Road to Minecraft 1.0, Day 84: Catching Up

Friday.
Real date: 21 November 2025
Time machine: 18 June 2010
Recorded playtime: 15 hours, 25 minutes.

Whoops. I never finished my update post on the update from 20 April 2010. Sorry for dragging my feet... Real life has really gotten in the way lately, around holidays and stuff, and it continues to. 

I'll try to briefly cover each of the versions I've missed before getting to the next main event. It's a very interesting and very terrible update.

Infdev 2010-04-20

This update was mainly just an optimization update. Level generation and saving is faster now, but I wouldn't notice that on my Piledriver system with an SSD (which is really too new for this era of Minecraft, but oh well).

Mobs have been fixed. Far fewer spawn, and hostiles don't randomly spawn in bright places. 

Since we have a truly playable build with hostile mobs now, I decided I should use some of my iron surplus to make some armor. 

The funny thing is, at this point in the game, I would normally make leather armor, as it's quite cheap and still pretty useful in versions before Minecraft 1.0. However, I haven't had much of an opportunity to find any cows since they have only just been added. 2026-02-13: I have no idea why I thought cows were added at this point. They were added much later, in Alpha 1.0.8. "Leather" armor in this version is crafted using wool.

With the previously insane number of pigs spawning, I have plenty of porkchops to go around.

You can see that the quantity of mobs is much lower now:

Finally, a manageable combat situation.

Since worldgen has been changed and optimized, I decided to go on a quest for new chunks again.

The new terrain is less chaotic, but still far more chaotic than modern Minecraft. Here is the chunk boundary that I climbed up:

When I arrived back home, I decided it was time to move into my new house. I began by moving my chests and all their items into my basement, while crafting several more chests to fill the space.

I then took all of my furnaces and set them up on the ground floor.

Still no doors, but that will be remedied soon.

That's all for this version. Now we must move onto...

Infdev 2010-06-07

Over a full month (nearly two!) later, on Monday, June the 7th, Notch finally released another update for the game. This update adds doors, ladders, and signs. It's kinda difficult to imagine the game without them, but this is the first time we're seeing any of them! 

Firstly, I wanted to add doors to my buildings, so I crafted a door using 6 planks, like usual. Notice the goofy texture which is pretty much just a slab:

I then placed it in the front opening to my house:

Door placement is weird. The front of the door is always to the right, relative to your viewport:

Also, doors have distinct "open" and "closed" states. They make consistent sound effects according to which state you move them to. I'm not sure what version this changed in, although modern Minecraft has finally returned to this (for much of the game's history, a door open and a door close event would make call the same random sound effect, which could be either door_open.ogg or door_close.ogg).

Double doors are annoying. You have to very carefully plan them so that they look good, and ultimately, one of the doors is always going to be "open" when it's actually closed and "closed" when it's actually open.

If you place two doors facing the same direction, they end up back-to-back, like this:

This is clunky, as an open set of doors like these will always have one hinging in the middle.

Next up, signs. They are only floor-standing and quite massive.

They're nearly two blocks tall and more than one block wide. Goofy. Also, a sign only drops a single plank when broken, for some reason...

I also decided to make some ladders, which are ludicrously expensive (7 sticks to make one ladder!). Not much need for them yet, but this was enough to climb to the top of this building:

Not a lot else to talk about here, but the water texture is glitchy and weird. 

Finally, a bonus pic from the now-accessible top of my staircase enclosure:

And that brings us to...

Infdev 2010-06-08

Aha! This very next version is when doors no longer had distinct open and closed states! Signs also drop themselves now, thankfully, and no longer have grass breaking particles. Double doors are no longer annoying and work like they do today, more or less.

I didn't bother documenting much in this update or even playing it very much. The water texture bug is fixed, though:

Also, the in-game menu background is no longer a gradient. Minor thing, but noticeable. Still blue, though.

Infdev 2010-06-11

Another pretty minor update. 3D clouds, though! And a new terrain generator. Per my own rules, a new terrain generator means we need to go find new chunks... 

I decided to make another offshoot from one of my mines.

When I started digging upwards, I emerged in water...which turned out to not be a problem, as this version doesn't even have water flow physics yet.

Because of that, rather humorously, dropping torches straight into water works just fine.

I have no idea if this will continue working when water physics is added, but that's something we will learn soon enough.

At first I thought I already found new terrain, but no, these aren't chunk boundaries, just weirdly mountainous early Infdev terrain.

But then, after swimming and walking for a good while, I found new chunks!

Sorry it's so dark. We still don't have a brightness slider and won't for a while yet.

I went ahead and chopped down a tree to build a ladder to the top of the cliff.

Turns out that was a waste of time. I loaded the save up in MCEdit to check something... I forget now what it even was, but I discovered a spot very close that I could've just climbed up...

Finally, check out this worldgen. It's starting to look quite close to the Alpha/Beta terrain we all know and love.

I logged off here. Time for the next version.

