From: stst@vuse.vanderbilt.edu (Stefan Strack) Subject: Core War Frequently Asked Questions (rec.games.corewar FAQ) Date: 1996/01/01 Message-ID: newsgroups: rec.games.corewar,rec.answers,news.answers Archive-name: games/corewar-faq Last-Modified: 95/10/12 Version: 3.6 These are the Frequently Asked Questions (and answers) from the Usenet newsgroup rec.games.corewar. A plain text version of this document is posted every two weeks. The hypertext version is available as _________________________________________________________________ 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. Core War has changed since Dewdney's articles. Where do I get a copy of the current instruction set? 5. What is ICWS'94? Which simulators support ICWS'94? 6. What is the ICWS? 7. What is TCWN? 8. How do I join? 9. What is the EBS? 10. Where are the Core War archives? 11. Where can I find a Core War system for ...? 12. I do not have FTP. How do I get all this great stuff? 13. I do not have access to Usenet. How do I post and receive news? 14. Are there any Core War related WWW sites? 15. When is the next tournament? 16. What is KotH? How do I enter? 17. Is it DAT 0, 0 or DAT #0, #0? How do I compare to core? 18. How does SLT (Skip if Less Than) work? 19. What is the difference between in-register and in-memory evaluation? 20. What does (expression or term of your choice) mean? 21. Other questions? _________________________________________________________________ What is Core War? 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 processes of the opposing program to terminate, leaving your program in sole posession 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. [ToC] _________________________________________________________________ Is it "Core War" or "Core Wars"? 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. [ToC] _________________________________________________________________ Where can I find more information about Core War? 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 two anthologies: Author: Dewdney, A. K. Title: The Armchair Universe: An Exploration of Computer Worlds Published: New York: W. H. Freeman (c) 1988 ISBN: 0-7167-1939-8 Library of Congress Call Number: QA76.6 .D517 1988 Author: Dewdney, A. K. Title: The Magic Machine: A Handbook of Computer Sorcery Published: New York: W. H. Freeman (c) 1990 ISBN: 0-7167-2125-2 (Hardcover), 0-7167-2144-9 (Paperback) Library of Congress Call Number: QA76.6 .D5173 1990 A.K. Dewdney's articles are still the most readable introduction to Core War, even though the Redcode dialect described in there is no longer current. [ToC] _________________________________________________________________ Core War has changed since Dewdney's articles. Where do I get a copy of the current instruction set? A draft of the official standard (ICWS'88) is available as . This document is formatted awkwardly and contains ambiguous statements. For a more approachable intro to Redcode, take a look at Mark Durham's tutorial, and . Steven Morrell (morrell@math.utah.edu) is preparing a more practically oriented Redcode tutorial that discusses different warrior classes with lots of example code. Mail him for a preliminary version. Michael Constant (mconst@csua.berkeley.edu) is reportedly working on a beginner's introduction. [ToC] _________________________________________________________________ What is ICWS'94? Which simulators support ICWS'94? There is an ongoing discussion about future enhancements to the Redcode language. A proposed new standard, dubbed ICWS'94, is currently being evaluated. A major change is the addition of "instruction modifiers" that allow instructions to modify A-field, B-field or both. Also new is a post-increment indirect addressing mode and unrestricted opcode and addressing mode combination ("no illegal instructions"). ICWS'94 is backwards compatible; i.e. ICWS'88 warriors will run correctly on an ICWS'94 system. Take a look at the ICWS'94 draft for more information. You can try out the new standard by submitting warriors to the '94 hills of the KotH servers. Two corewar systems currently support ICWS'94, pMARS (many platforms) and Redcoder (Mac), both available at ftp.csua.berkeley.edu. [ToC] _________________________________________________________________ What is the ICWS? 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). [ToC] _________________________________________________________________ What is TCWN? Since March of 1987, "The Core War Newsletter" (TCWN) has been the official newsletter of the ICWS. It is published quarterly and recent issues are also available as Encapsulated PostScript files. [ToC] _________________________________________________________________ How do I join? For more information about joining the ICWS (which includes a subscription to TCWN), or to contribute an article, review, cartoon, letter, joke, rumor, etc. to TCWN, please contact: Jon Newman 13824 NE 87th Street Redmond, WA 98052-1959 email: jonn@microsoft.com (Note: Microsoft has NO affiliation with Core War. Jon Newman just happens to work there, and we want to keep it that way!) Current annual dues are $15.00 in US currency. [ToC] _________________________________________________________________ What is the EBS? 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 are entered into the annual ICWS tournament. All EBS business is conducted in the rec.games.corewar 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. [ToC] _________________________________________________________________ Where are the Core War archives? 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 (128.32.149.19) in the /pub/corewar directories. Also, most of past rec.games.corewar postings (including Redcode source listings) are archived there. Jon Blow (blojo@csua.berkeley.edu) is the archive administrator. When uploading to /pub/corewar/incoming, ask Jon to move your upload to the appropriate directory and announce it on the net. 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. The plain text version of this FAQ is automatically archived by news.answers. [ToC] _________________________________________________________________ Where can I find a Core War system for . . . ? Core War systems are available via anonymous ftp from ftp.csua.berkeley.edu in the /pub/corewar/systems directory. Currently, there are UNIX, IBM PC-compatible, Macintosh, and Amiga Core War systems available there. It is a good idea to check for program updates first. CAUTION! There are many, many Core War systems available which are NOT ICWS'88 (or even ICWS'86) compatible available at various archive sites other than ftp.csua.berkeley.edu. Generally, the older the program - the less likely it will be ICWS compatible. Reviews of Core War systems would be greatly appreciated in the newsgroup and in the newsletter. Below is a not necessarily complete or up-to-date list of what's available at ftp.csua.berkeley.edu: MADgic41.lzh - corewar for the Amiga, v4.1 MAD4041.lzh - older version? MAD50B.lha - corewar for the Amiga, beta version 5.0 Redcoder-21.hqx - corewar for the Mac, supports ICWS'88 and '94 (without extensions) core-11.hqx - corewar for the Mac core-wars-simulator.hqx - same as core-11.hqx? corewar_unix_x11.tar.Z - corewar for UNIX/X-windows, ICWS'86 but not ICWS'88 compatible koth31.tar.Z - corewar for UNIX/X-windows. This program ran the former KotH server at intel.com koth.shar.Z - older version kothpc.zip - port of older version of KotH to the PC deluxe20c.tar.Z - corewar for UNIX (broken X-windows or curses) and PC mars.tar.Z - corewar for UNIX, likely not ICWS'88 compatible icons.zip - corewar icons for MS-Windows macrored.zip - a redcode macro-preprocessor (PC) c88v49.zip - PC corewar, textmode display mars88.zip - PC corewar, graphics mode display corwp302.zip - PC corewar, textmode display, slowish mercury2.zip - PC corewar written in assembly, fast! mtourn11.zip - tournament scheduler for mercury (req. 4DOS) pmars08s.zip - portable system, ICWS'88 and '94, runs on UNIX, PC, Mac, Amiga. C source archive pmars08s.tar.Z - same as above pmars08.zip - PC executables with graphics display, req 386+ macpmars02.sit.hqx - pMARS executable for Mac (port of version 0.2) buggy, no display MacpMARS1.99a.cpt.hqx - port of v0.8 for the Mac, with display and debugger MacpMARS1.0s.cpt.hqx - C source (MPW, ThinkC) for Mac frontend ApMARS03.lha - pMARS executable for Amiga (port of version 0.3.1) wincor11.zip - MS-Windows system, shareware ($15) [ToC] _________________________________________________________________ I do not have FTP. How do I get all this great stuff? There is an ftp email server at ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com. Send email with a subject and body text of "help" (without the quotes) for more information on its usage. If you don't have access to the net at all, send me a 3.5 '' diskette in a self-addressed disk mailer with postage and I will mail it back with an image of the Core War archives in PC format. My address is at the end of this post. [ToC] _________________________________________________________________ I do not have access to Usenet. How do I post and receive news? To receive rec.games.corewar articles by email, join the COREWAR-L list run on the Stormking.Com list processor. To join, send the message SUB COREWAR-L FirstName LastName to listproc@stormking.com. You can send mail to corewar-l@stormking.com to post even if you are not a member of the list. Responsible for the listserver is Scott J. Ellentuch (tuc@stormking.com). Another server that allows you to post (but not receive) articles is available. Email your post to rec-games-corewar@cs.utexas.edu and it will be automatically posted for you. [ToC] _________________________________________________________________ Are there any Core War related WWW sites? You bet. Each of the two KotH sites sport a world-wide web server. Stormking's Core War page is ; pizza's is . A third WWW site is in Koeln, Germany: . Last but not least, Stephen Beitzel's "Unofficial Core War Page" is . All site are in varying stages of construction, so it would be futile to list here what they have to offer. [ToC] _________________________________________________________________ When is the next tournament? The ICWS holds an annual tournament. Traditionally, the deadline for entering is the 15th of December. The EBS usually holds a preliminary tournament around the 15th of November and sends the top finishers on to the ICWS tournament. Informal double-elimination and other types of tournaments are held frequently among readers of the newsgroup; watch there for announcements or contact me. [ToC] _________________________________________________________________ What is KotH? How do I enter? King Of The Hill (KotH) is an ongoing Core War tournament available to anyone with email. You enter by submitting via email a Redcode program (warrior) with special comment lines. You will receive a reply indicating how well your program did against the current top programs "on the hill". There are two styles of KotH tournaments, "classical" and "multi-warrior". The "classical" KotH is a one-on-one tournament, that is your warrior will play 100 battles against each of the 20 other programs currently on the Hill. You receive 3 points for each win and 1 point for each tie. (The existing programs do not replay each other, but their previous battles are recalled.) All scores are updated to reflect your battles and all 21 programs are ranked from high to low. If you are number 21 you are pushed off the Hill, if you are higher than 21 someone else is pushed off. In "multi-warrior" KotH, all warriors on the hill fight each other at the same time. Score calculation is a bit more complex than for the one-on-one tournament. Briefly, points are awarded based on how many warriors survive until the end of a round. A warrior that survives by itself gets more points than a warrior that survives together with other warriors. Points are calculated from the formula (W*W-1)/S, where W is the total number of warriors and S the number of surviving warriors. The pMARS documentation has more information on multi-warrior scoring. The idea for an email-based Core War server came from David Lee. The original KotH was developed and run by William Shubert at Intel starting in 1991, and discontinued after almost three years of service. Currently, KotHs based on Bill's UNIX scripts but offering a wider variety of hills are are running at two sites: "koth@stormking.com" is maintained by Scott J. Ellentuch (tuc@stormking.com) and "pizza@ecst.csuchico.edu" by Thomas H. Davies (sd@ecst.csuchico.edu). Up until May '95, the two sites provided overlapping services, i.e. the some of the hill types were offered by both "pizza" and "stormking". To conserve resources, the different hill types are now divided up among the sites. The way you submit warriors to both KotHs is pretty much the same. Therefore, the entry rules described below apply to both "pizza" and "stormking" unless otherwise noted. 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 a line starting with ";redcode" (or ";redcode-94, etc., see below) 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. (Also, see 5 below). 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 daemon 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. There are currently seven separate hills you can select by starting your program with ;redcode-b, ;redcode-94, ;redcode-94x, ;redcode, ;redcode-icws, ;redcode-94m or ;redcode-94xm. The former three run at "pizza", the latter four at "stormking". More information on these hills is listed below. 3) Mail this file to koth@stormking.com or pizza@ecst.csuchico.edu. "Pizza" requires a subject of "koth" (use the -s flag on most mailers). 4) Within a few minutes you should get mail back telling you whether your program assembled correctly or not. If it did assemble 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 20 (or 10) programs. If no news arrives during that time, don't worry; entries are put in a queue and run through the tournament one at a time. A backlog may develop. Be patient. If your program makes it onto the hill, you will get mail every time a new program makes it onto the hill. If this is too much mail, you can use ";redcode[-??] quiet" when you first mail in your program; then you will only get mail when you make it on the top 20 list or when you are knocked off. Using ";redcode[-??] verbose" will give you even more mail; here you get mail every time a new challenger arrives, even if they don't make it onto the top 20 list. Often programmers want to try out slight variations in their programs. If you already have a program named "foo V1.0" on the hill, adding the line ";kill foo" to a new program will automatically bump foo 1.0 off the hill. Just ";kill" will remove all of your programs when you submit the new one. The server kills programs by assigning an impossibly low score; it may therefore take another successful challenge before a killed program is actually removed from the hill. SAMPLE ENTRY: ;redcode ;name Dwarf ;author A. K. Dewdney ;strategy Throw DAT bombs around memory, hitting every 4th memory cell. ;strategy This program was presented in the first Corewar article. bomb DAT #0 dwarf ADD #4, bomb MOV bomb, @bomb JMP dwarf END dwarf ; Programs start at the first line unless ; an "END start" pseudo-op appears to indicate ; the first logical instruction. Also, nothing ; after the END instruction will be assembled. Here are the Specs for the various hills: ICWS'88 Standard Hill Specs: (Accessed with ";redcode", available at "stormking") hillsize: 20 warriors rounds: 100 coresize: 8000 max. processes: 8000 duration: after 80,000 cycles, a tie is declared. max. entry length: 100 minimum distance: 100 instruction set: ICWS '88 ICWS Annual Tournament Hill Specs: (Accessed with ";redcode-icws", available at "stormking") hillsize: 20 warriors rounds: 100 coresize: 8192 instructions max. processes: 8000 per program duration: After 100,000 cycles, a tie is declared. max. entry length: 300 minimum distance: 300 instruction set: ICWS '88 ICWS'94 Draft Hill Specs: (Accessed with ";redcode-94", available at "pizza") hillsize: 20 warriors rounds: 100 coresize: 8000 max. processes: 8000 duration: after 80,000 cycles, a tie is declared. max. entry length: 100 minimum distance: 100 instruction set: extended ICWS '94 Draft ICWS'94 Beginner's Hill Specs: (Accessed with ";redcode-b", available at "pizza") hillsize: 20 warriors rounds: 100 coresize: 8000 max. processes: 8000 duration: after 80,000 cycles, a tie is declared. max. entry length: 100 minimum distance: 100 instruction set: extended ICWS '94 Draft max. age: after 100 successful challenges, warriors are retired. ICWS'94 Experimental (Big) Hill Specs: (Accessed with ";redcode-94x", available at "pizza") hillsize: 20 warriors rounds: 100 coresize: 55440 max. processes: 10000 duration: after 500,000 cycles, a tie is declared. max. entry length: 200 minimum distance: 200 instruction set: extended ICWS '94 Draft ICWS'94 Draft Multi-Warrior Hill Specs: (Accessed with ";redcode-94m", available at "stormking") hillsize: 10 warriors rounds: 200 coresize: 8000 max. processes: 8000 duration: after 80,000 cycles, a tie is declared. max. entry length: 100 minimum distance: 100 instruction set: extended ICWS '94 Draft ICWS'94 Experimental (Big) Multi-Warrior Hill Specs: (Accessed with ";redcode-94xm", available at "stormking") hillsize: 20 warriors rounds: 100 coresize: 55440 max. processes: 10000 duration: after 500,000 cycles, a tie is declared. max. entry length: 200 minimum distance: 200 instruction set: extended ICWS '94 Draft If you just want to get a status report without actually challenging the hills, send email with ";status" as the message body (and don't forget "Subject: koth" for "pizza"). If you send mail to "pizza" with "Subject: koth help" you will receive instructions that may be more up to date than those contained in this document. At stormking, a message body with ";help" will return brief instructions. If you submit code containing a ";test" line, your warrior will be assembled but not actually pitted against the warriors on the hill. All hills run portable MARS (pMARS) version 0.8, a platform-independent corewar system available at ftp.csua.berkeley.edu. The '94 and '94x hills allow three experimental