Minecraft's greatest mystery was just solved. It took 10 years.

tominecon.7z is the code we can never crack... without your help.
💟 Join my Patreon for exclusive videos, early access, end credits, and more! ➵ / mcbyt
🕹️ Check out the new Minecraft server! ➵ mcb.yt
🎙️ Subscribe to the live channel for streams every weekend! ➵ / @mcbytlive
🤖 Join the Discord and chat with my community! ➵ / discord
🐦 Follow my Twitter for, idk, memery I guess ➵ / mcbytt
[SOUNDTRACK]
369 - Clockmaker's Daydream
Hampus Naeselius - My Moon and Your Sun
Tigerblood Jewel - Quite Unique
C418 - Beton
AGST - Ultimatum
Ivory - Breakage Pt.1
Lucention - Interpale
ELFL - First Horizon
C418 - Key
ARORA - Full of Gold
[CHAPTERS]
0:00 - Intro.
0:14 - Tominecon's backstory.
1:10 - The beginning.
3:10 - New efforts.
4:31 - DannyDorito's discovery.
5:03 - The reward.
5:29 - okay what
5:42 - It's over...?
5:56 - It's not over.
6:59 - What's left?
8:11 - I want your help.
8:37 - The end.
bye love u

[@mcbyt]

💟 If you feel like it, join the new Patreon for exclusive videos, early access, end credits, and more! ➵ patreon.com/mcbyt 🔥 UPDATE - 2/27/23 - The password is now public, thanks to R. It's "thespicemustflow". Happy cracking! Music credits and chapters in the description. This is my personal favorite video I've made - let me know if you feel the same

[@5xl1m]

I wanna ask you to make a video about the files that prevented the players from cracking premium Minecraft accounts because I have been playing Minecraft for almost 8 years now and I did not even buy it once! I was playing cracked because I can not buy or pay anything online in my country.

[@yuwu585]

dude what are you talking about, 1.0 prototype with a beta End and a beta Dragon? That already exists it's called 1.9 Pre-Release 5

[@yuwu585]

for real though, Minecraft development history is full of missing versions shrouded in mystery but 1.0 itself is one of the least mysterious ones because we literaly saw all of the prototype and cut content through the 1.9 beta releases. 1.0 itself has two pre release versions called "Release Candidates" which are both slightly different versions of 1.0 (don't ask what's actually different because they're so minor that I don't even know, I think all they did was add new sounds and bugfixes?) so even if another version of 1.0 existed hidden in the tominecon file, it wouldn't be anything we haven't seen before

[@newlineschannel]

Yes

[@RubyPiec]

where can I go for updates?

[@michaelmicmac]

It’s so weird that they replaced the file with a decoy. Something in there has to be more than just “useless files not important”.

[@aregulargenericname8794]

Or, you might not believe this, coders like to prank people

[@InfestedSlab]

Minecraft code in someplaces is really hard to read because they made it that way, they don't want us to know the code

[@BryceDixonDev]

Alternatively: some of the code is difficult to understand because it was developed by imperfect developers who sometimes make bad decisions.

[@ghostlyninja125]

maybe its so they're not shipping a whole separate copy of minecaft every download.

[@AnnoyingRains]

@@BryceDixonDev Minecraft’s code is intentionally obfuscated.

[@hikari1690]

As someone aspiring to be a software developer, I believe the explanation is simple. The original file's password is something mojang uses alot and so although the content isnt sensitive, the password is. Imagine getting you hand on Bill Gate's old phone which uses the same pin as his new phone, pc... ATM card. Yeah. That

[@dreadpon]

Wow, this actually sounds really plausible. They probably switched passwords since, but some of the of the older stuff might still have this tucked... somewhere...

[@lexy4037]

That does makea lot of sense although i would hope they dont use the same password for over 10 years

[@AlgorithmAlloy]

As an actual software engineer I can say this is very unlikely, but you might not be far from the truth, let me explain. Passwords that size are almost certainly auto-generated by a custom password randomizer (they really aren’t hard to build yourself) and it would be incredibly bad practice and counterproductive to use the same autogenerated password to protect anything that matters. Expert software engineers don’t fuck around with reusing passwords and designing systems that mitigate the damage any one hack could do. Having said that, here’s where I think you might not be too far off. I do think it’s possible they were concerned someone might figure out their password generation algorithm, and that hashing algorithm was almost certainly used to generate passwords across the Minecraft universe. Actually, I might argue (although I’m not certain) that because the password is so large, it would be easier to deduce the process that generated it. it depends on how they designed their algorithm. If they generated different sections of the password and then concatenated them together, I could see it being possible to crack it, but impossible for me to really know

[@notbemon]

I think it'd be more logical to just change the files on the zip or just change the password if that's the case instead of going through the extra effort of creating and swapping the entire file for a decoy. For me it's either all a big joke or the original had something that they did not intent on leaving in the files for players to see

[@angelmatesmolan]

Makes sense

[@totallynotducky]

that one dude who finds the file from 2011 is gonna have a video made out of him

[@mcbyt]

absolutely my friend

[@ZaCloud-Animations___she-her]

Them; we don't know what their gender will be. But hecc yeah, whoever they are, they'll be a hero! 😎

[@TheGhostFart]

@@ZaCloud-Animations___she-her did you just assume this theoretical person's species????????

