List of Bomberman video games
Clones
Table:
Title

Year

Platform

Notes

Blow It
1986
Commodore 64
Developed by Input 64. One of the earliest Bomberman clones. 2-player support.

Bomb Blast
1990
Gamate
Developed by Bit Corporation. Titled Bomb Blaster in some markets.

Bug Bomber
1991 (Amiga)
1992 (C64, DOS, ST)
Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS
Developed by Kingsoft and published by Global Software. One of the more notable aspect of the title is the way how enemies are defeated depending on how the joystick is pressed while pressing the fire button. 4-player support.

Exvania
1992
Arcade
Developed by Namco.

Kabi-Island: Gold in Island
1992
Watara Supervision
Developed by Thin Chen Enterprise. A top-down action-adventure puzzle game.

Moonquake
1992
Acorn Computers
Developed by Paul Taylor and originally published on the Archimedes World's December 1992 coverdisc.

Bomboy (轟炸小子)
1993
Sega Genesis
Also known as Explosion Kid . Developed and published by Gamtec. It was designed similar to Super Bomberman, but with no Battle Mode and the level layout omits the grid-based design common in most Bomberman games. Has 10 worlds with 5 levels each and has 2-player support.

Bomb Squad
1993
Commodore 64
Developed and published by Exploding Head Productions. 2-player simultaneous support. Released on diskette.

Bomb'X
1993
Amiga, Atari ST, DOS
Developed and published by Mediagogo, it is an adult parody of Bomberman.

Detonators: Bomber's Day
1993
Commodore 64
Developed by Digital Excess. 2-player support. Released on July’s 1993 Game On diskette.

Dynaboys
1993
Commodore 64
4-player support.

Dynabusters
1993 (ST)
2001 (Lynx)
Atari Lynx, Atari ST
Developed and released by Scynacore. 6-player support. A clone of Dynabusters for the Atari Lynx named Lynx Blast increased the number of players from 6 to 8 with link cable support. The ROM image was released to the public by the author Bjorn Spruck.

Pang
1993
Atari 8-bit family
Unrelated to the 1989 title of the same name. Published by ASF s.c..

XBlast
1993
PC (Windows) and UNIX/Linux
XBlast is a multiplayer version released under the GNU General Public License by Marc Oliver Vogel for Microsoft Windows and X11R5/R6.[23][24]

Cheeky Twins II
1994
Commodore 64
2-player support, released on Magic Disk.

Firefox
1994
Commodore 64
Developed by Twice Effect. Single-player only.

Penguin Tower
1994
Commodore 64
Developed by Problemchild Productions. 2-player simultaneous support. Released on October's 1994 issue of Commodore Format.[25]

Bombs Away
1995
Atari ST
Freeware title.

Bomber Boy
1995
DOS
4-player support.

Bombmania
1995
Amiga
Developed by MegArts and published by M-Soft Software Design.

Using the accompanying table together with the context paragraphs below.

Solve the question: Bombermania is for a platform that was introduced by who ? Provide just your answer in a JSON object {"answer": "YOUR ANSWER"}. Avoid adding external knowledge.

