Wasn't worth the time to download. Graphics and animation below today's standards. I didn't try the sound/music.

I am so sad, I found this website only 2 days ago, I've missed so much good stuff

I know this is over, but I have uninstalled this now - The frequent pop up advertising was annoying as hell, and I dont care WHO is saying I did it wrong - I tried two times, to the letter each time, and still those ads kept appearing. So, unfortunate, Because I didnt mind it, but - there WERE ads, and they never appeared until this installation, so - it had to go...

So, I know how you feel, #22 and 23, and also 66 - and just anyone who copped the same advertising crap I did - lose the pretty dinosaurs, and you should lose the ads, simple as that! Thanks...

Final follow up. I have unistalled the screen saver. Unfortunately it killed my firewall. Roots Web desktop firewall. I had to uninstall my firewall from control panel, restart the computer, run ccleaner reconnect to the net download the firewall again and reinstall it. Of course this didn't all happen so smoothly and on the 4th try I think everything is alright again. Also had to run ccleaner and windows washer to get rid of the screen saver before I did all this. Not happy.:-(

i have done everything i can think of, i had already activated this. its still has the pop up thing after 30 seconds of play... i installed and activated, then set up... still not right.... thanks tough, worth a try.. uninstalled now, so guess im stuck without it.... btw, running on vista could that be it maybe?

My toddler son loves Dinosaurs so this download was to satisfy his appetite. Installed and activated fine on XP sp3. Thanks GAOTD.

Ok. I seem to have gotten my firewall going again for now. I may have been a little harsh on the company and quick of the mark but anything that messes with my firewall puts me into defence mode. Still very wary. Yet to see if I have to manually start my firewall each time at start up. I still hold hopes of getting this screen saver going.
On parole.
The advert remains a problem. Do I need a registration from somewhere?
Thanks anyway giveawayoftheday it seems to have worked for others.

why is there no game giveaway today? does anyone know the reason why?
my parents took me on a trip today and when I came back I checked to see if it came up. it was not up when we left this morning and it is still not up and it is now 5 minutes till bedtime. I did not want to miss it, and now I will have to. Hope there is 3 games this weekend since I could not find the one given out today anywhere.

I have the programme running but like so many others I have the advertisement pop-up. :-(
(Where do you get a registration to stop this?)
I also noted that as soon as I installed it my firewall was closed down and I have been unsuccessful in starting it again. I will be uninstalling the screen saver if I can't get around it. With lots of kids it looks great but not worth the hassles. A shame I liked it. Won't be buying anything from that company.

#61, eeZee, wow, lighten up. I didn't call you hilarious, I called your screensaver reviews hilarious. You always take the marketing hype which everyone knows is marketing hype, put it in bold, treat it as if it were serious, and trash it. To me, that's sarcastic, not a serious review. And what "animation laws"? Will some "animation police" haul you off if you break them? I take screensavers for what they are--a diversion, something to use for a break. I don't expect them to be serious, accurate, or educational. I try to address both the positive and negative aspects of the offerings in my review. The graphics in this could be better, but they're pretty good compared to your typical screensaver. I've always said that I don't think it's particularly fair to compare them to games. Games generate far more revenue, may use advanced game engines, and may require more GPU than many people who use screensavers have in their computers. To me, the main problem with this offering is that it's too repetitive.

If people are receiving ads in their browser, I can only assume that they installed the toolbar. Most toolbars are bad. Apart from special application toolbars, the only one I use is the Google Toolbar beta. It's just a very handy add-on for IE, it doesn't run outside of IE, and it doesn't insert ads anywhere.

Couldn't get it to work with Vista like their other ones usually do.

Would have been nice if someone thought of making this work on Vista. Hmmmmm maybe that shows how old this is and why it's a giveaway;(

Thumbs down! Astro Gemini does NOT make the best screen savers, Freeze.com does, and there are many, many single offerings from amateurs on the web whose screen savers are far superior, and almost all are 'freeware'. Astro`s animations are choppy, and any time they have a chance, they opt for 'cute' instead of detail (maybe their target audience is children), especially in their animations.

