What Is The Earliest Blender Version You Have?

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eye32_thumb.jpgWe are all different. Separated by boundaries too numerous to count. But we can always rely on one thing, one thing that binds us all together for a single grand purpose – great 3D.

What unifies us all is, of course, Blender. Some of us have been around since Blender’s beginnings and some of us might have downloaded Blender for the first time only yesterday. So what is the earliest version of Blender you still have around? More importantly, where can we find it!

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    • http://www.blendernation.com Bart

      I started using Blender with version 1.36 or 1.37 if I remember correctly. During university, I was a freelance CG animator and I made lots of silly logo animations for a living. When I got a ‘real’ job I forgot about 3D but after about a year I installed Linux out of curiosity. Of course, all I got was a desktop with a terminal and a calculator and no clue about what to do next. Looking around on the web I found this crazy 3D app called ‘Blender’. That’s how my story began… :)

      I don’t have an old version to offer, but download.blender.org still hosts 1.73: http://download.blender.org/release/

    • mfoxdogg

      I have been using Blender since 2.31 but recently i downloaded 1.80 (not much different to now ;) ) from the Blender.org website

      Long Live Blender :)

    • Tomasz Mielnik

      First blender I’ve used was 1.38. Even then it was amazing in his own concept of GUI.

    • http://jogai.nl Jogai

      I began 3 years ago or something. Did some thing with a flying camera and run away, too complex for me. A year ago I could do it for school credits, and began modelling. I’m a blender fan now, altough i didn’t have much time for it.

    • Tristan

      I’ve been using blender for to long i want to say since 1.28-1.34 era i know it was something like 7 years ago for me so… yay. I still love blender and i find it much easier to use then many commercial Apps out there.

    • http://www.myspace.com/5555785rizzo Chit

      I just began using blender in about January of 2006. I think I still have the first version I downloaded, probably on my flash drive.

    • Joat

      My first was 2.36. I started my journey to Blenderland at february last year.

    • http://stillinprogress tstar

      I´m collecting my expexperiences in 3D since 2001. At first i got a copy of 3d studio max and i can say it was terrible, with this sofware i can´t join in to the 3D World. But then i found “Blender 1.38″ and the 3D World was self Explaining for me.
      Great Thanks to Ton for his great work.
      Since this Time I´m working and collecting every Version of Blender. And at this Time I´m a great Fan of all the other Open Source Stuff.
      Thanks Ton Roosendaal.

    • Andries

      I also started out on 1.28 about 6 / 7 years ago….don’t have a version anymore though :(

    • Piet

      I seem to recall I should have a floppy with Blender 1.? on it, somewhere in my great great archive of unused floppy disks.

      I don’t have a floppy drive anymore, however :(

    • alabandit

      i first used blender back in 2000 (can’t remeber the version) only seriously used it though in from a bout 2003. I most likely have a couple of versions on backup cd some were.

    • http://www.tr3d.com cuneyt

      i use blender since 2002
      my first blender version is 2.20.
      2.20 is only 1.46mb .
      i thought its amazing how this size of program makes this animations.

      BLENDER= small size program + big and good jobs

    • Traligy

      I started using blender in 2003 or 2004 so whatever version was newest back then.

    • http://www.cginsomniac.com Brian

      The first blender I used required the key to use it. Which I PAID for!?! Honestly can’t remember what version that was. One thing I will say is I’m glad we don’t have that box of an interface anymore.

    • http://www.nathan.nl.tt JD-Multi

      My first Blender version was 2.23. When I wanted to also discover the game engine I started using 2.25. I found blender for the first time in early 1999 on blender.nl, when the company NaN still excisted. Ooh man that blender.nl website brings back memories as well the interface of blender in that time. :P

    • Burritoboy

      2.28a. Just looked at it. Bit of a shocker.

      Still works too. Checked out 2.20 and came back when Blender was out for the Mac.

      Blender is so small I never deleted earlier versions form my app folder. So I now have a collection.

