Golly

For exploring cellular automata like Conway's Game of Life.

Brought to you by: andykt, apgoucher, brentonb, dvgrn, and 4 others

37 Reviews

Downloads: 284 This Week

Last Update: 2026-05-04

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A cross-platform application for exploring Conway's Game of Life and many other types of cellular automata.

Features

Bounded or unbounded universes with up to 256 states.
Fast generating algorithms.
Reads a variety of common CA and graphical formats.
Unlimited undo/redo for difficult pattern editing tasks.
User-configurable keyboard shortcuts for menu items and scripts.
Scriptable via Lua or Python.
User-definable rules.
State-of-the-art pattern collection.

Project Samples

Project Activity

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License

GNU General Public License version 2.0 (GPLv2)

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User Reviews

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truphane Posted 2025-11-05

Terrific program BUT one minor request: --> Make the "+" and "-" zoom tools - when held down - act like the "hand" tool. This will help a lot. Make them zoom only on a brief click & release. Right now, zooming in with the "+" tool almost always moves the pattern further off center. I can use the arrow keys to move it back but those operate in steps. A hand tool would be intuitive and smoother, but I can't be switching back and forth from that. Thanks!

Reply from Golly

Posted 2025-11-08
If you want to zoom in/out without changing the central position, hit the ]/[ keys. If you'd prefer different keys to do that, open Preferences > Keyboard and assign any keys you like to the Zoom In / Out actions.
alex_ander Posted 2023-02-04

A simple and intuitive Conway simulator game. Thanks.
horab Posted 2022-12-25

Perhaps it would be interesting to be able to import 2-bit bitmap graphics.

Reply from Golly

Edited 2025-11-09
You can. See Help > File Menu > Open Pattern.
barthdry Posted 2021-06-24

Useful Conway game of light compiler or simulator
oshanruiz Posted 2016-12-11

Very cool, Thanks for this project.

Additional Project Details

Operating Systems

BSD, Linux, Mac, Windows

Languages

English

Intended Audience

End Users/Desktop

User Interface

Cocoa (MacOS X), Win32 (MS Windows), wxWidgets

Programming Language

C++

Related Categories

C++ Games, C++ Mathematics Software

Registered

2005-05-19

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