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Comment by impulser_ | Hacker News Reader

Can't believe Runescape private server are still a thing after 18 years. This is what got me into programming. I remember working with the first version back in early 2006 I believe it was called winterlove. You couldn't even play multiplayer. Then someone got multiplayer to work, I think that was called blakescape, then there was cheezscape and whitescape which became the popular versions to use because they came with a lot of content like combat ect.

All of the coding I did was done using notepad on Windows lol.

I remember when the major version this server is based on 470-500+ versions which is when they updated the graphics. We spent days trying to be the first one to get a working server and client. You had to mod the client and walk around the game to collect map data to be able to load the map on private server.

The most fun times I had programing to this day.

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I also got into programming like this. I even remember working with whitefang, the creator of whitescape, to try and build a 377 server when everyone was on 317. I don't remember if that attempt ever got anywhere though.

I think what you're describing with all the code bases is why I lost interest. It felt like everyone was just doing their own thing without any collaboration. Unlike say World of Warcraft servers where everyone used MaNGOS. I hope it's better now

I'm into the wow emu world and it really isn't. There are several forks of mangos and people still don't share their changes.

I meant about 15 years ago when I believe it was mangos and scriptdev2. Compared to runescape servers which I don't think any server software even had a CVS/SVN repo. It was just zip downloads on rapidshare on a downloads sub-forum with zero expectation of there ever being an update.

In fact it looks like those forums are still up, and still has all the old posts. I found an aggregate list from 2008 with 300+ (dead) links to various releases. And this was before multiple clients versions were even a thing. There were only 317 servers, which still seem to be very popular today.

I'm also in wow emu world and I agree. Maintainers seem to be quite picky with accepting changes.

there's also so many weird quirks to the projects, it's basically what keeps me coming back.

A friend of mine in college made about $500~1000/mo running some Runescape private servers with subscriptions. He hosted a few different types of servers, but I know his most profitable one allowed players to buy "chests". Basically modern-day loot boxes with random high level gear. He got the idea from Korean MMOs at the time. No idea what he's up to nowadays.

Back when the economy in RS wasn't bad, the play I did would be to run an RSPS server and sell items, stats, ect. in it for gold in actual Runescape and then sell that gold for actual money. 1m was like a little over 1$ back then.

I never really got into Runescape but I did start programming in PHP with notepad and attribute a very accurate "tab pinky" to those long nights. If I remember correctly, Notepad was the only thing I directly edit remote files in using CuteFTP, so I think that's why I used it at the time as I learned by editing existing "scripts." Good times.

Permabanned from r-s gang wya?

I miss laughing at 2speced Tyler and Nikki not actually being a girl wasn’t much of a surprise.

Tyler and Blurr were legendary in the RSPS scene, 2speced was such a wellmade and maintained RSPS. I wonder where they are now.

It is known that in Runescape "girl" = "Guy In Real Life"

r-s =/= rs (runescape)

I played a lot of moparscape back in the day. Was a fun community of people. Learned a lot standing up my own server and getting it listed on their registry for others to join.

Same here, the RSPS communities paved the way for lots of us.

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