The main menu, displayed by the f1 button, begins with four Life demonstrations. The first is a regular Life , executed in plane 0 with a glider trace in plane 1; this is possible because the five-cell gliders all fit within a single Moore neighborhood, to be detectable by a suitable rule for plane 1. As the alternate rule in plane 1, all the cells that were ever alive can be marked, visible as a halo around the evolving field.
Two demonstrations are not really Life demonstrations at all, but a pair of reversible rules derived from Life .
The fourth demonstration employs plane 1 to inhibit evolution in plane 0; among other things, this allows life to evolve within fixed boundaries. Choosing a checkerboard for the other plane gives nice results.
The REC menu offers much the same selection, with one addition - two-color Life . In this variant, live cells are colored, red and blue, say. The usual rule of evolution applies, without regard to color, but newly born cells take on the minority color of their parents whenever there is a choice.