And Freeze.com is much cheaper - a single fee ($29.95?) allows you to download and use ANY of their screen savers or animated desktops.

Sorry, but I have downloaded several 'time limited' trials of Astro Gemini screen savers (including the Dinosaur saver) because their download page/screen shot samples looked intriguing, but I have since removed all of them from my hard drive - they are simply inferior in graphics, stability, and their animation engine is the worst.

@ fubar, #54:
A kind request: Please refrain your reviews to the software, not to persons.

You may not agree with points of view of others, fine. I respect that.

Just write a review that reflects your own point of view and leave at that. No need to get 'personal'.

(On the other hand, why should I bother to write this to a person that calls itself 'fubar', right? Call me hilarious naive, then...)

This is one of the better Astro screensavers. It is, however, very "short" in that you wish there were more scenes. Where's my triceratops? It would be nice if Astro could "upgrade" some of their savers with added scenes.

The two best I've seen are the Atlantis 3D Screensaver which also comes free if you finish The Rise of Atlantis (offered here) and the 3D Haunted Halloween Screensaver which we got here after the holiday last year, but I've got it ready for this year! Both are rich in detail and number of scenes.

And BTW, this screensaver DOES work on Vista--at least it does on my version, Home Premium (I have not installed SP1 so I don't know if that will affect it).

I had to reformat my soft drive every time i try to use your free software. it doesint run on my monetir.

22 & 23
You both are obviously on the wrong page with your installations. This screen saver is not being passed off as a trial or demo. It worked well when it was offered before and it works well today. Knowing that, and if you want the screen saver to operate in the full title mode.....please read the instructions carefully and follow them precisely. Do that and today's offer will work just fine.

I still have this screen saver installed from the last time it was offered. But, I downloaded and installed today's offer to see if your complaints have merit. The screen saver runs without the pop ups that you are getting. The trick? Always read the instructions. GOTD occasionally changes them to see who is paying attention. Guess who got caught with today's offering.

Very nice gesture Whiterabbit. Thank you.

I've posted details of Monday's free game over in the forums. It's a great little game called Island Wars that was converted to abandonware when the developer, Interactive Studio's released Island War 2. Despite its simplicity, it's quite addictive and really easy to play.

http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/3911?replies=1#post-41998

Have a great week folks. I've got a couple of great games for this weeks 'weekday' giveaways. This is not associated with the game giveaway project. All the games being offered are free all the time, so there are no worries about missing any. You just need to find them in the Games Discussion forums. Occasionally I’ll be re-capping and will list all the games I’ve posted into one post, though I’ll probably only do this once a month.

How lame! Pathetic graphics. Worth what you pay for it. I'm about to uninstall.

Update to #41;

Have been watching this on a Samsung 22" 1650x1050 (16:10) with an ATI 1300 pro AGP and a cheap-ass eMachines (upgraded) pc. It is nothing less than beautiful.

The detail is smooth and flawless. Helps me relax while doing thing that it rather not.

Ken

I do get tired of the same mostly false complaints. For the millionth time, the AG website and products are safe. They don't crash your computer--that's your defective drivers. They're fully Vista compatible. In fact, in Vista, you don't even need to uninstall the screensaver manager or change the shortcuts. I have natural language search and partial matches enabled. All I have to do is type a few letters of the screensaver name into Vista's Start search, and Vista generally lists Open (screensaver name) first. That opens the screensaver directly, without using the shortcut, and therefor without going through the screensaver manager.

The graphics in this are quite good for a screensaver. Of course they don't have even remotely the resources of a game company or TV channel to spend millions on animation. Dinosaurs didn't lean on trees--that would knock them down and destroy their food source. If you actually bothered to watch this, you would note that the animation does what dinosaurs actually did--they balanced on their tail and hind legs, like a tripod. AG doesn't have the experts, computer models, and extremely detailed physics modeling software to precisely animate the skeletal structure, flesh, and muscle action of dinosaurs. Probably, just a couple of artists did the animation.

#18, eeZee, I always find your negative reviews to be hilarious. No one expects a screensaver to be an educational documentary. I do agree that more foot-fall sounds would be an improvement. AG does a pretty good job on their soundtracks. The sounds generally do match the specific scene.

