Indev 20100207-2, there was a folder called "armor", which contained two files. One was called "chain.png"; and the other was called "plate.png". These files were removed in Indev 20100212-1 with the addition of normal armor models.



Plate armor
Plate armor was used in Survival Test for mobs and it gave them no additional defense.



Chain armor
Unlike plate armor, chain armor was impossible to be seen in game. It was just an unused texture. It was later removed and replaced with a new model and a texture with leggings and boots.

Potions
There were 29 potions without effects that were left behind in. All unused potions had effects when implemented but none after that, and appeared to be different colors from current potions. These potions were later removed in the Java Edition 1.9 snapshot 15w44b.

These potions could only be obtained by using the command {{cmd|give @p minecraft:potion 1  contained translation strings for a   command, which never existed in game. The following keys existed:

commands.chunkinfo.usage=/chunkinfo [  ] commands.chunkinfo.location=Chunk location: (%s, %s, %s) commands.chunkinfo.noChunk=No chunk found at chunk position %s, %s, %s commands.chunkinfo.notEmpty=Chunk is not empty. commands.chunkinfo.empty=Chunk is empty. commands.chunkinfo.notCompiled=Chunk is not compiled. commands.chunkinfo.compiled=Chunk is compiled. commands.chunkinfo.hasNoRenderableLayers=Chunk has no renderable layers. commands.chunkinfo.hasLayers=Chunk has layers: %s commands.chunkinfo.isEmpty=Chunk has empty layers: %s commands.chunkinfo.vertices=%s layer's buffer contains %s vertices commands.chunkinfo.data=First 64 vertices are: %s

It is unknown if this command was used by Mojang for development or was simply a dropped feature.

Placeholder Fire texture
Placeholder graphics for the fire texture found in terrain.png, which is overwritten in VRAM with the true fire texture. The text reads "FIRE TEX! HNST", which means "Fire texture! Honest!". This was replaced by the actual fire animation as part of the Redstone Update.

Old Lava and Water textures
The old lava and water texture from Alpha found in terrain.png. These textures were replaced by a different lava and water animation in the Redstone Update.

Village Border texture
A texture previously used by Mojang to mark the borders of villages found on terrain.png. This was removed in the Redstone Update.

Duplicate Cake texture
While this cake graphic is technically used, this duplicate in terrain.png isn't. This was removed in the Redstone Update.

Other snow texture?
Unknown, though it could be related to the snow weather effect. This was removed in the Redstone Update.

Calm4.ogg


Calm4.ogg was a music file (alongside the other tracks) that was beta-tested and created by Notch himself. The song is 3:13.

It consists of an upbeat synth, battle-like tune. At 1:36 in the song, the player can hear Notch saying "Mojang Specifications" in slow-motion.

The track was released around, but in , this track was omitted from the downloaded game files. Players who had the game while the song file was still included will continue to hear it being played, as the game will play any song in the  folder.

With the introduction of the Java Edition 1.6.1 launcher, playing older versions with the track calm4.ogg will not allow the track to be heard, since music is downloaded separately from the .jar files.

Player stats


In an early Indev version, the player could open the inventory screen and view their name and three stats: "ATK", "DEF", and "SPD". These only existed briefly; when asked, Notch stated he could not remember exactly why they were implemented and subsequently removed, and he assumed they were placeholders for "vague plans".

Inventory changes
An inventory rewrite was originally partially implemented in snapshot 14w07a for Java Edition 1.8, but it was reverted before the release of 1.8.

Old player death animation
Before 1.6.1, on player death, the player would stay standing, leap a little bit, and then disappear. In 1.6.1, this was replaced with the player falling and then disappearing.

Notch dropping an apple
Before Java Edition Beta 1.8, a player named Notch would drop an apple upon death.

On-screen version number


Starting with Classic 0.0.2a, all subsequent versions until RC2 had text displayed in the top left corner of the screen which told what version the player was on. Versions between Java Edition Beta 1.6.4 and Java Edition Beta 1.7.3 did not have this text. From 0.0.2a to the last 0.31 release (Indev 0.31 (February 5, 2010)), only the version number was displayed. But after Indev switched from being 0.31 to being called Minecraft Indev (Indev (February 6, 2010)), the word "Minecraft" was shown before the version number. In the Alpha development stage, the text read Minecraft Alpha v#.#.#(_#). In the Beta development stage, the text read Minecraft Beta #.#(_#). This feature was only partially removed, for, among other things, the version number can now be shown by opening the debug screen while in-game. Before Java Edition Alpha v1.2.2, the version number did not display on the main menu screen.

Unlicensed copy message


In the Beta stage of Minecraft's development, a message reading "Minecraft Beta #.#.#(_0#) Unlicensed Copy :( (Or logged in from another location). Purchase at minecraft.net" was shown. This message can only be seen in versions between Java Edition Beta 1.6 Test Build 3 and Java Edition Beta 1.7.3, as proved by a bytecode editor. The bytecode for the message was removed in Java Edition Beta 1.8.

Spawn Nether Portals with
In Alpha v1.2.2a, players had the ability to spawn Nether Portals by pressing. In Alpha v1.2.2b, spawn Nether Portals using was removed.

Time control buttons and
In Java Edition Beta 1.8 Pre-release, as a result of left-in debug code, players had the ability to use the time control buttons and. In Java Edition Beta 1.8 Pre-release 2 ;), the functionality of and  was removed.

