Watch your own colonies of life forms with this screen saver based upon John Conways LIFE. Great fun to watch, and this screensaver has an interactive mode that allows you to play with them. The look and feel of this one was inspired by a Spectrum 48K version I saw many years ago!
Instructions
Life is a funny algorithm that was originally discovered by a guy called John Conway. This screen saver uses the same algorithm to explore many wonderful patterns that seem to take a life of their own.
This version expands upon just watching the lifeforms and allows you to interact with them to make your own.
Download and run the installer (link below) and Life will be placed in your screen saver list. You can change the time before the screen saver starts at any time by going into your Display control panel. When the screen saver kicks in, you will see a random life pattern running. Every so often, the life pattern will regenerate. To interact with the screensaver click the right mouse button. This will bring up a menu where you can stop and start the life cycles, load and save life patterns and start drawing your own life patterns. When in drawing mode, click on an empty space to create a life tile, and click on a life tile to remove it. Remember to pause the life cycle while you are drawing!
Unlike many screensavers, this won’t eat up your resources and has an uninstaller if you want to remove it.
Have fun, and see if you can discover some of the more interesting life patterns!