AutoShot: Automatic Screenshot Taker

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AutoShot. I couldn't resist naming an elementary AppleScript script. It was too good a name to pass up.

Autoshot automatically takes screenshots of your Mac while you play your game, or work on your project, so you can document your work or play, without having to press the combination of keys to take a screenshot. There are full fledged apps out there that might do this, but this is a simple script that can do the same. You can decide the delay between each screenshot, and for how long should the script take the screenshots.

Here is the code incase you want to edit it anyway. I took bits of code from places, as I'm slightly rusty at this. To change the format of the image, simply edit the ".png" bit.

display dialog "AutoShot: Automatic Screen Capture Script 

Gap between each shot(in seconds)" default answer "" buttons {"OK", "Cancel"} default button 1 --Q&A for user, to determine factors of taking screenshots

set beta to text returned of result

display dialog "Period of time for the screenshots to be taken(in minutes)" default answer "" buttons {"OK"} default button 1

set zeta to text returned of result --period of time for shots to be taken

display dialog "Screenshots will be saved on folder named 'AutoShot' on Desktop" buttons {"OK"} default button 1

set dFolder to "~/Desktop/AutoShot/"

do shell script ("mkdir -p " & dFolder)

set zeta1 to zeta * 60 --converting input to seconds

set alpha to (zeta1 / beta) --calculating no. of times the screenshot code has to be repeated

repeat alpha times --Repeat Code

set tTime to do shell script "date +%H%M%S"

do shell script ("screencapture " & dFolder & tTime & ".png")

delay beta --Gap between each shot

end repeat

The download link for the app that doesn't need AppleScript editor. Its a standalone app, so it'll run the script on simply running the app.

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Mac Apps: The Games

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Although there aren't as many games available for Mac as there are for Windows systems, there are still more than enough games to choose from. Here are some of the games I think are worth buying. I'm not listing it in any specific order. I'll try to update this list whenever I can.


TOCA Race Driver 3: One of the best all round driving games ever. Basically, its Gran Turismo for the Mac. So you can play this game for the rest of your life, and still not complete it.

F1 2012: The best and the most accurate Formula 1 game till date. Although F1 2013 is coming this year, F1 2012 is still a superb game, and the online experience is unparalleled.

The Movies Superstar: This is like Sims, but all about movies. You're basically controlling a movie studio, producing movies, and managing stars. Good fun

Lego Batman 2: Its Lego. And its Batman. Need I say more? Haven't had so much fun in a long time.

Colin McRae Rally Mac: Probably the most realistic rally game there ever was. It is quite a challenge.

Call of Duty 4: The most iconic FPS game of all time, and the one with most hacked servers ever. I think there's more than a million players online by the looks of it, and an infinite number of mods. It's better than Black Ops because of the game's hack-ability.

Call of Duty Black Ops: This another iconic FPS game, but it's a lot more realistic, and you have to work a lot harder while playing it.

Lego Star Wars Clone Wars: Once again, Lego, Star Wars, and lightsabers. Better than the original Star Wars games.

Dirt 2: The rally game next-gen. With the X-games, and rallycross, focus has shifted from proper rallying. Not as cool, but still it's a lot of fun.

Minecraft: It's blocks of pixels stacked on each other. With imagination, you can create anything.

Angry Birds Space: The best Angry Birds version. Much better than the original thing.

NBA Jam: Retro game refreshed and bought back to life. Best played with a friend. This has to be ported to the gaming consoles. So much more fun than the original NBA games.

Real Racing 2: Same as the now iconic iOS version. Not as polished, but still playable.

Anodyne: The product of indie developers, this game had a game-changing launch. The devs put it on pirate bay.org for free, and asked players to donate. And oh boy they did. Brilliant RPG.

Grand Theft Auto Series: Its grand theft auto. Burn everything.

The Incident: Another indie game, this is really very good. Hours of fun.

Video Tennis: This uses a novel method of playing ping pong. It tracks your hand using the webcam to play the game. It works very well.

Sky Gamblers: Air Supremacy: Another iOS port. Multiplayer is epic. Needs a joystick though, to play the game properly.
Galaxy on Fire 2: A space exploration game with good space battles. Great graphics.

Flatout 2: The daddy of smash 'n' race games. Haven't seen speed and violence in a such a great cocktail before.

Tomb Raider: Underworld: It's Tomb Raider. Owe up. You only play the game to look at the girl. Everyone does. She looks great in this game. So it's a no-brainer.

Bus Driver: Great training if you lose your job. It's sort of a realistic bus driving game. I haven't driven a bus, so I have no idea how realistic it is.

Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy: One of the better Star Wars games. Although it is quite old, it is still really good. Deserves a remake though.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic: The most iconic Star Wars game ever. With an option to build your character toward the dark side, or the light side, it is quite a easy decision to make. Join the dark side. Have fun.

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