Roblox (partially found builds of online game; 2003-present)
An old logo that dates back to 2005. Dubbed the "second generation" logo.
Status: Partially Found
Roblox is a massive online multiplayer platform that allows users to create and design their own games and play a wide variety of other user-generated games. Back before Roblox became available to the public, its name was originally GoBlocks. It was also changed to DynaBlocks for unverifiable reasons but it was ultimately changed to Roblox afterwards because of the name being too hard to remember.
Although Roblox is still up and playable, older versions of the from 2003 to 2006 have completely disappeared, and most versions, spanning from December of 2012 to February 2020, were locked off of Roblox's website. The earliest build currently uncovered by the community is a late March 2007 version.
Background
In 1989, David Baszucki founded the company "Knowledge Revolution". Around this time, he developed general-purpose software for physics and mechanical simulation, which were intended for educational purposes. According to an interview with David, he recalls creating three pieces of software that were all physics-based, these being Interactive Physics, Working Model, and The Incredible Machine.[1] He also met Erik Cassel and Keith Lucas around this time.
Around 1998, he stepped down as the CEO and became the Vice President. Later on, Knowledge Revolution was acquired by MSC Software for 20 million dollars followed by both David and Erik leaving the company. They were soon joined by other employees as well. Soon after, development for a brand new game began, though the year development began is not specified or known. In late September 2003, an entry named eBlocks with the description "Stealth mode video game company." is added to David Baszuckis website but it is unknown what it was about. By December 2003, the pair bought the domains for GoBlocks.com and soon after Dynablocks.com.
Around March 29th of 2004, they renamed Dynablocks to Roblox[2] – a portmanteau of the words "robots" and "blocks". It was changed due to Dynablocks being a hard name to recognize.
By mid-2004, David Baszucki and Erik Cassel opened the public beta version of the game. It was an online building toy that allowed users to create and design their own games with genres like minigames and puzzle games, driving games. In 2005 Roblox was officially released to the public.
How Roblox Versions Became Lost
Roblox installers from 2004 to January of 2008 were been hosted on http://roblox.com/Setup/[3], these installers were MSI files that would be downloaded by the user manually for each update of the game. The problem with these MSI files is even if we could locate all of them, they grab files from an online source that no longer exists, so they effectively serve no purpose. However, in 2008, they briefly switched to completely offline installation files. These would be released as executables that had the relevant files bundled inside of the installer, making them easier to find.
In August of 2008, Roblox switched to using a Deploy server, which automatically grabbed the new version and installed it for you. These deploys were hosted at http://setup.roblox.com (now http://setup.rbxcdn.com). This is the installation process that is still in use today, however, as of February 2020, Roblox had marked their previous deploys as private, making them inaccessible.[4] Meaning most versions before February 2020 are lost media. Only a small fraction was actually downloaded and archived by people, and the rest are probably collecting dust on somebody's old hard drive.
History of the Search
Roblox has content servers where they host their assets, http://c0.roblox.com to http://c7.roblox.com. These assets include everything from avatar items to games. However, in 2012 there were hints that there was something more stored on these, and on http://c5.roblox.com a Roblox version from June of 2008, version 0.3.809.0, was located.[5]
In 2017, a dedicated archival group known as the "Roblox Client Search" or "ClientSearch" for short, began a heavier search for more versions. It had been known for a while up to this point that http://setup.roblox.com/DeployHistory.txt (now http://setup.rbxcdn.com/DeployHistory.txt) existed, listing releases as far back as November of 2009. However, Very quickly after ClientSearch was founded, a Pastebin was located, containing version hashes, some of which predated the listing in DeployHistory.txt[6] This allowed for the download of versions Prior to November 2009, going all the way back to August of 2008.
In October of 2017, a user by the name of MusicalProgrammer who had played Roblox in 2007, had come in contact with ClientSearch, and was able to provide them with several versions of Roblox, several from 2008, and four from 2007.
Around 2020, ClientSearch went on a long hiatus, a year-long stretch with absolutely nothing being found, and the effort was closed down. Then, in early 2021 ClientSearch came back, and a lead was contacted, who wished to remain anonymous. This lead had played Roblox in 2006 and was able to provide us a version from March of 2007, being the earliest version found, as of writing this.
In February of 2020, Roblox marked several files from before that date private, on their deploy server. Making it impossible for a regular user to download all the versions. The ClientSearch community had stepped up in an effort to archive these too, with most versions between November 2009 to December 2012 being archived. However, clients between December of 2012 to February of 2020 are no longer downloadable and are currently lost media. It should be noted that, even with the hashes found for older 2008-2009 versions on setup.roblox.com, this archive is still not complete, as there are still versions missing. There is no exact list, and it's unknown how much is lost, but it is now impossible to know what does and doesn't exist.