[@algorythmis4805]

​@@TheGhostFartcringe

[@mcbyt]

@@Eric-hn6xp I don't believe that version is known, no. Do you have Discord so we can talk more and I can check the file out?

[@MrPowerGamerBR]

My theory is that the original file is literally just the final Minecraft 1.0 version. I may be wrong, but didn't they showcase Minecraft 1.0 in Minecon? If yes, they probably stored it in their assets server to be easier to download and showcase it there. I don't think it would be a secret magical never seen before Minecraft 1.0 prototype that has stuff that we've never seen before, especially considering that we do have the Beta 1.9 prereleases and the Minecraft 1.0 release candidates.

[@MrPowerGamerBR]

Some people are theorizing "oh but if it wasn't something secret they wouldn't have swapped the file!", they probably seen people attempting to crack the file and thought that it would be funny if they swapped the file with an meme. Also, I think that the meaning of "tominecon" actually means "forminecon", not "twominecon", which would make sense why it could be just Minecraft 1.0, because Minecraft 1.0 was officially released during Minecon 2011

[@dannydorito]

My guess is there has to be something else there since the file size was unchanged for the decoy. Minecraft Java versions at that time were nowhere near the 70 MB mark of this file.

[@HolarMusic]

@@MrPowerGamerBR all the sounds and music were included in the .jar in the older versions of the game. IIRC, they only got moved to a separate place quite recently

[@Frollas_]

Hey i know you... You're that guy... That guy from the Simpsons isn't it

[@esotericvv1244]

stop being such a conspiracy theorist

[@Rennu_the_linux_guy]

I think it's important to note that the cracking a 7z password is EXTREMELY slow compared to zip

[@MVBT05]

how so?

[@mirady9675]

Could you explain why? Why would the brute force method be not as effective?

[@spacecadet2663]

@@mirady9675 It's easier to type in passwords in winrar than 7zip

[@FunnyAndCleverHandle]

Why?

[@MrPikachuTheMadman]

@@mirady9675& ​@melonybravmann here's an excerpt from the 7z wikipedia article to answer your question: "The 7z format supports encryption with the AES algorithm with a 256-bit key. The key is generated from a user-supplied passphrase using an algorithm based on the SHA-256 hash function. The SHA-256 is executed 219 (524288) times, which causes a significant delay on slow PCs before compression or extraction starts. This technique is called key stretching and is used to make a brute-force search for the passphrase more difficult. Current GPU-based, and custom hardware attacks limit the effectiveness of this particular method of key stretching, so it is still important to choose a strong password. The 7z format provides the option to encrypt the filenames of a 7z archive." To summarize all the technical jargon, the more complex method of encryption used by 7z requires more time and usage of the processing unit, making it take longer to guess the passphrase since it has to spend a longer time trying to decrypt the files on each attempt that will fail every single time for hundreds or thousands of attempts until you finally find the correct passphrase. Heaven forbid they have some common sense and used a long randomly generated passphrase when encrypting the file, because then it could easily take centuries to break.

[@theburger_king]

I’ve been a fan of mc for 7 years, there’s so much stuff like this i still don’t know about, I feel like I know it all, then I see something like this, there’s so much amazing stuff to learn about this game

[@AntiGamerPlayzz]

fanboy

[@AntiGamerPlayzz]

fanboy

[@theburger_king]

@@AntiGamerPlayzz oh no I’m so scared antigamerplayzz on KZbin called me a fanboy 😢

[@wynn8518]

@@AntiGamerPlayzz there's no reason to be mean. they found something they love, that's a beautiful thing. love holds humanity together, whether that's love for people or love for a game. you seem deeply troubled and i truly hope you find the help you need. I'm not trying to offend in saying that, I genuinely hope the best for you. peace and love

[@AntiGamerPlayzz]

@@wynn8518 🤓

[@transbianyan]

You should have shared the replaced files password in here so people are actually inclined to try to see which version they have stored...

[@kepler6873]

@@SimplyMerlin They mean that the password would not work on the real file. If you decrypt it then enjoy the YTP, if it fails then you have the original version

[@krazygirl6572]

it's thespicemustflow!