The Commodore 64 , also known as the C64 or the CBM 64 , is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International ( first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show , in Las Vegas , January 7-10 , 1982 ) . It has been listed in the Guinness World Records as the highest-selling single computer model of all time , with independent estimates placing the number sold between 10 and 17 million units . Volume production started in early 1982 , marketing in August for US $ 595 ( equivalent to $ 1,576 in 2019 ) . Preceded by the Commodore VIC-20 and Commodore PET , the C64 took its name from its 64 kilobytes ( 65,536 bytes ) of RAM . With support for multicolor sprites and a custom chip for waveform generation , the C64 could create superior visuals and audio compared to systems without such custom hardware . The C64 dominated the low-end computer market for most of the 1980s . For a substantial period ( 1983-1986 ) , the C64 had between 30% and 40% share of the US market and two million units sold per year , outselling IBM PC compatibles , Apple computers , and the Atari 8-bit family of computers . Sam Tramiel , a later Atari president and the son of Commodore 's founder , said in a 1989 interview , When I was at Commodore we were building 400,000 C64s a month for a couple of years . In the UK market , the C64 faced competition from the BBC Micro and the ZX Spectrum , but the C64 was still one of the two most popular computers in the UK . Part of the Commodore 64 's success was its sale in regular retail stores instead of only electronics or computer hobbyist specialty stores . Commodore produced many of its parts in-house to control costs , including custom integrated circuit chips from MOS Technology . It has been compared to the Ford Model T automobile for its role in bringing a new technology to middle-class households via creative and affordable mass-production .
Bomberman ( ボンバーマン , Bonbāman , also briefly known as Dyna Blaster in Europe ) is a strategic , maze-based video game franchise originally developed by Hudson Soft and currently owned by Konami . The first game in the series was released in Japan in December 20 , 1985 ( 1987 in the US ) and new games have been published at irregular intervals ever since . Today , Bomberman has featured in over 70 different games on numerous platforms ( including all Nintendo platforms ) , as well as several anime and manga . The most recent iteration , Super Bomberman R , was released in 2017 .
The Gamate , known as 超級小子 ( pinyin : chāojí xiǎozi , literally Super Boy ) in Taiwan and 超级神童 ( pinyin : chāojí shéntóng , literally Super Child Prodigy ) in China , is a handheld game console manufactured by Bit Corporation in the early 1990s , and released in Australia , some parts of Europe ( partly the UK , Italy , Germany , Switzerland , Sweden and Finland ) and Asia ( Taiwan and China ) , Argentina , the United States , and possibly other regions including South Africa . It never sold in numbers comparable to the Game Boy or even the Watara Supervision , and as a result information on the console and its games remains scarce . The only emulator that supports it is MESS . Over 70 games , not all dumped , are known to have been produced for the system .
Bit Corporation ( Chinese : 普澤 ; pinyin : Pǔzé ) was a Taiwanese game developer and console manufacturer .
The Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore in 1985 . The original model was part of a series of 16/32- and 32-bit computers that featured 256 KB or more of RAM , mouse-based GUIs , and significantly improved graphics and audio over 8-bit systems . This wave included the Atari ST - released the same year - Apple 's Macintosh , and later the Apple IIGS . Based on the Motorola 68000 microprocessor , the Amiga differed from its contemporaries through the inclusion of custom hardware to accelerate graphics and sound , including sprites and a blitter , and a pre-emptive multitasking operating system called AmigaOS . The Amiga 1000 was released in July 1985 , but a series of production problems kept it from becoming widely available until early 1986 . The best selling model , the Amiga 500 , was introduced in 1987 and became one of the leading home computers of the late 1980s and early 1990s with four to six million sold . The A3000 was introduced in 1990 , followed by the A500+ , and the A600 in March 1992 . Finally , the A1200 and the A4000 were released in late 1992 . The platform became particularly popular for gaming and programming demos . It also found a prominent role in the desktop video , video production , and show control business , leading to video editing systems such as the Video Toaster . The Amiga 's native ability to simultaneously play back multiple digital sound samples made it a popular platform for early tracker music software . The relatively powerful processor and ability to access several megabytes of memory enabled the development of 3D rendering packages , including LightWave 3D , Imagine , Aladdin4D , TurboSilver and Traces , a predecessor to Blender .