Infdev 2010-06-15

Took me a while longer to get to this update, putting me even further behind schedule. Not to worry! I will catch up! 

This update adds buckets and flowing water (and flowing lava, but lava isn't really useful for much yet and can only be found at the bottom of the map). Apparently it also makes days longer than nights, but I can't really tell the difference yet. This update also added the "fast" graphics mode. Additionally, leaf decay has been readded, which is immediately obvious...

Leaves near the ground still just kinda stick around. Also, my hand is invisible. Weird.

I had some iron on me already, so I made myself a furnace, grabbed some coal, and smelted the iron into ingots. I then made a bucket so I could experiment with water.

Water flow in this version is...weird. The graphics are too, but honestly, I kinda really like how it looks. The stair-stepping effect feels as rudimentary as the rest of the game at this development stage, and I don't think that's a bad thing. If Minecraft had shipped with water that looked like this, nobody would've complained. Then somebody like MrMessiah would come along and make, I don't know, BetterWater or something, and by Beta 1.5 we would've had water that was smooth anyway...

A single-block-wide waterfall, something that's not as easily doable in newer versions of the game:

Water doesn't flow outward automatically the way it does today. 

Making an infinite water source works in much the same way it does today, except it's more difficult because you can't dump out a bucket onto a block already covered by water. The solution is to place a block, break it, and then dump the second source block before the neighboring water has a chance to flow.

Well, as much as I would love to stick around and play some more with water in this weird in-between version, I do need to get a move on.

Though. I guess it wouldn't hurt to go find some lava. I decided to return to the point where I emerged from the ocean floor on the previous version.

...However, I couldn't find it.

After much searching, I discovered that, as soon as the chunks loaded, the hole must've filled with water, and destroyed all my torches. 

That's suboptimal... Additionally, any torches broken by water in this version are simply Gone. They vanish completely. They do not drop as items at all. Rather annoying.

I started building a structure around the entrance that I could place a door in front of to prevent future flooding. That's when I discovered that the water flow code in this version is...absolutely, completely broken.

It's very easy to create these weird air pockets that simply cannot exist in modern Minecraft. It's kind of annoying to deal with, too.

But anyway, here is the final result:

Works like a charm. I also added a tower with a torch on the top so I can see it from the surface.

Anyway, I dug down until I found the infinite lava sea again... which caused an even more massive lag spike this time, way worse than the first time way back at the beginning. Not sure why that is.

Without caves or lava springs, this is the only way to find lava. Interestingly, scooping from the infinite lava sea doesn't remove a source block, even for a moment. It's truly an infinite lava supply.

The first thing I did was dump it out onto the surface of the ocean, which behaved...oddly.

It doesn't spread, it doesn't solidify, it doesn't even cause the water to solidify. Absolutely nothing happens at all. I honestly think it's sharing all of the flow code from the water (except for the flow rate, which is still quite slow, just like modern Minecraft), because uh...

Doesn't it seem like that flows awfully far? Like... as far as it does in the Nether?

Anyway, that's enough lava for now. The Lava Woods will become a permanent landmark, I suppose, at least until fire is properly added many versions later.

Onto the next version.

Infdev 2010-06-16

Caves! Finally, caves!

Apparently there are also flowers and mushrooms again, flowing water textures are directional, and lava now flows half as far as water. These are the only major changes. 

I won't be spending a ton of time on this version, probably, but I do want to get a feel for how caves are generated in this early reimplementation of them.

The first thing I noticed when starting the game was that liquids are smooth now. I didn't notice this in the patch notes, but I guess that's what he meant by "water is prettier now."

Obviously this lava I already poured is still going to flow super far. New lava will not, however.

I walked for quite a while. Eventually I found flowers, which meant I must be in new chunks.

I just thought this place looked neat and very old-Minecrafty. 

Immediately, I started digging down. Eventually I mined into a cave! ...well. A super tiny one that wasn't very interesting.

I kept mining down until I reached...bedrock. Notch didn't mention adding bedrock, but yes, you now hit bedrock instead of the infinite lava sea.

I made my way back up to what I believe to be Y=12 and kept mining in a straight line. Eventually I found some coal, by mining which I revealed another small cave, this one with a little lava pool.

I hadn't noticed until this moment, but liquids aren't completely flat in this version, are they? There's a bit of a rippliness to them.

I mined a little more. More lava. 

I mined a little more. More lava... And this time I tried to solidify it with my water bucket.

Yeah, that did not work. No obsidian in this version.

A bit annoyed with my mining experience, I backtracked to the first lava cave and decided to set up a base there.

I do need another base now that I'm this far from home, but I'm not sure building it this far down really makes sense.

I decided to load the world up in MCEdit to have a look at the caves, thinking perhaps they simply aren't very interesting in this version.

That didn't turn out to be the case. Somehow I just missed all the cool caves... Plus, no interesting caves seem to generate all the way down to Y=12. I'll need to go back up a bit if I want to do cave exploration.

So I did that. 

