As of right now (5 September 2009), the toastycode screensavers have not yet been updated to work with Mac OS X 10.6. I’m working on new releases that will definitely be compatible with 10.5 and 10.6 (and, with any luck, 10.4); they should appear at toastycode.com in the next few days.

Thanks for your patience.

New releases: TapeDeck and Pyrothèque

TapeDeck, my exciting joint project with Chris Liscio of SuperMegaUltraGroovy, has made it all the way up to version 1.0.3 without so much as a mention over here on toastup!. The latest release fixes a few more quirks that we’ve discovered in the weeks since TapeDeck’s big introduction last month.

More recently, Pyrothèque got a long-overdue update. Version 1.1.1 incorporates almost a year’s worth of minor bug fixes, including an adjustment to the rocket launcher to better position explosions on monitors of odd sizes and proportions. (That means the fireworks ought to show up properly now, Mister Thirty Inch Cinema Display.)

Web site fixes

One of Google’s robot army helpfully informed me last month that spammers had exploited a hole in the version of WordPress used here at toastup!—resulting in lots of invisible nasty spam keywords that got the blog evicted from Google’s index. The hole’s now been patched, so (hopefully) we’ll re-appear in your search results in the near future. I’ve also gone through and fixed up earlier blog posts that were mangled by the update, so you should be able to see images again in the popular LCD Scrub article, among others.

And, finally—

Expect updates to be light for several months, as we’re expecting a rather large new “version” here at toastycode HQ in the next few weeks. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch (using the email link below, or in your toastycode software product) if you have questions or find any bugs—but also please understand if my replies are somewhat in arrears.

We can only hope he was referring to Pyrothèque.

It’s now three hundred sixty-four days later, which means fireworks time is again upon us again here in the States. To celebrate, Pyrothèque has gotten a bump up to version 1.1. Don’t let the tiny numerical increment fool you, though: the new version is chockablock with new stuff.

New classic-mode features

• In case you found the verisimilitude of the classic mode lacking in some way, you can now simulate using one of four classic Mac models: Plus, SE/30, IIci, or IIfx. For a true Pyro! experience, crank it down to the 8MHz Plus and watch the pixels crawl by, or pretend you’re rocking that IIfx you drooled over in Macworld. Registered users can configure the “emulation level” in the redesigned classic mode preferences.

New modern-mode features

• The modern mode preferences have gotten a facelift as well, including a selector that lets you choose which types of explosions you’d like to see. (There are four charge types…plus a highly realistic dud.)



• Also configurable: the various visual effects applied to the rockets while in flight. Don’t like the rocket’s red glare? Turn it off.
• Finally, a new “combo” option allows multiple explosions to erupt from the same shell (for dramatic results).

Finally, there’s a new splash screen (another tribute to the original) that’s been carefully designed to be true to both modern and classic modes.

All this stuff, and still just $4 for the full version (which I understand is now less than a grandé espresso drink at some high-profile coffee retailers). As promised, registered users of 1.0 will get all these new features for free.

Enjoy your 4th of July (whether it’s a holiday where you are or just another Wednesday) and remember: pixellated fireworks are safer than real ones.