First Impressions with Minecraft Beta 1.7.3

A section of the Minecraft community online is of the opinion that Minecraft version Beta 1.7.3 is the best version of the game. I personally first heard of this version from a Dialko video.

Having first started playing Minecraft in 2013 or so, I never experienced this version of the game. So I decided to check it out to see what the hype was all about. Now for the record I only play that game once in a blue moon. I did not play any Minecraft version released in the last 6 years or so but I have a general idea of the content found in modern versions.

The first thing that surprised me was the game lacking a creative mode. I had assumed that this was something that had been included in the game very early on. I guess not.

While doing some mining, I was reminded at how awful the monster sounds are in this game - not that this complaint is exclusive to Beta Minecraft. Another change I remarked is that the only source of food seems to be from pigs. Food also heals instantly. Interesting.

Despite playing for 1.5 hour I only found 2 diamonds. They seem to be quite rare in this version of the game. I also think that monster might deal more damage, but that's probably me just being bad at playing this game.

So my thoughts can essentially be summarized as "Yep, that's Minecraft". I find it interesting how very little seems to have been removed from the game over the years. The general core of the game seems to have been established long ago. This is in stark contrast from a game like RuneScape where lots of changes made the game unrecognizable over the years. I presume that this happened due to the devs needing to avoid messing with the players' world saves.

I do appreciate the simplicity of Minecraft Beta 1.7.3. A gripe of mine in higher version is how your inventory gets filled with useless stone block variants. I can see why some people prefer to play this version.

One thing that I appreciate is how Minecraft is distributed in general. It is nice to be able to download an old build with a few clicks. This is a breath of fresh air compared to live service games where you are always forced to play the latest version. Even with games that are offline, the ability to download old builds is a rarity. Minecraft truly is a marvel in that regard. It is a shame that few games followed in its footsteps.

Written by manpaint on 29 January 2025.