Apparently it was invented by Hiroyuki Imabayashi in 1982. XSokoban is the one of the spiffiest versions of sokoban around, but it does not run under Windows. Versions of sokoban for Windows do exist. Even if you don't use XSokoban, you can participate in the global score list by entering solutions manually . The source code for various versions published by me and by comp.sources.x.
Installation notes A log of recent updates to the software.