Minecraft Forums

Are you an Alphabro who always posts on how you miss the good old days of Alpha, and how the game was fun? Or are you a more recent player who just wanted to see what the game looked like before you even knew of Minecraft? Well, you are not alone. Not even close to alone. There are hundreds of thousands of players who think this way.

So ever since Alpha 1.2.0 when the terrain generation was altered (and in my opinion, screwed up), I've wanted the classic Alpha terrain with the current version's features. In December '10, I was happy to see MCNostalgia, as it allowed me to play Alpha 1.1.2_01, which had what was my favorite terrain generator. I loved it, but the loss of current features and the heavy presence of bugs kept me from staying there.

I am requesting a mod that allows for users to change the Minecraft version that it generates terrain from, and that being the only thing that changes; gameplay, items, blocks, ect will all be as of the client's version.

I am fully aware of the mods out there that do this by changing all worlds made to preHalloween Alpha, but the reason I am calling for this mod is for extreme convenience and flexibility.

I propose that the terrain type would be set upon creation of a new world, as shown here:


These are the versions you can choose from

• Alpha 1.1.2_01 (3rd gen Terrain)
• Beta 1.1_02 (4th gen Terrain w/o new trees)
• Beta 1.7.3 (4th gen Terrain w/ new trees)
• Beta 1.8.1 (5th gen Terrain w/o snow biomes)
• Minecraft 1.0 (5th gen Terrain w/ snow biomes)

Now about those other mods I talked about earlier: The best part of this mod would be the fact that you could make a 1.1.2 world, make a house and stuff on that terrain, then make a new world using 1.7.3 terrain without switching out mods/.jars. Another selling point of this mod would be that you can take your first world that was generated with an Alpha client, set the terrain type that corresponds to the version you made your world in, and play the game. Now, any new terrain that you would enter without this mod spawns 1.0.0 5th gen terrain and causes sudden, ugly chunk borders. With this mod, there would be no chunk borders: your 1.0.0 client would make the old terrain for a seamless world. No more backdating .jars to expand your old worlds with the old terrain.

Remember, a built in way to customize which seed a world generates from was added in Beta 1.3, so this mod would allow for 1st through 3rd gen terrain to be made from specific seeds; this is something that backdating your client can't do.

The new terrain just sucks. Once you have seen what a biome looks like, you've seen them all. Forests, swamps, deserts, taigas, grasslands, and tundras are flat as hell. Mountains are cool, but they are very difficult on gameplay as it takes 5 minutes to find a single tree. The underwater terrain is just this hodge-podge of dirt and sand, and looks extremely ugly. Swamps' coloring looks cool when you are in it, but the sudden boundaries of dark to light grass looks retarded.

(Those links are giving you a hint; thousands of people are reaching the same conclusions)

Now, 3rd gen terrain was based on 3D Perlin noise and created these very dynamic and visually appealing terrain. A new world felt new, and you really don't know what you are going to get, compared to now, a biome makes it extraordinarily obvious what the terrain is going to look like. 4th gen terrain lessened the extremity of the terrain, but was still random, and biomes were just an add on and did not affect the terrain as much as they do now.

Take a look at this video that has 3rd gen terrain of Alpha 1.1.2_01. 3rd gen worlds will generate cool terrain like this in almost all times you made a new world.


People who complain that new Minecraft sucks and how Alpha was epic are usually only miss the terrain generator; they played the game for a sense of fantasy and light-hearted gameplay, not this new dark and demanding game that has come of. This mod will be able to shut those people up for good, combining the new version with old terrain, and in combination with a texture pack, can make these guys love playing Minecraft again.


I backdated my client for the fun of it to play some mid Alpha, and after only 6 tries for an epic world, this is what I got. This is why I love Alpha.

If you make the mod and do a good job with the design and promotion, you could later rewrite it to allow custom imput of terrain. Then other mods will use your mod (Similar to what happened with Risugami's ModLoader) which will really push you high into the modding community.

Also refraining from making this mod because you don't actually have backups of the generation code? Well MCNostalgia will allow you to revert your game to these versions and just go from there.

There is a person out there who is walking to the Far Lands (Kurtjmac), and he is stuck with using 1.7.3 because the Far Lands were removed in 1.8. As time goes on, he will be stuck with using this old version while the Minecraft community passes him by, so by making this mod, you will allow him to generate pre1.8 terrain with the newest gameplay aspects, spicing up the videos for more enjoyment on his part, and others'. So please, someone create this mod, after all, Kurt is doing it for charity (and has already raised $11,000!).


