diff --git a/code/game_status.js b/code/game_status.js
index fdeac3d8..b28ba0c0 100644
--- a/code/game_status.js
+++ b/code/game_status.js
@@ -12,15 +12,14 @@ window.updateGameScore = function(data) {
   }
 
   // hacky - but here is as good as any for a location
-  // the niantic servers have attempted to obfuscate the client/server protocol, by munging the request parameters
-  // detecting which munge set should be used is tricky - even the stock site gets it wrong sometimes
-  // to detect the problem and try a different set is easiest in a place where there's only a single request of that type
-  // sent at once, and it has no extra parameters. this method matches those requirements
+  // tne niantic servers include a 'version' parameter with the requests. this is changed for any site update they
+  // roll out, even when the protocol has no changes at all. (and sometimes when there's no other client javascript
+  // changes of any kind!)
   if (data.error || (data.indexOf && data.indexOf('"error"') != -1)) {
-    if (data.error == 'missing version') {
+    if (data.error == 'out of date') {
       dialog({
         title: 'Reload IITC',
-        html: '<p>IITC is using an outdated munge set. This can happen when Niantic update the standard intel site.</p>'
+        html: '<p>IITC is using an outdated version code. This will happen when Niantic update the standard intel site.</p>'
              +'<p>You need to reload the page to get the updated changes.</p>'
              +'<p>If you have just reloaded the page, then an old version of the standard site script is cached somewhere.'
              +'In this case, try clearing your cache, or waiting 15-30 minutes for the stale data to expire.</p>',
diff --git a/plugins/bad-version-code-fix.user.js b/plugins/bad-version-code-fix.user.js
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..38526204
--- /dev/null
+++ b/plugins/bad-version-code-fix.user.js
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+// ==UserScript==
+// @id             iitc-plugin-fix-bad-version-code@jonatkins
+// @name           IITC plugin: Fix bad version codes
+// @category       Tweaks
+// @version        0.1.0.@@DATETIMEVERSION@@
+// @namespace      https://github.com/jonatkins/ingress-intel-total-conversion
+// @updateURL      @@UPDATEURL@@
+// @downloadURL    @@DOWNLOADURL@@
+// @description    [@@BUILDNAME@@-@@BUILDDATE@@] Sometimes Niantic deployments break, causing an old version of the gen_dashboard.js to be served. This has an out-of-date version code. This plugin overrides known bad codes with the one that should be current.
+// @include        https://www.ingress.com/intel*
+// @include        http://www.ingress.com/intel*
+// @match          https://www.ingress.com/intel*
+// @match          http://www.ingress.com/intel*
+// @grant          none
+// ==/UserScript==
+
+
+// NOTE: non-standard plugin - designed to work with both IITC *and* the standard intel site
+
+// do NOT use as a template for other IITC plugins
+
+var fixUrl = (window.location.protocol!=='https:'?'http://iitc.jonatkins.com':'https://secure.jonatkins.com/iitc')+'/bad-version-code-fix.js';
+var script = document.createElement('script');
+script.setAttribute('src', fixUrl);
+(document.body || document.head || document.documentElement).appendChild(script);
diff --git a/website/bad-version-code-fix.js b/website/bad-version-code-fix.js
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..70345a54
--- /dev/null
+++ b/website/bad-version-code-fix.js
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+// this script can be loaded by an IITC plugin, to fix known bad version codes when Niantic have a bad deployment
+
+(function(){
+
+  var fixes = {
+    // 2014-08-02 - broken for 24h+
+    '81ad679ab5bc219ef3bcf7ca9b760e917cf0c558': 'afdb91368730a906bae38b2837cc411f880350fa',
+
+  };
+
+
+  var fixed = fixes[nemesis.dashboard.config.CURRENT_VERSION];
+
+  if (fixed) {
+    console.warn('VersionCodeFixer: bad nemesis.dashboard.config.CURRENT_VERSION: is '+nemesis.dashboard.config.CURRENT_VERSION+', should be '+fixed);
+    nemesis.dashboard.config.CURRENT_VERSION = fixed;
+  } else {
+    console.log('VersionCodeFixer: no known fixes needed');
+  }
+
+})();