diff --git a/Lib/ctypes/test/test_prototypes.py b/Lib/ctypes/test/test_prototypes.py
index 5a4117a5a64..33deae3e596 100644
--- a/Lib/ctypes/test/test_prototypes.py
+++ b/Lib/ctypes/test/test_prototypes.py
@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ class CharPointersTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
 
         try:
             func()
-        except TypeError as details:
+        except TypeError, details:
             self.failUnlessEqual(str(details), "required argument 'input' missing")
         else:
             self.fail("TypeError not raised")
diff --git a/Modules/_ctypes/_ctypes.c b/Modules/_ctypes/_ctypes.c
index 77c15f3a027..c127a8b5bea 100644
--- a/Modules/_ctypes/_ctypes.c
+++ b/Modules/_ctypes/_ctypes.c
@@ -139,6 +139,34 @@ char *conversion_mode_errors = NULL;
 
 /****************************************************************/
 
+#if (PY_VERSION_HEX < 0x02040000)
+/* Only in Python 2.4 and up */
+static PyObject *
+PyTuple_Pack(int n, ...)
+{
+	int i;
+	PyObject *o;
+	PyObject *result;
+	PyObject **items;
+	va_list vargs;
+
+	va_start(vargs, n);
+	result = PyTuple_New(n);
+	if (result == NULL)
+		return NULL;
+	items = ((PyTupleObject *)result)->ob_item;
+	for (i = 0; i < n; i++) {
+		o = va_arg(vargs, PyObject *);
+		Py_INCREF(o);
+		items[i] = o;
+	}
+	va_end(vargs);
+	return result;
+}
+#endif
+
+/****************************************************************/
+
 typedef struct {
 	PyObject_HEAD
 	PyObject *key;
@@ -4432,32 +4460,6 @@ static PyNumberMethods Simple_as_number = {
 	(inquiry)Simple_nonzero, /* nb_nonzero */
 };
 
-#if (PY_VERSION_HEX < 0x02040000)
-/* Only in Python 2.4 and up */
-static PyObject *
-PyTuple_Pack(int n, ...)
-{
-	int i;
-	PyObject *o;
-	PyObject *result;
-	PyObject **items;
-	va_list vargs;
-
-	va_start(vargs, n);
-	result = PyTuple_New(n);
-	if (result == NULL)
-		return NULL;
-	items = ((PyTupleObject *)result)->ob_item;
-	for (i = 0; i < n; i++) {
-		o = va_arg(vargs, PyObject *);
-		Py_INCREF(o);
-		items[i] = o;
-	}
-	va_end(vargs);
-	return result;
-}
-#endif
-
 /* "%s(%s)" % (self.__class__.__name__, self.value) */
 static PyObject *
 Simple_repr(CDataObject *self)
diff --git a/Modules/_ctypes/ctypes.h b/Modules/_ctypes/ctypes.h
index aa09989d57d..7dfdb1818b2 100644
--- a/Modules/_ctypes/ctypes.h
+++ b/Modules/_ctypes/ctypes.h
@@ -9,8 +9,18 @@
 #if (PY_VERSION_HEX < 0x02050000)
 typedef int Py_ssize_t;
 #define PyInt_FromSsize_t PyInt_FromLong
+#define PyNumber_AsSsize_t(ob, exc) PyInt_AsLong(ob)
 #endif
 
+#if (PY_VERSION_HEX < 0x02060000)
+#define Py_TYPE(ob) (((PyObject*)(ob))->ob_type)
+#define PyVarObject_HEAD_INIT(type, size) \
+	PyObject_HEAD_INIT(type) size,
+#define PyImport_ImportModuleNoBlock PyImport_ImportModule
+#define PyIndex_Check(ob) PyInt_Check(ob)
+#endif
+
+
 #ifndef MS_WIN32
 #define max(a, b) ((a) > (b) ? (a) : (b))
 #define min(a, b) ((a) < (b) ? (a) : (b))