Hey everyone. I’m into vintage computers and have several old systems. One is a Dell Dimension 2400, a Pentium 4 with windows xp and I also have a PowerMac G5. I have been trying to use the webclient to play, but none of the browsers will load the game.
I cannot compile the downloadable client because of a lack of supported java versions and things of this nature. I’d just do this if it were possible.
Linux running on the Pentium 4 WILL load the game, but windows xp and macos leopard will not.
Therefore, I am wondering what it is about these old operating systems that is holding me back here and was wondering what it is that I could do to potentially fix this and get it working. I have a feeling it has to do with security stuff related to TLS and openssl and the like.
Are you trying to connect to the live game? The live client won’t work on vintage operating systems, it relies on WebSockets and modern encryption that are likely unsupported (both by your OS and by the browser backports).
The webclient should still work on older systems if you are connecting it to a local server, or a server accessible over TCP. For example here’s a community server, you can probably connect to this with a browser running on Windows XP: 2004Scape "Leagues" Community Server
The Java client will also work if you’ve got a JDK to compile it and a JRE to execute it. Where to find these, I’m not sure, presumably there is a dump of old Win32 Java binaries somewhere on the Internet…
I haven’t tested it myself (but I might), but it might work on Supermium. Supermium is a modern port of Chromium to Windows XP with modern TLS and otherwise full support for modern web tech. It decouples the browser from the underlying OS, so I think there’s a reasonable chance it would work. I’d mainly be concerned about performance.
I have a Core 2 Duo machine running XP for some old games I play from time to time. I might attempt on there later, but that system will still be a fair bit faster than OP’s P4.
supermium always seems to crash on me i’ve been using mypal which is a firefox based browser meant for sort of the same purpose.
Thanks branon, that pretty much answers my question. i don’t think that a java version new enough for the systems im talking about is out there unfortunately. Do I need java 8?
looks like my best option is to try to get supermium working then. Not sure if i can do anything at all about the ole’ powermac g5. I love the thing but theres not much compatible with it or much you can do with it at this point.
You’d probably be best off building this on a modern OS (Gradle should handle the old dependencies?) and they copying the jar over to your vintage system.
I might have an old jar I can dig up for you as well.
Hey, my bad for just now getting back to you guys.
It’s looking like outside of compiling everything, supermium is going to be the only way. I wish it would work on my Dell, but it keeps crashing, has this happened to you any? it’s done it with multiple versions as well.
Regarding the g5, it’s not looking good as there are no modern chromium based browsers made for it, it’s pretty niche after all.
Thanks guys for the responses though, I appreciate all the info.
Are there any inherent benefits to using the client over the web browser? Like better latency or less resources intensive or something?
I noticed to change worlds, all you have to do is modify the world=# part in the URI path for the web browser. The client though, you gotta go all the way back to the main menu.
turns out that my particular line of processor, pentium 4 northwood, isn’t really supported by supermium. Saw it on github. Unfortunately, I’m just kind of a tinkerer and am not that familiar with programming or code. If I could compile without really having to modify much, then i may try it. otherwise, i’m not sure if id be capable.
i’ve been using mypal which is a firefox based browser meant for sort of the same purpose.