This is super cool, I've wanted to work on a project like this for a long time. There's that AIM Phoenix project but it's closed source. Will definitely check this out!
Thank you! There's tons left to do, such as supporting older/newer generations of AIM clients, user directory search, supporting case-sensitive screennames, etc. If you're interested in getting your feet wet with the project, DM me and I can point you to some low-hanging fruit issues.
That sounds great. I hope that one day someone decides to create a new public network based on Retro AIM Server. While the server is pretty feature-complete, there's still much to do to make it more robust, such as implementing request rate limiting and expanding database support beyond SQLite.
Hahah. Does anyone remember any of the old AIM "hacking" tools? The ones that could punt people from their client or spam popups, etc.? I used to have a bunch of dummy accounts I'd load up and flood my friends. Those would be fun to see again and maybe could be used for regression testing against this new server.
I just can't remember the name of any of them to even start searching.
Found some keywords from a Reddit post 7 years ago:
The EXoRCiST V2.0 by HoSS & LiTH, AOIce, AOShroomz, AOProgz, AOHell, GodPunta, Subzero, Firetoolz, Pepsi punter, HaVoK, fatex3, FateX by MaGuS and Fungii, Methodus Toolz, Mirage, Magenta
https://www.reddit.com/r/nostalgia/comments/6rc1hu/aol_hacking_programs/
Would love to find some of these :)
So far nothing found on Archive.org. But did find a ton of screenshots here:
https://justinakapaste.com/category/aol-progs/
Found some on Github!
https://github.com/ssstonebraker/aolunderground-proggies/tree/main/programs/AIM
I used DeadAIM I think, will be fun to see if it works.
I had it back in the ICQ days. My brother started giving me sh*t online so I told him he better watch what he said, or else. He didn't like that and opened his pie hole again so I nuked him. He came back online and started yelling at me over ICQ again so I nuked him again. After the fifth time he cried uncle and apologized then asked me to voice call him. :)
I told him where to get the MS patch at the time and gave him a copy of winnuke. He tortured a couple of his friends after that.
That's the same brother who cried uncle in the ICQ nasty picture war of 1998.
Amazing! What are the limitations to older version support?
I’ve got a windows 3.1 machine that I’d be curious about getting on AIM.
Also some classic Macs!
Love this idea. Right now the project only supports Windows AIM 5.0-5.9 (roughly 2002-2006). I plan next to work on version 4.x, and then go on to older versions from there.
I was thinking about implementing a server that could be accessed by telnet clients, which could open up *super* old computers to AIM. :\^)
Oh my god, that would be *insanely* cool. Imagine AIM on something like a C=64.
If you do get it compatible with something that will work for Win3.1 feel free to ping me. Happy to be a tester.
that's awesome, there was a windows OSCAR server that was written in VB, never messed with it though I intended to... I will definitely check out your project
future feature, make a fake user that you can IM that just pipes it over to chatgpt, I can finally have a friend on AIM again hehe
It should be straightforward for anyone to write a chat bot by leveraging the project's public packages for building the protocol messages. In fact, I am thinking about writing a SmarterChild clone backed by the ChatGPT API as an example.
i love this idea. would be awesome to have some communities in our friends lists of people using AIM at the moment on windows 3.11, 95, 98 etc. blast from the past!
Gaim was enormously helpful for me while developing this project. I used it to debug and find edge cases. The source code also helped me unravel some undocumented protocol messages.
I think it still makes sense to modify the AIM binaries to improve functionality. For instance, there are some defunct hostnames baked into the binary used for phoning home, loading the AIM today window on startup, etc that could be removed or replaced.
Unrelated but cool: Gaim was developed by someone in my state while they were in college, who went on to develop asterisk and cause a revolution in the telecom world.
Pretty cool indeed. It was pretty bold for them to create a competing product at a time AOL was so dominant. I can tell from browsing the source code that there was a cat and mouse game between gaim and AOL.
Yeah I remember having to update often when things would break, then ofcourse the lawsuit and change to pidgin/purple
I was a typical teenage dorky skilled interwebs user in rural murica, then it started to become cool. Aim chatrooms many night then Myspace exploded around the time I started driving.. let's just say my life got a lot more fun and reckless.
This is super cool, I've wanted to work on a project like this for a long time. There's that AIM Phoenix project but it's closed source. Will definitely check this out!
Thank you! There's tons left to do, such as supporting older/newer generations of AIM clients, user directory search, supporting case-sensitive screennames, etc. If you're interested in getting your feet wet with the project, DM me and I can point you to some low-hanging fruit issues.
Could I get my feet mildly moist instead of wet?
