LGR - After Dark Screensaver Review

Flying Toasters! Can of Worms! Fish! After Dark was unavoidable and awesome in its day, and this video explores the original releases, released on both the Mac and PC.

[@lmoore3rd]

Everybody laughs but this was a big deal back in the 90's not only for protecting CRTs but it was a work place status symbol to have a cool screen saver; kinda like power ties.

[@arthas640]

_"Look upon my flying toasters and weep!"* - That Douchebag Chad in your office.

[@Laeiryn]

My father, a LAN admin, had scored the coolest program in the universe. It was called ARABESQUES and it was in fact the final project of a computing grad class where they programmed fractals as a 'screen saver' type program. He used to just run it for hours. I've spent twenty years looking for it online, to no avail.

[@Fruitwood]

@@Laeiryn I just found an old screensaver from 1999 with the same name that draws really cool patterns on the screen, could this be it? I'm really sorry I had to base64 encode it because every one of my comments with a link keeps getting removed. aHR0cDovL3d3dy51bHRpbWF0ZXNhdmVycy5jb20vaW5kZXguYXNwP0lEPTI1NDk=

[@SpacePoodle]

I can totally confirm.

[@0v_x0]

I kind of always had a thing for screensavers throughout my childhood, and After Dark was my gateway drug. Things really amped up later when I had my own PC in middle school and a 6mb Voodoo 3D accelerator. Something about early OpenGL screensavers really felt like the pinnacle of luxury.

[@ohmanthatguy2443]

Before I started this video I thought to myself " Now, how the **** is he going to talk about a screen saver for almost nine minutes?" Now I'm bewildered that I watched it for almost nine minutes. Life changing experience.

[@Myllkka]

My thoughts exactly.

[@IWillSmurfYou]

OhMan ThatGuy WTF I DID TOO AHHHH

[@bazilhunter5420]

OhMan ThatGuy i

[@buddyclatone9632]

Best. Name. Ever.

[@vapor404]

OhMan ThatGuy I want to get after dark on my battle station now

[@deneb_tm]

The picture frame one does exactly what a screensaver shouldn't do, lol.

[@theredpanda00]

yeah

[@TYNEPUNK]

many of them could cause screen burn, like the sea bed in the fish one :)

[@washmonument]

@@TYNEPUNK come on the fish cover all of it at different times

[@sharpshotefx]

My dad still has his flying toaster necktie.

[@andrewmoore1069]

*t o a s t e r s*

[@eightosaurusspelunk1598]

Are you being serious? Did he really buy that?

[@notaslav]

GIVE GIVE GIVE GIVE GIVE GIVE GIVE GIVE GIVE GIVE GIVE

[@Darkxwolf08j]

owo wut dis

[@eeveegaming4798]

Two tools of sucisde in one

[@ChrissehCat]

I remember sitting in the office in elementary school in the early 90's waiting to see the principal (Yes, this was a very common occurrence for me) and all the secretaries would have the flying toasters or the bouncing ball screen savers on their computers and sometimes I'd sit and watch them for what felt like hours. Something so relaxing about old screen savers.

[@cipherrevenant3239]

Haha! Did anyone else notice the flying toaster mixed in with all the fish?

[@AmyraCarter]

Yup!

[@antdude]

Yep. Was that an option?

[@andrewmoore1069]

Problem is, you'd better not plug it in. No wait what are you doing? Dont plug it in. STOP DONT PLUG IT IN YOU'RE GONNA KILL ALL THE FISH. DONT DO IT. GOD DAMNIT.

[@carlrygwelski586]

NO

[@milesbailor5019]

lol

[@SouthwesternEagle]

Dude!! Thanks for the review! My dad wrote the engine for After Dark at Berkeley Systems back in '94!

[@SeekerLancer]

I didn't know how much I missed screensavers until just now.

[@pushinguproses]

My favorite screensaver was the one that featured Spock, which wasn't on the original After Dark disc. It was cheesy, but amazing.

[@gengisjon]

Spock using a phazer to burn holes in your desktop!

