Star Wars, also known as MirekGro, is a Generations rule devised by Mirek Wójtowicz in March 1999. Named after its behaviour that resembles deep space battle scenes, the rule can be described as follows:
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StarWars is also an interesting rule from the low-investment standpoint. In particular, it is notable for the abundance, intricacy, and variety of its naturally-occurring glider guns. In general when running "au naturel" StarWars is active to a degree almost reminiscent of Brain, with the distinction that it likes to build fixed lego-like skeletal structures. In some orbits this latter penchant reaches its zenith, and we get large universe-spanning "shells" possessing an intricate radiate geometry.
A collection of patterns in Star Wars rule is in Mirek's Cellebration. The rule can also run in modern simulators (e.g. golly and LifeViewer) that support Generations rules.
Still lives of population 5, 8, 10, 12 and above exists. The only 5-cell still life is the X-pentomino, or cross, which is a common extendable segment in larger still lives.
A group of still lives in the shape of rectangular boxes are invincible from inside, limiting the evolution similar to a finite plane; for a m×n plane the exterior has a bounding box of (m+4)×(n+4). An example with m=n=16 is shown above at lower-right corner.
Due to the two dying states, oscillators of period 2 and 3 are impossible. All periods ≥ 4 can be achieved.
Many oscillators consists of one or more lightspeed signals, led by a single state-1 cell each, that are running on the surface of the stator. Such extendable mechamism provides at least one specimen for every period ≥ 6. Specifically, jointing k copies of the X-pentomino orthogonally will give a still life with circumference 6k+6 cells (in terms of Moore neighbourhood).