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<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
<title>Welcome to Microsoft Comic Chat!!!</title>
<!-- OpenGraph / social preview -->
<meta property="og:type" content="website">
<meta property="og:site_name" content="Microsoft Comic Chat">
<meta property="og:title" content="Microsoft Comic Chat">
<meta property="og:description" content="The chat client that draws your conversation, one comic panel at a time. A restored, open-source archive of Microsoft Comic Chat (est. 1996).">
<meta property="og:image" content="img/comic.jpeg">
<meta property="og:image:alt" content="Microsoft Comic Chat comic strip">
<!-- Twitter Card -->
<meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image">
<meta name="twitter:title" content="Microsoft Comic Chat">
<meta name="twitter:description" content="The chat client that draws your conversation, one comic panel at a time. A restored, open-source archive of Microsoft Comic Chat (est. 1996).">
<meta name="twitter:image" content="img/comic.jpeg">
<meta name="twitter:image:alt" content="Microsoft Comic Chat comic strip">
<style>
html, body {
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
background-color: #008080;
background-image:
repeating-linear-gradient(45deg, rgba(255,255,255,.03) 0 10px, rgba(0,0,0,.03) 10px 20px);
color: #000000;
font-family: "Comic Sans MS", "Chalkboard SE", "Trebuchet MS", cursive, sans-serif;
font-size: 16px;
}
a { color: #0000cc; }
a:visited { color: #663399; }
a:hover { color: #cc0000; background: #ffff00; }
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margin: 12px auto;
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/* Header / hero */
.hero {
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #000080 0%, #1084d0 100%);
color: #ffffff;
text-align: center;
padding: 18px 12px 22px;
border-bottom: 3px groove #c0c0c0;
}
.hero img.tiki { width: 120px; image-rendering: pixelated; }
.hero h1 {
margin: 8px 0 2px;
font-size: 40px;
color: #ffff00;
text-shadow: 3px 3px 0 #cc0000, 5px 5px 0 rgba(0,0,0,.4);
letter-spacing: 1px;
}
.hero .sub {
font-size: 15px;
color: #ffffff;
font-style: italic;
}
.blink { animation: blink 1s steps(2, start) infinite; }
@keyframes blink { to { visibility: hidden; } }
.badges { text-align: center; padding: 8px; background: #c0c0c0; border-bottom: 2px groove #fff; }
.badge {
display: inline-block;
font-family: "Courier New", monospace;
font-size: 10px;
line-height: 1.1;
padding: 3px 6px;
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}
.badge b { color: #00ff00; }
.badge.new { background: #cc0000; color: #ffff00; }
.content { padding: 18px 26px 8px; }
h2 {
font-size: 22px;
color: #000080;
border-bottom: 3px dotted #ff6600;
padding-bottom: 4px;
margin-top: 26px;
}
h2 .icon { font-size: 20px; }
p { line-height: 1.5; }
.lead {
background: #ffffcc;
border: 2px dashed #ff9900;
padding: 12px 14px;
font-size: 17px;
}
/* Open-source announcement banner */
.oss {
margin: 14px 0 4px;
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #002b00 0%, #004d00 100%);
color: #ffffff;
border: 3px ridge #33cc33;
padding: 14px 18px;
text-align: center;
box-shadow: 4px 4px 0 rgba(0,0,0,.35);
}
.oss .tag {
display: inline-block;
background: #ff0000;
color: #ffff00;
font-family: "Courier New", monospace;
font-weight: bold;
font-size: 12px;
padding: 2px 8px;
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letter-spacing: 1px;
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}
.oss h2 { margin: 4px 0 6px; border: 0; color: #7CFC00; font-size: 22px; }
.oss p { margin: 4px 0 10px; font-size: 15px; }
.oss a.repo {
font-family: "Courier New", monospace;
color: #aeffae;
word-break: break-all;
}
/* Emotion wheel strip of faces */
.wheel { display: flex; gap: 8px; flex-wrap: wrap; justify-content: center; margin: 6px 0 2px; }
.wheel figure { margin: 0; text-align: center; }
.wheel img {
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image-rendering: pixelated;
border: 2px solid #000;
background: #fff;
padding: 2px;
}
.wheel figcaption { font-size: 10px; font-family: "Courier New", monospace; margin-top: 2px; }
/* Fake comic panel row */
.panels { display: flex; gap: 10px; flex-wrap: wrap; justify-content: center; margin: 14px 0; }
.panel {
flex: 1 1 210px;
min-width: 190px;
background: #fffef7;
border: 3px solid #000;
padding: 10px 12px;
position: relative;
