diff --git a/code/world.dm b/code/world.dm
index 1be73ea8bc1..66db0ad5a1a 100644
--- a/code/world.dm
+++ b/code/world.dm
@@ -390,7 +390,7 @@ var/inerror = 0
 
 /hook/startup/proc/load_databases()
 	//Construct the database object from an init file.
-	dbcon = initialize_database_object("config/dbconfig.json")
+	dbcon = initialize_database_object("config/dbconfig.txt")
 
 	if (!setup_database_connection(dbcon))
 		world.log << "Your server failed to establish a connection with the feedback database."
@@ -405,20 +405,31 @@ var/inerror = 0
 
 	var/list/data = list("address", "port", "database", "login", "password")
 
-	var/list/Lines
+	var/list/Lines = file2list(filename)
 
-	try
-		Lines = json_decode(file2text(filename))
-	catch(var/exception/e)
-		error("Error reading database config file '[filename]': [e]")
-		return new/DBConnection()
-
-	if (!Lines || !Lines.len)
+	if (!Lines)
 		// Return dummy object for safety.
 		return new/DBConnection()
 
-	for (var/name in Lines)
-		var/value = Lines[name]
+	for (var/t in Lines)
+		if (!t)
+			continue
+
+		t = trim(t)
+		if (length(t) == 0)
+			continue
+		else if (copytext(t, 1, 2) == "#")
+			continue
+
+		var/pos = findtext(t, " ")
+		var/name = null
+		var/value = null
+
+		name = lowertext(copytext(t, 1, pos))
+		value = copytext(t, pos + 1)
+
+		if (!name)
+			continue
 
 		if (name in data)
 			data[name] = value
diff --git a/config/example/dbconfig.json b/config/example/dbconfig.json
deleted file mode 100644
index 47c15659a02..00000000000
--- a/config/example/dbconfig.json
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,11 +0,0 @@
-{
-	// This config file is JSON-ed, to permit the usage of long names. The old
-	// config parser was throwing errors.
-	// All fields are self-planitory, fill them out and plop this in.
-	// BECAUSE DM JSON IS SIMPLE, REMOVE THIS COMMENT BLOCK!
-	"address": 	"yourwebserver.com",
-	"port":		3306,
-	"database":	"ss13",
-	"login":	"databaseuser",
-	"password":	"databasepassword"
-}
diff --git a/config/example/dbconfig.txt b/config/example/dbconfig.txt
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..2e2ac8ed331
--- /dev/null
+++ b/config/example/dbconfig.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+# MySQL Connection Configuration
+
+# Server the MySQL database can be found at
+# Examples: localhost, 200.135.5.43, www.mysqldb.com, etc.
+ADDRESS localhost
+
+# MySQL server port (default is 3306)
+PORT 3306
+
+# Database the population, death, karma, etc. tables may be found in
+DATABASE tgstation
+
+# Username/Login used to access the database
+LOGIN mylogin
+
+# Password used to access the database
+PASSWORD mypassword
+
+# The following information is for feedback tracking via the blackbox server
+
+# Track population and death statistics
+# Comment this out to disable
+#ENABLE_STAT_TRACKING