Beta 1.7.3 installation guide

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Revision as of 00:30, 19 April 2026 by Noggisoggi (talk | contribs) (→‎MultiMC/PrismLauncher/Other forks plus BetaEvolutions: macOS 28 will no longer have Rosetta :( | From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosetta_(software)#Rosetta_2)
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⚠️ Disclaimer: This guide assumes you already have bought a license for Minecraft: Java Edition (Bedrock can't be used) to play.

JRE links

The official launcher comes with a JRE.
For other launchers (or if you want to use a different Java binary), you can use the OpenJDK builds from either of these vendors:

Official launcher

You might have this launcher (and a premium account) installed in most cases.
By default, it doesn't show old versions of the game before Release 1.0, and must be enabled in the settings.

16.png Garsooon has a video guide:

Load video
YouTube
  1. Select the Settings tab, found in the bottom left corner.
  2. In the Enable Show Historical versions of Minecraft: Java Edition in the Launcher under Minecraft: Java Edition Settings in the General tab.
  3. Go back to the Minecraft: Java Edition tab on the sidebar, open the Installations tab and then select New Installation.
  4. Enter the desired name of the install, and then select old_beta 1.7.3 in the version dropdown menu, then select Create.
  5. Click on the Minecraft: Java Edition tab on the sidebar again and select the installation you just made from the drop down menu and press Play.

MultiMC/PrismLauncher/Other forks plus BetaEvolutions

BetaEvolutions can be used with these launchers.
You can deviate at some parts of this guide if you want to use a different fix, or anything else.

16.png lnphi has a video for installing this mod (v1 is used because this video was made before v2 was released):

Load video
YouTube

⚠️ Warnings:

  • Due to BetaEvolutions editing a lot of stuff, it is highly recommended that you do not use other mods whilst using it.
    • (Language file edits, terrain edits and so on, are compatible, so long as BetaEvo doesn't conflict with it.)
  • Make a ticket on the Discord server if you're encountering issues.

The following issues and their solutions are specific to Apple Silicon Macintoshes running macOS: (If these do not apply to you, collapse these sections.)

Game doesn't boot due to Discord RPC errors
The Discord RPC error.

The Discord Rich Presence library used by BetaEvolutions currently doesn't have an arm64 version, and an x86-64 version of Java has to be used. Keep these in mind:

  • Some basic computing knowledge, such as extracting files, moving, copying, etc. are mandatory.
  • This fix relies on the Rosetta 2 translation layer, and hence, this fix will not work on macOS 28 and later.

16.png Noggisoggi made a video tutorial for this, with the Azul Zulu OpenJDK build:

Load video
YouTube
  1. Get an x86-64 build of the JRE for macOS
  2. This step will vary depending on what variant you downloaded:
    • Open your downloads folder and:
      • Extract the .tar.gz/.zip archive if you downloaded it.
      • Install the x86-64 JRE from the .pkg file.
  3. Open your launcher; PrismLauncher or MultiMC in this case.
    • Only for portable Java installs; skip to step 4 if you're using a system-wide install:
      • Select your instance of Beta 1.7.3, select Instance Folder or similar.
      • Your b1.7.3 instance folder should open.
        • If not: open the Finder, select View on the menu bar, then select: Go to Folder... & input one of these paths depending on your launcher:
          • PrismLauncher: ~/Library/Application Support/PrismLauncher/instances
          • MultiMC: /Applications/MultiMC.app/Data/instances
            • You need to open the context menu ([Right Click], [Ctrl]+[Left Click]) on MultiMC.app & select Show Contents.
        • Press [Return] or [Enter] & go to your b1.7.3 instance.
      • Copy that JRE you extracted directly into the instance folder.
  4. In MultiMC/PrismLauncher, select your b1.7.3 once more & select Edit Instance
    • Select: Settings -> Java installation -> Enable (tick) Java installation
      • System-wide installs:
        • Select Auto-detect & select the one with:
          • Version: 1.8.0_372
          • Architecture: x86_64
          • Path: /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/temurin-8.jre/Contents/Home/bin/java
        • If the auto-detect method doesn't work for some reason, you can use the aforementioned path as the Java path.
      • Portable installs:
        • Method 1:
          • Select Browse.
          • A file picker should pop-up; head to instances -> your b1.7.3 instance -> the JRE you extracted -> bin/java.
      • Method 2:
        • Open your instance folder
        • Head to instances -> your b1.7.3 instance -> the JRE you extracted -> Contents/Home/bin/java.
        • Select the java binary.
          • Press Command+Option+C or open the context menu, hold Option & select Copy path.
        • Go back to the instance editor, select the entire Java binary path & replace it with what you have copied.

