Subject: mars88 for PC Message-ID: <92061.172632ASMQK@ASUACAD.BITNET> From: Date: Sunday, 1 Mar 1992 17:26:32 MST ICWS 88 compatible (I hope) , EGA/VGA display or no display at all (CGA 's coming soon) , Turbo Pascal source (fast especially if no display) warriors can be selected by menu , the compiler gives informations to find the mistakes . If you are interested please send me a note (asmqk@asuacad.bitnet) and I send you an lharc uuencode file. mars88.exe -> mars88.lzh -> mars88.uud Filesizes:exe 30849 , lzh 39941 , uud 56839 Nandor Sieben asmqk@asuacad.bitnet Subject: New version of KotH available From: wms@iwarp.intel.com (William Shubert) Date: Mon, 2 Mar 1992 01:33:40 GMT Message-ID: <1992Mar2.013340.21139@iWarp.intel.com> I have just finished V2.1 of KotH corewar. A bunch of people have V2.0 already; V2.1 has the following improvements: - Buttons to control the X display. - Options to use postincrement addressing, a maximum write distance, and an option where killing a parent process kills its children also. - The capability to run more than two programs at a time. - Minor bug fixes. All known bugs are now fixed. For those who don't know what I'm talking about, KotH corewar is the program used by the KotH corewar tournament. In it's standard mode, it is a fully ICWS '88 compatible corewar program for Unix systems with an X windows graphic display interface. To get this source code, send me mail. I'll send it to you in the form of an 80K shar file; if your mailer won't be able to handle this I could also break it up for you. In particular, many people in the past have expressed interest in setting the maximum write distance for a program. Well, now it's possible, so if anybody wants to they can start fooling around and writing programs for this option. -Bill (wms@iwarp.intel.com) Subject: ramscoop-x From: stst@vuse.vanderbilt.edu (Stefan Strack) Date: 2 Mar 92 04:03:22 GMT Message-ID: <1992Mar2.040322.29456@vuse.vanderbilt.edu> To break the silence in this newsgroup, I'll post another one of my KotH warriors. "ramscoop-x" is currently #2 on the experimental hill (which has just been enriched by an "Age" field for perseverance. Thanks, Bill). It's of the imp/imp-stomper variety (like bow-n-arrow, Trinity Zwo, and Walze) that seems to do so well on the -x hill, but miserably on the standard hill. In fact, ramscoop-x will not even work correctly under the standard time-slice allocation scheme, because the imps will breach the imp-stomping barricade set up by the program itself. If anyone else has a warrior that exploits the -x time-slice allocation for some uniquely offensive behavior, please post. I am getting the impression that a lot of hill-x programs simply take advantage of their resistance to SPL bomb. Maybe it's time to move on to another experimental hill. We've all had enough time to evaluate the "split CPU-time" modification, and I personally don't think it makes for more interesting warriors. How about it, Bill, ready to launch the "limited write-distance" and/or "post-increment indirect (>)" experimental hill? Cheers, Stefan (stst@vuse.vanderbilt.edu) ;redcode-x ;name ramscoop-x ;author Stefan Strack ;strategy Blankets the core with imps ;strategy Submitted: @date@ impstop equ start-6 i1 equ imp+4000 i2 equ imp+2000 i3 equ imp+1000 start spl impgun bloop mov Another Core War archive site is available in Germany. It is iraun1.ira.uka.de (129.13.10.90) and contains most of what soda has/d under /pub/X11/corewars. Mark A. Durham MAD From: DURHAM@ricevm1.rice.edu (Mark A. Durham) Subject: MAD FAQs (KotH included) Message-ID: <1679E8C69.DURHAM@ricevm1.rice.edu> Date: Mon, 2 Mar 1992 15:59:05 GMT Last Update: March 2, 1992 TABLE OF CONTENTS ----------------- 1. What is Core War? 2. Is it Core War or Core Wars? 3. Where can I find more information about Core War? 4. What is the ICWS? 5. What is TCWN? 6. How do I join? 7. Are back issues of TCWNs available? 8. What is the EBS? 9. Where are the Core War archives? 10. Where can I find a Core War system for . . . ? 11. When is the next tournament? 12. What is KOTH? How do I enter? 13. What is Core War notation? 14. Other questions? --------------------------------------------------------------------- Q1: What is Core War? A1: Core War is a game played by two or more programs (and vicariously by their authors) written in an assembly language called Redcode and run in a virtual computer called MARS (for Memory Array Redcode Simulator). The object of the game is to cause all of the opposing programs to terminate, leaving your program in sole possesion of the machine. There are Core War systems available for most computer platforms. Redcode has been standardized by the ICWS, and is therefore transportable between all standard Core War systems. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Q2: Is it "Core War" or "Core Wars"? A2: Both terms are used. Early references were to Core War. Later references seem to use Core Wars. I prefer "Core War" to refer to the game in general, "core wars" to refer to more than one specific battle. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Q3: Where can I find more information about Core War? A3: Core War was first described in the "Core War Guidelines" of March, 1984 by D. G. Jones and A. K. Dewdney of the Department of Computer Science at The University of Western Ontario (Canada). Dewdney wrote several "Computer Recreations" articles in "Scientific American" which discussed Core War, starting with the May 1984 article. Those articles are contained in an anthology: Author: Dewdney, A. K. Title: The Armchair Universe: An Exploration of Computer Worlds Published: New York: W. H. Freeman (c) 1988 Library of Congress Call Number: QA76.6 .D517 1988 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Q4: What is the ICWS? A4: About one year after Core War first appeared in Sci-Am, the "International Core War Society" (ICWS) was established. Since that time, the ICWS has been responsible for the creation and maintenance of Core War standards and the running of Core War tournaments. There have been six annual tournaments and two standards (ICWS'86 and ICWS'88). The ICWS is currently in a state of flux, but should stabilize soon. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Q5: What is TCWN? A5: Since March of 1987, "The Core War Newsletter" (TCWN) has been the official newsletter of the ICWS. It is supposed to be published quarterly, but has appeared sporadically instead. This should change soon as TCWN is changing publishers. In fact, it may be available through this newsgroup in the near future. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Q6: How do I join? A6: For more information about joining the ICWS and/or subscribing to TCWN, contact: Jon Newman One Microsoft Way Redmond, WA 98052-6399 EMail: jonn@microsoft.com If you wish to contribute an article, cartoon, letter, joke, rumor, etc. to TCWN, please send it to me at Mark A. Durham P.O. Box 301173 Houston, TX 77230-1173 EMail: durham@ricevm1.rice.edu and clearly indicate its destination. The ICWS and TCWN are in a transitional period (as of March 1992). (Things are wrapping up though, believe it or not frequent readers). Please be patient with them. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Q7: Are back issues of TCWN available? A7: Arrangements are being made to make TCWN back issues available. This will probably involve a $4.00(US) fee to be sent to the Copyright Clearance Center as well as an additional postage and handling charge. Check out the synopses posted previously (now on soda.berkeley.edu - see below). --------------------------------------------------------------------- Q8: What is the EBS? A8: The Electronic Branch Section (EBS) of the ICWS is a group of Core War enthusiasts with access to electronic mail. There are no fees associated with being a member of the EBS, and members do reap some of the benefits of full ICWS membership without the expense. For instance, the ten best warriors submitted to the EBS tournament will be entered into the annual ICWS tournament. Now that rec.games.corewar has been created, the EBS will move most of its business to the newsgroup. The current goal of the EBS is to be at the forefront of Core War by writing and implementing new standards and test suites in preparation for the tenth anniversary of Core War in May of 1994. Its immediate business will be to set up a Charter and establish its officers. Contact me if you are interested in helping serve the EBS. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A9: Where is the Core War archive? Q9: Many documents such as the guidelines and the ICWS standards along with previous tournament Redcode entries and complete Core War systems are available via anonymous ftp from soda.berkeley.edu (128.32.131.179) in the /pub/corewar directories. Much of what is available on soda is also available on the German archive at iraun1.ira.uka.de (129.13.10.90) in the /pub/X11/corewars directory. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Q10: Where can I find a Core War system for . . . ? A10: First, check out the Core War systems available via anonymous ftp from soda.berkeley.edu. Currently, there are X-Window, IBM PC-compatible, Macintosh, and Amiga Core War systems available there. Others may appear. The following suppliers have ICWS'88 compatible systems for IBM PC compatibles: The Core War Colosseum AMRAN 5712 Kern Drive Huntington Beach, CA 92649-4535 Price: $39.95 CoreMaster(TM) THINK Software 524 Paige Drive Birmingham, AL 35226 (205)979-9475 Price: $34.95 + $3.00 S&H Apple Macintosh computers: Core! Jon Newman One Microsoft Way Redmond, WA 98052-6399 EMail: jonn@microsoft.com (Note: Core! is NOT a Microsoft product.) Price: $14.00 registration fee, plus $3.00 S&H. S&H fee waived if you send 800k disk and stamped, self-addressed envelope. Also available from sumex-aim.stanford.edu and listserv@ricevm1.rice.edu and soda.berkeley.edu. Commodore Amiga computers: The MADgic Core c/o Mark A. Durham P.O. Box 301173 Houston, TX 77230-1173 EMail: durham@ricevm1.rice.edu A version of The MADgic Core is available from soda.berkeley.edu. CoreWars (German language version) UNICORN systems Bernstrasse 67 CH-4852 Rothrist Switzerland Price: sFr 45.-- Commodore 64/128 computers: Barry Cohen 65 West 90th Street, #23E New York, NY 10024 Price: Not Available My apologies to those of you who have Core War systems which are not listed here or are incorrectly listed here. Please send me information about the systems (base system, ICWS standards compatibility, extensions, price, etc.) and I will be sure to include it in next month's MAD FAQs. CAUTION! There are many, many Core War systems available which are NOT ICWS'88 (or even ICWS'86) compatible available at various archive sites. Reviews of Core War systems would be greatly appreciated in the newsgroup and in the newsletter. Please post or EMail to me any review of any Core War system you have tried out so that others may learn from your experience. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Q11: When is the next tournament? A11: The EBS is in the middle of a tournament right now. If you would like to join in, send me mail. Otherwise, keep looking to r.g.cw for upcoming tournament announcements. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Q12: What is KOTH? How do I enter? A12: King Of The Hill (KOTH) is an ongoing Core War tournament available to anyone with EMail provided by William Shubert . You enter by submitting a Redcode program with special comment lines via EMail. You will receive a reply indicating how well your program did against the current top ten programs "on the hill". If your program finished in the top ten, it will remain on the hill until such time as it finishes eleventh against another challenger, at which time it "falls off" the hill. Entry rules for King of the Hill Corewar: 1) Write a corewar program. KotH is fully ICWS '88 compatible, EXCEPT that a comma (",") is required between two arguments. 2) Put the line ";redcode" at the top of your program. This MUST be the first line. Anything before it will be lost. If you wish to receive mail on every new entrant, use ";redcode verbose". Otherwise you will only receive mail if a challenger makes it onto the hill. Use ";redcode quiet" if you wish to receive mail only when you get shoved off the hill. Additionally, adding ";name " and ";author " will be helpful in the performance reports. Do NOT have a line beginning with ";address" in your code; this will confuse the mail demon and you won't get mail back. In addition, it would be nice if you have lines beginning with ";strategy" that describe the algorithm you use. 3) Mail this file to "wms@iwarp.intel.com". 4) Within a few minutes you should get mail back telling you whether your program compiled correctly or not. If it did compile correctly, sit back and wait; if not, make the change required and re-submit. 5) In an hour or so you should get more mail telling you how your program performed against the current top 10 programs. If no news arrives in an hour, don't worry; entries are put in a queue and run through the tournament one at a time. A backlog may develop. Be patient. MORE ON KOTH COREWAR IMPLEMENTATION Core size: 8,000 instructions Max processes: 8,000 per program Duration: After 80,000 cycles per program a tie is declared. Example program: ;redcode ;name Dwarf ;author A. K. Dewdney bomb dat #0 dwarf add #4,bomb mov bomb,@bomb jmp dwarf end dwarf If you want, enter your program with ";redcode-x" and PRESTO! YOU'RE IN THE EXPERIMENTAL TOURNAMENT! Now what does this mean? 1> When a process splits, it's children share it's CPU time. 2> When a process dies, it's CPU time is given to it's sibling, or it's siblings descendants if the sibling has split. 3> ALL ADDRESSING MODES ARE ALLOWED. So "add #4, #5" will become "add #4, #9" after execution. The source code to KotH is available by EMail from William Shubert. Write to him at . ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Q13: What is Core War notation? A13: There are some important notational conventions which should be followed when writing about Core War. Before we discuss them, you need to understand Redcode syntax. Redcode consists of assembly language instructions of the form