Sometime in the early 2000s, back when I was in middle school, one of my friends told me about this game that I had to try with him. It was called Runescape. The version we played then is now referred to as "Classic Runescape." Time flies.

I would find myself pouring hundreds of hours into the game, leveling up all of my skills, standing in the town center spamming text to sell goods with rainbow flashing text (which really made you feel like a hacker), and hanging out with my friends.

The years continued rolling, and I left RS, some time after the "new" version came out with 3D graphics, which is now called Old School Runescape. If you've played two iterations of a game that are now referred to with verbiage that indicates its age, it probably means you're old, and boy do I feel it some days.

I didn't stick around RS for long after that update. Initially it was pretty exciting to see the game in a new, more modern light. But, I still yearned for the classic Microsoft Paint style graphics that I cut my teeth on. My interest in the game slowly started to fade, and I left the scene for good.

As I get older, and my brain less malleable, I find myself wanting to go back to the things that brought me joy in my youth. Don't get me wrong, I spend most of my gaming hours playing modern titles, but I can always find time to play a classic. I decided to check where RS was at these days to see if it was worth dipping my toes back in. After a bit of researching, I landed on creating an Old School Runescape account and playing it casually.

One thing I always wanted to accomplish back in my RS glory days was to max out my stats. 99's across the board. Since the servers are still kicking today, I figured why not, I'll pursue that dream once again. So, I suppose this is the start of my "Runescape 99 Diaries." This will be an attempt to fulfill a goal of my childhood, while soaking in as much nostalgia as I can. I plan on using this site to document my trials and tribulations. This is by no means a speed-run. I will be taking my sweet time with this. But, I figure it'll be more enjoyable that way.

I've already been at it for a little while. Here is my current time played:

And my current stats:

I'll be including this info as I make posts so you can get a rough idea of how long it's taking me to progress.

Anyway, since my time back I've been enjoying myself. I tend to play faster paced games in my free time, so RS has been a nice break from that. I like to crank up the in-game tunes and walk around farming those stats. At the moment, I've been focusing on completing the beginner's path stuff. Not sure if that's a new feature, I don't recall doing it when I first played years ago. It's a nice little feature to get you going in the right direction. I've only completed a couple of quests outside of that at this point. The latest was the Romeo and Juliet quest line, which reminded me how endearingly goofy the character writing is for RS.

This game really feels like a reprieve for me right now. Work has been hell, there's always something breaking in my house, there never seems to be enough time in the day to accomplish what I need to, oh, and I almost forgot that the world is literally burning at the moment. Popping my headphones on and listening to the little tunes that remind me of better days is a nice way to spend an hour or two every couple of nights.

-Eggz

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