Fascinating. It is quite illogical for humans to want a computing machine to be personalized, and yet we find that 20th century Macintosh users used a product called After Dark to decorate and animate their inactive computers.
Given this fact, it was, however, quite logical for the phenomenon known as “Trekkies” to invade Earth’s monitor space.
–Spock, stardate unknown
Red Alert! Star Trek, The Screen Saver has beamed aboard! Kirk, McCoy, Spock, and Scotty can now appear on a screen very near you. The Berkeleyans have outdone themselves this time; while protecting your monitor, this screen saver will faithfully recall episodes and themes from the original TV show, from the opening “Space: the Final Frontier,” to multiplying Tribbles squealing when a Klingon appears.
One of the most elaborate modules (perhaps we should call them “episodes”) is called “The Mission.” It condenses scenes from many episodes, many aliens, many threats. The view randomly switches between animated views of Kirk at the conn and the main view screen.
Techie Trekkies will be fascinated by the Planetary Atlas, a catalog of the planets visited by the Enterprise, and Scotty’s Files, carefully detailed drawings of various Star Trek hardware, including the Enterprise, a Klingon battle cruiser, Uhura’s earpiece, the universal translator, phasers, communicators, and many more, all “accurate to Starfleet specifications.”
Spock has a module all to himself, beaming in and out of your screen, taking tricorder readings, mind-melding with Hortas, burning holes in your desktop with his phaser, and occasionally even playing music on his Vulcan lyrette.
And there’s lots more: Watch the Enterprise orbit around spinning planets. See Klingon and Romulan star ships. Watch the Tholian Web being constructed. See an ion storm. See Horta creating tunnels through solid rock. Visit McCoy’s sickbay and see his monitor registering vital life signs and diagnosing alien diseases. You’ll hear Bones’ comments (“Medically impossible;” “I’m a doctor, not a mechanic;” and of course the classic, “He’s dead, Jim.”
While we’re on the subject of sounds, you’ll find plenty! If you’re in the next room, you might think someone is watching reruns on TV. Voices and sound effects galore! Squink. Bleeble. There’s even an interactive Starfleet Academy Final Exam where you can test your knowledge of Star Trek Trivia.
The Star Trek screen saver is completely compatible with earlier versions of After Dark, and old favorites like the Multimodule and Randomizer work just as they always did. The only possible drawback is the amount of space it takes on your hard drive—approximately 3.2 megabytes. That’s a lot of graphics and sounds. The package advertises “over fifteen” modules, and we counted sixteen. Truth in advertising.
There’s so much here, in fact, that you’ll be tempted to just sit and watch them from start to finish. If you do this, be prepared to spend several hours! It might be better to just install it and let the pleasure last for months.
Requirements: Minimum Mac Plus, 2MB RAM, hard drive, System 6.0.4 or later.
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