# After Dark (software)

After Dark is a series of computer screensaver software introduced by Berkeley Systems in 1989 for the Apple Macintosh, and in 1991 for Microsoft Windows.
Following the original, additional editions included More After Dark, Before Dark, and editions themed around licensed properties such as Star Trek, The Simpsons, Looney Tunes, Marvel, and Disney characters.
On top of the included animated screensavers, the program allowed for the development and use of third-party modules, many hundreds of which were created at the height of its popularity.

## Flying Toasters

The most famous of the included screensaver modules is the iconic Flying Toasters, which featured 1940s-style chrome toasters sporting bird-like wings, flying across the screen with pieces of toast. Engineer Jack Eastman claims he came up with the display after seeing a toaster in the kitchen during a late-night programming session and imagining the addition of wings, although the winged toasters bear a strong resemblance to those on the cover of Jefferson Airplane’s 1973 album Thirty Seconds Over Winterland. A slider in the Flying Toasters module enabled users to adjust the toast's darkness, and an updated Flying Toasters Pro module added a choice of music—Richard Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries or a flying toaster anthem with optional karaoke lyrics. Yet another version called Flying Toasters! added bagels and pastries, baby toasters, and more elaborate toaster animation. The Flying Toasters were one of the key reasons that After Dark became popular, and Berkeley began to produce other merchandising products such as T-shirts with the Flying Toaster image and slogans such as "The 51st Flying Toaster Squadron: On a mission to save your screen!"
The toasters were the subject of two lawsuits, the first in 1993, Berkeley Systems vs Delrina Corporation, over a module of Delrina's Opus 'N Bill screensaver in which Opus the penguin shoots down the toasters. After a U.S. District judge ruled that Delrina's "Death Toasters" was infringing, Delrina later changed the wings of the toasters to propellers. The second case was brought in 1994 by 1960s rock group Jefferson Airplane who claimed that the toasters were a copy of the winged toasters featured on the cover of their 1973 album Thirty Seconds Over Winterland. The case was dismissed because the cover art had not been registered as a trademark by the group prior to Berkeley Systems' release of the screensaver.
A 3D version of the toasters featuring swarms of toasters with airplane wings, rather than bird wings, is available for XScreenSaver.

## History

In 1997, Berkeley Systems was acquired by the Sierra On-Line division of CUC International. Joan Blades and Wes Boyd, the founders of Berkeley Systems, went on to create MoveOn.org. Ed Fries, co-developer of the popular Fish! screensaver, became vice president of game publishing at Microsoft.
The Bad Dog (TV series) based on the "Bad Dog" screensaver was produced by CinéGroupe and Saban Entertainment for the Teletoon and Fox Family Channel networks that first aired on Teletoon on March 1, 1999.
An official version of After Dark was released for Mac OS X running on PowerPC by Infinisys, Ltd. of Japan in May 2003. For Apple silicon and Intel Macs, remakes of three popular modules — Flying Toasters, Mowing Man and Boris — are being sold as standalone screensavers.
Sierra released a Flying Toaster video game for cell phones in 2006.
Sierra Entertainment was eventually acquired by Vivendi Games, which in turn was merged with Activision to form Activision Blizzard, and later acquired by Microsoft.

### After Dark Games

Sierra Attractions and Berkeley Systems released After Dark Games in 1998 for the Macintosh and Windows platforms, which contained several games modeled after their previously released screensavers. These games included Mowin' Maniac (a Pac-Man clone based on the Mowin' Man and Mowin' Boris modules); Roof Rats (similar to SameGame and variants); Solitaire (After Dark themed); Toaster Run (an isometric Glider clone featuring several After Dark characters, including a Flying Toaster and Super Guy); Zapper (a trivia game); Hula Girl (an endless 2D platforming game based on the Hula Twins module from After Dark 4.0); two word scramble games — Bad Dog 911 (based on the Bad Dog modules) and Fish Shtick (based on the Fish modules, mainly Fish World); Foggy Boxes (a dots and boxes game based on the Messages 4.0 module); MooShu Tiles (a Mahjong-like game featuring many After Dark characters throughout the years); and Rodger Dodger (a Raimais clone that originated as an in-module game).
J.C. Herz of The New York Times wrote that the "sheer simplicity" of these games helped make them as "engaging and addictive as the mega-selling 40-hour sagas with souped-up 3-D sound and state-of-the-art computer graphics." A review in Computer Gaming World stated that, "If nothing else, it makes for a good time-killer."

