Programs with their own screensaver!?

[leech]

So I know our beloved Atari computers have built in screen savers that will rotate the colors for us.  But how many have their own?

Apparently Ballblazer does!  I only caught it because I had my 800xl connected to a capture card and was looking up some things.

 

[atarixle]

My own Turbo-BASIC-GUI called "BOSS-X" comes with several screen savers.

[+DrVenkman]

The U1MB BIOS and Loader pages have screensavers, and at least some of the Infocom titles do as well, sort of: in addition to the normal Atari color cycling, they set the color of the text to match the background so you see just a blank, colored screen until you touch a key again, restoring white text on the standard Atari blue background.

[Rybags]

I was unable to get that to come up.

 

But did discover an unknown to me - "OVER TIME" if the game ends without a score (then finished when someone scores)

[+Stephen]

If you leave Star Raiders long enough, it goes to just the 3D starfield.  How I only ever saw this a few months ago and I had the game cart since 1982 is beyond me.  I guess when it was running, I was always going back for another game.

[leech]

10 hours ago, Stephen said:

If you leave Star Raiders long enough, it goes to just the 3D starfield.  How I only ever saw this a few months ago and I had the game cart since 1982 is beyond me.  I guess when it was running, I was always going back for another game.

That's right, I actually had that going in the background as well last night, and as I was fiddling with the POT for the shield color to look right.

[ldelsarte]

There is the great looking pause mode in Chimera, with music.

I used to show it, back then, to my school buddies who needed to be reminded which 8-bit computer was the leader of the pack, from a graphical performance perspective...

 

[leech]

57 minutes ago, ldelsarte said:

There is the great looking pause mode in Chimera, with music.

I used to show it, back then, to my school buddies who needed to be reminded which 8-bit computer was the leader of the pack, from a graphical performance perspective...

 

Now that is beautiful!

I had always sort of thought when I got my ST that in some ways it was a downgrade from the 8bit.  Outside of a very few demos, the color bars just never looked as good as what the 8bit could pull off!  This is a perfect example of this!

It wasn't until years later that some awesome tricks in programming the ST were found that it could look better.

[mono]

Some time ago I wrote screensaver inspired by Spermatozoid screensaver made by JBW for PC computers. There are two versions - one for Atari DOS et consortes (WORM.EXE) and another one for Sparta DOS X (WORM.COM). they're available here: http://mono.i-demo.pl/worm/worm.zip This is screensaver replacing original color rotation routine from the OS. It may be shown by POKE 77,128 when installed.

 

[leech]

1 hour ago, mono said:

Some time ago I wrote screensaver inspired by Spermatozoid screensaver made by JBW for PC computers. There are two versions - one for Atari DOS et consortes (WORM.EXE) and another one for Sparta DOS X (WORM.COM). they're available here: http://mono.i-demo.pl/worm/worm.zip This is screensaver replacing original color rotation routine from the OS. It may be shown by POKE 77,128 when installed.

 

Very nice!  I was discussing in another thread the potential of a SpartaDOS X 'distribution', maybe we could put that on the list of included set up?

[mono]

I have no objections if DLT agrees. Now you can found it on "Additions" page.

[doctor_x]

Marshware BBS floated the WFC screen around— I want to say Forem MPP or FOrem 1030 did too - but my mind gets dusty going back that far!

[StickJock]

Not a screensaver, but I got a kick out of Rockford the ant impatiently tapping his foot when you stopped moving him for too long in Boulderdash.

[leech]

On 7/15/2020 at 7:14 AM, Rybags said:

I was unable to get that to come up.

 

But did discover an unknown to me - "OVER TIME" if the game ends without a score (then finished when someone scores)

Guess it depends on which version you use?  I apparently have 5 different ones.  34k, 30k, 34k, 38k and 64k... From what I tested the other day, only the 38k and 64k version had the intro.  Pretty sure the screen saver one was the 64k version as well.  My best guess, is that one is based on the XE cart version.

Ball Blazer RX8064.rom

[leech]

4 minutes ago, StickJock said:

Not a screensaver, but I got a kick out of Rockford the ant impatiently tapping his foot when you stopped moving him for too long in Boulderdash.

Always loved this one!  In my testing of SpyCat for correct Palette, if you let the character sit there for too long, he turns and opens his trench coat and flashes you.

[E474]

Colourspace?