diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index a7ce4f601c7..534a3a03445 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -2,8 +2,8 @@ PHP 4.0 CHANGE LOG                                                    ChangeLog
 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 
 ?? ?? 1999, Version 4.0 Beta 3
-- Made serialize/unserialize work on classes. CAUTION: when unserializing the 
-  class to be unserialized needs to be known! (Thies)
+- Made serialize/unserialize work on classes & speedups. CAUTION: when 
+  unserializing the class to be unserialized needs to be known! (Thies)
 - Reworked preg_* functions according to the new PCRE API, which also made
   them behave much more like Perl ones (Andrey)
 - Made it possible to specify external location of PCRE library (Andrey)
diff --git a/ext/standard/var.c b/ext/standard/var.c
index 83b7ef85167..5a19b6fc0b6 100644
--- a/ext/standard/var.c
+++ b/ext/standard/var.c
@@ -431,17 +431,16 @@ int php3api_var_unserialize(pval **rval, const char **p, const char *max)
 /* {{{ proto string serialize(mixed variable)
    Returns a string representation of variable (which can later be unserialized) */
 PHP_FUNCTION(serialize)
-
 {
-	pval *struc;
+	pval **struc;
 
-	if (ARG_COUNT(ht) != 1 || getParameters(ht, 1, &struc) == FAILURE) {
+	if (ARG_COUNT(ht) != 1 || getParametersEx(1, &struc) == FAILURE) {
 		WRONG_PARAM_COUNT;
 	}
 	return_value->type = IS_STRING;
 	return_value->value.str.val = NULL;
 	return_value->value.str.len = 0;
-	php3api_var_serialize(return_value, &struc);
+	php3api_var_serialize(return_value, struc);
 }
 
 /* }}} */
@@ -451,14 +450,15 @@ PHP_FUNCTION(serialize)
 
 PHP_FUNCTION(unserialize)
 {
-	pval *buf;
+	pval **buf;
 	
-	if (ARG_COUNT(ht) != 1 || getParameters(ht, 1, &buf) == FAILURE) {
+	if (ARG_COUNT(ht) != 1 || getParametersEx(1, &buf) == FAILURE) {
 		WRONG_PARAM_COUNT;
 	}
-	if (buf->type == IS_STRING) {
-		const char *p = buf->value.str.val;
-		if (!php3api_var_unserialize(&return_value, &p, p + buf->value.str.len)) {
+	if ((*buf)->type == IS_STRING) {
+		const char *p = (*buf)->value.str.val;
+
+		if (!php3api_var_unserialize(&return_value, &p, p + (*buf)->value.str.len)) {
 			RETURN_FALSE;
 		}
 	} else {