box-shadow: 4px 4px 0 rgba(0,0,0,.5);
}
.panel h3 { margin: 0 0 6px; font-size: 16px; }
.balloon {
background: #fff;
border: 2px solid #000;
border-radius: 16px;
padding: 8px 12px;
font-size: 13px;
position: relative;
}
ol.steps { counter-reset: step; list-style: none; padding-left: 0; }
ol.steps li {
background: #eef6ff;
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margin: 8px 0;
padding: 10px 12px 10px 44px;
position: relative;
}
ol.steps li::before {
counter-increment: step;
content: counter(step);
position: absolute;
left: 8px; top: 8px;
width: 26px; height: 26px;
background: #cc0000;
color: #fff;
border-radius: 50%;
text-align: center;
line-height: 26px;
font-weight: bold;
}
.grid { display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; gap: 10px; }
.card {
flex: 1 1 220px;
border: 2px outset #c0c0c0;
background: #f4f4f4;
padding: 10px 12px;
}
.card h3 { margin: 0 0 6px; color: #000080; font-size: 16px; }
.card small { color: #666; font-family: "Courier New", monospace; }
.btn {
display: inline-block;
text-decoration: none;
background: linear-gradient(#33aaff, #0055aa);
color: #fff !important;
font-weight: bold;
padding: 8px 16px;
margin: 4px;
border: 2px outset #99ccff;
border-radius: 4px;
}
.btn:hover { background: linear-gradient(#ffcc00, #ff8800); color: #000 !important; }
.counter {
text-align: center;
margin: 20px 0 6px;
font-family: "Courier New", monospace;
font-size: 12px;
color: #666;
}
footer {
background: #c0c0c0;
border-top: 3px groove #fff;
padding: 12px 20px;
font-size: 12px;
text-align: center;
color: #333;
}
hr.rainbow {
height: 5px; border: 0;
background: linear-gradient(90deg,#ff0000,#ff9900,#ffee00,#33cc33,#0099ff,#6633cc,#ff0000);
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<div class="page">
<div class="ticker">
<span>★ WELCOME TO MICROSOFT COMIC CHAT ★ Turn your IRC conversations into automatically-generated comic strips! ★ Now open source under the MIT License ★ Grab your avatar and start chatting ★</span>
</div>
<div class="hero">
<h1>Comic Chat</h1>
<div class="sub">The chat client that draws your conversation, one comic panel at a time. <span class="blink">▮</span></div>
</div>
<div class="badges">
<span class="badge new">★ New! ★<br>Open Source</span>
<span class="badge">Best viewed in<br><b>1024 × 768</b></span>
<span class="badge">Made for<br><b>Windows 95/98</b></span>
<span class="badge">Powered by<br><b>IRC</b></span>
<span class="badge">Est.<br><b>1996</b></span>
</div>
<div class="content">
<p class="lead">
<b>Welcome, traveler of the information superhighway!</b> Microsoft Comic Chat
is a chat client from the 1990s that renders your Internet Relay Chat (IRC)
conversations as <b>automatically generated comic strips</b>. Instead of
plain text, everyone talks through cartoon avatars in speech bubbles laid
out into comic panels in real time.
</p>
<div class="oss">
<span class="tag">★ EXCITING ★</span>
<h2>Comic Chat is open source!</h2>
<p>
The complete source code
is available to read, build, and tinker with under the <b>MIT License</b>.
Study it, modernize it, play with it:
</p>
<p><a class="repo" href="https://github.com/microsoft/comic-chat">github.com/microsoft/comic-chat</a></p>
<a class="btn" href="https://github.com/microsoft/comic-chat">💻 Explore the Source Code</a>
</div>
<h2><span class="icon">💬</span> What Is Comic Chat?</h2>
<p>
Comic Chat is an IRC client, fully interoperable with plain-text IRC
clients, with one delightful twist: as messages come in, each Comic Chat
client runs a little <b>expert system</b> that automatically decides how to draw
the conversation. For every message it figures out:
</p>
<div class="panels">
<div class="panel">
<h3>🎭 The cast</h3>
<div class="balloon">Which characters appear in the panel and where they stand and face.</div>
</div>
<div class="panel">
<h3>😱 The mood</h3>
<div class="balloon">Gestures and facial expressions, chosen from the words you type.</div>
</div>
<div class="panel">
<h3>🗨 The balloons</h3>
<div class="balloon">The shape, outline, and layout of each word balloon.</div>
</div>
<div class="panel">
<h3>🎥 The camera</h3>
<div class="balloon">The zoom of each panel and when to start a brand-new one.</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
Even friends using plain-text IRC clients get automatically assigned a character,
so the <i>whole</i> conversation is drawn as a comic.
