List of Generations rules

The following is a list of Generations rules.

Rule (B/S/C)	Rule (S/B/C equivalent)	Name	Character	Author	Date
Description
B3457/S2367/C5	2367/3457/5	Banners	Exploding	Mirek Wójtowicz
A rule that often produces spaceships with growing fluttering banners.
B23/S23/C8	23/23/8	BelZhab	Exploding	?
A rule exhibiting Zhabotinsky reactions.
B23/S145678/C8	145678/23/8	BelZhab Sediment	Exploding	Jason Rampe
The rule creates BelZhab-like patterns that have growing regions of "sedimentary deposits".
B34678/S234/C24	234/34678/24	Bloomerang	Expanding	John Elliott	July 2000
A wave rule that rebounds into a kinder, gentler form of kaleidoscopics — rounded, soft, full, and slow.
B24/S345/C25	345/24/25	Bombers	Chaotic	Mirek Wójtowicz
A close variant of the Star Wars rule with many more history steps, resulting in beautiful ships, puffers and oscillators.
B246/S6/C3	6/246/3	Brain 6	Chaotic	Michael Sweney
An interesting variation of the immortal Brian's Brain, with many patterns constructed.
B2/S/C3	/2/3	Brian's Brain	Chaotic	Brian Silverman
Also called BB, or simply Brain, this is unquestionably one of the best known and most beautiful CA rules. If we name the possible cell values based on a simplistic neural analogy, viz. 0 = "ready", 1 = "firing", 2 = "refractory", then this simple rule can be stated thusly: Only a cell in the ready state may fire and it will only do so if exactly 2 of its neighbors are firing. After firing for one step, a cell spends a step in the refractory state before regaining readiness. Although the rule is relatively old, it has never been systematically explored. The rule is so lively that it's not easy to construct stable patterns in it. In December 1999, Michael Sweney discovered the first BB oscillators.
B3468/0235678/C9	0235678/3468/9	Burst	Chaotic	Michael Sweney
A rule related to Nova, Prairie Fire and others which features large areas of cells that slowly die out or decay into oscillators. Named after a characteristic exploding oscillator. Similar to Day & Night in that constructions can be built both with inside and outside oscillations and growth/decay. Has still lifes similar to Conway Life.
B3468/S235678/C9	235678/3468/9	Burst II	Chaotic	Michael Sweney
This rule is basically Burst without the single cell still life. It supports slow and fast spaceships, oscillators, and methuselahs as well as a very characteristic p500+ oscillator.
B378/S124567/C4	124567/378/4	Caterpillars	Chaotic	Mirek Wójtowicz
Named after its very common caterpillar-like patterns.
B24567/05678/C6	05678/24567/6	Chenille	Exploding	?
B1234/S2345/C8	2345/1234/8	Circuit Genesis	Expanding	Charles A. Rockafellor
Circuitry which evolves far beyond its programming and continues to do so long after the initial intput have taken the borders elsewhere.
B2/S23/C8	23/2/8	Cooties	Exploding	Rudy Rucker
A very vivacious rule, with cells crawling around like mad lice.
B36/S012478/C18	012478/36/18	Ebb and Flow	Exploding	Michael Sweney
A slow exploding rule with interesting internal dynamics within the growth boundaries. Different types of symmetries will often determine whether a pattern grows indefinitely or dies out. Presents challenging engineering problems. Best viewed in MCell with the standard color palette at speeds of 10 or slower.
B37/S012468/C18	012468/37/18	Ebb and Flow II	Exploding	Michael Sweney
A close variant of Ebb and Flow that supports simple gliders.
B2/S2/C25	2/2/25	Faders	Exploding	Rudy Rucker and John Walker
A "genetic" cross of Life and Brian's Brain. A dead Faders cell requires exactly 2 firing neighbors to get turned on. A firing Faders cell keeps firing if it has exactly 2 firing neighbors. And when a Faders cell leaves the firing state it goes into a sequence of refractory states.