[@alexolivers9476]

​@@kepler6873 exactly. So if it doesn't work then they know they have the original and can upload it for cracking!

[@kepler6873]

@@alexolivers9476 yes that's what I said lol!

[@Fogolol]

@enrique amaya yeah it's not because you can't regret doing something if you haven't done it

[@thatnico8697]

the original file was uploaded 2011-11-15 at 10:23:06, according to the web archive, there is a good chance it was downloaded since then and just three days later, on the 18th Minecraft 1.0 released, so I doubt there is any difference except for the build number. It probably is just a Beta 1.9 prerelease from 11-11-2011 which was declared release candidate just two days later

[@thatnico8697]

@enrique amaya why u praising jesus under a minecraft video

[@matthewsaari6577]

Yeah I have the feeling they change it so people looking would find something at least funny rather than just a release build they could already access.

[@firehi1207]

why did he make it 10 hrs as of timestamp? @thatnico8697

[@Alvionalx]

@@firehi1207youtube reads any number with colons inbetween at timestamps

[@trueobscuregaming]

Even if it's just the Minecraft 1.0 code it would be insanely cool to crack it. It's not about the destination, it's about the way there lol. I'm sure everyone who's tried to crack it has been very excited about it.

[@scpadministrator5944]

@enriqueamaya3883 shut up

[@KyleGD]

amen

[@Tom06]

Insane editing, narration and story. Thanks for making this :)

[@mcbyt]

of course, glad you liked it :)

[@grout6924]

i agree

[@ChefBuckeye]

Odds of KZbin suggesting this video on the anniversary of its discovery are pretty crazy.

[@Poxtal_Bru.h]

holy shit yeah

[@Poxtal_Bru.h]

@enriqueamaya3883 i dont give a shit

[@PliskinYT]

Imagine spending over a decade cracking a Zip file just for it to be a KZbin Poop

[@interuniversal321]

Better than never cracking it.

[@c1oudsky]

lmao I fell out

[@deepfakes4567]

they replaced it with a fake so people wouldnt crack it, the real file is still a mystery

[@Pentiou]

Im pretty sure I remember my older brother had this file in his old computer, it’s gonna take a while to take that computer though.

[@sebastienroy1575]

White one? There are 2 of them

[@ShaggyCZ123]

@X, definitely try it

[@dariuspaunescu7554]

Is your brother 4?

[@Pentiou]

@@dariuspaunescu7554 no, how would he have the file then?

[@focusstudioczreupload2881]

@enrique amaya nobody cares about you, so stop spamming!

[@Looki2000]

The original file probably contained something that was needed very quickly at minecon due to some emergency, and they eventually forgot about the file.

[@bragtime1052]

^go away

[@hamad5418]

@Sniper bro's gotta get on god's good side yk

[@dakotareid1566]

@SniperShivOfficialit’s a bot

[@b3nd]

maybe is minecon's plans like documents

[@captheobbyist6434]

developer: adds literally any goofy ah thing into first version of the game comunnity 10 years later: WE FOUND THE MOST SECRET FILE

[@Ryzobyte]

true

[@Xhepyxopila]

@enrique amaya i regretted it

[@ayqet]

The things I would like to find out about this is why they swapped it out for a decoy and why is it that not even Notch knew the password to it. This would be so interesting to see where something like this goes in the future.

[@BlatantlySwedishPGN]

Both of those things were explained very clearly. Swapped out to entertain people. Notch forgot the password.

[@Soken50]

Knowing Notch from his social media, these two things are very plausible, he loves memes and is quite forgetful

[@BlatantlySwedishPGN]

@enrique amaya I promise, following Jesus will be one :D

[@gudmansal3468]

@enrique amaya can following jesus solve this code

[@Exachad]

Gotta ask at least two or ideally more independent people to produce a copy and check the hash. Otherwise, anyone can create a fake file of the same size with a spoofed timestamp to troll you.

[@timbo303official9]

Imagine if the tominecon 7z original has a 7z file inside of it just to throw us off even more.

[@Ianis58]

Imagine if the original tominecon.7z file just has the replacement one in it, because they just planned it all from the very beginning and they're just messing with us

[@some_random_person630]

imagine if its just a zip bomb

[@Valcuda]

I personally think the original really was just Minecraft 1.0, since, as someone else said, if they showed it off at Minecon, then "tominecon" could simply mean "take to Minecon". The reason they replaced it with a decoy was because it was funny. At the time, Mojang was still an insie studio, it was just a bunch of people having fun while working on a game. So the devs probably saw a bunch of people trying to crack open this useless file, and replaced it with a different one for the fun of it, kinda like a Rick Roll.

