Games in CA

[NoAyeBeardo]

I think it is possible to make games in cellular automata.

Wireworld seems like a good candidate, as it has easy transmission.

Star Wars Rule also seems good, as the signals are good at transmitting information.

In Conway's Game Of Life, however, it's a different story. Transmitting signals will have to use gliders, and inputting will be hard.

Here is a game where every 50 generations you have to input generation/50 + 1 signals in the appropriate spots.

Code: Select all

x = 49, y = 32, rule = WireWorld
26.5C10.C2.5C$21.2C7.C.5C3.2C2.C$22.C6.C6.C2.C.C2.C$22.C5.C5.3C.C2.C3.
3C$22.C4.C8.C.5C5.C$20.5C.5C.5C4.C3.3C3$22.25C$22.C5.C5.C5.C5.C2$.21C
AB23C$C$C$C$C$C$C$C$.19C$.C17.C$.C17.C$.C9.5C3.C$.C6.4C4.C2.C$.C5.C3.
C3.2CBAC$.C5.C2.4C2.C$.C5.C2.C2.3C$.C5.C2.4C$.C5.C3.C$.C5.C3.C$.C6.3C
$.7C!

This is probably the most boring game ever, but it is a start.

[Freywa]

There have been non-zero-player games developed in Conway's Life, of course. See Interactive Life for example – we might start a thread on this to see if we can better or extend any of the results there!

Edit: I have started a thread for collecting results on this variant.

[bubblegum]

ofc, there's carykh's Game of Life and Death. I was thinking somewhere along these lines but using rpslife or maybe doubleb3s23 instead.

[GUYTU6J]

Hey, why not design rules for games?
For instance, a game that asks one to lay pipes to connect a water souce to a sink needs the following states:

Code: Select all

state 0 background
state 1 water source right 
state 2 water source up
state 3 water source left
state 4 water source down
state 5-8 water sink empty right/up/left/down
state 9-12 water sink filled 
state 13-23 pipe fixed empty
state 24-34 pipe fixed filled
state 35 brick fixed
state 36-46 pipe movable empty
state 47-57 pipe movable filled

It will run on a square grid with von Neumann neighbourhood.

[Hunting]

All of you seems to misunderstand the topic:

I think it is possible to make games in cellular automata.

Wireworld seems like a good candidate, as it has easy transmission.

Star Wars Rule also seems good, as the signals are good at transmitting information.

In Conway's Game Of Life, however, it's a different story. Transmitting signals will have to use gliders, and inputting will be hard.

Here is a game where every 50 generations you have to input generation/50 + 1 signals in the appropriate spots.

Code: Select all

x = 49, y = 32, rule = WireWorld
26.5C10.C2.5C$21.2C7.C.5C3.2C2.C$22.C6.C6.C2.C.C2.C$22.C5.C5.3C.C2.C3.
3C$22.C4.C8.C.5C5.C$20.5C.5C.5C4.C3.3C3$22.25C$22.C5.C5.C5.C5.C2$.21C
AB23C$C$C$C$C$C$C$C$.19C$.C17.C$.C17.C$.C9.5C3.C$.C6.4C4.C2.C$.C5.C3.
C3.2CBAC$.C5.C2.4C2.C$.C5.C2.C2.3C$.C5.C2.4C$.C5.C3.C$.C5.C3.C$.C6.3C
$.7C!

This is probably the most boring game ever, but it is a start.

It's talking about building an Xbox game circuitry. Of course, people already thought of this before, but I don't think there are any serious research on it.

I made a similar attempt but failed to make any puzzles. There's also a Conway's Game of Life Tetris game on the PPCG site but it's really really silly.

BokaBB, please think twice before saying "no". I take your point but this is a reasonably good idea.

[Lewis]

I did not misunderstood anything. He wants to make games in cellular automata. Not a golden idea,since CA are science and ONLY science for me. Also,this must be in the Sandbox forum,since this no way belongs to the Other Cellular Automata forum. I hope that moderators will remove it.
Have a good day!

