Minecraft Classic lets you play the iconic sandbox for free in your browser

A nice little surprise has been made available by the good folks over at Mojang and Microsoft. The quintessential creative sandbox game Minecraft is now available for free to everyone with access to an internet browser. Well, sort of. Minecraft Classic is the original 2009 version of the game and thus lacks all the nice features which have been added over the past decade.

Still, don’t let anyone fool you. It was exactly this simple version of Minecraft which conquered the hearts of gamers, young and old, all over the world. If you have access to the full-blown version of Minecraft, playing Minecraft Classic will naturally feel barebones and lacking, but why would anyone even be interested in this classic version in that case anyway?

You can run Minecraft Classic in your browser and you’ll soon see why. With just 32 blocks to build with, all the original bugs, and an (inter)face only a mother could love, Minecraft 2009 is even more glorious than we remembered! You’re in for a real treat, particularly if you’re really into dyed wool (and who isn’t it?)

Minecraft Classic is rather meant as a celebration gift to the Minecraft community and serves as a digital monument for one of the most influential and important games ever created. As such, it’s especially heartwarming to see developer Mojang and Microsoft honor their game’s impact by preserving and offering the original version for absolutely free to everyone. The only thing you’ll need is a web browser and you’re good to go. Just head on over to the game’s website and you’ll be chopping wood and digging up dirt in no time.

Creating Minecraft Classic and possibly enabling millions of lesser blessed gamers to experience the world’s largest digital sandbox is truly a great gesture by Mojang, who will be celebrating Minecraft’s 10-Year anniversary this month with a special event in Sweden, Mojang’s headquarters. It’s really sad that the game’s anniversary is sort of overshadowed by its original creator Notch’s controversial opinions posted on social media which led to him not being invited to the festivities.