      BB

    • WeWa

      The oldest stuff i can find are .blend’s dating back to the beginning of 2002. I started using blender before 2000 if I remember correctly, no idea what version it was back then. Too bad my hd crashed…

    • http://mke3.net Matt

      The oldest Blender version I have on this particular computer is from a few days ago ;)

    • WeWa

      just found the Blender Texture disc lying around. It’s from 2001 and contains 2.14.

    • blendercross

      First contact in 1999 if i remember correct.
      Two times i started to work with blender, but i was frustraded to get throu the UI.
      In the year 2000 i bought the book of Carsten Wortmann ( its still on my desk..) and since then i use
      blender – the Version i started was 1.8 and mayby its on an backupdisk somewhere……

    • Peter

      I think my oldest is 2.32 or something… whatever came with the official Blender 2.3 Guide in print.

    • http://3d-synthesis.com ROUBAL

      I discovered Blender in January 2004, speaking in a store with a vendor. I was looking for an affordable 3D software to make a 3D scale model of a museum (My museum project).

      He didn’t had 3D software in the store, and told me that I could find Blender for free on the web.

      It was the starting point of a marvelous adventure!

      I believe that I started with the 2.30 or 2.31 version.

      Since this moment, I used it quite every day.

      Thanks a lot to Ton, the Blender Foundation team, and all the community of developpers and users sharing their knowledges, because Blender really changed my life !

      Philippe.

    • http://www.blenderart.org Sandra aka dreamsgate

      I started around 2000 and version 1.8. I still have a copy of it on disc as well as older versions I collected once upon a time for posterity. :)

    • Gabriel

      Blender is an awesome software … i started using it about 3 years ago. Initially, i found it a little complex, but the more i used it the easier it became. so much so that even maya and max felt tedious.

    • http://www.blender.org ton

      Hi,

      OK… it’s not fair, but I think it’s fun to mention the oldest version I can still find:
      http://download.blender.org/release/Blender1.0/blender_irix_1.0.zip

      It’s a 1.0x version, I can’t find out which exactly, it only runs on old irix systems (probably 5.x irix).

      And here’s the oldest windows version I have (832k !!!):
      http://download.blender.org/release/Blender1.60/blender1.60_Windows.exe

      Note that these binaries might crash with a recent .B.blend, so move that away!

      -Ton-

    • http://n.domaindlx.com/AniCator AniCator

      I started to use Blender since 2.37a
      I discovered it earlier. But I uninstalled it cause I didn’t understand what it could do(I even didn’t know what 3D exactly was).

    • DukeAndrey

      I started with 2.40 Over a year ago. It was only a few months before 2.41 came out.

    • http://python3d.hiddenworlds.org timmeh

      The oldest version I can find in my computer at the moment is 1.38. When I first started using Blender, it was small enough to fit on a HD floppy, so I’d take it to school and play instead of doing work in computing.

    • http://www.venomgfx.com.ar venomgfx

      1.60?? wow..

      my first blender version ever was the 2.23, there in 2002/2003.. then i just couldn’t stop and now I’m with a 10min older blender version :)

    • http://www.geocities.com/silgrin4d Silgrin4D

      Wow!!! 1.0… This is sth I`d be madly happy to see at work…;) Maybe sb with Irix could link some screenshots!?!

      Btw, the first version I got was probably 1.73 or so, added to a magazine cover CD. Since the Win version was sth like a demo, and I had no spare HD space for Linux (which actually I had to remove some years earlier), I didn`t use it. The first ver I employed was some 2.2x, already with the new interface. I always used it along with some commercial program-at the beginning it was a scaled-down version of C4D, then a full installation of the old, lovely LightWave… Now finishing some project with Blender, so it seems I will use them together instead of replacing B with LW;)

    • http://www.ifrance.com/guibka guibka

      My first version of blender is 2.12. During that time (2001), I was more experimenting than modeling… Blender was around 1400kb and could fit on a floppy disc!!!

    • knittl

      ok, well, i started using it back in july this year, i think. that was 2.41 then…

      love blender and all guys involved in developping it.

    • s_hokama

      I think the first version of Blender I knew of was version 1.60. Was it about 6 years ago? Geez… Quite some time has passed, no?

