Comments from MCell users

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Here are some of comments from MCell users and the MCell Web Site visitors. Not all comments are sweet, of course. Some point out bugs in the software, some suggest extensions -- many thanks for all kind of feedback!

 

There are *very* few times I open up a piece of software and just go "Oh...my...god". Well, with MCell 3.0 I did!! It is truly an amazing piece of software... beautifully designed, easy to use, lovely results, and the examples you provide are brilliant. I haven't tried playing with the OLE automation (OLE is a little outta my range for the moment). Thank you, thank you for MCell.

[MCell is ] A fully functional Cellular Automaton creator - features galore, fully customizable, expandable via DLLs and automation. All for a great price - free! The best ALife Windows program I've seen to date.

- James Matthews, webmaster for Generation5.org

 

I love Mirek's MCell. What A Genius!

- William Thompson, Deer Park, TX

 

MCell is exciting, it's the most versatile cellular automaton player around. Already it has triggered a creative fan club into using it to invent ever more amazing, hypnotic and wonderful universes. It is rich in features, covers a huge and ever growing set of CA-rules and quite unlike most Win32 programs has an excellent user interface. Mirek's Cellebration is indeed a joy to behold, all singing, all dancing. It's a circus on it's own.

- Johan Bontes, author of Life32

 

Mirek's Cellebration is a fantastic 32-bit CA program for Windows, far and away the best general-purpose CA engine on any platform. Get it!

- Prof. David Griffeath, The Primordial Soup Kitchen

 

Congratulations on a great program. I'm very excited about it. You can't  imagine how happy I am to see another programmer building on the existing CA work and including some of the things I did.  There are my old friends the Butterfly Gun and Rainzha.  How wonderful. Starwars really is a nice rule.  It's what I'd call NLUKY 22235.  Some of the patterns you have for it are amazing.  Steeplechase is great.

What a wonderful CA applet you've written.  You're a genius.  I was so happy to see the butterfly gun and the Hodge rule. Frankly I didn't know Java could do something this good. I guess I haven't been paying attention!

- Prof. Rudy Rucker, author of CelLab

 

MANY THANKS for the wonderful MCELL program, which is a great resource and generalization of its predecessors!!!

- Prof. Marc Eisenstadt, The Open University, UK

 

Check out the freeware program, MCell, downloadable from this site. This program sets new standards in the field and was obviously crafted by a uniquely talented developer (Mirek Wojtowicz).

- Edward H. Currie, Resonance Publications, Inc.

 

As I add this link in the summer of '99, Mirek Wójtowicz, using his excellent Win32 program MCell, has been exploring CA rules at a feverish pace. His efforts have yielded some valuable Web resources, including an extensive rule catalogue and a corresponding gallery of representative states.
Mirek's favorite rule discovery, which he calls 'Star Wars', is closely related to Transers, but definitely has a life all its own. Mirek and other users of [MCell], working in the "engineering" tradition pioneered by Conway's Life enthusiasts, have already created extensive pattern libraries for the new rule.

- John Elliott, author of Webside CA Java applet

 

You certainly have put together a nice site. I have included a link to it on my more general CA page.

- Dr Dana Eckart

 

MCell by Mirek Wojtowicz is very colorful, rich in features, and lets you play with rules you can't find in Life32 -- or most Life programs, for that matter. Relatively slow, but still highly recommended!

- Alan Hensel, author of the Conway's Game of Life Java Applet

 

I finally got a chance to look at your CA program; I had heard about it, but I run Linux at home, and I had to try it out at work. It's very nice!

- Paul Callahan, author of Conway's Life Miscellany

 

I want to thank you for your wonderful gift to humanity: MCell freeware.  I too, started doing these things on graph paper almost 30 years ago!  Your program is beyond praise, my wife complains about my working on it all the time. Nothing will ever equal the impact the Star Wars pattern files had on me when I first saw them!! You had made that rule do everything but get up and sing "my old country home!"

The Java applet is great! There ought to be an International Cellular Automata Society (maybe you can form it) with yearly awards for best achievements (we could call the prize "the Conway Award" (assuming JHC would permit it)). Anyway, you would probably get the award for this year with your site and MCell program! Remarkable achievement.

- Michael Sweney, author of many "Generations" rules and patterns

 

I just flipped through some of the patterns in your Java MCell demo -- fabulous work you've done, and an amazing collection of rules and patterns. I'm now downloading the full system. Thanks for making your work public, and I hope to enjoy your MCell for a while to come.

- Edwin Wise

 

I have downloaded your Mcell and have started playing around with it. I'm doing a project on CA for my degree and have so far found your website very useful.

- Camilla Edlin, Cardiff, UK

 

Just a short note to say what an excellent piece of work your program is. My first encounter with Conway's Life was on the Commodore Pet computer, somewhere around 1979. Your program is "an embarrassment of riches." Thank you for it.

- Herb Solem, Vancouver, Canada

 

Mirek, I visited your site and played with macro last night. It's great! (...) Thanks, and again, very impressive...Ken

- Ken S. Mueller, author of Cellular Java applet

 

I just wanted to congratulate you an a nice job on your MCell program. Adding color to the system really makes sims more interesting. Thanks for the excellent program :)

- Rob Trujillo, Portland, OR

 

I am a frequently visitor of your website and admire the great amount of work and quality of your CA program MCell. I also downloaded your program and played around - excellent stuff! (...) Wonderful rules! I think your page is now the most comprehensive with regard to CA's.

