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The History of Runescape


mirithner

3820 views

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SpongeCake and I are both veterans in the true sense of the word we have both been playing since 2001. We decided to compose this guide to provoke thought, keep history alive, and commemorate the original version of the great game we have all come to enjoy.

 

The History of Runescape

 

Written By: Archasgame5 & SpongeCake

Assisted By: Jeff Yes

 

Originally posted at: http://www.runescaperealm.com/runescape-classic/ultimate-runescape-history-guide-76503/

 

Content:

 

1.) General Intro

2.) Pioneers of Runescape

3.) Plate Pures + Knife Glitch

4.) Holiday Items (Part I)

5.) The Big Dupe

6.) Holiday + Rare Items (Part II)

7.) RSC Dragon Items

 

The game of Runescape made its online debut in January of the year 2001. Andrew and Paul Gower were the only Jagex employees at the time. Over the years, they would see their game grow and develop, and the need for more employees grew. Runescape was a very simple game to begin with. Although many people believe that Runescape Classic is 2-D, it is actually 3-dimensional. It has height, width, and depth, and the graphics are primitive but fun just the same. When the game first came out, you could choose what occupation to be. You could be an adventurer, mage, miner, or fighter. Your beginning stats and items would vary according to the profession that you chose. Rune armor did not come out until after the game was under way. The street value of a rune 2-handed sword in the year 2001 was around 2-3 million coins, due to the fact that no one could smith rune yet. The first rune smith was Bluerose13x. There was one type of pickaxe, one type of arrow, one color of gloves. There was no god armor or trimmed armor, and there were no random events. You probably didn't know that within one year of Runescape's release, you were the only person that could view your combat level - there were no levels next to player's names unless they were in the wilderness.

 

Pioneers of Runescape

 

This section of the guide is dedicated to the many people who have helped Runescape become what it is today, a reminder of the games roots

 

Former Overall Leaders, in Chronological Order:

 

Tks For a long time, one of the best players in the game.

 

L6vi Took the #1 spot from Tks in December of 2001.

 

Bonebreaker6 Held off Zezima for quite some time ;)

 

bonebreakerbest7kb.jpg

 

Zezima Everyone knows him as the #1 Overall in Runescape, but he didnt take that position until early 2004.

 

zezima1155yq.png

 

Other Notables:

 

Bluerose13x First person to 99 Smithing AND Magic!

 

bluerose99smith13dec20017ys.jpg

 

Musashi22 2nd person to 99 smithing, held the #1 Smithing spot from 2002 until 2004.

 

LtAngel Goddess of crafting. First to 99, now a player-mod.

 

ltangel3ff.png

 

March 30th, 2003 LtAngel reaches 99 crafting.

 

ltangel99craft30march20032wn.jpg

 

Lilyuffie88 Arguably the most well rounded player in the game.

 

lilyuffie888dv.png

 

Early Warriors:

 

S A X One of the best fighters in the game for a long time.

 

sax1yi.png

 

Zonghui First person to 123 combat (99 in all combat stats). In Runescape Classic, 123 is the maximum combat level.

 

Gearshifter A great fighter and good all-round character.

 

gearshifter8td.png

 

Some snapshots of ½ the duo, Andrew Gower himself:

 

andrew1qi.png

 

andrewranging1lm.jpg

 

Plate Pures + Knife Glitch:

 

A "plate pure" is a character that has the ability to wear a rune chestplate with a magic level of 1. This first became possible when the game made its debut because the map piece was tradable (and before you could bribe the goblin). A pure could buy the map piece and kill the dragon, while never reaching the magic level required for telekinetic grab. As of Christmas Day, 2003 there were only about 80 original plate pures left in the game. There was a big boom of plate pures, however, during the week of the Runescape II trial. Everyone's items were automatically transferred to Runescape II. It was possible for someone to gain magic levels enough to start the Dragon Slayer quest and tele-grab the map piece - then transfer the map piece back to Runescape Classic. Very few of the original plate pures remain.