    • http://home.comcast.net/~viruet8253 Rookie

      Hi there…

      The oldest version of Blender that i found on
      my old hard drive slaved to my pc, was Blender
      V 1.72, still working and have the same old eye logo.

      Rookie

    • Fire Angel

      I have 2.40 backed up just in case, and was glad I did when I downloaded 2.41. I use 2.42a and love it. I started with 2.36 and have always kept one version behind archived when I downloaded a new version. Older than that, I delete them as I am not a collector of software for my Mac.

      Blender is fantastic and getting better all the time.

    • Terence

      My first contact with blender was back around 1997. I loaded it onto a computer at work and played with it when I should have been doing other stuff. I was just getting the hang of it when I quit my job and went to Japan for several years. Unfortunately I kinda forgot about it till about last year. I was reaquainted with it about the time the Orange project started. I’m not sure which version I used back in ’97 but I’m guessing it was in the low to mid 1.x version

    • http://www.blog.ohweb.com.ar Gez

      My first version of Blender was 2.33a. I didn’t understand the interface an left it (I was a max user… ehem).
      Later, tired of Max and all its inconveniences, I gave Blender a second chance, read the docs (shame on me, I didn’t do that before) and fell in love. It was version 2.36
      Later, with 2.37 and the transform widgets I found everything easier, and the rest is history.
      Since that I’m a happy blenderhead and there’s no place for other 3D app in my computers :-)

    • pat

      i’ve got a 2.12 here but started around 1.8 / 1.6

    • Dave

      Just checked out the version 1.60 Ton mentioned. Weeeiiirrrd!!

    • John L

      I started with Blender January 2006.
      I have 2.40, 2.41, 2.42, 2.42a and the Blender 2.3 Guide, Blender Game Kit books +CD’s.
      I love using Blender thank you.

    • Taavi

      I’m addicted… I have almost all blenders since v1.51.

      But I first tocuhed 2.32… It scared my a bit and next time I tried 2.34 (and I liked it then)

    • http://www.kulma.org basse

      hmm, it was 1.6 or 1.8. i was looking for a 3d package for linux, and there was only blender and something called moonlight atelier.. blenders interface first scared me off because i couldn’t even add a cube.. but for some reason after couple of weeks i decided to try again, and feel in love.

      mmm..

      .b

    • http://madmanux madman

      Was 2.28c :D

    • Rendasher

      Mine was also 2.28c. Way back when…

      *the old gui still held reign
      *there was no fluid, no nodes, no groups, no great Orange stuff
      *the blender icon on my desktop looked like something for Windows 95

      I enthusiastically followed the development through the 2.3x series, and now onto 2.42a, and beyond.

      What fun!

    • Rendasher

      BTW, I still pull it out and poke around in 2.28 from time to time, just laughing at how much it has changed. Blender, you’ve come a long way!

    • http://binder-eddie.blogspot.com Eddie

      mine is 1.80a, im leave it cuz my hands cant work together with my brain to understand blender 1.80a
      but since release 2, blender is more friendly, luv it!

    • IAN R

      I started using blender in 1999 with version 1.7, it came with a P.C mag called Digit.

    • http://cxc3d.blogspot.com FJS

      Started using blender from 2.25, the initial opensource release. I think back then I was looking for a free, linux-compatible 3DSMax replacement. At that time, it felt really sucks. Specially no undo except mesh undo. But even that time I’m pretty attracted with curiosity with this software and I keep tracking each version and changes. And nowadays looks like my faith on blender really pays!

    • BlackBoe

      I got 2.41, loaded it up, got smacked in the face with “holycrapzZ!1!1M MILLEEYUNS OF BUTTONS!!!11zomg,” dithered about in a panic for maybe a day and a half, then gave up and un-installed it.

