Old Windows 95/98 Network Chat Program
Code : Roy Massaad
License: GPL 2
Date life: Between 1996-1999
Category: Archive/Nostalgia
Chat Maniac is a network chat program i wrote when i was 16 using Visual Basic 6
Back then i had a coaxial ipx network with 3/4 other friends in the neighborhood and MSN messenger didnt even exist, so i wrote my own chat program
The purpose was to chat between network games mainly (doom/heretic/worms..) and get some good cursing flowing
I had no idea how to program Winsocks, nor access to 24/7 internet, the local network didnt even run on tcp/ip initially, it ran on novel's ipx stack, but i did know Visual Basic 6 so i wrote it to work over a windows 95/98 network using shared folders and chat log files. So it works on top of whatever you got (ipx/tcp)
Quirks:
-It actually worked, we all found it cute and it served me and my friends in the 90s for many years before IRC client, MSN and Yahoo messengers became a thing later
-It's very old horrible VB 6 code, but it still compiles if you install VB6 in a Win95/98 machine
-It's not well documented at all
-It's full of creative variable names from curse words, sexual stuff, name calling to every other teen agnst issue in between. Reading it now is a blast, literally
-It's basically a guide for How NOT to program these days
-It must be installed to c:\chat to work, and this folder must be shared over the network for each computer that needs to use it
-It has a primitive client/server architecture
-It is full of intentional and unintentional security holes
-It needs a bunch of activex .ocx files to run that dont come with later versions of windows
-I honestly dont know how it ran and for years looking at the code mess that powered it. If big companies could do it i guess a teen can also do it..
-It's part of 90s history for me, and the last program/time i ever wanted to touch VB code again as it was giving me bad programing habits before i learned C and C++
-Never figured out how to bundle it back then with InstallShield to distrubute it to my friends, i just copy pasted the folder to them
-It ended up having also voice mail, 'encryption', Profile Pictures, Kicking someone out feature , and offline 'mail messaging' with font features somehow..
Notes: -I won't mind doing a complete rework from scratch of this using React + Firebase while keeping the Chat Maniac 'brand' name
-You have been forwarned about the code jungle inside