#31, Tigrisan, I like 3Planesoft screensavers, too. It's true that they generally do a better job on their graphics (not always), but I've never seen a 3Planesoft screensaver with anywhere near the number of animated flora and fauna as some of the AG screensavers. As for file sizes, that varies considerably. 3Planesoft Western Railway 3D is 30 MB before installation. Although I generally find AG's music to be better, they both do a good job of paying attention to sound effect details and stereo positioning.

These are just the best screen savers. Just be sure your pc and/or video card can process Direct X 9.x & no spyware as with too many others.

Check out their website.

Thanks Astro Gemini & GAoTD for a wonderful software today.

Ken

#40, I, too, am getting pop up ads, but usually just when I log into Internet Explorer - havent tried Firefox, so cant say. And I took pains to activate the program before the actual set-up, so the fact is, there is adware hidden in this program - a definite no-no when it comes to fully registered software!
Ok, as far as the graphics, sounds, layouts go - sure, they may not be cutting edge, but they are still quite good - though I have to admit when it first cut in, I was like - WTF?! I thought a cat had somehow gotten into my house! Sure, just the one scene, multiple camera angles - reminds me of those IMVU type graphics! But, it does the job, and come on, people - it is FREE!
It didnt seem to take an excessive amount of time to set up or load or anything - some of you people are just spoiled, haha! Im running an XP Operating System, and still have Service Pack 2... All is well in Toyland, Noddy... ;)

is anyone else having trouble with screensaver my son loves dinos and i cant seem to get to apply to my puter why?

Dinosaur - just about sums up this clunky software.

I always like the Astro Gemini screen savers, and this one is above average. I'm sure my 3 year old will be happy when she sees it.

The one disappointment I have is the offer for an "Astro Gemini Search Bar". I'd give the whole thing a thumb down if it had been the default choice, but it wasn't. So, in the end, still a thumbs up.

Let's just say everytime you put a screensaver it's because you cannot find a application for the Day News.

So no download for me today.. I dont like screensavers..

So will wait till tomorrow.. Please give some good and very useful software for tomorrow to download..

Dustin comment #7, what...... are you kidding? Today's scrensaver is 780Kb in size; that's hardly going to put a dent in any hard drive even one that's several years old. With the size of hard disk drives today, that's hardly a drop in the ocean. Besides, some find screensavers very relaxing. There's good and bad, but today's is a reasonable one.

GAOTD-fan #10, does your graphics card support this screensaver, or do you need to update your DX9 drivers?

Cherries and Joanne #22 & 23, you need to activate the program first.

Great screen saver. Two thumbs up.

I Love This,Thanks GAOTD

How do you play a game of screensaver? I don't use screensavers, they are a waste of time and memory. I am sorry there is no new game to play this week. Thank you anyway.

#'s 22 & 23.
Run activate after the download completes, this should solve your problem.

# 22 and # 23 - uninstall and start over again, and this time, make sure you read the ReadMe file carefully. Usually with Astro Gemini screensavers, you must run the Activate program first, then the Setup program, not the other way around.

Unzip the package you`ve downloaded and run the activation program Activate.exe which is included in the package, then run Setup.exe to install the software.

That's usually why some people get the trial version with the pop-up ad, instead of the free GAotD version.
Hope that helps.

screen savers are cool, only for relaxation, they are no longer needed to prevent screen burn, but it strikes me that with all the SS's by AG that are given away, they must be pretty bad that they can't even give away their programs, personally I won't deal with them any more, their products cause crashes, their customer service is pretty much non existant, and the company in general just IMHO stinks.

suggestion/request:

do you get any palm OS programs or games? there's an NES emulator I'd kind of like to see called NESem at http://www.kalemsoft.com/

Oh no, that would be GAOTSE, wouldn't it. Never mind. If you had a Goatse screensaver, I'd download that. This one, not so much.

Graphics are not that great. I am very unimpressed. I didn't check but I am sure it eats up a lot of system resources - not what I want my screensaver to be doing. It is really slow and not great. Thanks anyways GOTD.

