Comment by Confiks
6 hours ago
What a great talk. My introduction to programming as a kid was also writing Runescape bots, using some Delphi tool called SCAR [1] (together with writing plugins for my Counter Strike 1.6 server using AMX Mod X). Start at Varrock bank, wizard hut, dialogue picker, teleport, find out where you are, mine, mine, mine, teleport back, back to bank, deposit, and again.
My great essence mining bot contraption horribly broke when Runescape started randomizing all colors slightly, after making a paltry amount in dollars selling the essences.
In high school I'd meet with people in the back alleyways of my school where they'd hand me stacks of cash to buy... Runescape gold that I gained from botting.
I tinkered a little with SCAR but I primarily used Powerbot. I loved hanging out on their old forum buying/selling accounts, scripts, and photoshopped signatures.
I also got into programming through this scene, though a little later (irc.rizon.net #rsbotjava around 2008). I had already been doing a little coding but couldn't come up with decent project ideas (other than games, which always stalled out because I didn't know any artists or how to collaborate online). The RS scene was a perfect combination of interesting programming challenges, a decent size community of mostly other teenagers to hang out with, and getting to see my programs working in a "real" (virtual, ha) world. I learned about JVM internals, compiler techniques, IDEs, GUI programming with Swing, version control...... I don't know if I would have chosen CS as my major and gone into programming professionally if it weren't for this game and the community around it.
Yep I got started with programming with SCAR and on srl-forums with SRL as well. Was really fun.
Same, but on Kaitnieks/Sythe. Really fond memories of those communities ~2004-2007.
I don't think anyone has written online about what these communities were like and how interesting they were. I should do it!
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Wow I'd forgotten some of this. SCAR, Simba, Villavu forums.
Using SCAR and making bots was my intro to SVN and the concept of importable libraries made by others.
Simpler times. Happier times.
Gonna shoot my shot here
Does anyone remember an article titled "We are the hunted"? I couldn't manage to find it anywhere, live or archived.
Essentially it was about how the ethos of one of those communities (It was Simba when I was around), was not to spam mass bald lvl 3 bots, but to blend in and be essentially undetectable, that the goal was not unsophisticated money but something else.
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> My introduction to programming as a kid was also writing Runescape bots
4th for that! Although screen scraping always infuriated me, so I spent most of my time writing bots for decompiled RS clients.