</p>
<h2><span class="icon">🚀</span> How to Get Started</h2>
<p>Ready to jump in? Here's the quick tour:</p>
<ol class="steps">
<li><b>Get Comic Chat.</b> You can download <b>Comic Chat 2.5</b>
from <a href="https://mermeliz.com/">Mermaid Elizabeth's Microsoft Chat
Resources</a>. This is the version that shipped in the early 2000s.</li>
<li><b>Or try a modern build.</b> Prefer high-resolution monitors? Grab an
<a href="https://github.com/microsoft/comic-chat/releases/tag/unofficial-modern-builds-2026-07">unofficial
modern build</a> of version 1.0 or 2.5b1, built to run on Windows 11.</li>
<li><b>Connect to an IRC server.</b> Comic Chat talks to standard IRC networks.
Mermaid Elizabeth keeps a handy
<a href="https://mermeliz.com/srvr_rms.htm">list of servers and rooms</a>
that work great with Comic Chat.</li>
<li><b>Pick your character & emotion wheel.</b> Choose an avatar, then drag the
emotion wheel as you type to strike a pose.
<div class="wheel">
<figure><img src="img/faces/hap.png" alt="happy face"><figcaption>happy</figcaption></figure>
<figure><img src="img/faces/laf.png" alt="laughing face"><figcaption>laughing</figcaption></figure>
<figure><img src="img/faces/coy.png" alt="coy face"><figcaption>coy</figcaption></figure>
<figure><img src="img/faces/neu.png" alt="neutral face"><figcaption>neutral</figcaption></figure>
<figure><img src="img/faces/sad.png" alt="sad face"><figcaption>sad</figcaption></figure>
<figure><img src="img/faces/ang.png" alt="angry face"><figcaption>angry</figcaption></figure>
<figure><img src="img/faces/sho.png" alt="shouting face"><figcaption>shouting</figcaption></figure>
</div>
</li>
<li><b>Start typing!</b> Hit enter and watch your words become the next panel of a
comic strip you and your friends are drawing together. That's it! You're a
comic now.</li>
</ol>
<h2><span class="icon">💾</span> For Tinkerers & Historians</h2>
<p>
This whole site lives in the <a href="https://github.com/microsoft/comic-chat">open-source
repository</a>, which preserves source snapshots from a 1996 pre-release through the
2.5 beta, plus worked examples that get the vintage MFC code building on current Visual Studio.
</p>
<div class="grid">
<div class="card">
<h3>📦 The source</h3>
<p>Four historical snapshots of the C++/MFC client, plus the SDK, a Java client, and companion tools.</p>
<small>v1.0-pre · v1.0 · v2.1b · v2.5-beta-1</small>
</div>
<div class="card">
<h3>🔧 Modern builds</h3>
<p>The <code>*-modern</code> folders show how to build the 1990s code today, with DPI-aware UI scaling and fixes for present-day IRC.</p>
<small>Visual Studio 2022 + MFC</small>
</div>
<div class="card">
<h3>📚 The story</h3>
<p>Originally a Microsoft Research project by DJ Kurlander, Comic Chat shipped with Internet Explorer 3.0 in 1996.</p>
<small>MIT Licensed</small>
</div>
</div>
<p style="text-align:center; margin-top:22px;">
<a class="btn" href="https://github.com/microsoft/comic-chat">💻 Browse the Source</a>
<a class="btn" href="https://github.com/microsoft/comic-chat/releases/tag/unofficial-modern-builds-2026-07">⬇ Download a Build</a>
<a class="btn" href="https://mermeliz.com/srvr_rms.htm">🌐 Find a Server</a>
</p>
<hr class="rainbow">
<div class="counter">
<span id="lastmod"></span>
</div>
</div>
<footer>
<p>
🎭 A historical artifact, lovingly preserved. 🎭<br>
</p>
</footer>
</div>
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</body>
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