I am just not interested in screen savers. Love ya GAOTD but please give us productive software

screen saver is quite small but it takes a lot of space.

Firefox 3 Blocks their website with a warning. WOT lists them as having Privacy & Reliability issues. Anyway, SS can be fun to watch, but they do start to get old and really just bog down your computer in the long run when you get a ton of them.

I'm not a screensaver fan myself, though I have one built into my vista I like - bubbles. I'm commenting to reply to those who's concerned about a messy un-installation - I use Revo Uninstaller - it's Vista-compatible, and open source. It'll uninstall the application and scan your registry for any leftover files for you to delte.

http://www.revouninstaller.com/

Excellent program !!! 5 stars ***** thanks gotd

I have used two or three of them but don't find them as smooth or as small as the 3Planesoft screensavers. Where this one is over 13megs, the 3Planesoft are around 5megs. Also, the graphics in the 3Planesoft are much better than the AG overall, though the ones I have from GOTD are pretty decent.

I like screensavers because I password protect my laptop from my kids that way and have something pleasant to look at when I leave it idle in front of me. But I do prefer the smaller footprint and resources used. And I like a nice smooth action on the screen which I don't find so much with the AG ones.

FWIW.

I like dinosaurs which is why I spent so much time with the ex. Maybe one day you'll give her away and get her out of my hair. Thanks GAOD!!

Nicolas wrote as the first : Why can’t the publisher make the screensaver’s ho is compartible with Vista?

I ask just about same question. My first thought is : Because they (Astro-G)wanna get rid of the old c... at first. Once.....in the XP age I looked forward to open Giveaway <3 everyday almost site by site with my newspaper. But somehow....... The Thrill Is Gone :( and it's sad, 'cause you people do a great job. Please don't accept apps out of time, otherwise certain companies have to do their commercials elsewhere. They depend on us - a very important thing to remember! Have a nice weekend. With best regards from affi

PS. would be nice if someone had a link to Sreensavers working with Vista

“Travel 200 million years back in time;”

"I sense the are being a bit ‘loose’ with their feature description. This would indeed be an awesome giveaway if it unlocked the secrets of time travel."


LOL, speaking of 'loose'!

"hear the truly realistic sounds of the wild"


LOL what a wild ass guess, they have no idea what they're talking about!

I happen to know that all dinosaurs spoke fluent English and walked around talking like different versions of Darth Vader, I designed their 'Darth Vader Resonating Voiceboxes' myself.


Ok ok so I did throw in a few that spoke French for comic relief, it was just too funny when a Tyrannosaur came along and said "I HAVE YOU NOW!" and bit their heads off..

“Travel 200 million years back in time;”
Well, to be more geologically/palaeontologically correct, you are travelling back to only about half this long ago....but....And, yes, the number of times you DO see the brachios straddling the same tree, not to mention the skinny ol' palm tree actually supporting its 50+ tonnes. But I like me dinos so its a keeper (for the time being)...
Ta!! However, I immediately eliminated the 'add ons'.

Nicolas wrote as the first : Why can’t the publisher make the screensaver’s ho is compartible with Vista?

I ask just about same question. My first thought is : Because they (Astro-G)wanna get rid of the old c... at first. Once.....in the XP age I looked forward to open Giveaway <3 everyday almost site by site with my newspaper. But somehow....... The Thrill Is Gone :( and it's sad, 'cause you people do a great job. Please don't accept apps out of time, otherwise certain companies have to do their commercials elsewhere. They depend on us - a very important thing to remember! Have a nice weekend. With best regards from affi

#5, Unkle Munky "Yes! I’m a big fan of dinosaurs. I like monkeys too."

I'm not a big fun of dinosaurs, but I love monkeys too, especially monkey babies. Actually, they smell bad, but I love their comic physiognomies.

This screensaver causes my computer to freeze and the only way to get it to work again is to restart the computer or log off and then on again.
I'm using Vista home premium.

I also get a message from the A-squared software, but as the computer freezes i have no way of knowing what the A-square tool says.
I just see it in the traybar at the bottom of the screen.
Big thumbs down for this screensaver !!!!