Code Golf: Conway's Game of Life

Answer 1

Another Java attempt, 361 chars

class L{public static void main(final String[]a)throws Exception{new java.io.RandomAccessFile("out.txt","rw"){{int e=88,p[]={-1,1,-80,80,-81,81,-82,82},s=3240,l=0,i=new Byte(a[1])*s+s,c;char[]b=new char[s];for(new java.io.FileReader(a[0]).read(b);i>0;seek(l=++l%s),i--){c=b[l];for(int n:p)c+=l+n>=0&l+n13?(c==49|(c|1)==91?e:46):10);}}};}}

And a little more readable

class L {
    public static void main(final String[]a) throws Exception {
        new java.io.RandomAccessFile("out.txt","rw"){{
            int e=88, p[]={-1,1,-80,80,-81,81,-82,82},s=3240,l=0,i=new Byte(a[1])*s+s,c;
            char[] b = new char[s];
            for (new java.io.FileReader(a[0]).read(b);i>0;seek(l=++l%s),i--) {
                c=b[l];
                for (int n:p)
                    c+=l+n>=0&l+n13?(c==49|(c|1)==91?e:46):10);
            }
        }};
    }
}

Very similar to Molehill’s version. I've tried to use a different FileWriter and to count the cell's neighbors without an additional variable. Unfortunately, RandomAccessFile is a pretty long name and it is required that you pass an file access mode.