DOS ( /dɒs/ , /dɔːs/ ) is a platform-independent acronym for Disk Operating System which later became a common shorthand for disk-based operating systems on IBM PC compatibles . DOS primarily consists of Microsoft 's MS-DOS and a rebranded IBM version under the name PC DOS , both of which were introduced in 1981 . Later compatible systems from other manufacturers include DR DOS ( 1988 ) , ROM-DOS ( 1989 ) , PTS-DOS ( 1993 ) , and FreeDOS ( 1998 ) . MS-DOS dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995 . Dozens of other operating systems also use the acronym DOS , beginning with the mainframe DOS/360 from 1966 . Others include Apple DOS , Apple ProDOS , Atari DOS , Commodore DOS , TRSDOS , and AmigaDOS .
The Atari ST is a line of home computers from Atari Corporation and the successor to the Atari 8-bit family . The initial ST model , the 520ST , saw limited release in April-June 1985 and was widely available in July . The Atari ST is the first personal computer to come with a bitmapped color GUI , using a version of Digital Research 's GEM released in February 1985 . The 1040ST , released in 1986 , is the first personal computer to ship with a megabyte of RAM in the base configuration and also the first with a cost-per-kilobyte of less than US $ 1 . The Atari ST is part of a mid-1980s generation of home computers that have 16 or 32-bit processors , 256 KB or more of RAM , and mouse-controlled graphical user interfaces . This generation includes the Macintosh , Commodore Amiga , Apple IIGS , and , the most advanced true 32bit Acorn Archimedes . ST officially stands for Sixteen/Thirty-two , which refers to the Motorola 68000 's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals . The ST was sold with either Atari 's color monitor or the less expensive monochrome monitor . The system 's two color graphics modes are only available on the former while the highest-resolution mode needs the monochrome monitor . In some markets , particularly Germany , the machine gained a strong foothold as a small business machine for CAD and desktop publishing work . Thanks to its built-in MIDI ports , the ST enjoyed success for running music sequencer software and as a controller of musical instruments among amateurs and well-known musicians alike . The ST was superseded by the Atari STE , Atari TT , Atari MEGA STE , and Falcon computers .
Exvania ( エクスバニア , Ekusubania ) is an arcade game which was released by Namco in 1992 worldwide .
An arcade game or coin-op game is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in public businesses such as restaurants , bars and amusement arcades . Most arcade games are video games , pinball machines , electro-mechanical games , redemption games or merchandisers . While exact dates are debated , the golden age of arcade video games is usually defined as a period beginning sometime in the late 1970s and ending sometime in the mid-1980s . Excluding a brief resurgence in the early 1990s , the arcade industry subsequently declined in the Western hemisphere as competing home video game consoles such as the Sony PlayStation and Microsoft Xbox increased in their graphics and game-play capability and decreased in cost . The Eastern Hemisphere retains a strong arcade industry .
Namco Ltd. [ a ] ( stylized as NAMCO ) [ b ] is a former Japanese developer and publisher of arcade and home console video games , originally headquartered in Ōta , Tokyo . Several international divisions were established , including Namco America in Santa Clara , California , Shanghai Namco in mainland China , and Namco Enterprises Asia in Hong Kong . Namco was founded by Masaya Nakamura as Nakamura Seisakusho [ c ] on June 1 , 1955 , beginning as a producer of coin-operated amusement rides for Japanese department store roof gardens , seeing success with making children 's rides for the Mitsukoshi chain . Renamed Nakamura Manufacturing in 1959 , the company purchased the struggling Japanese division of Atari from Nolan Bushnell in 1974 and began releasing their games in Japan , where they quickly became one of the leading game companies in Asia . The acquisition inspired Namco to produce their own video games in-house , beginning with Gee Bee in 1978 . Namco released their first major hit Galaxian a year later , followed by Pac-Man in 1980 - the latter has since become the most successful arcade game of all time and one of the highest-grossing video games of all time . In February 2005 , Namco announced they would merge with Bandai to form Bandai Namco Holdings . The merge was finalized on September 25 , creating Japan 's third-largest video game entity by revenue and the seventh largest by revenue in the world . Both operated independently under the new holdings company until March 31 , 2006 , where their video game operations were merged to form Namco Bandai Games . The original Namco name was spun-off into a new company the same day , which handled the amusement park and arcade center operations of Bandai Namco Holdings . It was renamed to Bandai Namco Amusement during a corporate restructuring on April 1 , 2018 . Namco produced several critically and commercially successful franchises , including Pac-Man , Galaxian , Tekken , Ace Combat , Dig Dug , Soulcalibur , Xevious , Ridge Racer and Tales , and was one of the world 's most prolific video game companies .