My initial impressions of caves from this version is that they are very, very cool. I seriously really like this. They're quite erratic, even compared to Alpha and Beta caves.

Here are a couple videos of me exploring this cave system.

In the second video, I heard footsteps and prepared for combat. Monsters still only make footstep sounds and the generic player hurt sound. I was relieved when I heard a sheep soon after.

Onto the next version. 

Infdev 2010-06-17

This is primarily a "tweak" update, as Notch called it. Some bugs fixed, but mostly behaviors changed to match what you would expect as a player.

Caves are much more interesting and diverse. Gravel and dirt blobs generate and ore density varies by material. Lava is no longer renewable, matching how it behaves in the modern game. Apparently, before, it would spread and create new source blocks the same as water. Liquid spreading was overall tweaked, I assume making it more closely resemble how it is today as well. Also, quite importantly, cobblestone and obsidian can be created with water and lava now. Oh, and the player's hand is no longer invisible.

Apparently it was also on this day when the 20,000th person purchased Minecraft.

Man, it's honestly amazing how small the game once was. I have more than 20,000 views on some of my YouTube videos.

Anyway, the first thing I did was go try to make obsidian again.

Success!

In the process of doing that, I discovered that the ripply thing liquids were doing before has now stopped. I wonder what change caused that, and whether it was intentional.

After gathering some resources, I started digging in a straight line hoping to find new chunks with new cave generation. For a while, all I found was already-generated caves (of course). 

At one point, I encountered a very bizarre lag spike with no discernible cause.

However, very quickly after, I dug into another cave. Hard to say if it was related or not, though.

I explored for a while longer. 

Man... there is just something extremely eerie and unsettling about cave exploration in these early versions. Maybe part of it is the lack of music or any ambient sounds at all. I never thought I would find the Minecraft cave noises comforting but I honestly think that may be the case here. Of course, monsters also don't make distinct sounds, which makes even the slightest footstep sound quite frightening. This all means there is complete and utter silence broken only by footsteps and blocks breaking. 

I think maybe the lack of dirt and gravel in this earlier cave generation may also be contributing, because the pure stone feels a little suffocating somehow.

There's also the fact that monsters have rarely spawned. I'm not sure why that is, but the result is that I'm constantly on edge and yet never feel ready to fight any monsters. I've seen two creepers while mining in the last several versions. That's it.

One very annoying bug I noticed after taking a bit of a break and coming back is that I seem to suffocate for half a heart each time I log in on this version. Suffocation is a new feature in this version; previous versions didn't seem to care if you were inside of a block. 

I encountered this extremely bizarre bug while mining. I really don't know what this was.

I could not break this block until I broke several blocks around it. 

Finally, I reached new chunks. This was made obvious by two things: smaller ore veins and gravel.

One thing I didn't realize until now: this version adds gravel, but there are still no real falling blocks. Physics affects sand and gravel instantly still.

Also saw some dirt. Woohoo.

And diamonds! In a very weird place.

There were only 4 diamonds. Veins are definitely smaller now.

Onto the next version...

Infdev 2010-06-18: Seecret Friday Update! 

This is the Infdev version available in the official launcher. 

In this update, obsidian drops itself instead of cobblestone (which I didn't even bother checking because I don't have a diamond pickaxe), sand and gravel now have their animated falling entity form, and the "big seecret" was minecarts and rails. 

Additionally, falling into the void now kills you instead of...not doing that. Which is good, because previously, if you fell into the void (which is quite possible in an Infdev world in various circumstances), you would just fall forever and your world would be broken unless you edited your save to move your player. Of course, that really only applied to one version (the previous one), due to the removal of the infinite lava sea. Prior to that, you would just fall into lava at the bottom of the map.

I'm only going to cover this version briefly as the changes don't actually affect gameplay much, and I really need to get a move on.

Firstly, let's craft a minecart and rails.

...I really do not understand what that texture is supposed to be.

Anyway, minecarts are pretty useless. They're functionally identical to a chest minecart in later versions of the game, except you can't even break them. They are completely indestructible. Once they're placed, they are there forever. And you can't even ride them.

Rails behave really weird. I didn't want or ask for that rail to be sloped. It just kinda did that when I placed it next to a block.

Here's a video of me messing around with the minecart and janky rails: 

Yeah. It's weird.

Here I am demonstrating the storage function:

The "dirt" in the cart rises to the top as you fill slots in its storage, which is cool. What isn't cool is I cannot think of a single actual practical use for this. I mean, I guess theoretically you could lay rails all the way through your mine and then push a cart all the way back home, but... since you can't pick up and move the cart, it really doesn't work. It would be cumbersome and probably not any faster than just making a trip home in the middle to inventory dump.

Phew. I'm not caught up yet, but I'm feeling better about my progress. Hopefully I don't fall too crazy far behind in the coming days.

Thank you, and have a very safe and productive day.
--Sidney 

Note: This post has been modified from its originally posted form. The real post date was 18 December 2025, which corresponds to 15 July 2010 and day 111 of the project.