[@collectmybrains]

Bad Dog and the trivia game were my favorites.

[@frezericks]

Lol, wow, one of your comments in the wild, from before I even discovered your channel. Neat

[@mohamedsalahyahyaoui5596]

"...which gives you blue balls xD"

[@visualaudio22]

Mohamed Salah Yahyaoui glad to see your blue balls haha😄

[@Kek5kopF]

After Dark was the shit back in the day. I was amazed how fast and smooth the graphics were, even on my shit ass machine. Its kind of a miracle fitting all this stuff on one floppy, just amazing programming skill. I think people were quite creative back then, because of the limited recources they had.

[@B3Band]

No, but I remember replying to a dimwit on KZbin ;)

[@0xbenedikt]

Compare that to modern day utility applications like text editors that have an installation size of a few hundred megabytes and ship with a full webbrowser...

[@Steve211Ucdhihifvshi]

it was awesome!

[@TracksWithDax]

I feel like being confined under those limits was something that forced programmers and artists to really think outside the box to solve problems in unexpected ways. It's cool to be able to have amazingly easy and innovative engines and 10x as much RAM a VRAM as needed to run the latest games on Ultra, but from me there's a WHOLE LOT of respect to those guys who had to skirt around limitations to make innovations and one-up their competition. Check out the channel GameHut if that's intersting to you, btw!

[@bandombeviews6035]

Now, it's more quantity than creative workarounds

[@bloodrunsclear]

I remember this from WAY back when. I was convinced it was some kind of art game when I was really young.

[@FriendlyHermit]

"Spheres gives you blue balls!" Amen to that, brother. Selfish spheres.

[@driftercarbon]

We even had the After Dark game pack of games based on the screen savers. Yes. Yes that was a thing. No I don't know why either.

[@mittens5607]

I had that too

[@Chowdit1]

8BitDragon Definitely, ME. :D *wink, wink*

[@chemergency]

Tom Krystinik Anyone know where to acquire these screensavers now and use them on modern systems? Also, I'm dealing with a bug on KZbin that prevents me from commenting unless I reply to someone.

[@randomtinypotatocried]

I remember playing those games nonstop. The Hulu hoop girl game and the toaster run were my favorites.

[@DeltaOps3]

I remember playing that. That was based off this saver? Mind blown

[@AnneIglesias]

When I was a little girl, my dad’s media office had this screensaver on his work computer. If we ever went to pick him up early, I would just sit down on his office chair and stare at the flying toasters or Rainstorm until he was finished talking with clients. I used to wonder why we didn’t have such nice screen savers back home. Turns out it was because we had an old Tandy.

[@ps3master72]

Linus just shouted this video out, nice!

[@hobbesip1]

A nice walk down memory lane, when things were simpler. Flying toasters was always my favorite

[@0v_x0]

How well toasted? In hindsight it's pretty cool they added that option.

[@dickkickem]

the starry night is aesthetic asf

[@aaronlippincott7385]

A E S T H E T I C

[@geoff3610]

Daniel Jones im sure you can get a modern replica of it

[@dickkickem]

Daniel Jones true asf

[@Logan912]

It was also created in a time when the word "aesthetic" wasn't just as overused (often incorrectly) as much as "literally" was in the 2000s.

[@B3Band]

You say asf often asf

[@jacksquatt6082]

When I was a kid I loved the Flying Toaster Brigade, and always imagined they were chasing after the toast. I wish I would have bought the T-shirt all those years ago.

[@LGR]

I didn't forget, it simply didn't have music in this original version. You're thinking of Flying Toasters Pro and the subsequent versions, which had music and such.

[@RobertBlair]

The Disney Screen Savers were the first to include MIDI music.

[@zzrog]

​@@RobertBlairb bnnnkvtbbvhvg6😢b😢6 bb vnblnññnvnĝnm mnm nm ñn m😊

[@captainviggo4575]

I have very fond memories of After Dark for the Mac, especially one that was Simpsons-themed, with a chalkboard being written on by Bart. We didn't see Bart directly, only what he was writing on the board, but you could choose the quality of his writing and Bart's laziness, with occasional sounds from Bart being tired. Very fun screensaver.

