Conway’s Game of Life
Instructions
You can toggle the color of any square by clicking on it with mouse or draw longer lines by holding mouse button pressed while moving. You can control the simulation using the icons with mouse or keyboard. From left to right the icon functions are are:
| Button | Key | Function |
| Randomize | Add random cells to currently viewed area | |
| Reset | ESC | Reset simulation and view |
| Play | Space | Start playback or step one in slow mode |
| Pause | Space | Pause simulation |
| Speed up | + | Increase simulation speed |
| Speed down | - | Decrease simulation speed |
| Zoom in | Page Up | Increase zoom level |
| Zoom out | Page Down | Decrease zoom level |
| Center view | ENTER | Center view to 0,0 coordinates |
Randomizing only works when the simulation is paused or in slow mode. Decreasing speed to minimum causes the simulation to enter slow mode, in which additional steps are only made when user requests them (either by pressing SPACE or clicking the PLAY icon). Move the view around with arrow keys.
Center icon from Led24.de
All other icons from VistaICO.com
About Life
The Game of Life, also known simply as Life, is a cellular automaton devised by the British mathematician John Horton Conway in 1970.
The game universe is an infinite two-dimensional grid of square cells, each of which has two possible states: live or dead. Every cell has eight neighbours and in each generation the number of live neighbours is calculated for each cell separetely. The cells live and die according to these rules:
- If a live cell has two or three live neighbours, it remains alive to the next generation
- If a live cell has fewer than two or more than three live neighbours, it dies
- If a dead cell has exactly three live neighbours, it becomes alive to the next generation
These rules produce varying patterns depending on the configuration of the cells. You can start with random cells and see what emerges or try out some known patterns. One simple and interesting start configuration is a straight line.