Snapshot Null: A Minecraft Mystery

A small search for a missing Minecraft ARG led to an hour and fifteen minute rabbit hole of a video. This video was quite different but I hope it was worth the wait, this mc ARG fascinated me in part because it was just so old, five years old when most modern famous Minecraft ARG's are much more recent. But also because it's just interesting, it doesn't have a definite solution, it isn't a "Something is in my world" or "Strange sightings in beta Minecraft" cliche, it's something entirely new and I guess a part of me really appreciated that. Thank you to the creator for responding to some stranger on the internet, thank you to the task force I assembled for this, thank you to the creators of those five year old posts on the subreddit, and thank you for watching. Normal videos coming soon.

Also thanks to the creators of Minecraft Alpha 1.0.16 Versions and Slots Available for letting me know while making this video that Snapshot Null was an inspiration for them, helped with the ending.

Have a great day. :)

Music used in Order: Turned Around (SIGNALIS OST) New Tokyo Part 1 (Indigo Parallel OST) Backroom (Indigo Parallel OST) Liminality (SIGNALIS OST) In The Hole Ambient Version (Indigo Parallel OST) The Nomai (Outer Wilds OST) The Search (Outer Wilds OST) Maze (Indigo Parallel OST) Nomai Ruins (Outer Wilds OST) Mushroom Cave (Indigo Parallel OST) Concrete Halls (Minecraft OST) The Nomai (Outer Wilds OST) Dead Voxels (Minecraft OST) In The Hole Ambient Version (Indigo Parallel OST) The Search (Outer Wilds OST) Glacier (Not Kane Pixels) Mushroom Cave (Indigo Parallel OST) Nomai Ruins (Outer Wilds OST) See A Mutter in Retreat (Indigo Parallel OST) Unknown (Indigo Parallel OST) In The Hole Ambient Version (Indigo Parallel OST) Japanese Apartment (Indigo Parallel OST) Unknown (Indigo Parallel OST) Japanese Apartment (Indigo Parallel OST) For the Sake of Mankind, There Is Nothing More to Be Extracted (Not Kane Pixels)

Several inspirations for this one including: RetroGamingNow, Wifies, Trone(y)sauce and Render.

Shhhh, don't look over here just tags.
Snapshot Null: A Minecraft Rabbit Hole
The Mystery of Snapshot Null
Minecraft ARG Analysis
Minecraft ARG
ARG
Missing For Five Years
Solving a 5 year old Minecraft Mystery

[Cresendex]

Another thing, turns out the "(player) fell out of the world" death message did appear in older versions when you got /killed. The reason I thought it didn't was because it no longer does in the modern versions I tested it on, but when Snapshot Null was made it would have. I don't think it discounts the void theory much though, because the fact that I thought the death message was exclusive to falling into the void wasn't the only or even main reason I made those other associations, but sorry for that, I should have checked older versions as well.

Also also: The mod "000.jar" was inspired by Snapshot Null, so if you feel like you've seen this before, that's probably the reason.

[FrankBlaskovich]

true crime youtubers talking about an unsolved murder case vs minecraft youtubers talking about a lost update that changed the texture of glass:

[bigman]

Seeing Java innocenlty type "Hi Puppy!" whilst not knowing he's in an ARG hurt my soul

[coffeebeaned]

hearing the creator say they got some sort of closure just by talking to someone about it really made me feel relieved. i'm not sure why, but i'm SO happy the creator did end up finding closure from this. that ending to a chapter in Minecraft ARGs is a good ending imo

[elizathegamer]

its funny actually im pretty sure someone made it into an actual mod because I remember watching a minecraft horror lets play and they encountered a lot of the stuff from snapshot null. Its neat that it was so inspiring people went out of their way to recreate it in game

[Spacecatpictures]

btw 'fell out of the world' is not necessarily related to the void, in earlier versions of mc it was, at one point, the death message that would pop up when using the /kill command. Idk if that changes anything, but I just thought I'd mention it

[pimpingporygon]

Honestly, i noticed two interesting things.
1. Crow has specifically 7 levels and a bit, which is the amount you have whenever you die and collect the left over exp from where you died
2. Brixgoa doesnt seem malicious, more like a nerd in some sense. He seems more likely to be the person writing the logs but instead created some entity, red, who became too powerful

[RedWolfef]

Probably irrelevant at this point, but the "Removed Herobrine" tag, at least imo, is more than just a cute reference. I think it was what is supposed to communicate that the other tags could be snapshot changes beyond their general phrasing. It might be a method of communicating intent rather than a reference, which would be a really cool way of using it.