opcodes and addressing modes currently not covered in the ICWS'94 draft document: SEQ - Skip if EQual (synonym for CMP) SNE - Skip if Not Equal NOP - (No OPeration) * - indirect using A-field as pointer { - predecrement indirect using A-field } - postincrement indirect using A-field [ToC] _________________________________________________________________ Is it DAT 0, 0 or DAT #0, #0? How do I compare to core? Core is initialized to DAT 0, 0. This is an "illegal" instruction under ICWS'88 rules and strictly compliant assemblers (such as KotH or pmars -8) will not let you write a DAT 0, 0 instruction - only DAT #0, #0. So this begs the question, how to compare something to see if it is empty core. The answer is, most likely the instruction before your first instruction and the instruction after your last instruction are both DAT 0, 0. You can use them, or any other likely unmodified instructions, for comparison. Note that under ICWS'94, DAT 0, 0 is a legal instruction. [ToC] _________________________________________________________________ How does SLT (Skip if Less Than) work? SLT gives some people trouble because of the way modular arithmetic works. It is important to note that all negative numbers are converted to positive numbers before a battles begins. Example: (-1) becomes (M - 1) where M is the memory size. Once you realize that all numbers are treated as positive, it is clear what is meant by "less than". It should also be clear that no number is less than zero. [ToC] _________________________________________________________________ What is the difference between in-register and in-memory evaluation? These terms refer to the way instruction operands are evaluated. The '88 Redcode standard ICWS'88 is unclear about whether a simulator should "buffer" the result of A-operand evaluation before the B-operand is evaluated. Simulators that do buffer are said to use in-register evaluation, those that don't, in-memory evaluation. ICWS'94 clears this confusion by mandating in-register evaluation. Instructions that execute differently under these two forms of evaluation are MOV, ADD, SUB, MUL, DIV and MOD where the effective address of the A-operand is modified by evaluation of the B-operand. This is best illustrated by an example: L1 mov L2, mov.i #0,impsize Bootstrapping Strategy of copying the active portion of the program away from the initial location, leaving a decoy behind and making the relocated program as small as possible. B-Scanners Scanners which only recognize non-zero B-fields. example add #10,scan scan jmz example,10 C Measure of speed, equal to one location per cycle. Speed of light. CMP-Scanner A Scanner which uses a CMP instruction to look for opponents. example add step,scan scan cmp 10,30 jmp attack jmp example step dat #20,#20 Color Property of bombs making them visible to scanners, causing them to attack useless locations, thus slowing them down. example dat #100 Core-Clear code that sequentially overwrites core with DAT instructions; usually the last part of a program. Decoys Bogus or unused instructions meant to slow down Scanners. Typically, DATs with non-zero B-fields. DJN-Stream (also DJN-Train) Using a DJN command to rapidly decrement core locations. example ... ... djn example,<4000 Dwarf the prototypical small bomber. Gate-busting (also gate-crashing) technique to "interweave" a decrement-resistant imp-spiral (e.g. MOV 0, 2668) with a standard one to overrun imp-gates. Hybrids warriors that combine two or more of the basic strategies, either in sequence (e.g. stone->paper) or in parallel (e.g. imp/stone). Imp Program which only uses the MOV instruction. example MOV 0, 1 or example MOV 0, 2 MOV 0, 2 Imp-Gate A location in core which is bombed or decremented continuously so that an Imp can not pass. Also used to describe the program-code which maintains the gate. example ... ... SPL 0, mov.i #0,impsize Mirror see reflection. On-axis/off-axis On-axis scanners compare two locations M/2 apart, where M is the memory size. Off-axis scanners use some other separation. Optimal Constants (also optima-type constants) Bomb or scan increments chosen to cover core most effectively, i.e. leaving gaps of uniform size. Programs to calculate optimal constants and lists of optimal numbers are available at ftp.csua.berkeley.edu. Paper A Paper-like program. One which replicates itself many times. Part of the Scissors (beats) Paper (beats) Stone (beats Scissors) analogy. Pit-Trapper (also Slaver, Vampire). A program which enslaves another. Usually accomplished by bombing with JMPs to a SPL 0 pit with an optional core-clear routine. Quick Scan 2c scan of a set group of core locations with bombing if anything is found. Both of the following codes snips scan 16 locations and check for a find. If anything is found, it is attacked, otherwise 16 more locations are scanned. Example: start s1 for 8 ;'88 scan cmp start+100*s1, start+100*s1+4000 ;check two locations mov #start+100*s1-found, found ;they differ so set pointer rof jmn attack, found ;if we have something, get it s2 for 8 cmp start+100*(s2+6), start+100*(s2+6)+4000 mov #start+100*(s2+6)-found, found rof found jmz moveme, #0 ;skip attack if qscan found nothing attack cmp @found, start-1 ;does found points to empty space? add #4000, found ;no, so point to correct location mov start-1, @found ;move a bomb moveme jmp 0, 0 In ICWS'94, the quick scan code is more compact because of the SNE opcode: start ;'94 scan s1 for 4 sne start+400*s1, start+400*s1+100 ;check two locations seq start+400*s1+200, start+400*s1+300 ;check two locations mov #start+400*s1-found, found ;they differ so set pointer rof jmn which, found ;if we have something, get it s2 for 4 sne start+400*(s2+4), start+400*(s2+4)+100 seq start+400*(s2+4)+200, start+400*(s2+4)+300 mov #start+400*(s2+4)-found-100, found rof found jmz moveme, #0 ;skip attack if qscan found nothing add #100, -1 ;increment pointer till we get the which jmn -1, @found ;right place mov start-1, @found ;move a bomb moveme jmp 0, 0 Reflection Copy of a program or program part, positioned to make the active program invisible to a CMP-scanner. Replicator Generic for Paper. A program which makes many copies of itself, each copy also making copies. Self-Splitting Strategy of amplifying the number of processes executing a piece of code. example SPL 0 loop ADD #10, example MOV example, @example JMP loop Scanner A program which searches through core for an opponent rather than bombing blindly. Scissors A program designed to beat replicators, usually a (B-field scanning) vampire. Part of the Paper-Scissors-Stone analogy. Self-Repair Ability of a program to fix it's own code after attack. Silk A replicator which splits off a process to each new copy before actually copying the code. This allows it to replicate extremely quickly. This technique is only possible under the '94 draft, because it requires post-increment indirect addressing. Example: spl 1 mov.i -1, 0 spl 1 ;generate 6 consecutive processes silk spl 3620, #0 ;split to new copy mov.i >-1, }-1 ;copy self to new location mov.i bomb, >2000 ;linear bombing mov.i bomb, }2042 ;A-indirect bombing for anti-vamp jmp silk, {silk ;reset source pointer, make new copy bomb dat.f >2667, >5334 ;anti-imp bomb Slaver see Pit-Trapper. Stealth Property of programs, or program parts, which are invisible to scanners, accomplished by using zero B-fields and reflections. Stone A Stone-like program designed to be a small bomber. Part of the Paper-Scissors-Stone analogy. Stun A type of bomb which makes the opponent multiply useless processes, thus slowing it down. Example is referred to as a spl-jmp bomb. example spl 0 jmp -1 Two-Pass Core-Clear (also spl/dat Core-Clear) core clear that fills core first with SPL instructions, then with DATs. This is very effective in killing paper and certain imp-spiral variations. Vampire see Pit-Trapper. Vector Launch one of several means to start an imp-spiral running. As fast as Binary Launch, but requiring much less code. See also JMP/ADD Launch and Binary Launch. This example is one form of a Vector Launch: impsize equ 2667 example spl 1 ; extend by adding more spl 1's spl 1 djn.a @imp,#0 ; jmp @ a series of pointers dat #0,imp+(3*impsize) dat #0,imp+(2*impsize) dat #0,imp+(1*impsize) dat #0,imp+(0*impsize) imp mov.i #0,impsize [ToC] _________________________________________________________________ Other questions? Just ask in the rec.games.corewar newsgroup or contact me (address below). If you are shy, check out the Core War archives first to see if your question has been answered before. [ToC] _________________________________________________________________ Credits Additions, corrections, etc. to this document are solicited. Thanks in particular to the following people who have contributed major portions of this document: Paul Kline, Randy Graham. Mark Durham wrote the first version of the FAQ. The rec.games.corewar FAQ is Copyright 1995 and maintained by: Stefan Strack, PhD stst@vuse.vanderbilt.edu Dept. Molecular Physiol. and Biophysics stst@idnsun.gpct.vanderbilt.edu Rm. 762, MRB-1 stracks@vuctrvax.bitnet Vanderbilt Univ. Medical Center Voice: +615-322-4389 Nashville, TN 37232-6600, USA FAX: +615-322-7236 _________________________________________________________________ $Id: corewar-faq.html,v 3.6 1995/10/12 22:44:37 stst Exp stst $ From: jeff.zeitlin@execnet.com (Jeff Zeitlin) Subject: Read/Write Limit undef behavior? Date: 1996/01/01 Message-ID: <30e79ced.184560467@nntp.execnet.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar I was looking through the draft ICWS'94 doc, and it specifies that "Read/Write distance must be a factor of core size, otherwise the above defined behaviour is not guaranteed." [ll 452,453; 473,474] The behavior as described is characterized as a "mini-core within core" [ll 449; 469]. If this characterization of the behavior is in fact accurate, why then is the behavior not guaranteed for _any_ value of the read/write limit? ========================================================================== Jeff Zeitlin jeff.zeitlin@execnet.com From: KOTH Tourney Server Subject: SKI-ICWS: Status - ICWS Experimental 94 01/01/96 Date: 1996/01/01 Message-ID: <199601010500.AAA17451@valhalla.stormking.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Weekly Status on 01/01/96 See up to the second scores at http://www.stormking.com/~koth Check it out for the latest in Core War information *FAQ* is at http://www.stormking.com/~koth/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the StormKing Industries ICWS Experimental 94 CoreWar Hill: Last battle concluded at : Tue Dec 19 13:33:37 EST 1995 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 80/ 11/ 10 BigBoy Robert Macrae 249 4 2 78/ 15/ 7 Watcher Kurt Franke 241 2 3 77/ 14/ 9 Frontwards v2 Steven Morrell 240 9 4 76/ 15/ 9 Fire Master Xv1 JS Pulido 237 1 5 74/ 14/ 12 Tornado 2.0 x Beppe Bezzi 234 3 6 64/ 17/ 20 Nice Try M R Bremer 211 8 7 59/ 15/ 26 Night Train 55440 Karl Lewin 204 6 8 65/ 27/ 7 Mister Greedy Derek Ross 204 5 9 58/ 15/ 26 White warrior Nandor & Stefan 202 10 10 59/ 19/ 22 Paper8-IV (54400) G. Eadon 199 7 11 26/ 74/ 0 Top O The World Scott J. Ellentuch 79 11 12 2/ 50/ 0 None Nobody 7 11 13 2/ 50/ 0 None Nobody 7 11 14 2/ 50/ 0 None Nobody 7 11 15 2/ 50/ 0 None Nobody 7 11 16 2/ 50/ 0 None Nobody 7 11 17 2/ 50/ 0 None Nobody 7 11 18 2/ 50/ 0 None Nobody 7 11 19 2/ 50/ 0 None Nobody 7 11 20 2/ 50/ 0 None Nobody 7 11 21 2/ 50/ 0 None Nobody 7 11 From: KOTH Tourney Server Subject: SKI-ICWS: Status - Standard 01/01/96 Date: 1996/01/01 Message-ID: <199601010500.AAA28410@valhalla.stormking.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Weekly Status on 01/01/96 See up to the second scores and the latest Core War information at : http://www.stormking.com/~koth *FAQ* is at http://www.stormking.com/~koth/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the StormKing Industries Standard KotH CoreWar Hill : Last battle concluded at : Sun Dec 31 18:01:39 EST 1995 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 40/ 35/ 25 Keystone t21 P.Kline 144 94 2 30/ 15/ 55 Cannonade P.Kline 144 107 3 39/ 34/ 27 Giskard v0.5 Ken Mitton 143 45 4 42/ 40/ 18 Beholder's Eye V1.7 W. Mintardjo 143 151 5 40/ 38/ 21 Christopher Steven Morrell 142 72 6 32/ 21/ 47 CAPS KEY IS STUCK AGAIN Steven Morrell 142 73 7 43/ 44/ 14 Iron Gate Wayne Sheppard 141 201 8 33/ 24/ 43 Test Wayne Sheppard 141 96 9 30/ 20/ 50 Blue Funk 88 Steven Morrell 141 71 10 29/ 17/ 54 ttti nandor sieben 140 57 11 40/ 39/ 21 Tuctest Elmer J. Fudd 140 1 12 39/ 39/ 22 Miss Carefree Derek Ross 140 5 13 31/ 22/ 47 Hydra Stephen Linhart 140 181 14 29/ 18/ 53 Peace Mr. Jones 139 81 15 35/ 33/ 31 Yop La Boum v2.1 P.E.M & E.C. 136 7 16 39/ 42/ 18 Request v2.0 Brant D. Thomsen 136 43 17 31/ 27/ 42 Der Zweiter Blitzkrieg Mike Nonemacher 135 102 18 36/ 36/ 28 Double Clown v1.1 P.E.M 135 2 19 28/ 20/ 52 jmp/add crasher Randy Graham 135 31 20 40/ 48/ 12 bigproba nandor sieben 131 95 21 4/ 94/ 3 Craw Bach 14 0 From: KOTH Tourney Server Subject: SKI-ICWS: Status - Multiwarrior Experimental 94 01/01/96 Date: 1996/01/01 Message-ID: <199601010500.AAA12830@valhalla.stormking.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Weekly Status on 01/01/96 See up to the second scores at http://www.stormking.com/~koth Check it out for the latest in Core War information *FAQ* is at http://www.stormking.com/~koth/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the StormKing Industries MultiWarrior Experimental 94 CoreWar Hill: Last battle concluded at : Sun Dec 17 18:04:54 EST 1995 # Name Author Score Age 1 TimeScapeX (0.1) J. Pohjalainen 7499 36 2 Lucky 13 Stefan Strack 7228 38 3 This is Test1 Kurt Franke 6973 1 4 Paperone Beppe Bezzi 6340 21 5 jaded M R Bremer 6275 7 6 Paper8 G. Eadon 6224 2 7 life Nandor Sieben 5842 37 8 lifedwarf Nandor Sieben 5586 13 9 Hidden M.C.Diskett Bullfrog 5570 6 10 Shwing! T. H. Davies 4943 32 11 Illusion-94/55 Randy Graham 4787 15 12 AB Scanner 2.9 Chris Hodson 4651 25 13 Whirlwind Bob Uhl 4601 23 14 Miss Treatment Derek Ross 4487 16 15 Piggy 2 Bob Uhl 4477 11 16 Piggy 3 Bob Uhl 4426 9 17 Whirlwind 2 Bob Uhl 4112 24 18 Futility M R Bremer 3972 3 19 Miss Careless Derek Ross 3955 5 20 Miss Carry Derek Ross 3266 17 21 Miss Understanding Derek Ross 3225 12 From: KOTH Tourney Server Subject: SKI-ICWS: Status - ICWS Tournament 01/01/96 Date: 1996/01/01 Message-ID: <199601010500.AAA17155@valhalla.stormking.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Weekly Status on 01/01/96 See up to the second scores at http://www.stormking.com/~koth Check it out for the latest in Core War information *FAQ* is at http://www.stormking.com/~koth/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the StormKing Industries Annual ICWS Tournament CoreWar Hill: Last battle concluded at : Tue Dec 19 14:43:53 EST 1995 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 50/ 9/ 40 Cannonade Paul Kline 191 86 2 53/ 30/ 17 Miss Carefree Derek Ross 175 18 3 38/ 14/ 47 Nothing Special G. Eadon 163 1 4 39/ 17/ 45 Turkey Beppe Bezzi 161 2 5 46/ 33/ 21 Giskard v0.5 Ken Mitton 158 59 6 45/ 35/ 20 Yop La Boum v2.1 P.E.M & E.C. 155 16 7 43/ 36/ 21 Old Tire Swing Randy Graham 151 43 8 44/ 38/ 17 Miss Carry Derek Ross 150 50 9 36/ 22/ 42 One Fat Lady Robert Macrae 150 3 10 41/ 43/ 15 test88 P.Kline 139 5 11 43/ 48/ 9 Agony T Stefan Strack 139 87 12 36/ 49/ 15 DoubleStone v0.7 Christoph C. Birk 124 29 13 34/ 44/ 22 WhirlWind-88 Randy Graham 123 23 14 29/ 36/ 36 Chris Steven Morrell 122 8 15 34/ 48/ 18 Maya v1.6 Christoph C. Birk 121 60 16 34/ 48/ 18 Illusion Randy Graham 120 45 17 34/ 49/ 16 Slaver v1.1i Christoph C. Birk 120 47 18 33/ 52/ 16 Baby Swing Randy Graham 114 4 19 30/ 48/ 22 stone matthew householder 112 98 20 35/ 57/ 7 xtc stefan roettger 112 91 21 31/ 53/ 16 warrior 42 stefan roettger 109 99 From: KOTH Tourney Server Subject: SKI-ICWS: Status - MultiWarrior 94 01/01/96 Date: 1996/01/01 Message-ID: <199601010500.AAA25103@valhalla.stormking.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Weekly Status on 01/01/96 See up to the second scores at http://www.stormking.com/~koth Check it out for the latest in Core War information *FAQ* is at http://www.stormking.com/~koth/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the StormKing Industries Multiwarrior 94 CoreWar Hill: Last battle concluded at : Thu Dec 21 18:50:54 EST 1995 # Name Author Score Age 1 Son of Imp Steven Morrell 5863 30 2 Die Hard P.Kline 5838 17 3 75% Cotton v3b Wilkinson 5838 14 4 Silkworm 1.1 Beppe Bezzi 5830 27 5 90% Cotton v5c Wilkinson 5817 12 6 TESTI Maurizio Vittuari 5813 5 7 60% Cotton Wilkinson 5811 13 8 TJ Maurizio Vittuari 5811 6 9 P_Banzai_v1.2 Calvin Loh 5777 2 10 P_Banzai_v1.1 Calvin Loh 5761 1 11 Hard-rock v.6 Mark Ratzburg 934 0 From: JAGUAR3178@aol.com Subject: ground Floor 31 1140 16 Date: 1996/01/01 Message-ID: <951231234244_103358436@mail04.mail.aol.