Conway's Game of Life as a Two Player Game with AI
The Game of Life is the best known cellular automaton, designed by John Conway in 1970.
JLifeGen is not just another Game of Life simulator, it allows a two-colour variant of Life to be played as a competitive game. This is similar to an old Microsoft program for Windows 3.1, called LifeGenesis.
Program features include:
- Multi document user interface allowing multiple games and simulators to be run at once
- Reading and writing of LIF format text files produced by other Life software
- Adjustable rules for the simulator (cell counts for birth and survival)
- Adjustable rules for the game (cell changes allowed per move, turn limit)
- Some random AI players, which provide an easy skill level opponent for the two-player game
- Some brute force AI players, which although not truly smart, provide hard skill levels for the game
Screenshot
Here is JLifeGen running the famous Gosper glider gun pattern, and also a game is in progress.
Requirements
JLifeGen is programmed in Java, at least 1.5 (Java 5) is required, Java 1.6 (Java 6) is recommended.
For Windows, if you have never run a Java program on your computer before, you need to install the Java software.
Go to Java.com and follow the links to download and install Java.
Many Linux based systems now have Java easily available thanks to the openjdk project.
I think Apple Macs come with Java pre-installed as part of the operating system, you don't need to download anything extra.
Download
Downloads are available from the sourceforge files area.
Three packages are available:
- jlifegen-VER-YYYYMMDD.jar - the executable Java archive. This is all you need to run the program.
- jlifegen-src-VER-YYYYMMDD.zip - the source code, released under the GPLv2+.
- jlifegen-full-VER-YYYYMMDD.zip - the source code + compiled class files + javadoc programmer documentation + a copy of junit for running the tests.
History
- 1.0.1 - 20090328 - Bug fixing update.
- 2 unfortunate bugs were fixed.
- Minor fixes/improvements to the user interface.
- The icons were replaced.
- 1.0 - 20070630 - Initial public release. The code is the same as what was submitted for my final year Computer Science project at the University of Warwick. The actual code has not changed for a few months, most development took place around January 2007.
Contact
ejs1920 at yahoo dot co dot uk, be sure to include jlifegen in the subject.
Hosted by sourceforge
