Scratch OS V1 is a recreation of the oldest Scratch OS build ever conceived. It preceded Scratch OS (also known as Scratch OS V2). The build is primarily notable for being the sturdy base for the whole OS series that would be continually reused time and time again.
Although extremely primitive by later standards, V1 established several design decisions: most notably the wallpaper treatment and the application closure model, that influenced every subsequent version of Scratch OS.
Recreation
Scratch OS V1 was recreated based on the original description of Scratch OS (V2) from 2011:
V1: Created. Includes: Internet (google, Scratch, Nyan, Surprise) close button Error message
V2: Pointless button that has a point, Email, mystery button, updated Internet (google, scratch, nyan, magikarp/surprise)
V2 is the oldest surviving build currently available in its original format. From the description it is clear that V2 added the Pointless Button, Email Button, Mystery Button, and additional websites. By removing those features it is possible to reconstruct an accurate depiction of what V1 would have looked like.
Functionality
As can be inferred, this is a very basic version of Scratch OS, containing only a single application.
The entire experience consists of the desktop wallpaper, one clickable icon (the Scratch Cat Head Browser), and a universal Close App button in the upper-left corner.
Wallpaper
The wallpaper is literally a screenshot of Scratch 1.4 taken on a Mac machine. The top and bottom 20 % of the screen are white, as the Scratch screenshot would have been cropped if extended to full size.
This design decision, a Scratch Editor screenshot with large white bars on the top and bottom, would become a massive influence on the rest of the builds that followed.
Scratch Cat Head Browser
The first ever application of Scratch OS. Its icon is a Scratch 2.0 Cat Head with a grey pixel shadow still visible and badly cut out, with a hand-drawn globe on top of its head. It sits in the bottom-left of the Scripts Panel relative to the Scratch screenshot.
Clicking it opens a screenshot of Google from 2011. There is no window title bar, browser chrome, or any other UI element. The image occupies roughly 90 % of the height of the wallpaper and sits a little above the middle of the screen, taking up the full width.
It immediately asks “What Website?” via a speech bubble and an answer box. Due to the earliness of this build and the technical limitations of the version of Scratch it was developed on (probably Scratch 1.4, given the 2011 timestamp), only a handful of websites are accessible.
Available websites
nyan: replaces the Google screenshot with a screenshot of the website “Non-stop Nyan Cat!”, frozen at the timestamp “You’ve Nyaned For 10.9 Seconds”. Like all other pages in this build, it is completely uninteractable.google: does nothing, because the user is already on Google when the app opens.scratch: replaces the Google screenshot with a screenshot of the Scratch website from 2011.surprise: displays a large image of Magikarp on a black background in the middle of the screen, accompanied by an audio clip saying “IMA FIRING MY LASERR, BLARGHHH!”. Magikarp’s appearance changes as it says “BLARGHH!” to show a badly drawn cyan laser coming out of its mouth.
Error screen
If anything other than the four valid options is typed, a big black screen appears with bold red text reading:
ERROR: INVALID URL. SHUTTING DOWN NOW.
Close App Button
This button functions as a universal close button (in this build, simply to close the Scratch Cat Head Browser).
It is a Mac OS close-app orb, a little larger than the Scratch Cat Head Browser icon’s globe, sitting in the top-left of the screen on top of the wallpaper, in the upper white space above it.
Clicking it simply closes all currently open apps that are affected by it. In later builds, many applications gained their own close buttons and began to ignore this global control.
Preservation
The original Scratch OS V1 project has been lost. It was overwritten by the Scratch OS (V2) project all the way back in 2011.
The main project structure and all interface assets are available in the subsequent build; however, the exact configuration of V1 remains unknown wherever the V2 changelog did not record the differences.
The modern recreation is sufficient to reproduce approximately 90 % of the original experience, but some behaviours cannot currently be verified.
Build comparison
| Feature | Scratch OS V1 | Scratch OS (V2) |
|---|---|---|
| Wallpaper (Scratch 1.4 screenshot) | Yes | Yes |
| Close App Button | Yes | Yes |
| Scratch Cat Head Browser | Yes | Expanded |
| Pointless Button | No | Yes |
| Email Button | No | Yes |
| Mystery Button | No | Yes |
| Additional websites | No | Yes |
| Error screen | Yes | Yes |
See also
- Scratch OS
- Scratch OS (V2)
- List of known builds
- Scratch Cat Head Browser
- Early Scratch OS design decisions
Notes
- The original V1 project was overwritten by V2 in 2011 and is therefore considered lost.
- All details on this page are derived from the V2 changelog description and from assets that survived into later builds.
- The recreation was compiled on 22 April 2026; the original is dated 8 August 2011.
- Because the recreation is based on a short textual description, minor visual or behavioural differences from the true original cannot be ruled out.