NightMare: Difference between revisions

Jump to: navigation, search
No edit summary
No edit summary
Line 6: Line 6:
|date = 1990
|date = 1990
}}
}}
'''NightMare''' was a [[screamer]] [[program]] developed in 1990 by Patrick Evans, which was distributed on [[wikipedia:Amiga|Amiga]] Fish Disk 448.<ref>amiga-stuff.com/pd/fish.html/</ref> The program's creator made it free to redistribute, and its source code was made publicly available.<ref>web.archive.org/web/20100829065252/<nowiki>http://amiga-fish.erkan.se/amiga-fish-disk-448-content-NightMare/</nowiki></ref> It is generally credited to be the first software of its kind.<ref>easyrider.easyrider.com/scareware_white_paper.htm</ref>
'''NightMare''' was a [[screamer]] [[program]] developed in 1990 by Patrick Evans for the [[wikipedia:Amiga|Amiga]] family of personal computers. It was distributed on Amiga [[wikipedia:Fred_Fish|Fish Disk]] 448.<ref>amiga-stuff.com/pd/fish.html/</ref> Evans made the program free to redistribute, and its source code was made publicly available.<ref>web.archive.org/web/20100829065252/<nowiki>http://amiga-fish.erkan.se/amiga-fish-disk-448-content-NightMare/</nowiki></ref> It is generally credited to be the first software of its kind.<ref>easyrider.easyrider.com/scareware_white_paper.htm</ref>


When the program is executed, it runs in the background. Every five minutes, the screen would display a digital illustration of a skull facing right with its jaws open, its teeth covered in blood, and a bleeding bullet hole in its side, accompanied by an echoing shriek.
When the program is executed, it runs in the background. Every five minutes, the screen would display a digital illustration of a skull facing right with its jaws open, its teeth covered in blood, and a bleeding bullet hole in its side, accompanied by an echoing shriek.


Very little information is available regarding this program, due to how old it is, and Amiga discontinuing their line of hardware in 1996.<ref>popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/a27437/amiga-2017-a1222-tabor</ref> A similar program called [[McDonalds.exe]] was developed in China in 1999 to disrupt newer operating systems like [[wikipedia:Windows 98|Windows 98]], followed by more types of scareware applications which emerged in the 2000s and 2010s.
Very little information is available regarding this program, due to how old it is, and Amiga discontinuing their line of hardware in 1996.<ref>popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/a27437/amiga-2017-a1222-tabor</ref>


==References==
==References==