## Modules

    Module Name Description Starry Night The original After Dark screen saver, featuring a pixelated city skyline under a night sky Artist A digital artist applies artistic touches to images in a slow manner so one can see the artist's work Bad Dog Popular module featuring a white dog with a black ring around one of his eyes, causing trouble on the desktop (the animated series Bad Dog was inspired by the eponymous screensaver) Bad Dog! A sequel to Bad Dog with new animations and sequences Bogglins Green slime creatures are formed and make obnoxious noises Boris The opposite of Bad Dog, a good cat plays on the desktop and chases butterflies Bouncing Ball A ball bounces around the screen, including bouncing off the edges Bugs Digital bugs crawl across the screen Bulge Expands portions of the screen, making the screen appear to have a "bulge" Bungee Roulette Various characters bungee-jump from the top of the screen, but occasionally the bungee cord breaks Can of Worms "Worms" emerge from the screen, crawl around, and "eat" the screen content Chameleon Chameleons walk across the screen, changing colors and eating icons Clocks Different objects appear as a clock and move around Coming Soon! A salesperson pitches fictitious "products" Confetti Factory Confetti falls from the top of the screen and onto conveyor belts below Daredevil Dan A daredevil motorcyclist attempts dangerous jumps over school buses, flames, and piranha tanks Dominoes A game of dominoes is played on the screen Doodles Draws doodle-like images DOS Shell A mock DOS shell is run on the screen, reliving earlier days of computing Dots A game of "dots" is played on the screen Down the Drain The desktop appears to spiral down a drain Einstein Complex mathematical and scientific equations are performed on the screen Fade Away The desktop fades away in different ways Fish! (Aquatic Realm) Underwater world of fish with a black background Fish Pro An updated version of Fish! Fish World The third iteration of Fish! with prerendered 3D models Floating Suns Displays the Phoenix Suns basketball team's logos floating around the screen Flocks Displays flocks of various creatures on the screen Flying Toasters Classic module featuring flying toasters Flying Toasters Pro Updated version that allows one to select more than flying toasters and also has music Flying Toasters! 4.0 iteration of the flying toasters with updated graphics and music — introduces baby toasters Flying Toilets Parody of Flying Toasters with toilets replacing the toasters Fractal Forest A forest of trees is generated on the screen FrankenScreen A digital Frankenstein creates creatures out of various parts Frost and Fire Produces patterns similar to splattering paint on paper GeoBounce A geometrical figure bounces around the screen Globe Takes an image and wraps it around a sphere, then spins like a globe GraphStat Draws scientific and mathematical graphs on the screen Gravity Circles bounce around the screen Guts Gravity simulation Hall of Fame 10th-anniversary module featuring anime-style recreations of various After Dark characters Hall of Mirrors Reflects parts of the screen in an infinite mirror style Hallucinations The computer "hallucinates" Hard Rain Rain falls onto the desktop Hula Twins Displays two animated figures who walk around and twirl hula hoops Lasers Lasers create patterns on the screen Lissajous Displays Lissajous designs Logo User-supplied image moves randomly on the screen Lunatic Fringe A playable space shooter game within a module Magic Creates soothing patterns Mandelbrot Generates a mathematically created Mandelbrot set Marbles Marbles bounce around the screen Meadow A computer-generated meadow Message Mayhem A figure on the screen scrawls out a message Messages Displays a crawling marquee message on the screen with selectable font and text colors Mike's So-called Life Features a man named Mike, living in his apartment and doing nothing exciting Mime Hunt A playable module that features a mime and cross-hairs Modern Art Modern Art displayed on the screen Mondrian Inverts parts of the screen Mosaic Creates a mosaic of the screen Mountains Generates 3-D mountains Movies 'Til Dawn Plays QuickTime movies Mowin' Boris Mowin' Man mows a field with Boris the cat around. When Mowin' Man runs over Boris, blood and guts, appear Mowin' Man A man mows a constantly growing field MultiModule Displays a user-selected combination of After Dark modules with the modules all displayed simultaneously and optionally overlaid over each other NightLines Nirvana Generates colorful textures Nocturnes Shows the eyes of various nocturnal creatures, such as bats Nonsense Nonsensical phrases are displayed on the screen Om Appliances Various appliances do weird things