Minecraft Betacraft Launcher
Fleur Francour
While the launcher has many versions available to play, it is far from having every version. There are dozens of versions we have archived that are not in the launcher. In fact, some of the versions in the launcher were modified, whereas we have the original copies as they were on release.
Join our Discord Server and send a DM to one of the moderators and they will check it for you. If you're tech-savvy and want to be reasonably sure you've got something new before sending it to us, generate a file hash for the jar and see if that hash has already been marked as found on the version index.
Please do not upload jar files directly in the server, as explained in our server rules.
As these versions get older, more things break as Mojang updates their own infrastructure and as newer hardware and operating system updates are released. Not all of these issues can be completely solved, however there are tools generously made by members of our community that iron out some of these problems.
Some solutions are listed below. Please note that you should only use one of these tools; using a combination is unsupported and may result in unpredictable or undesired behaviour.
To use a proxy, paste them into the JVM arguments field in your launcher profile.
BetaCraft
BetaCraft has a proxy and a launcher. The proxy only fixes skins, sounds, and crashes, whereas the launcher has more features. These features include multiplayer authentication, resolution fixes in Classic, Discord RPC support, Classic saving, and more. Download it here.
BetaCraft proxy: -Dhttp.proxyHost=betacraft.uk
It is also recommended to use the following JVM argument with the BetaCraft proxy:
-Djava.util.Arrays.useLegacyMergeSort=true
There is no need to use either of the JVM arguments if you use the BetaCraft launcher.
RetroWrapper
RetroWrapper fixes some bugs, fixes skins and sounds, adds online saving, and has a teleportation hack and isometric viewer. Find the download and installation instructions here
This is a bug with Windows 10 version 1809. This is the only version this bug affects, so to fix it, either update to 1903 (or later), or downgrade to 1803 (or earlier). To check what version of Windows 10 you're using, press Win+R, type winver, and hit enter. The window that opens will tell you the version of Windows 10 you're running. There is no known way to fix this bug other than to install a version of Windows 10 that isn't affected.
Whether or not a client can connect to a server depends on the protocol version number (PVN) of both the client and the server. If the PVN matches, they are compatible. For example, clients a1.0.16 to a1.0.16_02 (inclusive) all have a PVN of 14. Server versions a0.1.2_01 and a0.1.3 also have a PVN of 14, meaning that all those clients are compatible with both those servers.
To find the PVN of a client or server, take a look at the index.
Beta 1.7.3 and older have graphical bugs when using most AMD graphics cards, which is most noticeable when looking at clouds with Fancy graphics.
The BetaCraft launcher has a fix automatically applied without needing to modify your client jar file. You can download the BetaCraft launcher here.
Alternatively, HalfOfAKebab has made a jar mod for a lot of versions that copies code from Beta 1.8 (which does not have these graphical issues). You can download it here.
Every time a new version is found, it's announced in #changelogs along with a ping to the Notification Squad role. To join the Notification Squad, join the Discord Server and type !role Notification Squad.
The Java Edition of the game is practically the easiest to play on PC in terms of available software and support. However, as the game development goes back to 2009, players might run into difficulties while trying to launch some of the oldest versions or even finding them, as many have been lost over the course of the history of the game.
Betacraft is recommended due to it having a complete list of archived Minecraft: Java Edition versions up to 1.5.2. It comes with skin, sounds and multiplayer fix as well as classic addons that allow for saving and full-screening.
Codex-Ipsa is recommended to due to having a complete list of all archived Minecraft: Java Edition versions. It also comes with easy JAR-modding support as well as the Betacraft proxy. It is however still experimental.
The Minecraft Launcher is the default launcher the majority of people have installed. If you don't like downloading 3rd party alternatives you can still play all the versions of Minecraft: Java Edition. This however does come at the cost of having to manually add missing versions into the launcher, not having classic save and potential specific hardware issues.
You may notice that a lot of versions are missing from the Minecraft Launcher, a list of what versions are available can be located on the Java Edition version history page on the Minecraft Wiki.
Versions can also be downloaded from the Minecraft Wiki. Alternatively if the Minecraft Wiki version downloads do not work, you can use the Omniarchive archive (Pre-Classic, Classic, Indev, Infdev, Alpha, Beta, Release).
