A former Air Force pilot was so disappointed with Windows 95's aquarium screensaver that he established a 25-year dynasty of digital fish that continues to this day

A recent video from retro tech YouTuber Clint "LGR" Basinger dives into an aspect of personal computing you probably haven't put much thought into⁠—or at least I sure didn't until now. After being impressed by an aquatic screensaver on a TV at a local bar, LGR did some research into the history of the SereneScreen Marine Aquarium, a veritable dynasty in the aquatic screensaver space that's still going strong to this day.

The story centers on Jim Sachs, a man with one of those "they don't make this type of guy anymore" life stories so common to '80s and '90s computing, one Sachs recounted to the website AmigaLove back in 2020. After a six-year career in the US Air Force flying C-141 Starlifters, Sachs taught himself programming and digital art and began creating games for Commodore 64 and Amiga computers. From his first game, Saucer Attack, to later efforts like Defender of the Crown or his large portfolio of promotional and commissioned pieces, Sach's pixel art remains gorgeous and impressive to this day, and he seems to be a bit of a legend among Commodore enthusiasts.

It's with this background in games and digital art that Sachs looked at Microsoft's simple aquarium-themed screensaver for Windows 95 and 98 and thought he could do better. "Microsoft had an aquarium that they gave away with Windows where it was just bitmaps of fish being dragged across the screen," Sachs told the Matt Chat podcast back in 2015. "And they had that for like, three or four years. And I thought, I've given them enough time, I'm taking them to market. I'm gonna do something which will just blow that away."

Using reference photographs of real aquariums⁠—Sachs thanked a specific pet shop that's still around in an early version of his website⁠—Sachs created the 3D art by hand and programmed the screensaver in C++, releasing the initial version in July 2000. Even looking at it all these years later, the first iteration of the SereneScreen Marine Aquarium is pretty gorgeous, and it has the added charm of being such a distinctly Y2K, nostalgic throwback.

The standalone screensaver sold well, but then things came full circle with Microsoft licensing a version of the Marine Aquarium for the Windows XP Plus Pack and later standard releases of the OS. Since that time, the Marine Aquarium has continued to see new releases, and a section on the SereneScreen website keeps track of its various appearances in the background of movies and TV shows like Law and Order. Over on the SereneScreen website, you can purchase a real time, 3D-accelerated version of the Marine Aquarium for Mac, iOS, Android, and the original Windows. Echoing the Windows XP deal, Roku actually licensed this 3.0 version for its TVs, bringing it to a new generation of users.

Screensavers don't have anywhere near the ubiquity they used to thanks to the ascendancy of LCD screens and convenient monitor sleep modes, but the idea of them having a second life thanks to smart TVs and streaming services warms my heart a bit⁠—I don't even have a Roku TV, but I still find something charming and whimsical about the built-in Roku City screensaver.

The evocative art used in '90s PC screensavers has secured them a strangely prominent place in many millennials' psyches. The Windows '95 maze seems to have a hold over many in my cohort, but I'm personally a big fan of the Windows XP 3D pipes. PC Gamer contributor Sarah Richter wrote about how one of her favorite childhood "games" turned out to have been a screensaver/early desktop pet, Johnny Castaway.