Minecraft: Java Edition

This page details pre-release information and/or media for Minecraft: Java Edition.

Changed ContentContent that was added, but changed before their official release. Concept artThe artwork created by concept artists that shows early iterations of features in Minecraft.

Pre-CGTT#

It is very important to note while Cave Game Tech Test is often noted as the first build of the game, there are in fact builds before it, which were mentioned by Notch himself in IRC chatrooms as they were being developed.

May 10th, 2009 build#

This is the actual first build of the game. It is unknown what features were present in this build, but it is often speculated that textures and physics were not implemented as of this version.

Preliminary Builds#

These builds were made during May 10th to May 12th. It is believed most of the features present in the Cave Game Tech Test were implemented in these builds.

May 12th, 2009 build#

Fixed performance issues.

May 13th, 2009 build 1#

Made the game only update 2 chunks of the world per frame. This in-turn caused the following bugs:

• World generation sometimes generates blank chunks.
• Major FPS and performance issues.

May 13th 2009 build 2#

The above bugs were fixed, and additional performance improvements were made.

Cave Game tech test#

The YouTube video Cave game tech test (original has been region-locked in all countries) was the first glimpse the world got of Minecraft, then going by the name Cave Game. This version has never been released to the public. The version shown in the video is from May 13th, 2009, but is an updated version of the first build of the game from May 9th, 2009.Watch on YouTube

Worlds are 256x64x256 blocks large, split into 16x64x16 chunks (originally 8x8x8,) and are made up of only two blocks (technically three blocks, but air wasn't listed as a block internally): Grass, which has the same texture on each side and only generates on tiles that are lit, and Cobblestone, which has a very aggressive texture. Lighting has been implemented at this point, but only has 2 light levels. "Caves" generate until a few blocks above the last layer of cobblestone, creating something akin to a ravine. Blocks cannot be placed, there is no hotbar nor inventory, and you can't fly, although you can destroy blocks. The only entity that exists is the player, which has no visible model and is 1.7 blocks tall compared to the current height of 1.8 blocks.

Unreleased Content#

Dirt Slab#

In early versions of Minecraft, Notch tried out dirt slabs, so they would be a half-block lower than grass and make the world feel more "smooth." However, this caused errors with dirt spawning in places like underground, leaving odd gaps.

Inventory Screen Mockup#

In a screenshot of what appears to be 0.26 SURVIVAL TEST, Notch made a mockup of an inventory screen; the armor slots seem to match up with Notch's unfinished game Legend of the Chambered, and although the "stats" section was implemented in some Indev builds, they served no function and were eventually removed.

Lectern#

This would have worked just the way you would imagine, a stand for reading books. Dinnerbone worked hard on it, and got far into it, until he encountered numerous bugs and decided to scrap it. In 2013, on his Reddit AMA, he was asked if he would revisit it, and he replied he tried, but it was still buggy, and "didn't feel right".

Over 5 years later, the Lectern would finally be implemented into the game in Snapshot 18w44a for 1.14, albeit with a drastic redesign, functioning the same as how it was described in the past.

Dyed Planks#

Dinnerbone posted a poll on whether or not he should add Dyed Planks to the game. The poll won, but Dinnerbone cancelled the idea sometime in development when he realized he had to add new slabs and stairs as well. Eventually, Dinnerbone replaced the Dyed Planks idea with Stained Terracotta (formerly Stained Clay).

Despite the dying mechanism for wooden planks being left unimplemented, their colors have been reused by newly added blocks:

Sky Dimension#

Notch was planning to add a Sky Dimension for the Beta 1.8 update, which you had a chance of going to when you fell asleep. This feature was never implemented, but in Beta 1.6 and Beta 1.7, data in the code for this dimension was present. With the use of mods, it was possible to access this dimension. In 1.0 it was replaced with the End. The End dimension is still referred to as "sky" internally.

Fireflies#

Fireflies were intended to be added in 1.19, aka the Wild Update, being planned as food for frogs. However, Mojang later decided to remove them, as they found out that some fireflies are poisonous to frogs, a decision that was widely criticized by the community. The behavior related to frogs was repurposed for use with the Slime and Magma cube, and the fireflies would be added as part of the "Firefly Bush" in 1.21.4.

Development on this feature had already started when this mob got scrapped. A development build containing fireflies ended up getting leaked for Bedrock Edition, allowing players to partially see how the original implementation was going to be executed.

Unused C418 Music#

Several tracks were previewed on C418's blog but never released in full. The original blog post has been lost, but these snippets have been archived by C418 fans.¹

Watch on YouTubeWatch on YouTubeWatch on YouTube

Additional C418 Music#

I still want to do stuff for Minecraft, but I've never managed to get to an agreement with the big guys. I have a lot of music but only time will tell how we will get it out. It will involve at least 20 lawyers.

— C418

Beyond Minecraft - Volume Alpha and Minecraft - Volume Beta, a third batch of tracks by C418 (often referred to as Minecraft - Volume Final) was planned. According to C418, the album would be longer than Volume Alpha and Beta combined and would adopt a more ambient direction "just as an experiment".

While C418 confirmed in 2021 that the album was finished, it has never been released and incorporated in the game due to disputes between him and Microsoft that arose following its acquisition of Mojang and the Minecraft IP. Because of the way Minecraft was initially developed, C418 owns the rights to Volume Alpha and Beta, and declined Microsoft's attempts to acquire them, resulting in Microsoft recruiting other composers to provide music for subsequent updates.

The only confirmed tracks from the album are "Dragon Fish", "Shuniji", and "Axolotl", which were added in 1.13, aka the Aquatic Update, in 2018. The tracks C418 composed for the Legacy Console Edition's Battle minigame and Halloween Mashup Pack are also thought to have been composed for the album, especially since the second Battle theme contains portions of "Axolotl" at the 6:55 mark. C418 has considered releasing the album without the Minecraft branding, but licensing issues with Microsoft have prevented this.

References#