The Watara Supervision , also known as the QuickShot Supervision in the UK , is a monochrome handheld game console , originating from Asia , and introduced in 1992 as a cut-price competitor for Nintendo 's Game Boy . It came packaged with a game called Crystball , which is similar to Breakout . One unique feature of the Supervision was that it could be linked up to a television via a link cable . Games played in this way would display in four colors , much like Nintendo 's Super Game Boy add-on for the SNES . A full color TV link was also in the works , but because of the Supervision 's failure to make a major impression among gamers it was cancelled , along with the games which were in development for it . Though the machine garnered some attention at launch ( mainly due to the low price for the machine and its games , which many felt might enable it to make inroads into Nintendo 's market share ) it was ultimately unsuccessful in unseating the Game Boy from its position as the world 's most popular handheld . Reasons commonly cited are the poor quality screen which was prone to blurring and made following the action difficult , a general lack of games and the simplistic nature of those that were released . Yet another problem was that most of the games that were available were developed in Taiwan or Hong Kong , meaning that fans of big-name Western and Japanese developers were underwhelmed by the apparent lack of support from these companies . Only a tiny handful of games were developed by third parties , including Sachen and the British developer B.I.T.S . Up against Nintendo 's list of popular franchises ( Zelda , Mario , Metroid ) and those of its third parties ( Castlevania , Mega Man ) - all of which eventually surfaced on the Game Boy - the Supervision 's games were of little interest to most .
Thin Chen Enterprise ( full name Sheng Qian Enterprise Co. , Ltd ( Chinese : 聖謙企業股份有限公司 ) ) , also known as Sachen , was a Taiwanese company that developed several original games for the NES , Mega Drive , Game Boy and other early cartridge-based handheld systems such as the Watara Supervision and Mega Duck . With the exception of the latter two handhelds , all of Thin Chen 's games were produced without license from the console manufacturers . The company produced at least 70 unique games for the NES and Famicom and at least 32 for the Game Boy ( compiled into eight 4-in-1 cartridges ) , making it the most prolific unlicensed developer and publisher for both consoles . The company also produced its own Nintendo Entertainment System hardware clones , such as the Q-Boy . Most of Thin Chen 's products were released under the Sachen brand name , although the names Joy Van and Commin were also used for certain early games for the Famicom and handheld consoles respectively . Several of their NES games were released outside Taiwan under license by foreign publishers , including : HES Interactive in Australia , Hacker International in Japan ( usually with added pornographic content ) , Bunch Games/Color Dreams and American Video Entertainment in the United States , and Milmar in Brazil .
Acorn Computers Ltd. was a British computer company established in Cambridge , England , in 1978 . The company produced a number of computers which were especially popular in the UK , including the Acorn Electron and the Acorn Archimedes . Acorn 's BBC Micro computer dominated the UK educational computer market during the 1980s . It is more known for its BBC Micro model B computer than for its other products . Though the company was broken up into several independent operations in 1998 , its legacy includes the development of reduced instruction set computing ( RISC ) personal computers . One of its operating systems , RISC OS , continues to be developed by RISC OS Open . Some of Acorn 's former subsidiaries lived on : ARM Holdings technology is dominant in the mobile phone and personal digital assistant ( PDA ) microprocessor market . Acorn is sometimes referred to as the British Apple and has been compared to Fairchild Semiconductor for being a catalyst for start-ups . In 2010 , the company was listed by David Meyer in ZDNet as number nine in a feature of top ten Dead IT giants . Many British IT professionals gained their early experiences on Acorns , which were often more technically advanced than commercially successful US hardware .
