After Dark (software)

After Dark is a series of computer screensaver software introduced in 1989 by Berkeley Systems for the Apple Macintosh, and later for Microsoft Windows.[1]

Following the original, new editions were introduced including More After Dark and Before Dark, as well as editions themed around licensed properties such as Star Trek, The Simpsons, Looney Tunes and Walt Disney Company characters.[1] The screensaver modules were often noted for their intertextuality, such as the flying toasters appearing in the Fish screensaver, and the cat from Boris screensaver appearing in the Bad Dog screensaver.

As well as the included animated screensavers, it allowed the development and use of third-party modules, of which many hundreds were created by the height of After Dark's popularity.[2]

Contents

Flying Toasters

Of the screensaver modules included, the most famous is the iconic Flying Toasters which featured 1940s-style chrome toasters sporting bird-like wings, flying across the screen with pieces of toast. A slider 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.[3] 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 why 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. Delrina later changed the wings of the toasters to propellers in order to avoid infringing the trademark. 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.[4]

A 3D version of the toasters featuring swarms of toasters with plane wings, rather than bird wings, is available for XScreenSaver.

After Dark Games and onward

Sierra Interactive and Berkeley Systems released After Dark Games 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"/"Mowin' Boris" modules), Roof Rats (similar to SameGame and variants), "Solitaire" (After Dark themed), Toaster Run (a 3D adventure game featuring several After Dark Characters, more notably the Flying Toaster), Zapper (a trivia game), Hula Girl (another 3D adventure 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 Shtix (based on the "Fish" modules, mainly "Fish World"), Foggy Boxes (a connect the boxes type 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.[5] "Rodger Dodger" had been a module several years back, but also a playable game inside the module. Not much was changed from the module except some of the music and most of the level's set-ups. Many fans liked the games, but some felt it lacked games based on more fitting modules, such as "Daredevil Dan", "Lunatic Fringe" (which was a game inside its module, like "Rodger Dodger"), and the After Dark re-working of "Rock, Paper Scissors" (also a game inside its module).

In 1997, Berkeley Systems was acquired by the Sierra On-Line division of CUC International.[6] Joan Blades and Wes Boyd, the founders of Berkeley Systems, went on to create MoveOn.org.

Fans have made modern versions of several of the screensavers in the years since. An official version of After Dark was released for Mac OS X by Infinisys Ltd (of Japan) in May 2003.[7] It has yet to be converted to Universal binary, so at the current moment it can only be run on PowerPC computers with OS X.

Sierra released a Flying Toaster video game for cell phones in 2006.[8]

Modules

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.

In popular culture

References

  1. ^ a b "Aggressively Stupid: The Story Behind After Dark". Lowendmac.com. http://lowendmac.com/thomas/07/0209.html. Retrieved 2010-03-18. 
  2. ^ "On Mighty Toaster Wings: More After Dark History". Lowendmac.com. http://lowendmac.com/thomas/07/0212.html. Retrieved 2010-03-18. 
  3. ^ "AfterDark Deluxe — Review". Mymac.com. http://www.mymac.com/showarticle.php?id=1363. Retrieved 2010-03-18. 
  4. ^ Another Poppin' Fresh Lawsuit By Lance Rose, Issue 2.10 (Oct 1994)wired.com
  5. ^ After Dark Games MobyGames
  6. ^ Berkeley Systems Acquired by CUC Wired.com
  7. ^ "Press Release : Infinisys Releases After Dark X+Fish for Mac OS X". En.infinisys.co.jp. http://en.infinisys.co.jp/release/20030529_1.html. Retrieved 2010-03-18. 
  8. ^ By , GameSpotPosted May 19, 2006 5:22 pm PT (2006-05-19). "Vivendi Universal Games Mobile Announces Six New Titles". Gamespot.com. http://www.gamespot.com/mobile/puzzle/afterdarkflyingtoaster/news.html?sid=6151587. Retrieved 2010-03-18. 

Further reading

External links