Neko: History of a Software Pet
2022-07-05
Neko is a cat that runs around on the screen, chasing the mouse cursor.
It has led many lives through the history of computers.
The original software based on this concept was written in the 1980's by Naoshi Watanabe (若田部 直). It was called NEKO.COM and ran on the Japanese computer NEC PC-9801 in the MS-DOS command line.
The next version ran on the Macintosh computer as a "desktop accessory". It was called NekoDA , written in 1989 by Kenji Gotoh (後藤寿庵 - also known as Juan Gotoh).
The author, who has since had a career as a manga illustrator, created new image designs for the cat. He has declared them as public domain, and the same pixel art has been used in all following generations.
In 1990, xneko for the X Window System was written by Masayuki Koba (古場正行). The same year, Tatsuya Kato wrote oneko for Linux and BSD systems.
In 1991, it was ported to Windows 3 by Dara Khani ("Neko Runs Free") and Michael Bankstahl ("WNEKO") independently. In 1993, a version was created for the Commodore Amiga.
Update on 2022-07-10: A reader Sean sent additional information about the OS/2 version of Neko in the historical timeline.
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