** Game Of Life DEMO ****

by Theo Kandiliotis
ionikh@hol.gr

ABOUT THE GAME OF LIFE

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The Game of Life, which was developed by John Conway,is a simulation of cellular
activity. Each cell's survival is determined by certain rules.If a cell is bord
ered by one or no other cells, then it will die, because it has removed itself f
rom the group. If a cell is bordered by two, three, or four other cells, it will
survive. If a cell has five or more neighbors, it will die from lack of suffici
ent food and resources. If an empty area is surrounded by three cells, a new cel
l will grow. These rules are fairly simple and straightforward. Because every ce
lls's survival depends on fellow cells, a complex interdependency develops. This
is why the Game of Life is closely related to Chaos. Small changes, even in one
cell, has a ripple effect that alters every cell in the colony. This ripple eff
ect is very prominent in chaos. An interesting quote sums it up : A butterfly fl
apping its wings in Hong Kong will create a thunderstorm in New York a month lat
er.
ABOUT THIS VB5 PROJECT
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Before the demo begins you will be asked to enter an integer from 25 to 1000 as
the size for the square cells (measured in twips) .Notice that the speed of the
demo increases proportially to the number you type in.Large cells meens a smalle
r colony since the available room is your screen .Ofcourse a small colony doesn'
t have much growth potential,it will probably stop expanding after a few generat
ions.After you make this settings ,the simutation begins with a random cell colo
ny. The little squares you'll see in the screen each represent a cell. The cell'
s color changes as it ages. During the demo you may:
See a status of the colony with the F1 key
Restart the colony with R
Adjust the size of the cells with S
Exit with Escape
Have fun!
Theo Kandiliotis , ionikh@hol.gr