diff --git a/Buildscr b/Buildscr
index 947102d..a677531 100644
--- a/Buildscr
+++ b/Buildscr
@@ -14,6 +14,10 @@ in puzzles do rm configure.ac~
 in puzzles do perl -e 'print "\n\\versionid Simon Tatham'\''s Portable Puzzle Collection, version $$ARGV[0]\n"' $(Version) >> puzzles.but
 in puzzles do perl -e 'print "\n\\versionid Simon Tatham'\''s Portable Puzzle Collection, version $$ARGV[0]\n"' $(Version) >> devel.but
 
+# Write out a version.h that contains the real version number.
+in puzzles do echo '/* Generated by automated build script */' > version.h
+in puzzles do echo '$#define VER "Version $(Version)"' >> version.h
+
 # First build some local binaries, to run the icon build.
 in puzzles do perl mkfiles.pl -U
 in puzzles do make
diff --git a/Recipe b/Recipe
index 0d9e2a3..a2d3090 100644
--- a/Recipe
+++ b/Recipe
@@ -93,100 +93,12 @@ Puzzles.dmg: Puzzles
 	rm -f raw.dmg devicename
 !end
 
-# Version management.
-!begin vc
-version.obj: *.c *.h
-	cl $(VER) $(CFLAGS) /c version.c
-!end
-!specialobj vc version
-!begin wce
-version.obj: *.c *.h
-	$(CC) $(VER) $(CFLAGS) /c version.c
-!end
-!specialobj wce version
-!begin cygwin
-version.o: FORCE;
-FORCE:
-	$(CC) $(COMPAT) $(XFLAGS) $(CFLAGS) $(VER) -c version.c
-!end
-!specialobj cygwin version
-# For Unix, we also need the gross MD5 hack that causes automatic
-# version number selection in release source archives.
-!begin gtk
-version.o: version.c version2.def
-	$(CC) $(COMPAT) $(XFLAGS) $(CFLAGS) `cat version2.def` -c version.c
-version2.def: FORCE
-	if test -z "$(VER)" && test -f manifest && md5sum -c manifest; then \
-		cat version.def > version2.def.new; \
-	else \
-		echo "$(VER)" >version2.def.new; \
-	fi && \
-	if diff -q version2.def.new version2.def; then \
-		rm version2.def.new; \
-	else \
-		mv version2.def.new version2.def; \
-	fi
-.PHONY: FORCE
-!end
-!specialobj gtk version
-# In the automake build, we have to do the whole job by supplying
-# extra CFLAGS, so we have to put the if statement inside one big
-# backtick expression. We also force rebuilding via a -D option that
-# makes version.o include empty.h, which we construct ourselves and
-# touch whenever any source file is updated.
-!cflags am version -DINCLUDE_EMPTY_H `if test -z "$(VER)" && (cd $(srcdir) && test -f manifest && md5sum -c manifest >/dev/null 2>&1); then cat $(srcdir)/version.def; else echo "$(VER)"; fi`
 !begin am
-BUILT_SOURCES = empty.h
-CLEANFILES = empty.h
-empty.h: $(allsources)
-	echo '/* Empty file touched by automake makefile to force rebuild of version.o */' >$@
 bin_PROGRAMS = $(GAMES)
 !end
 !begin am_begin
 GAMES =
 !end
-!begin >empty.h
-/* Empty file touched by automake makefile to force rebuild of version.o */
-!end
-!begin nestedvm
-version.o: version.c version2.def
-	$(CC) $(COMPAT) $(XFLAGS) $(CFLAGS) `cat version2.def` -c version.c
-version2.def: FORCE
-	if test -z "$(VER)" && test -f manifest && md5sum -c manifest; then \
-		cat version.def > version2.def.new; \
-	else \
-		echo "$(VER)" >version2.def.new; \
-	fi && \
-	if diff -q version2.def.new version2.def; then \
-		rm version2.def.new; \
-	else \
-		mv version2.def.new version2.def; \
-	fi
-.PHONY: FORCE
-!end
-!specialobj nestedvm version
-# For OS X, this is made more fiddly by the fact that we don't have
-# md5sum readily available. We do, however, have `md5 -r' which
-# generates _nearly_ the same output, but it has no check function.
-!begin osx
-version.ppc.o: version.c version2.def
-	$(CC) -arch ppc $(COMPAT) $(XFLAGS) $(CFLAGS) `cat version2.def` -c version.c -o $@
-version.i386.o: version.c version2.def
-	$(CC) -arch i386 $(COMPAT) $(XFLAGS) $(CFLAGS) `cat version2.def` -c version.c -o $@
-version2.def: FORCE
-	if test -z "$(VER)" && test -f manifest && (md5 -r `awk '{print $$2}' manifest` | diff -w manifest -); then \
-		cat version.def > version2.def.new; \
-	else \
-		echo "$(VER)" >version2.def.new; \
-	fi && \
-	if diff -q version2.def.new version2.def; then \
-		rm version2.def.new; \
-	else \
-		mv version2.def.new version2.def; \
-	fi
-.PHONY: FORCE
-!end
-!specialobj osx version
 
 # make install for Unix.
 !begin gtk
diff --git a/makedist.sh b/makedist.sh
index 65eb519..6b90fd8 100755
--- a/makedist.sh
+++ b/makedist.sh
@@ -39,15 +39,8 @@ for i in *.c *.m *.h *.R *.rc *.but *.plist *.icns LICENCE README Recipe \
     */*) ln -s ../../../$i tmp.$$/puzzles$arcsuffix/$i;;
     *)   ln -s ../../$i tmp.$$/puzzles$arcsuffix/$i;;
   esac
-  if test "x$ver" != "x"; then
-    md5sum $i >> tmp.$$/puzzles$arcsuffix/manifest
-  fi
 done
 
-if test "x$ver" != "x"; then
-  echo "$ver" >> tmp.$$/puzzles$arcsuffix/version.def
-fi
-
 tar -C tmp.$$ -chzf - puzzles$arcsuffix > ../puzzles$arcsuffix.tar.gz
 
 rm -rf tmp.$$
diff --git a/version.c b/version.c
index 1dde602..1cef29f 100644
--- a/version.c
+++ b/version.c
@@ -2,31 +2,6 @@
  * Puzzles version numbering.
  */
 
-#define STR1(x) #x
-#define STR(x) STR1(x)
+#include "version.h"
 
-#ifdef INCLUDE_EMPTY_H
-/*
- * Horrible hack to force version.o to be rebuilt unconditionally in
- * the automake world: empty.h is an empty header file, created by the
- * makefile and forcibly updated every time make is run. Including it
- * here causes automake to track it as a dependency, which will cause
- * version.o to be rebuilt too.
- *
- * The space between # and include causes mkfiles.pl's dependency
- * scanner (for all other makefile types) to ignore this include,
- * which is correct because only the automake makefile passes
- * -DINCLUDE_EMPTY_H to enable it.
- */
-# include "empty.h"
-#endif
-
-#if defined VER
-
-char ver[] = "Version: " STR(VER);
-
-#else
-
-char ver[] = "Unidentified build, " __DATE__ " " __TIME__;
-
-#endif
+char ver[] = VER;