The Fascinating History of the Marine Aquarium Screensaver - An LGR Retrospective
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Date: 2025-01-27
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Comments and reviews: 20
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Hey Clint, I'm so glad you made this. I haven't seen this screensaver in years but just seeing that thumbnail took me back to a time with my dad, setting up this screensaver and spending time together. I lost him a few years ago and this video has really brought back some fantastic little memories. He was fascinated by this piece of software and it's amazing to see the history behind it and the man behind its incredible art.
I had it running on a Pentium 1 (Packard Bell home PC) with 16MB ram. The FPS was low, I couldn't add too many fish, but it was truly something else to look at back then! And still holds up today.
I understand you've been having a hard time of it of late and perhaps finding the motivation to make videos is tough. You've done a fantastic job here and it's great to see you pushing through and doing what you love. Thanks for the memories! All the best, from the UK.
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Hey Clint, I'm so glad you made this. I haven't seen this screensaver in years but just seeing that thumbnail took me back to a time with my dad, setting up this screensaver and spending time together. I lost him a few years ago and this video has really brought back some fantastic little memories. He was fascinated by this piece of software and it's amazing to see the history behind it and the man behind its incredible art.
I had it running on a Pentium 1 (Packard Bell home PC) with 16MB ram. The FPS was low, I couldn't add too many fish, but it was truly something else to look at back then! And still holds up today.
I understand you've been having a hard time of it of late and perhaps finding the motivation to make videos is tough. You've done a fantastic job here and it's great to see you pushing through and doing what you love. Thanks for the memories! All the best, from the UK.
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Junkboy888
Man those bring beck a lot of memories. In the late 80's I was in a PC club at RAF Mildenhall. we would brings our 8088 and 286's to the rec center and play games and talk about computer. I was given a floppy of a shark screen saver that had a label from wild tangent. You did not see the shark, you where the shark. In CS mode it looked like the shark would just swim around looking at the bottom on the ocean. You could all so hold down one Key and them use the arrow keys to move the shark your self. I thing that disk is still on a tape back up some were in my garage LOL but I long sense got rid of my Tape and Dat's hardware. I would love to see that screen saver again.
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Man those bring beck a lot of memories. In the late 80's I was in a PC club at RAF Mildenhall. we would brings our 8088 and 286's to the rec center and play games and talk about computer. I was given a floppy of a shark screen saver that had a label from wild tangent. You did not see the shark, you where the shark. In CS mode it looked like the shark would just swim around looking at the bottom on the ocean. You could all so hold down one Key and them use the arrow keys to move the shark your self. I thing that disk is still on a tape back up some were in my garage LOL but I long sense got rid of my Tape and Dat's hardware. I would love to see that screen saver again.
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xriz00
I worked on this project at Prolific Publishing, as, wait for it. the beta tester! I'm great at breaking thing and the boss tasked me to make the alpha crash before they realsed it. The actule programing is very solid but I did manage to find fault and get it to crash the system consitantly.
When loading the screen saver from the CD, slam the keyboard keys during the load up and voila, system lock up. The programers were flabergasted; why would anybody just start typing into the keyboard during loadup. boss just told them to fix it. It was a keyboard stack overflow issue, the programer just diabled keyboard input as soon as the load up stared, fixed in about 15 minutes.
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I worked on this project at Prolific Publishing, as, wait for it. the beta tester! I'm great at breaking thing and the boss tasked me to make the alpha crash before they realsed it. The actule programing is very solid but I did manage to find fault and get it to crash the system consitantly.
When loading the screen saver from the CD, slam the keyboard keys during the load up and voila, system lock up. The programers were flabergasted; why would anybody just start typing into the keyboard during loadup. boss just told them to fix it. It was a keyboard stack overflow issue, the programer just diabled keyboard input as soon as the load up stared, fixed in about 15 minutes.
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brennangianni2479
Hey Clint! I wanted to let you know that I was so inspired by this, that the nostalgia hit so hard, that I went and bought an aquarium screensaver. Sadly I don't think it was from the original developer, but it's a good variation, and I am happy with it thus far. Thanks for all you do! One day I'll follow in your foot steps, and find my first PC again: a HP Pavillion 8000 series (I can't recall exactly which) that I upgraded with a Riva TNT 2 Ultra 32MB graphics card back in the day. I should have kept it. I miss that rig. Anyway, thanks for the videos! Looking forward to the next one!
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Hey Clint! I wanted to let you know that I was so inspired by this, that the nostalgia hit so hard, that I went and bought an aquarium screensaver. Sadly I don't think it was from the original developer, but it's a good variation, and I am happy with it thus far. Thanks for all you do! One day I'll follow in your foot steps, and find my first PC again: a HP Pavillion 8000 series (I can't recall exactly which) that I upgraded with a Riva TNT 2 Ultra 32MB graphics card back in the day. I should have kept it. I miss that rig. Anyway, thanks for the videos! Looking forward to the next one!
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davidrumming4734
Nice to know who was responsible for all those old school very cool graphics
When is a screen saver not a screen saver or save any energy
I remember the Dogs and later Cats screensavers. i think mid 90s Dogs needed 4mb of ram and the later Cats version needed a whopping 8mb of ram set aside for it to run. This is when Mac (power Mac) and PC were shipping with 8mb ramso alongside Win95 or Mac OS 7. 5, you were going to run into problems w/out an upgrade.
And stuff like this would thrash the cpu as well as keeping the display on.
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Nice to know who was responsible for all those old school very cool graphics
When is a screen saver not a screen saver or save any energy
I remember the Dogs and later Cats screensavers. i think mid 90s Dogs needed 4mb of ram and the later Cats version needed a whopping 8mb of ram set aside for it to run. This is when Mac (power Mac) and PC were shipping with 8mb ramso alongside Win95 or Mac OS 7. 5, you were going to run into problems w/out an upgrade.
And stuff like this would thrash the cpu as well as keeping the display on.
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BryceLynch838
I remember buying it at Circuit City as a kid and being super excited to get it home and test it.
It is 1, 000 times better but I'm still super-nostalgic for the original.
I also had a couple of different ones. One was just a Koi Pond that played relaxing music. The other one I had was just like the Serene Scene version but it was too graphics-intensive for any PC I had and it ran too slowly. That one showed a wider area and you could add your own photos to the background. I had a picture of my pet Budgie I had at the time.
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I remember buying it at Circuit City as a kid and being super excited to get it home and test it.
It is 1, 000 times better but I'm still super-nostalgic for the original.
I also had a couple of different ones. One was just a Koi Pond that played relaxing music. The other one I had was just like the Serene Scene version but it was too graphics-intensive for any PC I had and it ran too slowly. That one showed a wider area and you could add your own photos to the background. I had a picture of my pet Budgie I had at the time.
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shaikhulud1989
Amiga was never a thing in my part of Eastern Europe so I've totally missed works by Jim Sachs and have zero nostalgic feelings for them.
Your video opened my eyes, they are absolutley stunning even in 2025. Maybe even more stunning today. Proves that old pixel art was way-way more brilliant than the better part of modern stylization in indie games.
Defender of the Crown is just proper artwork. My god. That's why I love LGR, even in your late 30's you can discover something new through Clint's research and passion.
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Amiga was never a thing in my part of Eastern Europe so I've totally missed works by Jim Sachs and have zero nostalgic feelings for them.
Your video opened my eyes, they are absolutley stunning even in 2025. Maybe even more stunning today. Proves that old pixel art was way-way more brilliant than the better part of modern stylization in indie games.
Defender of the Crown is just proper artwork. My god. That's why I love LGR, even in your late 30's you can discover something new through Clint's research and passion.
