Java Edition Pre-classic — minecraft

This article's name is unofficial.

An official name is yet to be given to the subject matter. Please add an official name when reliable sources confirm it.

This page documents an unreleased version.

While there is proof of this version's existence, it was never released to the public.

Pre-Classic is the name given to the prototype versions of Minecraft (what is now Java Edition) developed before Classic. It was the very first development phase of the game, lasting for less than a week; very early development of Minecraft started around May 10^[1] or May 11^[2] and ended on May 16, 2009. The phase was originally named "Cave Game" until the game was changed to "Minecraft: Order of the Stone" then finally to "Minecraft".

In the files, the game was titled "rd", standing for RubyDung, until Java Edition pre-Classic mc-161607, when it was renamed "mc", standing for Minecraft.

History

This phase began when Markus Persson (Notch) started working on a "Cave Game". He was influenced to create the game by Infiniminer, Dwarf Fortress, Dungeon Keeper, as well as one of his previous games, RubyDung.

The world of Pre-Classic Alpha (also known as Cave Game).

The textures used for grass and stone blocks (the latter texture eventually being reworked for cobblestone) were from RubyDung, and internally, the game's class files referred to it as "RubyDung". Other blocks and items were then added, such as saplings, dirt, stone, planks, and more.

Little is known about this development phase, since it was never publicly released, and only Notch could test the versions. Some versions in this phase could previously be seen in videos on Notch's YouTube channel, though most of the videos have been blocked in most countries for unknown reasons.

A tech test was released on May 10, 2009, and was shown in Notch's "Cave game tech test" video (archive).

Five pre-Classic versions are now available to the public through the launcher, with the earliest being rd-132211, originally developed on May 13, 2009.

Features

Physics
Stone
Grass Block
Human mobs
Level Generator
Particles
Dirt
Wooden Planks
Cobblestone
Saplings
Human Spawning: pressing (G)
The Void
The ability to respawn somewhere else on the world by pressing (R)
Placing blocks by left-clicking
Destroying blocks by right-clicking

Versions

Java Edition pre-Classic Unnamed Build 1 (lost)
Java Edition pre-Classic Unnamed Build 2 (lost)
Java Edition pre-Classic rd-131334 (lost)
Java Edition pre-Classic rd-131351 (lost)
Java Edition pre-Classic rd-131408 (lost)
Java Edition pre-Classic rd-131641 (lost)
Java Edition pre-Classic rd-131648 (lost)
Java Edition pre-Classic rd-131655 (lost)
Java Edition pre-Classic rd-132151 (lost)
Java Edition pre-Classic rd-132211
Java Edition pre-Classic rd-132328
Java Edition pre-Classic rd-20090515 (lost)
Java Edition pre-Classic rd-160052
Java Edition pre-Classic rd-161348
Java Edition pre-Classic mc-161607 (lost)
Java Edition pre-Classic mc-161616 (lost)
Java Edition pre-Classic mc-161625 (lost)
Java Edition pre-Classic mc-161648 (lost)

Videos

YouTube

Trivia

Breaking a block will not drop anything, because the ability to drop an item was not yet added.
There are human mobs and it is from another one of Notch's games, Zombie Town.
When loading a pre-Classic version using the launcher, instead of it being called "Minecraft" it is simply titled "Game".
The name "Order of the Stone" was later reused in Minecraft: Story Mode as a legendary group of adventurers.
The naming system in this phase was "id-ddhhmm", where "id" stands for the game's initials ("rd" for RubyDung, an earlier project of Notch's, and "mc" for Minecraft in later, public versions of pre-Classic), dd was the day of the month, hh was the hour released, and mm was the minute released, so rd-132211 was released on May 13 at 22:11 (10:11 pm). An exception to this system is rd-20090515, which just uses the full date in the year-month-day format.
The majority of all of pre-Classic versions that were made are now considered lost as their downloads no longer exist.
In the test, the ability to place blocks was not added yet.
This is the only development stage to have all original builds lost.

References

↑ "About the game" (Archive) – Minecraft, June 2009.
↑ Rotab's IRC logs on Archive.org; #minecraft.20090525.log. May 25, 2009 (UTC+2). "(10:40:09) <@Notch> heh, the game game tech test video is from the 13'th"[...]"(10:40:18) <@Notch> that was after two days of work, so I started the 11'th, probably"

[1] "About the game" (Archive) – Minecraft, June 2009.

[11th-2] Rotab's IRC logs on Archive.org; #minecraft.20090525.log. May 25, 2009 (UTC+2). "(10:40:09) <@Notch> heh, the game game tech test video is from the 13'th"[...]"(10:40:18) <@Notch> that was after two days of work, so I started the 11'th, probably"

[1]

[2]

Contents