# Evolution simulators?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evolution-simulators/460454>\
**Category:** The Game Room\
**Created:** [August 18, 2008, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evolution-simulators/460454 "2008-08-18T18:24:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\
**Post date:** [August 19, 2008, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evolution-simulators/460454/21 "2008-08-19T15:46:46Z")

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Pochacco, that Gene Pool app is hella cool. I just wish I could view the genomes and histories of the critters, but that’s exactly the kind of thing I’m looking for.

[QUOTE=Just Some Guy]  
Sorry, I whooshed you a bit there (though really I have a hard time describing anything released for Windows 95 and up as “very old”). I do find the tendency of gamers to think on such short time frames as silly but not enough to actually get worked up over it. 🙂  
[/QUOTE]

Yeah, well… Sim Life goes back to 1992. It’s ancient.

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**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\
**Post date:** [August 19, 2008, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evolution-simulators/460454/22 "2008-08-19T16:39:28Z")

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You could take a look at [Seed](http://www.addictinggames.com/seed.html). It’s probably not quite what your looking for, but it’s not bad- you’re basically growing and breeding flowers. The plants themselves have a code-driven DNA which can mutate over time- so you can breed for the traits you want, but still get surprises.

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**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\
**Post date:** [August 19, 2008, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evolution-simulators/460454/23 "2008-08-19T17:23:34Z")

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[QUOTE=photopat]  
I tried it but for some reason I couldn’t see any of the text in the menu boxes, so I couldn’t control any settings.  
[/QUOTE]  
Hmmm. Works fine for me.

[Gene Pool](http://www.swimbots.com/) sounds just like what the OP is asking for. It simulates a little pond populated with “swimbots”. The body shape and behavior of the swimbots are genetically determined and when two swimbots mate they mix their DNA. The swimbots compete for food which provides selection pressure and you can also impose artificial fitness criteria like length or complexity.

It’s fun to let it run overnight. It doesn’t take long for a random group of starting organisms to evolve some really efficient and aggressive food gatherers.

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**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\
**Post date:** [August 19, 2008, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evolution-simulators/460454/24 "2008-08-19T17:24:42Z")

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Whoops. Guess I should have read the whole thread before replying.

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