fireworks mode

fireworks mode
 n.

   1. The mode a machine is sometimes said to be in when it is performing
   a {crash and burn} operation.

   2. There is (or was) a more specific meaning of this term in the Amiga
   community. The word fireworks described the effects of a particularly
   serious crash which prevented the video pointer(s) from getting reset
   at the start of the vertical blank. This caused the DAC to scroll
   through the entire contents of CHIP (video or video+CPU) memory. Since
   each bit plane would scroll separately this was quite a spectacular
   effect.
    

fireworks mode

   The mode a machine is sometimes said to be in when
   it is performing a {crash and burn} operation.

   [{Jargon File}]