Legacy archive of open-source AOL add-ons
DarcFX
DarcFX began as a home for AOL add-ons, source code, tools, and tutorials from the Visual Basic prog scene.
April 12, 2022
Featured on GitHub's ReadME Project
DarcFX and the 1990s AOL prog scene were featured in GitHub's ReadME Project article, What Hacking AOL Taught a Generation of Programmers: The Open Source Ethos Behind Rogue AOL Add-ons, by Klint Finley.
I traded emails with Klint while he was writing the piece and tried to connect him with other AOL proggers from back in the day. The article captures a scene that introduced a lot of us to programming, open source, reverse engineering, and security-minded curiosity.
I'm thankful for Klint's time and the care he put into the story.
- Darc
Archive
AOL Add-ons, "Prog" Source Code & Tools
The original DarcFX file archive is now hosted on GitHub, so it can be browsed, cloned, and preserved more easily. The repository includes AOL add-ons, prog source code, Visual Basic modules, tutorials, runtimes, tools, sounds, icons, and other submissions from the old site.
AIM
- Controls
- Forms
- Modules
AOL 2.5 - 3.0
- Decompiled
- DLLs
- Forms
- Help
- Modules
- VBX
AOL 4.0 - 5.0
- Controls
- Modules
- Modules - Classes
- Modules - Faders
- Modules - VB3
- Tutorials
- VB4 Forms
- VB5 Forms
- VB6 Forms
AOL 6.0 - 7.0
- Controls
- DLLs
- Modules
- VB6 Forms
AOL 8.0 - 9.0
- Controls
- Modules
Compuserv
- Modules
Games
- Forms
Help
- Help
Misc
- Icons
- Other
- Sounds
Non-AOL
- Controls
- Modules
- Tools
- VB4 Forms
- VB5 Forms
- VB6 Forms
Runtimes
- Runtime Files
Tutorials
- Tutorials
Origin story
History of DarcFX.com
DarcFX started in the late 1990s as a place to host my programs, collect source code submissions, and share tutorials for making "progs" -- mostly AOL add-ons and mods written in Visual Basic.
Back then, a lot of us hung out in AOL's private "vb" room and its overflow rooms: vb1, vb2, vb3, and so on. Friends like Syber, dos, plastik, pre, and Neo traded code, answered questions, and helped people figure things out. AOL chat rooms were not great for sharing files or keeping order, so we moved more of that energy to IRC and started TheZone IRC Network.
Over the years, files from DarcFX have been downloaded millions of times, with hundreds of thousands of visits annually for quite some time. But in the 2000s, with the prevalence of broadband, DSL, cable, and "always-on" Internet connectivity, the AOL user base waned as did interest in modifying its mandatory software. Interest in DarcFX and AOL Add-ons faded into memory. But I couldn't bring myself to turn the site off. Being a part of this scene changed my life and the life of so many others who eventually launched into great careers. DarcFX had to stay. So stay it did.
In 2016, someone began a Facebook Group -- "AOL Proggies" -- I assume for nostalgia, and a friend from the scene invited me to it. They were posting links to apps and screenshots to things they had made back in the day ... and it got me thinking about DarcFX again. I decided to migrate the legacy files, all the DarcFX File Submissions, prog source code examples, modules, tutorials, and whatnot to GitHub, now owned by Microsoft -- the world's largest repository of source code. After all, GitHub became what DarcFX had originally tried to be -- a place for people to see source code and learn to program!
The entire project can be downloaded at will by all. Git is the new face of open source. DarcFX will remain open, though, and just link to the GitHub repository.
And who knows... I might do something else with the site one day. I've always liked the theme. We shall see!
- Darc
Details
Website Development Languages
DarcFX.com was originally built in PHP. On a boring Saturday in 2010, I rebuilt the core site in ASP.NET 4.0 with Visual C#. Today, it has come full circle: just HTML and CSS.
Contact and IRC
#TheZone / #fsociety
I still keep an IRC server linked to TheZone IRC Network, which Syber and I co-administrate. DarcFX maintains a server link available at irc.darcfx.com. I also have many friends in #fsociety on irc.libera.chat.