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T_Burd_75
I remember having my first computer, an HP Pavilion that I bought from Walmart in 2002. It had onboard graphics and the Celeron 1. 3 GHz CPU. Someone gave me Plus! for XP and I tried to install it. I didn't have the required minimum 16 MB video memory to run it, so I ended up buying a PCI video card for cheap, a GeForce 2 MX 200 32MB video card. I was excited to get it working! Then I ended up playing a lot of Hunting Unlimited 3 on it.
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I remember having my first computer, an HP Pavilion that I bought from Walmart in 2002. It had onboard graphics and the Celeron 1. 3 GHz CPU. Someone gave me Plus! for XP and I tried to install it. I didn't have the required minimum 16 MB video memory to run it, so I ended up buying a PCI video card for cheap, a GeForce 2 MX 200 32MB video card. I was excited to get it working! Then I ended up playing a lot of Hunting Unlimited 3 on it.
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Tigrou7777
I wonder how those wonderful water caustics were done in the first version, especially at a time when graphics cards didn't yet have shaders.
Either it was precalculated (several textures already saved/prerendered and sent to the GPU with each frame, or it's because multiple textures were applied on the top of the diffuse one, with UVs modified in real time (something similar to the reflection on the cars in Gran Turismo on PS1.
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I wonder how those wonderful water caustics were done in the first version, especially at a time when graphics cards didn't yet have shaders.
Either it was precalculated (several textures already saved/prerendered and sent to the GPU with each frame, or it's because multiple textures were applied on the top of the diffuse one, with UVs modified in real time (something similar to the reflection on the cars in Gran Turismo on PS1.
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Agg1E91
Wow! Talk about being hit square in the nostalgia feels!
One of those occasional times I see see or hear something and think, Oh yeaaahhh! THAT thing!
Seeing something that used to be everywhere, but it had been years, or even decades, since you had even thought about it, much less seen it in action.
Wow, again! It's STILL an actively supported thing. Crazy!
Now I gotta go see if zombocom is still around!
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Wow! Talk about being hit square in the nostalgia feels!
One of those occasional times I see see or hear something and think, Oh yeaaahhh! THAT thing!
Seeing something that used to be everywhere, but it had been years, or even decades, since you had even thought about it, much less seen it in action.
Wow, again! It's STILL an actively supported thing. Crazy!
Now I gotta go see if zombocom is still around!
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brently1973
I love this screen saver and have had it forever and upgraded it over the years! I have it on a double monitor setup today! Its awesome! Makes me wish I had a real tropical salt water aquarium! Although I have been told that they are a lot of work. Lol
Another cool screen saver you could do is Star message. The night sky screen saver with the moon in real time. In its proper phase. :-)
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I love this screen saver and have had it forever and upgraded it over the years! I have it on a double monitor setup today! Its awesome! Makes me wish I had a real tropical salt water aquarium! Although I have been told that they are a lot of work. Lol
Another cool screen saver you could do is Star message. The night sky screen saver with the moon in real time. In its proper phase. :-)
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Ichinin
Reminds me, we had a big aquarium at school. Summer came up and we left, nobody seemed to think about the fish, when we came back there was just one big fish left in the tank. Whoops, i guess we forget to figure out how to feed them during the summer. Anyway, my favourite screensaver of choice wasn't fish, it was Johnny Castaway - somewhat water related.
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Reminds me, we had a big aquarium at school. Summer came up and we left, nobody seemed to think about the fish, when we came back there was just one big fish left in the tank. Whoops, i guess we forget to figure out how to feed them during the summer. Anyway, my favourite screensaver of choice wasn't fish, it was Johnny Castaway - somewhat water related.
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MetsterAnn
I had it when young too, through a few versions; I always uograded. I remember the starfish being in a different spot from time to time. Was always frustrated that I was limited to a number of on screen fish and I spent a long time choosing which ones I wanted!
Interesting it’s still around! Next thing will be flying toasted making a comeback.
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I had it when young too, through a few versions; I always uograded. I remember the starfish being in a different spot from time to time. Was always frustrated that I was limited to a number of on screen fish and I spent a long time choosing which ones I wanted!