[@davidbuddy]

If you really think that the end could've been really different in this JAR file for 1.0 than I guess you've never tried any of the Beta 1.9 pre-releases. I believe the end more or less as we know it was added in Beta 1.9 Prerelease 4. If you boot up 1.9 Pre-release 3 then you had the old textures for the end portal back when I guess the end was still planned to be the sky dimension. I believe some of the Beta 1.9 Prereleases had rounded Sun and Moon textures. Beta 1.9 would've been rebadged as 1.0 and I believe there was an RC of 1.0 which compared to the last Beta 1.9 pre-release I think was mostly sound changes. Though I'm going entirely off of memory here, not reading any patch notes.

[@mcbyt]

I know about the beta 1.9 pre-releases of course, but I don't think that pre-releases and snapshots are reflective of ALL development progress in Minecraft. That white cobblestone texture is already in the beta 1.9 prereleases, so I don't see why it couldn't have been used in some version that never made it to a prerelease. The End could've easily had old world gen, or basic dragon egg functionality, or any slight modification on what we got, really

[@davidbuddy]

​@@mcbyt I'm not sure if you understood what I was saying, since I agree that the 1.9 PRs didn't capture all the development that went on at Mojang, and well if you want to capture all of it someone would have to steal their entire internal git repo, since I'm sure there are tons of commits of stuff that was canned or substantially refactored when pushed to production. I digress, my MAIN point was that from 1.0 RC to 1.0 an intermediary build really doesn't have archeological value other than saying you have it because it's likely just a hotfix differnec. As for why I brought up Beta 1.9, well if we had all the differences between PR3 -> PR4 we would also maybe even be able to see why they refactored the end into what it is today VS what Notch was planning since at least Beta 1.6 (what looked to most of us as something like the Aether mod). Did I mention the end portal textures in Beta 1.9 PR 3? You can go visit them in that version and they don't look like anything today texture wise. As for the white cobblestone texture, I never remembered it myself or know anything about it, but I'm not sure if I looked at the atlas texture file that has all the block textures in the PRs tbh. If it's not in the atlas file for block textures than it snuck into the JAR not really for the purpose of adding a new block.

[@mcbyt]

@@davidbuddy I agree there's likely nothing too significant between RC and 1.0, for sure! Tominecon.7z isn't from that time, though. It's from the same day as Prerelease 6, and that's just the date of the archive, not the files inside which could potentially be much older. Even if not, that was the same day that end crystals, dragon eggs, and the new boss fight came, so at the very least there's a good chance of a significantly different End dimension.

[@Kippykip]

Damn I actually remember finding this file back in the day and being really curious. I'll check my archive but it would probably just be the later watermelon one.

[@mcbyt]

thank you my friend - you never know, august 2012 is honestly pretty late, there were already millions of players back then so there's a good chance you have the original

[@Creeplet]

​@@mcbytdoes it have to be from an outdated minecraft? If so, I'm pretty sure I have it on an old computer that I haven't used since 2011.

[@mcbyt]

@@Creeplet The file wasn't in Minecraft itself, you would've had to download it manually (the link was assets.minecraft.net/tominecon.7z) or scraped the Minecraft assets from the site in general

[@Kippykip]

@@mcbyt Damn I went through my entire NAS and archive backups and couldn't find it at all. It could've been on a laptop in my old parents house somewhere? It was so long ago lol, when I visit them next I'll see if I can find the old laptop

[@serraramayfield9230]

@@Kippykip you want help sorting through the data?

[@kuno7189]

3:24 R.I.P. halfofakebab you're solely missed in all of the communities you were apart of

[@pilloh4107]

I doubt that it would truly be anything substantial. But I do hope that in these kind of situations that there will be something big. In most cases though it’s just mundane uninteresting info. In Minecraft’s case it would be less likely to have anything surprising or interesting. Games with bigger dev teams and longer development typically have the big hidden files.

[@Johnnaan]

Imagine someone ACTUALLY gets in the file and it was just a rickroll

[@danese1636]

I was honestly expecting it to be a rickroll lmfao

[@Johnnaan]

@enrique amaya wut dose that have to do with rickrolls.

[@szamurainagy7644]

@@Johnnaan its a bot

[@Johnnaan]

@@szamurainagy7644 ok

[@UltimateNameYT]

It was until we found out it was a fake

[@Badvait]

this was one of the best videos i’ve ever seen on your channel. massive W on the improvement over the years, i’m very impressed

[@mcbyt]

thank you so much - i think this one is my best, for sure, i'm really proud of the editing, pacing, idea, everything :)

[@Nighthawk20000]

Wow, it gave me a real shock to see Lewis (HalfOfAKebab) in your video. Lewis passed away from suicide last year, he as a great guy and a colleague of mine. The community lost a treasure

[@ieatingmilk]

bro who asked

[@c.s.7474]

you must've been a bad colleague and friend if you managed to get the date wrong lmao, he passed 2021 not 2022 (last year)

[@glso_]

@@ieatingmilkbro that’s mean… Be Respectful……..

