Seize the Day

Seize the Day is a virtual calendar, personal organizer, and diary program originally released in 1994.

What makes this Seize the Day special are the real-time virtual "Living Worlds" that display when you open the application. These virtual landscapes are synced up to real time and are continually moving and changing. They also make use of color cycling technology to produce mesmerizing animations. Seize the Day also includes a journal that provides daily quotes and inspiration.

Links

You can find links to download the software here as well as find info on how to run it on modern systems: https://iangilman.com/software/seizetheday-original.php

Here's another link with information about Seize the Day: http://iangilman.com/software/seizetheday.php

You can see Living Worlds without having to emulate or install anything with this cool website: http://www.effectgames.com/demos/worlds/

Living Worlds is also available as an app for iOS and Android: http://pixfabrik.com/livingworlds/

Emulation

I use DOSBox with MS-DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.1 on a macOS Catalina host to run Seize the Day. I also got it working in BasiliskII under System 7.5.3 and in SheepShaver under Mac OS 9! In the past, I've also got it working on VirtualBox under Windows 3.1. I have managed to get it working in Windows 2000 and XP guests as well, but the colors cycle too fast for some reason. I recommend DOSBox or BasiliskII for the best experience!

Important: Seize the Day only runs if your display is set to 256 colors. If you're using a Windows guest, you might have to install different drivers for the display. There are plenty of tutorials around the Web on how to do this.

If you're using an emulator or virtualization on a computer with a retina display, you need to make sure that the screen isn't being smoothed, or the artwork will be blurry. Add scale_nearest true and scale_integer true on separate lines in the preferences file of BasiliskII/SheepShaver if you are using either of these programs. VirtualBox and DOSBox should be fine.

Disclaimer

I do not take credit for Seize the Day or any of the websites linked on this page. The sole purpose of this page is to share information about Seize the Day. The beautiful artwork in this program was made by Mark Ferrari!