BokaBB

Hey, just because CA are 'science and only science' to you, it doesn't mean they have to be for the rest of the forum.

Anyway, this is a topic that I had considered a bit way way back, inspired by seeing something with a 7-segment display that had been built in WireWorld (can't find a link to it now). I always wondered how feasible it would be to create a variation on this with a grid of square 'pixels' that could switch on and off in the same way as these segments, and if simple games could be implemented in this way - I'm thinking the likes of Tetris or Lights Out, or that Nokia snake game that every phone seemed to have a variation of back in '07 or so.

Controls could be done by large 'pads' that when clicked while running would detect a change in state of one of its cells and pass this into the circuit. But then there'd be (I'd assume) headaches with timing everything correctly. In the case of games like tetris where there's an element of player timing skill involved, the delay between button being pressed and signals reaching the screen might need to be taken into account?
(Combining this with the fact that I can't build a thing in WireWorld (or even develop a related rule with new states to better facilitate major league Golly gaming), I never really looked into it very much further than this. I'm always one to back down from a good challenge when one presents itself.)

[dvgrn]

Still,not a good idea. I hope that moderators will move this to Sandbox forum,where things like this belong.

It's easy enough to move this topic to the Sandbox, and there's no problem doing that as long as nobody minds.

If anyone objects, I'll equally happily move the topic right back to OCA, since this seems to me to be a perfectly valid topic. In general it would be better not to bother moderators about moving things around that really don't need to be moved.

A similar topic came up a while ago in CGoL, by the way. A few different "control panels" were designed that would allow the Quest-for-Tetris computer to be controlled from inside Golly, by turning on a single cell -- better than having to draw a glider every time, definitely, but maybe there's still something better.

[NoAyeBeardo]

Here is a version of the previous game I made. It starts off at 4 signals and adds 3 signals every 138 generations. I'll try and make a ultra-complex logic gate and the user has to input the right signals.

Code: Select all

x = 229, y = 36, rule = WireWorld
114.115C$114.C5.C5.C5.C5.C5.C5.C5.C5.C5.C5.C5.C5.C5.C5.C5.C5.C5.C5.C5.
C2$.113CAB4CAB4CAB4CAB95C$C$C$C$C$C$.55C$.C53.C$.C53.C$.C45.5C3.C$.C42.
4C4.C2.C$.C41.C3.C3.5C$.C41.C2.4C2.C$.C41.C2.C2.3C$.C41.C2.4C$.C41.C3.
C$.C27.5C9.C3.C$.C24.4C4.C9.3C$.C23.C3.C3.11C$.C23.C2.4C2.C$.C23.C2.C
2.3C$.C23.C2.4C$.C23.C3.C$.C9.5C9.C3.C$.C6.4C4.C9.3C$.C5.C3.C3.11C$.C
5.C2.4C2.C$.C5.C2.C2.3C$.C5.C2.4C$.C5.C3.C$.C5.C3.C$.B6.3C$.2A5C!

[Hunting]

Still,not a good idea. I hope that moderators will move this to Sandbox forum,where things like this belong.

It's easy enough to move this topic to the Sandbox, and there's no problem doing that as long as nobody minds.

If anyone objects, I'll equally happily move the topic right back to OCA, since this seems to me to be a perfectly valid topic. In general it would be better not to bother moderators about moving things around that really don't need to be moved.

A similar topic came up a while ago in CGoL, by the way. A few different "control panels" were designed that would allow the Quest-for-Tetris computer to be controlled from inside Golly, by turning on a single cell -- better than having to draw a glider every time, definitely, but maybe there's still something better.

I strongly object since this is a perfectly valid OCA project.

[bubblegum]

I strongly object since this is a perfectly valid OCA project.

...which is also a perfectly valid CGOL project. What's your point?!