[@psb9001]

I remember one with green blobs with Santa hats that would make farting noises while they moved around the screen and would randomly explode.

[@psb9001]

That's the one. Been unable to find any videos of them so far.

[@945daddy]

My childhood!!I remember sitting there for hours messing with these crazy screensavers :pI thought it was a game and I loved it.

[@samsmith1580]

Wow. Flying Toasters put me right back in the early 90s. I had completely forgotten about these. I wonder what nostalgia will be like for this generation. They will never get the chance to forget stuff from their youth only to be reminded of it later on KZbin like us.

[@KateReadsBooks]

review the after dark that had the hula girls and roger dodger and the crazy cows

[@bigstupidgrin]

Sleep deprivation is a helluva drug... Also, I want a screen saver T-shirt. Maybe.

[@LGR]

Don't we all? And a screensaver tie too, don't forget!

[@jamesdye4603]

bigstupidgrin There is some AD stuff on ebay right now. www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-AFTER-DARK-Software-SWEATSHIRT-Sz-Adult-XL-Berkeley-Screen-Saver-Shirt-/261380931722?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3cdb84808a

[@TheAlexSchmidt]

The ties are surprisingly common on eBay

[@arthas640]

i want a flying toaster t-shirt that actually plays the screen saver on your shirt. Make it happen Science!

[@tapoemt3995]

@@LGR I saw that Carmageddon icon on there, bravo!

[@mryoshi1221]

i really love your videos. i like to watch them at night and they just take me away from the day i had, which is a good thing. your voice is a perfect volume and i love when you tell stories. basically, i just really enjoy everything you do

[@MrShambles]

Was it possible to get the bottom of the fish tank screensaver burned into your monitor?

[@LGR]

The bottom of the fish tank changes too!

[@lillydoye7418]

I was more worried by picture frame.

[@jiribrabec2100]

How absurd is that one! Somebody got carried away too far

[@RobertBlair]

No. We had rules about that. Many screen savers would switch to dark backgrounds after a while.

[@Andy-413]

Can of worms was my favorite. These bring back such good memories of exploring my first computer. I would by an old Mac today just for the screen savers and old games I used to play.

[@lynseyshrewsbury7973]

I can go on about the memories I had with the Flying Toasters; they even had their own theme song in later versions! Look it up and take a listen!

[@To-mos]

I had these installed on my old Power Mac as a kid. Good to see them again!

[@aliray1165]

The glory days of pc ownership. It was fun, uplifting, unique and simple to understand.

[@jonnda]

Anyone remember Lunatic Fringe? It was a mac game that used after dark as it's running environment. I miss that game.

[@WestminsterNaught]

Holy shit this comments a year old but thank you! I've been trying to remember what the hell that game was called, I haven't played it since the late 90s.

[@getcrack4me]

You can play it if you have MacOS X: mrglitchsreviews.blogspot.com/2013/04/lunatic-fringe-for-macintosh.html

[@crochrot1]

My kids loved the toaster one, and if I remember there was one screen saver that acted like an interactive game show. But might have been when we decided to get a PC. Man am I giving away my age.

[@o00nemesis00o]

It was called You Bet Your Head

[@ANAXELISPRESENTING]

8 minutes of video just about a screen saver. Amazing! I love these reviews, great work.

[@andgalactus1]

There used to be a cartoon show on canadian tv called Bad Dog, the dog in the tv show was exactly the same as the one in the After Dark screensaver, he was also named Berkeley, a possible reference to Berkeley systems the creators of After Dark.

[@fatherhill8731]

I remember once i set my screensaver to a picture of the blue screen of death. I forgot about it for weeks and i almost shit myself when my $2000 gaming laptop bluescreened while i made a sandwich.

[@johnfrancisdoe1563]

Father Hill SysInternals (before being bought by Microsoft) made a version so realistic I once thought it was a real crash in a driver I wrote myself (until I looked at the bottom and saw SysInternals instead of Your Administrator).