on the screen Origami Computer-generated origami appears on the screen Out and About A musician walks out with a chair and an instrument, sits down and begins to play while other people slowly appear and begin milling around while kids play Pattern Animated patterns appear on the screen Pearl An optical effect featuring squares Penrose Penrose tiling effect Phlegm Boy An obnoxious slimy creature is disgusting and displays bad habits Photon Computer-generated particles of light are emitted from the darkness PICS Player Plays an animated sequence from a PICS file on the Mac platform Plasma Plasma-like image generated Punch Out Round holes appear to be punched out of the desktop Puzzle The desktop becomes a sliding puzzle Rain Colorful raindrops fall on the desktop Rainstorm Like the Rain module, but with wind and lightning Rainy Day Rain drops on the screen. Users can select how fast they fall and how strong the wind is. Randomizer Randomly displays modules chosen from a user-generated list of modules Rat Race A race featuring three rats with names, mindlessly wandering around the track until there is a winner Rebound Balls rebound around the screen Rose Mathematical pattern based on trigonometry Satori Color animated light show Say What? Displays humorous phrases Scrubbing Bubbles Displays multiple Scrubbing Bubbles (Dow Brands) floating around the screen Scrubbing Bubbles II Displays multiple Scrubbing Bubbles (Dow Brands) "scrubbing" the screen and going down the drain Shapes Fills the screen with colorful, geometric shapes Shock Clocks Scary creatures are turned into clocks Shooting Spree The desktop appears to be shot up by a gun. Users can select which gun to use. Sinkhole The desktop appears to fall into sinkholes Slide Show A basic slide show of user-supplied images Snake A pixelated snake tries to find its way through a maze Spheres A number of spheres fill the screen Spin Brush Smears points on the screen like wet paper Spiral Gyro Vector module that twists lines Spotlight The desktop becomes black, and parts are "illuminated" by a randomly moving light spot Squigwig Generates mathematical circles Stained Glass Produces quilt-like patterns Steam Rollin' Displays a guy driving around squishing toys, snakes and babies (a take-off on the Mowin' Man module) Stormy Night Random lightning bolts with thunderclap sounds Strange Attractor Computer-generated color image String Theory Moire patterns Sunburst Color pattern that appears to come from the Sun Supernova Displays an exploding supernova Swan Lake Swans swim around the desktop This Ol' House Someone appears to be working on the desktop from the other side with power saws Toaster 2K 10th anniversary module featuring futuristic and mecha versions of the flying toasters Toxic Swamp Parody of Fish!, but in a toxic, polluted swamp with mutated fish and a mob boss Tunnel Makes the screen appear to be a tunnel Use Your Own! Displays multiple images of the users choice moving around the screen Vertigo Colorful rainbow spirals drawn on the screen Virex-D An implementation of the Virex anti-virus utility. Scans for viruses and displays icons in 3D form Voyeur One appears to be spying on an apartment complex with a big city skyline in the background Warp One appears to be travelling among stars at high speed Window Blinds Desktop is separated into columns, and then each one turns like a window blind Wrap Around Draws three-dimensional loops Wrecking Ball A wrecking ball appears to demolish the desktop You Bet Your Head Playable quiz game featuring three colored "heads" that are smashed by a hammer if one supplies the wrong answer to a question Zoom! Creates colorful triangular tubes Zot Attempts to generate lightning
* 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 An edition called After Dark Totally Twisted includes the more macabre modules, namely Bungee Roulette, Chameleon, Coming Soon!, Flying Toilets, FrankenScreen, Message Mayhem, Mike's So-called Life, Mime Hunt, Mowin' Boris, Phlegm Boy, Shock Clocks, Toxic Swamp, and Voyeur.
* 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Modules from the Still in the Dark collection of 11 modules by Bob Loeffler.

## Release history

* version 1.0 - 1989
* version 2.0 - 1992 - The first official release for Windows.
* version 3.0 - 1994
* version 3.2 - 1995
* version 4.0 - 1996

## Licensed Products

* Star Trek: The Screen Saver - 1992
* The Disney Collection Screen Saver - 1993
* Marvel Comics Screen Posters - 1993
* X-Men Screen Saver - 1994
* The Simpsons Screen Saver - 1994
* Star Trek: The Next Generation Screen Saver - 1994
* Looney Tunes Screen Saver - 1995
* Toy Story - 1995
* Myst Screen Saver
* Chex Quest Screen Saver - 1997 (unlicensed module built on the After Dark software)