Well this topic has about 50,000 views, which is really amazing, but still there are thousands of people who would love this mod but do not know about it. The use of the signature I made really draws people in, like you, to see this topic.

I put it as my signature for a month and regularly posted on the Survival Forum, and brought in 2,000 views. Two weeks later after I allowed others to use the sig, this topic has reached 7,000 views. After a month, we're up to 27,000. Just imagine if another hundred people used this sig for a month.

You know, I'm really like this idea. I support this and think it should be implemented (by authors) too!

Edited the OP, please guys make this happen!

ya im interested! I hope someone makes a mod like this. Id love to have the old generator back.

I support this. I wish I could mod but unfortunately I cannot. Not that I know much about coding/modding, but doesn't this idea just need someone to find the class file that controls terrain generation in an older version of Minecraft and replacing the one in the current version?

Quote from RyanML

I support this. I wish I could mod but unfortunately I cannot. Not that I know much about coding/modding, but doesn't this idea just need someone to find the class file that controls terrain generation in an older version of Minecraft and replacing the one in the current version?

Yep, is looks as if implementing the old generators is easy and the only real work is messing with the .dat files and on the UI. I'm surprised no modder has taken this up yet

Bah! This would be SO useful! If there are any talented modders out there, please give this a go. It would stop us having to load up a world in Alpha, explore as much as possible, then switch back (which is what I currently do). I FULLY support this request/idea! :biggrin.gif:

Yes we NEED this. i've been playing 1.7.3 for a while just because i prefer the older worlds, the only thing is i miss all the features of 1.0 :smile.gif:

Just overhauled the OP
Also, there is now a signature to use as a way to support this mod idea!

Has anyone made this mod yet? if not I know a guy who makes mods and ill send him a link to this fourm to take a look

what about the issues such as the fact that generators w/o tall grass will not have any source of seeds? and some will not have natural sandstone?

gonna lov this mod. we need to ask Notch to add this in minecraft

I want to do a YouTube series on interesting Alpha seeds, but... :tongue.gif:

This would solve that problem!

This would fit perfectly with the Nostalgia-Craft texture pack.

Quote from DiggyDiggyHole1223

what about the issues such as the fact that generators w/o tall grass will not have any source of seeds? and some will not have natural sandstone?

Pretty sure you can make grass with bonemeal, and sandstone with sand.

Though stuff like lapis would be impossible to get for Alpha maps.

Oh my God, it's like you read my mind. A couple friends and I were making an 'Alpha Mode' mod, it seems like the same kind of idea. I'll see what we can do to make this whole thing happen?

You know there is a mod for that (Alpha Worlds), though it is still 1.8.1 just to let you know you would need a 1.8.1 jar.

http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/473776-181-the-nostalgia-projectno-biomes-x/page__st__360

Quote from DanielTheSpaniel

Has anyone made this mod yet? if not I know a guy who makes mods and ill send him a link to this fourm to take a look

Nope. If the guy you know takes up the job, tell him to send me a message so I can convey my concepts in full.

Quote from DiggyDiggyHole1223

what about the issues such as the fact that generators w/o tall grass will not have any source of seeds? and some will not have natural sandstone?

That's why I need a modder who won't just half-ass this mod; the mod should be coded so that Beta 1.1_02 and Alpha 1.1.2_01 maps allow for tilling grass to gather seeds. Sandstone can be crafted with sand, though.

Quote from LDGK

gonna lov this mod. we need to ask Notch to add this in minecraft

He won't.

Quote from Themole2

This would fit perfectly with the Nostalgia-Craft texture pack.

I know, right?
Well, just classicgrass in general, I mean I made a personal texture pack like that months before he did

Quote from Meshly

You know there is a mod for that (Alpha Worlds), though it is still 1.8.1 just to let you know you would need a 1.8.1 jar.

http://www.minecraft...x/page__st__360

I looked at that and that mod looks really cool, might check it out. That mod only changes it to 3rd gen Terrain, nothing about the late alpha and beta terrain, which some people really love.

In other words, my want for this mod still stands.

Extremely wonderful idea. You have my total support! :biggrin.gif: