MonoLife

Life  is a game invented by the mathematician  J.H.  Conway.   The 
rules  are  simple,   but  the  consequences  of  the  rules   are 
remarkable.

The  game board is a two-dimensional grid.   Initially some  cells 
are  placed  on  some squares of the grid.   Cells  live  and  die 
subject to the following rules:

1.   If  a cell has exactly two or three neighbors,  it  survives.  
     Otherwise it dies.
2.   If  exactly three cells are neighbors to an empty  square,  a 
     new cell will be born on that square.

A  cell's  neighbors  are all  cells  on  adjacent  squares.   For 
example, a cell (C) can have at most 8 neighbors:

-------
|1|2|3|
-------
|4|C|5|
-------
|6|7|8|
-------
 

                       Running the Program  

This program works only on Atari ST monochrome  systems.   Double-
click the program icon,  and the program will randomly place cells 
on  the  grid.   Then the grid will change subject  to  the  above 
rules.  To make the program randomly place new cells on the board, 
press and hold down the right mouse button.   To quit the program, 
press and hold down the left mouse button.   

As the program runs,  you will see order and symmetry evolving out 
of randomness and chaos.   The complex and synergistic behavoir of 
the cells on the grid is amazing considering the simplicity of the 
rules determining this behavoir!


                         More About Life

See  Martin  Gardner's  "Wheels,   Life,  and  other  Mathematical 
Amusements."   Also  Gardner wrote an article about  Life  in  his 
Mathematical  Games column in Scientific American in  1973.   Life 
has been discussed in A.K.  Dewdney's Computer Recreations  column 
in Scientific American.





                      More About the Program

This program is public domain.  Copies can be made and distributed 
freely.  The program was written by:

Eric Bergman-Terrell
Cadenza Software, Ltd.
1704 Imperial Ridge
Las Cruces, NM  88001

The program was written in 68000 assembly language,  assembled  by 
the AssemPro assembler sold by Abacus Software.

Enjoy the program!