Golly Help: Generations

The Generations algorithm supports rules similar to Life but with an extra history component that allows cells to have up to 256 states. The rule notation is "0..8/1..8/n" where the 1st set of digits specify the live neighbor counts necessary for a cell to survive to the next generation. The 2nd set of digits specify the live neighbor counts necessary for a cell to be born in the next generation. The final number n specifies the maximum number of cell states (from 2 to 256).

Here are some example rules:

2367/3457/5 |  | [Banners] |  | - an exploding rule by Mirek Wojtowicz.
234/34678/24 |  | [Bloomerang] |  | - an expanding rule by John Elliott.
/2/3 |  | [Brian's Brain] |  | - a chaotic rule by Brian Silverman.
124567/378/4 |  | [Caterpillars] |  | - a chaotic rule by Mirek Wojtowicz.
23/2/8 |  | [Cooties] |  | - an exploding rule by Rudy Rucker.
2/13/21 |  | [Fireworks] |  | - an exploding rule by John Elliott.
12/34/3 |  | [Frogs] |  | - a chaotic rule by Scott Robert Ladd.
12345/45678/8 |  | [Lava] |  | - an expanding rule by Mirek Wojtowicz.
012345/458/3 |  | [Lines] |  | - a stable rule by Anders Starmark.
345/2/4 |  | [Star Wars] |  | - an exploding rule by Mirek Wojtowicz.
3456/2/6 |  | [Sticks] |  | - an exploding rule by Rudy Rucker.
345/26/5 |  | [Transers] |  | - an exploding rule by John Elliott.
1456/2356/16 |  | [Xtasy] |  | - an exploding rule by John Elliott.

Other rules in this family, along with more detailed descriptions, can be found at Mirek Wojtowicz's MCell website. See also the Patterns/Generations folder which contains a number of interesting patterns extracted from the MCell pattern collection.