Beta Minecraft
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To satisfy my nostalgia for a version that can’t be obtained anymore, I’ve been playing Minecraft Beta 1.7.3.
There’s quite a distinct charm to this version. The old alpha pocket edition versions were limited to a tiny 256x256x127 world that you could call home. Similarly, Minecraft versions pre release 1.2.1 had this same world height limit of 127 blocks. With the shorter render distance and terrain that is much more limited in height, it makes everything seem relatively bigger. In a modern version of the game, building a house that is 50 blocks wide is not that large compared to its surroundings. In the old versions, the same structure seems to completely overtake the landscape.
That said, the game is relatively limited in what can be done. Beta 1.7.3 is yet to introduce hoppers or comparators which really bring vanilla automation to life. In this version, passive and hostile mob farms are limited to just leaving piles of drops directly on the ground. Being a programmer at heart, I do want to do a little more than that. As such, I’ve decided to play a run where I will slowly introduce my own modded features for various game automation. It should be noted that Buildcraft, Industrial Craft (1 & 2), and Minefactory Reloaded are all available for Beta 1.7.3, but the source code is not available and they are unofficially distributed as unsigned jars which makes me rather nervous. Further, making my own tech mod is generally interesting to me.