# Old school computer screen savers **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 8, 2014, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-school-computer-screen-savers/700727 "2014-10-08T03:29:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Artemis\_Tardis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4bbf92/32.png) [@Artemis\_Tardis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Artemis_Tardis)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2014, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-school-computer-screen-savers/700727/1 "2014-10-08T03:29:51Z")
When I was a kid my dad had a Compaq computer. It originally came with windows 3.1 . He didn’t even bring it to work every day - I sat at home many times playing sim town, when we updated it to windows 95. I remember that there was a screen saver program that had many different screen savers - some of them with disney themes and songs, and one that I really want to see again: Fat guys, Cows and fish bungee jumping. The bungee jump cord would break and then the person or animal would fall into the ground and splash into a bunch of meat and blood. It sure was fun to watch, but I can’t find any references to that any more. Someone, help! ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2014, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-school-computer-screen-savers/700727/2 "2014-10-08T03:33:36Z")
While I never had it, it sounded an awful lot like After Dark (the [flying toaster](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d8/After_Dark_Flying_Toasters.png) people). [Here ya go](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsKYXftB68M). Here’s five minutes of it [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/w6sG5JaAM3Y/maxresdefault.jpg "After Dark Screen Saver: Bungee Roulette") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6sG5JaAM3Y) ---
**Author:** ![Artemis\_Tardis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4bbf92/32.png) [@Artemis\_Tardis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Artemis_Tardis)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2014, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-school-computer-screen-savers/700727/3 "2014-10-08T04:03:42Z")
Oh. My. Gosh. That is is. ---
**Author:** ![SmellMyWort](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SmellMyWort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmellMyWort)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2014, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-school-computer-screen-savers/700727/4 "2014-10-08T15:31:10Z")
There is a list of all the different screen savers for After Dark on its [wikipedia page](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/After_Dark_(software)) and it looks like yours was called Bungee Roulette. I used to love playing Lunatic Fringe, a neat little spaceship shooter game. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2014, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-school-computer-screen-savers/700727/5 "2014-10-08T16:02:41Z")
Now the flying toaster song’s an earworm. Eh, I’ve had worse. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2014, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-school-computer-screen-savers/700727/6 "2014-10-10T01:23:33Z")
Shortly after Bill Gates famously got a pie in his face, several screen savers appeared that features caricatures of Bill Gates getting pies in the face. There were two interactive ones in which the player got to launch pies and try to hit him. Those were my favorite screen savers. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2014, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-school-computer-screen-savers/700727/7 "2014-10-10T01:27:43Z")
what’s a screen saver? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2014, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-school-computer-screen-savers/700727/8 "2014-10-10T01:42:18Z")
A couple of years ago I remember reading an article that talked about how files like screen savers would become the collectibles of the future because PCs that still had them and could play them would be come scarcer and scarcer. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2014, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-school-computer-screen-savers/700727/9 "2014-10-10T02:01:19Z")
I had one called, as I recall, Kaleidoscope. It was gorgeous. ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2014, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-school-computer-screen-savers/700727/10 "2014-10-10T03:39:21Z")
I have a set of OpenGL screensavers that came preinstalled on one of my computers in college. I don’t use them anymore, but they do still work under Windows 8.1. ---
**Author:** ![Wallaby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/dc4da7/32.png) [@Wallaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallaby)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2014, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-school-computer-screen-savers/700727/11 "2014-10-10T05:31:18Z")
[Johnny Castaway.](http://www.gnudawn2.talktalk.net/johnny/) The greatest. Screen saver mode enabled a whole series of 30-second cartoons of Johnny Castaway on his island. All the standard stereotypical adventures are there - fishing, coconuts, failing to be rescued etc. Every 5 minutes or so, there was a reasonably more complicated sketch (about 45 secs-1 min) - with a slapstick punchline. Of course, Johnny never got off his island (he’s a direct descendent of the Gilligan line). Once a day, there was a ‘special’ - a 1-minute or so sketch that told a bit of a story (based on Johnny having a love affair with a mermaid). There were 12 ‘specials’ and when joined together told a complete story. We spent hours fiddling with the clocks on our computers so we could get the ‘specials’ (there were tricks involving setting the clock to 5 mins to midnight, etc). The standard sketches were time-dependent - some were based at night under the moon, and the tide went in and out. There were date-dependent items as well - on St Patrick’s day, the island was covered in shamrocks, and there were Christmas, Easter and Halloween themes. Overall, there were probably well over 100 independent scenes - a lot of the standard, common scenes also have a ‘gotcha’ version where you think you know what is to occur, only for a switcheroo to happen. It was developed by a company called ScreenAntics in the early 1990s and was never updated after the initial release. For many years, it was not possible to get a version to run on a more modern OS. Now, recently, some people have developed versions to run on today’s systems, so we can all enjoy Johnny in his full pixelated glory. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2014, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-school-computer-screen-savers/700727/12 "2014-10-10T05:44:07Z")
Sherman’s Lagoon was a popular one where I used to work. I guess people liked to see the swordfish pop the fugu. ---
**Author:** ![Double\_Foolscap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85e7bf/32.png) [@Double\_Foolscap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Double_Foolscap)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2014, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-school-computer-screen-savers/700727/13 "2014-10-10T09:54:37Z")
I came in here to talk about Castaway, but Wallaby beat me to it with a lot more information 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![kk\_fusion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kk_fusion/32/15276_2.png) [@kk\_fusion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kk_fusion)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2014, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-school-computer-screen-savers/700727/14 "2014-10-10T11:57:08Z")
My favorite was [Photo Show 3D](http://www.progressivelogic.com/ps3d.html). From their web page (last updated in 2003): > [@](#): > > The evaluation version of Photo Show 3D supports BMP and PCX files, however 16 million color images are displayed as grayshades due to a limitation of the image library used. The fully-licensed version also supports JPG images and will display them in color > … > Originally written for Windows 3.1, Photo Show 3D has been enhanced to work correctly on all versions of Windows, including NT. Old school indeed. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2014, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-school-computer-screen-savers/700727/15 "2014-10-10T12:09:44Z")
My all time favorite was The [Schwa](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwa_%28art%29) Screensaver. I still have a copy of the software, but I haven’t been able to get it to run on anything since Windows ME. Diddling with compatibility mode sometimes lets me glimpse some of the images, but running too fast and without sound. I’d give a pretty to be able to have this one running properly on my machine today. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2014, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-school-computer-screen-savers/700727/16 "2014-10-10T12:34:24Z")
My favorite is still the Window’s Maze. I would watch that in computer class and get all excited whenever I saw the mouse, especially when we were upside down and he was on the celing ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2014, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-school-computer-screen-savers/700727/17 "2014-10-10T17:57:58Z")
I miss my old After Dark screensavers. They weren’t just screensavers, you could interact with the, I also played a lot of Lunatic Fringe but my favorite was Mime Hunt. There was something really satisfying about that. ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2014, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-school-computer-screen-savers/700727/18 "2014-10-11T08:53:18Z")
> [@Sir\_T-Cups](#): > > My favorite is still the Window’s Maze. > > I would watch that in computer class and get all excited whenever I saw the mouse, especially when we were upside down and he was on the celing Yeah! I loved customizing that thing. Most Windows 95 machines had some old bitmap tile desktop backgrounds leftover from Windows 3.1…there was an arch tile that looked especially good on the walls of the maze. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2014, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-school-computer-screen-savers/700727/19 "2014-10-13T15:50:22Z")
Sigh. I miss screen savers. I had After Dark and loved the game of Life (the thing where dots appear, move, grow etc. based on some rules). Confetti Factory was good too though it always switched to a new screenful before the piles got big enough for my taste. Yeah, I know LED screens supposedly don’t need them but they’re FUN and the ones that come with Windows are boring. Not much available out there to download that seems reputable. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2014, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-school-computer-screen-savers/700727/20 "2014-10-13T16:47:36Z")
I was fond of Bad Dog, where the dog would dig into the screen and pull out wires and make the screen flicker. Then every so often the dog would get scolded and he would slink off and hide. Regards, Shodan [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-school-computer-screen-savers/700727.md?page=2)