What is Eaglercraft?
Eaglercraft is a browser-based clone of older Minecraft versions, some of these being 1.8.8, 1.5.2, Minor Beta/Alpha versions, etc.
There are also third-party clients for Eaglercraft, most of these offering a significant difference from the base game.
Eaglercraft Summary
Eaglercraft is an AOT-compiled (TeaVM) port of Minecraft to JavaScript, allowing for it to run in your web browser, and on lower-end devices such as Chromebooks.
Key features that have propelled Eaglercraft to popularity include:
- Instant access through any modern web browser
- Cross-platform compatibility, allowing to play on various devices
- Multiplayer support for engaging with friends and communities
- Faithful recreation of core Minecraft gameplay mechanics
- Customizable skins and texture packs for personalization
Why is Eaglercraft Popular?
Eaglercraft gained popularity in 2023–2024 when schoolchildren wanted a way to play the popular game Minecraft on their low-end school devices. It is/was also used to bypass restrictions placed on their devices.
Reasons to play:
- Free and accessible.
- Cross-platform support through your browser.
- Many different communities surrounding it.
- Designed for low-end hardware.
- Semiregular updates, fixing bugs, and more.
Who made Eaglercraft?
While Eaglercraft has many forks and projects, the original creator/maintainer duo are here:
- lax1dude: The original creator of Eaglercraft, lax1dude originally made 1.8, 1.5, and Beta 1.3.
- ayunami2000: Working with lax1dude, ayunami2000 picked up Eaglercraft, added many features to 1.5 (Voice Chat over WebRTC, if I recall correctly), then later helped with 1.8 (if I recall correctly…)
These two developers are the most notable out of everyone who has worked on Eaglercraft, but you can visit our Credits Page to see more people who have worked on Eaglercraft or related projects.
Legal
Eaglercraft has many legal problems as it's a copy of Minecraft without the consent of Mojang/Microsoft.
Copyright and Intellectual Property
Eaglercraft's relationship with the law:
- The game uses elements of Minecraft's code and assets without official authorization from Mojang or Microsoft.
- This unauthorized use has led to DMCA takedown notices being issued against some Eaglercraft repositories and websites.
- The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) provides protection against unauthorized reproduction of copyrighted works, which applies to video games like Minecraft.
Legal Gray Areas and Debates
Proponents of Eaglercraft have put forward several arguments in its defense:
- Fair Use: Some argue that Eaglercraft's educational potential and transformative nature could qualify it for fair use protection.
- Open Source Nature: The open-source status of Eaglercraft's codebase is sometimes cited as a mitigating factor, though this doesn't override copyright concerns.
- Abandoned Software: There's an ongoing debate about the accessibility of older software versions, with some arguing that older Minecraft versions should be freely available. Didn't stop Nintendo from shutting down Citra, did it?
While Eaglercraft may be legally questionable, that doesn't change that the game is still fun.
Conclusion
Eaglercraft, albeit "illegal," is a browser-based clone of Minecraft. We at EaglercraftDev do not condone piracy, and we suggest that you buy the game as it's much better that way.
Have a Chromebook? Use ChromeOS's built-in linux container to play Minecraft Java Edition.
If you wish to view the source code of the base Eaglercraft client, please visit this link.