It's the year 2012. On your iPod touch, you're
looking for new apps and come upon a free version of Minecraft. You'd spend days creating many
worlds, getting a couple of friends to join, build and fight off zombies. A decade has
passed, and memories of your time on this version begin to surface. You search the app store for the
official Minecraft free version, but nothing comes up. Was the free version simply a false memory,
or was there a reason for its disappearance? Today in this video, you’ll learn about the free version
of Minecraft that many players have grown up with, yet has been forgotten. This is the
story of Minecraft Pocket Edition Lite. Not Much is known about Minecraft Pocket Edition
Lite. There are only a few websites dedicated to its history, however the following is what’s
known. Minecraft Pocket Edition Lite was a free and slightly altered version of Pocket Edition
alpha v0.2.1. On August 15, 2011, it was launched on Google Play under the name Minecraft Demo;
and the same version was released for iOS under the name Minecraft Pocket Edition Lite, however
the release date for this version is unknown. The main menu included three choices: Join Game,
Start Game, and Options. You had the option to create a world in creative or survival mode. When
a player loaded in for the first time, they would encounter many weird things. There was fog that
made the world very eerie. A player only had seven inventory slots, infinite tools and blocks,
and only 28 of the 49 items in the inventory could be selected. After walking for a few hundred
blocks, a player would see that the world was cut off. This was because worlds were only generated
in a 256x256 region. After playing for a while, a player would notice more anomalies. There
were blue flowers, the only mobs were pigs, sheep, and zombies, and when you mined
ores, they would break and not drop. Nights were pitch black and it was necessary
to place torches. Zombies AI were very basic and would still target you even in daylight.
When you were done with a world and disconnected, it wouldn’t save. Many reviewers would
rant about how they weren’t able to save, but no changes would be made.
Friends could only join using LAN, which meant they could only connect through
your WiFi. The options were basic for both versions. You could have lower or
fancy graphics, change your controls, and change your username. For the iOS version, the
default username was “Stevie” instead of “Steve”. The app was discontinued in 2014 for unknown
reasons, but for the short time it was available, it served as a gateway for many Minecraft
veterans. I made a community post questioning if anyone remembered Minecraft Pocket Edition
Lite and if so, what memories they had from it… “I remember thinking the world border
was some kind of fog or something. I always found it a little scary.” -LawFullSinner “I built a massive glass dome with my sister
due to it being the few blocks you could use but since it was infinite it allowed us to make
it massive. Due to this the host had to make sure to not remove the world from that app tab. I
remember I accidentally wiped up to reset the app, and my sister beated my ass the
next day. Good times.” -Novarden “I remember Minecraft Pocket Edition Lite as
one of my very first video games as a child, and I played it way before I played any games
seriously. I recall sitting on my couch with my parents' decade old iPad, just tapping around
as I was building my house. It was a classic, and was one of the few games that my parents
let me play, as it was free, and because they told me it enhanced my creativity, which
I can safely say it did.” -Osmobyte2b2t “I would always come home from school and
build a giant house with my siblings, then do it again the next day because we
couldn’t save the world.” -Mercuryn “I remember playing it on my iPad with my
friend in 2013 or before. When you opened it, it had the old logo. You were also stuck with a
select type of blocks so you couldn’t do much. I remember spawning near some mountain and
building things with wool. The textures were much older than the, at the time, Pocket Edition,
so it felt like you were playing a knock off game. I remember in 2014 searching for the game again,
and it was just gone. It was the first time I noticed games could just disappear, and the first
time I felt nostalgic for something.” -Strawberrys The post has many memories and I encourage you to
read them. Many of the comments also talk about nether reactor cores, but this was only available
in the full version. I searched my cabinet for my iPod touch to see whether it had Minecraft Pocket
Edition Lite, and after waiting for it to charge, I checked, but I didn't find it. I did,
however, have the full Minecraft Pocket Edition, which had worlds that had
been unopened for over 5-10 years. Even though Minecraft Pocket Edition Lite is
gone, you can still access it. If you have a Google Play account which had downloaded the app
before its removal, you can redownload it anytime; however other accounts will get a standard
“Requested URL not available” message. You can also download the APK file from the internet,
but be cautious as it may contain a virus. For those who were able to play it, Minecraft
Pocket Edition Lite was a nostalgic and unique experience. It introduced many players to
Minecraft and served as a gateway for them to purchase the full version. According to the
wiki, developers have stated that Minecraft Pocket Edition Lite will be updated and released
again, but we will have to wait and see. So, if you played Minecraft Pocket Edition
Lite, what memories do you have from it?
