Briefly, an 'ant' moves around on an infinite checkerboard, each square of which we refer to as a 'cell'. Each cell can have one of 2 (or up to 10) states, represented by colours. (usually, one fills the plane with cells of state 1 to start). As the ant passes through each cell, it makes a 90 degree turn; turning to the left or to the right. Whether the ant turns left or right depends on the colour of the cell.

It is a special treat of this Zillions game that the ant may also go straight (option S) and go back (option B).

The list on the right border shows the 'internal program' of the ant which controls this turning. When the ant leaves a cell, it switches it to the next state.

Click the L/S/R/B buttons (starting from the bottom up) to create different ants. Only the top entry can be deleted at any time.

Click button 'point' or 'line' if you want to colour some board positions first.
Click one of the ten colour buttons to select a colour (=state of the position) to be used while drawing. Only colours which the ant uses will have an effect.
To draw orthogonal lines click the from- and then the to-position. When you are finished with the drawing, hit the 'ready' button.

Finally, click the board to drop the ant.

Note that there is an alternative board and an alternative colour scheme available (hit 'switch piece set' button repeatedly).

The variants show some new and interesting setups for ants. Note that any ants which use an S or B option are not covered by standard literature and hence represent a new area for research that you can take part in! Variant 2, for example, shows an ant (RS) an extremely unusual behaviour. Its expansion rate seems to be the slowest possible.

There is no win message. The game stops when the ant hits the boundary.

 
If you find an interesting ant, you can email the setup to me (karl at kiwi.gen.nz) and I might include it in a future version of this game.

More freeware and real puzzles and games at my homepage: http://karl.kiwi.gen.nz.