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar ** CREATE WEALTH FROM HOME!! 40 BILLION DOLLAR INDUSTRY. OUR FAMILY TURNED $50 INTO OVER $2,000/WK * PROVEN SYSTEM! * BEST SUPPORT TEAM EVER! * ADVANCED HIGHLY DUPLICATABLE PROGRAM! * ABSOLUTELY FREE LEADS! * WE SELL FOR YOU WITH 21 NATIONAL CONFERENCE CALLS/WK $50 DOWN PAYS $350 IN COMMISSIONS. UNLIMITED DEPTH AND WIDTH COMMISSION AND RESIDUAL INCOME ARE PAID WEEKLY. THIS IS A DREAM COME TRUE!! YOU OWE IT TO YOURSELF AND TO YOUR FAMILY TO CHECK US OUT. PLEASE CALL: 1-800-411-0070 From: Anders Ivner Subject: pushed off :-( Date: 1996/01/02 Message-ID: <9601021600.AA27666@su2-1.ida.liu.se>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar No! ltest was pushed off the hill. Now I'll have to come up with something new. Sigh. The stone/paper/scissors analogy is getting very obsolete. Stones are getting larger, and beats paper by using multipass coreclears. Scanners are...I dunno...not behaving like they used to. Papers are stronger than ever, but have lost their favourite prey (stones). The lack of a good analogy is a problem, at least for me. If I can't get a good intuitive idea about what I'm facing then how am I to fight it? I find myself going back to the old speed/size ratio reasoning again. As I write this, results from the hill arrive: 7 42/ 45/ 13 seventyfive ai 139 1 I'm back in business! Now I'm happy again :-) This is a 75% hard bomber (no decrements) in a slightly less than 5 instruction loop, so speed/size ratio reasoning is still sound. But I'll leave you with this cryptic description for now, and return with details later, when I'm finished tweaking... /Anders BTW, ltest was just Leprechaun on speed where the leprechaun part was booted away from the qscan. From: Damien.Doligez@inria.fr (Damien Doligez) Subject: Re: Proposal for Corewars Date: 1996/01/02 Message-ID: <9601021230.AA12907@couchey.inria.fr>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar >From: ruhl@phoebe.cair.du.edu (Robert A. Uhl) >[...] And why I'm so >glad that my Piggies have done so well. I call the strategy the >leech, in case you're interested. (Note that the word "leech" has also been used to describe vampires.) If I understand the strategy correctly, you just SPLit to random core locations, hoping to land on some enemy code to execute it. The earliest example that I found was posted by Scott Adkins in '92: ;name Virus ;author Scott Adkins (sadkins@bigbird.cs.ohiou.edu) [...] ;strategy then spends the rest of the time splitting to memory locations, ;strategy hoping that it will execute and enemy program and make it all that ;strategy much harder to win. There are two problems with this strategy: it is purely defensive, and if the opponent is throwing incendiary bombs, you'll only help him. -- Planar From: rognlie@lute.gcr.com (Richard W. Rognlie) Subject: Richard's C++Robots Server -- Monthly Post Date: 1996/01/02 Message-ID: <4cbo16$bpg@ukelele.qnet.com> newsgroups: rec.games.programmer,comp.lang.c,comp.lang.c++,rec.games.corewar,comp.ai.games,comp.programming.contests Richard's C++Robots Server Monthly Posting A generic Play-By-eMail Server has been set up at pbmserv@vtsu.prc.com. It currently supports a variety of games. New games this month include: Hexxagon, Connexxions, Keryo-Pente, and Rings Of particular interest to this forum is C++Robots. Game supported are: Abalone Andantino Ataxx & Hexxagon Backgammon C++Robots Connect4 Connect4x4 Connexxions Firetop Mountain Gomoku Hex Jungle Lines-of-Action Neutron Oddthello Othello Pente & Keryo-Pente Philosopher's Football Plotto Qubic Rings Score4 Spangles Survival Susan Tanbo & Tanbo3D Terrace Trax & StdTrax Twixt To get more information send mail to pbmserv@vtsu.prc.com with 'help' as the subject line. Or connect to my WWW page at: http://coyote.vtsu.prc.com:8080/~pbmserv Games Currently Supported Abalone On a hexagonal board (radius 5) two to six players have armies of marbles. Players take turns "pushing" 1, 2 or 3 linearly connected marbles, attempting to push their opponents' marbles off the board. Andantino (Copyright (c) 1995 David Smith) The players take turns attaching pieces of their color to two or more other pieces (in a hex-like lattice) in an attempt to form a line of 5 or more pieces of their color in a straight line, or to fully enclose a group of one or more opponents pieces. Ataxx On a 7x7 board, the two players of ataxx fight to controll a majority of the board via growth and jumps that flip opponents pieces to their color. Hexxagon Ataxx played on a hexagonal board of radius 5. Backgammon A classic. C++Robots (Copyright (c) 1994 Richard Rognlie) An ongoing "King of the Hill" (KotH) tournament in which players use the C++ language to create a control program for a robot. Your robot then fights each of the other robots "on the hill". If you do well enough, your robot will "make the hill", bumping the lowest robot from the hill. Robots have the ability to scan for opponents, fire a cannon, move, and determine current position and status. Conceptually based on C-Robots written for the IBM PC by Tom Pointdexter. Connect4 On a 7x6 board, two players alternate dropping their pieces from the top of the board, down a column, attempting to form four in a row. Connect4x4 On an 8x8 board, two players alternate inserting their pieces from the edges of the board, across a row or up/down a column, attempting to form four in a row. Connexxions (Copyright David Gale) On a 13x13 board, players take turns connecting posts of their color in an attempt to connect their sides of the board the board while preventing your opponent from doing the same. Firetop Mountain On an imaginary hilltop, two players conduct a sorcerer's duel. The two opponents perform magical gestures with their hands to create their supernatural weapons - spells. Some spells are so potent as to be able to blind a man, call forth terrifying creatures, or even kill the unfortunate victim instantly. Consequently, each wizard must rely on his own cunning to be able to time enough defensive spells to avoid the brunt of his adversary's attack, yet deliver sufficient offensive spells of his own to crack the magical armour of his opponent, and kill the wizard outright. Gomoku On a 15x15 board, the two players of gomoku try to be the first to create a line of 5 or more stones in a row of their color. Hex On a 11x11 diamond board, players take turns placing stones of their color on the board. The object is to connect your sides of the board while preventing your opponent from doing the same. Jungle Jungle is sort of a cross between Chinese chess and Stratego. It's popular in China as a children's "stepping-stone" to Chinese chess. It's also an interesting game in its own right. Lines-of-Action The object of the game is to move all your pieces into a configuration where they are in a single group connected horizontal, vertically, or diagonally. Pieces may move horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, but they must move exactly the number of spaces as there are pieces on the row they are moving in. You may not jump over opponent's pieces, nor may you land on your own piece. If you land on an opponent's piece, it is captured and removed from the game. Neutron (Copyright (c) 1978 Charles Wetherell) On a 5x5 board, the two players of neutron fight to either move the neutron to their back row or trap it so the opponent cannot move it. The winner is the player who is able to trap the neutron or gets the neutron to his or her own back row. It does not matter if it is your opponent who moves the neutron to your back row -- you still win. Oddthello On a dynamic hexagonal lattice, two players play othello with no 8x8 limitation... Othello (Copyright (c) 1973,1990 Pressman Toy Co.) On a 8x8 board, the two players of othello fight to control the majority of the board by outflanking and flipping their opponents pieces. Pente On a 19x19 board, the two players of pente try to be the first to create a line of 5 or more stones in a row of their color *or* try to capture 5 pairs of their opponents stones. You capture a pair of stones any time you sandwich the stones between a pair of your stones. Keryo-Pente On a 19x19 board, the two players of keryo-pente try to be the first to create a line of 5 or more stones in a row of their color *or* try to capture 15 of their opponents' stones. You may capture 2 or 3 opponents' stones any time you sandwich the stones between a pair of your stones. Philosopher's Football On a 19x19 board, players take turns either adding men to the field, or moving the football. The football moves by jumping lines of adjacent men (and removing them from the board). The object is to move the football to (or past) your goal line. Plotto (Copyright (c) 1995 David Smith) The players take turns placing one hex shaped piece in turn onto an open space (no board). Pieces are numbered either 1, 2, 3 or 4 and you may play a piece of any number at each turn. The object is to place a pair of pieces with your number in a straight line with two pieces in between. Qubic On a 4x4x4 grid, two players alternate placing their pieces, attempting to form four in a row in any direction. Rings (Copyright (c) 1995 Stephen Linhart) On an unusual hexagonal board, the players of Rings, place pieces on the board in an attempt to convert other pieces to their color and to control the more rings than any other player. Score4 On a 4x4 grid of pegs, two players alternate dropping their pieces from the top of a peg, down a column, attempting to form four in a row in any direction. Spangles (Copyright (c) 1995 David Smith) The two players of Spangles take turns adding triangular pieces of their color to the board in an attempt to create a 4 piece triangle with their pieces as the three corner pieces. Survival (Copyright (c) 1995 David Smith) Survival is played on a hexagonal board made up of 19 numbered hexagons. Two players take turns placing pieces on the board with the "arrow" of the piece dictating the direction in which the next piece played by that player must be played. The first player who can not move loses the game. Susan (Copyright (c) 1995 Stephen Linhart) On a hexagonal board (radius 5) two players take turns placing or moving a marble in an attempt to completely surround a opponent's marble with any combination of marbles. Tanbo & Tanbo3d (Copyright (c) 1995 Mark Steere) Played on a Go board, Tanbo crudely models a system of plant roots. Roots which are growing, competing for space, and dying. In beginner play, the roots grow much as the roots in a garden. Over time, the roots become shrewd and calculating. To win, a player must eliminate all eight of his opponent's roots. One player will always win. It's impossible to repeat a board configuration in Tanbo. Therefore a game cannot result in a draw. Tanbo3d extends the game of Tanbo into three dimensions. Terrace (Copyright (c) 1995 by Siler/Siler Ventures. All Rights Reserved) Terrace is played on an 8x8 board consisting of 16 'L' shaped terraces. Two corners of the board are "High" and the other corners are "Low". Each player has pieces of 4 sizes ('A', 'B', 'C' and 'D'). 'A' pieces are the smallest, 'D' pieces are the largest. 'T' pieces are the same size as 'A' pieces and are each player's "key" piece. The object of the game is to capture your opponent's "T" or move your "T" to the lowest square on your opponent's side of the board. Trax & StdTrax (Copyright (c) 1983 David Smith) Trax is a game played with square tiles. Each tile is identical to all other tiles, one side has a white line connecting opposite edges and a black line connecting the other edges, and the other side has a white line connecting 2 adjacent edges and a black line connecting the other edges. The object of the game is to create a loop of your color while preventing your opponent from doing the same. An alternate winning condition is to create a line extending from one edge of the board to the opposite edge of the board when the board is at least 8 tiles wide (or tall). StdTrax limits the board to an 8x8 area. Normal Trax allows to board to grow to whatever size is necessary. Normal Trax is also known as SuperTrax. TwixT (Copyright (c) Avalon Hill) On a 24x24 board, players take turns placing pegs of their color on the board. Any time a peg is placed a "knight's move" from another peg of the same color, a strut is placed, connecting them. A strut can not cross over (through) another strut. The object is to connect your sides of the board while preventing your opponent from doing the same. -- /\/\/\ | Richard Rognlie / Pr. Computer Analyst / PRC Inc. / McLean, VA / \ \ \ | E-Mail: rrognlie@qnet.com rrognlie@vtsu.prc.com \ / / / | Phone: (Home) (703) 361-4764 (Office) (703) 556-2458 \/\/\/ | (Fax) (703) 556-1174 From: Robert Macrae Subject: Tournament, Comments from a Non-Specialist :-) Date: 1996/01/11 Message-ID: <4d3i3f$jv6@soap.news.pipex.net>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Subject: Re: Tournament Comments (after being likened to a Shark) To: Robert Macrae Date: Tue, 02 Jan 96 11:29 Silk White Isn't real, silk is always rather creamy or very definite purple. I suggest dove-white is rather Grey so stick with Snow White for now. Switcher comments You haven't a clue about how switcher's work. They are like pitchers of watter in an American Football game. Necesary to be consumed very fast in preference to beer. It's the consuming that switches them to piss #and it is all very natural. Nothing forbidden except that last rolo. P Space is hyper algorithymn now. One after M SPace and before NO. Coo-perative play sounds dull unless managed write. We are all in for the kill but perhaps it won';t hurt much. I suggest random bombs with R overload and T to drink. Not much thinking goes on there but we are all being blown skiy high these days so why not snow white? Two warrirors are allways better than one exceptwhen it coms to deceision making where ai agree they are better than random but not much. Decisions ought to be definite like bombes. PINS are usefulu to hold upo knickers but nowing what to call them is a bit tedious. no liabilityt is a s great as a Grey warrior in yhyperspace except a r Space in a T zone. As allies they are great expcept when too tiered to play. When variaanatas aremnt; workable sthere is something going on somewhere I guess. One old switching conked out or something. Swith back to Z Cars. Why not re-run sotrter - it nay comme out a ditfferent option next time. Sorting is almost as good as choosing in the great run of things. Why float fponit routinges when they can swim. Some sharks out there would thing you just like jaws. Dont eevere writ while wanting psst because it is like shopping when hungry you just buty tooo much good stuff -- or is that the idea/ perhaps alwasdys write when pisst? SCooring algorithymns - cant even spell it so it jmust be magic.Small differeneces means multiple skill levels I guess with algorthymns though maybe theryre just dancesrs. Random core size tlkie a volcano? Configure a volcano and I;ll be proud of you. You naiively confident? NO WIMPS scored on that one. Fixed position is too static to generate much electricity needs friction so get talking. to mum. NOt MUM. Enough frivolity: The moon Is a baloon and it harbours star wars so we sail into the sun set on a cloud of noxious gas. Very propellling. Maz From: marsden_a@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz Subject: Bi-directional Corewars Date: 1996/01/03 Message-ID: <0099BE50.1F24D8E0.103@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Corewars is uni-directional at the moment, ie. the instruction pointer only travels in one direction. By adding only a few instructions, Corewars could be transformed into a bi-directional language: REV: transfer execution to A then reverse direction. REZ: REV to A if B is zero. REN: REV to A if B is non-zero. SPR: split off process to A in reverse direction. DRN: decrement B, if B is non-zero, REV to A. Addressing would require no modification - all addresses would be relative to the direction of the process, eg. mov 0,1 start: SPR -1 mov 0,1 This would create two imps going in opposite directions. I'm new to the Core War newsgroup so I have no idea if this has been discussed before. But it could make things interesting... Thoughts? Opinions? Ideas? Anton. From: falar@panix.com (Ross Schulman) Subject: Newbies Date: 1996/01/03 Message-ID: #1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Can anyone point me toward a good introduction page? I've tried looking at the tutorial mentioned in the FAQ, but it was just gobbledygook to me. I am really interested in learning this game, but I can't find anywhere to learn from! Thanks in advance, Ross From: wsheppar@st6000.sct.edu (Wayne Sheppard) Subject: Qwiksand Date: 1996/01/03 Message-ID: <4cea9q$jsg@st6000.sct.edu>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Let me tell you about my latest code. I had in mind a quick scanner. I was trying to think of the fastest and best way to cover the enemy once found. Since I didn't want to do a vamp, I decided I needed some kind of SPL/JMP bomb. My first idea was to drop a couple of bombs like this: mov s,}loc mov j,*loc mov s,>loc loc mov dist1,dist2 add offset,loc djn -5,#count Two S/J pairs every 6 cycles. But then I noticed that I could get one more indirection in the bombing loop. mov j,*loc mov s,{loc mov j,@loc mov s,loc mov j,@loc mov vamp,*loc loc mov dist1,@dist2 add offset,loc djn -5,#count The bomb output would look like: SPL 0 JMP -1,vdist-1 (spacing) JMP -vdist ;this jumps to SPL/JMP (spacing) JMP -vdist ;this jumps to previous JMP So in six cycles, I have bombed three different locations. I was so excited when I first got the bombing loop to work, I had to test it out. I didn't have the quickscan ready so I changed the constants and made it into a bomber. A S/S/D coreclear was glued on. And I rearranged the bombing loop so that it bombed itself with one of the minivamps just before it puts down the S/J bomb. This allows it to jump to the coreclear. Since it just got knocked off after age 99, I'll be making some improvements soon. I need to make the bombing loop self-splitting so I can add an imp-spiral. Any suggestions for a better coreclear are greatly appreciated. One day I may even add in a quickscan. ;redcode-94 ;name Qwiksand ;author Wayne Sheppard ;strategy SPL/JMP/JMP/JMP bomber ;strategy SPL/JMP trap and two jmps to the trap every 6 cycles ;strategy SPL/SPL/DAT.... coreclear dist equ 76 ;Tornato style SPL/JMP -1 bomber mov s,>x ;spl 0 mov j,@x ;jmp -1 x mov dist*5,@dist*3 ;jmp dist add s,-1 mov i,*x ;jmp dist jmp -5 for dist - 8 mov 0,0 rof ;SPL/SPL/DAT Coreclear i jmp dist,c1 c1 spl #10,#c2-i c2 spl #10,#c3-i c3 dat <2667,<-2666 s spl #dist*3,#dist*3-1 mov @i,}i j jmp -1,dist-1 -- Wayne Sheppard wsheppar@st6000.sct.edu From: wsheppar@st6000.sct.edu (Wayne Sheppard) Subject: Re: Proposal for Corewars Date: 1996/01/03 Message-ID: <4ceamd$169e@st6000.sct.edu>#1/1 references: <4b5jp6$8f9@hermes.cair.du.edu> <4bcajq$53n@hermes.cair.du.edu> <4c2g7a$9e7@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar In article , David Boeren wrote: >with the popular views or not. Personally, I'm not sure I like PSpace. >It seems too much like it lets you write warriors that are one-dimensional >rather than having to write code that performs well against a variety of >opponents. That's just me, though, and if everyone else things that I also agree that PSpace is BAD. I refuse to write pspace code. How about a 94 hill without pspace? I also think that that variable length instruction execution time is a really BAD idea. -- Wayne Sheppard wsheppar@st6000.sct.edu From: Planar Subject: Everything has already be invented. Date: 1996/01/03 Message-ID: <4cekm0$mk3@news-rocq.inria.fr>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar So you think you've invented something new in Core War ? Think again ! While adding some ancient warriors to my Web site, I've discovered not only some primitive examples of quick-scanning, but also what must be the very first continuous imp-launcher: IMPS, entered by T. Takebayashi in the ICWS tournament of 1987. Of course, it only launches a 1-point spiral, but it is a true spiral, not a wimpy worm. -- Planar, the Core War archaeologist From: Planar Subject: Re: Core Warrior 10 Date: 1996/01/03 Message-ID: <4ce2ii$iob@news-rocq.inria.fr>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Maurizio wrote: >(answer: maybe only our dad_of_imp_Planar never hated his little >and *pretty* "creatures"...;-) Ha ! At first, I hated imps and wanted to find a way to kill them every time. Then I wanted to study them to find out their weaknesses. Now I think imps are great. >What is quite unexpected is the score against Impfinity; maybe here the >bi-directional core clear is much better, and probably P_e_R is very often >stoned! Impfinity's end game is a pair of forward core-clears. If you're also doing a forward core-clear, you'll kill the one in front of you and get killed by the one behind you. Or maybe P_e_R is too big to survive the bombing run. You'll be able to see for yourself very soon when I publish v4g1. -- Planar From: akemi@netcom.com (David Boeren) Subject: Help with test suite Date: 1996/01/03 Message-ID: #1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar I'm trying to design a good test suite to run my warriors against before uploading them to Pizza. I have one mae up now, but it doesn't seem very good since changes that get a lot of extra points vs. my suite usually do worse on the 94 hill. I was hoping that some of the more experienced players could take a glance at the programs I'm using and let me know such things as warrior types that I'm over/under representing, specific warriors that I should include, warriors i should take out, or anything else they can think of to help make this a better test suite. I'm currently playing high (#3) on the beginner hill, and falling short around 10-18 points of getting on the 94 regular hill, so you'll know what level of suite I am looking for. And here's the suite: For the stones: Twill & Tornado For the scanners: Provascan (from CW hint column), Agony II, Rave For the Imps: GC Spiral (from pter1), 3-points 4-process Imp Spiral (from makeimp), Aeka For the scissors: Persistance, Phosphorus, MyZissor For the papers: Flashpaper 3.7, Paper01 (from CW hint column) Well, that's it. I already know I can only keep one of Agony II and Rave, they're too similar and I'd be better off with a differnt scanner for one of them. Is Flashpaper too wimpy these days, or is my program just effective against Silk? I tend to get 180-200 points vs Flashpaper in most of my versions. I don't do nearly as well against serious Timescape-style papers though. Thanks to anyone who takes the time to help out a semi-newbie here. And I'll thank you even more if you can tell me how to beat these awful Impfinity/Night Train/Doormat type of programs, they're slaughtering me! From: John K W Subject: Re: Help with test suite Date: 1996/01/04 Message-ID: <4cfv15$lin@feenix.metronet.com>#1/1 references: newsgroups: rec.games.corewar akemi@netcom.com (David Boeren) wrote: >Thanks to anyone who takes the time to help out a semi-newbie here. And >I'll thank you even more if you can tell me how to beat these awful >Impfinity/Night Train/Doormat type of programs, they're slaughtering me! That's not so tough. You need a quick scan through the core with a Rave or myZizzor type bombing routine, followed by many DAT scissor sweeps through the core. You can also use the Ludicrous Overkill method. Which is basically scan and scan and scan, and then DAT clear the core at the very last possible moment. -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | "I don't have the power because I've got the monkeys. I've got | \ the power because I'll set the monkeys LOOSE." -Dave Foley / From: nandor.sieben@ASU.EDU () Subject: Re: Bi-directional Corewars Date: 1996/01/04 Message-ID: <9601042049.AA44338@research1.asu.edu>#1/1 references: <4cgh42$33r@news-rocq.inria.fr> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar : I think your proposal is too complex. Why add five new instructions : when just one will do ? REV could simply send the currently executing : process back in the opposite direction, ignoring its two arguments. : >Addressing would require no modification - all addresses would be relative : >to the direction of the process, eg. : This means that a pointer points to two different cells, depending on : the direction of the process using it. This is strange, but why not. : -- Planar I agree with Planar. Just make it simple. I remember some discussion about this when a 2-dimensional system was proposed a long time ago. But I don't think there was any conclusion. I think it would increase the role of chance. Just by reversing your warrior could make a significant difference in hill scores. So maybe the battle should be divided into two parts. In the second part one of the warriors would be automatically reversed. I admit it's interesting, but it would make redcode very complex. Nandor. From: marsden_a@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz Subject: Re: Bi-directional Corewars Date: 1996/01/04 Message-ID: <0099BEE6.CBAE8CA0.58@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu wrote: >[...] >It would seem to make imps a lot stronger. :/ But then it'd make bombing >stronger too. Reversing the direction of split imp processes would do >a lot of damage to imps. 'SPR -1, >1' would be a very effective bomb. Ah, that reminds me of another small problem... post-increments and pre- decrements would inc/dec the address relative to the direction the process was going before the reversal. This is because of in-register evaluation (the actual direction of the process should be stored in a register). >The only question in my mind as far as implementation is this: >If the process being excecuted is moving in the standard "down" >direction, and you "REV" jmp, and then "REV" jmp again, does >the second "REV" undo the effects of the first? It would certainly >be more interesting that way, although much more chaotic. :) Yes, except the process might be situated at a different actual address. Anton. From: Beppe Bezzi Subject: Re: Proposal for Corewars Date: 1996/01/04 Message-ID: <199601041523.QAA18388@iol-mail.iol.it>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar wsheppar@st6000.sct.edu (Wayne Sheppard) wrote: >In article , David Boeren wrote: >>with the popular views or not. Personally, I'm not sure I like PSpace. >>It seems too much like it lets you write warriors that are one-dimensional >>rather than having to write code that performs well against a variety of >>opponents. That's just me, though, and if everyone else things that > >I also agree that PSpace is BAD. I refuse to write pspace code. >How about a 94 hill without pspace? > If you mean a hill without my good ol' Jack? Push Torch off, wait till Jack is near Iron gate, and then we'll speak again :-) I'm favourable to pspace, it's something that adds diversity to the hill, a thing I like, without being a too powerful tool; p-warriors have their well known weaknesses, brainwash and qscans, and are deadly only against very sharp tuned warriors, i.e. those effective only against one kind of opponents. BTW an hill without pspace won't be very different; for what I know there are but two: Jack in the box and juliet & paper, the latter being just a, successful indeed, example on how to make one. > >-- >Wayne Sheppard >wsheppar@st6000.sct.edu > > -Beppe Bezzi From: Beppe Bezzi Subject: Re: pushed off :-( Date: 1996/01/04 Message-ID: <199601041523.QAA18390@iol-mail.iol.it>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Anders Ivner wrote: >No! ltest was pushed off the hill. Now I'll have to come up with >something new. Sigh. >.. >I find myself going back to the old speed/size ratio reasoning >again. >... >This is a 75% hard bomber (no decrements) in a slightly less than >5 instruction loop, so speed/size ratio reasoning is still sound. WOW 75%c in a pure bomber is something really interesting. I guessed that the 60%c of Tornado were an upper limit for a reasonably short loop, but Wayne before with qwicksand, and you now are proving me wrong, I'm very curious. >/Anders > -Beppe From: marsden_a@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz Subject: Re: Bi-directional Corewars Date: 1996/01/04 Message-ID: <0099BEE6.ECA19BA0.100@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Damien.Doligez@inria.fr wrote: >[...] >I think your proposal is too complex. Why add five new instructions >when just one will do ? REV could simply send the currently executing >process back in the opposite direction, ignoring its two arguments. True... but how long would it be until everyone has run out of coding ideas again? REV -1 isn't exactly a powerful instruction. I defined 5 instructions because I see REV as being analogous to JMP. >>Addressing would require no modification - all addresses would be relative >>to the direction of the process, eg. >This means that a pointer points to two different cells, depending on >the direction of the process using it. This is strange, but why not. It's strange, but I think it would make code easier to read in the long run. Anton. From: pk6811s@acad.drake.edu Subject: nothing new Date: 1996/01/04 Message-ID: <1996Jan4.164509@acad.drake.edu>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar In the "nothing new" category, how about: the spl/dat two-pass core clear in Cancer (1987) the vector-launched imps in IMPire (first multi-point spiral) (1992) Paul Kline pk6811s@acad.drake.edu From: tuc@news.stormking.com (Scott J. Ellentuch) Subject: SKI-ICWS: Links fixed! Date: 1996/01/04 Message-ID: <4cgivv$hq7@valhalla.stormking.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar With the help of Mr. Beitzel, we have been able to locate his html'd files and put them up locally on our server. This will mean that the following section is now once again complete : TUTORIALS / PAPERS * A Tutorial on CoreWar * My First CoreWar Book by Steven Morell + Chapter 1 + Chapter 2 * Core Wars Genetics: The Evolution of Predation by John Perry * Warriors submitted to the 1989 ICWS Tourney * Warriors submitted to the 1990 ICWS Tourney If you have any problems, please let me know by using the guestbook to report problems. http://www.stormking.com/~koth And please, we have a stable version of SKI-ICWS-2 running (Or atleast we like to THINK its stable). This will feature many new commands, and the ability to add/change things MUCH easier. We would appreciate your testing it out my emailing kothtest@stormking.com with ";help" and then trying all functions. Warriors will currently go only as far as being put into the pen. If everyone is satisfied with that, we will start the hills and ensure that we didn't break anything there. Tuc -- * --- --- |Scott J. Ellentuch, Pres | The Telecom Security Group * * | | | |Comm. and Comp. Security | (Storm King family of Companies) * * | |__|__ |Consultants and Engineers | P.O. Box 69, Newburgh, NY 12551 * From: Planar Subject: Re: Bi-directional Corewars Date: 1996/01/04 Message-ID: <4cgh42$33r@news-rocq.inria.fr>#1/1 references: <0099BE50.1F24D8E0.103@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar In article <0099BE50.1F24D8E0.103@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz>, marsden_a@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz writes: >Corewars is uni-directional at the moment, ie. the instruction pointer only >travels in one direction. By adding only a few instructions, Corewars could >be transformed into a bi-directional language: [...] >I'm new to the Core War newsgroup so I have no idea if this has been >discussed before. But it could make things interesting... I may have said it already, but in Core War everything has already been invented. An instruction for reversing the flow of instructions has already been proposed in 1991. But this doesn't mean we should not discuss it now (there wasn't much discussion in '91). I think your proposal is too complex. Why add five new instructions when just one will do ? REV could simply send the currently executing process back in the opposite direction, ignoring its two arguments. >Addressing would require no modification - all addresses would be relative >to the direction of the process, eg. This means that a pointer points to two different cells, depending on the direction of the process using it. This is strange, but why not. -- Planar From: John K W Subject: Re: Everything has already be invented. Date: 1996/01/04 Message-ID: <4cgg7h$ghc@feenix.metronet.com>#1/1 references: <4cekm0$mk3@news-rocq.inria.fr> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar I made one of those a while back. It was after I'd read uh... what's the name of that thing... uh... COMMANDO! That's it. Commando. One of the original ideas for redcodes written by... uh... that guy. You know, the one that created the whole thing? Anyway, Commando basically had the idea of a continuously launching 1-point imp spiral... but it had a very odd implementation. -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | "I don't have the power because I've got the monkeys. I've got | \ the power because I'll set the monkeys LOOSE." -Dave Foley / From: John K W Subject: Re: Bi-directional Corewars Date: 1996/01/04 Message-ID: <4cgfv3$ghc@feenix.metronet.com>#1/1 references: <0099BE50.1F24D8E0.103@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar marsden_a@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz wrote: >Corewars is uni-directional at the moment, ie. the instruction pointer only >travels in one direction. By adding only a few instructions, Corewars could >be transformed into a bi-directional language: > >REV: transfer execution to A then reverse direction. >REZ: REV to A if B is zero. >REN: REV to A if B is non-zero. >SPR: split off process to A in reverse direction. >DRN: decrement B, if B is non-zero, REV to A. Actually, this has been discussed before. I was intrigued by the idea myself, but no one else ever showed much interest. I think it is a viable idea, too... not terribly difficult to implement, I would believe. It would seem to make imps a lot stronger. :/ But then it'd make bombing stronger too. Reversing the direction of split imp processes would do a lot of damage to imps. 'SPR -1, >1' would be a very effective bomb. The only question in my mind as far as implementation is this: If the process being excecuted is moving in the standard "down" direction, and you "REV" jmp, and then "REV" jmp again, does the second "REV" undo the effects of the first? It would certainly be more interesting that way, although much more chaotic. :) -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | "I don't have the power because I've got the monkeys. I've got | \ the power because I'll set the monkeys LOOSE." -Dave Foley / From: akemi@netcom.com (David Boeren) Subject: Re: Proposal for Corewars Date: 1996/01/04 Message-ID: #1/1 references: <4b5jp6$8f9@hermes.cair.du.edu> <4bcajq$53n@hermes.cair.du.edu> <4c2g7a$9e7@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu> <4ceamd$169e@st6000.sct.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Wayne Sheppard (wsheppar@st6000.sct.edu) wrote: : In article , David Boeren wrote: : >with the popular views or not. Personally, I'm not sure I like PSpace. : >It seems too much like it lets you write warriors that are one-dimensional : >rather than having to write code that performs well against a variety of : >opponents. That's just me, though, and if everyone else things that : I also agree that PSpace is BAD. I refuse to write pspace code. : How about a 94 hill without pspace? Glad to hear such a revered name is on my side! I would love to see what would happen on a 94 hill without pspace though. Are the powers at Pizza willing to set up such a thing? Perhaps it can replac the "experimental hill",or does someone actually use it? In several weeks of watching the holding pen on WWW I've never seen anything get submitted there. From: John K W Subject: (no subject) Date: 1996/01/05 Message-ID: <4cj2h8$dqq@feenix.metronet.