RuneScape as it was in 2004, offline on your phone. 2004Scape is an iPhone and Android app that runs Lost City, the open-source recreation of RuneScape revision 274 (late 2004), entirely on the device: the game server and the original web client both run inside the app, with a touch interface in the 2004 look. There is no account, no server and no internet connection involved. You can play alone, or let up to 1,000 AI players fill the world: they train their skills, bank, trade, chat, fight in the Wilderness, and come and go the way players did in 2004. Their replies to you can be written by a small chat model that runs on the phone, which is optional. And if you or a friend run a Lost City server, the app can play there with the same touch interface: online mode.
Built on other people's work, with AI. 2004Scape is a derived work, not an original game. The game is Lost City's: its server (Engine-TS), web client (Client-TS) and game content (Content) run inside the app, with this project's patches for touch and offline play. The bots are a port of the bot AI of 2004sp-progressive. What this project adds is the iPhone and Android apps, the offline packaging, the touch interface and the bots' extensions. Most of that code, its tests and this documentation were generated by Claude (Anthropic's AI model, through Claude Code). See Credits.
Get it on your phone: Android guide (about 10 minutes, no computer) · iPhone guide (about 30 minutes, needs a Mac or Windows PC) · Download page
2004Scape is an unofficial fan project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to Jagex Ltd or the Lost City project. RuneScape is a registered trademark of Jagex Ltd. The game data the app is built from is the intellectual property of Jagex Ltd. This project is free: no ads, no payments, no accounts. Online mode connects only to servers you add.
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Android 11 or later, on a 64-bit phone. There is no Play Store listing: you download the app from the download page on the phone and open it ("sideloading": installing an app from outside the store). Pick one file:
2004Scape-<version>-android.apk: the full app, about 580 MB, with the on-device chat model for the bots.2004Scape-<version>-android-lite.apk: about 54 MB, the same app without the chat model. Everything works, bots included; they reply with their own ready-made lines.
Android asks you to allow Install unknown apps for your browser, and Google Play Protect (or Samsung's Auto Blocker) may warn you first. To update, install the newer APK over the old one: your saves are kept.
Step by step, with every warning explained: docs/INSTALL-ANDROID.md (also: updating with Obtainium, backups, troubleshooting, checking the signing certificate, Google's 2027 changes).
iOS 18.4 or later, and a Mac or Windows PC (with Sideloadly, also for the refresh every 7 days; SideStore needs it only for setup). Apple only runs apps from outside the App Store ("sideloading") when they are signed with an Apple Account (formerly Apple ID), so a free sideloading tool signs the app with your own free Apple Account. Download one IPA from the download page:
2004Scape-<version>-ios.ipa: the full app, about 550 MB, with the on-device chat model.2004Scape-<version>-ios-lite.ipa: about 40 MB, the same app without the chat model.
With a free Apple Account the app stops opening after 7 days until you refresh it with the same tool and Apple Account, which keeps your saves, and you can have at most 3 sideloaded apps at a time.
Step by step with Sideloadly, plus AltStore and SideStore, Apple Account safety and troubleshooting: docs/INSTALL-IPHONE.md. Or build it yourself with Xcode: docs/BUILDING.md.
Tap New User or Existing User on the title screen and type any name: offline there is no password, and a new name makes a new character on Tutorial Island. Next time, Continue as brings your last character back with one tap; Characters lists the others.
Controls. The world fills the screen; the minimap and the hitpoints, prayer and run orbs are at the top right, the 13 classic tabs and ⚙ Settings down the right, the chat at the bottom left with its buttons (tap-to-drop, keyboard, chatbox).
| Gesture | What it does |
|---|---|
| Tap | Left click: walk, talk, attack, take, use. What the tap did shows beside it for a moment |
| Hold | The options menu (right click), in large rows beside your finger: lift and tap an option. Let go before it opens and nothing happens |
| Drag on the world | Turn and tilt the camera |
| Pinch | Zoom the camera |
| Drag on a list, the bank or the chat | Scroll it |
| Drag an item | Move it |
Developer commands work in chat while Settings › World › Jmod is On, for example ::tele 0,50,50,22,18 (Lumbridge).
Your characters are saved on the phone as you play, and when the app goes to the background.
