Critters Simulation
Based off of a QBasic program I wrote in high school, Critters is a cellular automata that also implements a simple genetic algorithm.
The critters are the white dots that can turn left 90°, turn right 90° or move forward. The green dots are critter food, which grows outward from anyplace it already exists.
If a critter eats enough food it will reproduce and the offspring will have the genes of its parent crossed with the genes of a second parent randomly chosen from among the best performing critters of the past. If a critter goes too long without food, it will die.
If all your critters die off you can click the "refresh" button on your browser (F5 on your keyboard) to restart the simulation from scratch.
The best movement patterns for finding food are recorded along the side and explained as follows:
< - turn left 90°
> - turn right 90°
^ - move forward