After Dark

Control box for version 3.2.

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

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.
Messages	3	Bruce Burkhalter, Colin Glassey, Bob Bickford	A user-specified message bounces around the screen.	1 - Boring, but customizable.
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.
Nirvana	3	Andy Karn	Line patterns are drawn with a shifted palette.	3 - Nicely zen.
Nocturnes	2	J. Steinmetz, R. Herrell	Draws eyes in the dark.	1 - The sound effects are a good touch, but it's pretty dull.
Nonsense	3	Rob Blair, Bob Bickford	Generates nonsense sentences and randomly displays them.	1 - The sentences are usually too abstract to be enjoyable.
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.
Photon	3	Brian Lowry, Vann Miller	Random colorful lines erupt from a center point.	2 - Pretty, but nothing too impressive.
Puzzle	3	Bill Stewart, John Rotenstein, Rob Gale	Turns the screen into a slider puzzle.	1 - Kind of dull.
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.
Rat Race	3	Andrew Armstrong, Matt Small	Three rats run around a race track.	2 - Cute animations, but boring to watch.
Ray	3	Dan Michaeloff	Bounces gem-like objects around the screen.	2 - Impressive feat at the time, but rather dull today.
Rebound	3	Rat Kemmer, Bob Bickford, Bruce Burkhalter, Dana Muise	Balls bounce around the screen and off each other.	1 - Boring, and doesn't run smoothly.
Rose	3	Ben Haller, Tracy Elmore	Rainbow colored dots spin around the screen like a Spirograph.	1 - Nice for a few seconds.
Satori	3	Ben Haller, Tracy Elmore	Draws various blocky plasma patterns and slowly smooths them out.	3 - Generates some pretty impressive results.
SlideShow	3	Bob Bickford, Maurice Metzger	Displays images from a user-defined slideshow with various wipes.	2 - A nice addition to the program.
Spheres	3	Bruce Burkhalter, W. Stewart, R. Herrell	Draws colorful pseudo 3-D spheres.	1 - Kind of dull, and buggy along the left side of the screen.
Spotlight	3	Bob Schumaker, Chip Morningstar	Spotlights bounce around the screen illuminating areas.	2 - Interesting, but not that impressive.
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.
Warp!	3	Bruce Burkhalter, Tracy Elmore, Bill Stewart, Jack Eastman	Simulates a black hole swirling stars into it, or ejecting them.	2 - Nice idea, but a little buggy and doesn't have a real-time frame delimiter.