They will gather intelligence, lay false trails and strike at their opponents suddenly and with determination.”
Dewdney, A. K. Scientific American January 1987.
A scanner searches for the opponent and hits hard, first stunning with
a SPL
attack then switching to a deadly DAT
attack. Modern
scanners are often large and fragile, scoring well against paper
but losing to stones.
Blur Scanner
A blur scanner has a continuous SPL
wipe and a scan in the same loop. The
scan directs the wipe to anything found. After the main attack the scanner either falls
through to a core-clear or alternatively switches to a DAT
wipe. The
first blur scanner was created by Anton Marsden in January 1996.
step equ 4884
wptr mov.b scan, #0
scan add #step, #step
gate mov *bomb, >wptr
jmz.f scan, @scan
jmn wptr, *wptr
bomb spl 0, 0
clear mov dbmb, >gate
djn.f clear, >gate
dbmb dat <2667, 2-gate
HSA Scanner
step equ 7
org scan
wptr dat 2000
for 4
dat 0,0
rof
bomb spl #1, {1
wipe mov bomb, <wptr
mov >wptr, >wptr
jmn.f wipe, >wptr
scan add #step+1, wptr
jmz.f scan, <wptr
slt wptr, #last-wptr+4
jmp wipe, <wptr
djn scan, #13
last jmp scan+1, {wipe
XTC Scanner
step equ 6792
count equ 12
wptr equ scan-4
scan add #step, #0
jmz.f scan, @scan
mov scan, wptr
wipe mov *bomb, >wptr
mov *bomb, >wptr
cnt djn wipe, #count/2
gate mov #count/2, cnt
jmn scan, @scan+1
bomb spl #0, 0
clear mov dbmb, >gate
djn.f clear, >gate
dbmb dat <2667, 3-gate
Example Scanners
Agony 3.1, Agony 5.1, Agony II, Arrow, Backstabber, Bayonet, Beholder's Eye v1.7, BIgital SHOT, Blade, Blur, Blur 2, Blur '88, Boys are Back in Town 1.1, B-scanners live in vain, Charon v7.0, Charon v8.1, Claw, Crimp, Crimp 2, Discord, Eternal Exile, Excalibur, Foggy swamp, Grendel's Revenge, Griffin 2, HazyLazy C 11, Herbal Avenger, Impurge, Iron Gate, Jinx, Leprechaun 1b, Medusa's v7X, Macro Magic, Memories, Mirage 1.5, Mirage 2, No Mucking About, Pendulum, Perseus, quiz, Recon 2, Soldier of Fortune, Shot to Nothing, Stalker, Stasis, Valkyrie, Win!, Xenosmilus, Zooom...,Further Reading
- Analysis of Stefan Strack's Rave." Steve's Guide for Beginners 10 (Mar 1996). . "
- Memories." Core Warrior 19 (4 Mar 1996). . "
- Scanner Payloads." Core Warrior 18 (26 Feb 1996). . "
- The Science of Scanning. Usenet newsgroup rec.games.corewar, 25 Jun 1992. (HTML) .
- Agony and Ecstasy-style scanners." CoreOps 1 (17 Mar 2015). . "
- The Mirage/Blur Scanner Series." Core Warrior 36 (1 Jul 1996). . "
- Anatomy of the Scanner." Core Warrior 89 (11 Apr 2004). (HTML) . "
- Agony: Rejuvenating a Classic." The '94 Warrior 3 (2 Mar 1994). . "
- Scanners." Intro to Art in '88: Paper — Stone — Scissors Trilogy. KOTH.org, 1994. . "