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar 26 5/ 4/ 91 Evol Cap 6.1 John Wilkinson 105 Heh. I didn't make it on the Hill, but 91% ties sure is pretty cool. :) -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | "I don't have the power because I've got the monkeys. I've got | \ the power because I'll set the monkeys LOOSE." -Dave Foley / From: akemi@netcom.com (David Boeren) Subject: Re: Help with test suite Date: 1996/01/05 Message-ID: #1/1 references: <4cj5rn$dds@soap.news.pipex.net> <1996Jan5.121148.3110@rhodes> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Randy Graham (graham@hal.mathcs.rhodes.edu) wrote: : David Boeren (akemi@netcom.com) wrote: : : though... I've heard discussion of 75% scanners, and I want to have one of : : these in my test suite, but I can't find any of them because I don't know : : who they are. Some people mentioned names like Porch Swing, but teh version : : of Porch Swing that I looked at didn't scan at 75%, it was more like a : : bomber with a mini-scan in it. Can anyone fill me in on the 75% scanner : : thing? : Well, I am not sure about a 75% scanner, but I can give you Porch : Swing + (which I don't think Planar has). It is an 80% bomb/scanner : with decoy. It throws 2 bombs and scans two locations in a 5 : instruction loop. It also has a djn stream in that loop, so I guess : in a way, it is a 100% bomb/scanner. Code follows below. : There are also 80% scanners. Check out Taking Names by P.Kline. : Also, Duel by me (Randy Graham). I believe Planar has both of them, Thanks for the code and for the clarification. I'll be sure to grab the code for Duel and Taking Names when I get home tonight. I'm interested in testing vs. some fast scanners in part because I'm not sure at what point is the tradeoff between dropping more bombs in a tighter MOD or being able to get some spread out quick and start your coreclear sooner. Right now I have MOD-8 and MOD-5 versions of my code, and it would be nice to be able to concentrate on only improving one of them. Actually, right now I'm probably more interested in what I can do to score higher against the Timescape-style papers, they're what's really costing me points. I've already got a few hours set aside tonight to work on designing a better stun bomb than what I've been using, so maybe that will help... Again, thanks for the code! From: graham@hal.mathcs.rhodes.edu (Randy Graham) Subject: Re: Help with test suite Date: 1996/01/05 Message-ID: <1996Jan5.121148.3110@rhodes> references: <4cj5rn$dds@soap.news.pipex.net> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar David Boeren (akemi@netcom.com) wrote: : Thanks for the advice. I've already got a new suite mostly put together, : and it contains several of the warriors that you've mentioned. One thing : though... I've heard discussion of 75% scanners, and I want to have one of : these in my test suite, but I can't find any of them because I don't know : who they are. Some people mentioned names like Porch Swing, but teh version : of Porch Swing that I looked at didn't scan at 75%, it was more like a : bomber with a mini-scan in it. Can anyone fill me in on the 75% scanner : thing? Well, I am not sure about a 75% scanner, but I can give you Porch Swing + (which I don't think Planar has). It is an 80% bomb/scanner with decoy. It throws 2 bombs and scans two locations in a 5 instruction loop. It also has a djn stream in that loop, so I guess in a way, it is a 100% bomb/scanner. Code follows below. There are also 80% scanners. Check out Taking Names by P.Kline. Also, Duel by me (Randy Graham). I believe Planar has both of them, but if not, Paul can probably send his, and if I can find mine I can send it. Randy ----------------------------------------------------------------- ;redcode-94x ;name Porch Swing + ;kill Porch Swing ;Author Randy Graham ;assert 1 ;strategy Original Porch Swing (80% bomb/scan w/multi-pass clear) ;strategy with some tweaking, optimizations and slightly changed clear ;strategy + use decoy, longer run (almost 2000 bomb/scans) before clear MOVETO equ (decoy+1795) decoy dat.f 0, 0 move1 mov.i }first, >first mov.i }first, >first mov.i }first, >first mov.i }first, >first first mov.i gate, MOVETO filler mov.i decoy, first move2 mov.i }second, >second for 8 mov.i }second, >second rof second mov.i adder, MOVETO+(adder-gate) start jmp.a second+MOVETO+(adder-gate)+1, 0 STEP equ 12 EXTRA equ 4 DJNOFF equ (-430+EXTRA) gate dat.f #site, sneer-STEP+1 dat2 dat.f #2, step-gate+5+EXTRA dat1 dat.f #1, step-gate+5+EXTRA site2 spl.a #2, step-gate+5+EXTRA site spl.a #3, step-gate+5+EXTRA dat.f 0, 0 dat.f 0, 0 dat.f 0, 0 dat.f 0, 0 adder sub.f sweeper, sneer hithigh mov.i step, *sneer hitlow mov.i step, @sneer sneer sne.i @gate+STEP*6-1+EXTRA, *gate+STEP*3+EXTRA ;so we bomb step looper djn.b adder, gate swinger djn.f mover, {gate-10 step dat.f 1, }1 dat.f #1, *1 ;40 dat.f *1, >1 dat.f @1, #1 dat.f $1, *1 dat.f >1, {1 dat.f *1, }1 dat.f #1, {1 dat.f {1, *1 dat.f {1, <1 dat.f @1, }1 dat.f }1, >1 ;50 dat.f }1, @1 dat.f *1, >1 dat.f {1, >1 dat.f #1, <1 dat.f *1, $1 dat.f $1, }1 dat.f @1, {1 dat.f *1, >1 dat.f {1, <1 dat.f {1, @1 ;60 dat.f $1, *1 dat.f }1, @1 dat.f @1, <1 dat.f <1, #1 dat.f >1, {1 dat.f @1, $1 dat.f }1, >1 dat.f *1, #1 dat.f #1, @1 dat.f }1, {1 ;70 dat.f >1, }1 dat.f #1, *1 dat.f *1, >1 dat.f @1, #1 dat.f $1, *1 dat.f <1, >1 dat.f >1, {1 dat.f *1, }1 dat.f {1, *1 dat.f {1, <1 ;80 dat.f @1, }1 dat.f }1, >1 dat.f #1, #1 dat.f }1, }1 dat.f <1, {1 dat.f {1, >1 dat.f *1, $1 dat.f $1, }1 dat.f @1, {1 dat.f {1, <1 ;90 dat.f {1, @1 dat.f $1, *1 dat.f }1, @1 dat.f @1, <1 dat.f <1, #1 dat.f >1, {1 dat.f @1, $1 dat.f 0, 0 dat.f $1, }1 ;end hithigh end move1 From: Planar Subject: Re: Newbie warriors which died Date: 1996/01/05 Message-ID: <4cjd0n$mpt@news-rocq.inria.fr>#1/1 references: <4btl5g$9te@nuscc.nus.sg> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar >From: lohwengk@iscs.nus.sg (Loh Weng Keong Calvin) >Below are two of my warriors which died of old age on the beginner hill. >Can some veterans comment on them? Maybe you'll accept some advice from a semi-veteran. >;assert 8000 This is equivalent to "assert 1". Maybe you mean "assert CORESIZE==8000". >;name Loh_tst_1.3 >;strategy p-space switcher between imp spiral, scanner, paper and bomber [...] >eval sne.ab #0, res > jmp lost It would be faster this way: eval jmz.b lost, res >switch sne.ab IS, str > jmp imp > sne.ab B, str > jmp bomber > sne.ab P, str > jmp paper > jmp scan_b You can do it faster: switch slt.a #2, str str jmp @0, imp jmp scan, bomber dat 0, paper Provided that you change your LDP to load the strategy into the A-field of str. A p-spacer has to think fast and every cycle counts. >;imp spiral [...] >launch spl 2 > jmp @0, imp > add.ab #STEP, -1 >tim2 spl @tim2, }TSTEP >tim2a mov.i }tim2, >tim2 Don't do that. You're interleaving the spiral with the paper. This makes the spiral more vulnerable. You should kill the processes that do the ADDs. (same remark for RingWorm) >bomber mov bomb, 4000 > mov toss, 4000 > mov toss+1, 4000 You're leaving lots of pointers to your own bomber. Some quick-scanners will do indirect bombing just to kill this kind of bootstrap. Better to use one pointer and erase it after booting (or put it in a place where it is quickly bombed by your own bomber). >;scanner >;boot routine >plus dat #1, #1 >scan_b mov.i step, 4000 > add.f plus, scan_b > djn scan_b, #17 This boot is very slow. You're not out of instructions yet. Why not unroll the loop as you did for the stone ? Or at least use postincrement and save one cycle per loop. >fire spl 0, 0 >stun jmp -10 I'm not sure you need the "stun" part. Maybe you could do with a carpet of "SPL -1". My last piece of advice: don't take my word for any of the above. Try them one by one and measure the improvement against a good test suite (or the hill). You could even write an article for Core Warrior to report what works and what doesn't. -- Planar From: akemi@netcom.com (David Boeren) Subject: Re: Help with test suite Date: 1996/01/05 Message-ID: #1/1 references: <4cj5rn$dds@soap.news.pipex.net> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Robert Macrae (ff95@dial.pipex.com) wrote: : >For the papers: : >Flashpaper 3.7, Paper01 (from CW hint column) : I'd say that you need some Silks because they need different treatment : from older papers -- they split so fast that vamps are much less : effective, and you need really nasty incendiary/spl carpet/spl-spl-jmp : bombs to make any impact. I think Night Train and Doormat are examples. : La Bomba contains a specially nasty one, which may be the same as the : Paper01 you mention. If you can handle that the other silk should be : similar. OK, I thought that FlashPaper was a Silk, but I didn't look at the code. Anyway, now I'm using Paper01 and Marcia Trionfale (both by Beppe) which are both Timescape-style papers. These seem to be a LOT tougher than the regular Silks, which I think I'm scoring fairly well against. : Impfinity I can't help with (but I am not alone in this:) I no longer have a problem with Impfinity, I get 131.5 points from him now. Now I just have trouble with Night Train and those infernal Timescape Papers. I guess DoorMat falls into that category too, since it's about the same as Night Train. : I use various testing-lists depending on purpose (for example to test : your gate, use imps:) but for general use it is helpful to have about the : right weights of each type, that is the right percentage of scanners, : bombers, silks and imps. The last list I used was: : CROW.RED : Scanner? Crow is a Tornado-style bomber with a good coreclear. Thanks for the advice. I've already got a new suite mostly put together, and it contains several of the warriors that you've mentioned. One thing though... I've heard discussion of 75% scanners, and I want to have one of these in my test suite, but I can't find any of them because I don't know who they are. Some people mentioned names like Porch Swing, but teh version of Porch Swing that I looked at didn't scan at 75%, it was more like a bomber with a mini-scan in it. Can anyone fill me in on the 75% scanner thing? From: Robert Macrae Subject: Re: Newbie warriors which died Date: 1996/01/05 Message-ID: <4cjc9i$f91@soap.news.pipex.net>#1/1 references: <4btl5g$9te@nuscc.nus.sg> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar lohwengk@iscs.nus.sg (Loh Weng Keong Calvin) wrote: >Below are two of my warriors which died of old age on the beginner hill. >Can some veterans comment on them? I'm going to write a P-switcher real soon now (problem is, my only recent warrior is a bomber, so I've nothing to switch with:) >;name Loh_tst_1.3 >;author Calvin Loh >;strategy p-space switcher between imp spiral, scanner, paper and bomber .. >imp mov imp, imp + STEP > spl 1 > mov -1, 0 > mov -1, 0 > spl 1 > spl 1 > mov -1, 0 >launch spl 2 > jmp @0, imp > add.ab #STEP, -1 >tim2 spl @tim2, }TSTEP >tim2a mov.i }tim2, >tim2 >cel2 spl @cel2, }CSTEP ;these four lines are the main body >cel2a mov.i }cel2, >cel2 > mov.x <-RANGE,>RANGE ;here you can insert some bombing line >ncl2a mov.i {cel2, ncl2 jmp @ncl2, >NSTEP Looks like overkill to me. This imp takes 200ish cycles to launch (?) completely, so quickscanners definitely hit you and scanners may do. Wouldn't a smaller spiral be safer? >;bomber >bomber mov bomb, 4000 > mov toss, 4000 > mov toss+1, 4000 > mov toss+2, 4000 > mov toss+3, 4000 > jmp @-1 This kind of boot leaves 5 pointers to your code. Much better to leave only 1 or 2 using MOV A, >B. >bomb dat #100, #1 >toss spl 0, 0 > mov bomb, {bomb > mul.a #3, bomb > jmp toss Interesting. What does the bomb pattern look like? Off hand I'd guess that JMP toss+1 might be better -- as is you will often have lots of processes executing the same instruction, which lowers bombing speed. .. >;scanner >;boot routine >plus dat #1, #1 >scan_b mov.i step, 4000 > add.f plus, scan_b > djn scan_b, #17 > jmp 4001 This boot only works at 0.33c. ptr MOV.i step, 4000 MOV.i }ptr, >ptr MOV.i }ptr, >ptr DJN -2, #8 works at 0.66c in the same space. > >step dat 20, 20 > Scanning mod-10 will often miss small targets. This may not cost you too much, since you don't expect to beat bombers often, but a tighter pattern would be better. The trick, of course, is how to avoid hitting yourself but there are varous tricks available; given the modular nature of your scan, how about just inserting some DAT 0, 0 instructions? You might also do better against replicators, because you throw more bombs before starting to clear. From: Robert Macrae Subject: Re: Proposal for Corewars Date: 1996/01/05 Message-ID: <4cj1mi$ccg@soap.news.pipex.net>#1/1 references: <4b5jp6$8f9@hermes.cair.du.edu> <4bb5jo$s44@agate.berkeley.edu> <4bcajq$53n@hermes.cair.du.edu> <4c2g7a$9e7@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar akemi@netcom.com (David Boeren) wrote: >Personally, I'm not sure I like PSpace. >It seems too much like it lets you write warriors that are one-dimensional >rather than having to write code that performs well against a variety of >opponents. That's just me, though, and if everyone else things that >PSpace is the greatest thing to come long since velcro then I'll just >have to learn to live with it. I just probably won't use pspace in my >own warriors is all... Looking at the hill, P-Spacers scarcely seem dominant. It is pretty tough to write something clever, yet fast enough to avoid quick-scanners. I like the new alternative (to write two, one-dimensional warriors and combine) to always writing general purpose warriors -- it increases richness because it _adds_ new types, not _replaces_ them. From: John K W Subject: Re: Bi-directional Corewars Date: 1996/01/05 Message-ID: <4cijkk$hs3@feenix.metronet.com>#1/1 references: <0099BEE6.ECA19BA0.100@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar marsden_a@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz wrote: >Damien.Doligez@inria.fr wrote: >True... but how long would it be until everyone has run out of coding ideas >again? REV -1 isn't exactly a powerful instruction. I defined 5 instructions >because I see REV as being analogous to JMP. > I don't know how running out of coding ideas would affect it, but I do like the idea of keeping it similar to JMP. -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | "I don't have the power because I've got the monkeys. I've got | \ the power because I'll set the monkeys LOOSE." -Dave Foley / From: John K W Subject: Re: pushed off :-( Date: 1996/01/05 Message-ID: <4cij53$hs3@feenix.metronet.com>#1/1 references: <199601041523.QAA18390@iol-mail.iol.it> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Beppe Bezzi wrote: >>This is a 75% hard bomber (no decrements) in a slightly less than >>5 instruction loop, so speed/size ratio reasoning is still sound. > >WOW 75%c in a pure bomber is something really interesting. I guessed that the >60%c of Tornado were an upper limit for a reasonably short loop, but Wayne >before with qwicksand, and you now are proving me wrong, I'm very curious. Well, if it uses the Leprechaun methodology, that gets 75% right there. (Assuming a pretty much empty core, which isn't a bad assumption usually.) I'm sure you've got the code, or you can get it... just do that math. :) -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | "I don't have the power because I've got the monkeys. I've got | \ the power because I'll set the monkeys LOOSE." -Dave Foley / From: Robert Macrae Subject: Re: Help with warrior Date: 1996/01/05 Message-ID: <4cj8ev$e50@soap.news.pipex.net>#1/1 references: <4c4a01$hll@omnifest.uwm.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar ratzburg@omnifest.uwm.edu (Mark D. Ratzburg) wrote: >I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for this newbie warrior. >;strategy Decoy, stone w/ imp gate and core-clear Decoy could be bigger. FOR 60 DAT 1,1 ROF after the code would be traditional; it would slow down scanners and upset DJN.f trails. >optima equ 2365 >gate equ stone-20 >bomb jmp 1,8+optima Not a nasty bomb; most warriors would continue to function if hit, and they might start a corelclear which gets you, and you won't hurt imps or replicators at all. SPL 0 might be a bit better; I guess you use JMP because you eventually bomb your "jmp stone,stone mov bomb,@bomb > add #optima,bomb > jmp stone,core mov 3,@-13 > jmp core,<-14 Doesn't this coreclear bomb itself? I know you should hit enemies first, but if they have lots of processes they may well still be alive when you hit your own loop. If you use SPL #8+optima, <-10 as a bomb, the coreclear ends up looking like SPL #8+optima,<-10 core MOV 3,@-13 JMP core,<-14 which will still clear at 0.5c and bomb itself, but which is harder to kill (since a hit to MOV or JMP still leaves the SPL generating processes). Another improvement is to swap the JMP for a DJN.f instruction, for SPL #8+optima,<-10 core MOV 3,>-12 DJN.f core,<-14 ; or similar which will now bomb forward through core, at 0.5c, but also decrement back through core at 0.5c for a better overall clearing rate. It would be nice to add multiple passes with SPL before you use a DAT clear (this is nasty for replicators) and to use DAT <2667, <2*2667 (this is nasty to 3-point imps) but for that kind of refinement, look at some of the published warriors or "Corewarrior" magazine. The only *key* improvement still to make is to stop you killing yourself when the corelcear wraps round core. The trick here is to use a DAT bomb which over-writes teh pointer, updating it to point past your code, so the clear looks something like ptr DAT 0, core+1 bomb DAT 0, core+1 .. SPL #8+optima, ptr DJN.f core, boot mov stone+4,-500+4 > mov stone+3, mov stone+2, mov stone+1, mov stone, mov stone-1, jmp boot-500 >end boot It is a shame to leave 2 pointers to yourself, because some warriors indirect-bomb and will be likely to hit you. Other changes to think about in time are even nastier bombs (like incendiaries), and incorporating a SPL #x, somewhere in your code so that it is more robust. TorchT15 is an elegant example of what a highly- developed bomber looks like when you apply this list of changes and optimise for a few years... BTW I have not tested any of this. If it does not work, mail me! From: Planar Subject: CDB tutorial Date: 1996/01/05 Message-ID: <4cj81u$lvo@news-rocq.inria.fr>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Has anybody done the exercises I gave in the CDB tutorial ? I don't want to give the answers before people try to do them by themselves. So, post your solutions or mail them to me, the best ones will be published in Core Warrior. -- Planar From: John K W Subject: Re: Bi-directional Corewars Date: 1996/01/05 Message-ID: <4cijds$hs3@feenix.metronet.com>#1/1 references: <0099BEE6.CBAE8CA0.58@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar marsden_a@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz wrote: >jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu wrote: >>[...] >>It would seem to make imps a lot stronger. :/ But then it'd make bombing >>stronger too. Reversing the direction of split imp processes would do >>a lot of damage to imps. 'SPR -1, >1' would be a very effective bomb. > >Ah, that reminds me of another small problem... post-increments and pre- >decrements would inc/dec the address relative to the direction the process >was going before the reversal. This is because of in-register evaluation >(the actual direction of the process should be stored in a register). Geez, I hadn't even considered that. I guess I didn't take notice, but your original example was: mov.i 0, 1 spr -1, 0 mov.i 0, 1 NOT: mov.i 0, -1 spr -1, 0 mov.i 0, 1 Heh. The former would, of course, be the only consistent way to go about it. Damn... that could be downright interesting. -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | "I don't have the power because I've got the monkeys. I've got | \ the power because I'll set the monkeys LOOSE." -Dave Foley / From: John K W Subject: Re: Bi-directional Corewars Date: 1996/01/06 Message-ID: <4cmc75$ih7@feenix.metronet.com>#1/1 references: <0099BE50.1F24D8E0.103@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz> <4ck612$k88@lastactionhero.rs.itd.umich.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar jklewis@stimpy.us.itd.umich.edu (John K. Lewis) wrote: >While I am very interested in adding commands that would create new >strategies for corewars, I think the confusion factor of backwards running >code is too great. > >John - But the confusion factor is it's best selling point! :) -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | "I don't have the power because I've got the monkeys. I've got | \ the power because I'll set the monkeys LOOSE." -Dave Foley / From: John K W Subject: Re: Proposal for Corewars Date: 1996/01/06 Message-ID: <4cmd3v$l5c@feenix.metronet.com>#1/1 references: <4b5jp6$8f9@hermes.cair.du.edu> <4bb5jo$s44@agate.berkeley.edu> <4bcajq$53n@hermes.cair.du.edu> <4c2g7a$9e7@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu> <4cj1mi$ccg@soap.news.pipex.net> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Robert Macrae wrote: >Looking at the hill, P-Spacers scarcely seem dominant. It is pretty tough >to write something clever, yet fast enough to avoid quick-scanners. I >like the new alternative (to write two, one-dimensional warriors and >combine) to always writing general purpose warriors -- it >increases richness because it _adds_ new types, not _replaces_ them. Me too! Me too! -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | "I don't have the power because I've got the monkeys. I've got | \ the power because I'll set the monkeys LOOSE." -Dave Foley / From: John K W Subject: Re: Bi-directional Corewars Date: 1996/01/06 Message-ID: <4cmcdc$ih7@feenix.metronet.com>#1/1 references: <4cgh42$33r@news-rocq.inria.fr> <9601042049.AA44338@research1.asu.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar nandor.sieben@ASU.EDU () wrote: >I agree with Planar. Just make it simple. I remember some discussion >about this when a 2-dimensional system was proposed a long time ago. But >I don't think there was any conclusion. I think it would increase the >role of chance. Just by reversing your warrior could make a significant >difference in hill scores. So maybe the battle should be divided into two >parts. In the second part one of the warriors would be automatically >reversed. >I admit it's interesting, but it would make redcode very complex. >Nandor. Theoretically, you would want the direction to be random, just like the start-off location is now. However, if the program was in reverse direction it would need to be laid out backwards in the core. Are their any possible problems with this, that I haven't been able to think of? -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | "I don't have the power because I've got the monkeys. I've got | \ the power because I'll set the monkeys LOOSE." -Dave Foley / From: John K W Subject: Re: Newbie warriors which died Date: 1996/01/07 Message-ID: <4cpmhr$4r9@feenix.metronet.com>#1/1 references: <4btl5g$9te@nuscc.nus.sg> <4cjc9i$f91@soap.news.pipex.net> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar >>imp mov imp, imp + STEP >> spl 1 >> mov -1, 0 >> mov -1, 0 >> spl 1 >> spl 1 >> mov -1, 0 >>launch spl 2 >> jmp @0, imp >> add.ab #STEP, -1 >>tim2 spl @tim2, }TSTEP >>tim2a mov.i }tim2, >tim2 >>cel2 spl @cel2, }CSTEP ;these four lines are the main body >>cel2a mov.i }cel2, >cel2 >> mov.x <-RANGE,>RANGE ;here you can insert some bombing line >>ncl2a mov.i {cel2, >ncl2 jmp @ncl2, >NSTEP > >Looks like overkill to me. This imp takes 200ish cycles to launch (?) >completely, so quickscanners definitely hit you and scanners may do. >Wouldn't a smaller spiral be safer? Well, space constrictions on having four warriors in the p-warrior probably nescissitated the ADD-based launch. And 19 processes is probably too much. However, he then proceeds to launch a 19-process Timescape. Or, Timescape-ish thing. That seems really stupid... I don't think anything over 10 processes is a good idea for that... -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | "I don't have the power because I've got the monkeys. I've got | \ the power because I'll set the monkeys LOOSE." -Dave Foley / From: rossd@arbroath.win-uk.net (Derek Ross) Subject: Re: Bi-directional Corewars Date: 1996/01/07 Message-ID: <394@arbroath.win-uk.net>#1/1 references: <0099BE50.1F24D8E0.103@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz> <4ck612$k88@lastactionhero.rs.itd.umich.edu><4cmc75$ih7@feenix.metronet.com> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar In article <4cmc75$ih7@feenix.metronet.com>, John K W (jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu) writes: > jklewis@stimpy.us.itd.umich.edu (John K. Lewis) wrote: > >While I am very interested in adding commands that would create new > >strategies for corewars, I think the confusion factor of backwards running > >code is too great. > > > >John - > >But the confusion factor is it's best selling point! :) > I like it! It's confusing but is it confusing enough yet ? How about generalising it like this ? REV x, 1 ;Program flow jumps to x then continues ;in the current direction executing ;every instruction REV y, 2 ;Program flow jumps to y then continues ;in the current direction executing ;every second instruction REV z, 3 ;Program flow jumps to z then continues ;in the current direction executing ;every third instruction REV x, CORESIZE-1 ;Program flow jumps to x then continues ;in the current direction executing ;every (CORESIZE-1)th instruction ;or looking at it another way ;Program flow jumps to x then effectively ;reverses direction executing every ;instruction REV y, CORESIZE-2 ;Program flow jumps to y then effectively ;reverses direction executing every second ;instruction REV z, 0 ;Program flow jumps to z then repeatedly ;executes the instruction at that location Programs written with this instruction (used properly) should be able to confuse just about anyone! Of course the name should be left as REV to keep the confusion value high. This operation now implements quasiduodimensional flow control or possibly pseudopolypatetic process threading and would be a definite step forwards, backwards, sideways - or running on the spot - in theoretical core war design. Cheers Derek From: akemi@netcom.com (David Boeren) Subject: What do you do? Date: 1996/01/07 Message-ID: #1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar I've got a little problem. What do you do when you write up a new version of your program and in all your tests it outperforms the old one by a large margin, but then when you submit it to the hill it doesn't do any better? Or does WORSE??? I've been running into this, and I'm very confused. My test suite includes a number of programs which are currently on the hill, or recently fell off the hill, as well as some "classic" good warriors like Aeka, Cannonade, Agony II. I believe that I hav a reasonable balance between number of scanners/papers/etc. I don't drop sharply vs any warrior class or single warrior between the versions, about the only difference in my scores (at home) is a lot more wins against papers. Unfortunately, some of the warriors that my score drops a lot against on the hill are unpublished, so I can't analyze all of them. I know that there are a lot of hidden factors that I don't yet understand, and that changing hill composition may have altered my scores at least somewhat, but I was hoping that some of the veterans could give me a few tips of what to look for that might account for scoring 8-9 points higher against my test suite and scoring 4 points lower vs the 94 hill. In case you want to know, about all I did was change my continuous DAT coreclear into a 1-pass SPL -> continuous DAT coreclear. The resulting program was 1 instruction larger, but still... Perhaps I ought to try a boot & decoy? But it's not the scanners that are nailing me... From: John K W Subject: Re: What do you do? Date: 1996/01/08 Message-ID: <4cpn8i$4r9@feenix.metronet.com>#1/1 references: newsgroups: rec.games.corewar akemi@netcom.com (David Boeren) wrote: >In case you want to know, about all I did was change my continuous DAT >coreclear into a 1-pass SPL -> continuous DAT coreclear. The resulting >program was 1 instruction larger, but still... Well, that change will help you against papers, but will destroy your chances against medium or heavy imps. Aeka and Cannonade are both light imps, and are essentially the same program, so you don't need both of them in you suite. DieHard, and theMystery would be medium imp programs. Try your changes against them. Also, impfinity is a heavy imp, so you should probably put it in your suite too... >Perhaps I ought to try a boot & decoy? But it's not the scanners that >are nailing me... Is this a bomber then? -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | "I don't have the power because I've got the monkeys. I've got | \ the power because I'll set the monkeys LOOSE." -Dave Foley / From: Robert Macrae Subject: Re: What do you do? Date: 1996/01/08 Message-ID: <4crce3$t2m@soap.news.pipex.net>#1/1 references: <4cpn8i$4r9@feenix.metronet.com> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar akemi@netcom.com (David Boeren) wrote: >Yes, basically. It's a bomber using a 2-instruction stun bomb. Exactly >WHAT 2 instruction depends on the version a bit... > >v0.5 which lasted until age 6 on the regular hill uses this: > >bomb1 MOV.I 1, >1 ; Exodus bomb, burn everything! >bomb2 SPL.A -1, #1 The advantage of this form of incendiary is that it will burn even a 1-process warrior due to the SPL -1. OTOH, you don't really need an incendiary against single-process warriors. If you are prepared to give up this property, you can have a split incendiary which bombs 2 separate locations (one with incendiary, one with a plain SPL) which gives you a higher effective bomb-rate. mvb MOV spb, >spb .. spb SPL #xxx, mvb+1 where mvb and spb are a bombing step apart and #xxx is a free parameter. At first sight this won't work, as the MOV only executes once, but against Silks it will execute 8ish times -- enough. Against single-process warriors it will execute until the SPL over-writes the loop it has hit; it may start a coreclear that way :( If you don't need the free pointer #xxx, spb SPL -1, mvb+1 will work better against single processes. From: Robert Macrae Subject: Re: Newbie warriors which died Date: 1996/01/08 Message-ID: <4cr9o0$s5u@soap.news.pipex.net>#1/1 references: <4btl5g$9te@nuscc.nus.sg> <4cjc9i$f91@soap.news.pipex.net> <4cpmhr$4r9@feenix.metronet.com> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar John K W wrote: >>Looks like overkill to me. This imp takes 200ish cycles to launch (?) >>completely, so quickscanners definitely hit you and scanners may do. >>Wouldn't a smaller spiral be safer? > >Well, space constrictions on having four warriors in the p-warrior >probably nescissitated the ADD-based launch. And 19 processes is >probably too much. However, he then proceeds to launch a 19-process >Timescape. Or, Timescape-ish thing. :( One day I too will learn to tell a Silk from an Imp :( From: John K W Subject: Re: Newbie warriors which died Date: 1996/01/08 Message-ID: <4cpmv3$4r9@feenix.metronet.com>#1/1 references: <4btl5g$9te@nuscc.nus.sg> <4cjd0n$mpt@news-rocq.inria.fr> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar >Don't do that. You're interleaving the spiral with the paper. This >makes the spiral more vulnerable. You should kill the processes that >do the ADDs. (same remark for RingWorm) The rest of your advice to him was great. However, I'm not sure this is always accurate. In fact, I might be inclined to believe just the opposite. You see, if you've got the processes interleaved, then when your imp gets SPL-bombed, then the areas of the imp which develop extra processes are more likely the be spread out evenly throughout the spiral. -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | "I don't have the power because I've got the monkeys. I've got | \ the power because I'll set the monkeys LOOSE." -Dave Foley / From: Robert Macrae Subject: Re: What do you do? Date: 1996/01/08 Message-ID: <4craqi$sm0@soap.news.pipex.net>#1/1 references: newsgroups: rec.games.corewar akemi@netcom.com (David Boeren) wrote: >I've got a little problem. What do you do when you write up a new >version of your program and in all your tests it outperforms the old one >by a large margin, but then when you submit it to the hill it doesn't do >any better? Or does WORSE??? .. >In case you want to know, about all I did was change my continuous DAT >coreclear into a 1-pass SPL -> continuous DAT coreclear. The resulting >program was 1 instruction larger, but still... I've had problems finishing off some of the Silk/Imp combinations like Night Train and Die Hard; with a specialist scanner it is easy to stun the Silk but you need *lots* of time to get the imps with a coreclear. Maybe your extra SPL clear takes just too long? Perhaps hill warriors have different flavours of Imp (like MOV.i #2667, *0 or }0, or different numbers of points) from the ones you tested against? It is tempting to spend too long optimising against a particular set of warriors, but the result is often something which works poorly outside that set. From: bremermr@cartoon.ecn.purdue.edu (Myer R. Bremer) Subject: Derision Date: 1996/01/08 Message-ID: <4cr80n$mck@mozo.cc.purdue.edu>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar greetings. derision was pushed off the hill so i thought i'd post the source. lot of good it does you now, eh? it simply does a 'myzizzor' type scan and then starts clearing from that point with a spl/spl/dat/spl/dat clear. i used an indirection scan to color core a bit. i don't really know if it makes any difference. for your derision: ;redcode-94 ;name Derision ;author M R Bremer ;kill Derision ;strategy trying for a better endpoint . ;strategy scan --> clear ;strategy one of these days i'll code another bomber ;strategy this one is a _rough_ draft org boot+1 BOOTPTR EQU 3500 ptrs dat sp1, 0 add.f step, scan scan sne.i }108-3, >100-3 djn.f -2, <-1664 sp1 spl #9, #14 mov.i *ptrs, >scan mov.i *ptrs, >scan djn.f -2, <-40 step dat 16, 16 spl #8, #14 for 73 dat last+10, last+11 rof boot dat BOOTPTR, 12 mov ptrs, }boot mov ptrs+1, }boot mov ptrs+2, }boot mov ptrs+3, }boot mov ptrs+4, }boot mov ptrs+5, }boot mov ptrs+6, }boot mov ptrs+7, }boot mov ptrs+8, }boot mov ptrs+9, }boot mov 10, step-2 last jmp BOOTPTR-10 From: Planar Subject: Re: Bi-directional Corewars Date: 1996/01/08 Message-ID: <4cr4fk$671@news-rocq.inria.fr>#1/1 references: <0099BE50.1F24D8E0.103@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz> <4ck612$k88@lastactionhero.rs.itd.umich.edu><4cmc75$ih7@feenix.metronet.com> <394@arbroath.win-uk.net> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar In article <394@arbroath.win-uk.net>, rossd@arbroath.win-uk.net (Derek Ross) writes: > REV z, 3 ;Program flow jumps to z then continues > ;in the current direction executing > ;every third instruction > [etc.] Would you believe it ? This has also been proposed already. -- Planar From: Anders Ivner Subject: test Date: 1996/01/08 Message-ID: #1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar just testing. Again. From: akemi@netcom.com (David Boeren) Subject: Re: What do you do? Date: 1996/01/08 Message-ID: #1/1 references: <4cpn8i$4r9@feenix.metronet.com> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar John K W (jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu) wrote: : akemi@netcom.com (David Boeren) wrote: : >In case you want to know, about all I did was change my continuous DAT : >coreclear into a 1-pass SPL -> continuous DAT coreclear. The resulting : >program was 1 instruction larger, but still... : Well, that change will help you against papers, but will destroy your : chances against medium or heavy imps. Aeka and Cannonade are both : light imps, and are essentially the same program, so you don't need : both of them in you suite. OK, I guess I don't have any "heavy imps" in my suite yet. Time to go shopping... : DieHard, and theMystery would be medium imp programs. Try your : changes against them. Also, impfinity is a heavy imp, so you : should probably put it in your suite too... I'd love to put Impfinity in my suite, but AFAIK the only version that's been released is a much less developed version. Is the one on the hill published already? : >Perhaps I ought to try a boot & decoy? But it's not the scanners that : >are nailing me... : Is this a bomber then? Yes, basically. It's a bomber using a 2-instruction stun bomb. Exactly WHAT 2 instruction depends on the version a bit... v0.5 which lasted until age 6 on the regular hill uses this: bomb1 MOV.I 1, >1 ; Exodus bomb, burn everything! bomb2 SPL.A -1, #1 I've tried more conventional bombs like the SPL/JMP-1 or SPL/SPL/JMP-2, but they never seem to do as well as this one. However, I run int oa little trouble because this bomb is inflexible. That is, I can't free up any of the fields, so it's not really possible to make the bomb code also be used as part of my warrios, which is commonly done with a SPL #A, #B type of instruction. Anyway, as you can see, this bomb makes the enemy lay down his own SPL carpet, hopefully overrunning his other processes, and also he ends up splitting pretty heavily while doing so. At first it appears that it will lay down the SPL carpet at close to .5c, thus risking overrunning my own warrior, since all the SPL processes will gradually feed back up towards the root and start doing MOVs, but actually this is not so because at each stage only 1/2 the process feed up towards the root, and the other half feed down. Therefore, you get a much slower rate of growth with the SPL carpet than you might expect. After 1000 cycles, the carpet grows to about 95 in size, so it's not fast enough to be dangerous to my own warrior very often. Of course, the rate of growth is faster in the beginning. In 100 cycles it grows to about 19 instructions, so that helps it overrun nearby processes a little faster. I hvae versions that grow more quickly, but all of them need to be 3 instruction bombs, and I haven't made up a versio that actually USES them yet. I don't know if this design has been used before, but if anyone has some comments on its effectiveness then I'd love to hear them. Hmm, so a SPL coreclear is going to make me lose a lot to the "heavy imps"? Perhaps I ought to try a version with a DAT/SPL/DAT coreclear instead? Then I'd kill the imps and hopefully hte papers will still be waiting for me by the time I get to the SPL coreclear. Or will they have overrun me by that time? WIll another SPL style coreclear work against heavy imps? How about SPL -1? Well, lots of things to try... From: KOTH Tourney Server Subject: SKI-ICWS: Status - MultiWarrior 94 01/08/96 Date: 1996/01/09 Message-ID: <199601080500.AAA22353@valhalla.stormking.