      Months later, I finally gave up yelling at gmax for being bloody annoying and then un-installed IT. Then I remembered blender. I steeled myself for the trial and downloaded it again, and ventured into the land of buttons. (2.42) It was a lot easier than I remembered. Now I have nothing except zoo-blenders CVS du jour. I am not a man of the past. :P

    • http://www.osysi.net Bmud

      I heard about blender when it was in its 1.x stages, and didn’t give it much thought because it was 100$ and I was still in middle school I think. Years later a friend of mine was using it for things like special effects. I was scared to even try it because the interface was horrendous to my eyes being used to 3ds max for 3 years (Maybe early blender 2.x?) Then much later — only about two or three years ago when 2.32 had just been released I remembered “there was some program out there that could make 3D and it had a web plug-in that actually WORKED.. I should hunt that down again”. And I found it. And it had gone open source. And I instantly fell in love with that idea. I hopped on to the Blender train and forced myself to learn it. Here I am. My oldest version I keep around is 2.25 simply for web use. Sometimes I let people try out 2.32(ish) for a laugh to say “isn’t it crazy working in a 3d app without undo?” But those were fun times. Now I’m off to read all YOUR lovely comments. There are an awful lot. :O

    • http://www.sf-galere.net Kram1032

      My first Version was 2.32, I think… maybe also 2.35… but these times I wasn’t even able to render simple pic! I everytime just had the sky and nothing else…
      I don’t know, what I did wrong even now…
      Then, there was a big stop. My computer was broken and I had to set it up again. I didn’t know the Sitename, so I searched a bit, but didn’t find it again…
      Then I gave up and very much later I found it by accident….
      That was Version 2.41, I think…
      Here I had another problem: The GUI made some trobbles (Not ’cause it was too complex or too different, Blender is the only 3D-Prog I use and I have ever used ;) ) The buttons where displaced completely…
      So I ned a long time to solve the Problem: First, I installed Phyton (These Times) 2.3 and then I downloaded the Sourcecode! Now, it works fine with the lastest CVS-update of 2.42a

    • http://www.thoro.de thoro

      Haha, I started with Blender 1.57 on Silicon Graphics – I think I still got it on my old Personal Iris and O2 :-). I made a scalable Blender icon for Irix representing the old Blender logo you see at the top of this page.

      My first Windows version was Blender 1.60a (just checked my old CDs).

    • FaBe

      I started with Blender version 1.75a I was amazed by the capabillities the program had, and still fiited on a floppy. Followed it ever since, and must admit that it is sometimes hard to keep up the pace at wich it evolves.

    • http://omarmodesto.tripod.com Omar Modesto

      My first Blender version was 1.80a, back in 2000, though it took a whole year of trying several other 3D applications before rediscovering it at 2.12.

    • Sterling

      I have in my hands a blender 1.74 demo disc from e3 2000. Someone was handing them out in one of the smaller halls. I had no idea what it was, I installed it, messed around with it for a while, then gave up. I came back a year later and picked it up again, and i have been using it ever since. it has a pretty cool gallery on the disc too.

    • reaper

      i have the orginal not a number version

    • http://claudiojd.googlepages.com/ CJD

      was 1.8, and i find it for… a newspaper from my grandfather! and take me 3 days move the cube! today, the cube is my friend :D i was lost in a strange 3d interfase, and i whitout previous experience. :)

      UOU Blender 1.0! what python version need it?

    • http://www.freewebs.com/scabootssca scabootssca

      I started using blender like a week after 2.25 came out.
      So thats the oldest version i have.
      No idea when that was.

    • CubOfJudahsLion

      I still have Blender 1.4x somewhere in my old disk libraries. A few months ago I ran 1.4, just for the fun of it, just to see the differences.

      It’s still surprising to see how Blender manages to pack so many features in so little space, and how everything was (as is today) right at your fingertips, once you learn where everything is. More amazing, thought, is to see how many changes have happened. I was amazed as to how much the interface and feature set have actually changed.

    • http://gustavthemushroom.deviantart.com Tim

      I started using it when the last version with a key came out. I think that was the first open source version…i cant quite remember. I think it was 2.25P (P for publisher)

    • AngelSeven

      I have 1.8 on a ETC/ Siggraph disc i got back in the day

    • AngelSeven

      lol its actually not 1.8. :)

    • http://gat.animepaper.net/ Gat

      2.42a!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
      I am very new.
      Out of curiosity, why?

