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Pre-classic

The very first builds of Minecraft still available today, all created within hours/days of its inception on May 13th 2009. All of these are taken from the launcher, where they were first made available in 2013 by Dinnerbone. Although not fully confirmed, it has been indicated that these came from a source code backup on an old computer/backup that belonged to Notch, as well as from his ex-wife ez. These builds are not signed or obfuscated but have been altered to work in the launcher hence why they have a 2013 modified date.
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Classic

All currently found versions from the first public release of Minecraft onwards up until 0.30 released in November 2009. Over the course of Classic various blocks are added, as well as the implementation of multiplayer and many UI changes including the hotbar and inventory. Survival Test also occurred during classic which added the basic survival features of the health bar and consuming food, as well as mobs and finite blocks. Includes some dev versions from the launcher and versions found both online and from old players by Omniarchive over the past few years.
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Indev

All currently found versions from the first Indev on December 23rd 2009 until the last on February 23rd 2010. Standing for in-development, Indev was the first fully paid era of the game and was intended to act as a way for players to experience all of the latest features added by Notch firsthand. Indev introduced many features that are essential for what Minecraft is known for today, including non-block items, mining, crafting, smelting and farming, as well as finite water and many other features. Includes various versions found online and from old players by Omniarchive over the past few years.
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Infdev

All currently found versions from the first Infdev on February 27th 2010 until the last on June 30th 2010 (debatable...). Infdev stands for infinite-development, due to its addition of infinite worlds. Much of Infdev was spent optimising the feature of infinite worlds and adding back features from Indev that were broken due to it. Towards the end of Infdev some smaller features were added such as doors, signs, stairs, dungeons, minecarts etc. Includes various versions found online and from old players by Omniarchive over the past few years.
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Alpha

All currently found versions from Alpha 1.0 (technically...) to Alpha 1.2.6. Alpha introduced many features to the game including chickens, cows, redstone, boats, slimes and later Survival Multiplayer, biomes and the Nether. Alpha is also when Minecraft's popularity began to surge and other developers than Notch began working on the game at the end of it due to this. Includes various versions found online and from old players by Omniarchive over the past few years.
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Beta

All currently found versions from Beta 1.0 to RC2, the final version before the full release of Minecraft in November 2011. Beta introduced fully working Survival Multiplayer (Alpha's had many bugs), beds, wolves and reintroduced creative mode among many other features. Includes various versions found online and from old players by Omniarchive over the past few years.
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Release

All currently found versions from Release 1.0 onwards, including prereleases and snapshots. This development cycle is the longest and covers all versions since Minecraft's official full release so contains many updates and changes. This archive currently extends up to 1.8.9, more modern versions are available from Mojang and can be found easily via the Minecraft Wiki.
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