Posted 2026-03-21 | Back to blog index
And it's time for my fourth and final MARCHintosh project for 2026, TalkCrawler AD. It's an After Dark Module for TalkCrawler that will let you watch GlobalTalk leisurely scroll past in one of two different styles
There is a standalone version as well if you don't want to install After Dark
Note you will need to run a re-scan in TalkCrawler Lite 1.4 (just released) before it can show anything
Available on landisk/Blackbird on BaroNet. Video in first reply.
Here's a short video demo!
Tidbits that didn't fit in the first post:
The module also runs in "DarkSide of the Mac" if you want a less crashy screensaver host.
I did not have time to optimize my graphics code at all, so it will be very sluggish on 68k Macs - the reduced screen size options are for them. It also helps reducing your screen to 256 colors.
TalkCrawler 1.4 was released as a companion to generate the data for the screensaver to work.
This version adds device type detection - Macs are no longer shown as just generic Classic Mac icons but if data is available will show as the right Mac model.
The first time you load up an old scan a re-detection process is run and make take longer than usual, but if you save and re-open it doesn't happen again.
Creating an After Dark module of my own is a childhood dream come true. Me and my friends spent hours upon hours going through After Dark screensavers watching them and waiting for the rare events. My favorite was probably Bad Dog.
Unfortunately time is at a premium and I had a hard limit of 3 days to make this from start to finish, including adding device detection to TCL, collecting icons, mappings etc.
Really wish I could have had time to add rare Easter eggs! So many ideas, so little time…
Today was the final day and it was all spent battling various things
First, converting the After Dark SDK project from a <1996 version of CodeWarrior to 1997. Then figuring out the limitations of CODE resources by trial and error; those “far” compiler checkboxes matter?
The last error I still don't understand. If I call GetResource on the same resource more than once, my memory gets corrupted. No idea why. It shouldn't, I think? I'm Detaching it, and not even releasing it… solution was globals
As soon as I posted this I went for a long walk to clear my head. But before I left I had one last crash on my G4 so I hit the reset switch before walking out.
After rebooting like 3 hours ago it seems the screensaver activated and has been looping since without crashing. The most successful test so far haha
Just remembered, one more thing I struggled with was just hiding the menu bar. The Apple Dev CDs Snippets folder had a sample of how to hide the menu bar which works fine on MacOS 9 but I could never get it working with on System 7. Which is more contemporary of when the snippet was written. No idea what is going on there. For the longest time I was debugging my own code because surely it wasn't the Apple Sample Code Snippet that was at fault?? Literally wasted hours.
I'm gonna drop a little behind-the-scenes screenshot here. This was literally the very first build.
Drawing is hard, ok!
