Exploring Abandoned Servers in Old Minecraft

I explored some Alpha and Beta 1.7.3 Minecraft servers that are still up giving a tour around them and looking at all the cool builds. Most of them have little to no players left which was sad to see although the last two had some more activity. If you think any of them are cool I recommend going to visit them for yourself!

Server IP addresses:

[fouff]

The failed Aether portal made me burst out laughing

[alonk]

Alpha and beta had such a unique architectural style that you just don't see these days

[nhatminhnguyenuc]

it's like travelling through multiple civilizations that once in their golden age

[lithium]

I just realized that other than being griefed, abandoned Minecraft server maps don't decay at all, they're always in the same state they were left ina decade ago

[VinnyUnion]

They're not empty they're just filled with love.

[RickyWL]

I agree with what you said about it being kinda sad about the empty servers. Seeing all these builds that people dedicated days and weeks to with their friends while having a great time, their community now scattered to the wind and builds sitting mostly forgotten on an empty server on Minecraft, eventually never being visited again. All these memories lost to time makes me nostalgic for a time I never took part in. Thanks for posting this.

[Tobkubos]

Imagine that people used to play on those servers like 12 years ago and they are still alive. Totally Incredible that we can see what the servers used to be and the nostalgia also hits hard.

[jackcabadas]

You doing /home and suddenly coming back to what must have been your home at one point was amazing

[mrmrwayne]

“You can travel to the past, but nobody is there.”
-Someone
Depressing. Very backroom type vibes I got from this vid. Very cool

[literatemax]

Something about the modern pixel art of amongus and walter white in the old minecraft style gave me actual chills. Thank you for this video

[ZontarDow]

Remembering Minecraft when these updates where new feels strange given how it's been so long that a significant part of Minecrafts playerbase was born after they went live.

[nathanmjackson]

I remember back when the game first came out, maybe around 2012 or 2013, I played on a really cool anarchy server. It wasn't very well known, but it had a solid 50 or so players that were active on it. I became good friends with a lot of the players and we even had our own guild and had a really cool base inside a mountain a couple thousand blocks from spawn. I think I played on there religiously for a year or more.

From what I remember, the server host died in an accident and 2 days later the server was just gone. All that time, all those people met and relationships were suddenly just gone.

I played on and off since then, but the day that server was gone so was my appetite for Minecraft. Even today, I still occasionally wish I could just join that server one last time.

[odi_walker]

There's something special about how old MC servers elicit this feeling of liminality and that sense of wonder that exploring ancient ruins gives. Somehow the old builds in an abandoned server gives off this feeling of deep time, like it aggregates value, lore and history to the world. I would really like to replicate this in a server with friends, playing for years until at long last we mostly stop playing and all that's left are the memories imprinted on the ruins we left behind, like in that Shelley's poem:
"Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away."

[Krissofer]

A RetroMC player here
As far as I know it's currently the most active beta server and i recommend checking it out. You couldn't find players on spawn, because most of them are working on builds in their towns
You also caught me joining the game 9:25

[GoryOregon]

Something pretty specific that I like is exploring abandoned beta 1.8 servers. There's something about the 1.8 additions like melons, stone bricks, glass panes, giant mushrooms, etc being used everywhere that i really like. + beta 1.8/early release is technically what I grew up watching and is the most nostalgic for me ;P

[WindowsR]

something about old school megabuilds. Its before designs got hyper complicated and detailed. Mind you the current designs people make are works of art but there was something special about seeing huge structures with only 1-2 design aspects repeated. Also, paths. The older style way of connecting builds together with paths in a close proximity as people built out is probably the most nostalgic part. We almost never see that style anymore.

[syndos]

It's so relaxing to watch this because I'd love too see it but the depressing emptiness of what was once my childhood is very hard to bare alone. It's comforting that you're doing it, narrating, and I get to watch instead of participate.

[_Devil]

What I miss about old Minecraft was how simple everything was. I find modern Minecraft so complicated that it's not even fun anymore, and hasn't been in years. One of these days I'm gonna get back on my 360 and just enjoy the little things like the tutorial world.

[rogerwilco]

5:43 Before you could protect your servers in Alpha and Beta, there would always be random people logging onto servers and destroying spawn.
This was just a thing that happened.
We moved very far from spawn to prevent our bases from being griefed.
On the server we ran ourselves.

[billieb]

No way. My Minecraft house is in this video! 1:09 with the 50 cacti surrounding it in the back