FilesFound!Neko95
Posted on 20/05/2024
Recently I wrote about a bountiful CD that I planned to comb through further: Online Software Volume 2 - 1000 Utilities. There was so much to cover on this CD that I said I'd write more individual articles about the specific treasures I found on there in the future.
My method of searching through the CD so far is not the most scientific. I randomly pick a category that sounds interesting, and then pick whatever stands out to me the most, whenever I feel like it.
In the Accessories folder, I let my unbiased heart guide me to Neko95. It sounded oddly familiar…
Looking at the Extracted Files
After extracting the files from the compressed Neko95 folder, this is what we can see:
That cat icon… Hey, I know that guy!
I have vague memories of seeing versions of this pixel cat in my far online past… More recently, I saw them in the animated line divider I found while looking through an archive of retro online gifs and decided to edit it slightly and use it for this website's homepage.
What a coincidence!
I'm pretty sure I'd never seen the original application of this cat, so I was interested in learning more. A quick search for Neko95 actually explains quite a lot - it seems this guy is fairly well documented online, with this Wikipedia page alone covering the basic history of Neko, as well as a large list of ports.
Looking at the readme we get in our extracted files, we can learn a little more.
We learn that our version of Neko is a port by David Harvey from 1997 intended for Windows 95 (and so, called Neko95). The original Neko was made for PC-98 by Kenji Gotoh in 1989 (this cat has been around a long time...!)
The English text in our readme continues to explain that Neko95 is not a direct port of the original Neko, but rather a port of the X-Windows source by another person named Masayuki Koba. The family tree grows larger...
The readme is written in a fun and light-hearted way, it's honestly sweet to see...
Running the Application
I've seen similar things to what I expected Neko95 to work like before, but I was still excited to see it in action. Let's run it!
A screen recording showing an example of Neko95 running on Windows 95
It's so cute!!!!!
The individual sprites are simple but work really well… I can see why people would extract them and use them in other creative ways.
With the basic functions that the program uses (move an animated image towards the mouse, keep it still when in a certain range and the mouse isn't moving, etc), I can see why this was a popular application to try and port to other platforms.
For the most part, all you'd need were the original sprites, and then you could try recreating the application as a learning exercise in the basics of mouse pointers in whatever platform you were porting to. Sounds fun, honestly!
It seems like our version has additional settings we can configure, so let's take a look.
Config Settings
The Movement tab for the Neko95 Config Window
The Display tab for the Neko95 Config Window
The Sounds tab for the Neko95 Config Window
The About tab for the Neko95 Config Window
There are some basic things that I expected, like movement speed and mouse sensitivity, but I didn't expect to see custom sprites and sounds!
So many alternate sprites to choose from! How about we go through them all?
We can see a good number of alternate sprites that keep the same cat shape but change the colors. Even though it's a simple change, it's fun to see! A few are based on different cat breeds, and others have crazier colors… I like them all! But I think the original version is still my favorite.
We even have a few dogs in the mix. Like the cat, they all use the same dog base and have alternate colors. I thought that the dog panting when in its idle state instead of batting the mouse was a nice change…
There's even a few curveballs in here, like a Metroid from the Metroid game series, a monster truck that explodes if you leave it idle too long, a Pacman that can turn to face you from an unsettling front facing angle, a penguin that sits down to have a few drinks after a while, and a tiefighter from Star Wars (but this one doesn't have any idle animations... I think it should stick out a tongue and pant like the dog version).
Seeing all these makes me want to make my own custom Neko sprites! I already want to write another article in the future covering a fuller, more researched history of Neko and its ports once I've learnt more, so maybe I can write about making your own custom ones then too…
Do you have memories of this little pixel cat? Did you ever see it in other forms online? Any half-forgotten recollections of seeing it as a kid on an uncle's PC? I'd love to hear about anything anyone knows about Neko in all its forms!
Please feel free to leave a comment, tweet at this website's account on Twitter @filesfoundposts or send an email to filesfoundmail@gmail.com. I'd love to include your Neko memories in the future follow up article!
If you'd like this version of David Harvey's Neko95 port, you can download the files I found from my archive.org upload here.
If you'd like to download the CD of Online Software Volume 2 - 1000 Utilities that I found this version of Neko95 on, you can download my archive.org upload of it here.
So many alternate sprites to choose from! How about we go through them all?
A screen recording showing all of the custom sprites for Neko95
We can see a good number of alternate sprites that keep the same cat shape but change the colors. Even though it's a simple change, it's fun to see! A few are based on different cat breeds, and others have crazier colors… I like them all! But I think the original version is still my favorite.
We even have a few dogs in the mix. Like the cat, they all use the same dog base and have alternate colors. I thought that the dog panting when in its idle state instead of batting the mouse was a nice change…
There's even a few curveballs in here, like a Metroid from the Metroid game series, a monster truck that explodes if you leave it idle too long, a Pacman that can turn to face you from an unsettling front facing angle, a penguin that sits down to have a few drinks after a while, and a tiefighter from Star Wars (but this one doesn't have any idle animations... I think it should stick out a tongue and pant like the dog version).
Seeing all these makes me want to make my own custom Neko sprites! I already want to write another article in the future covering a fuller, more researched history of Neko and its ports once I've learnt more, so maybe I can write about making your own custom ones then too…
Do you have memories of this little pixel cat? Did you ever see it in other forms online? Any half-forgotten recollections of seeing it as a kid on an uncle's PC? I'd love to hear about anything anyone knows about Neko in all its forms!
Please feel free to leave a comment, tweet at this website's account on Twitter @filesfoundposts or send an email to filesfoundmail@gmail.com. I'd love to include your Neko memories in the future follow up article!
If you'd like this version of David Harvey's Neko95 port, you can download the files I found from my archive.org upload here.
If you'd like to download the CD of Online Software Volume 2 - 1000 Utilities that I found this version of Neko95 on, you can download my archive.org upload of it here.
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