[@Crackers0106]

I was one of the first to learn about it since I had access to private channels in Omniarchive at the time. It was accidental and not an intentional suicide

[@c.s.7474]

@@Crackers0106 why should anyone believe you "Crackers0106"?

[@MRARROYOonutube]

hi I've gotten 3 emails regarding my forum post. ( At 1:12 ) One from two years ago and two after this vid. Everyone asking me if I have the file but that post was when I was like.. 13.

[@MRARROYOonutube]

I might actually have the hard drive in the garage. Will be home tomorrow About 16-20 hours from now.

[@MRARROYOonutube]

Update: checked the garage & it's not old enough I'll have to check with some family who we supposedly gave the computer to. Not looking great tbh

[@NickelLight]

​@@MRARROYOonutube Thanks for the update though

[@gavin5410]

Could someone manage to get in contact with the people on that forum that were trying to crack it before it was swapped out by mojang? Maybe they still have the original file downloaded

[@Mobin92]

How does nobody have the original file though? Somebody must have downloaded it before mojang noticed???

[@glitchystaticz]

Someone def did, the issue is finding out who saved it and where, considering how long ago it was itd take something like someone searching thru an old hard drive who also happened to know its a 'lost' file to find it

[@0v_x0]

Saw in another comment thread, looks like someone found it and it's been confirmed. Hope that means a conclusion video soon.

[@Zoolthar]

Damn i have been playing minecraft since the day it was created so like almost 14 years now and im always happy looking at the community that works together to achive something. Wether its a mysterious seed, a build project or a war prep on 2b2t its so nice to see the true dedication people have to simingly small things like video games. I love minecraft with all my heart and i think i have every version of it stored on either my old pc or the new one. I might have the oryginal file who knows. Thanks to everyone who have been in minecraft community, no matter how long its just nice to have you here.

[@GameJam230]

It's amazing what the internet can do when united under one cause. I'd bet if the next minecraft update came with a code that couldn't be cracked without solving the Riemann Hypothesis, it'd be solved in a few months. (I'm kidding obviously, but the point is that having a lot of new angles and dedication often proved to bring great success in this community)

[@Soken50]

Tell 4chan it's a furry prawn archive, they'll have it found and cracked in a split second. Or tell them it's the coordinates of Shia Labeouf's flag, they spend hours looking for that thing and taking it down out of pure spite.

[@Soken50]

@enrique amaya You're wrong, I was raised catholic, went to private school and spent my spare time at the local convent, let's just say I wouldn't wish the experience on my worst ennemies. Now quit proselytising and practice in the privacy of your home or temple like the book tells you to instead of doing it in the middle of the public square.

[@pkmous]

We'll find it in ten years and crack it in twenty years

[@Synthetic-Chicken]

Probably some old home desktop PC sitting in a landfill somewhere with the original file on a 250GB Hard Drive just wasting away.

[@hd5783]

I have around 3 old PCs running windows 7 that have Minecraft that is around that old, but I would have to put them back together

[@CrackThrough]

replacing the file was a peak comedy on its own lmao

[@0v_x0]

​​@Boxograph talking to bot accounts makes them seem more likely to be real to KZbin, because it counts as positive engagement. It actually makes it worse. Just report spam and ignore, it's all we can do.

[@SeaniBoii]

barney the dinosaur is the key to this entire thing

[@mcbyt]

tominecon.7z has been hiding a list of barney's war crimes all along!

[@Slab]

Was looking through the original Secret file post, at the very end of the post someone says the following: "Why does this keep getting necro'd..? It's already been cracked on other sites, but there's nothing interesting in it. I tried to find someone who did crack it, but couldn't. Rest assured there's nothing interesting in it, or the entire thing is encrypted. To people trying to brute force it, plenty of people have already tried, getting over 5000 passwords a second and it would still take an unrealistic amount of time to crack." Maybe old archives have the file still? My issue with this comment above is that "if there's nothing interesting in it" how come it isn't a well known old Minecraft meme, as well as why there isn't much trace of it online? I guess we will have to wait and see, quality upload as always man!

[@SrNerd]

THEY FOUND IT! ITS ON REDDIT!

[@YoutubeWatcherForLife]

Link?

[@beetroot4798]

I started playing the day before Nether-Portals were added. I know that doesn't help but this made me nostalgic.

