I’ve been using Pidgin (which was mentioned in the JesusH wipe and re-install Windows guide last year) for instant messaging. I had some problems recently connecting to my various IM accounts with it, so I upgraded to 2.4.3, which seems to have fixed those connection issues. I’ve never liked the Pidgin default emoticons so I found and installed Andrei Neculau’s Original Smileys, which allow Pidgin to use the original emoticon set for each client–in other words, I see Y!M emoticons when I’m talking to someone with a Yahoo! Messenger account. I see MSN emoticons when I’m talking to someone with an MSN account.
Yes, over the last few years I’ve really started to lean on emoticons in instant messaging. This is not something I’m proud of.
Anyway, I discovered upon invocation that the AIM emoticons had gotten animated, weird-looking, and ugly since I last saw them (for example, 
vs 
). Apparently, a new version of AIM has been released since the last time I looked, and AOL has taken this opportunity to update their emoticons. That might look like progress to the kids, but it looks like crap to me.
I couldn’t find a convenient way to get the old AIM emoticons back. I ended up having to find the old ones at elouai.com. I downloaded them, cropped them up–the originals are way too padded–and made the backgrounds transparent. In case you like the old-school AIM icons better than the new ones and want to go to a little bit of trouble:
- install and activate Andrei Neculau’s Original Smileys.
- download this archive of the old AIM emoticons and unzip them inside the folder created by step 1. On my system the folder path is
C:\Documents and Settings\dpease\Application Data\.purple\smileys\pidgin-original
so I created
C:\Documents and Settings\dpease\Application Data\.purple\smileys\pidgin-original\aim_old .
- open the theme file created by step 1. On my system this file is
C:\Documents and Settings\dpease\Application Data\.purple\smileys\pidgin-original\theme .
- find the following text block in the themes file and select it:
# AIM 6.5 [AIM] ../pidgin-original/aim/smiling.gif
../pidgin-original/aim/winking.gif 
../pidgin-original/aim/frowning.gif 
../pidgin-original/aim/stickingouttongue.gif :-p 
../pidgin-original/aim/surprised.gif =-O
../pidgin-original/aim/kissing.gif :-*
../pidgin-original/aim/yelling.gif >:o
../pidgin-original/aim/ecstatic.gif 
../pidgin-original/aim/moneymouth.gif :-$
../pidgin-original/aim/footinmouth.gif :-!
../pidgin-original/aim/embarrassed.gif :-[
../pidgin-original/aim/innocent.gif O:-)
../pidgin-original/aim/undecided.gif :-\\
../pidgin-original/aim/crying.gif :'(
../pidgin-original/aim/lipsaresealed.gif :-X
../pidgin-original/aim/cool.gif 
- replace the text selected in the last step with the following text block:
# AIM 6.5 #[AIM] #../pidgin-original/aim/smiling.gif
#../pidgin-original/aim/winking.gif
#../pidgin-original/aim/frowning.gif
#../pidgin-original/aim/stickingouttongue.gif :-p
#../pidgin-original/aim/surprised.gif =-O
#../pidgin-original/aim/kissing.gif :-*
#../pidgin-original/aim/yelling.gif >:o
#../pidgin-original/aim/ecstatic.gif
#../pidgin-original/aim/moneymouth.gif :-$
#
#../pidgin-original/aim/footinmouth.gif :-!
#../pidgin-original/aim/embarrassed.gif :-[
#../pidgin-original/aim/innocent.gif O:-)
#../pidgin-original/aim/undecided.gif :-\\
#../pidgin-original/aim/crying.gif :'(
#../pidgin-original/aim/lipsaresealed.gif :-X
#../pidgin-original/aim/cool.gif
# Old-school AIM, cause newer AIM sucks
# 2008-07-28, DMP
[AIM]
../pidgin-original/aim_old/happy10.gif
../pidgin-original/aim_old/wink10.gif
../pidgin-original/aim_old/sad10.gif
../pidgin-original/aim_old/tongueout10.gif :-p
../pidgin-original/aim_old/shocked10.gif =-O
../pidgin-original/aim_old/redlips10.gif :-*
../pidgin-original/aim_old/angry10.gif >:o
../pidgin-original/aim_old/biggrin10.gif
../pidgin-original/aim_old/indifferent10.gif :-$
../pidgin-original/aim_old/footinmouth10.gif :-!
../pidgin-original/aim_old/embarrassed10.gif :-[
../pidgin-original/aim_old/angel10.gif O:-)
../pidgin-original/aim_old/confused10.gif :-\\
../pidgin-original/aim_old/crying10.gif :'(
../pidgin-original/aim_old/nospeak10.gif :-X
../pidgin-original/aim_old/cool10.gif
- Save the file. Your AIM emoticons should now be the old-school versions in Pidgin.
- Profit!
Thanks for this tutorial ,)
I’m actually trying to find some time to implement a customization thingie for these, but no time and no donations equals lower priority…
But it should be there in some months ,)
Hey look! It looks like some jerk may have built an Adium library out of these files and uploaded them to our server. It looks like maybe they can be downloaded here! That’s weird!
Adium is a Pidginlike IM client for OS X, but then you already knew that – if you were AWESOME, that is…
Come on now… this is like being nostalgic for the Clooney Batman, shaking your fist at how the young kids are migrating to Bale en masse. :-/
If you’re going to do it up old-school, go Adam West: punctuation style.
No, no, Andrei, thank YOU for your work. It has made the world just a bit better.
I actually like to add emoticons by using the Smile! menu in Pidgin, rather than typing them, so punctuation style doesn’t work so well for me.
Andres, why you hating? The JesusH logomark is an original AIM emoticon, for heaven’s sake! REPRESENT!
Good point, Jeff.
>:o >:o >:o JesusH
would look pretty dumb on the top of the page.
I had the perfect ‘emoticon’ last year of tumbleweed blowing in the wind, but lost it bdfore Halloween & couldn’t replace it because it wasn’t there anymore.I live in the desert & it was very desriptive of this area. I’ll look on your site. Thank you.