- Martin Schaller, author of CAOS Java applet

 

You have been doing a good job of popularizing cellular automata. I hope you keep this up with continuing and increasing success!

- George Maydwell, author of SARCASim

 

Since first reading about and seeing Conway's life, I've been interested in cellular automata. I've haven't followed developments in this area very closely, but your program seems to be one of the most extensive displays on the subject. In short, it is fantastic. You should be very proud of your work.

- Jim Suiter

 

Firstly, your Cellular Automata pages are pretty neat. There are lots of patterns there which I hadn't seen before. I'm sorry I haven't played with your MCell program though, since I only run Linux. (It probably has some nice features that I would want to "swipe" for my own program:)

- David Ingalls Bell, author of articles on Conway's Game of Life and related Cellular Automata

 

I downloaded your software. It's quite amazing!! The StarWars one is really mindblowing. Thanks for such a cool program!

- Jeremy A. Smith

 

Firstly, congratulations on your excellent MCell program! I read about Conway's 'Life' in Daniel Dennet's 'Darwin's Dangerous Idea', and searched the web for a program to implement it; though I was directed by some sites to other programs, yours is by far the best. I particularly like the colour facility.

- Paul Fisher Davies

 

I've just found and downloaded your great program "MCell"! Wow! It is really great! I've never imagine, that there are to many rules in 2-state cellular automata! I like your program - it is the best (I mean, functionality, of course) from I have seen.

- Andrew (Void Dweller)

 

Your program is great. It might renew my long-dead interest for CAs :) Your new files in the Star Wars rules are stunning!

- Lionel Bonnetier

 

Great program, love it, love life

- Stephen Wright, author of Asynchronous CA

 

I got your MCLife working and I really, really like it. Your web site is great! I am sure you will gather some following this year. Star Wars Fun was great and shows that the rule has enormous pattern engineering potential.

- Ben Schaeffer, author of LifeMN and many Weighted Life rules.

 

Your MCLife program is very nice. I also like your Star Wars rule. I've been playing about with it over the last couple of days.

- Stephen Silver, author of Life Lexicon

 

I just downloaded and started MClife. It is amazing and exciting! I'm programming CA software too, but using Java. It seems you already have done almost all I wanted to do.

- Prof. Tomoaki Suzudo, author of CA applets

 

The program works really well, keep up the good work!

- David Lowenstein

 

I am a user of MCLife, the program is great! I must say, the number of amazing patterns you have created is impressive. You are a wizard at this CA business, and you must spend a lot of time doing research with all your creatures.

- Alastair Couper

 

I'm having fun playing with your MCell program. Thanks for making it available!

- Jason Summers, author of Life patterns

 

I've downloaded MCLife. It's a beautiful program, very fun, complete and beautiful. I really enjoyed Incredible machine, Starwars and Hourglass. It's a fine job :)).

- Jean-Philippe Rennard, author of CAV

 

A great program. Many thanks.

- Richard Kelly

 

MJCell is very nice. Good to see someone write a java app that shows some real java potential - rather than the usual small java apps on the web.

- Jason Rampe, author of "Visions Of Chaos" and "Tiled CA"

 

I loved MJCell. The applet is well designed as well your site has much useful info.

- John Rose

 

You have a great Web site! And you continue to enhance and update your software and information.

- Ruminski, Ann L

 

That's definitely the best page of GOL I've found so far.

- Timo Kauppinen, Finland

 

I found your excellent program two days ago and have been enjoying it immensely since then. Thank you for the program and especially for the fascinating collection of patterns. Your human interface design is superb.

- Brian Prentice

 

I have looked on and off for years for a cellular automata program like yours that runs on windows. Friends I knew from MIT in Boston turned me on to the Game of Life and it's subtleties many years ago. As an engineer I appreciate a job well done! Thanks for many hours of entertainment and fun with logic. Keep up the good work!

- Jeff Wilkinson, Critikon Company L.L.C

 

I visited your homepage and found it quite interesting.

- Peter Naszvadi, Hungary

 

I downloaded MCell as well as some of the other AI Automata progs. But yours knocks spots of them! It's really cool!

- Lee Borell, author of Templarser

 

I would like to thank you for your remarkable work. I am using MCell 3.0 which has led to wonder world to me.

- Bae, Jun-Seok, Australia

 

I'm an italian student that graduated last April in economics with a thesis about "Cellular Automata's application in economics". I really appreciated your program and your work especially for user friendly interface.

- Leonardo Catani, Italy

 

As a computer science professor, I was very impressed with your MCell program and the MJCell Java applet. I'm using them in my classes! Great job! We would like to link to your site from our department website: www.coloradocollege.edu/Dept/MA/
Thanks for your efforts.

- Prof. Steven Janke

 

I'd like to say that your prog is the best ca program I've ever seen !!! Second: excellent web page!!!! Third: keep doing!

- Pixel

 

Webmaster: Mirek Wojtowicz

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Last update: 15 Sep 2001