# Microsoft Comic Chat

22 Hacker News commenters recommended Microsoft Comic Chat and 9 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 2 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** A nostalgic 1990s IRC client that shows chat as comic panels, now open source; people recommend it for the memories. Critics say it annoyed other IRC users.

## Why people recommend it

- Nostalgia for 90s IRC (7 comments): "it was my first IRC client. Didn't fully get what IRC was yet. It felt like a new world opening up." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48939052)) "I was fascinated by this as a young teenager. I still love it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48942337)) "countless good memories when dial up was still a thing" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48937946))
- Open-source release and web port (4 comments): "Thank you to the original developers, and to the current team at Microsoft that made this release possible!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48938110)) "Love to see some software that thought way out of the box and got institutional support." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48941619)) "I still think this project has potential." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48936639))
- Fun, creative idea (3 comments): "Love to see some software that thought way out of the box and got institutional support." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48941619)) "That’s hilarious. I hope to see some fun spinoffs." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48936656)) "Someone at MS made a fun IRC client. Thats it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48943288))

## What people warn about

- Embrace, extend, extinguish IRC protocol (4 comments): "However it's kind of weird that you choose this very explicit 1996 Embrace, extend, and extinguish piece of software to showcase." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48940906)) "they managed to Embrace&Extend the IRC protocol in a way that was annoying to anyone not using Comic Chat" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48938460)) "They extended the open IRC protocol with proprietary extensions hidden inside CTCP" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48943636))
- Annoying to other IRC users (5 comments): "Comic chat was a phenomenal pain in the arse in the 90s for any IRC channel" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48946418)) "I remember being hated when I joined chat rooms with it, even though I never changed any setting." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48937911)) "I always set up an automatic kick when one of these messages was sent anywhere on the servers" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48938546))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Irssi](https://hackerapproved.com/p/irssi.md): 5 recommend
- [Goguma IRC client](https://hackerapproved.com/p/goguma.md): 5 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Microsoft Comic Chat", https://hackerapproved.com/p/microsoft-comic-chat/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).