The Sega Genesis , known as the Mega Drive [ b ] outside North America , is a 16-bit home video game console developed and sold by Sega . The Genesis is Sega 's third console and the successor to the Master System . Sega released it as the Mega Drive in Japan in 1988 , and later as the Genesis in North America in 1989 . In 1990 , it was distributed as the Mega Drive by Virgin Mastertronic in Europe , Ozisoft in Australasia , and Tec Toy in Brazil . In South Korea , it was distributed by Samsung as the Super Gam*Boy and later the Super Aladdin Boy . [ c ] Designed by an R & D team supervised by Hideki Sato and Masami Ishikawa , the Genesis was adapted from Sega 's System 16 arcade board , centered on a Motorola 68000 processor as the CPU , a Zilog Z80 as a sound controller , and a video system supporting hardware sprites , tiles , and scrolling . It plays a library of more than 900 games created by Sega and a wide array of third-party publishers delivered on ROM-based cartridges . Several add-ons were released , including a Power Base Converter to play Master System games . It was released in several different versions , some created by third parties . Sega created two network services to support the Genesis : Sega Meganet and Sega Channel . In Japan , the Mega Drive fared poorly against its two main competitors , Nintendo 's Super Famicom and NEC 's PC Engine ( aka TurboGrafx-⁠16 ) , but it achieved considerable success in North America , Brazil , and Europe . Contributing to its success were its library of arcade game ports , the popularity of Sega 's Sonic the Hedgehog series , several popular sports franchises , and aggressive youth marketing that positioned the system as the cool console for adolescents .
Gamtec ( Chinese : 三協資訊 ; pinyin : Sān Xié Zī Xùn ) is a video game developer established in June 1989 and based in Taichung City , Taiwan noted for its unlicensed Sega Mega Drive games such as Legend of Wukong and Squirrel King . His motto would have to be : Believe in yourself ( Chinese : 相信自己 ; pinyin : Xiāng Xìn Zì Jǐ ) . The company also developed a number of NES and PC games , and claims to have developed for the Gamate , Super A'Can , Arcade , SNES , Game Boy , Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance , although it often acted as a contract developer for other companies so is frequently not credited in games it worked on .
Super Bomberman [ a ] is the first video game in the Bomberman series released for the Super NES , released in 1993 . It is also the first four-player game to be released on the Super NES and the first game in the series to be released in Europe keeping the Bomberman title instead of being called Dynablaster .
A floppy disk , also known as a floppy , diskette , or simply disk , is a type of disk storage composed of a disk of thin and flexible magnetic storage medium , sealed in a rectangular plastic enclosure lined with fabric that removes dust particles . Floppy disks are read and written by a floppy disk drive ( FDD ) . Floppy disks , initially as 8-inch ( 203 mm ) media and later in 5 1⁄4-inch ( 133 mm ) and ​3 1⁄2 inch ( 90 mm ) sizes , were a ubiquitous form of data storage and exchange from the mid-1970s into the first years of the 21st century . By 2006 computers were rarely manufactured with installed floppy disk drives ; ​3 1⁄2-inch floppy disks can be used with an external USB floppy disk drive , but USB drives for ​5 1⁄4-inch , 8-inch , and non-standard diskettes are rare to non-existent . These formats are usually handled by older equipment . The prevalence of floppy disks in late 20th century culture was such that many electronic and software programs still use the floppy disks as save icons . While floppy disk drives still have some limited uses , especially with legacy industrial computer equipment , they have been superseded by data storage methods with much greater capacity and transfer speeds , such as USB flash drives , flash storage cards , optical discs and storage available through computer networks such as cloud storage .
A lynx ( /lɪŋks/ ; plural lynx or lynxes ) is any of the four species ( Canada lynx , Iberian lynx , Eurasian lynx , bobcat ) within the medium-sized wild cat genus Lynx . The name lynx originated in Middle English via Latin from the Greek word λύγξ , derived from the Indo-European root leuk- ( 'light , brightness ' ) in reference to the luminescence of its reflective eyes . Two other cats that are sometimes called lynxes , the caracal ( desert lynx ) and the jungle cat ( jungle lynx ) , are not members of the genus Lynx .
The Atari Lynx is a 8/16-bit handheld game console that was released by Atari Corporation in September 1989 in North America , and in Europe and Japan in 1990 . It was the world 's first handheld electronic game with a color LCD . It was also notable for its advanced graphics and ambidextrous layout . The Lynx competed with the Game Boy ( released two months earlier ) , as well as the Game Gear and TurboExpress , both released the following year . It was discontinued in 1995 .
