I need some help

I want to make a revival of AIM using a old version (basically escargot but with aim) but i have no idea how to even make such a project.

Perhaps some help/tips could help me?

I’ve considered looking at AIM and Y!IM myself, though I’ve not got much further than considering that it might be a good idea, for the same reasons as preserving MSN Messenger. What I do know, though, is that you’ll want to look at the OSCAR protocol, that’s how AIM clients communicate(d) with the server. I don’t know any of the specifics as I’ve not researched the protocol, but that would probably be a good place to start looking.

You’ll need to know a programming language, I should think that almost anything will do, as long as it supports sockets. The basic structure is going to involve sockets to send and receive data to incoming connections from users/clients, and then a command parser to see what the commands are and to choose/construct the appropriate responses.

All in all it’s not a massively complex thing to build, but it can be tricky (especially if a protocol isn’t well documented), and you probably will run into a lot of road blocks along the way. But it is fun, and it might even be useful. Good luck!

The Wikipedia page has a lot of information: check the “Implementations” and “External Links” parts:

An official documentation is also available…