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Berkeley Systems “After Dark” screensavers recreated in CSS

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Re: Berkeley Systems “After Dark” screensavers recreated in CSS

#21

Post by fredley »

chrisseaton wrote: post #19
fredley wrote: post #3

Beautiful. The nostalgia hit me very hard with this. I remember in the original version you had all sorts of options, and could even combine screensavers. For people who may not remember: screensavers used to be a neccessity as old CRT tubes would 'burn in' an image if they held it static for too long - leaving a shadow of the static image permanently. Screensavers kicked in after a few minutes and displayed somethin…

> screensavers used to be a neccessity as old CRT tubes would 'burn in' an image if they held it static for too long Why didn't we just show a black image?

You could, but it was (and is?) cooler to have flying toasters.

Re: Berkeley Systems “After Dark” screensavers recreated in CSS

#22

Post by ahmedfromtunis »

fredley wrote: post #14
ahmedfromtunis wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, so that's why! Until now, I believed they were used to reduce energy consumption when the screen wasn't used. That's why I believed they were just some gimmicky, useless piece of software. A bit off topic, but I also miss the screen obliterating hammer we used to play with as kids. Any modern, web rendition of that piece of stress-reliever?

You mean this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLYatZdABrs

Yes, that's the one. I totally forgot that there were other options too.

It's sad that such cultural artifacts are more ephemeral than a mesopotamian clay tablet. Humans four thousand years from now may wonder what happened that made us culturally unproductive, unaware that almost everything we made didn't even exist.

Re: Berkeley Systems “After Dark” screensavers recreated in CSS

#24

Post by fredley »

ahmedfromtunis wrote: post #22
fredley wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLYatZdABrs

Yes, that's the one. I totally forgot that there were other options too. It's sad that such cultural artifacts are more ephemeral than a mesopotamian clay tablet. Humans four thousand years from now may wonder what happened that made us culturally unproductive, unaware that almost everything we made didn't even exist.

The same goes for mesopotamia. We know a bit from the clay tablets, but we don't know anything about the ephemoral memes of the time.

Re: Berkeley Systems “After Dark” screensavers recreated in CSS

#26

Post by noduerme »

When I was a kid in the 90s learning to program, writing screen savers was one of the best ways to demo your "skills". Also just something creative to do when you didn't really have a project in mind. I still think they're an underappreciated art form, and it's kind of disappointing that OSX only ships with a couple really basic ones. Apple should bundle in all the AfterDark modules (there were several releases).

There was also an amazing set of screensavers which I don't remember the name of, but one of the set was called 'kaos', and a lot of them were based on fractals. If anyone recalls the name of that software...

[edit] I found it! DarkSide of the Mac by Tom Dowdy. Brilliant. http://poubelle.com/DarkSideDocs.html

Re: Berkeley Systems “After Dark” screensavers recreated in CSS

#27

Post by spywaregorilla »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #6
fredley wrote: post #3

Beautiful. The nostalgia hit me very hard with this. I remember in the original version you had all sorts of options, and could even combine screensavers. For people who may not remember: screensavers used to be a neccessity as old CRT tubes would 'burn in' an image if they held it static for too long - leaving a shadow of the static image permanently. Screensavers kicked in after a few minutes and displayed somethin…

Screensavers are a thing again on modern TV because OLEDs have a pretty serious burn-in problem apparently. Not much creativity there, probably because it should not be annoying, so it's stuff like art galleries or subtle fireworks effects that also 'train' the pixels. Best screensaver I used to have was the BSOD one from xscreensaver, so many people fell for it. Second best is the nyan cat screensaver. Currently hav…

The new nintendo switch has an oled screen. Is that likely to be vulnerable to burn in due to game ui staying constant?

Re: Berkeley Systems “After Dark” screensavers recreated in CSS

#29

Post by boilerupnc »

Johnny Castaway [0] was my all-time favorite. Loved the Easter Eggs on certain days, loved that it adapted to the system clock to match day and night themes with real life and found the story entertaining (almost binge-worthy I might dare to say).

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Castaway

[1] https://uxdesign.cc/the-tale-of-johnny-castaway-the-legendar...

[2] http://nivs.dk/jc/ (open source recreation project)

[3] https://genesistemple.com/johnny-castaway-no-johnny-is-an-is...

Re: Berkeley Systems “After Dark” screensavers recreated in CSS

#30

Post by zinekeller »

fredley wrote: post #21
chrisseaton wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> screensavers used to be a neccessity as old CRT tubes would 'burn in' an image if they held it static for too long Why didn't we just show a black image?

You could, but it was (and is?) cooler to have flying toasters.

That's not the whole reason, though (at least for the original intent). Turning off CRT monitors means both a cycle added (which is not good for the electromagnets and capacitors) and diminished brightness due to cycling (this is due to the "warming up" needed to ensure that the screen is as bright as it can be, which takes up to around 30 minutes).
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