XBill

{{Infobox software

| name = XBill

| logo = XBill.png

| screenshot = Gnome-xbill level 20 gnome-games 1.4.0.3 sshot20040803.png

| caption = Gnome XBill level 20

| author = Brian Wellington and Matías Duarte

| released = {{Start date and age|1994|07|21|df=no}}

| latest release version = 2.1

| latest release date = {{Start date and age|2001|11|15|df=no}}

| repo = {{URL|https://sourceforge.net/projects/xbill/}}

| programming language = C

| platform = Linux, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, OpenMoko, Android, Maemo, iOS, FreeBSD, AmigaOS, BeOS, HaikuOS, OpenBSD, NetBSD, OS/2, Solaris, OpenSolaris.

| genre = Arcade game

| license = GPL (Emailware)[http://metadata.ftp-master.debian.org/changelogs/main/x/xbill/xbill_2.1-8_copyright xbill_2.1-8_copyright] on debian.org

| website = [http://www.xbill.org/ xbill.org]

}}

XBill is an arcade style game for the X Window System. The game features a bespectacled character known as "Bill" (a spoof of Bill Gates). The goal is to prevent Bill's legions of clones from installing "Wingdows", a virus "cleverly designed to resemble a popular operating system" (a parody of Windows), on a variety of computers running other operating systems. It was very popular among Linux gamers at the end of the 1990s, beating out Quake, though not Quake II, as Linux Journal reader's favourite Linux game in 1999.

Gameplay

The operating systems are represented by logos shown on the computer screens. The computers the player must defend include PCs running Linux and BSD, SPARCstations with Solaris, SGI IRIX workstations, Apple Macintosh, PalmPilots, and NeXTcubes. When Bill installs Wingdows onto a computer, its current operating system is placed beside it.

Using the mouse, the player must squash Bill and drag discarded operating systems back to their computers. At the end of the level, points are accrued for every computer that is still running its original operating system.

On later levels, computers are connected to each other with LAN cables, causing Wingdows to spread faster. Some computers may also catch fire. This can be cured by dragging buckets of water onto them.

History

The game was written by Brian Wellington and Matias Duarte in summer 1994.[http://www.xbill.org/ history] on xbill.org Originally written in C++, the code base was later with version 2.1 refactored to C.[http://www.xbill.org/xbill21.html xbill21] on xbill.org (2001)

The game was later in the end 1990s, deliberately ironically ported to Microsoft Windows.{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/19990508110858/http://www.azzit.de:80/xbill/ XBill for Wingdows]}} Ports to many other platforms as Mac OS X,[http://mac.softpedia.com/get/Games/XBill.shtml XBill (Mac)] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110928035857/http://mac.softpedia.com/get/Games/XBill.shtml |date=September 28, 2011 }} - Softpedia Openmoko, Android, and Maemo phones followed due to its open source nature.[http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/XBill XBill] - OpenMoko Wiki{{Cite web |url=http://maemo-apps.org/content/show.php/Xbill?content=44089 |title=XBill Maemo version |access-date=2010-05-05 |archive-date=2010-11-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101125185428/http://maemo-apps.org/content/show.php/Xbill?content=44089 |url-status=dead }} Re-implementations of the game also exist.[http://www.k-i-s.net/article.php?article=36 Kill XBill] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050306070437/http://www.k-i-s.net/article.php?article=36 |date=March 6, 2005 }}

In 2009, the project was resurrected as XBill-NG,[http://xbill-ng.tuxfamily.org/wiki/Main_Page XBill-NG Wiki] similar in concept to Lincity-NG.

Reception and impact

XBill was very popular among Linux gamers at the end of the 1990s, beating out Quake, though not Quake II, as Linux Journal readers' favourite Linux game in 1999.[http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/3731?page=0,3 1999 Reader's Choice Awards] - Linux Journal

The game holds four out of five stars on the Linux Game Tome{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20100619114225/http://www.happypenguin.org/show?XBill XBill]}} - The Linux Game Tome and was noted by DesktopLinux.com.[http://www.desktoplinux.com/articles/AT4744333774.html WinIndependence Day Essay - DesktopLinux.com] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100201073623/http://www.desktoplinux.com/articles/AT4744333774.html |date=February 1, 2010 }}

Despite its status, it is not always packaged with Linux distributions due to its "disparaging" content: for instance Fedora does not integrate it[http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/legal/2009-February/000553.html XBill Legal Opinion Required] - Fedora Project (February 2009) while Debian does.

Somewhat illustrating its notoriety, graphics from the game are used on the website of the 2009 Free Software Foundation campaign Windows 7 Sins.[http://en.windows7sins.org/ Windows 7 Sins website]