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The screensaver thread!

 
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Cycle
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 5:55 am    Post subject: The screensaver thread! Reply with quote

Hello! Remember screensavers? They used to be quite popular, but not so much these days since burn-in isn't really an issue anymore and people don’t want to miss little flashing boxes with messages from friends in them. But they used to be the best way you could not use your computer! Let's talk about some, mainly ones that are tied to games in one way or another.

First, there's Johnny Castaway Screen Antics from Sierra. As such, it looked like one of their adventure games. It chronicled the adventures of Johnny who's stranded on an island! Basically, he would wander about the island living his life, and every now and then an amusing skit would occur. It still works in Vista and is my current screensaver.



Then there is Organic Art, which gained true fame when a special edition was included with some old version of Windows. I'm not sure how to describe it, basically it uhh, made procedural generated 3D art? I don't know, but it looked great! The creators went on to use some of the same technology used in the screensaver for their game EVOLVA which I still haven't played. It apparently has quite a cult following. Doesn't seem to work in vista Sad

Quote:
Inspired by a fusion of natural history and science fiction, Organic Art is a beautiful revolution in movement, space and time. The package is based on the hypnotic art of internationally renowned computer artist William Latham, whose recent projects include album covers and videos for techno dance group The Shamen.

Organic Art contains over 100 3D screen saver scenes that generate in real time, continually creating new mutations for you to discover. Organic Art is also fully interactive, letting you design your own virtual scenes with a unique 'Evolutionary Generator'. There are over 400 million combinations to explore!




Then there is the Duke Nukem 3D screensaver! A school friend of mine had this on his laptop. It's a bit rubbish really, something pops up on screen, then Duke shoots it and it explodes and stuff, complete with sounds ripped from the game. Apparently the FULL version has more scenes, but I doubt they'd be any better. Hilariously, the creators are still charging $25 for it. They also created the Hey, Macaroni! screensaver. Both work in Vista.



You know, these screensavers are great and all, but don’t you wish that sometimes they weren't just a collection of animations? Like, wouldn't a Little Computer People screensaver be amazing? Well, something like that was made, called The Chronicles of Jaruu Tenk (note: this link leads to one of my earliest published articles, and it's now extremely embarrassing). It was a little ALife screensaver, the inhabitants would go about the world doing their own thing and you could watch them like the pervert you are. The problem is there wasn't much for them to do, so watching them was a bit boring. There was an interactive side to it, at any point you could dive into the game and play simple games with Jaruu and his family, even have conversations with him via a text parser, but it was very limited. Would love to see the idea behind it expanded on. From one of the creators of Halloween Harry! Aussie pride. I think it works in Vista. Oh, and the creator called it a “screenopera”.




Then, of course, there is After Dark, version 1.0 of which I have installed on my Mac Plus SE. Well, we all know about this one. Boris! Flying toasters! Starry Night! There were also some game modules, that would play themselves in screensaver mode, but you could join in and play at anytime. These were Lunatic Fringe, Rodger Dodger, Rock, Paper Scissors and Zapper. These interactive screensavers were the least interesting ones to watch, predictably enough. There was also that collection of games called AFTER DARK GAMES which was just clones of other games but with After Dark characters jammed in. One module we had was a Myst one! Yes, we had a Myst screensaver. Some would say you got the same experience playing the game, oh ho! We eventually had to delete it because it took up so much space. It came on 12 floppy disks!!! Plus we ended up just buying the game instead.



A screenshot of the game or screensaver??? Who knows!

So yes, screensavers! I quite like them!
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kirkjerk
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 6:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I remember Blue Man Group making fly toaster jokes in, like, 1998 or so, when it was really old and out of date.

Does pixie swarm work under Vista?
http://kisrael.com/m/pixswarm.zip
(I got it to run, but not nec. install)

This influenced "pixiesmash" http://kirkjerk.com/2008/06/24/

I had forgotten that in 2005 I corresponded with the author, Khouri Giordano. I guess this screensaver uses pretty bezier curves...
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 7:35 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

My favourite screensaver is just to run Quake Done Quick or anything from MARP if I have the correct ROM for it.