[@beetroot4798]

@enrique amaya and this *"right here"* is why we can't have nice things. Politely, *"don't,"* corrupt my *Happy Nostalgic Minecraft moments* with your boyfriend, thanks.

[@systemdoesmusic]

@@beetroot4798 dont reply to the bot, just report it and move on, replying counts as engagement and makes it less likely to be banned

[@joshuazurkon823]

Perhaps it is the TRUE origin of Herobrine. His DNA, as it were.

[@Eliasdbr]

Imagine the "decoy" is the only one, and it was just all a big troll

[@LoyalSage]

I don't know if you were around the Minecraft scene at the time this stuff happened, but all of those 1.0 features you suggest might have an earlier version in tominecraft.7z had already been released in pre-release/release candidate versions prior to Minecon. Based on good development practice of having a stable build ready well in advance of a major event to avoid unexpected bugs during a demo, plus the name of the file, it is almost certainly one of the release candidate versions that came out in the days prior to Minecon, with the build cut and ready to go to Minecon. The only thing else I could imagine it being was if they had a special build for Minecon with some change to support something they showed off there, but I can't imagine what, or some package of other files they needed easily accessible while putting on Minecon. But I'd lean towards the simplest answer being it is the final release candidate. Still, doesn't hurt to try and find out for sure.

[@25MBs]

The transition at 0:20 seconds oh my god. Love it

[@ScriiptingPoint]

This man is so underrated tbh. I didn’t even know about this and I’m hooked bro keep up the good work!

[@gourdguru]

someone has the file. i can still find mods and texture packs for a game no one remembers existed from 1999 thanks to absolute basement dwellers and the internet. it's just a waiting game.

[@WapTek123]

TLDR 04/21 to 08/08, 2016, notch tweeted It was the minecraft 1.0 release build shown at a mine-con 2011 & he forgot the password 2011/11/15 10:23:06 was the "original" file last modified date, 3 days before mine-con 2011/11/18 in Las Vegas, Nevada 2012/02/23 or earlier the file was discovered on this download server that "was" used to hold versions "since" 1.8 pre (release?)

[@drcyb3r]

I guess it was some stuff they needed at that minecon. Probably some sort of promotion material or a demo file. There won't be something interesting inside. If it was something no one should see, why would they name it " to minecon"? It looks more like a temporary file with something they needed there and they forgot about it. And I doubt, Notch didn't have the password as someone changed the file right after a user messaged him. So Notch or some Dev probably looked inside, thought "that was not meant for the public" and replaced the file with that meme to make fun of the people trying to solve that "mystery".

[@creeperkid09]

My guess would be that it contained personal information of minecon attendees, probably for capes. In 2011 minecraft had much less online content and it may have made sense to Mojang to store a list of caped players locally rather than on their servers. If this is true then the removal and decoy would likely be in response to privacy concerns, especially if the file contained more information than just usernames, such as real names or email addresses. This could also explain Archus's description, as if it did contain indentifiable personal information beyond usernames its very possible that Mojang unintentionally committed a crime by storing it, and providing proof of that could land them in legal trouble even if the file had long been removed.

[@izimsi]

It's quite funny how people worked so hard to crack a password for a swapped out file. Also funny how noone noticed the swap, maybe they at least matched te original timestamps and the exact filesize of the original, then noone would probably notice.

[@sophie4159]

i hope someone can find the original file. nice video as always!

[@osmosis_ghost3722]

ima find my HDD that was with my broken laptop. It didn't get the 1.0 update, so there might be a chance I could have a copy of it. That is..... if it can still be read. It was having issues near the end of the laptop's life.

[@osmosis_ghost3722]

So, I found it. However when I took it to a repair shop, it wasn't working properly and told me that anything in there is corrupted at this point. Damn, could of been help in making history for once DX

[@WolfPackGamingOfficial]

@@osmosis_ghost3722 Shoot. If only we could uncorrupt the file.

[@xThat1Gamer]

@@WolfPackGamingOfficial ikr, would be nice

[@osmosis_ghost3722]

@@WolfPackGamingOfficial For sure. Maybe I might look into finding a place that specializes in getting files out of corrupted drives. If anybody has a recommendation, it'd be greatly appreciated.

[@c.s.7474]

@@osmosis_ghost3722 wow so convenient

[@lunazhere]

im prepping a workstation virtual machine for when the original file is found

[@ThatoneFRC]

So i have a laptopr from when i was in highschool that has the beta versions of minecraft on it that hasnt been updated. EVER. I need to find an ac charger to turn on that computer, but the reason i stopped is because of the cracked screen. Its there, I guarantee it, just not sure how to actually get it off of there.

[@AZzyydee]

Just get the hard drive out and put it in a better pc

[@KidPrarchord95]

This seems to happen every month.