A ROM image , or ROM file , is a computer file which contains a copy of the data from a read-only memory chip , often from a video game cartridge , a computer 's firmware , or from an arcade game 's main board . The term is frequently used in the context of emulation , whereby older games or computer firmware are copied to ROM files on modern computers and can , using a piece of software known as an emulator , be run on a computer .
The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit home computers introduced by Atari , Inc. in 1979 and manufactured until 1992 . All of the machines in the family are technically similar and differ primarily in packaging . They are based on the MOS Technology 6502 CPU running at 1.79 MHz , [ a ] and were the first home computers designed with custom co-processor chips . This architecture enabled graphics and sound capabilities more advanced than most contemporary machines , and gaming on the platform was a major draw . The first-person space combat simulator Star Raiders is considered the platform 's killer app . The systems launched with a series of plug and play peripherals that used the Atari SIO serial bus system , an early analog of USB . [ b ] To meet stringent FCC requirements , much of the circuitry of the original machines is enclosed in a cast aluminum block , which made them physically robust but expensive to produce . The 400 and 800 were replaced by the XL series in 1983 , then-after the company was sold and reestablished as Atari Corporation-the XE models in 1985 . The XL and XE are lighter in construction and less expensive to build , while also having Atari BASIC built-in and reducing the number of joystick ports from 4 to 2 . The 130XE , released in 1985 , increased the memory to 128K of bank-switched RAM . The Atari 8-bit computer line sold two million units during its major production run between late 1979 and mid-1985 . They were not only sold through dedicated computer retailers , but department stores such as Sears , using an in-store demo to attract customers .
Pang ( パン , Pan ) , also known as Pomping World ( Japanese : ポンピング・ワールド , Hepburn : Ponpingu Wārudo ) , is a cooperative two-player arcade video game released in 1989 by the Mitchell Corporation . The North American release from Capcom was titled Buster Bros . The basic gameplay is identical to a much earlier 1983 MSX Japanese computer game called Cannon Ball ( also released in 1983 on the ZX Spectrum as Bubble Buster ) . Cannon Ball was made by Japanese publishers Hudson Soft , and possibly inspired Mitchell Corp. to make Buster Bros. six years later . [ citation needed ] In the game , the Buster brothers must finish a round-the-world quest to destroy bouncing balloons that are terrorizing several of Earth 's landmarks and cities . The fight to save the Earth begins on Mt . Fuji , Japan , where the brothers must pass all three stages before moving on to the next location . Conversions for home systems were produced by Ocean Software in 1990 for the ZX Spectrum , Commodore 64 , Amstrad CPC , Amiga , MS-DOS and Atari ST .
A personal computer ( PC ) is a multi-purpose computer whose size , capabilities , and price make it feasible for individual use . Personal computers are intended to be operated directly by an end user , rather than by a computer expert or technician . Unlike large costly minicomputers and mainframes , time-sharing by many people at the same time is not used with personal computers . Institutional or corporate computer owners in the 1960s had to write their own programs to do any useful work with the machines . While personal computer users may develop their own applications , usually these systems run commercial software , free-of-charge software ( freeware ) , which is most often proprietary , or free and open-source software , which is provided in ready-to-run , or binary , form . Software for personal computers is typically developed and distributed independently from the hardware or operating system manufacturers . Many personal computer users no longer need to write their own programs to make any use of a personal computer , although end-user programming is still feasible . This contrasts with mobile systems , where software is often only available through a manufacturer-supported channel , and end-user program development may be discouraged by lack of support by the manufacturer . Since the early 1990s , Microsoft operating systems and Intel hardware dominated much of the personal computer market , first with MS-DOS and then with Microsoft Windows . Alternatives to Microsoft 's Windows operating systems occupy a minority share of the industry . These include Apple 's macOS and free and open-source Unix-like operating systems . The advent of personal computers and the concurrent Digital Revolution have significantly affected the lives of people in all countries .
