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Other Projects => Other Games => Topic started by: ein on May 17, 2009, 06:37:43 pm

Title: The Game of Life
Post by: ein on May 17, 2009, 06:37:43 pm
Most of you should know what the game of life is, but for those who don't:
It is a cellular automaton created by John Conway in 1970.
The rules are simple:

There are many types of patterns:
Still Life: an object that does not move.
Spaceship: an object that moves. My avatar is a glider, the smallest spaceship.
Puffer: an object that moves and leaves behind debris. There are two kinds of puffers: dirty and clean puffers. Dirty puffers leave behind seemingly random trails of debris; clean puffers leave behind more predictable patterns of debris.
Rake: a puffer whose debris is spaceships.
Gun: a (mostly) stationary object that emits spaceships.
Oscillator: a pattern that repeats itself after a certain number of generations.

A well-done life program can be found at conwaylife.com (http://conwaylife.com). It also has an attached wiki with pretty much every major pattern. These rules are also the rules used for herb growing in ADOM.

Discuss.
Title: Re: The Game of Life
Post by: woose1 on May 17, 2009, 06:46:14 pm
Two questions:
1. Who are you? And welcome to the forum.
2. Is this a game or a simulator?
Title: Re: The Game of Life
Post by: ein on May 17, 2009, 06:53:32 pm
1. I am ein, that is all you need to know.

2. It is both. Wikipedia says it is a "zero-player game." That means you input the information and watch as the chaos ensues. Kinda like DF, but with less elves and magma, and more cellular automation.
Title: Re: The Game of Life
Post by: lumin on May 17, 2009, 07:02:36 pm
Darn, you got my hopes up.  I really thought you were talking about The Milton Bradley classic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Game_of_Life) :'(
Title: Re: The Game of Life
Post by: zestorum on May 17, 2009, 07:08:08 pm
I'll share my pattern. It gives birth to a star right before your eyes and it looks awesome.

pattern:
---
- -
 -
- -
---

please note that the gaps are not that far apart, there are no gaps at all.
Title: Re: The Game of Life
Post by: ein on May 17, 2009, 07:14:01 pm
Pattern sharing works better with code tags.
If this is the pattern you showed:
Code: [Select]
...
. .
 .
. .
...it creates a pulsar. That's pretty awesome.
Title: Re: The Game of Life
Post by: woose1 on May 17, 2009, 07:14:49 pm
Code: [Select]
----
 ----
Gives birth to four squares.
Title: Re: The Game of Life
Post by: zestorum on May 17, 2009, 07:16:29 pm
Quote from: ein on May 17, 2009, 07:14:01 pm
Pattern sharing works better with code tags.
If this is the pattern you showed:
Code: [Select]
...
. .
 .
. .
...it creates a pulsar. That's pretty awesome.
it looks more like a sun to me.
Title: Re: The Game of Life
Post by: ein on May 17, 2009, 07:22:22 pm
It's called a pulsar according to the lifewiki, but yeah, it does look like a sun.

r-pentomino swastika:
Code: [Select]
   ..
  ..
.  . .
... ...
 . .  .
   ..
  ..

Creates an awesome galaxy-like thing before vanishing.
I call it the warthog wormhole.
Title: Re: The Game of Life
Post by: SHAD0Wdump on May 17, 2009, 08:28:54 pm
Quote from: ein on May 17, 2009, 07:22:22 pm
r-pentomino swastika:
Code: [Select]
   ..
  ..
.  . .
... ...
 . .  .
   ..
  ..
Too bad it doesn't last very long.

Code: [Select]
    █
     █
     █
   ██
  █
  █
   █

Don't have a name for it,it doesn't do anything incredible except basically explode.

EDIT:did this...

Code: [Select]
    █
     █
     █
 █ ██ █
  █ 
  █
   █
Lasts a hell of a lot longer.

Code: [Select]
  ███
    █

    █
    ███
Makes a bunch of gliders in the end.

Code: [Select]
  ███
   █

   █
  ███
Another way to create the pulsar.
Title: Re: The Game of Life
Post by: ein on May 17, 2009, 08:46:02 pm
Lengthening the sides:
Code: [Select]
.  ....
. ..
.  . .
... ...
 . .  .
   .. .
....  .
makes it shrink instead of just vanishing.
Title: Re: The Game of Life
Post by: SHAD0Wdump on May 17, 2009, 08:47:44 pm
As you can see from my extensive editing,I like this program...

