diff --git a/stepmania/autoconf/m4/zlib.m4 b/stepmania/autoconf/m4/zlib.m4
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..0be0f65916
--- /dev/null
+++ b/stepmania/autoconf/m4/zlib.m4
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+AC_DEFUN(SM_ZLIB,
+[
+	AC_CHECK_LIB(z, inflate, have_libz=yes, have_libz=no)
+	AC_CHECK_HEADER(zlib.h, have_libz_header=yes, have_libz_header=no)
+
+	if test "$have_libz_header" = "no"; then
+		have_libz=no
+	fi
+
+	if test "$have_libz" = "no"; then
+		echo "*** zlib is required to build StepMania; please make sure"
+		echo "*** that zlib is installed to continue the installation process."
+		exit 0;
+	fi
+
+	LIBS="$LIBS -lz"
+])
+