    • http://www.captainvideo.nl/work/shorts/down_init.html Jan

      http://www.captainvideo.nl/work/shorts/down_init.html
      This is a video made at neogeo in 1995 with “traces”, the program that became blender.

      http://www.captainvideo.nl/work/shorts/hell_of_fame.html
      The 3d sequences in this movie were done in 1998 with blender version 1.37

      http://www.captainvideo.nl/work/television/kunstpanorama.html
      This was done with blender in 2004, don’t know what version

    • rpgsimmaster

      Hmmm… I think it was 2.36… But I think I’ve downloaded an older version somewhere. It’s come along way since, even compared to 2.36

    • CurtisS

      I joined in around 1.6 when the company I worked for wouldn’t buy me a 3d package to replace the awful Macromedia Extreme 3D I was using. In hindsight, they actually did me a favor!

      I still have some pre-2.0 versions laying around.

    • madcello

      2.25 version
      Maybe a month or 2 before the donations for the open source. It was very dificult to evolve without going constantly to the forum (lack of docs). I took more than a year with just 1 project (interactive house), wich i never finish, but learn some of Blender. If i remember well, i think i jump right to the 2.35a and break the head again, this time searching for buttons. ………nostalgy………

    • http://www.chmod.com.au spong

      I recall trying out blender in 1997, and then not coming back to it till about 2002-3ish, and I haven’t looked back since ;) I recall the ‘old’ interface with no menu or anything and my cheat sheet of key commands to get around. I’m looking forward to the future though, with Vista support etc.

    • http://www.gorilla3d.com/plantperson PlantPerson

      I started with the version that was available in April 2006… can’t remember what version that was. 1.X something.

    • argentino

      My first was 2.36

    • DanC

      2.28 I believe.

      When I first found it, I tried really hard for about a week, but never got more than a black screen(it needed a lamp, who knew?) I picked it up a couple months later, found the help forums, and haven’t stopped since.

      Did anyone else buy the Blender Book by Carsten Wartmann? I should find the included cd and see which version was shipped with it.

    • http://www.exceede.com/ Vasili Sviridov

      Around 1.69 or so… Read an article about it in russian magazine “Хакер” and decided to give it a try, cause it was only 1.3 megs, which was acceptable with my crappy Moscow’s dial-up connection

    • Alan

      I started using Blender back in 2000 or maybe before. I can’t remember what version. but back then it was owned by NaN and could run nicely on my Celeron 400 with 384MB RAM and Geforce 2 MX. I even went as far as to buy the printed manual from the E-shop and two blue and green tutorial books.

      Those were exciting times – a free 3d app that did not require crazy scripts for a cube on a plane (povray). The user interface made it look like a NASA satellite control system compared to 3ds Max, bit it proved to be intuitive and productive. I wondered why other programs did not use a similar UI. Long live Blender!

    • dhayden

      I first found blender about 6 years ago. My first online purchase was the spiral bound Blender V 1.5 manual with V1.8 appendix. I aslo bought the Tutor Guide #01 and the Tutorial Guide #02 (I’ve always woundered why they had different names??) with that same order. Probably the best online purchase I have made to date. These three books are still great referances that I use.

      I just realized that I basically have the same post a the post from “Alan” above. Oh well. This is a great program!!!! Keep up the good work..

    • Toonami_Fan

      my Blendering was born with Ver 1.76 – oh how I wanted a s-mesh key but I was only 14

    • Fox

      First time see and try blender, it was at the 90′s, but when I joint the community of free software of my university, it was the 2.25. but now the last 2.42a is very good

    • http://mediawiki.blender.org/index.php/User:Igor Igor

      It looks like I’m the only one who still have original NaN Blender 1.72 on CD!!

    • http://deeppixel.uw.hu Zsolt

      I got Blender from a PCmag, 2000 January I believe, which had BeOS and a few programs for BeOS on it, including Blender 1.62 (or was it 1.72?). Been hooked since :)

    • claas kuhnen

      2000 a study friend in Germany told me about a friend in Africa that he uses Blender
      for 3D and post production and I think at that time it was 1.8 just came out for LinuxPPC.