B13/S2/C21	2/13/21	Fireworks	Exploding	John Elliott
Nearly perfect fireworks simulation. It produces interesting results from both random and prepared initial states. Even several cells scattered over the lattice will produce long-running ravishing pictures.
B23/S347/C8	347/23/8	Flaming Starbows	Exploding	Charles A. Rockafellor
In this world beautiful expanding diamonds and oddly off-parallelograms sweep across the screen leaving trails of fire and spirals of autogenesis. Reminiscent of a mutant spawn of Faders and mad Zhabotinsky spirals.
B34/S12/C3	12/34/3	Frogs	Chaotic	Scott Robert Ladd
A rule named after its very common frog-like gliders.
B23/S356/C6	356/23/6	Frozen Spirals	Cyclic	Mirek Wójtowicz
This rule features a popular Zhabotinsky reaction, but with one difference — spirals have icicles in their vertices.
B245678/S035678/C7	035678/245678/7	Glisserati	Exploding	John Elliott	May 2000
"From simple seeds this rule is often highly glideriferous, generating striking kaleidoscopic patterns. Sometimes, though, as in the Glidathon orbit, it is more sparse, in the vein of rules such as Transers, but with much longer transients, providing an uncanny sense of "perpetual motion". Since I found this rule I've become aware of other recently discovered kaleidoscopic glider rules, such as Snake and TransersII, which share many of the same objects, though I've yet to see a Glidathon style orbit in them (which doesn't mean they aren't there - no one's really looked, AFAIK). In the present version of Glisserati, orbits seeded randomly, as opposed to simply, collapse almost immediately, but that's not the case with the C=5 variation, which is very delicately poised between expansion and contraction. So I've spun that one off as 'Glissergy'." — John Elliott
B245678/035678/C5	035678/245678/5	Glissergy	Exploding	John Elliott	May 2000
"This rule differs from Glisserati only in its cellsize (5 rather than 7). As would be expected, this change is an activity booster - so much so, that, unlike Glisserati, this rule has long transients from random as well as simple starts. Think of it as the pin-iferous answer to Brian's Brain." — John Elliott
B45678/S12345/C8	12345/45678/8	Lava	Expanding	Mirek Wójtowicz
All patterns are getting very slowly filled with hot lava.
B458/S012345/C3	012345/458/3	Lines	Stable	Anders Starmark	September 2000
This rule quickly self-organizes into linear structures, with separate orthogonally hatched areas. To see the most interesting behaviour, seed the universe with a circle with r≥40 and a density of 20%.
B3/S345/C6	345/3/6	Living On The Edge	Chaotic	Mirek Wójtowicz	February 2000
Also known as LOTE. In this very chaotic rule, it is hard to tell if patterns will survive or die out.
B3/S01245678/C8	01245678/3/8	Meteor Guns	Expanding	Charles A. Rockafellor
Almost any design above a certain level of complexity results in a slowly exploding ball of fire which then spits fairly large numbers of generational gliders, the titular "meteors". There are easily discovered stable oscillators and static patterns. A truly satisfying environment (if only finding a limited growth meteor gun were as easy...).
B2478/S45678/C25	45678/2478/25	Nova	Expanding	Mirek Wójtowicz
Very lovely rule characterized by vibrant yet stately streaming growth from solid seeds. The growth patterns and active border have a fascinating geometry, the particulars of which are sensitive to the size and shape of the initial solid.
B2/S3/C4	3/2/4	OrthoGo	Exploding	John Elliott	December 1999
This simple rule supports spontaneous orthogonally productive "glider colliders". But otherwise it seems fairly quiescent.
B34/S345/C6	345/34/6	Prairie on fire	Exploding	Mirek Wójtowicz
This rule covers the lattice with fire. For best results use yellow-red cells color settings.
B23/S2/C8	2/23/8	RainZha	Exploding	Rudy Rucker and John Walker
The simplest "Zhabotinsky" style cellular automaton. It spontaneously generates spirals from an initial random pattern.
