minecraft was originally called "strata" before cave game.
minecraft was originally called "strata" before cave game.
i do data archiving for a living and recently had to pull files off a corrupted windows xp drive for a guy who used to be a moderator on the TIGsource forums back in 2009. he gave me permission to keep whatever indie game prototypes I found on it.
i was digging through the recovered folders yesterday and found a super early java build dated late april 2009, a couple weeks before notch publicly shared the first "cave game" tech test. the jar file is literally named "Strata_v0.1.jar". when you boot it up, the title window doesn't say cave game at all. it just says "STRATA" in a weird green pixel font.
the gameplay is incredibly barebones. there's no grass or dirt, just pure cobblestone and these dark blue blocks that kinda look like the old lapis texture but they break instantly when you click them. moving around feels super floaty and there's no jump button yet, you just auto-step up blocks like a horse does now.
i checked the class files and the author signature is definitely notch. it seems like he originally wanted to make a game about geological layers (hence strata) but pivoted to the "cave game" name a few weeks later when he added dirt and grass generation.
im trying to figure out if i can upload the jar file to the lost media wiki without getting a cease and desist from microsoft lol. let me know if anyone else has ever heard of this because I literally can't find a single mention of it anywhere online.