I used to buy freeware from a company that would send it to you on floppies in the mail.
There was one evolution simulator I got there I have been trying to replace for years.

- it was late 80's early 90's
- it ran on MsDos
- it was top down view
- it had no sound that I remember.
- there were green pixels that represented plants.
- red or blue represented the animals

description: each animals behavior was defined by arrows in a grid that represented what direction it would go or what it would do when one or more Neighbors occupied one of its 8 sides
you could design them yourself or randomly generate them.
then you choose how the plants are distributed on screen and watch the animals evolve there behavior to keep them in the area where the plants were, so they had food.
I have been looking in the evolution sim and A-life forums all this time but I just heard of the abandonware community and thought I would give it a try. if any one knows where this old sim can be found I would be very grateful
I wish I had more info to give but its been 30+ years

I used to buy the Moraff games from the same place if that helps.
I think "evolve" was in the title.

Hmmm… sounds like a variation of Conway's Game of Life to me. Do you think it looked similar to this?

No I have played Conway's game of life and loved it.
however it was always a bit over my head.
and I never could quite figure out what the point of it was since it is not really a life sim so much as cellular automata.

The aim of the program I am looking for was just to show evolution of behavior.

there are a lot of similar attempts out today like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRu8xaLnXcw but not one of them comes close.

the newer ones wast time trying to evolve the creature itself while behavior works better to show evolution in action.

anyway if anyone has any idea where old A-life sims go to die please post me a link hear.

thnks in advance

I'm not sure about all the details, but Unnatural Selection at least fits the general theme.