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Hi Guys,

Im new to the Game of Life so I dont have much experience in this field.
I would like to know what the main differences of the normal GoL and the HighLife are and what other interesting patterns exist in HighLife next to the replicator.

Also can you link me to a good site where I can look at all the different patterns in motion?

Last question would be whether there are any eaters that can eat e.g. Gliders regardless from where and in which state they impact. Fishhook is small and thats nice but it can be destroyed so easy if the Glider doesnt hit at the exact right spot .

Thanks and best regards,
Ezekiel

Hi Ezekiel!

The main (and only!) difference between Life and HighLife, of course, is the B6 condition. The simplest patterns this affects are the ship, hat, and all two-parallel-islands still lifes like tables or bookends. Important differences are also that almost all small seeds (T-tetromino, honey farm precedessors, lumps of muck, queen bee, R-pentomino, B-heptomino, ∏-heptomino) stabilize faster, perhaps dying out entirely… try running them step by step in both and see if you notice where they diverge! (See the LifeWiki or Life Lexicon if you're not familiar with some of the preceding terms. HighLife pattern collections are also link'd from the wiki)

As for eaters, the variant of Eater 2 with two aircraft carriers may be the most versatile — it can eat gliders on six different tracks: (This is out of (24+18)×2 = 84 collision lanes altogether, ie. able to eat 1 out of 14 gliders. There are also 8 lanes that instead of blowing the thing up, just turn one of the ACs into a block)

Eater 5 is also somewhat versatile, able to eat from two different directions.

Thanks very much for the easy to understand but detailed answers! Im gonna try some stuff in the Golly program I just discovered = ).

As for perfect eaters, http://conwaylife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=269 has a discussion on the topic.