Microsoft Windows , commonly referred to as Windows , is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families , all of which are developed and marketed by Microsoft . Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry . Active Microsoft Windows families include Windows NT and Windows IoT ; these may encompass subfamilies , e.g . Windows Server or Windows Embedded Compact ( Windows CE ) . Defunct Microsoft Windows families include Windows 9x , Windows Mobile and Windows Phone . Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20 , 1985 , as a graphical operating system shell for MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces ( GUIs ) . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world 's personal computer ( PC ) market with over 90% market share , overtaking Mac OS , which had been introduced in 1984 . Apple came to see Windows as an unfair encroachment on their innovation in GUI development as implemented on products such as the Lisa and Macintosh ( eventually settled in court in Microsoft 's favor in 1993 ) . On PCs , Windows is still the most popular operating system . However , in 2014 , Microsoft admitted losing the majority of the overall operating system market to Android , because of the massive growth in sales of Android smartphones . In 2014 , the number of Windows devices sold was less than 25% that of Android devices sold . This comparison , however , may not be fully relevant , as the two operating systems traditionally target different platforms .
Unix ( /ˈjuːnɪks/ ; trademarked as UNIX ) is a family of multitasking , multiuser computer operating systems that derive from the original AT & T Unix , development starting in the 1970s at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson , Dennis Ritchie , and others . Initially intended for use inside the Bell System , AT & T licensed Unix to outside parties in the late 1970s , leading to a variety of both academic and commercial Unix variants from vendors including University of California , Berkeley ( BSD ) , Microsoft ( Xenix ) , IBM ( AIX ) , and Sun Microsystems ( Solaris ) . In the early 1990s , AT & T sold its rights in Unix to Novell , which then sold its Unix business to the Santa Cruz Operation ( SCO ) in 1995 . The UNIX trademark passed to The Open Group , a neutral industry consortium , which allows the use of the mark for certified operating systems that comply with the Single UNIX Specification ( SUS ) . Unix systems are characterized by a modular design that is sometimes called the Unix philosophy : the operating system provides a set of simple tools that each performs a limited , well-defined function , with a unified filesystem ( the Unix filesystem ) as the main means of communication , and a shell scripting and command language ( the Unix shell ) to combine the tools to perform complex workflows . Unix distinguishes itself from its predecessors as the first portable operating system : almost the entire operating system is written in the C programming language , thus allowing Unix to reach numerous platforms .
Linux ( /ˈlɪnəks/ ( listen ) LIN-əks ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel , an operating system kernel first released on September 17 , 1991 , by Linus Torvalds . Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution . Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries , many of which are provided by the GNU Project . Many Linux distributions use the word Linux in their name , but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software , causing some controversy . Popular Linux distributions include Debian , Fedora , and Ubuntu . Commercial distributions include Red Hat Enterprise Linux and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server . Desktop Linux distributions include a windowing system such as X11 or Wayland , and a desktop environment such as GNOME or KDE Plasma . Distributions intended for servers may omit graphics altogether , or include a solution stack such as LAMP . Because Linux is freely redistributable , anyone may create a distribution for any purpose . Linux was originally developed for personal computers based on the Intel x86 architecture , but has since been ported to more platforms than any other operating system . Linux is the leading operating system on servers and other big iron systems such as mainframe computers , and the only OS used on TOP500 supercomputers ( since November 2017 , having gradually eliminated all competitors ) . It is used by around 2.3 percent of desktop computers .
