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Quartz composer screensaver for Mac OS 10.4 Tiger features snowflake images by Wilson Bentley - The Snowflake Man. Once it’s installed in the Library/Screensavers, you can customize it to suit your tastes by modifying the options in System Preferences.
"Under the microscope, I found that snowflakes were miracles of beauty; and it seemed a shame that this beauty should not be seen and appreciated by others. Every crystal was a masterpiece of design and no one design was ever repeated., When a snowflake melted, that design was forever lost. Just that much beauty was gone, without leaving any record behind."
Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley 1925
For more on Wilson Bentley see:
http://www.snowflakebentley.com/
For more information, visit:
http://www.alittlebitofnothingleft.net/snowfall/
A Very 3D Christmas Screen Saver 1.1
Realtime 3D display featuring Santa, his Reindeer, and a hard working Elf. They fly through the air throwing presents down chimneys and randomly stop at houses while Santa climbs down the chimney. Over 50 Christmas tunes as background music.Countdown timer to Christmas day. Heaps of other options to customize it to your liking.
Get into the Christmas spirit with this jolly 3D screensaver which features Santa delivering presents in his sleigh. However, Santa is a slacker, so as the reindeer pull his fat butt thru the sky, his friendly elf sidekick does all the hard work! With heaps of configuration options including a countdown to Christmas day, and over 50 Christmas carols as background music that will really set your teeth on edge, this is fun for the whole family!
Features:
• 3D Cartoonish characters, and lots of different camera angles so you never quite see the same thing twice.
• A real-time 3D, randomly generated town with houses, trees, snowmen and smoking chimneys for Santa to climb down.
• Over 50 Christmas tunes as background music. Select the one you like, or have random tunes playing, or turn them off altogether.
• Countdown to Christmas day so you know how long you have to wait for your presents!
• Lots of options so you can select how intense the snow storm is, how many reindeer are pulling the sleigh, and many more options.
The following configuration options are available. (It is recommended that you play with the options to find what runs best on your Mac and what you think looks best):
Play Selected Background Music: Turn this on if you want to have Christmas carols playing in the background, then select which music you want from the drop down box on the right. You can also select to have the screen saver play the tunes at random. There are over 50 Christmas tunes to choose from or have playing at random!
Snow Density: Lets you decide how snowy it is. Turning this down may speed things up on slower machines.
Star Density: Sets how many stars are in the sky. Turning this down may speed things up on slower machines.
House Density: Sets how far apart the houses are that go past as Santa flies over. Lower house density may speed things up on slower machines.
Number of Reindeer: Here you can set how many reindeers are pulling Santa's sleigh tonight. Less reindeer can speed things up on slower machines.
Display Countdown To Christmas: This will display a countdown to Christmas day, so you know how long til Santa arrives!
Display Smoking Chimneys: With this turned on smoke will rise from some of the house's chimneys. Turning this off may speed things up on slower machines.
Display Trees: Sets if you want trees to be shown or not. Turning this off can speed things up on slower machines.
Display Sparkle Trails: Turns sparkles coming off the sleigh and reindeers hooves on and off.
New in version 1.1:
Ack! Is it that time of year already?? Where you have to elbow old ladies to get near the checkout at the local gift emporium??
Well, no not quite. As I write this it's still October, but the shops around here have had their Christmas stuff for sale for about 6 months now so Christmas must actually be getting a little closer.
I was watching the previous version of this screen saver, and altho I still love to watch it, I thought that maybe the graphics could do with a polish. It looked great when I first made it way back when, but not quite as good now. So before I started porting it to work on the Mac, I decided to update the graphics. I've remade Santa, the Elf, the Sleigh and all the houses have been replaced. I basically left the Reindeer alone because I thought they looked pretty cool already. So now I think the whole thing looks a lot niftier than before, but the general feel is the same, which I liked.
So for those of you unfamiliar with it, this screen saver was first released back in (I think from memory) the year 2000. Back then, the graphics were crap, altho at the time I liked it. Then I remade it a few years ago (2002?) from scratch and the whole thing was so much better. So this is the 3rd time I've done a major sort of update, an it's the first time it's been available under both Windows and Mac OS X so even more people can enjoy the Christmas spirit!
The elf still does all the work throwing the presents down the chimneys. He really needs to join a union. And there's no over 50 Christmas tunes as background music. In general, this is one of my favourite, so I hope you all get a kick out of it.
• Updated to Universal Binary.
• Dual monitor bugs fixed.
• More bug fixes and tweaks.
As always, if you spot any bugs let me know.
Merry Christmas and enjoy!
System requirements:
MAC OS X 10.3 or higher.
System Support:
PPC/Intel
$7.50 :Shareware
For more information, visit:
http://uselesscreations.com/mac/christmas/
3D Christmas Village Screen Saver 1.0
High atop a mountain
Where the air is crisp and clean
Sits a tiny village
That few have ever seen.
Discover for yourself
The scenery and the sound
Of this charming village
Where Christmas can be found
Features include:
• Full 3D environment
• Camera speed controls
• Camera cut times
• Options to control snow and fog
• Texture quality selection and more...
Order today and...
• Never see the nag screen again
• Get the full version in just minutes
• You'll receive FREE tech support
• Get FREE updates for life!
