Machinehead Cycling Screen Saver

At last, by popular demand the Machinehead Cycling Screen Saver is now available for download (fanfare of trumpets!).

The screen saver re-uses the wheel drawing code from the spoke length calculators 'Spoke Length Explorer' to produce a funky psychedelic colour cycling bicycle wheel display comprising various combinations of different numbers of spokes with ridiculous numbers of spoke crossings. I call this the wheel builders nightmare *grin*, but its kind of hypnotic. You can vary the size of the 'bike wheel' or hide it altogether.

In addition the screen saver features 'flying bicycles' (like the one above) that bounce around the screen, or 'flying machineheads (also like the one above - for those who have called me a headbanger!).

Flying Bicycles
Flying Machinehead's

Like all screen savers it doesn't do anything very useful except perhaps prolong the life of your computer monitor... So have it as a freebee and enjoy ;-)

Download The Screen Saver

You can download an install set from here:
http://www.machinehead-software.co.uk/zips/32bit/install/screen_saver1_install.zip (1.734Mb)

After running the setup program you can set up your system to use it in the usual way. I.e. Right click the windows desktop, select properties, select screen savers then choose 'Machinehead Screen Saver1' etc (yawn). If you don't like it its pretty easy to get rid of because the setup program puts a remove option into your windows menu.

Upgrade To Version 1.2.0

Download the upgraded executable (.scr) from here:
http://www.machinehead-software.co.uk/zips/32bit/upgrade/screen_saver_scr_1_2_0.zip (46KB)
Then simply unzip and copy into your windows directory (along with all the other ?????.scr files), overwriting the one installed by the contents of screen_saver1_install.zip.

No longer requires two clicks to open Settings/Preview modes from display properties window.
Animation improved slightly. Spokes now colour cycle in addition to wheels background.
More flying bicycle or machinehead sprites. More spokes more spoke crossings, more variation.
Screen saver passwords now implemented for Win 95/98/ME, in windows standard manner. (Should be just the same under NT/2K/XP because the operating system takes care of this anyhow).

System Requirements

Pentium class computer running Windows 98 or later (faster the better - Fly's on my AMD 1.8GHZ!!)
Not suitable for 16 bit operating systems such as Windows 3.1x

NOTE:- (Windows 95 only): Wheel might not appear in circular area as shown on older win95 machines. This is either because (contrary to claims in the MSDN) the CreateEllipticRgn() API call is unsupported in gdi32.dll (v4.00.950), or the setWindowRgn() in User32.dll (v4.00.950), or both are unsupported. Supplying later versions of the DLL's will not help. These are Windows core components, and not backwardly compatable. I tried replacing with the versions that ship with ME, the result was Windows 95 refusing to start even in safe mode!
Consequently I don't reccomend this Screen saver for anything older than '98, although it will still work under '95 it will look more like this than this. Also under '95 the screen savers preview area shows through any windows that you might drag over the 'display properties' window. Most people close 'display properties' as soon as they have finished with it - so the problem doesn't happen in the first place. But if this should happen to you the effect is not permanent and the unwanted graphic will dissapear if you reduce the application to an icon then restore it to normal size, or simply drag another applications window over it.

NOTE2:- Currently only tested under '95, ME, and XP, but should also work fine under 98, NT4 and 2000. Please let me know if you get any problems with the screen saver under these operating systems.

Screen Saver Settings | Flying Bicycles | Flying Machinehead's

Plug For Bespoke Work

For a suitable fee I can produce custom versions with YOUR company logo etc..