    • Dakube

      My first Blender version was 1.60 I think, one of my friennd gave a floppy disk to me and said ” with this you can make 3D stuff very easily.” So I gave it a try. It was amazing but my computer was so slow that I let blender behind for a couple of years. BTW I was 12yo when I first made some cube in blender and people called me “Dakube”… I’m still addicted today and following every version that comes out.

    • http://blenderbuch.de carsten

      http://www.linux-magazin.de/Artikel/ausgabe/1998/06/Blender/blender.html

      My first article about Blender 1.31, first Blender I got was the first Linux Version. Was ist 1.21?

      Carsten

    • houari

      *there’s something wonderful about blender and like they say appearances are often fooling
      *it sure is a great soft but greater is the blender planet…i mean everything that starts with blender…like .org,.nation…and so on but above all it makes you feel like those who cannot afford r and tm stuff:working with free stuff gives a big sense of cleanliness
      *the blender planet gives dizznessbut it’s nonetheless a wonderful thing and blender is in the heart of that wonderful thing
      *thnaks to all guys who make it affordable…really!!!
      *btw i just started with 2.42a

    • houari

      *of course “thnaks” is “thanks”…smile!!!

    • DKW

      The first version of Blender I ever used was 2.34. Back in November ’04, when I was looking to see if there was any good freeware 3D modeling/animation software.

      Needless to say, I found it.

    • http://www.blendernation.com Bart

      Carsten!!! How cool to see you’re still around! I didn’t know you read this website :)

      Cheers,

      Bart

    • Neil

      I first downloaded 1.8(?) but it sat dormant while I tried Carara and truespace but 2.0 was so much better than either of them (1.8 probably was too) so I picked it up there.

    • FromTheDark

      The first time I ran across Blender what both a blessing and a curse; blessing because it was the one thing I had been looking for to make real the most powerful force in the world, our imaginations. And curse because it was only in a Linux flavour (and I was a was Windows 1.5 user from way back when) plus it was to me the most un-window like program I have ever ran into.

      Funny what a fire will do once set ablaze in a hear, never stopped trying to understand it, always looked for the newest version to try. Fighting Linux in any version that seemed to work best with this program. In short knowing this was my way and not turning back.

      Version 2.3 was the one for me…once the video card problems where worked out (ATI). Life is good! Never give up!

    • http://www.thomastorfs.com Thomas Torfs

      I have no idea what version. But the first time I downloaded blender was in the spring of 2002. I used it for my end year high school project. Must have been a pretty early version back then.

      This project has evolved so much over the last years. I highly encourage it and hope version 2.5 will come out very soon.

    • Shadowed

      I found Blender 2.25 in my archive. Since then, every release and almost every plugin. Today, I use it at work, this year my company (with my influence) have changed 3DS Max to Blender. It needn’t have convinced much – to bosses the sound of the word “free” is like a bell. To me, it’s a success.

    • http://phrozen.monopolio.com.mx Phrozen

      I was a maya user sometime ago, but it was really crappy i could do too much in my PC (Just firing up Maya was about 176Mb of RAM). I didn’t had a nice machine back there. One day a friend of mine told me of Blender. I download version 2.34 of it. And when I started it it was only 9Mb of RAM from startup. I started to use the interface and I really loved it! I have never touched Maya again from that day on. I have a 64 bit machine now, so thanks to adkiller now I’m really glad I started using Blender. My first version was Windows, but shortly after that I used the Linux version packed with Suse 9.3 and I could bear it anymore, I started crying with a smile on my face :P

      Blender Rocks!!!

    • delic

      I started with v. 1.72 …
      I also bought the book that came with 1.8 . Still very useful book !

    • Chirag

      The earliest version I used was 1.38 and ever since then I am in love with this software. I liked how older installer was much smaller compare to now :( 8 MB.

      Also this site has some older blender version if someone want to try any http://www.oldapps.com/blender.php

    • Lucious

      I actually spent quite a bit of time as a dedicated Eovia fan until they sold the segment of their company that produced Carrara and Hexagon to DAZ3D, after which developments completely died (that was over two years ago and not a single upgrade has been made). After that I searched for an answer to replace the still buggy Hexagon 2.0, and found Blender. I’ve been a user ever since.