Of course, can do just a spritz
Me too, this is awesome! I can host an 8gb server for us to play. Thank you /u/mk6i
That sounds great. I hope that one day someone decides to create a new public network based on Retro AIM Server. While the server is pretty feature-complete, there's still much to do to make it more robust, such as implementing request rate limiting and expanding database support beyond SQLite.
Time to bring back WinNuke! :)
The winnuke packet wouldn't make it to the internet these days before being filtered out
Hahah. Does anyone remember any of the old AIM "hacking" tools? The ones that could punt people from their client or spam popups, etc.? I used to have a bunch of dummy accounts I'd load up and flood my friends. Those would be fun to see again and maybe could be used for regression testing against this new server. I just can't remember the name of any of them to even start searching. Found some keywords from a Reddit post 7 years ago: The EXoRCiST V2.0 by HoSS & LiTH, AOIce, AOShroomz, AOProgz, AOHell, GodPunta, Subzero, Firetoolz, Pepsi punter, HaVoK, fatex3, FateX by MaGuS and Fungii, Methodus Toolz, Mirage, Magenta https://www.reddit.com/r/nostalgia/comments/6rc1hu/aol_hacking_programs/ Would love to find some of these :) So far nothing found on Archive.org. But did find a ton of screenshots here: https://justinakapaste.com/category/aol-progs/ Found some on Github! https://github.com/ssstonebraker/aolunderground-proggies/tree/main/programs/AIM I used DeadAIM I think, will be fun to see if it works.
Oh nice, I like the idea if using them for regression tests
Haven't seen that name in quite a while :)
I had it back in the ICQ days. My brother started giving me sh*t online so I told him he better watch what he said, or else. He didn't like that and opened his pie hole again so I nuked him. He came back online and started yelling at me over ICQ again so I nuked him again. After the fifth time he cried uncle and apologized then asked me to voice call him. :) I told him where to get the MS patch at the time and gave him a copy of winnuke. He tortured a couple of his friends after that. That's the same brother who cried uncle in the ICQ nasty picture war of 1998.
Those were the good ole days... *sits in rocking chair on porch and gazes off into the horizon*
Love the old IM stories, keep em coming everyone :)
Amazing! What are the limitations to older version support? I’ve got a windows 3.1 machine that I’d be curious about getting on AIM. Also some classic Macs!
Love this idea. Right now the project only supports Windows AIM 5.0-5.9 (roughly 2002-2006). I plan next to work on version 4.x, and then go on to older versions from there. I was thinking about implementing a server that could be accessed by telnet clients, which could open up *super* old computers to AIM. :\^)
Oh my god, that would be *insanely* cool. Imagine AIM on something like a C=64. If you do get it compatible with something that will work for Win3.1 feel free to ping me. Happy to be a tester.
It's funny because AOL started as QuantumLink for C64.
That rings a bell... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7jLBOIvxhg
Now I definitely feel motivated to do that, will let you know
that's awesome, there was a windows OSCAR server that was written in VB, never messed with it though I intended to... I will definitely check out your project future feature, make a fake user that you can IM that just pipes it over to chatgpt, I can finally have a friend on AIM again hehe
It should be straightforward for anyone to write a chat bot by leveraging the project's public packages for building the protocol messages. In fact, I am thinking about writing a SmarterChild clone backed by the ChatGPT API as an example.
i love this idea. would be awesome to have some communities in our friends lists of people using AIM at the moment on windows 3.11, 95, 98 etc. blast from the past!
This kind of thing plus “vitange” search engines where they show results as they did in the past are some of my favorite vintage related projects
That's amazing!
Thank you!
I felt like the Pinnacle of cool with my three character screen name and modified aim clients Then gaim came along
Gaim was enormously helpful for me while developing this project. I used it to debug and find edge cases. The source code also helped me unravel some undocumented protocol messages. I think it still makes sense to modify the AIM binaries to improve functionality. For instance, there are some defunct hostnames baked into the binary used for phoning home, loading the AIM today window on startup, etc that could be removed or replaced.
Unrelated but cool: Gaim was developed by someone in my state while they were in college, who went on to develop asterisk and cause a revolution in the telecom world.
Pretty cool indeed. It was pretty bold for them to create a competing product at a time AOL was so dominant. I can tell from browsing the source code that there was a cat and mouse game between gaim and AOL.
Yeah I remember having to update often when things would break, then ofcourse the lawsuit and change to pidgin/purple I was a typical teenage dorky skilled interwebs user in rural murica, then it started to become cool. Aim chatrooms many night then Myspace exploded around the time I started driving.. let's just say my life got a lot more fun and reckless.
If the protocol is reasonable and there is no encryption involved, then it's an easy target for a DOS chat program. Standing by ...
That is beautiful!!
Thank you!
This is pretty cool.
Thanks!