Life & fun · alternatives · 2026
24 alternatives to Conway's Game of Life, but as a div full of Braille characters
I built this many years ago to try out rendering images in textboxes, using braille characters as groups of 8 pixels. You can try different fonts to see how the spacing changes too.
This project renders Conway's Game of Life using Braille characters as pixels within a div element. Each Braille character represents a group of eight pixels, allowing the classic cellular automaton to display in text… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. Conway's Game of Life, but as a div full of Braille characters launched in 2024; newer entries below may have overtaken it.
- 1
A dot matrix rendered using braille characters. Contribute to timfi/dotmatrix development by creating an account on GitHub.
2021 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 2HG
2014 · rgb.0-z-0.com · its alternatives →
- 3
pouët.net - your online demoscene resource
2020 · pouet.net · its alternatives →
- 4
TypeScript playground: https://www.typescriptlang.org/play?#code/KYDwDg9gTgLgBDAnmY...
2023 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 5SG
https://github.com/vnglst/stacked-game-of-life
Feb 2026 · stacked-game-of-life.koenvangilst.nl · its alternatives →
- 6
2021 · coderelay.io · its alternatives →
- 7
TrueType fonts have a hinting VM that grid-fits glyphs. It has a stack, storage area, conditionals, function calls, and it turns out it's Turing-complete. So I built a raycasting engine in the hinting bytecode. The glyph "A" in the font has 16 vertical bar contours. The hinting program reads player coordinates from font variation axes via GETVARIATION, does DDA ray marching against a tile map in the storage area, and repositions bar heights with SCFS. It ends up looking like a crude Wolfenstein-style view. Small visuzlization:…
Apr 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 8
Render diagrams to Braille. Contribute to diagrams/diagrams-braille development by creating an account on GitHub.
2019 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 9AS
2020 · dwitter.net · its alternatives →
- 10
This is a little toy project of mine that lets you simulate digital logic graphs. It was inspired by Minecraft's Redstone and the Piet esolang. It's got some serious drawbacks-- you write circuits as PNGs and simulate them with a Python interface. It's slow to run and slow to experiment with. And it is certainly difficult to use for people with any kind of color blindness. But despite that, I hope this can still be a fun toy!
2022 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 11
A minimalist three-dimensional coding environment. Control 8x8x8 dots with a single JavaScript function.
2021 · doersino.github.io · its alternatives →
- 12
A Rust implementation of John Conway’s Game of Life, using a zoomable infinite grid, and with access to a pattern library.
2021 · lifeee.netlify.app · its alternatives →
- 13
A new typeface that blends visual with Braille
2018 · brailleneue.com · its alternatives →
- 14
A game to learn how to kern type
2011 · type.method.ac · its alternatives →
- 15
108 free flat illustrations with customizable characters
2020 · patterns.page · its alternatives →
- 16LI
Game of Life in html/javascript, a journey from nice and readable to 203 chars total.
2020 · shorterlife.github.io · its alternatives →
- 17
2021 · codingfont.com · its alternatives →
- 18
Contribute to NishantJoshi00/dith development by creating an account on GitHub.
Jan 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 19
A browser extension to play Conway's Game of Life on GitHub contribution board - yuanchuan/game-of-life
2016 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 20
Render 3D models (OBJ, glTF, GLB, STL, .vox) as ASCII art — in the browser, in React or Vue, or straight in your terminal. A three.js-style API with no WebGL and no canvas: just text in a single <pre>.
Jun 2026 · glyphcss.com · its alternatives →
- 21
- 22
C++ Matrix: The Matrix Reloaded in Terminals (Number falls, Banners, Matrix rains, Conway's Game of Life and Mandelbrot set) - akinomyoga/cxxmatrix
2020 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 23MP
2014 · gameoflifetotalwar.com · its alternatives →
- 24
A font that renders numbers as medieval Cistercian numerals
Feb 2026 · bobbiec.github.io · its alternatives →
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Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →