Microsoft Comic Chat is a Microsoft-developed Internet Relay Chat (IRC) chat client released in 1996 that rendered conversations as automatically generated comic strips. Instead of plain text, users communicated through cartoon avatars with messages displayed in speech bubbles inside dynamically composed comic panels. The application used an expert system to determine character placement, gestures, facial expressions, balloon shape, and panel layout in real time. It shipped as part of Internet Explorer 3.0 and was later bundled with Windows 98 and MSN before being discontinued in the early 2000s.
As users type messages, each Comic Chat client automatically determines:
- Which characters to place in each panel
- Gestures and facial expressions based on message content
- Character placement and orientation
- Word balloon shape, outline, and layout
- When to advance to a new panel
- Zoom factor for each panel
The application connects to standard IRC servers and is fully interoperable with text-based IRC clients. Non-Comic Chat users are automatically assigned characters so the entire conversation is rendered graphically.
If you want to jump right in and try Comic Chat without cloning the source and building it yourself, you have two options.
- You can download Microsoft Comic Chat 2.5 from Mermaid Elizabeth's Microsoft Chat Resources Link Page. This is the version that shipped in the early 2000s.
- You can download an unofficial modern build of version 1.0 and version 2.5b1. These versions have been modernized with support for high-resolution monitors.
Mermaid Elizabeth maintains a list of IRC servers that work with Comic Chat.
This repository contains source snapshots spanning the full development history of Comic Chat, from a 1996 pre-release through the 2.5 beta. It also includes two *-modern folders — worked examples that get the original code building and running on a current Windows machine (see the note on the modernized folders for what they are and why they exist).
| Folder | Date | Description |
|---|---|---|
v1.0-pre/ |
August 1996 | Pre-release source snapshot (rup 206 "Beta 2") — README |
v1.0/ |
August 1996 | Comic Chat 1.0 release source — README |
v2.1b/ |
February 1998 | Comic Chat 2.1 beta source — README |
v2.5-beta-1/ |
June 1998 | Comic Chat 2.5 beta 1 source — README |
artifacts/ |
January 1998 | SDK, companion tools, JChat, documentation |
v1.0-pre-modern/ |
2026 | Modernized v1.0-pre: builds with current Visual Studio, DPI-aware UI scaling, native TLS |
v2.5-beta-1-modern/ |
2026 | Modernized v2.5-beta-1: builds with current Visual Studio (nmake replaces the NT DDK build), uniform display scaling, runs live on modern IRC |
docs/ |
— | Modernization write-ups and documentation |
See file dates.txt for the original file modification timestamps from each archive.
- v1.0-pre and v1.0 share the same internal version number (
rup 206, "Beta 2") but differ in ~99 of 111 shared source files.v1.0adds build infrastructure (build/,help/,setup/,shared/). - v2.1b and v2.5-beta-1 include an IRC protocol layer with multi-server support, OLE automation for scripting, and the Art Pack 1 character set in addition to the original characters.
- artifacts/ contains the Comic Chat SDK, JChat (a Java client), the Betty Bot sample, xcchat, and internal design documents.
All versions target Win32 (x86) using Visual C++ 4.x with MFC and NMAKE makefiles.
v1.0-pre and v1.0:
cd v1.0/client
NMAKE /f "chat.mak" CFG="chat - Win32 Release"v2.5-beta-1:
cd v2.5-beta-1
NMAKE /f "chat.mak" CFG="chat - Win32 Release"A .mdp (Visual C++ 4.x) project file is included in v1.0-pre/client/ and v1.0/client/ for IDE use.
v1.0-pre-modern/ builds with a current Visual Studio C++/MFC toolchain and runs on modern high-DPI Windows:
call "<VisualStudio>\VC\Auxiliary\Build\vcvars32.bat"
cd v1.0-pre-modern
nmake /f chat.mak CFG="chat - Win32 Debug"The modernization covers build fixes (legacy C++, MFC/OLE macro clashes, linker libs), DPI-aware rendering and UI scaling, several UX fixes (mouse-wheel scrolling, panels-per-row auto-fit, balloon word-wrap), and optional native TLS for connecting to modern IRC networks. See docs/MODERNIZATION.md for details.
v2.5-beta-1-modern/ brings the more advanced Comic Chat 2.5 beta-1 (June 1998) client — which originally built with the Windows NT DDK BUILD.EXE system — up on the modern toolchain with its own clean nmake makefile:
call "<VisualStudio>\VC\Auxiliary\Build\vcvars32.bat"
cd v2.5-beta-1-modern
nmake /f chat.mak CFG="chat - Win32 Release" REM everyday use
nmake /f chat.mak CFG="chat - Win32 Debug" REM asserts + TRACE for DebugViewIt carries the mouse-wheel and panels-per-row work across and runs DPI-unaware so Windows scales the whole window uniformly (rather than scaling a few surfaces and leaving the rest tiny). The chief 2.5-specific fixes were dropping the MFC-4.0 common-control struct-tag remap, adding a Common Controls v6 manifest so the rebar toolbar creates, and the runtime fixes needed to connect/join/chat on a present-day IRC network. See v2.5-beta-1-modern/README.md.
The manually triggered Build unofficial modern clients GitHub Actions
workflow builds both modernized clients on a pinned Windows runner, packages
each executable with its art and documentation, smoke-tests the extracted ZIPs
from random folders, and uploads release-ready artifacts with SHA-256 hashes.
Fork owners can enable Actions and run the workflow without any secrets. See
docs/UNOFFICIAL-RELEASE.md for the packaging and
manual release process.
qt-port/ is an early Qt6 re-host of the comic client (no MFC).
It does not yet load avatars or speak IRC; see qt-port/README.md.
This repository is published primarily as a historical artifact — the source is here for reference, study, and preservation, not as a maintained product. The *-modern folders are not a polished re-release; they're worked examples of the kinds of changes it takes to get a 1996–1998 MFC application building and running on a current machine, such as:
- Getting it to build with a current Visual Studio / MFC toolchain on a normal developer machine (the original Visual C++ 4.x and NT DDK
BUILD.EXEsystems are long gone). - Uniform display scaling so the window and its controls are legible on today's high-DPI monitors.
- A handful of modern-Windows compatibility fixes — Common Controls v6 for the toolbar, modern RichEdit/CRT behavior, IRC parsing that works with present-day servers, and short-circuiting the long-dead Microsoft art-download servers in favor of the bundled art.
These changes are intentionally left as an exercise for the reader: they demonstrate an approach and a few representative fixes rather than an exhaustive, production-hardened port. If you'd like to take it further — full per-monitor DPI awareness, TLS to modern IRC networks, the other client versions — the *-modern folders are a good place to start.
- Visual C++ 4.x (or compatible NMAKE toolchain)
- MFC 4.x libraries
- Windows 95 or Windows NT 4.0
- 486 processor, 8 MB RAM, 256-color video (minimum)
Comic Chat was originally a Microsoft Research project developed by DJ Kurlander. The 1.0 release shipped in June 1996 bundled with Internet Explorer 3.0 and could run standalone or embedded as an OLE server within the browser. Version 2.0 shipped with Internet Explorer 4.0 and Windows 98 in 1997–1998, adding multi-server support, OLE scripting, and the Comic Chat SDK for third-party bots and extensions. The application was discontinued in the early 2000s as graphical chat gave way to instant messaging.
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