This Arduino Defends Your Display with One of Nine Retro-Themed Animated Screensavers

Semi-pseudonymous maker "stevegallery," hereafter simply "Gallery," has turned an Arduino Duemilanove-compatible microcontroller board into a homage to vintage screensavers — capable of popping your choice of nine phosphor-protecting animations onto any composite-capable display device.

"This is a screensaver program I made, inspired by old screensavers from the 90s," Gallery explains of the project. "It uses [the] TVOUT [library] for graphics and sound. It is running on a 'Yourdino' clone of a Arduino Duemilanove. There is also a button for moving to the next screensaver."

The project's inspiration comes from the days of phosphor-based cathode-ray tube (CRT) displays, illuminated by an electron gun fired from behind. Should the user of said display be so bold as to leave it showing a single static image for too long, the image would "burn in" to the phosphor coating — giving it a permanent shadow. The solution: software which would either blank the screen or, for entertainment, put constantly-moving animations up to prevent damage.

Gallery's dedicated screensaver box boasts nine animations, all rendered in one-bit color with simple sound: rain, bubbles, a campfire, the classic "star field," clouds, bouncing balls, snow, and two arcade-game inspired options with Qix and Out Run. Simple sound provides an extra layer, while the user can choose between animations with the press of a button.

Gallery has released the source code for the project on GitHub under an unspecified open source license.