Achievements
Achievements were available between Java Edition Beta 1.5 and Java Edition 1.12 (17w06a). They were ultimately replaced by advancements, though editions other than the Java Edition still have achievements instead.

"Player Activity" button on realms
The "Player Activity" button in realms was added in Java Edition 1.5, but it was removed in Java Edition 1.14.4 for unknown reasons. This button was used to show the activities that players did.

Texture pack
Texture packs were added in Java Edition Alpha v1.2.2, and were replaced with Resource packs in Java Edition 1.6.1 (13w24a).

3D Anaglyph


3D Anaglyph is an option in video settings that applies a red-cyan stereoscopic effect, enabling the use of red-cyan 3D glasses to experience the game in more depth. This option was removed in Java Edition 1.13 snapshot 17w43a.

Void fog


In Java Edition Beta 1.8, black void fog and the  particle were introduced. As the player descended below Y=17 in the Overworld, the void fog and particles would start to appear. As the player traveled deeper, the fog at the edge of the render distance would become closer until the player reached bedrock, where visibility was reduced to just a few blocks, beyond which was complete darkness. The gray void particles appeared at and under layer 16, as well as in the void.

The void fog was removed in snapshot 14w34c, the main reason being to improve performance. The  particle was also removed from the void, but stayed in the game until snapshot 17w47a when it was removed as part of The Flattening.

Dispensing command blocks
From Java Edition 1.8 snapshot 14w07a, dispensers had the ability to place a command block that it contained, when activated. This feature was removed as of version Java Edition 1.8.6 to solve a security issue.

Mobs running from creepers
In Java Edition 1.8, mobs ran away from creepers that were about to explode. In Java Edition 1.8.1-pre1, this feature was removed because every mob that had the ability to run from a creeper was looking for an exploding creeper every tick, degrading performance.

Water evaporating on magma blocks
In Java Edition 1.10 (16w20a), water evaporated on top of magma blocks when randomly ticked. In Java Edition 1.13 (18w07a), whirlpool bubble columns are produced on top of magma blocks instead.

Full hotbar
Before Java Edition 1.4.2, starting a world in creative mode always started the player with a full hotbar, which included oak saplings, bricks, oak planks, spruce planks, cobblestone, and dirt.

Splashes
Note: When a line of splash text is removed, the line it occupied in splashes.txt is deleted, meaning the line number of all subsequent splashes lowers by one.

Super Secret Settings
The "Super Secret Settings", added in Java Edition 1.7.2 snapshot 13w38a, were removed in Java Edition 1.9 snapshot 15w31a for an internal rewrite. It was a button under the options menu that, when pressed, would blare a random game sound with a lower pitch, and activate a shader.

Native Twitch.tv integration
Native Twitch.tv integration, added in Java Edition 1.7.4 snapshot 13w47a, was removed in Java Edition 1.9 snapshot 15w31a. Twitch chat was integrated into the game.

entity.hanging.place and entity.hanging.pop
and were two sound effects added in 15w49a and removed in the next snapshot, 15w49b. The sound effects were blank audio files and were likely intended as sound effects for the Lead.

Old conduit particle


The conduit was added in the 18w15a snapshot with particles, but those particles were changed in the next snapshot 18w16a.

Locate new village
There was a locate command called /locate New Village. This was implemented during the snapshots for Village & Pillage before the village structures from Update Aquatic and prior were removed. Once these "old" villages were officially taken from the game's structure spawn list, "/locate New Village" was replaced by "/locate village" as the New Village ID was no longer needed.

Start with 64 fences
In Alpha v1.0.17, the player would spawn with 64 fences in their inventory. but in Alpha v1.0.17_01 this feature was removed.

First-person view pivot
Removed in 1.14.4 for performance.

Placeholder block drops
Survival Test introduced item drops which were mapped as follows:


 * Gold ore dropped Gold blocks.
 * Iron ore dropped Iron blocks.
 * Coal ore dropped Stone slabs.
 * Oak logs dropped Oak wood planks.

Item drops were reworked in Indev.

Minimized textures
In Survival Test, item drops were restricted to the cube shape used for blocks. The projected texture was the same on all faces and the texture scale was closer to those of blocks, making it look cropped.

Tags
The  and   was added in 1.13 snapshots 18w07a and 18w07b respectively and removed in 18w10c. Before the removal, these tags functioned as follows:

Java Launcher easter eggs
Prior to the release of the Minecraft Java edition launcher version 2.1.497x, the launcher contained multiple easter eggs. If the player hovered their cursor over the "Play" button for a few seconds, a random mob would appear in the bottom right corner of the launcher. In the top left corner of the launcher, the player could see a translucent creeper face. There was about a 1⁄11 chance of the creeper face being replaced with a shrugging kaomoji, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. When the player clicked on either of these, they turned solid white. Clicking them again would return them to their translucent state. In addition, if the player clicked, the experience orb pickup sound will play. This was removed in the launcher version 2.1.497x.

Old walking animation
From Pre-Classic prior to Alpha 1.0.9, the walking animation for the player and the human mob was different; the player and the human mob would swing their arms wildly to their sides while walking.

Old walking animation (Mobs)
In Survival Test, mobs (pigs, sheep, skeletons, zombies, spiders and creepers) had different walking animations.

Creeper melee attack
From Survival Test to Indev, creepers did melee damage to the player. In Indev 0.31 this feature was removed.