- iPhone: in the Files app under On My iPhone › 2004Scape:
players/holds your characters andbots/the bots' world. Copy those folders somewhere else to back them up, and copy them back to restore. Deleting the app deletes them, so copy them out first. - Android: Android's own file browser shows 2004Scape in its ☰ side menu, with the same
players/andbots/folders (the Files app on Pixel and many phones; on Samsung, Google Drive's + › Upload opens it, see backups). Android's own backup (Google) keeps them too. When you uninstall, Android offers to keep the app's data: tick it if you plan to reinstall.
Every save keeps the previous version beside it as .bak (for example players/main/zezima.sav.bak): with the game
closed, delete zezima.sav and rename the .bak back to restore it.
Settings › Saved data can delete a character, reset the bots' world or delete everything.
Settings opens from the ⚙ button. The defaults:
| Category | Setting | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Display | Layout: Mobile (full-screen world) or Classic (the original 765×503 screen) | Mobile |
| Frame rate 30 / 50, World scaling Smooth / Pixel, Camera buttons | 50, Pixel, Hide | |
| Screen margins (Adjust): Side, Top and Bottom, each None / Auto / +16 / +32 (space kept clear of the screen's edges, notch or camera hole) | Auto | |
| XP drops | XP drops On / Off (the total XP under the orbs, each gain rising into it), Speed Slow / Normal / Fast, Style Separate / Combined | On, Normal, Separate |
| Sound | Silent switch: Mute / Play (iPhone; Android always plays), Vibration | Play, On |
| Controls | Hold for menu, Camera drag, Options menu Large / Classic | Normal (400 ms), Normal, Large |
| Tap options | What a tap does with Attack on NPCs and on players: Tap, By level, Hold or Hidden | By level (as in 2004) |
| World | Play on: This phone, or a game server you added (Change: the worlds, as the title's World button) | This phone |
| World type Members / Free | Members | |
| XP rate 1×, 2×, 5×, 10×, 25×, 50× | 10× | |
| Jmod (staff commands and the crown) | Off | |
| Bots: Off, 25, 50, 100, 250, 500, 750, 1000 | 500 | |
| Detail High / Low | High | |
| Bot chat | Chat model: Rules, On-device, Claude online; Think first; Bots' own talk: Rules, Model | On-device (Rules without a model), Think first On, Bots' own talk Rules |
World settings apply when you tap Restart in that category (online they are the server's: only Detail stays). Settings › About shows the version and the build, the disclaimer, the credits and, under Licences, the licences of everything the app is made from (LICENSE, THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md).
The World button under the title's box chooses where you play: This phone, or a Lost City (Engine-TS 274)
server that you or a friend run, on your Wi-Fi or on the internet. Add server takes its address (such as
192.168.1.20 or my-mac.local:8888) and checks it; tap a world to play there. Online you log in with a name and the
server's password (tick Remember in the keyboard bar to keep it in the phone's Keychain or Keystore, for Continue
as), and play with whoever else is on that server, with the same touch interface. It saves the phone's memory, not
much battery: drawing the game stays on the phone. How to run a server, and why Lost City's official worlds are not
supported: docs/ONLINE.md.
With Settings › World › Bots above Off, other players share your world. About that many are online at a time, out of a pool twice that size that takes turns: each plays a session of a few minutes to a few hours, logs out and comes back later as it left. New players arrive at Lumbridge now and then, especially after you make a new character. A new bot world starts with a mix of newcomers, mid-levels and veterans, and they level at the world's XP rate.
They do what 2004 players did: train skills, buy gear, bank, sell at Varrock West and the other trade banks, hang out at Falador park, run drop parties and clan walks, duel at the Duel Arena (members worlds), PK at the Edgeville ditch and deep in the Wilderness (only within the game's PvP rules) and loot what they kill, get random events, and chat. Veterans kill dragons and go for the King Black Dragon in teams (now and then the Kalphite Queen); in late 2004 they go to see Rellekka's rock crabs and the new lighthouse, and members keep kittens and play Gnomeball and Runelink. Bots keep goals between sessions, get moods, rage-quit or hop now and then, celebrate 99s, remember each other and pass rumours around. Talk to one by its name in public chat ("hi Lumby Larry"), add one as a friend, trade with a vendor, or private-message a friend come here and it runs over. A bot never takes your character's name.
How the bots are built: docs/BOTS.md.
Settings › Bot chat picks who writes a bot's words when it answers you. Whether a bot answers, and what it does, is always the bots' own logic.
- Rules: the bots' scripted lines.
- On-device (the default in the full app): a small language model (Qwen3.5 0.8B, fine-tuned on 2004-style chat) runs on the phone, offline. A reply takes about a second; if the phone gets hot, the bots fall back to their own lines. Think first lets the model plan each reply in a short hidden note first, which is a little slower. If you install the full app over the lite one, your choice is kept: pick On-device here yourself.
