diff --git a/engine/wscript b/engine/wscript
index ebc86351..6910e5f3 100644
--- a/engine/wscript
+++ b/engine/wscript
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ def options(opt):
 
 	grp.add_option('--enable-stdin-input', action = 'store_true', dest = 'USE_SELECT', default = False,
 		help = 'enable console input from stdin (always enabled for dedicated) [default: %default]')
+
 	grp.add_option('--fbdev', action = 'store_true', dest = 'FBDEV_SW', default = False,
 		help = 'build fbdev-only software-only engine')
 	grp.add_option('--disable-async-resolve', action = 'store_true', dest = 'NO_ASYNC_RESOLVE', default = False,
@@ -19,6 +20,9 @@ def options(opt):
 	grp.add_option('--enable-custom-swap', action = 'store_true', dest = 'CUSTOM_SWAP', default = False,
 		help = 'enable custom swap allocator. For devices with no swap support')
 
+	grp.add_option('--enable-legacy-sdl', action = 'store_true', dest = 'SDL12', default = False,
+		help = 'enable using SDL1.2 instead of SDL2(not recommended) [default: %default')
+
 	opt.load('sdl2')
 
 def configure(conf):
@@ -34,11 +38,15 @@ def configure(conf):
 		conf.define('XASH_FBDEV', 1)
 		conf.check_cc( lib = 'asound' )
 		conf.check_cc( lib = 'rt' )
+	elif conf.options.SDL12:
+		conf.define('XASH_SDL', 12)
+		conf.check_cfg(package='sdl', args='--cflags --libs', uselib_store='SDL2' )
+		conf.env.HAVE_SDL2 = True
 	else:
 		conf.load('sdl2')
 		if not conf.env.HAVE_SDL2:
 			conf.fatal('SDL2 not availiable! If you want to build dedicated server, specify --dedicated')
-		conf.define('XASH_SDL', 1)
+		conf.define('XASH_SDL', 2)
 
 	if conf.options.USE_SELECT == None:
 		conf.options.USE_SELECT = conf.options.DEDICATED