While not researching MechScape I also research other Jagex-related goings on. Here is the results of what happened before RuneScape's release and a little of what happened after:

-- Prior to DeviousMUD ---
* 1995-1996: Andrew creates Parallax Painter, Battle Zone and Destruction Imminent (published by Goodmans) on the Atari ST under the name Cunning & Devious Games. This group consisted of Andrew, Paul and Ian Gower as well as Peter Oliver.

* 1997-1999: Andrew goes to uni. There he discovers text-based MUDs (source) and works as a freelance Java programmer (and attends a weekly folk-choir).

-- DeviousMUD ---

* 28 September 1998: Andrew Gower announces on Usenet that he is half way through writing his own graphical MUD (source).

* Circa February 1999: Andrew's personal website discusses DeviousMUD and says it has been in development for 7 months. In August 2001 Andrew re-posts the map from this website and comments that "The world-map is quite interesting, as you can see things have moved from their originally planned locations somewhat, but many locations still have the same names. Also the central part of the map is an aproximate (sic) mirror image of the current map!" and reveals that since its inception it had been "completely re-written several times" (source, source).

* Summer 1999: Andrew creates games for Games Domain and begins using Jagex as a trade name. He also propooses several newsgroups, such as alt.lang.java.games (source).

* Circa October 1999: Andrew updates his website and states: "Well I've put the beta version of devious-mud online, and a few people have tried it out. However I'm having another break from writing it to give me more time to do the other java games I'm working on. It's not really anywhere near finished yet, so I've removed the address from this page. Try again in a few months time! :-)" (source).

-- RuneScape pre-Beta ---

* 9 January 2000: The RuneScape.com domain is registered (source).

* Circa March 2000: RuneScape went into alpha testing, with the test population mostly consisting of people who played on Andrew's other creations (source).

* 17 March 2000 or before: RuneScape is on the coming soon page on the Jagex website (source).

* 28 April 2000: The company Meaujo (492) Limited is registered (source).

* 28 June 2000: Meaujo (492) Limited changes its name to Jagex Limited (source).

* 7 October 2000: Andrew Gower announces that he will pay for sprites for the upcoming game RuneScape (source).

-- RuneScape Beta and Beyond ---

* 4 January 2001: Andrew launches RuneScape beta, which he operates from his parents house in Nottingham (source).

* 21 January 2001: The first RuneScape newsletter is released. "Firsly a big thank-you to everyone who's been playing, and has helped make RuneScape a great success. We only launched just over 2 weeks ago, and we already have over 28000 signed up players, and the game has been played for a total time of over 4.5 years!"

* 22 January 2001: The #RuneScape IRC channel list is registered by Crash on the Jurai network. Andrew later chats with users on this channel under the name MrAndrew and becomes a channel operator.

* 7 February 2001: Second RuneScape newsletter is released. "The most recent addition is a new area in the sewer. This contains 2 new monster types, deadly-red-spiders, and the exceedingly strong 'moss-giant'. If you can survive then the red spider eggs can be used to make a 4-dose strength potion!"

* 6 April 2001: Asgarnia is released... but a map isn't - cue lots of people making their own maps for it.

* 17 July 2001: Andrew announces a record number of 3067 simultaneous RuneScape players, saying "now 1000 seems like hardly any".

* 19 August 2001: Andrew announces on #RuneScape that he intends to attend the ECTS computer show in London to demonstrate his new 3D engine for the Game Boy Advance. I have no idea if he went or what happened with his engine (if you know then please let me know!)

* 28 August 2001: Using Bluerose13x's invaluable Rune Hatchet, Everdred achieves 99 woodcutting and becomes the first player to max out a stat.

* 5 October 2001 (or earlier): Premium RS is announced to be $5 a month.

* 14 November 2001: Andrew removes the forums and adds a dictionary to RuneScape chat filter. Any word which was not in that filter was replaced with the closest word in that filter. "The new RuneScape chat is only intended for role-playing within the game, not for talking about real life!". Lightning became lighting, Bluerose13x became Blurite 13 x, Mod Gower became god power, noob became noon and communicating became impossible.

* 15 November 2001: Andew backtracks on the dictionary idea and opts for a more powerful filter instead.

* December 2001: Andrew Gower, Paul Gower and Constant Tedder start running Jagex Limited as a commercial operation to take over the operation of RuneScape. The company formally acquires the Jagex franchise from Andrew Gower (source). A bug meant that if you said lots of m's then it'd crash people's clients.

* 27th February 2002: RuneScape members (aka premium) is launched.

