Name: After Dark 4.0
Publisher: Sierra Attractions
Developer: Berkeley Systems
Mac Conversion: Berkeley Systems
Media: 1 CD
HD Installation: 32 megs
After Dark 4.0 was run on my iMac DV SE, 400Mhz machine under OS 9.2.2 with an 8 meg ATI Rage card and 512 megs of ram. It was running with all module options turned to their highest settings and at a screen resolution of 1024X768.
Patches? Just for kicks, let me present the system requirements:

Yes

After Dark for OS 9.2.2 and AD 4.0
This is the amazing, modified version of the After Dark control panel. It will *now* work on OS 9.04 to OS 9.2.2 thanks to the amazing Daxeria. Also included is the original AD 4 package and all modules - Size: 17.7 megs.
NOTE: Due to bandwidth limitations, there may be times when this archive is not available.

After Dark 4.03 - Size: 812k
After Dark 4.04 - Size: 780k
(be sure to run them in order)
NOTE: ONLY use these updates if you are running OS 9.0 and below. DO NOT run them on the fixed AD control panel above.
Click above to get the patch

 Requires a 68040 based Macintosh or Power PC running System 7.1 or higher, 5MB of free Ram; 41MB of free hard drive space, a minimum display of 256 colors.
The Art Critic makes another assessment...

The Shadow Agents will creep about your desktop...searching for those hidden files!
This is, hands down, the BEST set of screensavers ever to grace the Mac. After Dark 4.0 consists of 22 modules including such classics as the Flying Toasters, Bad Dog, Art Critic, Marbles(my personal favorite) and the Hula Girls. Using the nifty AD Control Panel, you can adjust various settings on every module(sound volume, frequency of changes, etc), as well as set up your own personal "randomizer" scheme that will allow you to run different modules from every AD set available. Past that you can assign "hot corners", mute AD all together and test the various modules before choosing to use them(some modules only run in 256 colors, those that do will display the "Starry Night" saver with a text message of "XXX saver will only run in 256 color mode". Using the demo feature will allow you to test each module out, and disable those that won't work in your current color scheme).
What's it all about?
Quite some time after Berkeley Systems abandoned the After Dark project, a talented programmer by the name of Daxeria replied to my request of partaking in an experiment to see whether or not PC AD modules would work on the Mac version. This led to his initial interest in the "AD for OS 9.04 and above" project. Tracing the problem back to a form of resource compression that was removed from later Mac OS releases, he was able to decode and replace the resources, thus making After Dark compatible with OS 9.04 and above! Many thanks go out to Dax for his hard work, and time spent on this project...you are a true Mac-man!
With Messages 4.0, you can customize what can be written.
This shot does not even remotely do the Swirling Magic module justice. With *every* pixel moving, it will blow your mind. Click on the pic for a nice desktop shot though...
Getting it to run - Whether you're running OS 9 and below, or 9.04 to 9.2.2, getting AD to run is a snap! For those of you going with the new AD for OS 9.2.2 Control Panel, head over to Mac Gardens and download the package. This comes with all of the folders, resources and the fixed control panel that you'll need to get AD running. Just follow the setup guide(I wrote it, btw) and you're good to go. The only issue you may have, will be with the control panel itself...closing it, often times, will crash it. Though it is annoying, there's no reason to worry: It still saves your settings and such, and will continue to run modules without a problem. I have noticed that if you "Close and Quit"(Apple Key + W) the control panel rather than just plain quitting(Apple Key + Q), it won't crash nearly as often.

Now, for those of you running a Mac under OS 9.0 and below: Just pop in the CD and click on Full Install. It's just that easy. From there run the AD 4.03 patch, then the AD 4.04 patch to ensure stable running(both of these patches were released to help AD 4.0 run on OS 9, and did a decent job of making that happen. Once Apple hit OS 9.04, even the patches couldn't help AD run consistently, then when 9.1 was released...AD 4.0 would just freeze the Mac anytime it was opened or activated).

Fish World: It's not quite SereneScreen's Marine Aquarium...but it still makes for a very relaxing bit of fish watching.
 Still Supported?
Not even remotely. Sierra, who owns the rights to Berkeley Systems' AD series has discontinued support for it completely. Thus, the entire After Dark 4.0 set of modules are now considered abadonware and can be downloaded, free of charge.
My rating: 99(out of 100) - You'd be hard pressed to find a more entertaining, or amusing collection of screensavers this side of OSX. The *only* blemish on this otherwise excellent screensaver app, are the crashes that will occur, at times, when closing the AD Control Panel.

Baraka's sleepy thoughts: I like to watch the fish....but I didn't appreciate the messages...meow.

Bad Dog, ripping up my desktop...
Evolution of the Toaster...
Fun Stuff on the CD:
There is a movie of After Dark Games as well as four demos of the various You don't know Jack games. 

CYb3r W@t can make for a very disturbing image when you're not expecting to look at your monitor and see someone looking back at you...not only that, but to also see a block of text telling you that his "download" is commencing!
 PC Dark? OSX Dark!?:
Though it'd be nice if we could all be on a Mac at work, it's just not realistic. One very hip thing about *every* AD screensaver pack(except the smaller, theme packs such as The Simpsons, Star Trek, etc) is that it has both versions on the disc! As long as you are running Windows Me and below, you can run AD at work...it's a nice way to stare blankly at the screen...and look like you're doing something productive. Also a company called EADS has created an collection of 45 modules for users of the PC version of After Dark. The package is called "No Longer Dark: Millennium Edition" and can be downloaded here. The modules consist of a mix of older AD modules(tweaked to work with AD 4.0), modules made by users and modules that were meant to be included in AD add-on packs, but never were. Unfortunately, these modules do not contain the resource compression to allow them to be used with Daxeria's AD for OS 9.2.2 Control Panel. Note: This site also has a very nice "History of After Dark" section...

For those of you with OSX who are feeling a bit left out, fear not. Infinisys, the company who made the Screen Studio application that was packaged with AD Games, has converted AD and a few of its modules for OSX usage! So far, the Flying Toasters, Fish, Mowing Man, Mandlebrot, Starry Night, Warp, Messages, Line Art, Shower, Circles and Fireworks are packed with the new AD X bundle. It sells for a very affordable $10, and makes for an excellent trip down memory lane for those OSX-only users.

Finally, a long while back, before the amazing Daxeria fixed the AD control panel to work with OS 9.2.2, I was reaching out to any Mac programmers that would listen...trying to get someone to take a look into why AD had stopped working with anything past OS 9. If you'd like to read my old info on AD not working on OS 9.0.4 and later, click on the following: Get SMAD!