System requirements:
Mac OS X 10.3
8Mb Hard Drive Space
256MB Ram
G4 800MHz or better. G5 recommended.
$9.95 :Shareware
For more information, visit:
http://www.scrnz.com/screensavers/christmasVillage.htm
Frosted Screensaver 2.2 Frozen Frosted Frolics For Family
Brought to life by the spirit of Christmas, Frosted spreads holiday cheer to all. His frequent visitors include Rudy the Reindeer, Santa, and best of all, you.
His snowy world is filled with fun for you to discover when you register.
Features:
• Beautiful snow scene.
• Calming holiday sound effects.
• 3D Digital Snowman that walks, and talks.
• Frosted tells you how many days until Christmas.
• Speech Synthesis, (Mac OS 10.3 or greater).
• Holiday props.
You may use Frosted for free, but if you register for $5.00, you get these bonus features:
• Interactive Mode allows you to click on items within the scene, for animated surprises.
• Throw snowballs at Frosted.
• Frosted dances to a cheerful tune.
• Enter your name, and Frosted will speak to you personally.
• Holographic Mode.
Frosted Preferences:
Mute Sound: Choose to silence the sound effects.
Quiet Frosted: For those of you who don't want to hear Frosted's blathering.
Quiet Santa: For those of you who don't want to hear Santa's ho ho ho-ing.
Interactive Mode: (Registered Mode Only). After switching this on, you can explore the interactive environment of this magical place by clicking on objects on your screen. Generally, clicking on the screen will throw snowballs. You can toss snow at Frosted until he passes out if you want... it's a good way to keep him quiet.
Click on the tree on the bottom left side of the screen to make Frosted dance. Clicking on the Candy Cane on the bottom right will make Frosted tell you how many days until Christmas. Revive the unconscious Frosted, or get him to do something more interesting, by clicking on the shovel and bucket.
New in this version:
Recompiled as Universal Binary for Intel compatibility. Added support for the Mighty Mouse. Enhanced background art. Santa and Frosted have more to say. Removed "Holographic Mode", option. Fixed bug causing screen artifacts. Minor performance tweaks.
System requirements:
• Mac OS X 10.3.9 or higher
You may use Frosted for free, but if you register for $5.00, you get these BONUS features:
• Interactive Mode allows you to click on items within the scene, for animated surprises!
• Throw snowballs at Frosted.
• Frosted dances to a cheerful tune!
• Enter your name, and Frosted will speak to you personall
For more information, visit:
http://www.skyrocketsoftware.com/Frosted/index.html
White Christmas Special 1.0
WHITE is a new screensaver that reminds softness, luminosity and purity of snow. Don't look further, WHITE is the screensaver that will decorate your computer during its long winter evenings. WHITE is easy to install, doesn't require any resource and it's free..
System requirements:
Mac OS X 10.3 or later.
Free
For more information, visit:
http://www.jimmysabater.com/Desktops/Downloads/index.htm
A Crisp Christmas Screensaver 2
Crisp Christmas is a classic christmas screen saver for Mac OS X users. Awarded Cream of the Software Crop by Downlaod.com and the #1 saver download from Apple.com for 6 weeks in 2004, this is a newer version for 2005 with much much more classic christmas content.
From the designer (responding to the some email requests) These images and animations are not meant to be primarily religious or to offend other sensibilities (than Christianity) who also celebrate Christmas - it's based simply on my memories of Christmas as a kid - purely image based considering I grew up in Australia and Christmas was all high summer and surf; I suggest the work be taken in the spirit it was created. Thanks.
Free trial download (5.3MB zipped). Fully functional for 4 days. Installation instructions included in the ReadMe file.
BUY for US $7 (use BUY buttons below left) and get 46 classic xmas icons for free (new window opens).
ANIMATION & EFFECTS: by Jeremy Blomley and Ron Tocknell.
MUSIC: Choir of the English Concert performing 'In Excelsis' by Antonio Vivaldi.
Choir website: http://www.englishconcert.co.uk
SUITABLE screen sizes from standard 1028 to 1440 to powerbook widescreen 1440 x 900. Will work on larger screens though they've not been tested for placement on such (i.e. extraneous elements may or may not occur).
New in version 2:
• Many more scenes have been added.
• Purchase gets 46 free classic xmas icons, many of which appear in the saver.
System requirements:
Mac OS X 10.2 or later, 256 MB RAM.
$7: Demoware
For more information, visit:
http://www.macscreen.com/mac-screensavers/crisp-christmas.html
Snow Globe v1.0.2
We could all use a little more holiday cheer, and Snow Globe helps you out. Shake it up to make it snow on the Christmas tree.
Just register for $2 amd then you'll have the ability to run it above all other applications, create a permanent blizzard (no more shaking!) or even change the background image to run it year round.
And that's all there is to it. Go have fun.
System requirements:
Snow Globe requires any Macintosh running OS X 10.2.x or higher.
For more information, visit:
http://www.bassetsoftware.com/osx/snowglobe/
Santa Menu 1.0.0 Menubar Santa
Hey, it's the holidays. Everybody could use a little bit of Christmas cheer. Santa Menu does that. He sits in your menu, and ho ho hos at you from time to time.
System requirements:
• Mac OS X 10.2.x or higher
Santa Menu is freeware
For more information, visit:
http://www.bassetsoftware.com/osx/santamenu/
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Charles W. Moore
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