This pariticular StartupScreen was specifically created with System Software 7.1 in mind. You can create your very own StartupScreen, similar to this one, with the following procedure:
Obtain a background image
One of the first things you must do to create your own StartupScreen is to obtain a good background. Good ones include After Dark modules, some GIFs and PICTs, and various other sources. It’s a pretty good idea to use a picture that will take up the entire screen so you won’t have to scale it. Scaling would result in a lack of quality due to distortion.
If you are using an After Dark module for a background, capture it with command-shift-3. Then import it into a draw or paint program like Adobe Illustrator. If you are not using After Dark, then simply import the desired file into a draw/paint program.
Foreground Items
Next, you can spice up the picture by putting some foreground elements in. As before, you can use PICTs, AD modules or just about anything you like. With your draw program, format the StartupScreen as you wish and save it. Be sure the picture will be big enough to cover the entire screen during the startup sequence, otherwise there will be “empty space” where the StartupScreen ends. If necessary, scale the background image
A note about text: If you plan to use text elements in your StartupScreen, it is very important you pay attention to this. You can use different fonts in a StartupScreen, but with only a special trick. System 7 does not load a fonts during to startup sequence, therefore if you have any text in the StartupScreen that is not Geneva, Monaco, or Chicago 12 pt., it will not display in that font. This may sound strange, but you must copy any text youi have to a paint program such as MacPaint and copy it back to your StartupScreen as a pucture element, not as text.
Creating the real StartupScreen file:
Using ResEdit, create a new file in the System Folder and name it “StartupScreen.” Next open the finished version of your StartupScreen. From Edit menu, choose “Select All” and then copy it into the clip board. Then switch back to ResEdit. By the way, if you don’t have enough memory to copy the StartupScreen, your draw program will rudely beep you. You you do have enough memory to copy, select paste from ResEdit.
The result should be a rather large PICT’ resource (ID=128). Next select the ‘PICT’ picker, but do not open it yet. Select “Open Picker by ID” from the Resource menu, You should now see the ‘PICT’ resource ID (which sould be 128) and it’s size. The size will vary with the complexity of the StartupScreen. Select resource 128, which should be the only there, and select “Get Resource Info” from the Resource menu. Change the ID number to zero and select purgable in the attributes section. You can also give it a name, if you want to be descriptive. Save the file.
You can paste in multiple ‘PICT’ resources in the StartupScreen if you want, but System 7 only recognizes & loads resource number 0. When you restart, you should see brand new StartupScreen!
Credits:
The space background and the earth were created with After Dark 2.0v. The space background was created using the module “Nebulæ” by Bryan & Lisa Gibson-Winge. The picture of the earth was created using Jack Eastman’s AD module “Globe”. The StartupScreen was formatted with ClarisWorks 1.0v2 and the text elements were created using the program “Matt Paint” by Matt Battely. The actual StartupScreen file was created with ResEdit 2.1.1.