 

 

The knife glitch was one of the first major bugs to hamper Runescape. How it worked:

 

A player would load their inventory with a weapon and lots of knives. They would then click somewhere on the map to start walking. They would right click and drop the weapon.... but wait! Back in RSC, you had to stop before you dropped anything. This meant the weapon you clicked to drop was still in your inventory. All you had to do is right click again on the weapon and wait until you stopped walking and the item was dropped. A knife would move into the slot your weapon was in. By clicking "Wield" in the box of the weapon you just dropped, you would equip the knife instead. This would add to your weapon strength even though a knife isnt a weapon. The more knives you had, the higher you could hit (obviously). In this particular picture, someone made a noob character and got his strength level to 10. He used the knife bug to fight a Greater Demon. As you can see, the knife bug was extremely effective...he hit a 25 on the Greater Demon with only 10 strength and a bronze hatchet!

 

knifebughits255kx.jpg

 

Holiday Items [Part I]

 

Scythes Dropped on Halloween, 2003. They are non-tradable, and you can only receive one scythe. If you lose your scythe, you may retrieve it from the Varrock Clothing Store.

 

 

Pumpkins - Dropped on Halloween of 2001. You can use pumpkins to heal your hitpoints, but that is certainly not advised.

 

Halloween Masks Dropped in mass amounts on Halloween, 2002. Some people picked up 40-50 masks that night, and then sold for around 10k each. They come in three colors blue, green, and red.

 

Christmas Crackers The origin of the party hat. You had to crack open the Christmas cracker on another player, one person receiving a party hat while the other received a random item. Christmas Crackers are the rarest items in the game.

 

P arty Hats Assorted colors of blue, green, white, red, yellow, and purple.

 

hats1xc0fy.gif

 

The Big Dupe:

 

The big dupe took place on November 7th, 2003. Many people claim to have something to do with the dupe, but few even know how it took place. Let me explain:

 

Duping came out before the division of the original Runescape into the two forms we now play today. In short, here is how it works:

Every item in Runescape, from a bronze dagger to a party hat, has an identification number. In duping, this ID# is copied, creating a multiple of the original item. For example, the ID# for a rune 2-handed sword is 81. When you are finished, the original sword and the duped sword will both have an ID# of 81. This way, JAGEX cannot tell which items are duped and which are not.

 

The dupers went around cracking christmas crackers on random people, and dropping rares in crowded places. Hundreds of party hats, dragon squares, dragon mediums, and other rare items were created and distributed throughout Runescape that day.

 

Jagex was forced to guess which items were real and which items were not. Naturally, party hats were the item of choice to duplicate. The price of party hats dropped to around 200k each. Most people were trying to sell, but some started stocking up on hats. At the end of that day, some people lost millions, while others gained just as much. At the time, pink party hats were the most valuable of the six. Within 24 hours, pink hats lost almost all of their net value (13 million gp down to 200k), and are now referred to as purple party hats.

 

Rare Items (Continued):

 

Easter Eggs Dropped on Easter Sunday in 2002. They heal 12 hitpoints, but like the pumpkin, eating is not recommended!

 

Bunny Ears Dropped on Easter Sunday, 2003. You could only take one pair, and they are non-tradable. If you lose your bunny ears, you can retrieve them from the Varrock Clothing Store.

 

Half Full Wine Jug Originally, wine was consumed in two parts. When Jagex switched this option, half full wine jugs became valuable.

 

Disk of Returning Originally, when a player was banned, their character was teleported into a locked room in the Dwarven Mines. However, if non rule breakers wanted to visit that room, they could purchase a Disk of Returning from the shop for 10gp. The shop is no longer there.

 

RSC Dragon Items

 

Here are pictures of the first (and only) dragon items in Runescape Classic.

 

Dragon Longsword:

 

dlong8ot.png

 

Dragon Battleaxe:

 

daxe0ep.png

 

Dragon Medium Helmet:

 

dmed0dv.png

 

Dragon Square Shield:

 

dsq7gl.png

 

We hope you enjoyed it, and maybe even learned a thing or two. :)

 

P.S. - This is probably the largest Runescape History Guide ever made...

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Ha, I haven't played RuneScape for years but I remember the old legends and dupe story. Incredible how that had such an effect years later with the value of rares.

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