Interesting it’s still around! Next thing will be flying toasted making a comeback.
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TheAmazingJG1
That's so cool that my interests converged with this topic. Jim Sachs is an artist who worked on several Amiga games (my favourite computer platform. He did the artwork for Defender of the Crown, amongst other artworks. Very cool art and showed what the Amiga can do. So interesting he produced the original version of the Aquarium screensaver.
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That's so cool that my interests converged with this topic. Jim Sachs is an artist who worked on several Amiga games (my favourite computer platform. He did the artwork for Defender of the Crown, amongst other artworks. Very cool art and showed what the Amiga can do. So interesting he produced the original version of the Aquarium screensaver.
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ComposerKuandohan
I just want to mention, despite making your videos in a completely different location and having such a low amount of stuff compared to before, you have managed to make a set up that still feels like an LGR video. I'm sure this was by no means easy, but if I didn't know about the hurricane, I wouldn't have known.
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I just want to mention, despite making your videos in a completely different location and having such a low amount of stuff compared to before, you have managed to make a set up that still feels like an LGR video. I'm sure this was by no means easy, but if I didn't know about the hurricane, I wouldn't have known.
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Yozora_Jan
You reawoke a part of my childhood that I vividly remembered this entire time but could never find. Mostly cause I didn't try but y'know, now that I have it again I'm way happy. Nothing like a nice summer night in the family living room staring at the CRT Monitor as the fish go left to right in glorious 20 FPS.
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You reawoke a part of my childhood that I vividly remembered this entire time but could never find. Mostly cause I didn't try but y'know, now that I have it again I'm way happy. Nothing like a nice summer night in the family living room staring at the CRT Monitor as the fish go left to right in glorious 20 FPS.
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LeChave
Out of curiosity I explored my hisense TV's screensaver settings, and there it was. I don't watch broadcast television (because it's all poop) so I just assumed the default screensaver was hard encoded when it popped up. Yes I'm old, and it just never crossed my mind before to investigate it further. Cheers LGR!
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Out of curiosity I explored my hisense TV's screensaver settings, and there it was. I don't watch broadcast television (because it's all poop) so I just assumed the default screensaver was hard encoded when it popped up. Yes I'm old, and it just never crossed my mind before to investigate it further. Cheers LGR!
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lunsj
Leave it to Clint to make a compelling 16 and a 1/2 minute video on a friggin' screensaver. I was sure he'd done Johnny Castaway but that was someone else apparently (maybe Nostalgian Nerd. So Clint. Johnny Castaway next Along with those and your vid on After Dark it's the makings of a whole series: D
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Leave it to Clint to make a compelling 16 and a 1/2 minute video on a friggin' screensaver. I was sure he'd done Johnny Castaway but that was someone else apparently (maybe Nostalgian Nerd. So Clint. Johnny Castaway next Along with those and your vid on After Dark it's the makings of a whole series: D
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Kei_0001
It looks nice, but I have never had much use for screensavers. I would just turn off my monitor if I knew that I would be more than 5 minutes away from the computer. Nowadays, I just set my computers to suspend/hibernate in 10 minutes.
Also, the 3D Maze screensaver was cooler.
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It looks nice, but I have never had much use for screensavers. I would just turn off my monitor if I knew that I would be more than 5 minutes away from the computer. Nowadays, I just set my computers to suspend/hibernate in 10 minutes.
Also, the 3D Maze screensaver was cooler.
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Homemade-Blurb
I had a beautiful Space ScreenSaver in my Pentium 3 Winxp, unfortunately due to reinstallation of Windows it was lost and i never found it again. It was really cool. Had twinkling starry night with moon, comets, satellites and aeroplanes moving with beaming lights.
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I had a beautiful Space ScreenSaver in my Pentium 3 Winxp, unfortunately due to reinstallation of Windows it was lost and i never found it again. It was really cool. Had twinkling starry night with moon, comets, satellites and aeroplanes moving with beaming lights.
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