All patterns for Chapters 1–11 are embedded right in the PDF, and can be accessed in Adobe Acrobat Reader just by clicking on the relevant figure. If you're reading the PDF version of the book, it won't generally be necessary to download these files, except maybe for the Chapter 12 group. All pattern files, except for Chapter 12, in a. Variations of the game accommodate eight to ten players. Two to six players can participate in one game. The game simulates a person’s travels through his or her life, from college to retirement, with jobs, marriage, and possible children along the way. You can view and manipulate these patterns right in your web browser, or you can copy these code files into Game of Life software like Golly. The Game of Life was America’s first popular parlor game. Pattern files for all patterns that are displayed as figures in the book are provided here. The goal of this book is to demystify the Game of Life by breaking down the complex patterns that have been developed in it into bite-size chunks that can be understood individually. Rather, it is a by-product of the fact that most recently discovered patterns build upon patterns and techniques that were developed earlier.
While the book largely follows the history of the Game of Life, that is not its primary purpose. However, from that point on it tries to guide the reader through the thought processes and ideas that are needed to combine those patterns into more interesting composite ones.
Lots of small "building block"-style patterns (especially in the first four or so chapters of this book) were found via brute-force or other computer searches, and the book does not go into the details of how these searches were implemented. This book provides an introduction to Conway's Game of Life, the interesting mathematics behind it, and the methods used to construct many of its most interesting patterns.