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Weekly Status on 01/08/96 See up to the second scores at http://www.stormking.com/~koth Check it out for the latest in Core War information *FAQ* is at http://www.stormking.com/~koth/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the StormKing Industries Multiwarrior 94 CoreWar Hill: Last battle concluded at : Thu Dec 21 18:50:54 EST 1995 # Name Author Score Age 1 Son of Imp Steven Morrell 5863 30 2 Die Hard P.Kline 5838 17 3 75% Cotton v3b Wilkinson 5838 14 4 Silkworm 1.1 Beppe Bezzi 5830 27 5 90% Cotton v5c Wilkinson 5817 12 6 TESTI Maurizio Vittuari 5813 5 7 60% Cotton Wilkinson 5811 13 8 TJ Maurizio Vittuari 5811 6 9 P_Banzai_v1.2 Calvin Loh 5777 2 10 P_Banzai_v1.1 Calvin Loh 5761 1 11 Hard-rock v.6 Mark Ratzburg 934 0 From: KOTH Tourney Server Subject: SKI-ICWS: Status - ICWS Tournament 01/08/96 Date: 1996/01/09 Message-ID: <199601080500.AAA06978@valhalla.stormking.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Weekly Status on 01/08/96 See up to the second scores at http://www.stormking.com/~koth Check it out for the latest in Core War information *FAQ* is at http://www.stormking.com/~koth/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the StormKing Industries Annual ICWS Tournament CoreWar Hill: Last battle concluded at : Tue Dec 19 14:43:53 EST 1995 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 50/ 9/ 40 Cannonade Paul Kline 191 86 2 53/ 30/ 17 Miss Carefree Derek Ross 175 18 3 38/ 14/ 47 Nothing Special G. Eadon 163 1 4 39/ 17/ 45 Turkey Beppe Bezzi 161 2 5 46/ 33/ 21 Giskard v0.5 Ken Mitton 158 59 6 45/ 35/ 20 Yop La Boum v2.1 P.E.M & E.C. 155 16 7 43/ 36/ 21 Old Tire Swing Randy Graham 151 43 8 44/ 38/ 17 Miss Carry Derek Ross 150 50 9 36/ 22/ 42 One Fat Lady Robert Macrae 150 3 10 41/ 43/ 15 test88 P.Kline 139 5 11 43/ 48/ 9 Agony T Stefan Strack 139 87 12 36/ 49/ 15 DoubleStone v0.7 Christoph C. Birk 124 29 13 34/ 44/ 22 WhirlWind-88 Randy Graham 123 23 14 29/ 36/ 36 Chris Steven Morrell 122 8 15 34/ 48/ 18 Maya v1.6 Christoph C. Birk 121 60 16 34/ 48/ 18 Illusion Randy Graham 120 45 17 34/ 49/ 16 Slaver v1.1i Christoph C. Birk 120 47 18 33/ 52/ 16 Baby Swing Randy Graham 114 4 19 30/ 48/ 22 stone matthew householder 112 98 20 35/ 57/ 7 xtc stefan roettger 112 91 21 31/ 53/ 16 warrior 42 stefan roettger 109 99 From: John K W Subject: Re: What do you do? Date: 1996/01/09 Message-ID: <4ctdev$m5k@feenix.metronet.com>#1/1 references: <4cpn8i$4r9@feenix.metronet.com> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar akemi@netcom.com (David Boeren) wrote: >OK, I guess I don't have any "heavy imps" in my suite yet. Time to go >shopping... > >: DieHard, and theMystery would be medium imp programs. Try your >: changes against them. Also, impfinity is a heavy imp, so you >: should probably put it in your suite too... > >I'd love to put Impfinity in my suite, but AFAIK the only version that's >been released is a much less developed version. Is the one on the hill >published already? Well, the published impfinity has no attack module. However, it's still a good test. If you are getting LOSSES against it, then you know you are being overrun by the spiral, and that it has more processes than you do. If this happens a lot, then you know what you're doing wrong. >Hmm, so a SPL coreclear is going to make me lose a lot to the "heavy imps"? No, a SPL coreclear will make you TIE more against ANY type of imp. However, SPL/SPL/DAT can sometimes take out light to medium imp programs. SPL/SPL/DAT has virtually no chance against heavy imps. >Perhaps I ought to try a version with a DAT/SPL/DAT coreclear instead? Why? You'd just be giving papers more time to kill you, and imps would get little more than a shot in the arm thanks to the SPL phase. However, maybe a MOV/SPL/DAT could be more effective? >Then I'd kill the imps and hopefully hte papers will still be waiting for >me by the time I get to the SPL coreclear. Or will they have overrun me >by that time? WIll another SPL style coreclear work against heavy imps? >How about SPL -1? Well, lots of things to try... SPL -1 bombs are much more effective against imps... it's really the only way bombers can them down. -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | "I don't have the power because I've got the monkeys. I've got | \ the power because I'll set the monkeys LOOSE." -Dave Foley / From: John K W Subject: Massive Imbalance Date: 1996/01/09 Message-ID: <4ctepo$ppo@feenix.metronet.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar From: Internet Pizza Server To: jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu From: KOTH Tourney Server Subject: SKI-ICWS: Status - Multiwarrior Experimental 94 01/08/96 Date: 1996/01/09 Message-ID: <199601080500.AAA41567@valhalla.stormking.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Weekly Status on 01/08/96 See up to the second scores at http://www.stormking.com/~koth Check it out for the latest in Core War information *FAQ* is at http://www.stormking.com/~koth/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the StormKing Industries MultiWarrior Experimental 94 CoreWar Hill: Last battle concluded at : Fri Jan 5 17:51:53 EST 1996 # Name Author Score Age 1 Lucky 13 Stefan Strack 6624 39 2 This is Test1 Kurt Franke 6394 2 3 TimeScapeX (0.1) J. Pohjalainen 6386 37 4 life Nandor Sieben 6209 38 5 Paperone Beppe Bezzi 6196 22 6 Paper8 G. Eadon 6138 3 7 Anthill 3 Planar 6056 1 8 jaded M R Bremer 5936 8 9 lifedwarf Nandor Sieben 5797 14 10 Hidden M.C.Diskett Bullfrog 5406 7 11 Shwing! T. H. Davies 5237 33 12 Whirlwind Bob Uhl 4867 24 13 Piggy 3 Bob Uhl 4812 10 14 AB Scanner 2.9 Chris Hodson 4575 26 15 Piggy 2 Bob Uhl 4424 12 16 Miss Treatment Derek Ross 4324 17 17 Miss Carry Derek Ross 4109 18 18 Futility M R Bremer 3918 4 19 Whirlwind 2 Bob Uhl 3694 25 20 Illusion-94/55 Randy Graham 3645 16 21 Miss Careless Derek Ross 3591 6 From: KOTH Tourney Server Subject: SKI-ICWS: Status - Standard 01/08/96 Date: 1996/01/09 Message-ID: <199601080500.AAA42803@valhalla.stormking.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Weekly Status on 01/08/96 See up to the second scores and the latest Core War information at : http://www.stormking.com/~koth *FAQ* is at http://www.stormking.com/~koth/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the StormKing Industries Standard KotH CoreWar Hill : Last battle concluded at : Mon Jan 1 17:50:06 EST 1996 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 40/ 35/ 25 Keystone t21 P.Kline 144 94 2 29/ 15/ 55 Cannonade P.Kline 142 107 3 31/ 21/ 47 CAPS KEY IS STUCK AGAIN Steven Morrell 142 73 4 40/ 38/ 21 Christopher Steven Morrell 142 72 5 38/ 35/ 27 Giskard v0.5 Ken Mitton 142 45 6 33/ 24/ 43 Test Wayne Sheppard 141 96 7 30/ 20/ 50 Blue Funk 88 Steven Morrell 141 71 8 40/ 39/ 21 Tuctest Elmer J. Fudd 140 1 9 28/ 17/ 55 ttti nandor sieben 140 57 10 42/ 44/ 14 Iron Gate Wayne Sheppard 139 201 11 28/ 18/ 54 Peace Mr. Jones 138 81 12 40/ 42/ 18 Beholder's Eye V1.7 W. Mintardjo 137 151 13 29/ 22/ 48 Hydra Stephen Linhart 137 181 14 39/ 42/ 18 Request v2.0 Brant D. Thomsen 136 43 15 35/ 34/ 31 Yop La Boum v2.1 P.E.M & E.C. 135 7 16 31/ 27/ 42 Der Zweiter Blitzkrieg Mike Nonemacher 134 102 17 38/ 40/ 22 Miss Carefree Derek Ross 134 5 18 35/ 36/ 28 Double Clown v1.1 P.E.M 134 2 19 27/ 20/ 52 jmp/add crasher Randy Graham 133 31 20 39/ 49/ 12 bigproba nandor sieben 128 95 21 10/ 83/ 8 Craw IIa Bach 37 0 From: Beppe Bezzi Subject: Core Warrior 11 Date: 1996/01/09 Message-ID: <199601081715.SAA09346@iol-mail.iol.it> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar .xX$$x. .x$$$$$$$x. d$$$$$$$$$$$ ,$$$$$$$P' `P' , . $$$$$$P' ' .d b $$$$$P b ,$$x ,$$x ,$$x ,$$b $$. Y$$$$' `$. $$$$$$. $$$$$$ $$P~d$. d$$$b d d$$$ `$$$$ ,$$ $$$$$$$b $$$P `$ $$$b.$$b `Y$$$d$d$$$' . . a . a a .aa . a `$$$ ,$$$,$$' `$$$ $$$' ' $$P$XX$' `$$$$$$$$$ .dP' `$'$ `$'$ , $''$ `$'$ `Y$b ,d$$$P `$b,d$P' `$$. `$$. , `$$P $$$' Y $. $ $ $ Y..P $ `$$$$$$$' $$$P' `$$b `$$$P `P `$' `Y'k. $. $. $. $$' $. Issue 11 January 8, 1996 ______________________________________________________________________________ Core_Warrior_ is a weekly newsletter promoting the game of corewar. Emphasis is placed on the most active hills--currently the '94 draft hill and the beginner hill. Coverage will follow where ever the action is. If you have no clue what I'm talking about then check out these five-star internet locals for more information: FAQs are available by anonymous FTP from rtfm.mit.edu as pub/usenet/news.answers/games/corewar-faq.Z FTP site is: ftp.csua.berkeley.edu /pub/corewar Web pages are at: http://www.stormking.com/~koth ;Stormking http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~pizza/koth ;Pizza http://pauillac.inria.fr/~doligez/corewar/ ;Planar ______________________________________________________________________________ Hi, and happy new year. Back home, after some days at the mountains one of my first thoughts was checking mail to be sure my old Jack was still here, he is, you have been kind with him, so I'll give you another issue of Corewarrior instead of spending the time crying on my bed.:-) Tuc is working hard to change the scripts of Stormking koth, soon we'll have new features available, password, detailed status and the chance to change ;redcode attribute of our warrior from verbose to quiet, for example. Everyone is invited to submit some sample warrior to kothtest@valhalla.stormking.com trying any oddity to crash it, this avoid problems in future; any suggestion for enhancement is also welcome, mail them to tuc@stormking.com Stefan is still on vacations so we cannot yet see Steven's, Robert's, and Paul's, tournament winner and medalists, faces on the web; I'm sure all corewar girls are waiting. And now stop rambling, let the dat bombs speak for me. ______________________________________________________________________________ Current Status of the Internet Pizza Server ICWS '94 Draft Hill: # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 41/ 38/ 20 quiz Schitzo 144 341 2 39/ 36/ 24 Harmony P.Kline 142 11 3 39/ 37/ 24 Frontwards v2 Steven Morrell 140 194 4 33/ 31/ 36 Mason 2.0 Robert Macrae 134 77 5 19/ 6/ 74 Evol Cap 6.2a John Wilkinson 133 8 6 23/ 13/ 64 Impfinity v4g1 Planar 132 141 7 25/ 19/ 56 juliet storm M R Bremer 132 31 8 26/ 20/ 54 La Bomba Beppe Bezzi 132 336 9 18/ 5/ 77 Evol Cap 6.2 John Wilkinson 132 25 10 23/ 14/ 63 Hector 2 Kurt Franke 131 256 11 28/ 24/ 49 Jack in the box Beppe Bezzi 131 708 12 24/ 17/ 59 juliet and paper M R Bremer, B. Bezzi 131 337 13 30/ 30/ 40 Torch t18 P.Kline 130 720 14 37/ 45/ 18 seventyfive Anders Ivner 130 50 15 27/ 24/ 48 endpoint . M R Bremer 130 13 16 35/ 41/ 24 Boombastic Maurizio Vittuari 129 76 17 36/ 44/ 20 Provascan 3.0 Beppe Bezzi 127 91 18 17/ 7/ 76 Night Train Karl Lewin 126 228 19 29/ 32/ 39 Tornado 2.0 h1 Beppe Bezzi 125 181 20 19/ 14/ 67 myOmy Paulsson 125 5 21 16/ 7/ 77 DoorMat v0.1 K Lewin 125 190 22 18/ 12/ 70 Cheap Hack M R Bremer 125 28 23 35/ 54/ 11 itest ai 116 4 24 21/ 36/ 43 test9 Maurizio Vittuari 105 1 25 28/ 55/ 17 John's Zizzor 2g John Wilkinson 100 7 The hill aged 74 this week with 11 new entries. quiz is always holding the king position even if less strongly than in the short past; having given the top position to Frontwards, Impfinity and Harmony for short periods. After Aeka we have a new resubmission of an old warrior, juliet storm, this time by its author, she holds a good 7th position. Hill scores are much lower, average 128 (136 last week). Average age is 162 (168 last week) ______________________________________________________________________________ 94 - What's New (in order of appearance) 5 43/ 45/ 12 seventyfive Anders Ivner 140 1 14 30/ 25/ 45 juliet storm M R Bremer 134 1 24 21/ 16/ 63 Cheap Hack M R Bremer 126 1 9 19/ 4/ 77 Evol Cap 6.2 John Wilkinson 134 1 24 29/ 31/ 40 endpoint . M R Bremer 127 1 2 40/ 40/ 20 Harmony P.Kline 141 1 5 19/ 5/ 77 Evol Cap 6.2a John Wilkinson 132 1 25 28/ 55/ 17 John's Zizzor 2g John Wilkinson 100 1 18 19/ 13/ 68 myOmy Paulsson 125 1 24 36/ 53/ 11 itest ai 118 1 24 21/ 36/ 43 test9 Maurizio Vittuari 105 1 Many new entries this week, above all new version of Harmony, after some dissonant trial, by Paul Kline; other entries worth noting are the fast bomber seventyfive by Anders Ivner, the two Evol Caps by John Wilkinson and the evergreen juliet storm by Myer Bremer. ______________________________________________________________________________ 94 - What's No More 26 0/ 1/ 3 testPW Maurizio Vittuari 3 9 26 4/ 0/ 0 Dynamo v.1a John K. Wilkinson 11 8 26 1/ 3/ 0 Provascan 2.0d B.Bezzi 3 4 26 2/ 1/ 1 Harmony P.Kline 7 22 26 35/ 47/ 19 Qwiksand Wayne Sheppard 122 99 26 34/ 43/ 22 myVamp v3.7 Paulsson 125 643 26 23/ 21/ 56 Aeka T.Hsu 124 75 26 36/ 47/ 18 Porch Swing 2 JKW 125 226 26 34/ 44/ 22 Persistence Kurt Franke 125 136 26 32/ 40/ 27 Derision M R Bremer 124 351 26 33/ 50/ 17 crow Karl Lewin 117 167 The leading trio is broken, myVamp is no more at the venerable age of 643, 9th in the 94 hall of fame. Other losses include Derision at 351, Porch swing 2 at 226, two centenaries crow and Persistance, a near centenary, Qwiksand, and a bunch of warriors killed by their authors. The old Aeka, whose resubmission caused a few discussions, is no more a problem, at least in 94 hill. ______________________________________________________________________________ What's Old 13 30/ 30/ 40 Torch t18 P.Kline 130 720 11 28/ 24/ 49 Jack in the box Beppe Bezzi 131 708 1 41/ 38/ 20 quiz Schitzo 144 341 12 24/ 17/ 59 juliet and paper M R Bremer, B. Bezzi 131 337 8 26/ 20/ 54 La Bomba Beppe Bezzi 132 336 10 23/ 14/ 63 Hector 2 Kurt Franke 131 256 18 17/ 7/ 76 Night Train Karl Lewin 126 228 The warrior passing 200 age are still seven, but they are no more the same. myVamp and Derision are not more, replaced by Hector and Night Train. quiz, juliet and paper and La Bomba are all very near entering hall of fame. _____________________________________________________________________________ HALL OF FAME * means the warrior is still running. Pos Name Author Age Strategy 1 Iron Gate 1.5 Wayne Sheppard 926 CMP scanner 2 Agony II Stefan Strack 912 CMP scanner 3 Blue Funk Steven Morrell 869 Stone/ imp 4 Thermite 1.0 Robert Macrae 802 Qscan -> bomber 5 Blue Funk 3 Steven Morrell 766 Stone/ imp 6 Torch t18 P.Kline 720 * Bomber 7 Jack in the box Beppe Bezzi 708 * P-warrior 8 HeremScimitar A.Ivner,P.Kline 666 Bomber 9 myVamp v3.7 Paulsson 643 Vampire 10 Armory - A5 Wilkinson 609 P-warrior 11 Phq Maurizio Vittuari 589 Qscan -> replicator 12 B-Panama X Steven Morrell 518 Stone/ replicator 13 NC 94 Wayne Sheppard 387 Stone/ imp 14 Cannonade P.Kline 382 Stone/ imp 15 Torch t17 P.Kline 378 Bomber 16 Lucky 3 Stefan Strack 355 Stone/ imp 17 Derision M R Bremer 351 Scanner 18 Request v2.0 Brant D. Thomsen 347 Qvamp -> vampire 19 Dragon Spear c w blue 346 CMP scanner 20 Leprechaun on speed Anders Ivner 344 Qscan -> scanner/bomber myVamp leave the venerable trio a little before establishing the Swedish top score, Torch and Jack pass HeremScimitar and 700 in good health, next target Blue Funk 3. Bremer's Derision enters the hall in 17th position pushing juliet storm off. ______________________________________________________________________________ Current Status of the Internet Pizza Server Beginner's Hill: # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 61/ 26/ 12 Koolaid II: The Wrath of David Boeren 196 11 2 48/ 14/ 38 Spacehead1.1 Warpi 182 72 3 45/ 12/ 43 Spacehead Warpi 178 83 4 55/ 31/ 14 Our Vamp v2 R Bartolome & JS Pul 178 60 5 38/ 14/ 48 Thunder V 1.0 Andy Nevermind 163 7 6 42/ 31/ 27 Winter Werewolf W. Mintardjo 153 52 7 43/ 36/ 21 Paperstone Warpi 151 87 8 32/ 17/ 51 Spiral Again Calvin Loh 147 1 9 27/ 12/ 62 GCSpiral Example 142 53 10 26/ 14/ 59 SpiralTest2 Calvin Loh 139 10 11 36/ 36/ 28 Paperstone v1.2 Warpi 137 84 12 43/ 49/ 7 polyphemous Kafka 137 94 13 36/ 39/ 25 RedPixel.2 John Lewis 134 8 14 33/ 35/ 32 Everybody Must Get Stoned Nathan Summers 132 96 15 33/ 36/ 30 Everybody Must Get Vamped Nathan Summers 131 19 16 37/ 43/ 20 Slime 1.1 Anton Marsden 130 12 17 35/ 45/ 20 Test Stone #1 David Boeren 125 27 18 31/ 38/ 30 EveryoneMustGetStoned 2.5 Nathan Summers 125 18 19 33/ 43/ 24 test-A Raul Bartolome 124 34 20 35/ 45/ 20 Czar Master 3.0 Dark Scneider 124 21 21 33/ 43/ 24 test-b Raul Bartolome 122 35 22 30/ 38/ 32 Forked Lite Ning 4.02 Ansel Greenwood Serm 121 9 23 29/ 41/ 30 Forked Lite Ning 4.06 Ansel Greenwood Serm 117 3 24 29/ 42/ 30 Craw IIe Bach 116 2 25 25/ 39/ 35 Forked Lite Ning 4.03 Ansel Greenwood Serm 111 5 Aeka and Rave have been retired and now the hill is dominated by Boren's Koolaid II that, if I'm not wrong, did the 94 hill for a while too. Go on trying, if you made it once you are not so far. ______________________________________________________________________________ The hint Steps Bombing and scanning steps are an important choice to make when coding a warrior; the right choice may be the thing that change your score of many positions in the hill, and require a bit of wisdom. Having to bomb, for example, every fourth cell of core (modulo 4) we can choose any number with 4 as greater common divisor with Coresize, but results are greatly different if we choose a bad or a good one. Using four as step against a twelve lines long opponent, makes us bomb it thrice every time we bomb it once, a sort of overkill that's not needed in most cases; our oponent instead, using a smarter step and better spreading its bombs may bomb us but once three times as often. Result: 75/25 for him :-( Number theory help us in our choice, even if, as usual in corewar, there is not a best choice but a sort of tradeoff. Steven Morrell so speaks in its book: ---- One factor that could mean the difference between a top-rate stone and an unsuccessful stone is the choice of step size. The program that manages to bomb the enemy first has a decided advantage, and some bombing step sizes are more efficient at scanning for the enemy than others. So what makes a good step size? Ideally, it ought to hit every location in 8000 bombs, every