for Microsoft Comic Chat characters!
By: Sqiz (Derek White)
updated: 14 March 2023
| ..A Freeware Web Search Utility for Microsoft Comic Chat characters! By: Sqiz (Derek White) updated: 14 March 2023 |
 |  History of Development by Sqiz |
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Click Here
to scroll down to the most current version information! |
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Version 0.0  |
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8th Jan 98 It really does not like long file names. 16th Jan 98
25th Jan 98 |
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| Version 1.0a |
| 1st Feb 1998 Problem - the ActiveX component I've used to search web sites appears to require special installation before the program can be run on another machine. This is not acceptable since I want the program to be stand alone using any existing internet connection and without needing modifications to a users system files or registry. |
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Version 1.1a  |
| 5th Feb 1998 Time for a another decision - set up a homepage to allow the testers to download it themselves ( well I can always learn HTML as I go along ! ) |
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| Version 1.1b |
| 7th Feb 1998 Homepage is ready ( it may not be much but its home ). Program is now stable and already fairly useful : Web sites are now dynamic rather than hard coded. |
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| Version 1.1c |
| 14th Feb 1998 Duplicate homepage has been setup on CompuServe Added an abort switch. Consider making searches asynchronous but decide against it for now, most users will accept that somedays the internet is just plain slow. Added code to allow for users who have not installed Comic Chat ! |
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| Version 1.2a |
| 21st Feb 1998 Program now uses a secondary initialisation site if primary not found. Improved flexibility of the search definitions. Corrected minor problem with the display of the character table. Added program history to homepage. |
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| Version 1.2b |
| 22nd Feb 1998 Clicking a new character now allows the source page to be browsed ( the browser can then be used to download the required character ) Packaged version tested and released. Added a web page about creating Ascii Art for use in Chat. |
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| Version 1.2c |
| 2nd Mar 1998 Added newsflash feature. More graceful handling of a missing webpage. Allowed user to abort a really poor internet connection. |
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| Version 1.2d |
| 3rd Mar 1998 Fixed the following minor bugs Handle user attempt to search internet before establishing a connection. Correctly display character names containing ampersands. Refresh display with any characters installed during the session. Another decision - my apologies For this reason I have decided not to continue working on version 2 with its built in character download and installation features. Instead I am going to concentrate on making the current version faster and extend its search capabilities. |
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| Version 1.2e (requests) |
| 7th Mar 1998 Corrected the 'ChatCheck.ini' error message which was showing two buttons when realistically your only option is to abort. Added a progress meter to stop you getting bored on slow connections. Added a button to skip unresponsive or well known pages. |
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| Version 1.2f |
| 9th Mar 1998 Added more information to the browse dialog. Added highlighting by page feature - browsing is now a double-click. Rewrote URL storage - increasing speed and reducing memory requirements. Columns can now be moved (drag the site heading) as well as resized. |
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| Version 1.2g (cosmetic) |
| 20th Mar 1998 Columns now resize dynamically during searches. |
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| Version 1.2h |
| 3rd Apr 1998 Program now detects any new characters you add to your ComicArt directory. |
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| Version 1.3b |
| 4th Apr 1998 The addition of what I hope will be a major enhancement for those of my friends who use the chat room Softs Color Characters or who are members of Softs Circle. Basically I have added a popup menu (available by right-clicking) which allows the user to list the nicknames of Softs Circle members, and by clicking on them find out which character the member normally uses and if you have it installed. |
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| Version 1.3c | | 5th Apr 1998 Exotic bug fix. |
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| Version 1.3d |
| 12th Apr 1998 Added an installed character indicator to the nicknames list. Corrected the behaviour of the status bar when viewing nicknames. |
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| Version 1.3e (with lots of input from Meta-Joy) | | 18th Apr 1998 Quadrupled the buffer sizes for those of you with really fast connections. Allowed a characters location to be copied to the clipboard. More intelligent handling of the slight variations in character names. Fixed code allowing for users who do not have Comic Chat installed ! . |
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| Version 1.3f |
| 23rd Apr 1998 Program now allows searching to be limited to just those locations which have not already been searched during the session. ( This can happen when sites do not respond or the user skips them. ) Finally fixed the bug which caused a new instance of the browser to open, the program now correctly reuses the same browser window. |
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Version 2.0a  |
| 28th May 1998 Started testing the Microsoft Chat V3.0 Beta Added a feature to distinguish between versions of installed characters. |
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| Version 2.0b |
| 2nd Jun 1998 Moved the version detection feature to the popup menu. Modifications to handle new layout of the Unofficial MSChat Add-On Site |
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| Version 2.0c |
