Star Wars Screen Entertainment was a product of LucasArts Entertainment Company and Presage Software Development, Inc.,[1] released in June 1994.[2] It was a 3.5″ diskette, (and later as a CD-ROM as part of the The LucasArts Archives Vol. I collection), including different A New Hope–themed screen savers. It was was available for Windows operating system 3.1 or higher, as well as for Macintosh system 7.0 and above.[1]
Screen Entertainment does not include any interactive game. However, the user can customize some aspects of the screen savers (number of stars, speed, etc.). The icon to execute the program was R2-D2, which was also used in the Jawas option.
Early promotional materials referred to the software as the Star Wars Screen Saver.[1]
Screen savers[]
- Blueprints: Blueprints of ships including details, plus indications of the location of each of its parts (e.g., hyperdrive in the Millennium Falcon).
- Cantina: A static photo of the Mos Eisley Cantina, then the system chooses one of the characters in the cantina and explains his or her story.
- Character biographies: Profiles focusing on the lead characters of A New Hope. Most of the details center on that film's plot.
- Darth Vader: The message "The Dark Lord of the Sith approaches" followed by a static close-up of Darth Vader, adding voice and/or breathing.
- Death Star Trench: An animation of the trench, at high speed. Users can choose if they want only an X-wing, only a TIE fighter, or both (in this case, the X-wing will be chasing the TIE).
- Hyperspace: A semi-static picture of the Millennium Falcon cockpit, with moving stars outside. Suddenly, Han Solo moves his arm and the stars become lines as if entering the hyperspace. After a while, Han moves again and the lines become stars. Chewbacca periodically howls.
- Imperial Clock: The "clock" used by Grand Moff Tarkin while reaching Yavin 4, adding a real 24- or 12-hour digital clock.
- Jawas: Small Jawas, droids, banthas, womp rats and Tusken Raiders move across the screen. The Jawas sometimes "open" the screen to see if there's anything of value under it. Tusken Raiders scare the Jawas, who stop whatever they were doing and run away.
- Lightsaber Duel: Similar to Jawas, it features small Darth Vader attacking small Obi-Wan Kenobi.
- Poster Art: It features different posters from A New Hope.
- Rebel Clock: Similar to Imperial clock, with Dodonna's display of the Battle of Yavin. It is analog. The Death Star marks minutes and Yavin 4 marks hours. The Death Star might be over Yavin.
- Scrolling Text: Recreates the film's opening crawl. User can edit the crawl and write his or her own text. It also included a hidden message from George Lucas about his plans to release the prequel trilogy.
- Space Battles: As seen from some window in a cruiser, small dots move against each other and shoot beams. Mon Calamari cruisers, Nebulon-B frigates and Star Destroyers drift slowly across the screen while fighters occasionally fly by.
- Storyboards: Real storyboards from A New Hope, alongside the script.
Continuity[]
Some of the information in the biographies became outdated after the release of the 1997 re-release and the prequels. It identifies Owen Lars as Obi-Wan Kenobi's brother (which originated in the Return of the Jedi novelization and has since been contradicted), and is the only source listing Beru Lars' maiden name as Beru Weth (later revealed to be Beru Whitesun). It also includes alternate names for some Mos Eisley Cantina patrons, many later revealed to be aliases in other sources.
The software's biography of Darth Vader includes details of his past that are very similar to the plot of the prequels, still years away. This is also the original source of Grand Moff Tarkin's first name, Wilhuff, which has since become canon.
In the Jawas and Lightsaber Duel options, the images are from the video game Super Star Wars.
Appearances[]
Characters | Organisms | Droid models | Events | Locations |
Organizations and titles | Sentient species | Vehicles and vessels | Weapons and technology | Miscellanea |
Characters
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|
Organisms
Droid models
Events
Locations
|
Organizations and titles
Sentient species
|
Vehicles and vessels
|
|
Weapons and technology
Miscellanea
Sources[]
- "The Force that Saved the Galaxy Now Does the Same for Your Computer Screen" — The Adventurer 7
- "Lucasfilm's Latest" — The Lucasfilm Fan Club Magazine 22
- "New Horizons" — Star Wars Adventure Journal 3
- "Lucasfilm's Latest" — Star Wars Insider 23
- "Red Five, I'm Going In" — Star Wars Insider 65
Notes and references[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 "The Force that Saved the Galaxy Now Does the Same for Your Computer Screen" — The Adventurer 7
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Lucasfilm's Latest" — The Lucasfilm Fan Club Magazine 22
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 The LucasArts Archives Vol. I Manual, LucasArts. (web archive)
External links[]
- Presage Products - Star Wars Screen Entertainment on www.presage.com (content now obsolete; archived from the original on February 26, 2000)
- Star Wars Screen Entertainment - Screensavers playlist on the padawanmage71 YouTube channel (backup link)