If you notice that sounds, skins and Multiplayer is not working in older Minecraft versions, you can add the Betacraft proxy to the Java Arguments box in the instance's settings. -Dhttp.proxyHost=betacraft.uk
Betacraft is a launcher that intends to give the user the same experience as they would if they played way back when. It has all archived versions up 1.5.2 and includes fixes for sounds, skins, multiplayer and even includes classic addons that allows for full-screening and saving. Versions can be accessed by pressing the "Selection version" button and addons can be accessed in Edit instance>Select addons. To ensure that Betacraft runs properly, make sure you have java 8 installed. Betacraft is available on Windows (Including many older versions), Linux and MacOS. To launch Betacraft on Windows and MacOS its as simple as clicking on the application. On linux you can launch Betacraft via terminal entering java -jar . There also is an experimental Betacraft 2.0 version that adds support for almost all versions of Minecraft up to latest. It also includes other new features such as JARmodding and automatic java switching/downloading.
Codex-Ipsa is a launcher that allows you to play all archived versions of Minecraft: Java Edition and Minecraft Edu (other editions too!). It also includes the Betacraft proxy for skins, sounds and multiplayer fixes, JAR-modding support and also has a function that allows for downloading and installing Java versions automatically. Changing the game version is as simple as pressing "Edit Profile" and selecting the version you need in the list.
MineOnline is a launcher that features the majority of archived Minecraft: Java Edition versions up to Beta 1.9 Prerelease 6 (Also including 1.1 and 1.5.2). It adds skins, sounds, classic saving and multiplayer fixes. It also mods fov slider, gui scale and resource packs into versions that do not have it. To ensure that MineOnline functions properly, make sure that you have java 8 installed. To launch versions click on "Singleplayer" and select the version you need. Or alternatively, if you are playing on multiplayer, click "Multiplayer" and add the server and version needed.
MultiMC and its forks are one the the most commonly used 3rd party launchers for Minecraft: Java Edition. MultiMC however has the same limited selection of versions available on the Minecraft Launcher. Prism Launcher, a MultiMC fork, does include earlier snapshots too however is still limited. To ensure that MultiMC/Prism works properly, make sure you have java 8 installed for older Minecraft and Java 17 or higher installed for modern Minecraft.
If you notice that sounds, skins and Multiplayer is not working in older Minecraft versions, you can add the Betacraft proxy to the Java Arguments box in the instance's settings. -Dhttp.proxyHost=betacraft.uk
PojavLauncher is a Minecraft: Java Edition launcher for Android and IOS. It has the same limited number of versions the Minecraft Launcher has but more can be added. On Android, PojavLauncher can be downloaded from the Google Play store. For IOS, you can follow PojavLauncher's guide on their website. To play versions you can click above the play button and press "Create new profile". You can then select the Minecraft: Java Edition version you want.
If you notice that sounds, skins and multiplayer does not work in older versions, you can add the betacraft proxy by clicking on the settings icon in the top right> java tweaks> JVM Launch arguments and then paste -Dhttp.proxyHost=betacraft.uk at the end.
The Betacraft proxy fixes all these issues by making sure the appropriate resources and links are used for old Minecraft.
The Betacraft proxy can be added into your launcher by entering the following into your launchers JVM argument box:
Loading a version from 11w49a (1.1 snapshot) to 13w26a (1.6 snapshot) will often cause a crash. This is because of the options.txt in the .minecraft folder. The lang= parameter in the text file is expecting en_US, en_UK, or another uppercase language code but if the last played version was 16w32a (1.11 snapshot) or later the lang= parameter is changed to en_us, en_uk, or another lowercase language code. The options.txt during the aforementioned range cannot read this language and so causes a crash immediately after starting. To fix you can either enter the text file and change the lang= parameter to the capitalized version or just delete the options.txt file because a new one will be created and it is already basically reset in earlier versions (hence why Auto-Jump always turns back on for example). All that is contained in this file is the options of the player from the escape menu.
This fix applies to MultiMC launcher only. To fix the crash go to Edit Instance, Settings, Game Windows, check Game Window and Start Minecraft maximized? afterwards.
The Codex-Ipsa launcher also operates correctly.
Sounds will not be present on these versions.