Minecraft, a game that most people know. This can be from playing casually, watching content about it, or even dedicating lots of time to the game. It can be both a hangout space and a medium of creativity. It is a game that has many iterations and has changed dramatically over its existence. One of these versions released back in 2017 was 1.12.2. This version still has a lot of mods left behind and it's still relevant today.

What Minecraft Means to Me

Minecraft is a game that I have lots of time in, likely thousands of hours at minimum. It was my comfort game during the Covid-19 quarantine, and a major reason I am so interested in computers now. It's the way I would hang out with all of my friends, and even how I met a lot of people that I still talk to years later.

I started playing Minecraft on 1.15, only a week before 1.16. This was one of the best updates for the game bringing large amounts of content and rework to the Nether. I started out in a version with all the biggest quality of life features and major reworks the game has had. In this version the game feels modern, with updated textures to fit a newer Minecraft style, and all the features like swimming and newer villager trading that makes the game feel more complete.

I consider the cutoff for modern Minecraft as 1.16 but other versions introduced major changes to the game. 1.14 introduced better villages. 1.13 introduced swimming, making water in the game much more bearable and even fun to travel through. When playing 1.16, the game feels similar to newer versions, at least in movement and style, the game feels consistent and has a direction. Any versions before, and it can feel drastically different with the older textures, and especially the lack of swimming mechanic (it feels like a giant change, something so small!) .

Personal Memories with Old Versions

I didn't get into old versions until way after I had played a ton of modern Minecraft

A few years ago, back around 2020 my friend Jeff urged me to try an old 1.12.2 Mod Pack of his own creation. While I was reluctant at first, due to the more "janky nature" of older versions, I ended up caving in the end and it turned out to be one of my favorite experiences ever. Since playing the Pack Jeff created, I have since explored much further into old Modpacks and mods on my own. I even consider some of these mods and packs to be some of the best ways to play through Minecraft. They provide unique experiences that you simply cannot get when playing a newer version. They can be both great for playing solo or even multiplayer worlds.

Including the pack Jeff introduced me to, "Zombie Ablockalypse", there were four main packs we played together. In non-chronological order here's a little information describing my experience with each one:

Zombie Ablockalypse

First was this custom made Technology and Zombie Apocalypse themed version of Minecraft. The entire point of the pack was to survive seemingly impossible environments, and eventually make it to space. Enemy pathfinding was improved to get to the player no matter what, and spawn rates were multiplied by high factors.

This pack was never particularly stable, on the contrary, it was always crashing, and taught us about the old version nightmare known as "cascading world generation"

But the technical side doesn't matter if we enjoyed ourselves, right? It was fun in its purest form. Hanging out with friends working together to solve impossible challenges. The chaos had us always on our toes, ready for anything to come crashing through our bunkers. The sessions would keep everybody engaged the whole time, leaving no dull moments.

I still remember two different experiences perfectly.

One where we had a group of about five different people playing, and stumbled upon what looked like a mansion. To protect from mobs trying to breach the structure, the walls had to be layered. No matter how much time we spend trying to defend the base, they always manage to make a way in. In the end when mobs got through, we had to abandon the base and transport all of our materials using a helicopter Jeff built. This was an experience I have not had since, it was hectic, high stress, but in the end, a fun and chaotic way to hang out with friends.

The other was a different world, with an updated version of the pack. Jeff and I got split off from the rest of the group while it was raining. To get away from mobs during the night we went into a mineshaft with an entrance from the surface. As we blocked the entrance off, Jeff started to notice explosion noises from above. Before we could do anything, a mutant creeper breached the ceiling of the mineshaft, trapping us in the structure. There was a hilarious and chaotic attempt at an escape, but I failed to get out in the end.

This Modpack introduced me to many incredible technology mods, and the extensibility of this old version of Minecraft.