[@OmegaWolf747]

I remember when someone brought AfterDark 3.0 into our votech school and installed it on their workstation PC. It got passed around and pretty soon we were all using it. My favorite was the multimodule, Kiss the Sky, which combined the trippiest modules. I copied the floppy and used it on my laptop as well. Just adored AfterDark and kinda wish it were still around today.

[@okamichamploo]

wow, I actually remember seeing this back in the day and thinking it was the coolest thing ever. How times have changed lol.

[@Koploper77]

Yazuki Wolf It's still the coolest thing ever

[@KILLASAURUSFLEX]

Someone made a game with those flying toasters.

[@RJinthematrix]

i don't know which is more embarrassing, the fact that i wanted this really bad when it came out or the fact that when i got it i couldn't figure out why it wouldn't work on my pc i wasn't a bright child

[@PuffyRainbowCloud]

That made me really sad for some reason :c

[@icecold1805]

You are about to get 1 Million subscribers. it is mandatory that if you ever have to be suit and tied for an event after that, you must get the After Dark Tie.

[@eyancb]

Our second task in programming class was tweaking a screen saver our professor made, then eventually we had to turn said screensaver into a side scrolling game. This was all done in C++. It's cool seeing all these first iterations of this software, and that some were made in C.

[@DaVince21]

This really reminds me of the absolutely massive collection of X screensavers that is available on Linux, which naturally also has a few ports from the screensavers displayed in this video. The flying toasters screensaver was even remade in glorious 3D.

[@bitwize]

Does anyone else remember 90210 with the Peach Pit After Dark? The "After Dark" logotype above the door was cribbed from the After Dark screensaver logo, and there was a flying toaster on the door. This in an era when there was pretty much nothing computery referenced in a mainstream TV show. Except for Doogie Howser's journal, maybe.

[@pd3331]

Your channel is just do god damn perfect. It has EVERY thing I want, the hardware the software. and the HQ voice and video. It's just so good.

[@AaronOfMpls]

I remember After Dark on my grandparents' Mac. As a kid in the early 90s, it was the coolest thing, and I have fond memories of it. Great to see if here!

[@KesorodaBlk]

Ah, so that's where the flying toasters came from. I always wondered about that one episode of Ally McBeal!

[@JudgeTread1]

I'm sure Jack Eastman was actually smoking a huge joint late at night when he came up with that.

[@AndreaRoll]

god this makes me feel old

[@pennylane086]

Thank you for helping me take this nostalgia trip

[@ger128]

After Dark was my first experience with computers, as a 7-year-old. My dad took me to work, but needed to do some business, so he plopped me in front of a Windows 3.1 computer and said, "Here's After Dark. Look at all the cool lines and shapes!" then left for a while, trusting me to amuse myself.

[@tempest6027]

6:46 Earthbound backgrounds: the screensaver

[@MidnightConsulting]

"Bad dog,bad dog".................. then he'd walk away in shame with his tail between his legs and go off screen. Then you'd see him peek in from the side and eventually he'd come bouncing out, confident that he's alone and ready to tear up the desktop again. Ripping out wires (was supposed to be from inside your computer) and wires would be sparking and hanging out all shredded. And the dog would pee all over, marking his bad deeds. But soon into it, you'd hear, "bad dog, bad dog". He was so fat and cute, I'd actually feel sorry for him (and he was a screensaver, not real). I miss the modules!

[@andgalactus1]

Bad dog was great! did you know there was a tv show possibly loosely based on the screensaver?

[@jershmersh6573]

Thanks for covering this. Really nostalgic

[@Yahriel]

YESSSS. I remember the Fish! one! The flying toaster would only show up randomly, and it took quite a while for me to convince my dad there was actually a toaster in the screen saver!

[@lawrenceb4954]

I miss flying windows. I really wish they'd include it in modern os.

[@525Lines]

I thought the flying toasters was connected somehow to Video Toaster, the graphics program.