- Bots' own talk (Rules or Model; Rules for now): with Model, the on-device model also words the bots' talk between themselves near you (their threads and answers to each other) and their reactions to you (a gz on your level, a wave back, a word when you stand next to one, follow it or die near it), always on the phone and never through Claude. It needs the on-device model and a chat model other than Rules.
- Claude online: Claude (Anthropic's Claude Haiku) writes the replies, using your own Claude API key from platform.claude.com (tap Set key). The key is stored only on your phone (the iOS Keychain or the Android Keystore), never in the game or its saves. While this is chosen, each reply request sends Anthropic the bot's situation (its name, levels, place, what it is doing and carrying) and the recent chat near it, including your line and your character's name. Nothing is sent with Rules or On-device. If Claude cannot answer, the on-device model does.
Trades, adverts, Wilderness talk and "come here" always stay the bots' own lines.
Does it need the internet? No. The game, the bots and the on-device model all run on the phone. Only Claude online and online mode use the network (and, on iPhone, your sideloading tool when it refreshes the app).
Why does the iPhone app stop after 7 days? Apple limits apps signed with a free Apple Account to 7 days. Refresh it with your sideloading tool (or re-run the build with Xcode); your saves stay.
I deleted the app. Are my saves gone? On iPhone, yes: deleting an app deletes its files, so back up players/
from the Files app first. On Android, saves survive an uninstall only if you ticked "keep app data", or through
Android's backup.
Battery and heat? The game itself is light. Many bots keep the phone busier: on an iPhone 13 mini 500 bots still run at 50 fps, but expect more battery use and warmth on long sessions at 500 or more (Settings › World says so too). Lower Settings › World › Bots, then tap Restart to apply, if the phone gets warm.
Can I play online with friends? Yes, on a Lost City server one of you runs, at home or on the internet: see online mode. Lost City's official worlds are not supported (their client and rules allow no other).
Is this a private server? No. Nothing listens on the network: the game server runs inside the app, for you alone.
Why is the app so big? The on-device chat model is about 530 MB of the full download. The lite builds leave it out.
Which devices are supported? iPhones on iOS 18.4 or later, and Android 11 or later on arm64. It has been tested on an iPhone 13 mini (iOS 27), the iOS simulator and the Android emulator. iPads are supported too.
Building needs a Mac with Xcode for the iPhone app, and the Android SDK for the Android app; both share one web bundle built with Node. Everything is in docs/BUILDING.md. Making a release: docs/RELEASING.md.
The Lost City game server (Engine-TS) is bundled to run as a Web Worker, and the Lost City web client (Client-TS) is built with touch patches; both run in the phone's web view (WKWebView on iOS, Android System WebView on Android) behind a native shell that serves the game files, keeps the saves and provides the keyboard and haptics. A fake WebSocket connects the client to the server inside the page; online, native code carries the client's sockets to the game server instead, and the page runs no server at all. The upstream sources are pinned in upstream.json and used unmodified; this project's changes are the client patches, the engine's browser shims, the bots and the apps.
- docs/ARCHITECTURE.md: the design and the contracts between the pieces.
- docs/ANDROID.md: what differs on Android.
- docs/BOTS.md: the bots.
- Lost City (Engine-TS, Content, Client-TS) by the Lost City team: the game server, the game content and the web client this app runs. Thank you.
- 2004sp-progressive by attackishere, _mrsam, K-andy and Callum: the bot AI, ported here from revision 254 to 274 and extended.
- llama.cpp (ggml.ai and contributors): runs the on-device chat model.
- Qwen3.5-0.8B by the Qwen team (Alibaba Cloud): the base of the chat model.
- Claude (Anthropic), through Claude Code: generated most of this project's code, tests and documentation. Claude also wrote many of the bots' new chat lines and the replies the on-device chat model was trained on.
The full credits and every third-party licence text are in THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md.
This project's own code is under the MIT licence: see LICENSE. The third-party parts keep their own
licences (THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md). The RuneScape game data the app is built from belongs to
Jagex Ltd and is not covered by any of these licences. Neither are the files in this repository that show Jagex's art:
the app icon (the "RS" rune stones of the 2004 RuneScape logo, in ios/ and android/) and the screenshots in
docs/images. They belong to Jagex Ltd, and the MIT licence does not apply to them (THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md, section C,
lists them).