| 7th Jun 1998 Popup menu now indicates the version of Microsoft Chat installed. Detection of installed characters now also produces a browsable listing. Double-clicking a new format character shows its automatic download address. |
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| Version 2.0d |
| 11th Jun 1998 It seems Microsoft have decided to call the new version 2.5 ! made the appropriate changes to reflect the downgrade. |
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| Version 2.0e | | 18th Jun 1998 By popular demand the table can now use the entire width of the window. Status bar now shows automatic download address Clicking the status bar now allows : Browsing my web site Emailing me via the browser Limited help information (I'm really spoiling you !) |
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| Version 2.0f |
| 19th Jun 1998 Made amendments reflecting the latest changes to internal structure of AVB files. |
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Version 2.1a  | |
1st Jul 1998 WOW - added feature which allows you to check all installed characters with automatic download info against the master copies on the internet ! Added legend and moved help to popup menu. |
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| Version 2.1b |
| 3rd Jul 1998 It seems automatic download information can appear in more than one position. Added feature to allow any 'Out of date' characters to be updated with the internet copy as per the embedded automatic download information. Program is now resizeable to the full width of the screen. |
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| Version 2.1c |
| 5th Jul 1998 Fixed problem with some sites incorrectly reporting automatically downloadable characters as being 'not found'. |
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| Version 2.1d |
| 10th Jul 1998 Color coding extended  for version 2.5 characters, and  for old characters.Modified browsing to handle sites with frames better. |
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| Version 2.1e |
| 12th Jul 1998 Fixed various minor bugs creating browsable html table. Added a concealed favourites page to web site (accessable from ChatCheck !) Created a more intuitive (I hope) scrollbar for the main character table. |
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| Version 2.1f |
| 19th Jul 1998 Modifications to allow for foreign language versions of Microsoft Chat. |
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| Version 2.1g |
| 23rd Jul 1998 Finally got a copy of the new Microsoft Chat Character Editor (V 0.0.66) and guess what - the format has changed again - modified ChatCheck accordingly. |
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| Version 2.1h |
| 25th Jul 1998 Email from Soft highlighted problems with renamed characters. Renaming a character does not change the embedded information in it, and is certainly an infringment of copyright. Enhanced ChatCheck to detect such characters. |
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Version 2.1i  | |
2nd Aug 1998 Trying to work out which characters were being auto downloaded was driving me nuts. Modified ChatCheck so that if it is left running in the background during a chat session (the recommended way to use it anyway); it not only monitors new characters for addition to the table - it now also highlights them and allows you to list them from the popup menu. The hint setting is now saved between sessions. |
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| Version 2.2a | |
3rd Sep 1998 Sadly Soft has closed her popular Color Comics site on the Xoom server. This in turn means that many people who obtained characters from Color Comics are left with characters which no longer automatically download to other users. (since they point to files at Xoom which no longer exist). Modified ChatCheck to detect these 'moved' characters and (optionally) correct them so they point to the automatic download addresses of the new Comicchat site. Revamped the legend display to show all the possible combinations of a characters status without obscuring the search table (you may now hover or click the legend). Made popup menu multi-level to make it appear smaller. |
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| Version 2.2b |
| 7th Nov 1998 Rewrote browser launching code for increased compatibility with Windows 98. Detection of newly installed characters is now much more efficient. Updated and expanded quick help information. Better detection of browser symbols. |
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| Version 2.2d |
| 12th Dec 1998 Double width columns now selectable from popup menu. Quick help, legend and hints now tied to function keys. Better detection of non standard installations. Some cosmetic bugs fixed. |
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| Version 2.2e |
| 18th Dec 1998 Fixed an annoying little bug which made the redirect option unaccessible on the popup menu after a new character had been detected. Increased 8k section buffer to 32k to cope with the Nexus. Added code to prevent multiple simultaneous instances of ChatCheck. |
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Version 2.3a  |
| 31st Dec 1998 Code changes for browser agent statistics. |
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| Version 2.3b |
| 3rd Jan 1999 Previously if you had ChatCheck running on a fast PC and downloaded multiple new characters ChatCheck would occasionally get out of synch and mess up its table - harmless but unsettling - now fixed. |
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| Version 2.3c |
| 17th Jan 1999 Cosmetic changes to the progress panel and status bar. Fixed the problem displaying ampersand's in message boxes. |
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| Version 2.3d |
| 12th Feb 1999 Fixed the "CHECK internet for updates" to correctly handle virtual servers, these are sites which do not permit directory browsing and do not correctly return the size of a file on request. Previously this always caused ChatCheck to mark the character as out of date. |
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| Version 2.3e |
