If you’re a longtime Mac user you might recall the popular After Dark screensaver series of Classic Mac OS, which featured a fun range of screen saver options including the infamous Flying Toasters, Mowing Man, Boris the Cat, Bad Dog, Bouncing Ball, Art Critic, Nightlines, and many more. Many of these screensavers were just plain cool, while others were quirky, goofy, and outright silly, and they graced the screens of Classic Macintosh computer labs and home computers from 1989 throughout the 1990s. While those years are long gone (sigh), a fun project called Afterglow lets you run those classic After Dark screensavers on your modern Mac, even in MacOS 27 Golden Gate.
Relive those 1990s Macintosh memories with Afterglow, it’s free and a fun trip down memory lane, whether you used classic Macintosh computers back in that era, or you’re just a curious retro computing enthusiast.
Afterglow will ask you for the original After Dark files, but you can also use the app to browse InternetArchive where you can download them directly, so just choose the version(s) of After Dark you want to download to your Mac and enjoy.
To use Afterglow After Dark screensavers on modern MacOS, go into the apps Settings (Afterglow menu > Settings) and choose to install the screen saver.
If you chose to download multiple After Dark packs, you’ll have a whole bunch of classic screensavers to choose from.
You can enjoy the original Flying Toasters screensavers, complete with the audio and karaoke lyrics (~ “Flying out of the sun… the smell of toast is in the air” ~)
You can watch Boris the cat chase butterflies and cause general mischief on your Mac:
Watch Mowin’ Man mow your desktop and a virtual lawn on your screen:
And don’t forget Bad Dog, the virtual puppy who digs holes and chews on your desktop files. I used to always wish that Bad Dog could be combined with Boris the Cat for total desktop mayhem, alas my childhood screen saver dreams remain in my dream.
These type of retro Mac and computing revival projects are a lot of fun, and we enjoy sharing them here. You might recall that a few years back someone rebuilt After Dark on the web and we shared a tip on how to make that into your screensaver, but AfterGlow makes it much easier, and has access to a more complete screensaver collection.
If you were a classic Macintosh user, don’t miss Afterglow, it’s wonderfully nostalgic and makes for a fun modern MacOS screen saver collection too.