Sky Factory 4

Sky Factory 4 has a special place in my heart, It's one of few ways I enjoy playing Minecraft alone. For my first time playing, I had a server with a few friends. Jeff taught me the basics of the pack, and with that I learned some interesting tricks with tech mods. While it didn't last a super long time, the memories from learning all the processes and eventually becoming an android is unforgettable.

Subsequently I have come back to this pack many times. I occasionally set it up on a server, and play it for a few days straight on my own. It is always a joy to get to choose what direction of mods I want to go in, whether that be The Twilight Forest or Matter Overdrive. After the introduction stages where you get the different basic materials, you can choose anything to focus on. Many of the mods work together and overlap in this well made pack.

The Second Server: LOTR

On my tour of old Modpacks, The Second Server: Lord of the Rings was a tiny server with a small but dedicated base of players. As we played for a few weeks, the community engaged with us, and would even occasionally come over to our base. We took Isengard for ourselves to build, and made some fun creations. I personally worked on a comically large mine, and my other friends Jeff and Willa mainly worked on a giant castle.

I never really engage with this modpack to the fullest, while Jeff loves the style, I never quite understood how the quest systems worked. One of the best experiences from the pack was traversing the world to make it over to our base. There was no teleport request or anything on the server, so to fast travel you had to first make it to the location. This required me to make a roughly 10,000 block journey to make it to the base, where I encountered many new mobs, and new items.

One thing I enjoyed from the pack was the interesting cooking systems that were more interesting than simply combining ingredients in a crafting table. It required more realistic processes.

At some point after we had already stopped playing, the server corrupted (I think?) in some way. Sadly this server is gone for good, but the memory of the builds live on.

Minecraft Breakdown

Minecraft Breakdown. This wasn't really my favorite pack, but it still had some good moments. For a short period of time I played this still relatively active modded server with Jeff.

The main thing I remember from this pack is how fun the vehicles were in this server. I don't particularly care for guns in Minecraft, but going through battle zone to raid for loot was always fun. You would get dropped into a random spot in a city, have to raid for loot, and then escape without dying. This carried a similar chaos and high intensity to that of Zombie Ablockalypse. It was a decent sized public server so there was more competition and PvP rather than the PvE of Zombie Ablockalypse.

So What Actually Makes 1.12.2 Still Relevant?

True creativity without limits.

Okay, I understand this is a very broad statement, but I'll explain why I believe older versions had more creativity.

A decent amount about this point has to do with how I've seen the modding community shift over time. When you think of modern mods, what would you first think of? Not including shaders, or any small quality of life mods, I'd assume Create. If not Create, maybe Origins, a mob add on, or maybe even something like Cobblemon.

These mods I've listed aren't bad in the slightest, if anything they are some of the highest quality mods made for the game. Something in common between all of the mods I've listed is the style. the style is attempting to become uniform, into what is perceived as the "Minecraft style".

I believe this uniformity is taking away from the uniqueness, and the focus on mechanics that older mods had. Mods from older eras of the game, didn't have much focus on graphics. Many of these even have objectively bad models or textures. Take for example Matter Overdrive, Warp Drive, or Techguns.

These older mods don't try to limit their style. Warp drive is a nice example, since it doesn't limit itself to just simple Minecraft mechanics. It goes beyond the base game and makes you connect a computer from OpenComputers or ComputerCraft. It adds new mechanics, dimensions, and doesn't try to follow the behaviors or mechanics of Minecraft. It goes beyond the game and takes its own direction that was never "intended" for the game.

Old mods create their own style. The entire point of Minecraft is to be creative and do whatever you want. New mods restrict this by wanting to keep a certain look. This in itself doesn't mean newer mods can't be creative, but everything feels more the same. With new mods, everything still feels like one game. On older versions Minecraft could be anything. It could be the creative world of J. R. R. Tolkien, a futuristic world of androids, or a zombie apocalypse. Each would be fully distinct from each other, where now it is likely you would see more similar base mods than before.