The GNU General Public License ( GNU GPL or GPL ) is a widely used free software license that guarantees end users the freedom to run , study , share , and modify the software . The license was originally written by Richard Stallman , former head of the Free Software Foundation ( FSF ) , for the GNU Project , and grants the recipients of a computer program the rights of the Free Software Definition . The GPL is a copyleft license , which means that derivative work must be distributed under the same or equivalent license terms . This is in distinction to permissive software licenses , of which the BSD licenses and the MIT License are widely-used less-restrictive examples . GPL was the first copyleft license for general use . Historically , the GPL license family has been one of the most popular software licenses in the free and open-source software domain . Prominent free-software programs licensed under the GPL include the Linux kernel and the GNU Compiler Collection ( GCC ) . David A. Wheeler argues that the copyleft provided by the GPL was crucial to the success of Linux-based systems , giving the programmers who contributed to the kernel the assurance that their work would benefit the whole world and remain free , rather than being exploited by software companies that would not have to give anything back to the community . In 2007 , the third version of the license ( GPLv3 ) was released to address some perceived problems with the second version ( GPLv2 ) which were discovered during the latter 's long-time usage . To keep the license up to date , the GPL license includes an optional any later version clause , allowing users to choose between the original terms or the terms in new versions as updated by the FSF . Developers can omit it when licensing their software ; the Linux kernel , for instance , is licensed under GPLv2 without the any later version clause .
Microsoft Windows , commonly referred to as Windows , is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families , all of which are developed and marketed by Microsoft . Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry . Active Microsoft Windows families include Windows NT and Windows IoT ; these may encompass subfamilies , e.g . Windows Server or Windows Embedded Compact ( Windows CE ) . Defunct Microsoft Windows families include Windows 9x , Windows Mobile and Windows Phone . Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20 , 1985 , as a graphical operating system shell for MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces ( GUIs ) . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world 's personal computer ( PC ) market with over 90% market share , overtaking Mac OS , which had been introduced in 1984 . Apple came to see Windows as an unfair encroachment on their innovation in GUI development as implemented on products such as the Lisa and Macintosh ( eventually settled in court in Microsoft 's favor in 1993 ) . On PCs , Windows is still the most popular operating system . However , in 2014 , Microsoft admitted losing the majority of the overall operating system market to Android , because of the massive growth in sales of Android smartphones . In 2014 , the number of Windows devices sold was less than 25% that of Android devices sold . This comparison , however , may not be fully relevant , as the two operating systems traditionally target different platforms .
The X Window System ( X11 , or simply X ) is a windowing system for bitmap displays , common on Unix-like operating systems . X provides the basic framework for a GUI environment : drawing and moving windows on the display device and interacting with a mouse and keyboard . X does not mandate the user interface - this is handled by individual programs . As such , the visual styling of X-based environments varies greatly ; different programs may present radically different interfaces . X originated at the Project Athena at Massachusetts Institute of Technology ( MIT ) in 1984 . [ better source needed ] The X protocol has been at version 11 ( hence X11 ) since September 1987 . The X.Org Foundation leads the X project , with the current reference implementation , X.Org Server , available as free and open source software under the MIT License and similar permissive licenses .
Commodore Format was a British magazine for users of the Commodore 64 home computer . It was published on the third Thursday of every month . All 61 issues were produced by Future plc . These came towards the end of the machine 's commercial life - from October 1990 until October 1995 .
Freeware is software , most often proprietary , that is distributed at no monetary cost to the end user . There is no agreed-upon set of rights , license , or EULA that defines freeware unambiguously ; every publisher defines its own rules for the freeware it offers . For instance , modification , redistribution by third parties , and reverse engineering without the author 's permission are permitted by some publishers but prohibited by others . Unlike with free and open-source software , which are also often distributed free of charge , the source code for freeware is typically not made available . Freeware may be intended to benefit its producer by , for example , encouraging sales of a more capable version , as in the freemium and shareware business models .