You can now launch the game.

Broken color channels (red is blue, blue is red)
The aformentioned bug.

Use either (but not both) of these 2 solutions:

  1. Install either of the aforementioned launchers (MultiMC or PrismLauncher or what have you).
  2. Download BetaEvolutions from https://evolutions.retromc.org by reading and agreeing to the brief terms and conditions, and then downloading either the stable (recommended) or unstable JAR.
  3. Launch MultiMC (or fork), set up your account by clicking on the account selector in the top right corner, select Manage Accounts..., and then select Add Microsoft.
  4. Select Add Instance, and select b1.7.3 as the version by enabling Betas and scroll through the list until you see it. Change the details to your liking and select OK.
  5. Right-click (or left-click; open context menu) the newly created instance, and select Edit, or select the same button on the sidebar after selecting the aforementioned instance.
  6. Version -> Add to Minecraft.jar -> Add the BetaEvolutions jar mod you downloaded.
    • Don't use the Mods tab for this! (Not unless a mod loader is used.)
  7. Go to: Settings -> Tick Java installation -> Auto-detect if you installed the JRE system wide.
    • If you downloaded the zip/tar archive, you simply extract it, select Browse in the instance settings, navigate to the extracted JRE -> bin/java and select that java file.
    • Under MS Windows, use javaw.exe instead.
  8. Launch the game via Launch and pray it works.
  • Image guide

BetaCraft launcher

https://betacraft.uk/downloads
On that page, scroll down and you'll see 2 options:

  • v1, which is made in Java and is generally more stable.
  • v2 (alpha), which includes easy mod support, but is generally a bit unstable.

Assuming you have either one (or both) of them installed:

2.x

ℹ️ Notice: As 2.x is in alpha, the launcher can sometimes crash. Pray that it doesn't crash.

  1. Select Accounts, then Add account and login with your Microsoft account.
  2. Select Settings, then the Java Installations tab in the left hand column.
    • You should see your Java installations here, but there is a menu/button to download and install a Java distribution.
    • Select the one prefixed with "1.8.0", and in the list's lower left, select Set as default.
    • Apple Silicon Mac (and non-x86-64 computer/unsupported OS) users only: Settings -> General -> Disable Discord Rich presence
      (Because the RPC doesn't have a version for the aforementioned platform(s).)
  3. Select Instances, then Add instance, then scroll down the list, and select b1.7.3.
    (Attempting to select the other tabs/searching and then selecting will crash the program.)
    And also: name your instance.

Now you can select the instance and hit Play, but for those that want to install BetaEvolutions:

  1. Download BetaEvolutions from https://evolutions.retromc.org by reading and agreeing to the brief terms and conditions, and then downloading either the stable (recommended) or unstable JAR.
    • Rename that file to have .zip at the end if the mod file picker doesn't allow you to select it.
  2. Head to the Instances tab, right-click (or left-click if you configured it that way) your b1.7.3 instance, Edit -> Mods -> Add to minecraft.jar -> select the BetaEvolutionsFull-1.5.0.zip (or jar) file.
    And select Save.
  • Accounts tab with  Noggisoggi.

    Accounts tab with 16.png Noggisoggi.

  • Java installations list.

    Java installations list.

  • Instance creation.

    Instance creation.

  • Mod installation.

    Mod installation.

And now you can launch the game (hopefully without crashing).

1.x

  1. If for some reason your version is not set to b1.7.3, hit Select version -> b1.7.3.
  2. Select Login, and follow the instructions given.
  3. Once you log in, you can then select Edit instance if you want to change some settings - namely, the Java binary used.
    • Windows: %programfiles%\<Java distributor name>\<Java 8 or something>\bin\javaw.exe
    • Arch Linux, via the jre8-openjdk package: /usr/lib/jvm/java-8-openjdk/bin/java
    • macOS (if JRE is installed system-wide): /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/<name-of-distributor>-8.jre/Contents/Home/bin/java
  4. Select OK, and select Play.
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