| 21st Feb 1999 Reportedly ChatCheck was incorrectly handling the addition of a new character if it was added during an update cycle. Although I was not able to duplicate the problem I have now completely replaced the code used to monitor the ComicArt folder - now using a component with a different threading model. Changed the search function to handle an exclude string rather than merely a single character, this allows correct parsing of some of the trickier sites. This version now also allows a list of potential new characters to be browsed. |
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| 27th Feb 1999 Modernised my website. |
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| Version 2.3f |
| 6th Mar 1999 Made various dates millennium compliant. The addition of new characters is now indicated in the taskbar (useful if ChatCheck is a minimised or a background application at the time !) |
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Version 2.3g  |
| 21st Mar 1999 Prevented the deletion of clones from triggering directory updates. Added fast find (F3) to allow quicker location of installed characters 4th Apr 1999 6th Apr 1999 |
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Version 2.4a  |
| 24th Apr 1999 Major new feature added. Special thanks to Sherrie, Y-Guy and Thunder for this one ! ChatCheck now has a list of unsuitable characters (nude, violent, upsetting, etc) and can substitute a harmless character for them on your PC. This allows Comic Chat to function normally but prevents the unsuitable characters from being displayed or even downloaded. |
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| Version 2.4b |
| 1st May 1999 A few little tweaks and added the option to keep copies (or not ). |
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| Version 2.4c |
| 10th May 1999 I have now given all the characters a rating from mild to unacceptable. This allows the user to decide how bad a character has to be before it is considered for substitution. |
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| Version 2.4d |
| 15th May 1999 Corrected substitution of big characters (either they are selected or they are not - irrespective of the rating slider position). Changed the confirmation dialog to be more informative. Characters that have already been substituted now have a greyed checkedbox to prevent them being selected again. |
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Closed 
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| July 1999 Sorry folks! After much thought, I decided to remove ChatCheck from service. It was taking most of my waking hours to maintain and my interests were moving into a more astounding area. That is the SETI program. SETI, (Search for Extraterrestrial Inteligence), has been joined by a group of 'University of California at Berkely' students who created a program, (SETI@home), to aid in processing the data received in listening to the stars. Among other things, I have decided to focus more of my freetime to aiding in the SETI@home project. Which can use your help too! To learn more about SETI@home, please visit UC Berkeley's Seti Page! Thankyou! ~Sqiz |
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Version 2.5a  |
| 8th Aug 98 I have given permission to Mermaid_Elizabeth to host my ChatCheck program on her site. This means that she will be managing it for me. She will also be responsible for it's upkeep. One must download this latest version for continued use since the internal coding has been changed to reflect it's operation now from it's new location. |
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| Version 2.5b |
| 18th Aug 99 Due to the large amount of characters now available, the progress panel was maxing out on it's capabilities and stopping in the middle of a WEB search. Though ChatCheck did continue searching and logging, it appeared to most to be locking up. I changed the 16bit memo used for the progress panel to a 32bit rich text component. This should function just the same as before and allow almost limitless number of characters depending on the memory in your PC. |
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| Version 2.5c |
| 27th Dec 99 Mermaid_Elizabeth's site went off line after she cancelled her ISP service for financial reasons. So I reposted ChatCheck back to my site. This version (c) accesses the necessary control files from my site. |
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| Version 2.5d |
| 15th April 00 I have my own domain now (http://www.sqiz.co.uk/) and once again had to move the control files to the new domain. So this version (d) will be accessing the files from my new 'Home'. Mermaid_Elizabeth's site is back! I have decided to keep a 'back-up' copy of Chat Check to run from my new site as a convienence to my friends who use ChatCheck to keep up with all the new Comic Chat Character additions. |
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| Version 2.5e |
| 7 May 00 This is the most current revision now! This version is managed by Mermaid_Elizabeth and was edited to access the control files from her newly relocated web site on the WEBB.NET host sites. Users who have 2.5b will find that it no longer will do a search and are asked to download this version (e) or 2.5d. If in doubt, get the 2.5e version since it may find some newer sites that 2.5d may not have been updated yet to search. |
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| Version 2.5 x |
| 22 February 2001
ChatCheck 2.5e was sourcing it's control files from the website host WEBB.NET. After WEBB.NET closed their doors to free internet web page hosting, ChatCheck 2.5e had become dead and is no longer an active web search utility!
ChatCheck 2.5b had been reactivated to do internet Comic Chat Character file searches and was managed by Mermaid_Elizabeth from her AOL account! But she has closed her AOL account later in the Spring of 2001. Moving to Cable high speed access. ChatCheck 2.5d was operating and getting it's control files from Sqiz's (the program's author) web site domain! Sqiz closed his site in the Winter of 2002. |
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| 17th Dec 2004 Mermaid Elizabeth found a cool little freeware BOX making program called Scott's Box Shot Maker 4.0. She decided to use it to design a virtual 'software distribution box' for ChatCheck and design a new
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