[@colinmccauley9257]

I picked up the flying toaster necktie from a Goodwill when I was in high school, never knew it was "official" merch. That screensaver was a little before my time personally but I definitely remembered seeing it in school. Very cool to see the tie's origin here.

[@HertzBlut]

Oh I remember this. I loved the After Dark screensaver. And others. Now I want to get them for my current PC. Same with Johnny Castaway, but I think he was a secrutity risk of sorts. Again thank you for your channel. I love every minute of it.

[@AndreiTache]

Whaat? Screensavers actually had a use??

[@zaxlorax7605]

Andrei Tache Da ma, uite ca aveau :)

[@Parasuniversal]

First of all lol at the 'blue balls' Second thank you so much for uploading this Third please could you upload the cats I've been looking for a decent video with the purring audio Much appreciated

[@serviciosdorianmenendez]

You are the only one that can make a review about screensavers so awesome, Kudos!

[@Hurbie_53]

There was a "Totally Twisted" After Dark. Loved that one!

[@cdelnick]

Too bad he didn't review the version with the marbles module, loved that one!

[@AirknightTails]

I believe you’re referring to 4.0 and I have that version on CD

[@LorenHelgeson]

Also had Daredevil Dan and that interactive quiz show one.

[@gavinwalsh5238]

does anyone know how to get the flying toaster on modern pcs?

[@NottJoeyOfficial]

Find it on a site and download it.

[@fountaincap]

+Gavin Walsh There's ToasterClone: download.cnet.com/ToasterClone/3000-2257_4-10597381.html And if you don't need the screensaver but just want to watch the toasters for a few seconds: www.masswerk.at/flyer/

[@danixdefcon5]

There are a couple of remakes done for the native OS screensavers on both Windows and macOS. I actually have one on my MacBook Pro, which brings back the memories of flying toasters.

[@Toonrick12]

www.screensaversplanet.com/screensavers/after-dark-flying-toasters-1153/

[@momivoruzunovi4078]

If you don't want a clone and want the original version of After Dark, you can download it from here: winworldpc.com/product/after-dark/4x You can use it in Windows 10 by seting a compatibility filter for the installation. After that, the flying toasters screensaver shoud appear in the screensaver menu.

[@CeceliPS3]

I remember having a few awesome screensavers that I just can't find anywhere. Cows dropping from the sky and breaking into pieces at the bottom of the screen, very gory. Buildings with neighbors on the windows doing different stuff. And a dude using a lawn mower cart to mow all the grass on the screen and run over a cat that is in the way.

[@gregs7519]

I installed this on literally hundreds of various Macintosh machines, back when I was fresh out of college working in IT desktop support for a large company. Ah, the memories. Thanks LGR!

[@TyphoidBryan]

All hail the mighty CRT!

[@awesomepossumrc]

can you do johnny castaway sometime if you have it???

[@coffeetime1001]

Very awesome. This video brings back the good old memory and back in the day.

[@TaberBucknell]

Thanks for the trip down memory lane! After a Dark was not just a screensaver ... it was art.

[@gabesyt4863]

If only they made a version for Win 3.1...

[@LGR]

Gabriel Brown They did, in 1991!

[@gabesyt4863]

Lazy Game Reviews Really? I must have it...

[@capSAR]

Gabriel Brown I have the full collection of versions here: archive.org/details/AfterDarkCompleteCollection Theres a zip for Win 3.1 for ya :D

[@JackSProductions98]

Gabriel Brown Is there a version for Windows 7?? :)

[@capSAR]

Nope :L I got it working on Windows XP and you can set up a virtual machine for that easy!

[@lenin17301560]

I miss Rat Race, go Secretarat!

[@flashgirl1998]

i was a kid when it was the mid 2000's. I can think of some of the screensavers from back then on the school computers. It would be such a nostalgia trip to see them again.

