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1. Anatoly Shashkin💾 (dosnostalgic@mastodon.social@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 26-Nov-2023 17:21:08 UTC Anatoly Shashkin💾

   SCRNSAVE.COM, the first ever (known) IBM PC screensaver.
   Published by John Socha (of Norton Commander) in the December 1983 issue of the "Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer" magazine. Turns the screen off after 3 minutes of inactivity.

   Interestingly, while ASM code listing is provided, along with it there's also a Basic program that generates a COM file from values with a simple error check for those without an assembler. Very nice.

   • Anatoly Shashkin💾 (dosnostalgic@mastodon.social@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 26-Nov-2023 17:29:02 UTC Anatoly Shashkin💾

     in reply to

     It is (was?) considered both the first ever screen saver, and the use of the term "screen saver". But apparently Apple Lisa had a screen saver mode before this (someone please confirm or deny this), and the actual words "screen saver" don't appear in Socha's article.

   • Stephen Kitt (skitt@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 26-Nov-2023 21:56:29 UTC Stephen Kitt

     in reply to

     @dosnostalgic 8-bit Ataris had “attract mode” which was supposed to reduce burn-in on TV screens: http://www.atarimania.com/faq-atari-400-800-xl-xe-what-is-attract-mode_74.html