LifeGenesis Life Genesis from Windows Entertainment Pack 3

This was released in 1991 for Windows 3.x.

I never quite understood this game as a kid. I do see you have to eliminate the player's squares of a certain color with only the squares of your color remain on the board. After I beat the game in this example, I just ran the simulation. F3 perform a step and holding down on it performs continuous step, whereas F5 has it run continuously with a pause after each step.

The following are the rules, copied from Help - How to Play - Overview:

LifeGenesis is based on the remarkable Life simulation rules developed by the mathematician John Horton Conway. (See History of Life.) LifeGenesis includes both a Life simulator and a game based on Life that you can play against the computer.

Imagine that you are looking into a microscope and you see a grid pattern on a glass slide. Some of the squares on the grid are empty, and some contain live tiny organisms or cells. Some organisms seem to live a long time, while others die quickly. On parts of the slide, new organisms spring to life. As new generations of cells live and die, they form patterns of shifting color.

This microscopic drama is based on a mathematical model following three simple rules, (see Rules of Life ) which determine, as each generation passes, who lives, who dies and where new life begins.

These rules are not meant to accurately model any particular life system. They are instead a mathematical abstraction which has fascinated game players for more than 20 years because of the wonderful patterns that emerge as generations progress. From the chaos of a random distribution of cells eventually emerges unexpected symmetries or quirky behaviors. For most players, the magic is that three simple rules of logic can yield such diversity and beauty.