The Problem
Despite ClientSearch being dedicated to finding lost versions, the problem arises that there is not enough awareness of the concept that Roblox can have lost media in this form. To put it in perspective, in 2005, there were barely over 100 players, in 2006, there were barely over 11,000. It was only in 2007 that the growth of Roblox began to speed up since it had been released. This small number of users, and the large amount of time that has passed, has made it increasingly difficult to locate any user that might have a build. There have been several cases of hard drive failure, or the computers being discarded as a whole.[7]
Even David Baszucki, the CEO and Founder of Roblox, had a contact email found, and when he was contacted asking about releasing old versions, he replied "Unfortunately. we don't keep old Roblox versions alive - it would be too complex to deploy them, etc.!"
It doesn't help that ClientSearch tends to frequently get users who send in a fake version, and/or pretend to have a version from 2006. Not only is this just useless, but this wastes our searching resources.
Here is a general list of fake 2006 versions, there are modified versions of the game that should not be handed into ClientSearch, as they are not what we are looking for. Again, these are fake. Let me say it one more time, they are fake. Don't send these to us. Thanks.
https://archive.org/details/roblox-clients-2006-2021
https://archive.org/details/old-roblox-2005-2015
https://archive.org/details/old-roblox-2005-2015
https://archive.org/details/roblox-client-archive
https://archive.org/details/roblox-2006_202306
https://gamebanana.com/mods/37230
The $500 bounty
ClientSearch currently holds a $500 bounty for the first 2006 version that can be brought forward. This bounty is only handed out once, and goes to the first person who initially sent over the files. The terms can be found on our website https://robloxopolis.com/2006-roblox-bounty/
List of versions (Pre-August 2008)
The following is a table of missing versions, just so you can get an idea as to what is missing. This table is copied from the "Installer Clients" on this spreadsheet
It should be noted that "Installer Found" refers to the MSI file being located, but is ultimately useless as the files downloaded are files that no longer exist.
| Version | Status | Compilation Date (UTC) |
|---|---|---|
| 2004 | ||
| Lost | 2004-01 | |
| Lost | 2004-10-26 | |
| 2005 | ||
| Lost | 2005-01-24 | |
| Lost | 2005-02-03 | |
| Lost | 2005-02-22 | |
| Lost | 2005-03 | |
| Unconfirmed | 2005-06-17 | |
| Unconfirmed | 2005-06-27 | |
| Lost | 2005-10 | |
| 2006 | ||
| 0.2.123.0 | Lost | 2006-03-23. 20:28 |
| 0.2.135.0 | Lost | 2006-03-24. 22:39 |
| 0.2.144.0 | Lost | 2006-04-14 |
| 0.3.030.0 | Lost | 2006-06-05. 16:57 |
| 0.3.041.0 | Lost | 2006-06-10, 15:17 |
| 0.3.046.0 | Lost | 2006-06-16. 22:06 |
| 0.3.070.0 | Lost | 2006-07-14, 15:52 |
| Lost | 2006-07-22 | |
| Lost | 2006-07-28 | |
| Unconfirmed | 2006-07-29 | |
| Lost | 2006-08-04 | |
| Lost | 2006-08-11 | |
| 0.3.147.0 | Lost | 2006-08-16. 18:28 |
| Lost | 2006-08-20 | |
| Unconfirmed | 2006-09-1x | |
| 0.3.218.0 | Lost | 2006-09-29, 00:32 |
| 0.3.230.0 | Lost | 2006-10-25, 17:33 |
| Lost | 2006-11-06 | |
| Lost | 2006-11-08 | |
| 0.3.245.0 | Lost | 2006-11-12 |
| Unconfirmed | 2006-11-21 | |
| Lost | 2006-11-29, 05:00 | |
| 0.3.253.0 | Lost | 2006-11-29, 09:00 |
| Lost | 2006-12-08 | |
| 0.3.264.0 | Lost | 2006-12-20 |
| 0.3.266.0 | Lost | 2006-12-28 |
| 2007 | ||
| Lost | 2007-01-09 | |
