Landon Curt Noll
f29b37e49a
Prepare for the winners of **IOCCC28**. > However these are not the 2024 droids you are looking for. :-) The HTML menu (both JavaScript and non-JavaScript) has been updated. The `Status -> Rules and guidelines' have been replaced with two separate menus `Status -> IOCCC rules` and `Status -> IOCCC guidelines`. Added a new top level `social.html` page: built from a new `social.md`. Sorted rules for building specific web pages in the top level `Makefile`. Added `make social` to make the `social.html` page from `social.md`. The `bin/gen-top-html.sh` now is able to process a argument of **social** to process the new top level `social.html` page. Changed `bin/gen-top-html.sh` VERSION from "2.0.0 2025-03-13" to "2.0.1 2025-07-25". Below `About -> Home page` a new `About -> IOCCC social media` menu item as added. Because the menu change touched every HTML file, we changed the general copyright date range for HTML files from "1984-2024" to "1984-2025" due to the extensive changes made for **IOCCC28**. Those markdown files that were modified in 2025 had their copyright date range also changed from "1984-2024" to "1984-2025". Rebuilt tarballs and sitemap due to the extensive HTML rebuilding. Ran `make update` to perform the above.
To build:
make
NOTE: this entry requires the X11/Xlib.h header file and the X11 library to
compile. For more information see the
FAQ on "X11".
Bugs and (Mis)features:
The current status of this entry is:
STATUS: INABIAF - please DO NOT fix
For more detailed information see 2012/dlowe in bugs.html.
To use:
./dlowe
Try:
./dlowe
Watch for a while if you like, then press a key within the window.
Use up and down keys to escape death.
Judges' remarks:
The judges lose playing this game. This entry wins!
Q: How did we get past the variadic macro problem on a Mac?
A: Don't use -pedantic-errors in the Makefile.
Author's remarks:
Conway's Game of DEATH
This is a challenging, fast-paced arcade game, based on the famous Game of Life.
Story
In the game, you are Mr.C, a lightweight spaceship making a futile dash for escape from the rigid rules and predictability of life in the B3/S23 universe.
Use the up and down arrow keys to steer: collisions are fatal for Mr.C! Learn to spot incoming gliders, skim the surfaces of beehives and blocks, and give blinkers plenty of space. Things get crazier as Mr.C picks up speed... can he escape?
No. There is no winning. Sadly for Mr.C, this universe goes on forever. Just see how far you can make it!
Press q any time to quit.
Features
- casual gameplay
- infinite, procedurally generated universe
- progressive difficulty
- animated splash screens
Limitations
- Flicker, especially at high speeds, and in spite of "double-buffering" (X11 doesn't make it possible to lock drawing to the display refresh rate.)
- Cannot be run outside of the directory containing the data files (
splash.d,dead.dandsprites.d). - Cannot build or run without X11 (or an X11 compatibility layer).
Wish List
- Score keeping
- Color
- In-game instructions
- Sound
Hosts Tested
- Darwin 10.8.0 i386 (clang 1.6 and gcc 4.2.1)
- Linux 2.6.32 i686 (clang 1.1 and gcc 4.4.3)
- Linux 3.2.0 x86_64 (clang 3.0 and gcc 4.6.3)
Obfuscations
The code is formatted into a 14-cell shape which will evolve into a glider in 19 generations.
Lots of globals, including a global struct whose members have the same names
as global variables.
Global variables getting reused in different contexts.
Huge and convoluted expressions, abusing ternary operators and operator precedence.
Lots of magic numbers, abuse of the relationships between magic numbers, and abuse of the arithmetic properties of magic numbers.