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About Golly

Golly is an open source, cross-platform application for exploring Conway's Game of Life and many other types of cellular automata. Key features: Supports bounded and unbounded universes, with cells of up to 256 states. Supports multiple algorithms, including Bill Gosper's super fast hashlife algorithm. Many different types of CA are included: John von Neumann's 29-state CA, Wolfram's 1D rules, WireWorld, Generations, Langton's Loops, Larger than Life, etc. Reads RLE, macrocell, Life 1.05/1.06, dblife, and MCell files. Can extract patterns and rules from zip files. Can download patterns and rules from online archives. Includes a state-of-the-art pattern collection. Unlimited undo/redo. Extensive help, with an integrated Life Lexicon.

Ratings & reviews

4.8

47 ratings

5 ★ 91% 4 ★ 2% 3 ★ 2% 2 ★ 0% 1 ★ 4%

What’s new

Version 1.6 · Updated September 26, 2026

* Fixed crashes on iOS 27. * The button between All and Paste now has a text label (Edit) rather than an image. * The New button asks if you want to save your changes. * No more beeps if you try to zoom in beyond the maximum scale (1:32). * Files with extensions .tree or .table are no longer supported. * Updated the app icon.

App privacy

The developer, Andrew Trevorrow, reported these privacy practices to Apple.

Data Not Collected

The developer does not collect any data from this app.

Alternatives to Golly

Looking for apps like Golly? Here are 6 similar apps on the App Store. The highest rated is Exponential Idle (4.9/5), and all 6 are free to download.

Golly vs. alternatives
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Golly 4.8 / 5 (47 ratings) Free September 26, 2026
Life: The Game 4.0 / 5 (3) Free Sep 7, 2026 Compare
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