| 0.3.290.0 | Lost | 2007-01-11 |
| 0.3.291.0 | Lost | 2007-01-13 |
| 0.3.294.0 | Lost | 2007-01-21 |
| 0.3.296.0 | Unconfirmed | 2007-01-26 |
| 0.3.310.0 | Installer found | 2007-01-31, 08:24 |
| Lost | 2007-02-01 | |
| 0.3.313.0 | Lost | 2007-02-10 |
| 0.3.335.0 | Lost | 2007-02-17 |
| 0.3.368.0 | Found | 2007-03-27 |
| 0.3.372.0 | Lost | 2007-04-04 |
| Unconfirmed | 2007-04-08 | |
| 0.3.390.0 | Lost | 2007-04-20 |
| 0.3.400.0 | Lost | 2007-05-05 |
| Unconfirmed | 2007-05-18 | |
| 0.3.416.0 | Lost | 2007-05-20 |
| Lost | 2007-05-30 | |
| 0.3.442.0 | Installer found | 2007-06-12 |
| Lost | 2007-06-28 | |
| 0.3.451.0 | Lost | 2007-07-01 |
| 0.3.460.0 | Lost | 2007-07/08 |
| 0.3.470.0 | Lost | 2007-08-03 |
| Lost | 2007-08-04 | |
| Lost | 2007-08-05 | |
| 0.3.484.0 | Unconfirmed | 2007-08-18 |
| 0.3.485.0 | Lost | 2007-08-18 |
| 0.3.488.0 | Found | 2007-08-18 |
| Lost | 2007-08-29 | |
| 0.3.512.0 | Found | 2007-08-31 |
| 0.3.585.0 | Lost | 2007-10-05 |
| Lost | 2007-10-29 | |
| 0.3.601.0 | Lost | 2007-11-01 |
| 0.3.603.0 | Lost | 2007-11-01 |
| 0.3.604.0 | Lost | 2007-11-01 |
| 0.3.605.0 | Lost | 2007-11-01 |
| Unconfirmed | 2007-11-02 | |
| 0.3.607.0 | Lost | 2007-11-02 |
| 0.3.618.0 | Lost | 2007-11-13 |
| 0.3.619.0 | Lost | 2007-11-13 |
| 0.3.621.0 | Lost | 2007-11-13 |
| 0.3.622.0 | Lost | 2007-11-13 |
| 0.3.623.0 | Lost | 2007-11-14 |
| 0.3.624.0 | Lost | 2007-11-14 |
| 0.3.625.0 | Lost | 2007-11-14 |
| 0.3.626.0 | Lost | 2007-11-14 |
| 0.3.627.0 | Lost | 2007-11-14 |
| 0.3.629.0 | Lost | 2007-11-14 |
| 0.3.631.0 | Lost | 2007-11-14 |
| 0.3.632.0 | Lost | 2007-11-15 |
| 0.3.633.0 | Lost | 2007-11-15 |
| 0.3.634.0 | Found | 2007-11-15 |
| 0.3.638.0 | Lost | 2007-11-16 |
| 0.3.639.0 | Lost | 2007-11-16 |
| 0.3.641.0 | Lost | 2007-11-16 |
| 0.3.642.0 | Lost | 2007-11-16 |
| 0.3.644.0 | Lost | 2007-11-16 |
| 0.3.645.0 | Lost | 2007-11-16 |
| 0.3.646.0 | Lost | 2007-11-17 |
| Lost | 2007-12-05 | |
| 0.3.667.0 | Installer found | 2007-12-18 |
| 0.3.676.0 | Found | 2007-12-20 |
| 2008 | ||
| 0.3.696.0 | Found | 2008-01-16, 09:15 |
| 0.3.699.0 | Found | 2008-02-08 |
| 0.3.719.0 | Found | 2008-03-05, 19:17:10 |
| 0.3.720.0 | Found | 2008-03-05, 20:16:52 |
| 0.3.739.0 | Found | 2008-04-01 |
| 0.3.740.0 | Lost | 2008-04-15 |
| 0.3.744.0 | Lost | 2008-04-24 |
| 0.3.764.0 | Found | 2008-04-24 |
| 0.3.782.0 | Lost | 2008-05-14 |
| 0.3.783.0 | Found | 2008-05-14 |
| 0.3.784.0 | Found | 2008-05-14 |
| 0.3.803.0 | Unconfirmed | 2008-06 |
| 0.3.805.0 | Unconfirmed | 2008-06-10 |
| 0.3.807.0 | Found | 2008-06-17 |
| 0.3.808.0 | Lost | 2008-06-19 |
| 0.3.809.0 | Found | 2008-06-20, 06:31:15 |
Gallery
Videos
Images
A 2005 minigame about sailing a ship on Roblox.
A 2005 castle game from Roblox.
The September 2006 version of Roblox Studio.
Early mockup of the Dynablocks website.
Late 2006 version of the Roblox logo.
External Links
- Official Wikipedia page for Roblox.
- Invite to the ClientSearch Discord.
- The official ClientSearch Blog.
- The ClientSearch version list.
References
- ↑ Roblox Blog page on a brief history of physics in video games. Retrieved 17 Sept '19
- ↑ https://tinyurl.com/2s493j6v
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20070202170622/http://www.roblox.com/Setup/Roblox.msi
- ↑ https://robloxopolis.com/the-clearing-of-deploys-in-2020/
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20110520173356/http://c5.roblox.com/Setup_0.3.809.0.exe
- ↑ https://pastebin.com/0xkq30HQ
- ↑ https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1f0oWprnGXgQs2to4iszDa0OvxXWwVUOW5w0tTnWoILI