NOTE: THIS IS NOT AN ISSUE WITH THE OLD VERSION OF THE GAME SPECIFICIALLY. THIS IS BECAUSE THE VERSION OF THE GAME IN QUESTION IS MISLABELLED ON THE MOJANG SERVERS AND ALSO THE LAUNCHER AS A RESULT. This ticket may be moved the the WEB project if more applicable.
The Minecraft Launcher claims to have the version "a1.2.1" available, but it is a copy of "a1.2.1_01". Upon inspection of the .json files, both "a1.2.1.jar" and "a1.2.1_01.jar" contain identical SHA-1 hashes and file size under the "downloads" section. I also calculated the SHA-256 hash with an external utility, and both .jar files have identical hashes. Both versions display "Minecraft Alpha v1.2.1_01" ingame, which suggests that both versions are in fact "a1.2.1_01", despite one of them claiming to be "a1.2.1".
This strongly suggests that the "a1.2.1" version listed in the launcher is a duplicate of "a1.2.1_01", and should be removed from the launcher, since there is no point in having two copies of the same version listed in the launcher.
Attatched images are the following: brp1.png compares the .json of "a1.2.1" and "a1.2.1_01", showing the identical SHA-1 hash of the .jr files within the .json.
brp2.png compares the SHA-256 hash of both of the "a1.2.1" and "a1.2.1_01" .jar files using an external utility (7zip). As you can see, the hashes are identical, which strongly suggests that both "a1.2.1.jar" and "a1.2.1_01.jar" are identical.
brp3.png shows "a1.2.1" running ingame, displaying "Minecraft Alpha v1.2.1_01". brp4.png shows "a1.2.1_01" running ingame, displaying the same text in the upper left corner.
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is duplicated by 1
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Comments 8
Seconding for reopen.
This is not an issue with the client itself. This is an issue with the launcher. The launcher has 1.2.1_01 listed twice; one as 1.2.1 with no underscore. Hence it is filed under MCL-, as opposed to MC-. This was demonstrated clearly in the description of the issue with provided evidence showing the files to be identical. The solution wuld be to remove the duplicate 1.2.1 (no underscore) from the launcher catalog.
Both 1.2.1 and 1.2.1_01.jar are binarically identical, as proved by the identical hashes.
The same is true for MCL-1421.
Supporting to reopen this ^
This is a legitimate issue with the launcher. It's a duplicate with a different name, and all that needs to be done is either just removing one of the duplicates or just fixing the 1.2.1 version.
Please re-open this, it is a bug with the launcher and has nothing to do with the content of the Alpha versions.
The issue is simply that the launcher contains a duplicate version, mislabelled as if it is another version, when it isn't (The version labelled 'a1.2.1' in the launcher, is in fact just a duplicate of the version 'a1.2.1_01')
This can be proven simply by comparing the hashes of the two jar files showing they are identical, and the fix is simply to remove the offending so called 'a1.2.1' from the version list, as it is not actually present and is a duplicate of another version, this isn't a difficult fix.
Please let me stress again, this fix is not impacted by the Alpha versions no longer being supported, and really has nothing to do with the Alpha versions at all, the bug is within the launcher and the assets page.
Still in the launcher over a year after last comment. Current launcher version as of writing: 2.1.9616