[@La8ghost]

damn dude, the editing's getting insane- nice

[@mcbyt]

appreciate it, definitely improving :)

[@daki59e234]

I feel bad for the guy who said its an “destructive file”

[@Sir_pAgan]

I should have it, but my old pc died like 10 years ago, with all my old minecraft world and now it lay in the dump somewhere

[@MinhLe-jy2mv]

One of Minecraft’s mystery: Panda’s death sounds

[@yeet877]

My old PC could have the files but i scrapped it.. ffs

[@Zickmation24]

2:19 after reading that claim i suddenly had the urge to know what was in that file

[@tomk07]

amazing storytelling keep up the great content (:

[@frokality]

I hope someone has the original file

[@-CmonMeow]

Similar to the original Guild Wars exe or Dat files, Beta, and first campaign only versions can't be found 2003-2004 or even early 2005, best I've managed to get is 2006 and that already contains code for campaign swapping before it released, the earlier versions would be much less code to de compile before I start working on a server because there are no private servers.

[@ashurad_fox5991]

As someone working as an IT, I think that's just the minecraft version for the release like they said. Since it's back in 2012... So the internet is not as fast, nor they are sure that it is fast during the event and when they needed it. In my case as a software dev... I usually keep a backup copy of parts of my made systems, apps, or website on my usb, and external hard drive. And had come handy a couple of times when the place I need them lost the internet, or a terminal got wiped on the company I work with... So I don't need to go back and get the code.

[@ActUp]

The editing is really good.

[@mcbyt]

thank u so much

[@Eryph]

What shaders are you using? They look great!

[@mcbyt]

I'm using Sildur's Enhanced Default :)

[@sanadelmeziny4681]

gotta appreciate tge transition 0:21

[@chocolatebar75]

Yeah he puts tons of effort into editing his videos and I love it

[@Marc_659]

I have the OG file, prolly not gonna do anything with it tho, but i downloaded it from some other guy on minecraft forums

[@Tom06]

How do you check if you have the original file? Is it a different size?

[@mcbyt]

Check the file date. If it's from November 2011, you've got the original. If you've got August 2012, that's the decoy. If you have anything later than that, it's a reupload, and if you have anything in between, you just added a whole 'nother layer to this story because that would mean there were 3 versions of tominecon.7z :o

[@Tom06]

@@mcbyt alright cheers. Also thanks for continually making such great videos. I always feel like I'm watching a really high quality documentary watching them and it's incredible that you manage to do this for every one. I was wondering how do you go about researching new video ideas? They always seem so original even though your area is fairly niche (sort of). Anyway, sorry to be such a suck up - I just wanted to voice my appreciation and I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking so highly of you :)

[@lainwired3946]

@@mcbyt it would be much more reliable to use the files hash I think than a date, even though the date being changed could also change the hash (depending on what filesystem you're using)

[@mcbyt]

​@@Tom06 Of course, and thank you, really appreciate the praise :) As for how I get my ideas, it's from a variety of places! Some video ideas are suggested by viewers, e.g doing the history of Mineplex. A few of them are ones I happened to stumble upon either while researching something else or just by chance; being involved with the archival/account communities, this happens quite a bit. And sometimes I come up with ideas by looking at my own videos, or videos from other MC history channels, and I find what works - then, I can either expand on that idea or create a new one in the same style. For example, I made a video finding the oldest Minecraft world - it turned out well and got a decent amount of views, so I then did one about the oldest skin, and recently one about the oldest mod, and soon enough I'll probably do one about the oldest account!

[@ZephaniahNoah]

Maybe the reason Mojang replaced the file was because it was unobfuscated and they didn't want their mappings leaked.

[@ZephaniahNoah]

@enrique amaya Amen to that

[@poopass1596]

@enrique amaya god does not exist sorry bro

[@poopass1596]

@enrique amaya sorry i know it's a disappointment but it was proven that he actually was a lie sorry

[@NoorquackerInd]

I can't believe that no one checked the hash, but I also wouldn't check either if I were them

[@zigeprivate7468]

watermelon king was the first rick roll that mojang planned decade before :O

[@-Hari-03]

I’d probably have it if I hadn’t wiped my entire pc due to a virus in 2014. Rip

[@mcbyt]

F

[@BulletproofKuloodporny]

Wait did you overwrite it

[@magnetiterose9614]

Very interesting story. Good work!

[@JayFolipurba]

What version or which build would you need? I've started playing Minecraft in 1.7.3 Piston Update and had only sparsely updated during that time. I still got that version on a flash drive somewhere, albeit cracked

[@mcbyt]

You would've had to manually download this from assets.minecraft.net in November 2011 or earlier - it wasn't included in any versions of the game unfortunately

[@SkyboxMonster]

I contributed a totally unseen version to Omniarchive. I also had some 'rare' versions in my collection.