During earlier versions, the game seemed to have less direction on what the game was meant to look like, play like. This made the game ugly, but is there no beauty in that?

I think the unfiltered ideas of what the game should look like from different people with their own perspectives is very beautiful. It's something I wish was still as present today. A decent number of mods have been ported to newer versions, but some lack the interoperability or compatibility with each other.

There is something mesmerizing about going back and playing these old packs. This version attracted a lot of creativity. It isn't even very old in the grand scheme of things. September 18, 2017. That is roughly 8 years old at this point. This leads into my next topic about updates.

Nothing Changes

One other factor I didn't mention yet is the fact that this version isn't changing ever. Mods that work on 1.12.2 will always work on this version. There's no race to always keep it updated, because there isn't any expectation of it being on this newer version. While lots of mods never updated past this version, you can always go back. It feels more unified than modern modding where there is a distinct split now between Forge, Fabric, Neoforge, and Quilt.

1.12.2 in itself isn't perfect. It's missing a lot of the nice upgrades that newer versions offer such as the new terrain generation, deeper caves, or even swimming. These improvements to the game, do exactly what they say, improve the game. Going back can be jarring, but if you appreciate the game as it was, and refrain from immediate judgement, there is a ton of fun to be had in this old version.

The mods make this version special, and are still a unique experience today, even if it doesn't have the bells and whistles of new versions.

Lots of people who made mods for this version, made them out of passion and as a hobby. This means these mods are not likely high priority. This version provides a stable spot for these mods to stay. A mod being on 1.12.2 is better than a mod being stranded on a random version like 1.13 or 1.18, 1.12.2 is universal because there are already a lot of mods on that version. This gives mod makers for this version a repository of already existing mods to work with and integrate together.

Documentation

Being an old version 1.12.2 is very well documented. It has simultaneously just one main mod loader, and a ton of old Youtube videos and articles and posts about how to write a mod. Many libraries already exist for this version and are still actively maintained, so creators always have a stable version to make mods on.

Constant learning isn't always something people have time for, especially for hobbies that take much lower priority than life. School, friends, family, and work are all more important than Minecraft, and why should somebody have to spend so much time just keeping up to keep a mod updated, if it's for passion.

If you learn 1.12.2 modding, that knowledge will stay with you unlike having to learn new versions, Forge, Fabric, Plugins, Neoforge, or Quilt. Many mod makers on newer versions are even expected to make mods cross platform, which can make a toxic fast paced environment where older versions don't.

Minecraft modding has become more high intensity over time, especially with Minecraft switching over to a "drops" system where they release more updates, each which can take more time from mod creators that are already doing the craft for fun.

Final Thoughts

Go, grab a few of your friends. Make a spreadsheet, please. It doesn't matter what you want to do, there is probably a way to make a 1.12.2 modpack out of an idea. Make a Curseforge profile, Technic or whatever launcher you want (not Modrinth there's not a ton of 1.12.2 support). The details don't matter. Collaborate, agree on some mods you all want to play, make it your own. Run a tiny server, I promise you won't regret it.

The entire modpack creation process, and learning what works together and what doesn't gives a deeper understanding and respect for the game you may have only partially seen before. Seeing old mods gives a more complete perspective on what Minecraft is, and what Minecraft can be.

If you do end up not liking the old versions, that's completely fine! If you don't enjoy it, you don't need to keep playing. Just please reserve your judgement until you at least try. I myself wasn't interested at first, but now I consider myself a really big fan of some of these old treasures of mods.

Acknowledgments

I'd like to acknowledge Jeff for introducing me to these old Minecraft Modpacks, I got into the game much later than most people (2020!) He really showed me something I wouldn't have probably found otherwise, and I thank him for some of those incredible experiences.

This post is also an argument against TheActualAqua, one of my friends that believes that old versions of Minecraft should be left in the past in favor of only playing on newer versions. I await his counterargument to this post, and I'll share the link to it here if he does create one.