1.2.5 protocol support

[iAmInActions]

Hello, I was just wondering if there are any plans on implementing the protocol to connect to Minecraft 1.2.5 servers.

[iAmInActions]

Also, if a dev sees this, please add the enhancement label to it.

[skillman623]

While I'm currently doing work on Leafish (a fork of this project), adding support for older protocols is something that I'm interested in and may attempt when I have time.
If you are interested in starting the process with it I may be able to help you get started.

[iceiix]

It would be a big change, due to the Netty rewrite, I'm not personally planning on implementing pre-1.7.10 protocol support, but agree it would be an interesting enhancement and fall within the goal of wide multiprotocol compatibility.

1.7.10 is "protocol 5", it would be straightforward to support protocol 4 (1.7.5, 1.7.4, 1.7.2), 3 (1.7-pre), down to the 13w43a - 13w41a snapshots (protocols 0 - 2), but 1.6.4 and earlier use https://wiki.vg/Protocol_version_numbers#Versions_before_the_Netty_rewrite

This could be supported by adding an (essentially) completely new protocol implementation for pre-Netty versions, which would be a lot of upfront work, but the good news it would open up the possibility of supporting a lot of the older versions, without much additional work. The packet IDs did not shift in the pre-Netty protocols, and the changes are mostly incremental (though there may be packet variants, too). Easiest path to do this may be to start with 1.6.4, then work backwards to 1.2.5, for reference:

1.6.4: https://wiki.vg/index.php?title=Protocol&oldid=4899
1.2.5: https://wiki.vg/index.php?title=Protocol&oldid=932