Afterglow — classic After Dark screen savers on modern macOS
originally shared here on
↩
replying to a post on
morphing.cloud
In the ’90s, Berkeley Systems’ After Dark screen savers were ubiquitous: Flying Toasters, Fish, and Starry Skylines animated across computer screens in school labs, homes, and offices everywhere. They served a practical purpose in preventing burn-in on CRT monitors, but also entertained, with animations that could be funny, surreal, beautiful -- sometimes gross.
They were works of art.
Running After Dark modules in the present day has involved fussy configuration of Mac OS emulators or vintage hardware. Even then, no single emulator or vintage computer can faithfully run every module: some animate too fast, some too slow.
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. Created in the spirit of software preservation, it makes After Dark easy to enjoy today and for years to come.
The app uses the Internet Archive to browse After Dark installations, and to my delight, there is a Simpsons one available to use.
Can't wait to watch Homer eat my desktop for the next month!
