Neko, also known as Oneko, is a cross-platform open-source screenmate application that creates an animated sprite of a cursor-chasing cat, which has been ported across a wide variety of systems.
Neko, also known as Oneko, is a cross-platform open-source screenmate application that creates an animated sprite of a cursor-chasing cat, which has been ported across a wide variety of systems.
Neko was originally a TSR written for the NEC PC-9801 called NEKO.COM made by Naoshi Watanabe (若田部 直). It utilized the PC-98's separate graphics and text layers to draw a cat on the graphics layer, letting CLI apps run while Neko chased the text cursor. It only moved in the cardinal directions, lacking diagonal movement. When it reached the cursor it would paw at it, eventually falling asleep when left idle.
In 1989 it was ported as a Desk Accessory for the Macintosh by Kenji Gotoh (後藤寿庵) as NekoDA. It featured a new sprite-sheet, the ability to change the cat's speed, and to change the cursor into prey for the cat; a bird, mouse, or fish. The cat was restrained to a window, when the cursor was outside of it Neko would scratch at the borders. The name NekoDA has a double meaning, "DA" both being an acronym for Desk Accessory; and "だ" as in the verb "to be", Nekoだ meaning "It's a cat!".
Kenji Gotoh was approached by IBM during the development of OS/2 2.1, selling non-exclusive rights to the Neko sprites for ¥300,000, used in their own version of the application, called Cat and Mouse, releasing in 1991.
A version for the X Window System was made in 1990 by Masayuki Koba (古場正行) called xneko which allowed you to change the cat's color and size. Later that year Tatsuya Kato ported xneko to Unix systems as oneko, letting it roam around the entire desktop instead of inside a window, notify the user of received emails, and hide underneath a kotatsu.
In 1997 David Harvey ported xneko to Windows 95 and 98 with Neko for Windows, or Neko95/Neko98. This version could run multiple nekos at once, play sound effects, change the sprite-sheet, lay footprints; and behave differently, like running away from the mouse or wandering the desktop on its own.
The NekoDA sprites made by Gotoh and the code of many of its following ports are free to use, modify, and redistribute. As such Neko has been ported to many other systems.