B2678/S3467/C6	3467/2678/6	Rake	Exploding	Brian Prentice
This rule is a simple variation of the Worms rule and is characterized by the numerous rake puffers that it generates. Together with the puffers, it generates many ships and expanding wings. These elements can easily be arranged to collide and form ships and puffers of arbitrary complexity.
B25678/S45678/C4	45678/25678/4	SediMental	Exploding	John Elliott
From a random seed state of 30% ones, the rule tends to form stable "islands", with active coastlines and fascinating inter-island "commerce". But an orbit's fate is quite sensitive to the starting percentage. Below 25% or so the world remains sparsely Brain-like, whereas somewhere above 30% the islands begin to accrete into larger "landmasses", so that by 40% you nearly always end up with a single huge "continent". As for simple seeds, they often lead to surprising results. And the rule clearly has great potential from the "engineering" standpoint.
B25/S03467/C6	03467/25/6	Snake	Exploding	Brian Prentice
This rule is a simple variation of the Worms rule. It contains two interesting oscillators, a 3*3 square and a shuttle, among its basic elements. By combining copies of the square, many beautiful oscillators can be generated. The rule also generates many puffers one of which generates a sequence of shuttles. The tail generated by the shuttle puffer resembles a snake.
B38/S13458/C6	13458/38/6	Soft Freeze	Chaotic	John Elliott
"The rule is delicately poised between "solid" and "liquid" phases. From many simple seeds it forms "living crystals" - the crystals form, melt, and reform seemingly indefinitely, in balance with an active phase. The areas of melting can shrink to a point where you're sure everything will freeze over, and then they stage a comeback. From random starts, this rule resembles a nice poised rule from Wójtowicz called "Living on the Edge", only this one is even more "on the edge". (BTW, though the rule definition looks as though I took LOTE as a starting point, I actually came at it from a different direction entirely, and only afterwards realized I had converged on the B3S345 core.)" — John Elliott
B234/S2/C5	2/234/5	Spirals	Exploding	?
The rule produces beautiful stable spirals that unroll forever.
B2/S345/C4	345/2/4	Star Wars	Exploding	Mirek Wójtowicz	March 1999
Also known as MirekGro, this is a very interesting and beautiful rule producing deep space battle scenes; a paradise for patterns' creators in the tradition of Conway Life. It's a successful combination of famous Brian's Brain with a stabilizing factor. "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." — John Elliott
B2/S3456/C6	3456/2/6	Sticks	Exploding	Rudy Rucker
This interesting rule builds a variety of sticks, with ships floating among them.
B34/S23/C8	23/34/8	Swirl	Chaotic	Scott Robert Ladd
While spirals are common in CAs (see for example RainZha or Cyclic CAs), Swirl's whirlers are of the rarer discrete variety - isolated "whirlpools" in an otherwise dead sea. There are two sizes of whirlpools that occur regularly. Ladd calls the smaller the "swirlpool" and the larger the "flamewhirl". Also there is a glider with a flickering double tail which Ladd aptly refers to as a fire or flame glider.
B34/S1234/C48	1234/34/48	Thrill Grill	Expanding	John Elliott	July 2000
Sparkling dynamics inhabit and rearrange a grill-like background of one-cells.
B26/S345/C5	345/26/5	Transers	Exploding	John Elliott
A beautiful and dynamic rule with many distinctive entities that occur "in the wild", with remarkable inter-entity transformations.
B26/S0345/C6	0345/26/6	Transers II	Exploding	Michael Sweney
B34678/S345/C5	345/34678/5	Wanderers	Exploding	Mirek Wójtowicz
A rule very similar to "Prairie on fire", but creates interesting dynamically moving patterns.
B25/S3467/C6	3467/25/6	Worms	Exploding	Mirek Wójtowicz
A very vigorous rule producing crowds of disgusting worms.
B2356/S1456/C16	1456/2356/16	Xtasy	Exploding	John Elliott	July 2000
From simple seeds in a closed universe this is a lovely kaleidoscopic wave rule that tends to do extended meditations on the letter X.