Feel free to post Life-related links in this thread. For an up-to-date list of some of the most important Life links, see
this LifeWiki page.
Introductory Articles•
Wikipedia page•
What is the Game of Life? - Math.com
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The fantastic combinations of John Conway's new solitaire game "life" - The original article describing Conway's Game of Life. Written by Martin Gardner and published in the October 1970 issue of Scientific American.
Research Papers•
Searching for Spaceships - A paper by David Eppstein describing spaceship search software and the discovery of the
weekender•
The still-Life density problem and its generalizations - A paper by Noam Elkies that proves the still life conjecture that no infinite still life can have density more than 1/2
Glossaries and Encyclopedias• Our very own
LifeWiki•
The Life Lexicon by Stephen Silver (see also
this version by Edwin Martin)
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A Brief Illustrated Glossary of Terms in Conway's Game of Life by Alan Hensel
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Conway’s Game of Life - An Illustrated Guide by Michael Hogg
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Treasure Trove of the Life Cellular Automaton by Eric Weisstein
Online Pattern Catalogs•
Alien life - Pattern collections focusing on Life-like cellular automata other than Conway's Game of Life itself
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Game of Life Object Catalogs at Pentadecathlon - contains most small still lifes, oscillators and spaceships
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Mark D. Niemiec's Life Page - contains lots of well-known patterns, sorted by either name, glider synthesis, size, or type (via archive.org)
Downloadable Pattern Catalogs•
Jason Summers' pattern collections• Pattern collections by Alan Hensel:
lifebc.zip (basic collection),
lifep.zip (larger collection), and
lifepw.zip (collection including other rules)
Blogs and News Sites•
Game of Life News at Pentadecathlon
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Conway's Life: Work in Progress - a blog by Dave Greene
Other Personal Life Pages•
David Bell•
Paul Callahan•
Calcyman - stable technology, Corderships, and current unsolved problems
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David Eppstein - Gliders in Life-like cellular automata
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Achim Flammenkamp•
Nick Gotts - Game of Life Patterns with Eventful Histories
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Dean Hickerson•
Mark Niemiec•
Gabriel Nivasch - A variety of articles and code.
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Andrzej Okrasinski•
Stephen SilverDownloadable Simulation Software•
Golly - Linux, Mac, Windows
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Life32 - Windows
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LifeLab - Mac
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Mirek's Cellebration - Linux, Mac, Windows
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WinLife (direct FTP link) - Windows 3.1
Downloadable Computation and/or Search Software•
Catalyst v1.0 by Gabriel Navasch - Finds ways of modifying the evolution of an input pattern by placing catalysts that react with it, by a backtracking search. Written in C++.
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CatForce by Michael Simkin - fast brute-force testing of arrangements of potential catalysts for signal-processing reactions. Written in C, based on the LifeAPI library.
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CollisionsSearch v 0.1a by Sergei Petrov (Guam) - finds arrangements usually of small Spartan or near-Spartan objects, with various constraints. Similar to CatForce, but with a GUI.
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gencols by Paul Callahan - Enumerates collisions between patterns (e.g. gliders and still lifes). Includes output filters to detect oscillators, spaceships, or successful eating of one pattern by another. Life evolution rule is hardcoded as a sequence of bit-parallel integer operations (so it's possible to change but not easy). Written in C.
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gfind v4.8 by David Eppstein - Search program for low-period spaceships. Extends partial patterns a row at a time, keeping track of rows in all phases of the pattern. Includes modes for finding symmetric patterns. Written in C.
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gsearch by David Eppstein - Performs a brute force search of all patterns fitting within a small rectangle. Evolves each pattern for a specified number of generations or until it repeats, grows too large, or matches a previously seen pattern. Recognizes spaceships, oscillators, unstable oscillators (such as queen bee and p90), replicators, and some puffers. Includes modes for finding symmetric patterns. Written in C.
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Hersrch by Karel Suhajda (via archive.org - the original site is down) - Searches for open or closed Herschel tracks in Conway's Game of Life, using a database of known static and periodic track components. Written in C++.
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JavaLifeSearch, or JLS - a Java port of lifesrc, with a GUI similar to WinLifeSearch, by Karel Suhajda.
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lifesrc v3.8 by David Bell - Search program for oscillators. Written in C.
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ofind v0.9 by David Eppstein - Searches for low-period oscillators. Similar to gfind, but extends patterns in all phases simultaneously rather than a single phase at a time, and includes special handling of stator cells. User can specify what spark the oscillator should produce, or how it should interact with neighboring patterns of other periods. Written in C.
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Random Agar v1.1 by Gabriel Navasch - Looks for new Life oscillators, wicks, and agars. Generates random spatially periodic patterns, and runs them until they oscillate. Includes complete support for all possible symmetry types. Written in C++.
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Paul Chapman's Seeds of Destruction Game - Manual search assistant for self-destruct circuitry, efficient glider-construction cleanups, reburnable fuses, etc. Java application.
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WLS 0.71 (WinLifeSearch) - a Windows port of lifesrc, with a GUI to help with setup. Windows executables are included in the zip files; source code is on
github.
Other Links Pages•
dmoz: Open Directory Project•
Golly Help: References