This New App Brings 1990s 'After Dark' Screen Savers to Modern macOS

[MacRumors]

As noted by Daring Fireball's John Gruber, developer Jeff Halter has released a new Afterglow app that allows you to run classic After Dark screen savers on modern macOS versions.

"Afterglow is an emulator built specifically for running After Dark modules -- the original 68k module code, not a remake or port -- with no dependencies on ROMs or classic Mac OS," said Halter, who has several fun nostalgic projects, such as After Dark space shooter Lunacy and HyperCard player Stacks.

Article Link: This New App Brings 1990s 'After Dark' Screen Savers to Modern macOS

 

[johnrlaporta]

This is awesome. ST-TNG modules are going to be copied from my old Macs tonight!

 

[hieranonymous]

I’ve been wanting something like this for years. The heyday of After Dark was such a specific moment in time, and some of its modules were genuinely mesmerizing.

 

[DocMultimedia]

The app crashed on me a few times, but it’s nice to have a few of these classics. 😁

 

[DocMultimedia]

This is awesome. ST-TNG modules are going to be copied from my old Macs tonight!

I’m pretty sure those were available to easily download in the app (via Internet archive) Pretty much all the versions of AD. App is really easy to use, but there are a few bugs mentioned on their website.

 

[MacsRgr8]

Great!
I have System 7.5.5 running on Basilisk II, which has After Dark running. So lovely!
Takes me back such a while back….
Will get this when I am back home for sure.

 

[Timpetus]

Oh yeah, I'm downloading this right away! I missed my flying toasters.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Great memories of this!!!

I have Fish Pro running, just like the good old days!

 

[neuropsychguy]

Blast from the past. The flying toasters and Lunatic Fringe were great.

 

[FoxyKaye]

Downloaded. Installed. Running.

WOW, I missed these.

 

[Slix]

Love this!

I can't wait to get home and try it out on my MacBook. I still have old computers that can run the original After Dark screensavers, but having the ability to run them all on modern machines is gonna be awesome. I hope the interactive ones work. Rodger Dodger!

 

[theluggage]

Ah. Screensavers. Just in time for the arrival of burn-in prone OLED displays 🙂

 

[ambientdaw]

There was a user-configurable screensaver on my late-90's PC that I have been trying to find. It might have been called Purple? It made fantastic geometric shapes and patterns with a myriad of colors. I have never seen anything as good since ( in fact I am boggled at how elementary Apple's screensavers are). Does anyone know what that was?

 

[MilesAhead]

This is awesome. ST-TNG modules are going to be copied from my old Macs tonight!

Jeez, I had completely forgotten about the Star Trek versions. I used to have Spock wandering around my screen shooting a phaser, taking tricorder readings, and mind melding with a Horta.

 

[discofuel]

Wow! Flying Toasters was the first time I ever saw a Mac or used the internet

 

[arn]

fun fact. In college I wrote the Points of View module for After Dark 4.0. Its just 3d objects made of dots rotating / bouncing around the screen.

Not very impressive these days.

 

[csilverman]

The app crashed on me a few times, but it’s nice to have a few of these classics. 😁

Are you on Golden Gate? Halter mentioned that he might have a fix for some issues he's hearing about: https://bitbang.social/@halcyon/117170046651250799

 

[diblasio]

This is way better than image playground or new Siri!

 

[johnrlaporta]

fun fact. In college I wrote the Points of View module for After Dark 4.0. Its just 3d objects made of dots rotating / bouncing around the screen.

Not very impressive these days.

Fun, nonetheless!

 

[GrumpyOldGuy52]

Nice! I run After Dark with only Flying Toasters on my Mac SE. Now I can run a few of the others on my MBA…

 

[ort888]

So, is this like an emulator and I need to go find the modules elsewhere? All I really want is Satori, which was my fav back in the day...

 

[WannaGoMac]

It doesn’t function as a screensaver? It’s an application that runs and shows you the screensaver in a window

 

[turbineseaplane]

It doesn’t function as a screensaver? It’s an application that runs and shows you the screensaver in a window

It does, just not by default out of the box.

Open up settings for the App and it can install in the Screen Saver Settings pane.

 

[visualseed]

So, is this like an emulator and I need to go find the modules elsewhere? All I really want is Satori, which was my fav back in the day...

You can install it right from the app. It downloads the module packs from the Internet Archive.

 

[Eric_WVGG]

You can install it right from the app. It downloads the module packs from the Internet Archive.

Like a dummy, I downloaded the app, but before even booting it I went on a wild goose chase to find some After Dark disk images.

Everything out there is an ISO formatted in HFS, which hasn't been supported by MacOS since… 10.13 or something? So I blew half an hour of screwing around with CLI tools before giving up and booting the app to see if it had any suggestions. Of course everything “just works” out of the box. (okay, it’s a little glitchy, I don’t think this is 1.0 quite yet.)

Anyway… everything about this app is impressive, but the fact that it can read and decode HFS ISO’s really puts it over the top. Hats off, salute, wow dang awesome.