ANOTHER EDIT:

Code: [Select]
█     █
  █   █
  ██ ██


  █████
 █     █
This guy looks angry,but you'll see several hearts in his temper tantrum.

I'm callin' the quits,gotta gets some shut-eye.
Title: Re: The Game of Life
Post by: ein on May 17, 2009, 08:53:28 pm
Life is awesome.
And it's from 1970.
It's older than NetHack.
Title: Re: The Game of Life
Post by: Vattic on May 17, 2009, 08:54:46 pm
I made a screensaver a long while back that uses the same rules.
Title: Re: The Game of Life
Post by: ein on May 17, 2009, 08:55:46 pm
Awesome. Did it pick random starting cells?
Title: Re: The Game of Life
Post by: cowofdoom78963 on May 17, 2009, 08:57:34 pm
Hey everybody, try this!

Code: [Select]
░░░◙◙◙░
◙░░◙░░░
◙░░◙░░░
◙◙◙◙◙◙◙
░░░◙░░◙
░░░◙░░◙
░◙◙◙░░░
creates a beutiful display and in the finally releases 4 gliders and 4 fans.
Really, I never would have imagined me being imature would create something so beutiful, thats why I like this game.
Title: Re: The Game of Life
Post by: ein on May 17, 2009, 09:14:14 pm
The goblin:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
explodes into gore.
Title: Re: The Game of Life
Post by: Broose on May 17, 2009, 09:56:33 pm
Code: [Select]
   --    --
   -      -
   -      -
 -  -   -  -
 -  -   -  -
   -      - 

That's a cool little pattern I just discovered.
Title: Re: The Game of Life
Post by: Rilder on May 17, 2009, 11:03:06 pm
is there any easy way to input these patters Its hard to do them manually.
Title: Re: The Game of Life
Post by: ein on May 17, 2009, 11:06:06 pm
On conwaylife.com, if you hold down the mouse button, when you drag it off of a square, it will come to life.
Title: Re: The Game of Life
Post by: Alexhans on May 17, 2009, 11:11:50 pm
I've toyed with it for a while long time ago.

I even downloaded some variations.

But there's a limit with what you can do with it.

It's more of a simulation based on certain axioms than a game.
Title: Re: The Game of Life
Post by: Muz on May 18, 2009, 05:54:08 am
I dunno, I got bored with Life. There's no objective to it other than watch squiggly patterns move around. To each his own, I suppose.

Lol, I remember the mid-90s when those 300 games on 1 cd had at least 20 Life games on it. Apparently a lot of people thought that the best of computers would be to play Life.
Title: Re: The Game of Life
Post by: qwertyuiopas on May 18, 2009, 10:01:03 am
Have you seen the program at http://www.mirekw.com/ca/ (http://www.mirekw.com/ca/)?
I hasn't been updated since 2001, and can occasionally crash on you, but it supports practically any ruleset imagineable...
Title: Re: The Game of Life
Post by: Ampersand on May 18, 2009, 06:08:25 pm
http://vimeo.com/3124876
Title: Re: The Game of Life
Post by: Magnnus on May 18, 2009, 06:58:40 pm
Quote from: Ampersand on May 18, 2009, 06:08:25 pm
http://vimeo.com/3124876

Someone had way to much time.
Title: Re: The Game of Life
Post by: Muz on May 19, 2009, 09:14:41 am
Quote from: Magnnus on May 18, 2009, 06:58:40 pm
Quote from: Ampersand on May 18, 2009, 06:08:25 pm
http://vimeo.com/3124876

Someone had way to much time.

Lol, something a DF player or engineer would do.
Title: Re: The Game of Life
Post by: Alexhans on May 19, 2009, 04:00:47 pm
lol.  :D

Don't tell me this is not ART!

people express themselves with software in a way that few people understand!
Title: Re: The Game of Life
Post by: olemars on May 19, 2009, 04:37:49 pm
Quote from: Muz on May 19, 2009, 09:14:41 am
Quote from: Magnnus on May 18, 2009, 06:58:40 pm
Quote from: Ampersand on May 18, 2009, 06:08:25 pm
http://vimeo.com/3124876

Someone had way to much time.

Lol, something a DF player or engineer would do.

A true DF player would implement a Conway automaton in his fortress, using only water and a clever system of levers, pressure plates and floodgates.