Game of Life Kit

Not Your Life... the simulation created by mathematician John Conway

When you hear "The Game of Life" do you think of the Milton Bradley classic board game? If so... stop reading this and go back to geek school. However if you remember the cellular automation simulation invented by John Conway in the 1970's then we've got a cool little item for your DIY retro geek pleasure.

The game of life is set-up as a grid of "cells" following only four simple rules:

1. Any live cell with fewer than two live neighbours dies, as if by loneliness.
2. Any live cell with more than three live neighbours dies, as if by overcrowding.
3. Any live cell with two or three live neighbours lives, unchanged, to the next generation.
4. Any dead cell with exactly three live neighbours comes to life.

As the initiate amongst you no doubt recall, these rules lead to some cool evolving pixel based "organisms" like the glider, the blinker and the infamous glider factory. The Game of Life Kit allows you to build your own electronic LED based version of... the Game of life. You get a 4x4 grid of 16 LEDs that represents a small portion of the cellular grid. Push the button on the front and you reset the simulation and automatically populate it with random life. If all the cells die out completely the simulation automatically resets. The coolest part is that you can buy multiple kits and connect them together in any configuration to create a larger game board.

Important Note:
Assembly is definitely required. You'll need a soldering iron, some solder, wire clippers and a small amount of skill. It will take you about 30 minutes to assemble the kit.

Product Features

• Electronic kit runs the classic "Game of Life" simulation created by mathematician John Conway
• Each kit displays a 4x4 grid (16 LEDs)
• Connect as many kits as youd like, in any configuration, to create a larger game board
• On/Off button to save power, also for resetting the display
• Automatically resets if the colony has died or stagnated (regeneration)
• Assembly required. You will need a soldering iron, some solder, wire clippers and a small amount of skill.
• Runs off of 2 AA batteries (not included), but can be easily modified to run off of USB or AC Adapter power

This site is a demo site only. This product is not available for sale at our site.
But you can buy it at ThinkGeek.com, this is where we took description from.