Comments on: Pyromania.

By: dsandler

dsandler — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 18:43:22 +0000

Welcome and thanks for the history, Bill. I’m pretty sure that, thanks to your notes, this page is now officially the most up-to-date reference on the history of Pyro!

By: Bill Steinberg

Bill Steinberg — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:33:52 +0000

ps Since you’re obviously interested in the history of Pyro, I thought I’d tell you how Pyro! actually came about. Steve (Brecher) was writing Suitcase at the time, and his “About…” window was just plain text. I thought it was a shame that such a great program had such a plain about box, so I told him I’d write him a new one. I coded a small fireworks display, and he liked it so much he felt it was wasted on an about box, and suggested a screen saver would be a better home. Steve wrote most of the screen saver code, and I handled most of the animation and cdev (Control Panel) code, and Pyro! 1.0 was born. Steve was a superb coder, and taught me most of what I know about coding. All of Pyro! was written in structured assembly language.

Bill S

By: Bill Steinberg

Bill Steinberg — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 20:08:25 +0000

Nicely done, and a pretty accurate history description. (And yes, I’m that Bill Steinberg). I just wish I could see how close the classic version comes to what I coded so long ago…

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sun, 25 May 2008 22:33:24 +0000

I’ve been thinking about Lunatic Fringe (and its sibling Solarian(?)) a lot lately; I recently realized that a recording of a bicycle kickstand being flipped up is probably what was used for the shield sound effect.

By: Lloyd Wood

Lloyd Wood — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 02:35:09 +0000

The Mac Screensaver FAQ will be a trip down memory lane...

By: toastup! ≈ archives » Introducing LCD Scrub

toastup! ≈ archives » Introducing LCD Scrub — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 06:27:02 +0000

[...] Every piece of software available here at toastycode exists first and foremost because it was something I wanted to use and, finding it not to exist, had to go about creating it. Pyrothèque is a perfect example: I had fond memories of Pyro!™—perhaps the granddaddy of all screen savers—and wanted to bring its iconic B&W fireworks back for a revival. [...]

By: deadhead

deadhead — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 17:27:54 +0000

Ahhhhh Lunatic fringe…we used to play this on an old machine we used at work to connect to the internet when we had to….soo much fun to change the sounds and the space ships using Resedit…..those were the days…..

By: toastup! ≈ archives » Setting off the fireworks again.

toastup! ≈ archives » Setting off the fireworks again. — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 19:16:14 +0000

[...] Our first product here at toastycode was Pyrothèque, a careful homage to a classic screen saver (with some fancy-pants new features as well). It was originally released July 4th, 2006, and to commemorate its appearance I wrote all about how Pyrothèque came to be, including a double-helping of Macintosh screensaver antiquarianism. [...]

By: Steve Rogers

Steve Rogers — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 05:06:19 +0000

Nice to meet another old-timer! I was a big fan of Møire and Lunatic Fringe…

By: dsandler

dsandler — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 18:16:31 +0000

Stefan: Wow, I hadn't even considered that those bright flashes might be a problem; I apologize. Keep an eye out on the toastycode blog for a new version of Pyrothèque, probably in the next week or so.

By: dsandler

dsandler — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 18:15:07 +0000

Matt: note that all the BeOS screen savers have been updated for PPC and Intel.

By: Stefan

Stefan — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 21:57:42 +0000

Hey, very nice saver! Can you add an option to disable the bright full screen flashlights? I’ve got epileptic seizures… ;-)

By: Matt Schinckel

Matt Schinckel — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 10:17:50 +0000

How about a Universal Binary of Message?

Ah the irony of me using Message on MacOS X Intel, on the same Dell machine I used to use for BeOS back in the day…

By: dsandler

dsandler — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 05:31:09 +0000

No sound as of yet. Maybe in a future release; I’ll need to go to a fireworks show and sample some SFX.

By: Glen

Glen — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 02:38:59 +0000

Is there a sound option? Graphics are up to date and it looks cool. Any sound?