DevlogThe front door, every window and every key as the original had them

One long day, and a little past midnight: the way into the game, every window on the screen, every key on the keyboard, and then the long tail of what the original let you do, from duels to chat channels.

The way in is the classic client's now. The licence comes first (and again whenever it changes), then the two films, a one-time welcome and options screen, and the menu: Connect, Account, Credits that roll, Options, and an Exit that asks whether you are sure. Then the RetroRayID login, the news if you haven't read it, and a server list with each server's population, its own colour, and LOCKED in red where it is. The Discord button on it goes straight to the community.

Each server keeps its own rules. A server can be locked, so only game masters get in and nobody already inside is thrown out. Each has its own switches for the later eras, with a classic and a modern setting, and by the end of the day its own level cap and its own idea of who may fight whom. Just after midnight those went onto the Studio's Servers page as well, so whoever runs a server sets its level cap, its PvP rules and its guild wars in one place.

Ten interface skins. Classic is drawn in the manner of the original's default: dark grey rock and a thin light frame. RetroQuest Slate is the old look, and Deep Blue, Nightshade, Midnight, Brassworks, Arcanist, Codex, Graphite and Cobweb are the rest. None of them is copied; each was drawn for this game. Choose one in Options or with /loadskin and every open window repaints at once.

Every window, laid out the way the original laid it out. The inventory has its ring of slots and its purses. The merchant has one button that says Buy or Sell. Trade puts their side on the left and yours on the right, and a name turns green once that side agrees. Loot has thirty squares and one big Done. The spellbook is an open book whose Memorize and Scribe bars fill as you study. Skills are ranked in the original's own words, from Awful to Master. There is a casting bar and an air meter, a compass strip, and buffs as squares of spell pictures that blink before they wear off. Every title bar runs the full width of its window, windows resize from any edge, and the O folds one up to its title.

Taking something off puts it in your hand. Click a helm or a sword you are wearing and it comes off at once, onto the cursor, as it did in the original: your stats and your looks change straight away. Put it down on something else and the two swap. Log out holding it and it is still in your hand when you come back.

Every key does what it did, and you can change any of them. F1 to F8 pick targets, F9 cycles the camera views, F10 hides the interface, Alt and a number casts a spell gem, and Ctrl+B opens the book. Options now lists every command with a main and a spare key; one button puts the original's keys back, another the old W A S D. Where a key had nothing behind it, something was built: ducking, autorun, camera views, a ping meter, screenshots, hot bar pages, and a Music window that plays your own MP3s while the game's music steps back.

Hot bars your way. Have as many as you like, and move, turn, stretch and scale each one. A hot button holds an item, a spell, an ability, a skill or a social, and the socials are your own now: a name, a colour, and five lines the game types for you, with pauses between them if you want.

Inspect, and yourself as a target. Right-click another player to see what they are wearing and the few words they left for anyone who looks, and write your own. Click your own window to target yourself: a friendly spell lands on you, and swinging at yourself earns the original's reply, "Try attacking someone other than yourself, it's more productive."

Invisibility works the way it did. It has a strength now, and only See Invisible at least as strong sees through it. A hidden rogue is another matter, found only by creatures with a nose for it. Casting, looting or asking for a trade gives you away, and three ticks before it wears off you are warned: "You feel yourself starting to appear."

A tell to somebody zoning waits for them. Instead of "not online", up to twenty tells are held and delivered when they arrive. /r answers whoever last sent you one. And after a kill, /target a large rat no longer picks the body you just made.

Then the rest of the list. The evening went through the original's own manuals and the EQMacEmu server for everything still missing, and Ray approved all of it:

• Chat: an auction channel; /who searches the way it used to; and player chat channels you /join, with passwords and moderators.
• Items: stacks you can split; bags that lighten what they carry; NO RENT items that go half an hour after you leave; notes you can read; a keyring; and item links in chat.
• Groups and pets: the kill goes to the group that did the most damage, and pets learn taunt, sit and hold.
• Your character: guildmasters train skills with practices; you can take a surname at level twenty; and /stuck puts you back on firm ground.
• Fighting other players: each server sets its own PvP rules; /duel leaves the loser on one hit point instead of dead; and guild wars are there for servers that want them.
• The top end: an Alternate Advancement window, disciplines past fifty for worlds with a higher cap, a Bazaar search, and Looking For Group.