After Dark
Revision as of 16:09, 23 March 2018 by TheAlmightyGuru (talk | contribs)
After Dark is a plug-in based screen saver program developed and published by Berkeley Systems for Macintosh in 1989. A Windows 3 version was released in 1992, and several upgrades were released until the last version (4.0) was released in 1996.
I never had After Dark, but a friend of mine did, and I loved watching the various screen savers that it came with. I only had the first release of IdleWild, which wasn't nearly as interesting. Many years later, when DOSBox was effective at running Windows 3, and After Dark was readily available, I finally got to see all of the interesting screensavers with the most multimedia version of Windows 3.
Review
Good
- All of the screen savers take advantage of variable screen resolutions, and most of them use a 256 color palette and sound.
- It has several useful screen saver features like password locking and hot spot activation.
- There is a large variety of screen savers including abstract, whimsical, funny, and serene.
- Most of the screen savers have a fair amount of configuration to them which auto saves, and most of them allow a random element to their settings.
Bad
- The program is fairly resource intensive, slowing down Windows.
Ugly
- Nothing.
Screensavers
Example | Name | Pack | Creator | Description | Opinion |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Artist | 3 | B. Covey, J. Kowalski, Paul Meyer | Draws a bitmap using random strokes. | 3 - Quite interesting to watch, but I wish bitmaps could be chosen from folder. | |
Bad Dog! | 3 | Laurence Arcadias, Paul Meyer | A cartoon dog runs around the screen making a mess. | 3 - Pretty funny. | |
Bogglins | More | P Sasse, D. Auld, A. Karn | Disgusting slimes squirm around the screen making fart noises and exploring. | 1 - Really annoying. | |
Boris | More | M. Overlin, R. Vaterlaus, I. Gasowski | A kitten chases a butterfly and occasionally purrs. | 3 - Very cute and fun to watch. | |
Bugs | 3 | Rob Blair, Kim Payne, Dana Muise | Bugs crawl across the screen. | 2 - Well made, but rather disturbing. | |
Clocks | 2, 3 | Bob Bickford, Kim Payne, Dana Muise | A clock face of varying types bounce around the screen. Updated in version 3. | 2 - Functional. | |
ConfettiFactory | More | P. Lamoreux, P. Young | A screen with various boxes and conveyors is slowly covered with "confetti" that piles up. Funny "duck crossing" refreshes the screen. | 3 - I love watching this one slowly accumulate, I only wish it could be set to run longer. | |
Daredevil Dan | 3 | Andrew Armstrong, Dana Muise | A motorcyclist jumps buses, flames, and piranha tanks, occasionally crashing. | 3 - Humorous animations, well made. | |
DOS Shell | 3 | Ed Hall | Drops to DOS and runs random commands. | 2 - A good idea, but does too many nonsense commands. | |
Draw Morph | 3 | E. Inada, J. Dorfman, M. Metzger | Morphs across various vector drawings. | 3 - Several categories, but also a custom builder. Unfortunately, doesn't have a real-time frame delay. | |
Fish | 2, 3 | Jeff Thomas, Dana Muise | Simulates an aquarium, upgraded for version 3. | 3 - Great graphics, nice and soothing to watch. | |
Flying Toasters | 2, 3 | Jack Eastman, Paul Meyer, Vann Miller, Bruce Burkhalter, Brian Chen, Bob Bickford, Jarir Maani, Nick Rush | Toasters fly across the screen, upgraded for version 3 | 1 - Funny the first time, annoying every other time. | |
Flying Toilets | 3 | Scott Garcia, Robert Cuenca | Toasters fly across the screen, upgraded for version 3 | 1 - Juvenile. | |
Frost and Fire | 3 | Craig Dickson, Oliver Steele | Generates psychedelic swirling patterns. | 3 - Great looking, but slow on most PCs of the day. | |
GeoBounce | 2 | Ed Hall, R. Herrell | Bounces one of several basic 3D shapes around the screen. | 1 - Nice shading (though it doesn't use a 256 color palette), but the bouncing isn't coded very well. | |
Globe | 2 | Jack Eastman, Wes Boyd | Bounces a rotating globe of the Earth around the screen. | 2 - I like that the texture can be customized, though it would be nice if they included more textures. | |
Guts | 3 | Wes Cherry, Ferdinand Rios, Mike Overlin | Various objects fly around according to a physics equation leaving behind a trail. | 2 - Good idea, but doesn't use a real-time frame delimiter. | |
Logo | 3 | James Eastman, Bob Bickford | A user-specified image bounces around the screen. | 1 - Boring, but useful for companies. | |
Marbles | 2 | M. Overlin, K. McLeod | Marbles are shot from the top of the screen and bounce off bumpers until the reach the bottom. | 4 - I love the slow accumulation, and still giggle at the smiley face marble. I wish they used 256 colors. | |
Mountains | 2 | B. Haller, T. Elmore | Renders a 3D mountain scape. | 3 - Includes alternate palettes and terrain styles. | |
Mowin' Man | More | Mike, Glenn, Bruce | Grass and flowers grow randomly across the screen and are mowed over by a man on a riding tractor. Night falls as well. | 2 - Nicely designed, but dull after awhile. | |
Nocturnes | 2 | J. Steinmetz, R. Herrell | Draws eyes in the dark. | 1 - The sound effects are a good touch, but it's pretty dull. | |
Om Appliances | More | P. Sasse, G. Becker | Refrigerators and washing machines float across the screen making noise. | 1 - Kind of a ripoff of the Flying Toasters, but with more noise. | |
Punch Out | 2 | Bill Stewart | "Holes" are punched out of the screen. | 1 - Pretty dull. | |
Rain | More | A. Zeltser, M. Overlin, A. Carlisle | Colored rain drops splash and cause ripples that dissipate. | 2 - Kind of zen, but not much to it. | |
Stained Glass | 2 | J. Tantra, Wes Boyd | A colorful geometric pattern is drawn on the screen and tiled around it. | 2 - Interesting, but so random it usually just looks like a mess. Should have been given better aesthetics. | |
Starry Night | 1 | Craig Dickson | Draws a nighttime cityscape using individual dots that flicker with the occasional shooting star. | 4 - This one is very serene. I enjoy staring at it. | |
Swan Lake | 2 | B. Resner, M. Overlin | Swans swim around a black pool. | 3 - Another serene one. The swans are well drawn, but their animation is a bit choppy. | |
Tunnel | More | Darin Gurney, R. Herrell | A shifting color palette gives the illusion of traveling down a tunnel. | 2 - Colorful, but otherwise primitive. |
Links
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/After_Dark_(software) - Wikipedia.