[@EmpressKaga]

Aw, man. I'm getting some mega nostalgia feels from playing around with screensavers on the first ever computer I remember having in my house -- which was when I was like, what, 6 years old? Some of those screensavers just brought back some memories that I didn't know still existed, and that interface in particular (and the idea of being able to customize so many things on each module) is definitely very familiar to me... but a lot of my favorites were missing from this, so, I must've had one of the later versions. o.o Where are ants? Where's the motorcycle trick guy? The bad dog? The hammer guy that pounds the other guys into nothing when they answer trivia questions wrong?? Man, now I want to find the version I used to have, because... I'm having a serious nostalgia trip now. owo""

[@Lowmandavis]

Anyone else think of monsters Inc when the shapes screen saver was shown?

[@michaelmayne6097]

TheNintendoFanatic yeah lol

[@Helpertin]

I remember having this program! It was all about the flying toasters.

[@smallgallonreeftank]

Omg this bring back time when I had this I miss this 😭

[@murlthesquir]

"Balls yeah, it's awesome!" 😂👍

[@Supuhstar]

The way you ended this... "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have ______" reminded me of Bill Nye the Science Guy... So much nostalgia in one video I can't handle it! D:

[@JarlFrank]

I loved watching these when I was a kid in the early 90s, for some reason.

[@z9vofficial481]

The nostalgia is tearing me apart.

[@THOMASSU63]

I remember my early Win 3.1 days installing this and being fascinated by flying toasters and beautiful fish. I also remember constantly fidgeting around with the color settings and backgrounds on the desktop, having different looks depending on the season and my mood. Then the World Wide Web came, thank you mr. Berners-Lee.

[@boredom1000]

This channel is surprisingly good. Subscribed. Glad I randomly found you on google!

[@BanzaiM50]

"Shapes makes a bunch of shapes. Neat." Thats going on the back of the box.

[@tiger12506]

When I was a kid, we had a 386, and After Dark was super fun to play with. Also on the subject of screen savers, there was some Looney Tunes version (maybe required After Dark, not sure, I was like 4...) that included Taz the tazmanian devil buzzing around your desktop and eating your icons. That was great!

[@tiger12506]

Yeah, after googling a bit, we had some of the expansion packs, like Looney Tunes, and More After Dark. It was some of the coolest graphics you could get early on.

[@YourLocalZombie]

I have the flying toasters screen saver on my MacOS 12.6 rig right now. I love it as much as I did back in the 90's but I'd forgotten about some of the others. Thank you KZbin algorithm gods!

[@JesseKaufman]

hahaha .. your commentary, man, I absolutely love it!

[@batsai]

Just awesome. There's no denying how great these were, but after loading up a ton, they'd bring my poor Macintosh LC III to its knees. It was also quite buggy and crash prone, but I loved it anyway. Thanks for the trip down memory lane!

[@ericjohnson288]

I remember just sitting in front of my dad's old conroe system and just staring at the screensaver loop through this trippy colorful 3-d animation.

[@aebbelwoy]

Haven't seen a flying toaster in years, maybe even decades. Thanks for bringing it back to mind.

[@LGR]

This was an actual Mac, recorded using a VGA capture card.

[@DanielsGameVault]

Let's not forget After Dark Games, where you get to play as the toaster :))

[@thefattmish]

I can't believe I just watched a 9 minute video about an old screensaver I used to have (on PC). That was awesome.

[@AdriaOliSal]

There's no better screensaver than 3D maze. I love to see it whenever i used computers in school.

[@DrowningSorrows1]

I remember playing the After Dark 2000 disc so much when I was a kid, I wish I could play it again.

[@fatodie1]

I have that, someware... It still worked on XP, but you had to start it manually.

[@SD-tj5dh]

memories of standing with my schoolmates by the class computer (the good old RM nimbus with Windowsa3.1) watching the rat race screensaver and pretending to bid on a winner. ah, the 90's.

[@deadname1000]

After seeing this, I went and bought myself the flying toasters tie off of some fella who sells vintage stuff on EBay. Really happy with the tie. 100% Silk, well-made. Really really neat. Thanks, yo.

[@Straycatstrat10]

My personal favorite was the Flying Toaster. I also really liked Starry Night.

[@cadenschmidt6877]

So many memories of just watching the flying toaster screensaver