Life & fun · alternatives · 2026
24 alternatives to Matrix rain, Conway's Game of Life and Mandelbrot set for terminals
C++ Matrix: The Matrix Reloaded in Terminals (Number falls, Banners, Matrix rains, Conway's Game of Life and Mandelbrot set) - akinomyoga/cxxmatrix
Matrix Rain, Conway's Game of Life and Mandelbrot Set for Terminals is a command-line tool that displays three visual simulations in terminal windows. It renders the falling digital rain effect from the Matrix films… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. Matrix rain, Conway's Game of Life and Mandelbrot set for terminals launched in 2020; newer entries below may have overtaken it.
- 1SG
https://github.com/vnglst/stacked-game-of-life
Feb 2026 · stacked-game-of-life.koenvangilst.nl · its alternatives →
- 2

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 →
- 3

pouët.net - your online demoscene resource
2020 · pouet.net · its alternatives →
- 4HG
2014 · rgb.0-z-0.com · its alternatives →
- 5LS
2021 · joelthelion.github.io · its alternatives →
- 6MP
2014 · gameoflifetotalwar.com · its alternatives →
- 7

TypeScript playground: https://www.typescriptlang.org/play?#code/KYDwDg9gTgLgBDAnmY...
2023 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 8

Hi HN, when learning Golang (and topology), I ported a simple GOL in C (https://github.com/Jeadie/GoL) into Go. I then added a bunch of features - Playing on other fundamental polygons (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamental_polygon#Examples_o...) - Considering all possible update rules (of which, there are many). Looking to get back to this project soon. Would love some feedback + ideas.
2022 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 9

Simple Rust implementation of Conway's Game of Life - brundonsmith/life
2020 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 10BZ
I've always been dissatisfied that simple Mandelbrot explorers proport themselves as a Fractal Graphing Calculator. In summer break between semesters, I started making a real graphing calculator, parsing LaTeX to WebGL to let you graph most any combination of z and c. Fun ones to try include - sin(z^2+c) - c^z - z^{1.7}+c Also supports animation, just enter any other letter and turn it into a variable. Supports Mandelbrot or Julia Set style calculation. Use with a graphics card or integrated graphics
2025 · juliascope.com · its alternatives →
- 11

Chess, but each square also follows the rules of Conway's Game of Life. Only your own pieces count as neighbours when deciding births/deaths. For births, an empty square must have 3 neighbours for 2 consecutive turns. For deaths, a piece must have 3 neighbours for 3 consecutive turns. This is a simple proof of concept I made with python and curses. You can play with a friend locally or over a socket connection. Controls: Arrow keys to move the cursor, enter/space to select and move a piece, u or backspace to undo a move, r to redo a move, q or escape to quit, s to perform a move…
2023 · gist.github.com · its alternatives →
- 12CS
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.
2024 · px.neocities.org · its alternatives →
- 13

Bluesky firehose visualized in a Matrix-style rain
2024 · simone.computer · its alternatives →
- 14

A browser extension to play Conway's Game of Life on GitHub contribution board - yuanchuan/game-of-life
2016 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 15

Contribute to pmerolla/watch-life development by creating an account on GitHub.
2024 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 16

- 17

An interactive ecosystem and evolution simulator written in C and OpenGL, for GNU/Linux. - connor-brooks/ecosim
2020 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 18

This is my spin on Conway's Game of Life. I have added the ability to create an account, save grids that you have discovered, and browse the gallery of grids saved by other people and replay them. This project has served as a sandbox for me to practice various aspects of developing a comprehensive web application from scratch. This was my first time developing a full scale web app with [almost] all the features you would expect. I know it is nowhere near perfect in its current state, but I feel it has reached a point of diminishing returns, and therefore my time is better spent focussing on…
2024 · game-of-life-f262d.web.app · its alternatives →
- 19IR
This weekend's coding session was dedicated to recreating Jeffery Ventrella's "Particle Life". As you can imagine, I had a lot of fun with it. I recently saw this here on Hacker News and found it strange that I’d never come across it before. Source code: https://github.com/vnglst/particle-life The color palette is by Alex Cristache. https://twitter.com/AlexCristache/status/1791122643816431930
2024 · particle-life.koenvangilst.nl · its alternatives →
- 20

A framework for multi-agent reinforcement learning. - cool-RR/marley
2020 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 21AV
2017 · samlev.github.io · its alternatives →
- 22SL
2022 · smooth-life.netlify.app · its alternatives →
- 23

kartoffels is a game where you
2025 · pwy.io · its alternatives →
- 24

Interactive cellular automaton simulator with AI
2025 · life.angen.ai · its alternatives →
Also compare
- Stacked Game of Life alternatives
- Lifeee – Conway’s Game of Life with an infinite zoomable grid alternatives
- Game of Life in 32 bytes of assembler alternatives
- HTML5 Game of Life in 24-bit RGB alternatives
- Life Simulation Written in Rust alternatives
- Multi-player Competitive Conway's Game of Life alternatives
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 →