diff --git a/src/intertyper.js b/src/intertyper.js
index dbd5f4585..124dbeb87 100644
--- a/src/intertyper.js
+++ b/src/intertyper.js
@@ -507,7 +507,7 @@ function intertyper(data, sidePass, baseLineNums) {
           private_: private_,
           lineNum: item.lineNum
         };
-        if (NUM_NAMED_GLOBALS >= 0) {
+        if (!NAMED_GLOBALS) {
           Variables.globals[ret.ident].type = ret.type;
         }
         Types.needAnalysis[ret.type] = 0;
diff --git a/src/jsifier.js b/src/jsifier.js
index d62fa7887..e218df052 100644
--- a/src/jsifier.js
+++ b/src/jsifier.js
@@ -250,7 +250,7 @@ function JSify(data, functionsOnly, givenFunctions) {
     processItem: function(item) {
       function needsPostSet(value) {
         return value[0] in UNDERSCORE_OPENPARENS || value.substr(0, 14) === 'CHECK_OVERFLOW'
-            || false; // TODO: interact with output of makeGlobalUse/makeGlobalDef
+                                                 || value.substr(0, 6) === 'GLOBAL';
       }
 
       item.intertype = 'GlobalVariableStub';
@@ -265,16 +265,9 @@ function JSify(data, functionsOnly, givenFunctions) {
         var constant = null;
         var allocator = (BUILD_AS_SHARED_LIB && !item.external) ? 'ALLOC_NORMAL' : 'ALLOC_STATIC';
         var index = null;
-        if (NUM_NAMED_GLOBALS >= 0) {
-          if (Variables.seenGlobals < NUM_NAMED_GLOBALS) {
-            Variables.seenGlobals++; // named
-          } else {
-            // indexed
-            Variables.indexedGlobals[item.ident] = Variables.nextIndexedOffset;
-            index = makeGlobalUse(item.ident);
-            Variables.nextIndexedOffset += Runtime.alignMemory(calcAllocatedSize(Variables.globals[item.ident].type));
-            allocator = 'ALLOC_NONE';
-          }
+        if (!NAMED_GLOBALS) {
+          index = makeGlobalUse(item.ident);
+          allocator = 'ALLOC_NONE';
         }
         if (item.external && BUILD_AS_SHARED_LIB) {
           // External variables in shared libraries should not be declared as
diff --git a/src/modules.js b/src/modules.js
index 4f7fc784b..68626b570 100644
--- a/src/modules.js
+++ b/src/modules.js
@@ -178,7 +178,6 @@ var Variables = {
   indexedGlobals: {}, // for indexed globals, ident ==> index
   // Used in calculation of indexed globals
   nextIndexedOffset: 0,
-  seenGlobals: 0,
 };
 
 var Types = {
diff --git a/src/parseTools.js b/src/parseTools.js
index 786d55c8f..5770a0d7e 100644
--- a/src/parseTools.js
+++ b/src/parseTools.js
@@ -357,12 +357,18 @@ function hasVarArgs(params) {
 }
 
 function makeGlobalDef(ident) {
-  if (ident in Variables.indexedGlobals) return '';
+  if (!NAMED_GLOBALS) return '';
   return 'var ' + ident + ';'; // TODO: add option for namespacing or offsetting to allow reducing the number of globals
 }
 
 function makeGlobalUse(ident) {
-  if (ident in Variables.indexedGlobals) return getFastValue('GLOBAL_BASE', '+', Variables.indexedGlobals[ident]);
+  if (!NAMED_GLOBALS) {
+    if (!(ident in Variables.indexedGlobals)) {
+      Variables.indexedGlobals[ident] = Variables.nextIndexedOffset;
+      Variables.nextIndexedOffset += Runtime.alignMemory(calcAllocatedSize(Variables.globals[ident].type));
+    }
+    return getFastValue('GLOBAL_BASE', '+', Variables.indexedGlobals[ident]);
+  }
   return ident; // TODO: add option for namespacing or offsetting to allow reducing the number of globals
 }
 
diff --git a/src/settings.js b/src/settings.js
index 4881e1490..1d8805a80 100644
--- a/src/settings.js
+++ b/src/settings.js
@@ -194,10 +194,9 @@ var PGO = 0; // Profile-guided optimization.
              // All CORRECT_* options default to 1 with PGO builds.
              // See https://github.com/kripken/emscripten/wiki/Optimizing-Code for more info
 
-var NUM_NAMED_GLOBALS = -1; // If >= 0, the number of globals we allow to be named. Other globals
-                            // are then referred to by a base plus an offset (called an indexed global),
-                            // saving global variables but adding runtime overhead. If -1, then we
-                            // allow all globals to be named.
+var NAMED_GLOBALS = 1; // If 1, we use global variables for globals. Otherwise
+                       // they are referred to by a base plus an offset (called an indexed global),
+                       // saving global variables but adding runtime overhead.
 
 var PROFILE = 0; // Enables runtime profiling. See test_profiling for a usage example.
 
diff --git a/tests/runner.py b/tests/runner.py
index 1beef857a..ccf6f2415 100755
--- a/tests/runner.py
+++ b/tests/runner.py
@@ -1645,9 +1645,9 @@ c5,de,15,8a
             return 0;
           }
         '''
-        for named, expected in [(-1, 0), (0, 100), (1, 98), (5, 88), (1000, 0)]:
+        for named, expected in [(0, 100), (1, 0)]:
           print named
-          Settings.NUM_NAMED_GLOBALS = named
+          Settings.NAMED_GLOBALS = named
           self.do_run(src, '4:10,177,543,def\n4\nwowie\ntoo\n76\n5\n(null)\n/* a comment */\n// another\ntest\n', ['wowie', 'too', '74'])
           if self.emcc_args == []:
             gen = open(self.in_dir('src.cpp.o.js')).read()
@@ -5956,7 +5956,7 @@ void*:16
       self.do_run(path_from_root('tests', 'cubescript'), '*\nTemp is 33\n9\n5\nhello, everyone\n*', main_file='command.cpp')
 
     def test_gcc_unmangler(self):
-      Settings.NUM_NAMED_GLOBALS = 0 # test coverage for this
+      Settings.NAMED_GLOBALS = 0 # test coverage for this
 
       Building.COMPILER_TEST_OPTS = ['-I' + path_from_root('third_party')]
 
@@ -7401,6 +7401,7 @@ class %s(T):
     Settings.EMULATE_UNALIGNED_ACCESSES = int(Settings.USE_TYPED_ARRAYS == 2 and Building.LLVM_OPTS == 2)
     Settings.DOUBLE_MODE = 1 if Settings.USE_TYPED_ARRAYS and Building.LLVM_OPTS == 0 else 0
     Settings.PRECISE_I64_MATH = 0
+    Settings.NAMED_GLOBALS = 0 if not (embetter and llvm_opts) else 1
 
     Building.pick_llvm_opts(3)