Gioco della Vita

A life simulation game published in the Italian book "20 Programmi per Commodore 64".

Come to know the harsh rules of survival. We know, in fact, that too few "individuals" lead to a species' extinction due to reproductive difficulties, while too many trigger natural selection—eliminating the weakest individuals, for instance, because there isn't enough food for everyone. There is, however, a point of equilibrium that allows a relatively stable number of individuals to survive and reproduce. Our program will simulate this simple natural law by representing a "territory" on the screen (imagine, for example, the hunting grounds of a prehistoric tribe) and allowing the player to place a certain number of stars within it (representing the inhabitants): depending on the number of stars placed, the system will identify a state of overpopulation, under-population, or equilibrium based on established parameters. Starting from the player's initial configuration, the program will calculate a second "generation" of stars (i.e., the number of individuals remaining in the territory after one generation, according to the law of survival) and all subsequent generations, until a command is issued to stop execution. Since the population a territory can sustain varies according to social and technological conditions, the reader can modify the size of the territory and the parameters determining the birth and death rates of the stars (representing the individuals) by making very simple changes to a few lines of the program.