diff --git a/stepmania/src/archutils/Unix/AssertionHandler.cpp b/stepmania/src/archutils/Unix/AssertionHandler.cpp
index 58357e14f9..5999e48483 100644
--- a/stepmania/src/archutils/Unix/AssertionHandler.cpp
+++ b/stepmania/src/archutils/Unix/AssertionHandler.cpp
@@ -1,20 +1,42 @@
 #include "global.h"
 #include "RageUtil.h"
+#include "StepMania.h"
 #include <assert.h>
 
 /* We can define this symbol to catch failed assert() calls.  This is only used
  * for library code that uses assert(); internally we always use ASSERT, which
  * does this for all platforms, not just glibc. */
 
-extern "C" void __assert_fail( const char *assertion, const char *file, unsigned int line, const char *function ) __THROW
+extern "C" void __assert_fail( const char *assertion, const char *file, unsigned int line, const char *function ) throw()
 {
-	Checkpoints::SetCheckpoint( file, line, ssprintf("%s: %s", function, assertion ) );
+	const CString error = ssprintf( "Assertion failure: %s: %s", function, assertion );
+
+#if defined(CRASH_HANDLER)
+	Checkpoints::SetCheckpoint( file, line, error );
 	sm_crash( assertion );
+#else
+	/* It'd be nice to just throw an exception here, but throwing an exception
+	 * through C code sometimes explodes. */
+	HandleException( error );
+
+	/* XXX: do EmergencyShutdown */
+	exit(0);
+#endif
 }
 
-extern "C" void __assert_perror_fail( int errnum, const char *file, unsigned int line, const char *function ) __THROW
+
+extern "C" void __assert_perror_fail( int errnum, const char *file, unsigned int line, const char *function ) throw()
 {
-	Checkpoints::SetCheckpoint( file, line, ssprintf("%s: %s", function, strerror(errnum) ) );
+	const CString error = ssprintf( "Assertion failure: %s: %s", function, strerror(errnum) );
+
+#if defined(CRASH_HANDLER)
+	Checkpoints::SetCheckpoint( file, line, error );
 	sm_crash( strerror(errnum) );
+#else
+	HandleException( error );
+
+	/* XXX: do EmergencyShutdown */
+	exit(0);
+#endif
 }