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README.TXT
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1997-05-03
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Pixavores Screen Saver
All contents copyright (c) 1995-1996 Michael Meens
=============================================================================
In order to justify my CyberLife, and my own CyberFront property with a cool
home page, I've decided to put my Pixavores Screen Saver on the Internet.
(Pre-alpha, version 0.20, 11/19/96) Use at your own risk. Installation
instructions are in the file PIXAVORE.TXT.
What is a Pixavore? Well, while most common herbivores eat plants, and the
average carnivore prefers to eat meat, Pixavores consume pixels to maintain
their health. All known Pixavores live on computer screens, presumably because
this is where most pixels are found.
There are three distinct species of Pixavores; Redeous, Greenesk, and Bluens,
each named for their pigmentation. It has also been observed that they each
prefer to eat pixels which are similar to themselves in color. Female
Pixavores have a neck pixel which is of a different color than the rest of
her.
What's New in Pixavores!:
5/2/97: I've put all of the files into one download, PIXAVORE.ZIP. There used
to be an additional file, PIXADLL.ZIP with some support .DLLs, but these are
now included in PIXAVORE.ZIP.
11/19/96: Wow! It's been a long time since I posted an update! I have made
quite a few changes to the screen saver in this time.
The most important change is that natural selection (evolution) takes place,
as the really stupid ones die out, and the more successful ones get to breed
and continue the species. There are currently over 20 genes which control the
behavior in all Pixavores.
The system automatically maintain the population between sessions; every time
your screen saver starts, the same population will appear. This will allow
evolution to take place over a long period of time. Hopefully, each person's
choice of wallpaper and applications will influence the type of population
which evolves. A couple of hints are in order, however. Pixavores require
quite a bit of color to survive. If you leave your desktop with lots of black
or white, without significant amounts of Red, Green, or Blue, they will
eventually starve to death. You may want to put up a graphics image before
Pixavores. They are fond of any colorful photographs. I may add options for
automatically displaying images when the screen saver starts, but before the
Pixavores start munching.
Pixavores now go dormant when they get too hungry. Yes, if they manage to eat
all of the food in the area, or they just can't seem to find anymore, they
will go dormant. They will appear to just stop moving. A Pixavore who dies by
poison, starvation, or old age will disappear from the screen.
The Pixavore population is stored in a file called PIXAVORE.DAT, which is
created automatically if one doesn't already exist. The current implementation
stores this file in whatever directory Windows thinks is the current directory
when the screen saver starts, so it tends to clutter up your hard drive with
this file. If you find a population you are particularly fond of, you can copy
the file to a backup copy if you want.
In addition, everywhere you find a PIXAVORE.DAT, you will also find a
PIXASTAT.DAT which contains some interesting statistics on the population,
mostly concerning the number of Pixavores in the population, and the number of
births and deaths which occured during each session.
12/26/95: Pixavores don't eat each other, or themselves, anymore. Their white
neck pixel has been replaced with other colors, or none at all. Also, the
problems they've had getting stuck on the sides is fixed. Due to several
internal changes, dead Pixavores are actually removed from the system,
resulting in better performance after some have died off.
12/14/95: All colors have gained some simple intelligence!
Another new feature is death! Yes, by popular demand, stupid Pixavores who
can't find enough food to survive, DIE! All that really happens now, is the
just kinda stop moving. And finally, Pixavores has it's own icon, so if you
put a Pixavores icon on your desktop, you'll see a cool giant blue Pixavore.
Thanks to Alex Olshove for the icon!
Future enhancements will include:
* Allowing users to view and set certain configuration options, including
viewing some statistics on the state of the Pixavore population.
* Fix the problems with running it under Windows 3.1, so that you can install,
configure, and run it from the Control Panel.
I welcome any questions, comments, or suggestions. Send email to meensm@gj.net