[@beforelifewaschaos]

I have an old Laptop, thats broken down. The data is still on it and i never threw it away. it should be from about the year 2012 until 2016ish and i played Minecraft with a friend over lan on it, industrial craft and such things. Would that be the right time period? Because then i would consider to revive every possible data on that old hard drive.

[@BulletproofKuloodporny]

The original was from 2011 but try to revive the drive it might still have the original cuz it was later in 2012 when it was replaced You might still have it

[@CongaYT]

Imagine if the Noita Eye Glyphs take just as long to crack.. it's slowly getting there lol

[@expertoflizardcorrugation3967]

We can hope

[@WhatThisVideo]

I have a old pc that still works and i used to play minecraft in 2012. Idk if the file was already there or not, but i can look it up

[@keller1808]

Mojang: “We do a minuscule amounts of tomfoolery”

[@notjerrett]

Great video, and a wonderful call to action. I really hope this gets solved soon!

[@mcbyt]

thanks so much, i'm glad you liked it :)

[@whorlingwisteria]

I'm impressed at humanities tenacity and also mildly ashamed at our curiosity. it feels like I just watched a video about a man who hunted for 5 years just to collect all of the nail clippings from his ex. it's terrifying to watch something so mundane being taken to such an extreme level

[@abbe9641]

Who hurt you ?

[@whorlingwisteria]

@@abbe9641 I've just never recovered from the removal of the Notch apple recipe

[@damonkeilholz9320]

they found the original file, "thespicemustflow" doesn't work and it seems like people aren't the most invested in cracking it (legal problems) so possibly we will never know

[@ravenger2445]

The most I'd expect from a file like that would be an IP address or something.

[@ravenger2445]

@enrique amaya dang thats a lotta quotation marks and stuff after that comment. Totally not trying to avoid comment deletion because it's spam that nobody wants

[@ElectricoGamez]

Maybe that file held the so called "Beta 1.9 pre-release 7" build that has been rumored from time to time.

[@Cr1mzqn]

Isn't it obvious? It's Herobrine's Prison, thats why they are hiding it and swapped it out,

[@sebastianpatriciotapiamoya1225]

i think the same

[@NOTNOTJON]

I've been around since alpha days and I can say that whatever is in the file would not be interesting. I remember a time when there were only 16 blocks. When sponges and gold and obsidian got added it was a thrilling time. Lots of ideas were thrown around and some never got made, but I think anything in the fike would only be nostalgic and probably underwhelming.

[@Kynatosh]

Ima look into my old drives backups, fingers crossed

[@midbc1midbc199]

It was like a press kit but for them only

[@stolentrevin]

this video gonna get big soon

[@mcbyt]

haha, hopefully

[@olegmoki]

@@mcbyt it's getting big!

[@GodMotherJ]

Hey, I’ve owned minecraft since 2010 and have a old laptop that has installed minecraft from that era. Where should I look for that file? And how would I know its not the decoy?

[@drbleblo]

If I ever find my moms old laptop I used to play Minecraft on way back in the day I will see if there are any treasures for you

[@error17_]

Yeah Ive got a backup of Minecraft (and server build) from March 2011, no sign of this file

[@VultDormire]

Imagine when you finally cracked the code of the file, which is fulfilled with data, powerfully encoded, thick layers of security walls and turns out its a rickrol.

[@szamurainagy7644]

@enriqueamaya3883 we all do not care, and i promise you, your existence is useless

[@Birdeagle100]

Youre way too underated

[@mcbyt]

thank you :)

[@jakegreene1484]

When I get back up north to my moms place, I’ll get my old laptop and see

[@chrism45]

The only time I played minecraft was around 2010-2011. I wonder what's on my old pc and if it has anything still.

[@RedxAx2]

This video... This editing... This mystery... This LOOOOOOOOOORE... WE, NEED, TO, FIND, IT, OR, ELSE, thanks for this great video 👍

[@mcbyt]

haha, of course, i'm glad you liked it :)

[@user-dm4pv5yc5z]

If someone posts a file and claim that's the original one, there is no way to validate that. Expect another file that will be cracked in ten years just to reveal rickroll

[@transbianyan]

Thats why we need the password of the replaced one too, wont solve it all, but it will allow people to discard the replaced ones...

[@mcbyt]

thespicemustflow is the pass :)

[@RossWasTaken]

@@mcbyt What makes you think both archives would share the same password?

[@mcbyt]

@@RossWasTaken Absolutely nothing. I don't think it does. But if we could crack the new one, we may well be able to do the same to the original, once we find it