What is Core War?

Core War is a strategic programming game played between two or more programs written in Redcode, a low-level language similar to assembly. Players write programs to eliminate all opponents in the memory of the MARS virtual computer. Core War also serves as a unique platform to experiment with genetic programming.

Core War News - 2024

Lamp of Murmur by Guillermo Calvo Arenaza claims first place in the Seventh CoreWarUCM Tournament, live at the Universidad Complutense Madrid.

Core War News - 2023

Google Groups are ending access to Usenet. Sign up to a free Usenet server (e.g. Eternal September or Solani) to use a newsreader (Pan or Thunderbird) to access rec.games.corewar.

Azathoth is the new king of the 94nop-Koenigstuhl, pairing a Sunset-style paper with a self-bombing stone.

A titan falls - Monster_Human_Grunt is a stone/imp which entered the 94nop hill in January 2006, surviving 2289 challenges before being pushed off today, making it the third oldest warrior of all time.

Tolypeutes is the new king of the 94nop-Koenigstuhl, combining an Armadillo-style stone with an Impfinity-launch and a new qscanner. Congrats to Roy van Rijn.

There's a new best counter graph for the top-50 of the Koenigstuhl 88, 94nop, pspace, 94x and ICWS hills. Each warrior is connected to the opponent which beats it with the highest score.

Core War News - 2022

Koenigstuhl is now home to seven Battle Royale (sequential push off) hills. Hullab3loo and Lithobolia C yvfp are the first to claim first place on the 94nop and 88 Battle Royale hills.

pMARS 0.9.4 is now available, with support for read/write limits, updated docs and bug fixes from Joonas Pihlaja, Terry Newton and Björn Günzel.

The Corewar Global Masters finals are over. Congratulations to Roy van Rijn and Inversed who take first and second place in the grand final - the tiny survival elimination round.

The Corewar Global Masters Tournament has been announced by Christian Schmidt, with three rounds and a grand final to be streamed live on Twitch. Deadline 6pm CET on 7th Feb 2022.

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Getting Started in Core War

Core War Tournaments

Core War Community

Core War Strategy Guide

The Core War Imp Ring
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