* 12 June 2002: Andrew announces an engine update which will have a new 3d engine, all new 3d monsters, random generated areas for gorup hunting, interactive player housing maps and interactive music. This later becomes RuneScape 2 which is then renamed RuneScape.

* 24 June 2002: A bug in RSC meant that the angled White Knights' Castle tower ladder was climbable from outside, allowing for people to escape the world and go outside the map on the first floor. Around this time a completely separate 'alpha server' was running to test Jagex's new database back-end (linked to their new customer support system), and people created new accounts on it (they lost these new accounts when the server was taken down, of course, but it was fun while it lasted).

* 1 December 2003: A beta of RuneScape 2 is made available for members.

* 29 March 2004: RuneScape 2 is launched.

Wow, thanks Ren! I for one really enjoyed reading this. I'll read through all the links when I have more time as while. Thanks!

Interesting. Many people who make it successful in the games industry start at a young age. It just goes to show how much effort and experience is required before starting something like RuneScape.

I guess we're similar in a way. But unlike Andrew Gower, I have no support from anyone I know personally. I've been forced to keep my interests to myself, and learn everything on my own. He was lucky to have his brother's help; it would be a miracle for mine to do the same.

Thanks for posting this Ren. You should start another "This is Your Life" show.

Wow, that's some very interesting stuff.
The rant about Swiftswitch was very...eh...entertaining

This is very impressive jagex came a long way. =)

Wow is right.That information is really good.Now I have an idea what to do when im posting info.And it was interesting.
Thanks for posting.

My research has lead me to believe that the following text relating to RuneScape history from the old Wikipedia article was worked on by people 'in the know'...

* Version 0.1: The first version started out as a one man project. The developer (Andrew Gower), started working on the original game in 1998. This version was very different to the ''RuneScape'' of today. It had isometric graphics, and was originally titled 'DeviousMUD'. This version was never released to the public, and only a few people ever saw it.
* Version 0.2: The developer scrapped DeviousMUD, and started work on a complete rewrite in 1999. Despite being a complete rewrite, this version was very similar to version 1, with the same graphics and name. This version was released as a public beta for only about 1 week, and then withdrawn.
* Version 1: The developer started yet again with a 3rd attempt on October, 1999. This time with some help from his brothers Paul and Ian. The isometric view was replaced, in favor of 3D graphics and 2D sprites. he game was renamed to ''RuneScape'' and released to the public on January 4, 2001.

Nice info but i read most of it earlier on your unofficial gower archive

Yeah, I post a lot of interesting stuff on Unofficial Andrew Gower Archive.

Cool find !!!

Interesting stuff. I heard about the rant he posted through RuneScape. Only reason I ever heard of SwiftSwitch. lmao....

Wow, that's really interesting... Never new he started out that early. I already knew stuff about DeviousMUD from Wikipedia, but still an interesting read.

This should be stickied. Or put into an archive somewhere.

whoa thats nice info

I still love RSC =)

[font="Book Antiqua"][/font][size="2"][/size]I've always wondered how all of it started and how games get started!

Even though this is a some what an older post, thanks for your work in letting others know what it takes to make gaming happen.

Runescape - I LOVE IT! Been playing since September 07 and play plenty! Great Job to those who work so hard!

Sarah

Lmao, RSC banned Andrew from their forums. Haha! Very funny. ^^

I've compiled as many old RSC maps as I can, official ones where possible as I feel it does a good way of illustrating the gradual growth of the RuneScape world.

















Does anyone have any more?

Ooh, soz for the double post, but I found more and there were too many images in one post in the last one lol.

Here are the others:

Click on the images and it says "uploaded by Ren of MechScapeWorld.com", 'cos that was taken from a tip.it topic I posted recently.

Wow, really nice job Ren!!

It is amazing how this happened, if you think about it. I highly doubt that Andrew expected the success that RuneScape is today.

Although, when someone becomes successful like this, they usually forget what gaming is all about..Having fun. Let's just hope this doesn't happen to him.

Also, could somebody please explain the SwiftSwitch in more detail; I do not fully understand it? Thanks

[23:40] <@MrAndrew> had a record number of players this evening :-) I was very pleased
[23:41] <@MrAndrew> I saw 3067 at once!
[23:41] <Kerrick> i remember when we hit 1000
[23:41] <@MrAndrew> yep me too, I was so excited when we hit 1000 months ago
[23:41] <@MrAndrew> now 1000 seems like hardly any

(see http://gowerarchive.googlepages.com/communications )


It was a VB application using the IE Active X control which provided easy access to taking screenshots, changing servers, looking up information (prices, guides, calculators, player stats) and chatting on IRC. Jagex didn't like its advert avoidance.

