Minecraft Wiki:Projects/Wiki videos/Missing Java Edition versions

Throughout its existence, the original Java Edition of Minecraft has been in a state of near-constant development. Ever since late 2011, game versions have been saved to Mojang's cloud servers and have remained freely downloadable to the current date. However, before this point, when the game was updated, the jar file for the game was replaced on-the-fly, outright deleting the older game version. Due to this handling, many old versions have become lost to time, with no way of playing them and with very limited knowledge of their behavior and significance.

A common misconception within the community is that the launcher allows any version of Java Edition whatsoever to be played. Unfortunately however, this is simply not true, as while close to all versions from after the official release and a reasonable amount of versions from prior to the official release are accessible from it by default, a large number of versions are also completely absent from it - notably, absolutely no versions from the Indev development phase can be found within the launcher's list of versions by default. Many versions like these have been archived by dedicated teams and are available for download on the wiki like other versions, however there are further versions that yet still elude the community to this day.

This video will list all of the versions which we have screenshot or video proof for. A more comprehensive list of missing versions, including those whose existence is inferred by blog posts and IRC archives, can be found in the wiki article linked in the video description below. link to main can be found above

If you believe you are currently in possession of a copy of one of these versions, we recommend that you visit the wiki page of the version in question, and then visit its Talk page which can be accessed by the tab at the top of the page, and start a discussion regarding your findings.

Screenshots provided can be cycled through during commentary

Firstly we have a classic version, entitled 0.0.9a. A perhaps tragic starting point, as this version is confirmed to be the subject of the very first Minecraft video uploaded to YouTube which wasn't by Notch himself, but rather by beta tester EvilVille. Unfortunately this video has been lost to time, and while the video page can still be accessed via the internet archive, the video itself cannot. Despite this, there are still four individual screenshots of this version, solidifying its existence.