All my screensavers are just replays of video games.
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wourme
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 7:39 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

My favorite was always Timeless. There was eventually a Windows conversion, but I seem to remember that it wasn't as good or didn't work or something. I used to watch Timeless for a long time to see whether it would repeat, and some of my friends who did the same thing reported strange things after it had been running for a long time. Very nice music, too.

A modern one that I also like is Electric Sheep. This contacts other computers running the thing and what you see is influenced by what others are seeing.

http://www.electricsheep.org/
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 7:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Was Timeless that trippy DOS thing with the drony piano soundtrack and evolving stuff in the background? Because I just thought of that thing earlier today, for the first time in maybe fourteen years. I found myself trying to remember the melody...
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Cycle
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 8:07 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

kirkjerk wrote:

Does pixie swarm work under Vista?


Seems to work fine here! I suck at Pixiesmash, but it's pretty neat.

Timeless looks pretty trippy!



I remember trying one of the early versions of Electric Sheep when I was a Mac User but didn't think much of it... if only I knew it was the first (?) MMOSS! It also looks way way cooler than when I first checked it out:



It was incredibly bland when I first saw it.
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 8:31 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

my favorite screensavers have been primoridal life, an artificial life program that makes little plants and creatures grow and evolve and interact with those of other people running the screensaver, and zarf's stonerview, which is gorgeous but not insistently so.
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 11:28 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ok, since the thread is here I may as well ask if anyone else remembers or knows where to find this screensaver. It's basically a Chess AI program which shows all of the possible moves that the AI might make on any given turn then it plays against itself. It shows all the possible moves it may take with lines (green and blue for each side I think). I can't find this screen saver anymore and I want it. It's not that old, maybe just a couple years old.

Anyone know what I'm talking about?
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 12:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

aderack wrote:
Was Timeless that trippy DOS thing with the drony piano soundtrack and evolving stuff in the background? Because I just thought of that thing earlier today, for the first time in maybe fourteen years. I found myself trying to remember the melody...


Yes, that's the one. I also can't quite remember the music, other than a few isolated pieces. But every so often another song reminds me of it.

Cycle wrote:




Funny, I've never thought of it as a demo, but I guess it really is. (I noticed that this image is from Pouet.)
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 1:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

This is my favorite screensaver. It has nothing to do with videogames, but the flash version has such lovely music. I don't use a screensaver, of course.
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 2:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ah, After Dark. I probably had 200 modules or so. It helped that I was friends with the guy who was an intern at Berkeley Systems.

My favorite screen saver, which I've only seen once was an animated version of Torgo from Manos: the Hands of Fate. All he would do was shuffle around the screen while the Torgo theme played. It was awesome.
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 5:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I've got that one installed right now!

Regarding Timeless: yeah, it is basically a demo. Though not a typical one. It's presented as sort of a... relaxation thing, I think. I know I used to just stare and zone out to it.

I like how many variables most of the After Dark stuff had. My favorite was the city-at-night one, with the flickering lights...
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 5:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Wow, I've added quite a few screensavers thanks to this thread! And holy shit... I totally remember seeing that TORGA screensaver years and years ago, having no idea what it was about but being enchanted by it. I think it creeped me out a little! He looks scary and his music is too!

I have the entire collection of Calvin & Hobbes on my PC, so one of my screensavers for awhile was just having the slideshow screensaver play them. It was nice coming back to my computer and seeing Calvin & Hobbes Smile

Shaper I have no idea what that Chess screensaver is Sad
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PostPosted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 2:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Shapermc wrote:
Ok, since the thread is here I may as well ask if anyone else remembers or knows where to find this screensaver. It's basically a Chess AI program which shows all of the possible moves that the AI might make on any given turn then it plays against itself. It shows all the possible moves it may take with lines (green and blue for each side I think). I can't find this screen saver anymore and I want it. It's not that old, maybe just a couple years old.

Anyone know what I'm talking about?

