It's a great "DOOM" alternative, it requires a bit less raw resources, and it can be self coded. I managed to code one on an old Nokia phone (apps were Java applet things)
One of my favorite simulations! Thanks for sharing, hope the journey was enjoyable and you do more.
Love the use of VGA memory for the simulation grid. Were you able to double buffer, or how did you handle holding the previous state while processing the next one?
Yes, it was really fun!
Yes, doubled if you meant... To calculate the next generation I dumped the current (vga memory) after the grid is rendered to a buffer in memory and calculating the next one right to video memory back.