Applet

Java applets were the original way to run Minecraft. It worked by allowing the Java game to run in the web browser for players to access without having to download a launcher or client. The pages that allowed running Minecraft in the browser were gradually taken down after the Minecraft Launcher was released, superceding browser play.

Minecraft was originally hosted as an applet on Mojang.com before being moved to Minecraft.net.

Different development phases of the game were hosted at different URLs. This meant that players could use newer test builds while still having access to the stable game. The exception is mptest, which overwrites the clients used by other pages.

This is a sample of the applet element, from May 25, 2009^[1]:

<applet code="org.lwjgl.util.applet.AppletLoader" archive="client/lwjgl_util_applet.jar, client/lzma.jar" codebase="" width="854" height="480">
  <param name="al_title" value="Minecraft" />
  <param name="al_main" value="com.mojang.minecraft.MinecraftApplet" />
  <param name="al_logo" value="client/logo_small.png" />
  <param name="al_progressbar" value="appletprogress.gif" />
  <param name="al_jars" value="client/lwjgl_applet.jar.pack.lzma, client/lwjgl.jar.pack.lzma, client/jinput.jar.pack.lzma, client/lwjgl_util.jar.pack.lzma, client/res.jar.lzma, client/minecraft.jar" />
  <param name="al_windows" value="client/windows_natives.jar.lzma" />
  <param name="al_linux" value="client/linux_natives.jar.lzma" />
  <param name="al_mac" value="client/macosx_natives.jar.lzma" />
  <param name="al_solaris" value="client/solaris_natives.jar.lzma" />
  <param name="al_version" value="5.17" />
  <param name="separate_jvm" value="true" />
  <param name="java_arguments" value="-Dsun.java2d.noddraw=true -Dsun.awt.noerasebackground=true -Dsun.java2d.d3d=false -Dsun.java2d.opengl=false -Dsun.java2d.pmoffscreen=false" />
  <param name="al_bgcolor" value="000000" />
  <param name="al_fgcolor" value="ffffff" />
  <param name="al_errorcolor" value="ff0000" />
  <param name="al_prepend_host" value="true" />
</applet>

al_version is an identifier used to determine whether to pull an existing version from cache. The rest of the parameters either sets up the Java environment including classpath, natives, arguments, and entrypoint class, or sets up the visual display of the applet.

The .jar is downloaded to the user's temporary folder on disk. The subpath of the temporary folder differs based on the applet page the game is being played on.

Starting from Infdev 20100629, it is now located on disk at .minecraft/bin/ (used by minecraft.net/game/).

• 
  Applet with start error of 0.0.11a
• 
  0.0.12a_03
• 
  0.0.13a_03
• 
  0.0.14a_08
• 
  0.0.15a (Multiplayer Test 1)
• 
  0.0.15a (Multiplayer Test 5)
• 
  0.0.16a_01
• 
  0.0.16a_02
• 
  0.0.17a
• 
  0.0.18a_02
• 
  0.0.19a_06
• 
  0.0.20a_02
• 
  0.0.21a_01
• 
  0.0.22a_05
• 
  0.0.23a_01
• 
  0.24_SURVIVAL_TEST_03
• 
  0.25_05 SURVIVAL TEST
• 
  0.26 SURVIVAL TEST
• 
  0.27 SURVIVAL TEST
• 
  0.28_01
• 
  0.29_02
• 
  0.30
• 
  Ditto (Survival)

• 
  Indev 0.31 20100109-2000
• 
  Indev 0.31 20100114
• 
  Indev 0.31 20100125
• 
  Indev 0.31 20100131-2244
• 
  Indev 0.31 20100202
• 
  Indev 0.31 20100205-1558
• 
  Indev 0.31 20100205-2241
• 
  Indev 20100206-2103
• 
  Indev 20100207-1703
• 
  Indev 20100211-2340
• 
  Indev 20100214
• 
  Indev 20100223

• 
  Infdev 20100227-1433
• 
  Infdev 20100327
• 
  Infdev 20100330-1611
• 
  Infdev 20100607
• 
  Infdev 20100611
• 
  Infdev 20100616-1808
• 
  Infdev 20100616-2210
• 
  Infdev 20100617-1531
• 
  Infdev 20100618
• 
  Infdev 20100625-0922
• 
  Infdev 20100627
• 
  Infdev 20100627, after Alpha 1.0.6 (note the message saying to play Alpha instead)

• 
  Alpha v1.0.2_02
• 
  Alpha v1.0.4
• 
  Alpha v1.0.6_03
• 
  Alpha v1.0.10
• 
  Alpha v1.0.11
• 
  Alpha v1.0.12
• 
  Alpha v1.0.13
• 
  Alpha v1.0.14
• 
  Alpha v1.0.15
• 
  Alpha v1.0.16_02
• 
  Alpha v1.0.17_02
• 
  Alpha v1.0.17_04
• 
  Alpha v1.1.0
• 
  Start error of Alpha v1.1.1
• 
  Alpha v1.1.2
• 
  Alpha v1.1.2_01
• 
  Alpha v1.2.0_01
• 
  Alpha v1.2.2
• 
  Alpha v1.2.3_01
• 
  Alpha v1.2.3_02
• 
  Alpha v1.2.5

• 
  Beta 1.1
• 
  Beta 1.1_02
• 
  Beta 1.2
• 
  Beta 1.2_02
• 
  Beta 1.4_01
• 
  Beta 1.5
• 
  Beta 1.5_01
• 
  Beta 1.6.6
• 
  Beta 1.7.3
• 
  Beta 1.8.1

• 
  1.2.5
• 
  1.4.7

• 
  Infinite Map Visualizer with Infdev

• The applet version relied on the Java browser plugin, which was later considered insecure and then discontinued.^[2]

• al_version, used to track unique builds of the applet game for caching