September 28th, 1999

[8:30 AM] New Sim Brings The World Of Critters To The Mac

Milo Bird has released an artificial intelligence program for the MacOS called Critters. Critters is a program in which the inhabitants of the Critter-world evolve, change, and adapt to their environment over time. According to Milo Bird:

In Critters, none of the behavior is programmed into the simulation, the Critters themselves develop solutions through evolution to the problems of finding food, breeding, and avoiding predators. Critters is ideal for use in academic institutions, but has been designed to appeal to everyone, no matter what knowledge of the subject they have. Critters has the following key features:

  • Easy for anyone to use, it looks and works like all Mac applications should.
  • Allows you to set the size of the universe and how it will appear on screen.
  • Shows detailed statistics for the whole population so you can track the process of evolution.
  • Features a graph window, which allows you to view data as far as 5000 steps ago for analysis of useful values, such as population.
  • Lets you view and edit the genome of individual creatures, including the ability to track them and their offspring
  • Has comprehensive settings so you can set the parameters of the universe the Critters live in.
  • Universes can be saved and opened at a later date or sent to another person.
  • All the main windows can be captured as PICT files as a record or for any other use.
  • Includes an easy to use help feature that shows you the principles behind the way Critters works, without using reams of boring text.

This fascinating program is available as shareware for US$10. For more information, please visit the Critters web site.

Critters