Minecraft Version 1.8 – The Bountiful Update – How to Play it from the Official Launcher

Published by Jared Kunz on January 10, 2022January 10, 2022

In this tutorial we will go through how to install and play Minecraft 1.8. This is the first release of The Bountiful Update and is a major update to Minecraft (Java Edition) released on September 2, 2014, which added many It added and changed many aspects of the game. Among many things, the update made it easier for map makers to create adventure maps, whilst using the newly added Spectator mode. It added many blocks, mobs, and a structure for Survival play. Many commands were added or extended, the world boundary became a customizable component, many Survival mechanics were changed, and gave way for many more world customization options. Here are the steps to install and play it with pictures and detailed step-by-step instructions:

^{Logo created by u/OmerBs/ Thanks Omer!!}

Step One: You will need to download and install Minecraft Java Edition from minecraft.net. Once you’ve installed it you will see the Minecraft Launcher icon. Launch Minecraft and log in using your Microsoft account or Mojang account:

Step Two: After the launcher opens, navigate to the settings menu via the settings button in the lower left corner then find this “Show historical versions…” checkbox and click it:

Now navigate to the “Installations” tab within the launcher:

Step Three: Within the “Installations” menu, click on the checkbox next the the “Releases” option. It is found to the top far right of this screen.

Step Four: Click on the button “New Installations” button. This will bring up the screen where you can input data to create a new installation.

Step Five: 5A) – Click on the drop down on the “VERSION” field to select the version of minecraft you want to install.

5B) In this case, you want the version called “release 1.8”

5C) – In the NAME field you can give your new installation an arbitrary name like “MC old version xzy” or whatever you like.

Step Six: 6A) Once you’ve completed all sub-steps in Step 5, before you click the “Create” button, you should click the “BROWSE” button in the “GAME DIRECTORY” field, otherwise this new installation will use your default minecraft directory.

6B) Once you click the “BROWSE” button, a “Browser for Folder” Windows dialog will pop-up where you can create a new folder. If all goes correctly, you should be able to scroll down in this “Browse For Folder” window and you will notice that Mojang/Microsoft have done you a favor here in conveniently locating you in the default location of the .minecraft folder, i.e.: C:\Users\<yourusername>\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft

6B) continued I highly recommend, based upon my experience messing around with Minecraft installations for the past few years, that you create a new minecraft folder for this installation in this same Roaming directory, yet you can really create it anywhere you please, that is convenient for you to find it later. For example you could name it .minecraft-1-8. In my case, I don’t like having periods in front of my folder names and I like to group series of things into a single folder, so I created a folder with the follow directory structure and name:

C:\Users\jared\AppData\Roaming\minecraft_old_versions\mc-1-8

6C) – Make the new folder, name it as you please, locate it where you please

6D) – Verify your folder was made and that you have selected it as your game directory

6E) – Hit OK. The image below should give a visual summary of all the base sub-steps, in case you lost track. 🙂

Step Seven: 7A) Now you have created your new installation, you should see something like the following (don’t be alarmed about the orange triangle with the exclamation mark):

That’s just warning you that you’re playing a “version of Minecraft that doesn’t support the latest safety features, etc”. Well, I guess you can be alarmed about that if you want to.

7B) – Now it’s time to hit the “Play” button and check out this old version of the game!!