AOL Underground Proggies Archive

About 2,800 unique AOL/AIM proggie archives from the late 1990s and early 2000s. Punters, phishers, chat tools, mail bombers, scrollers, faders, the whole underground scene, preserved and cataloged.

Let's repopulate the Gibson!

Brought to you by the AOL Underground Podcast

Browse the archive | Search proggies | Mac Hells | Full project status | Donate

Quick Start

# Install Git LFS (required for the strings database)
git lfs install

# Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/ssstonebraker/aolunderground-proggies.git
cd aolunderground-proggies

# Search for a proggie by name
python3 tools/query_proggies.py --search "punter"

Output:

  Name                          Author       AOL  VB      Zip
  Punt                          Unknown      2.5  VB3     programs/AOL/.../2.5/punt.zip
  PuntStat                      Unknown      3.0  VB3     programs/AOL/.../3.0/puntstat.zip
  bodini                        bodini       4.0  VB6     programs/AOL/.../4.0/bodini.zip
  ...
Found 47 matches

# See stats
python3 tools/query_proggies.py --stats

Output:

Total proggies: 2,138
  AOL: 2,118  AIM: 20
  With author: 1,198  With password: 36
VB versions: VB6=805 VB5=349 VB4-32=458 VB3=211 non-VB=112

# Search 11.6 million extracted strings across all exes
unzip exe_strings.db.zip    # one-time, extracts 2.4GB database
python3 tools/query_strings.py "AOL Frame25"

Output:

  anexbust.exe: AOL Frame25
  bodini.exe: FindWindow "AOL Frame25"
  ...
Found in 342 executables

Current Stats

What	Count
Deduplicated AOL proggies	2,138
AIM proggies	649
HTML analysis pages	1,821
Programs with author attribution	1,198
Detected executables	1,941
VB exes (decompilable)	1,829
Strings extracted	11.6 million
Decompiled so far	3 (pipeline proven, batch run next)

Mac Hacking Tools

The archive also includes Mac-era AOL hacking tools, starting with the most notorious:

• AOL4Free v4 — Happy Hardcore's 68k binary patcher for AOL 2.6 (1995). Exploited a client-trusted billing system to access all paid services for free. Includes the original .sit archive, full 68k disassembly, architecture diagrams, FDO protocol documentation, and Happy Hardcore's own writings.

Finding Proggies

• proggie-index.html - Interactive web search with filters and sorting
• proggie-index.md - Browse by category with markdown tables
• proggie-index.txt - Greppable tab-delimited file

2026 Reorganization

This repository has been reorganized for better discoverability:

• Duplicate Detection: 6,061 archives merged down to 2,138 unique proggies via SHA256
• Version Tagging: Sorted by AOL version (2.5, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, 6.0, 7.0, 8.0, 9.0)
• Metadata Database: SQLite DB with names, authors, VB versions, dependencies, compile dates
• Analysis Pages: Per-proggie HTML pages with API refs, string analysis, dependency trees
• API-Based Version Detection: Accurate detection using actual AOL API signatures (details)

Old links broken? Check REDIRECTS.md or switch to the archive-original branch.

Decompilation Pipeline

We're recovering the original VB source code from every executable using an automated pipeline:

1. Push the exe into a network-isolated Windows 10 VM (QEMU/KVM)
2. VB Decompiler Pro opens and decompiles it via GUI automation
3. Pull the decompiled .frm/.bas/.vbp files back to the host
4. Parse metadata (forms, controls, API calls, strings) into JSON
5. Generate an enriched HTML analysis page with the source code

Status: Pipeline proven end-to-end on 3 exes. 1,826 remaining. Each takes about 2.5 minutes, so the full batch is roughly 76 hours of VM time.

What we need help with:

• Batch orchestrator with resume-on-crash (Python, talks to VM via virtio-serial)
• Metadata parsers for decompiled VB source (extract form layouts, API calls, control names)
• Source code cleanup (strip decompiler noise, resolve proc names from known base modules)
• HTML template improvements for the analysis pages

See docs/PROJECT_STATUS.md for the full technical breakdown.

Contributing

We need help! See CONTRIBUTING.md for details, or check the full project status.

Quick wins:

• Got proggies? Submit them! Even duplicates help verify our collection
• Remember which AOL version a proggie worked with? 549 need verification
• Know the author of a proggie? Open an issue with corrections
• Can run proggies? We need screenshots (Wine, VM, or real old Windows)

Missing Proggies

• Guide Punt by Stoney (guide.exe)
• Magenta by ReDxKinG (latest version)
• Reset 1.0 by skribe
• 1-888'd by skribe
• Macro Studio by i88i
• Gemini Macro by anubis
• Macro House
• Pup Tool by Pen (puptool.zip)

Repository Structure

programs/AOL/proggies-sorted-deduped/
  proggies-by-version/          # 2,138 zips sorted by AOL version
  <name>.html                   # Per-proggie analysis pages
  <name>/                       # Assets (screenshots, source)

programs/Mac/hells/
  aol4free/                     # AOL4Free v4 — binary, analysis, FDO docs

tools/
  build_proggie_db.py           # Build the SQLite database
  query_proggies.py             # Search and query
  query_strings.py              # Search 11.6M extracted strings
  detect_vb_version.py          # VB version detection
  generate_analysis.py          # HTML page generator
  generate_index.py             # Interactive search page generator

proggie_db.sqlite               # The database
exe_strings.db.zip              # 11.6M extracted strings (unzip before querying)
proggie-index.html              # Interactive search

Thank You

Contributors and sources:

• Len from Lens Hell
• https://web.archive.org/web/20220321112058/http://kadeklizem.com/AOL%20Progs%20ARCHIVE.rar
• http://www.aciddr0p.net/
• https://koin.org
• https://progs.rexflex.net/
• https://github.com/darcfx/darcfx-submissions
• https://github.com/raysuelzer/ProgzRescue

Committing Large Files

exe_strings.db.zip is tracked via Git LFS. Install LFS before cloning:

git lfs install
git clone https://github.com/ssstonebraker/aolunderground-proggies.git