I have a website bookmarked on my home PC that does this, but it's not a screensaver. They may have a link to a screensaver version, however! I will investigate.
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PostPosted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 3:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I used to have a screensaver collection for DOS that included a CGA disco-dancing pig, with digitized music played out the PC speaker. Can't for the life of me remember the name of it.
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PostPosted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 5:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Chess thing: http://turbulence.org/spotlight/thinking/index.html
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PostPosted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 6:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Cycle wrote:
Wow, I've added quite a few screensavers thanks to this thread! And holy shit... I totally remember seeing that TORGA screensaver years and years ago, having no idea what it was about but being enchanted by it. I think it creeped me out a little! He looks scary and his music is too!


Fun Fact: the Torgo character in Manos was supposed to be a satyr, only they didn't have enough money to make his legs appear to bend backward, so they just gave him really large kneecaps instead.
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PostPosted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 8:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

After Dark was amazing. I used to use the customize mode where you could combine modules. I'd have the guy mowing the lawn while three cats ran around.

Drivey is pretty cool.
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PostPosted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 10:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

DaleNixon wrote:
Drivey is pretty cool.

How do you turn this into a screen saver?
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PostPosted: Tue Jul 22, 2008 6:43 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

In Windows XP you place it in whatever location all the .scr files are located (download Drivey.scr).

Here's what the internet says:

internet wrote:
Bare Screensaver Files

As I have said before, these files have their name ending with ".scr". They are screensavers themselves. That is, they are the programs that create all these amazing effects when started. You can find some details about them in my article "Windows Screensavers Explained" at http://www.elasticsystems.com/articles.html .

The easiest known way to install ".scr" files is to right click on them and then choose "Install" from available menu options. Once you do this, Windows will set the screensaver as default and open Display Properties dialog where you can adjust screensaver's settings if you wish.

This way has some disadvantages though. First, you should be careful with where you keep the screensaver file. If you have put it in the temporary folder and it is likely to be deleted or moved somewhere else later, then the system won't find the screensaver anymore. So you'd better create a special folder for screensavers that you choose to install this way. Second, if you select another screensaver from the list in Display Properties dialog then Windows will forget any screensaver installed using the described method. That is, you will have to right click it and choose "Install" once and again.

Nevertheless, this way is very convenient if you just want to take a look at the screensaver, play with its settings and delete it. If you really like the screensaver and want it to brighten boring cloudy days then you'd better find a cozier place to keep it.

How do you find such place? It's easy. What you need is to drag the screensaver into your Windows folder. If you use Windows 95/98 or Windows Me then chances are this folder is on your drive C: and has a name of "Windows". If you use Windows NT/2000 or Windows XP then it's probably on your drive C: and is called "WINNT". Once you put the screensaver in this folder it will be available in the list of installed screensavers in Display Properties dialog. Now you can select it whenever you wish. Furthermore, you should worry no more about reinstalling it every time you change your mind and select another screensaver.

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PostPosted: Tue Jul 22, 2008 7:26 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I remember checking Drivey out ages ago. It was really cool and I'm sad to see it hasn't been developed more. BUT I never knew about the screensaver! This is perfect. I'm going to set it up as my new one.

http://drivey.com/Drivey015.scr

That's a direct link. Put it in your windows/system32 folder.
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PostPosted: Tue Jul 22, 2008 12:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

hey, guys, I'm an idiot, what about if I have Vista? The only thing I've found so far is that the vista needs it to be in an EXE format.

EDIT: I guess for vista you just need to right click on it and then use "install". Pretty easy.
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PostPosted: Tue Jul 22, 2008 12:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

purplechair wrote:
Chess thing: http://turbulence.org/spotlight/thinking/index.html

AHH! I think this is mostly it. But I swear I remember there being a 3D (wireframe) version that was a screensaver.
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PostPosted: Tue Jul 22, 2008 7:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm in Vista and I just dropped the .scr file into my system 32 folder. Worked fine! Wish it had more options, though. I mean, outside out of the actual screensaver.
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