You can get acquainted with John Conway's Game of Life here (external link).
You can access latest available Game of Life statistics here (Adobe Acrobat format). Current statistics is a result of simulating over 12 billion 20x20 initial random patterns in a flat universe. Each pattern produces some 25 stable and/or periodic objects.
You are welcome to email me regarding this website here.
Remark: linked files cannot be regular .lif files because Geocities restricts file uploads to just a few extensions. Instead, archives are linked.
Here are some remarkable methuselahs found when building the statistics:
13 cells, 29055 generations, found 7/13/2005, after tune up (2 gens & 2 cells) by David Bell 7/15/2005 (download)
19 cells, 28786 generations, found 8/20/2004 (download)
20 cells, 26458 generations, found 5/30/2004 (download)
You can download several patterns that yielded most cells here. Some of them are presented below:
5828 cells (highest observed number), top population 6217 (highest observed number)
4842 cells, top population 5646
4810 cells, top population 5426
What is special about this pattern (download) ?
It dies out completely after 743 generations (highest observed number)!
Some pattern evolve very quickly. This one yields 3560 cells in just 8072 generations.
Some stable objects can be naturally grouped in families e.g. long hook and eater can be arranged into 12 different stable objects:
Below is a summary of most frequent stable objects of sizes 23 thru 32:
Below is a summary of biggest objects found so far:
Below is a list of some events, which occurred while collecting data:
Date |
Event |
Nov 2003 |
Started to collect data from 20x20 random patterns.Algorithm used was some 100 times slower than currently used. |
Mar 6, 2004 |
First billion of stable objects found. |
May 2004 |
Switched to current algorithm. |
Oct 1, 2004 |
16-cell object type count reached 300. |
Feb 22, 2005 |
Found highest (4842) final population pattern so far (excluding puffers). |
May 15, 2005 |
16-cell object type count reached 400. |
May 30, 2005 |
Last time that 16-cell object type count led the statistics (at 46.8 billion total stable objects count); 17-cells "rule" since. |
Jul 13, 2005 |
Found "best" methuselah so far (13-cell, 29055 age, after tune-up by David Bell). |
Oct 31, 2005 |
17-cell object type count reached 500. |
May 15, 2006 |
Total stable object count reached 100 billion. |
Sep 1, 2006 |
17-cell object type count reached 600. |
Nov 15, 2006 |
Total number of stable object types reached 5000. |
Dec 31, 2006 |
100th periodic object type found. |
Apr 24, 2007 |
17-cell object type count reached 700. |
May 2, 2007 |
Developed version 1.5 of Life Screen Saver. |
Jun 22, 2007 |
Total stable object count reached 200 billion. |
Jul 25, 2007 |
Total number of stable object types reached 6000. |
Mar 25, 2008 |
17-cell object type count reached 800. |
Jun 11, 2008 |
Total stable object count reached 300 billion. |
Jun 26, 2008 |
Total number of stable object types reached 7000. |
Aug 25, 2008 |
17-cell object type count reached 900. |
Sep 4, 2008 |
Found highest (5828) final population pattern so far (excluding puffers). |
Oct 5, 2008 |
Total stable object count reached 400 billion. |
Nov 4, 2008 |
Total number of stable object types reached 8000. |
Dec 11, 2008 |
17-cell object type count reached 1000. |
Dec 12, 2008 |
Last time (so far) that 17-cell object type count led the statistics (at 469 billion total stable objects count); 18-cells "rule" since. |
Anyone interested can use the Life Screen Saver (current version 1.5) to build statistics at several million objects per hour per CPU. Installation is available from Simtel or this website. Current object name file, to be copied into c:\lifess\ folder, is available here. Results presented in a convenient .pdf document, generated from configuration dialog. Some email support can be obtained via email.(there is also a readme.txt file installed with the software). Sample screenshots follow:
diagrams
statistics
object lookup