[Aravestia]

Sometimes, the real-life story behind the ARG is more interesting than the ARG itself, and this is the case. Happy to see the creator that inspired the modern "Minecraft ARG" trope found closure. I've seen much criticism of this style of ARG over the years, but most people forget these are made by inexperienced first-timers with creative ideas they really want to share with others. Similar to creepypastas, the fun lies in the wild, crazy stuff people come up with and not about how "realistic" it should be.

[CARCATGames]

The interesting thing about this ARG is that the first couple of videos weren't made with much actual planned lore, meaning that as the series continued the creator probably went back to those first videos and picked stuff that would make a good ARG. Kinda like how Scott Cawthon made FNaF 1 without a plan to continue it, but when it got popular and he made FNaF 2, he went back to the first game and took mysteries from it to expand upon in the sequel. As far as I know, that was how he made all of his games.

[sebastianturner]

I feel so much tenderness towards the creator. Making something on the internet, especially something you don't have much experience with, is _terrifying_ if you're an anxious sort of person, and even relatively meaningless criticism can feel so much more crushing than it was intended to be. I totally understand their story, and I hope they make a comeback some day - they seem like someone with some great ideas and execution for being as inexperienced as they were. There are some truly amazing things happening in the weird corners of minecraft horror (Zeemyth is my favorite, but not remotely the only one pushing the boundaries) and I bet that they could make some rad fuckin stuff with the experience they got from snapshot null.

[greenkibble]

I'm sure this has been pointed out before, but I think its useful to point out that Yellow's first video has a large amount of drowning motifs within it. The house on stilts, built to prevent houses from being submerged by the tide, the fish being practically pulled underwater, the floating literal drowned, enderman upside down with their heads in the water. All this on top of Yellow losing all oxygen in the water, but still being able to breathe, before going to sleep underwater. Very on the nose, and feels incredibly noteworthy...what does it mean though? Ermmmm I'unno lol

[kappapride]

Ben Drowned inspiring Petscop which would later inspire Snapshot Null which in the end inspired so many popular Minecraft ARGs is really awesome when you think about it.

[PrincevonTwix]

Hell yeah. Glad to have someone cover what is arguably the pioneer of modern Minecraft args (not discounting oldroot and old Minecraft reuploads). Im surprised it took this long but better late than never. Im also surprised you actually got a reply from the creator! Happy to have helped with your investigations, even if it had been nearly 5 years since SNull was deleted and admittedly, I wasn't able to contribute much. Good luck on your future videos!

[Cheato]

Hello. First of all, I just finished the video and it was fantastic. Zld1 told me about this project y'all were working on a while ago, so I was excited for this moment. The wait was well worth it.

The situation of Snapshot Null honestly feels like a tragedy. It alongside Old Minecraft Reuploads were the progenitors to the current Minecraft Webseries/ARG genre. They were so distinct from Minecraft Creepypastas from that time in 2020 that they laid the seeds for such great series later on. It was a shame that the whole channel was deleted due to hate, but I'm glad that the people that liked the series were able to keep the spirit alive via archives and webseries based on SNull.

Another thing. Before this video, some Spanish youtubers have been covering SNull, so SNull is semi popular in that sphere. Enough so that EBALIA incorporated aspects of this series in his mod, 000.jar. I went to ask him about it and they confirmed that it was from SNull and they included it because he believed it was really cool concepts that should be expanded upon (paraphrased ofc). Maybe this marks the resurgence of SNull.

Btw I know you (Cresendex) have used it, but for people who don't know, the videos on the Snapshot Null Archive are 480p, but 720p archives exist. You will need this for videos like -17w10 and -7w7b. I have a playlist that has all of the high def archives, but I can start to make them public if y'all wish.
Again, incredible video. Thanks for shedding light on this series!

[JadeCrystal]

1:01:14 There is a C option. The person who was collecting 17 ppl isn't Brixgoa. It is Xenoro. I mean, the text in the chat is in cyan, which is Xenoro's color.

And, when Green was in the dimension, the text was orange. So if orange is Brixgoa and red is 731, cyan must be Xenoro.

[formerlymax]

as a creative myself, it legitimately brought me to tears hearing about what the creator went through. It was a cool ARG idea, i'm glad to have seen these videos and i'm sorry the community wasn't receptive of your work. Nobody deserves that, it takes so much to put something out there.

[AllaiyahWeyn]

Expectation: Actual missing snapshot.
Reality: ARG.

[sariel]

Regarding the contradiction; if the beds do send the players to the void, it could be possible that xenero was only able to bring part of them back. It was able to bring back a zombie of them to diminish influence, but the rest was lost to the void.

[raskr]

Somehow the petscop inspiration was apparent before it was brought up by the creator. Just the way seemingly unrelated videos have the most obscure details between them that completely line up, the xp bar and the 17 messages/17 beds and such, this is maybe not as advanced as the flower from petscop but certainly reminiscent of it