Thanks for clearing that up...

I can't believe they were shocked when they found 3000 people online. I guess now that's nothing to them

Just wondering, how did the people at RS-C know that the person who posted was the real Andrew? What ways did they have of knowing? or were they all idiots?

Please tell me :)

Well since he had the game in his computer, he was probaly the only one that can log in as the name "Andrew."
But idk I wasn't in the classic but I am pretty sure it was like this.

1. Because he could consistently predict future events (e.g. "server going down in 5 mins, I'll be adding feature X").
2. Because others such as Lightning talked to him regularly and could vouch it was him.
3. He had a Cambridge IP address.

I feel like flaming but w/e.

I'm talking about the SS thing. WHen he posted in RS-C. How did peple know it really was him?

Oh hehe.

RSC = RuneScape Classic
RS-C = RuneScape Community

:$

sorry

Ren, you seem to know a lot of stuff not even old school Classic players did.. whats up with Lightning.. I know he was one of the early beta rs tester.. but yea.. can you like tell me some sutff about the lightning -> andrew releation like did andrew give lightning cool stuff and yea..

Sorry if I sound like an idiot.

What exactly wer ethe early rsbeta testers?

I haerd Lightning, Rab, and merlin were amongst them

"3. He had a Cambridge IP address."

I can get a proxy and change my IP to cambridge..

but yea.. anyways.. only Admins (maybe senior) would be able to see his IP

was that the only way they recognized him???

editing is overrated.

i hope you reply..

http://forum.tip.it/viewtopic.php?t=696328...asc&start=0

lightning resignation

it has many "encrypted" messages that leaves on thinking

can you give some light on it?

btw, I KNOW, future readers will ask the same questions I am.
please reply

Lightning is a lady who knew Andrew from when he was doing stuff for Games Domain (and funnily enough shares his birthday). Rab is Rob Law AKA Moderator who made some of the early quests. They were RuneScape alpha testers. The RuneScape beta was open to the public, and ran from Jan 2001 until the release of P2P.

Ok. Thank you so much. Can you read my previous reply (above yours) :D

Please & thank you

edit: Who is Silverion?

do you know of any events were Lightning was like iono like Andrew gave something to her and made her cool or something interesting that happened ingame involving Lighting?

Im on the 3rd page on http://forum.tip.it/viewtopic.php?t=696328...asc&start=0 and she seems to know a expletive deletedload of secrets.

Jagex secrets
Runescape ( the game) secrets
Tip.it secrets

damn.. she is a legend

Try using the edit button, please.

Ok.. hmm this will be my last post in this topic

I only have one question left:

do you know of any events were Lightning was like iono like Andrew gave something to her and made her cool or something interesting that happened ingame involving Lighting?

yea..

Are you serious?

Well now I know RS-C and RSC are different places :P
So I think he meant RS-C

I know he did, I used to be a poster on that fan-site and I still occasionally look at it. Its still surprising though and probably not true.

1. I know of nothing interesting that happened in-game involving Lighting.
2. IIRC Silverion was the one who named Asgarnia.

how do you know that?

Just checked and it was Caramon who named Misthalin.

wow a very interesting read, andrew gower started learning html and c at 12? i am impressed

Wow, that's Ren. This was most enjoyable to read, and it really filled my mind with lots of thoughts. I can't believe i've taken so long to look at this topic for the first time. I would have loved to be with Jagex and runescape all the way back then, but i was far too young back then. My family didn't even have internet yet!

I think i got internet in 2003, and in 2004, my cousin showed me to runescape, saying he was really happy because he just got 40 mage. I had no idea what he was talking about, so i went to his computer and he showed me. I tried it out at home and i've played it ever since. I owe a big one to my cousin. He quit though, later saying it was pointless and there was no need to waste any more time on it. I can only call myself a runescape player still because of the friends i didn't want to leave behind when i quit. I've quit multiple times before, at least 4-5 times in total. The longest time being 5 months.

wow thanks for telling me about the history of runescape

I remember games domain and somebody told me about Runescape...I was like wow this is cool...then I kept playing lol. I also remember the santa hats...sadly I never got one lol

I don't usually read long stuff on the forums, but this was really interesting. Thanks for that Ren. Oh, and you could post about the "durial" incident if you find more info.

Read about that at http://www.tip.it/runescape/?page=durial321_interview.htm

Wow, i only heard about Durial about 1 year ago. I looked up a bit about him, and found some videos of him pking in fally after he created a glitch. I heard there was lots of talk about it. He also has a youtube channel, you can probably find it by looking at the videos of him.

i never knew they planed to make player owned houses.