Provides: Screensaver, temporary distraction from life

Format: Download or CD

Developer: Allume Systems, Inc.

Minimum Requirements: Mac OS X v10.3, PowerPC G4, 256MB RAM, 100MB available hard disk space, 800x600 monitor supporting "millions" of colors

Retail Price: $24.99

Availability: Out now

Version Reviewed: 1.0.1.7

Back in the days when the big debate for PC users was whether to get a CGA monitor shell out the big bucks for EGA and a whopping 16 colors, my college roommate Bill (Willy, for short) had a screensaver with four blocky fish that "swam" across the screen, flipped in an abrupt snap and swam the other direction. When we had parties, Bill would turn on the screensaver and place a canister of fish food on top of the monitor. I'm not sure anyone ever got it, but we sure got a kick out of it. Perhaps Bill's proudest moment came at the end of this snippet conversation with a girl he was desperately trying to impress:

Stacy: Why does your screensaver only have four fish?
Bill: It used to have five.
Stacy: What happened to the fifth?
Bill: Computer virus.

Ah, the wonderful humor of engineers! Bill's wit wasn't enough to win over Stacy. But that's for the best. In an even better joke, Bill had Stacy believing that his CD walkman was a CD rewinder. Probably not worth winning over.

I mention this because Bill, despite the fact that he's still a PC user (do they still have to worry about the CGA vs. EGA debate?), was one of the first to understand the entertainment value of fake fish. This entertainment value has been taken to the extreme by Allume with Aquazone Seven Seas Deluxe.

The fish now support more than 16 colors. They swim against a photo-realistic background instead of a solid black backdrop that was earily depressive...as if they were caught in an oil spill. And finally, the fish actually move pretty as fish actually do. No more snap flips or remaining horizontal as they move up and down. These fish actually face the direction their moving. It must've been a great day for evolution when real fish decided to start doing that.

Unfortunately, this doesn't all come together quite as well as it should, visually. The fish, in all their color and variety, look great. The backdrops look just as good, with detailed designs and impressive lighting effects. There's no doubt that Aquazone Deluxe is gorgeous to look at. The problem is that the backgrounds and the fish just seem slightly out of sync to me. They don't seem integrated, as in some movies where the characters are set against obvious CGI backdrops. The backdrop may look great, but you're well aware that it's a backdrop and that the actors aren't really there.

This isn't a big deal, though, because it diminishes neither the usefulness nor the general attractiveness of the program. I found that I didn't care if the fish popped out a bit too much because the fish provide the fun. There are 40 different types of fish from which to choose, including your typical goldfish (which I've learned don't have to actually be gold...who knew?), some of those neontetra fish I always thought looked pretty cool, angelfish, guppies, etc. They get a bit more exotic, too, as you can plce jellyfish, sea turtles, and even a shark in your tank. What types of fish you place in your tank will be up to you and the tank you choose, and how many fish you put in will be mostly up to you and your graphics card/processor speed.

I mentioned tanks. There are 20 from which to choose, and although I was pleasantly surprised at how diverse the selection was, I've only switched my backdrop twice; once at home because my wife didn't like my initial selection, and once at work because my coworker grew bored with seeing the same tank every time I left the office or fell asleep at my desk. This is because I mainly use Aquazone as a screensaver. I'm not sure modern computer monitors even need screesavers anymore, especially LCD monitors, but that's hardly the point. If people only used screensavers to protect their monitors, they'd just have them black out after ten minutes of inactivity. Since when has computing been about functionality and practical though?

Although Allume makes it quite simple to use Aquazone as your default screensaver (installing the program makes it available from within Mac OS X's Desktop & Screen Saver system preference panel), those with grander ambitions can launch the program manually, seeing it in either full screen or windowed mode. There's then plenty to play with. Aside from the fish and backdrops options, you can control the shadow settings, the light cycle and effects, and the background image. Yes, although the default is a gradation that matches the backdrop (and fades between colors), you can replace this with an image of your choosing, provided its in .bmp, .jpg or .tga format. I didn't play with this too much, although I can attest that it's kind of weird seeing fish swim across your face. I'd like to see this feature tie in with Apple's iPhoto, so you could directly access pictures from there, or even automatically cycle through them.

Allume states on their website that you can view the fish in wireframe, fully rendered or silhouette mode. I was able to achieve silhouette mode simply with my light settings, and it's actually pretty cool to see the blacked-out fish swimming against the gradient backgrounds. Although the bioluminescent jellyfish do remain colored when the other fish become silhouettes, they don't actually appear to glow. This was a missed opportunity for a really sweet effect. Likewise with wireframe mode, I guess, because I couldn't find any way to make it happen. No instruction, no program preference.

And finally, there are a few features that may be fun for some users, but I found kind of useless. You can feed the fish, which causes them to swim to the top of the tank. Okay. You can tap the glass, which causes a couple of them to stop what they're doing and do something else, but which mostly will just make you feel ignored. And you can go into Fish Cam Mode, which allows you to assign a camera to a single fish and follow that one around the tank. This only solidifies my belief that fish must be the most bored animals on the planet. And, unfortunately, Mac users can't spice up the life of their fish by purchasing any of the add-on packs (giving you addtional fish, submarines, UFOs and such) that are available to Windows users.

But those are just minor gripes. I have no major ones, although I did experience some odd behavior. On one of our iMacs, when Aquazone would kick on as a screensaver, the fish would barely move. The lighting effects moved as they should, and the fish would flap their tails and fins as if everything was working okay, but they wouldn't actually go anywhere; kind of the equivalent of running place. This only happened on one computer, however, and only when Aquazone was launched by the Mac OS Screensaver.

And so, although some of the features are throwaways, that doesn't mean Aquazone isn't worth the price. Even if you don't have fun playing with its options, you're bound to have fun looking at it. Turn it on to give your kids something fun to look at (and to teach them clownfish are not, in fact, called Nemo), turn it on at your next party, turn it on when you're away from your computer for a bit if you want to pretend your monitor actually, you know, needs it.

Just don't think you can impress girls with it, even if you use the virus joke.

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