2004scape Server

Website | Discord | Rune-Server

disclaimer: All server code has been written from scratch for this project, Jagex has never had any source code leaks.

status: in-development, not ready for players. Contributors are welcome to help out.

This project aims to replicate an authentic RuneScape experience from May 2004. It should be considered an emulator first and foremost, as replicating behaviors by emulating the underlying systems is the biggest focus. The config system and scripting system is as close to authentic as we understand it, and is continually refined as we learn more info.

To Jagex: This project comes out of love for the game. As MMOs age, their previous versions are lost to history. An experience becomes ephemeral and time-limited. We're aware that you have no backups for this era and so we're putting in the effort to recreate what we can.
It won't ever profit off your trademarks. Without this project, this version of the game only lives in our memories. Screenshots and videos are scarce, and the original data is lost to time. This is no easy task.

To players: So happy to have you interested! RuneScape 2 launched on March 29, 2004. We have no copies of that revision, but we do have some client caches from May 2004. This project emulates May 18, 2004, which was live until June 1 of that year. It has Treasure Trails and Big Chompy Bird Hunting. The next revision after this added Elemental Workshop I.

Environment Dependencies

NodeJS 20+ (current LTS) or 18 (last LTS)
Java 17+

Java is required for JagCompress.jar (a small 1:1 compression utility) and RuneScriptCompiler.jar (the content language compiler).

You can download JagCompress and RuneScriptCompiler from the #dev-resources Discord channel. Place the jar files in the root directory of the project.

JagCompress is also available on GitHub. RuneScriptCompiler is not yet open-source, sorry for any inconvenience.

Getting Started

Clone the repo
Install environment dependencies
Run npm ci to install code dependencies
Copy the file .env.example to .env
Run npm run client:pack to create the client cache. This may take a few minutes the first time
Run npm run server:build to build all of the server files (packs cache, generates symbols, compiles scripts)
Run npm start to start the server

Development Workflow

You can run npm run dev to start the server. This will watch for changes to the source, config, or script files and automatically rebuild them.

Whenever you make a change to a config or script file while the server is running you can hotload loaded data by running ::reload in-game.

Running tests

We use jest for unit tests.

You can run the tests with npm test.
If you're using VS Code, there are two launch options you can use. Both of these options will run in debug mode so you can set breakpoints.
- Debug Jest: All tests will run all tests in series.
- Debug Jest: Current test file will run the tests in the currently open test file.

Test files should be colocated with the source files, i.e. src/foo.ts should have a test file src/foo.test.ts.

Configuration for the tests can be found in jest.config.ts.

Running linter

We use eslint for linting this project.

You can run the linter with npm run lint.
To run the eslint auto-fixer, you can use npm run lint -- --fix.

It's recommended to install a suitable plugin/extension for your IDE, to show you lint results inline.

Please aim to avoid warnings! They are rules that we eventually want to switch to errors.

Configuration for the linter can be found in .eslintrc.cjs.

Credits

Thanks to all the current contributors, every PR you submit gets us closer and closer to feature completeness.

Thanks to these indirect or external contributors

Kris: for all your help theorycrafting and testing, and to his sources as well for teaching him
Walied: for your work on understanding the client assets (worked on understanding cache formats)
Dane: for your work on understanding the client (worked on client refactors)
TheSuddenSilent: for your help gathering period-accurate data through hours and hours of your time (does not use git)

If anyone is not listed here, whether that's intentional to remain anonymous or an oversight, thank you for your help.
This type of project has been a long time coming and I hope to see the trend continue.