What is it?
In December 1984 A.K. Dewdney introduced the planet Wa-Tor in the
Computer Recreations
column of the Scientific American, which
he later collected in his book The Armchair Universe: An
Exploration of Computer Worlds
.
The planet Wa-Tor is entirely covered with water. The only two occupants of this watery world are sharks and fish. The sharks eat the fish and the fish exist on a never-ending supply of plankton.
As you will see, this simple ecology is highly dynamic with both sides walking a thin line between continuing life and species extinction.
- The fish rely on their superior breeding skills to supplant their numbers. Of the many new born, few make it to adulthood.
- The sharks rely on their formidibile hunting skills to fulfill their never-ending quest for food and survival. Gluttony is a sin, and should the sharks eat all the available fish, judgement day will surely come a day sooner.
With this simulation you can modify the biological variables of the shark and fish populations. Can you create a self-sustaining ecology? Or is Wa-Tor destined to be a dead life-less planet?
This article has triggered countless implementations; just google for Wa-Tor or Wator, you'll be overwhelmed. Nowadays they are mostly Java applets. This Windows implementation by Warren L. Kovach is probably the oldest that is still extant: You can still download it from the author's website.
For the user, Wa-Tor holds less interest than life. There are only three possible outcomes:
- The sharks exterminate the fish, and then die of starvation;
- The sharks die of starvation before they can get at the fish, who then, seemingly immune to overcrowding, take over the planet;
- If the initial parameters are set right, the whole things just cycles into eternity, with patterns that, though they might repeat, are simply too complex to be recognized.
So the best implementation is probably…as a screensaver.
Download Wa-Tor for Windows (53kB)
| Windows 3.1 Games from the UK | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
||||||||||||||||||||
