Visualize Your CPU Load with This Retro “Worm” Screensaver for Sense HAT
There’s a recent post on the Raspberry Pi Subreddit by u/squeeby showing off their ultimately useless but unimaginably entertaining NetWare Screensaver for the Raspberry Pi Sense HAT which we absolutely love and might implement ourselves!
What They Built (and Why It's Genius)
Using a Raspberry Pi Sense HATs 8×8 LED Matrix, u/squeeb has made a faithful recreation of the retro NetWare Screensaver. If you aren’t familiar with this retro tech, it essentially displays a worm representing the load on your server which bounces around as the server get’s busier! Like watching pet fish, its the perfect way to pass time while waiting for something to finish.
Check these features for a bit more detail on how it works:
- Independent Worm Movement: Each CPU core gets its own colored worm bouncing around independently
- CPU Load Responsive: Worms speed up and grow longer tails under load
- Bouncy Physics: Worms bounce off edges like digital pinballs
- Multi-Core Support: Every core gets a coloured worm (Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, Cyan, Magenta, Orange, Pink)
- Systemd Integration: Run as a service, auto-starts on boot
- Customizable:
--intervaland--statsoptions for your own flavor of chaos
What do I think about the project? I’ve always loved interactive/unusual ways to visualize data or the inner workings of a machine and this does not disappoint. It’s guaranteed to keep me entertained if I’ve got nothing better to do. The beauty in this project is the choice to use a Raspberry Pi Sense Hat instead of using a dot matrix LED Display or a Pimoroni Unicorn HAT but to all their own. Honestly I might just set up my own server to see the little worms moving around. As one commenter suggested, this project cries out for portability.
The next step? Shrinking the build. Maybe u/squeeby should start looking at moving the code from a full-sized Pi to a Raspberry Pi Pico paired with a tiny 17×17 LED matrix. By battery-optimizing the code, this could become the ultimate IT-pro keychain that runs NetWare snake in a pocket.
You can find more info on the project with u/squeeby’s github page here!