other location in 8000/2=4000 bombs, every third location in 8000/3=2667 bombs, etc. Unfortunately, this is impossible, especially with a single step size, but it suggests a basic strategy -- go for the biggest programs first and then fill in the gaps. One way of rating the efficiency of a step size is to find the length of the largest unbombed section of code after each bomb is dropped. By adding up all of these lengths, we get a number that tells us how big an average gap is. (Indeed, by dividing this number by the number of bombs dropped, we get the average gap size.) If we minimize this number over all step sizes, we get the "Optima Numbers." For a coresize of 8000, these optima numbers are: mod-1 3359/3039 under-100 -> 73 mod-2 3094/2234 under-100 -> 98 mod-4 3364/3044 under-100 -> 76 mod-5 3315/2365 under-100 -> 95 mod-8 2936/2376 mod-10 2930/2430 Another common rating is how closely to in half the new bomb subdivides the old gap when it is dropped. By taking the differences between where the bombs fall and the middle of each gap and adding these distances up, we get an alternate method for testing efficiency. Both of these methods are useful for finding general-purpose step sizes. But suppose you wanted to find a step size optimized for killing other stones. Since stones usually have four or five instructions, you would want a step size that would bomb every 4th and 5th instruction quickly, regardless of how it does in general. Fortunately, there is a program in the public domain that calculates all of these things quicky: Corestep by Jay Han can be found as misc/corestep.c, and calcutates optima numbers and optimal step sizes. You will need a C compiler to use it, but it is otherwise self-contained. For more infromation, FTP a copy and read through it. The classic formula calculates optima numbers, the alternate formula calculates the sum of the distances between bombs and midpoints, and find-X calculates optimal step sizes against a specific program length. If you don't have access to a C compiler or want this for some other reason, P. Kline has compiled a list of all 8000 step-sizes with their mod, find-4, find-5, find-10, and find-13 numbers, along with imp-killing constants and imp-numbers. This table is designed for use in spreadsheets or databases. It is available in the misc/ directory under the name num8000.txt --- If you look at the steps of published warriors you can notice that the optima numbers are not always used and smaller steps are usually preferred; the reason of this is mainly because there is no nedd to quickly find a 500 lines long target and a small step can be used as a gate, or as pointer in the clear, saving some space. How to choose, beetween some good number, the one to use is often a matter of choice. The modulo has to be chosen according to the size of our warrior, in such a way as not to bomb ourself; once chosen it we have to select a target size: tiny (5 lines), small (around 10 lines), average (around 13/15) and select a number with a good find for our target, and an average one for the others. In our choice we have to consider the mod 1 numbers with a good find for our selected modulo. They have bombing patterns approximating closely the one we want, and usually end bombing the cell immediately before or after the one we start with. _____________________________________________________________________________ Planar's corner This is Impfinity v4g1, the latest (and first truly successful) version of my stone/imp. The general organization is the same as v3i: a pair of stones and a pair of continuous-launching spirals on top of each other. The stones haven't changed either. What has changed is the pumps: I've implemented the idea of self-priming pumps that I got while writing for Core Warrior 7. This replaces a 3-instruction pump and 4-instruction primer with a 4-instruction pump. But the most important change is the length of the fuse. In Impfinity v3i, I start the imp-launcher, wait for a while, then start the stones. The "wait for a while" part is what I call the fuse. I experimented with the fuse length. A shorter fuse will make the spiral weaker, thus giving up more losses, but it will also make the bombing more aggressive, thus bringing in more wins. Against my test suite, the shorter fuse was always better. Finally, instead of having the pump start the stone after a while, I made the boot code start the stone right after the pump, jumping to the loop body instead of the SPL itself: the closer to the JMP, the earlier the SPL will start accumulating processes (the shorter the fuse). Again, the shortest fuse is the best one. Anyway, this is Impfinity v4g1, seen as low as 11th and as high as 1st on the hill. There was a lot of movement on the hill recently. Now that the papers seem to be back, I don't think Impfinity will fare so well. This is the exact code that I sent to the hill. Try and abuse the boot constants if you dare ! -- Planar ;redcode-94 ;name Impfinity v4g1 ;author Planar ;strategy boot,imp,stone,clear ;strategy With self-priming pump and very short fuse. ;assert CORESIZE == 8000 ;kill Impfinity istep equ 1143 bstep01 equ 2214 bstep02 equ 3285 magic01 equ (2) magic02 equ (-1) trash equ (Z-285) impoff equ (Z+437) pmpof01 equ (impoff+1*istep-577) pmpof02 equ (impoff+4*istep-496) stnof01 equ (impoff+3*istep-215) stnof02 equ (impoff+6*istep-158) org boot Z boot spl boot02 i FOR 2 boot&i j FOR 4 mov.i trash-15-i*2 jmp *pdst&i, >trash-i*2 psrc&i dat bomb&i, pend&i pdst&i dat stnof&i, pmpof&i+pend&i-pump&i point&i equ (pump&i-pmpof&i+impoff+(i-1)*istep) pump&i spl #1, >prime&i ptr&i spl pump&i-pmpof&i+impoff-istep-1, {335+i add.f #istep+1, ptr&i prime&i mov.i point&i, point&i-2 pend&i instr&i mov.i #1, istep bomb&i dat <2667, <5334 stone&i spl #stone&i+bstep&i+magic&i, {-650 mov.i bomb&i, }stone&i add.f #bstep&i-1, stone&i j&i djn.f stone&i, , Myer R Bremer or Maurizio Vittuari From: KOTH Tourney Server Subject: SKI-ICWS: Status - ICWS Experimental 94 01/08/96 Date: 1996/01/09 Message-ID: <199601080500.AAA09572@valhalla.stormking.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Weekly Status on 01/08/96 See up to the second scores at http://www.stormking.com/~koth Check it out for the latest in Core War information *FAQ* is at http://www.stormking.com/~koth/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the StormKing Industries ICWS Experimental 94 CoreWar Hill: Last battle concluded at : Tue Dec 19 13:33:37 EST 1995 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 80/ 11/ 10 BigBoy Robert Macrae 249 4 2 78/ 15/ 7 Watcher Kurt Franke 241 2 3 77/ 14/ 9 Frontwards v2 Steven Morrell 240 9 4 76/ 15/ 9 Fire Master Xv1 JS Pulido 237 1 5 74/ 14/ 12 Tornado 2.0 x Beppe Bezzi 234 3 6 64/ 17/ 20 Nice Try M R Bremer 211 8 7 59/ 15/ 26 Night Train 55440 Karl Lewin 204 6 8 65/ 27/ 7 Mister Greedy Derek Ross 204 5 9 58/ 15/ 26 White warrior Nandor & Stefan 202 10 10 59/ 19/ 22 Paper8-IV (54400) G. Eadon 199 7 11 26/ 74/ 0 Top O The World Scott J. Ellentuch 79 11 12 2/ 50/ 0 None Nobody 7 11 13 2/ 50/ 0 None Nobody 7 11 14 2/ 50/ 0 None Nobody 7 11 15 2/ 50/ 0 None Nobody 7 11 16 2/ 50/ 0 None Nobody 7 11 17 2/ 50/ 0 None Nobody 7 11 18 2/ 50/ 0 None Nobody 7 11 19 2/ 50/ 0 None Nobody 7 11 20 2/ 50/ 0 None Nobody 7 11 21 2/ 50/ 0 None Nobody 7 11 From: akemi@netcom.com (David Boeren) Subject: Re: Massive Imbalance Date: 1996/01/09 Message-ID: #1/1 references: <4cteu7$pqf@feenix.metronet.com> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar John K W (jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu) wrote: : >From: Internet Pizza Server : >Including your program, there are 24 programs waiting to run. : ------------- : >From: KOTH Tourney Server : >To: jwilkinson@MAIL.UTEXAS.EDU : >Your program is currently the only one waiting to run. : ------------- : If this doesn't convince everyone that it's time to move the -94b : Hill over to Stormking, I don't know what will. Well, the main problem here is that for some reason there was a very abnormally high load average on Pizza all day yesterday which lasted late into the night. Several people assumed their program had not gone through correctly and re-submitted, compounding the blockage. Anyone who thinks they need to resubmit should always at least check the WWW page first to see if their program is listed in the Holding Pen. On the other hand, I certainly wouldn't mind moving one of the hills, whichever one it might be. AFAIK, almost nobody plays ANY of the hills at Stormking, and almost nobody plays the "Experimental" hill at Pizza. Perhaps it's time for a little cleaning. BTW - Which machine is faster, Pizza or Stormking? From: Planar Subject: Re: What do you do? Date: 1996/01/09 Message-ID: <4ctnaj$mjl@news-rocq.inria.fr>#1/1 references: <4cpn8i$4r9@feenix.metronet.com> <4ctdev$m5k@feenix.metronet.com> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar In article <4ctdev$m5k@feenix.metronet.com>, John K W writes: >Well, the published impfinity has no attack module. You must be talking about version 1. Version 3i (published in Core Warrior 7) has a pair of stones. It is pretty close to what is on the hill. And this should be in Core Warrior 11, but I didn't get my copy of CW 11 yet. -- Planar From: John K W Subject: Massive Imbalance Date: 1996/01/09 Message-ID: <4cteu7$pqf@feenix.metronet.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar >From: Internet Pizza Server >To: jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu >. >. >. >Including your program, there are 24 programs waiting to run. ------------- >From: KOTH Tourney Server >To: jwilkinson@MAIL.UTEXAS.EDU >. >. >. >Your program is currently the only one waiting to run. ------------- If this doesn't convince everyone that it's time to move the -94b Hill over to Stormking, I don't know what will. By the way, did my last post make it through? It looked on my end as though it got cut off after the second line. :/ Weird. -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | "I don't have the power because I've got the monkeys. I've got | \ the power because I'll set the monkeys LOOSE." -Dave Foley / From: sd@ecst.csuchico.edu (Chia Head) Subject: Re: Massive Imbalance Date: 1996/01/10 Message-ID: <4cvqhu$i0a@charnel.ecst.csuchico.edu>#1/1 references: <4cteu7$pqf@feenix.metronet.com> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar David Boeren wrote: >John K W (jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu) wrote: >: >From: Internet Pizza Server >: >Including your program, there are 24 programs waiting to run. > >: ------------- > >: >From: KOTH Tourney Server >: >To: jwilkinson@MAIL.UTEXAS.EDU >: >Your program is currently the only one waiting to run. > >: ------------- > >: If this doesn't convince everyone that it's time to move the -94b >: Hill over to Stormking, I don't know what will. When I first proposed the beginner's hill so long ago, nobody thought it was a particularly good idea. I went ahead with it anyway, wrote the scripts and put it up. It has since become very popular. I dare say it has attracted more new faces to corewar and KotH than any other idea. You can see why I would therefore be reluctant to give it away. The traffic jam on pizza is mainly because we here in Chico are currently in the middle of winter break, and are running on a skeleton crew. The person in charge of webhead (the CPU the hills are currently using) is still on vacation. We will be returning to normal in the next few weeks. >On the other hand, I certainly wouldn't mind moving one of the hills, >whichever one it might be. AFAIK, almost nobody plays ANY of the hills >at Stormking, and almost nobody plays the "Experimental" hill at Pizza. >Perhaps it's time for a little cleaning. I don't understand why no one plays on Stormking. Scott came up with a great idea for a new hill, which got a grand total of 11 submissions. When you see there are 20 warriors in pizza's holding pen, why don't you send something to Stormking? >BTW - Which machine is faster, Pizza or Stormking? Right now with the problems on pizza, Stormking is faster without a doubt. On our best days, though, I think we're about even. Thos -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\/~~\ /~~~\/\ / \ \ / /~\ /~~~~~YY~~~\\ /~~ Thomas H. Davies V \/\ /\ V / V |\/\/| V\ / sd@ecst.csuchico.edu V \ / | / | V Internet Pizza Server \/ | /\ | Member C.W.M. Corewar King of the Hill information |/oo\| CAVE ON Since 1987 http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~pizza/koth/ |/\| From: Iain Subject: I'm new - how do I stop/kill imps pls? Date: 1996/01/10 Message-ID: <11E40245.2276.Hello!@kechb.demon.co.uk>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar I appologise for what may be a simple question, but I am new to corewars, but... How do I stop an imp beating me? How do I kill imp makers? Any code a simple and commented as possible please. Thanks ----- Iain Price (IRC:Keydisc) iain@kechb.demon.co.uk I need a sig. Suggestions?.. Silverstone - too much to say! From: John K W Subject: Re: test Date: 1996/01/10 Message-ID: <4d0iim$4iv@feenix.metronet.com>#1/1 references: newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Anders Ivner wrote: >just testing. Again. > Well, I got your message, but your email address is screwed up. -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | "I don't have the power because I've got the monkeys. I've got | \ the power because I'll set the monkeys LOOSE." -Dave Foley / -=- http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~ifio452/ -=- From: Anders Ivner Subject: seventyfive Date: 1996/01/10 Message-ID: <9601101759.AA16636@su4-1.ida.liu.se>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar I think it's time to publish my new 75% bomber. I think at least one person figured it out from my description, Maurizio, who submitted an 80% bomber a few days ago. Also Wayne has a warrior in the oversized holding pen at pizza called '75 ?'. Here is the engine: b1 dat #2*STEP,#2*STEP c dat #3*STEP,#3*STEP loop add c, pt mov b1, @pt pt cmp A, @A-STEP sub b1, pt djn loop, #COUNT As you can see, this is not a pure bomber, I cheat. This is really a bomber/cmp-scanner, but when the cmp finds something the pattern is realigned so that the bomb hits the scanned locations. The effect is that of a 75% bomber. The extension to an 80% bomber is obvious. In my first test I stole the skeleton from crow. The tornado engine could be straightforwardly replaced by the seventyfive engine. It scored about 5 points higher than crow. Unfortunately I have not been able to improve it. On the contrary, all my 'improvements' makes it drop 5 points on the hill :-( So all credits go to Karl Lewin. /Anders ;redcode-94 ;name seventyfive ;kill seventyfive ;author Anders Ivner ;assert (CORESIZE == 8000) ;strategy 75% bomber -> separate multipass coreclear ;strategy Credits to Karl Lewin for crow. STEP EQU 14 ORG bomber STEPB EQU 85 COUNT EQU 500 A equ (jump+STEPB*2) head dat #0, #tail+100 d1 dat <0, head mov.i @tail, >head tail djn.b go, {s1 for 74 dat 0,0 rof bd dat #2*STEPB,#2*STEPB incrb spl #3*STEPB,#3*STEPB dat 0, 0 bomber mov bd, @pt pt cmp A, @A-STEPB sub bd, pt add incrb, pt jump djn.b bomber, #COUNT jmp incr end From: akemi@netcom.com (David Boeren) Subject: Idea for more opcode modifiers Date: 1996/01/10 Message-ID: #1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Nobody has to take this seriously, but a couple ideas: .AF -> Reads A and writes to both A and B using the value from A in both. .BF -> Same thing, only reading from B and writing both. .IX -> accesses entire instructions, except that it swaps A/B in the manner of .X. example: ADD.AF #step, targ this will add #step to both fields of "targ", ossibly useful for scanners and some forms of bombers. MOV.IX allows you to copy an instruction with the fields reversed, I've found potential use for this in a coreclear I was trying to make a while ago. This also helps core "scrambling" to be a more viable tactic perhaps? Anyway, if anyone has some input on these ideas, feel free to comment. From: ruhl@phoebe.cair.du.edu (Robert A. Uhl) Subject: Re: I'm new - how do I stop/kill imps pls? Date: 1996/01/10 Message-ID: <4d1avt$rl1@hermes.cair.du.edu>#1/1 references: <11E40245.2276.Hello!@kechb.demon.co.uk> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Iain spake thusly: >I appologise for what may be a simple question, but I am new >to corewars, but... Don't worry. We're all newbies at one time. I still am. >How do I stop an imp beating me? How do I kill imp makers? >Any code a simple and commented as possible please. Well, t stop an imp one must use an imp gate. This is merely an instruction which keeps on decrementing a location behind your warrior. Often spl.a ,<-10 is used. Or you could have an spl to a dat.f <-10,<-5 at the beginning of your program, and keep on splitting to it. This would decrement locations -10 and -5, relative of course to the dat. There might be other ways, but I'm not aware of them. The best way to kill and imp maker is to cathc it in the act and then gate all the imps. -- +------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Bob Uhl | Spectre | `En touto nika' + | | U of D | PGG FR No. 42 | http://mercury.cair.du.edu/~ruhl/ | +------------------------------------------------------------------------+ From: akemi@netcom.com (David Boeren) Subject: Detecting imps? Date: 1996/01/11 Message-ID: #1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Does anyone know a good rule-of-thumb method to quickly detect if a particular instruction is likely to be part of an imp spiral? Of course it doesn't have to be all that accurate. Actaully, all I really need is something that will tell an imp from a paper, it can give random answers for everything else. What I'm doing is setting up a "trigger" point that will signal me to start my coreclear. When that location gets overwritten then I coreclear. Under normal circumstances I bomb that location myself as the last target of my bombing run, but I'd like to have the coreclear trigger early if an imp spiral or a paper lands on it. I realize that an enemy bomb could hit it too, but since I don't seem to lose any significant points in tests from this I'm willing to live with it. My coreclear is a continuous 2-pass coreclear. By decrementing one B-Field I can change it from continuous SPL/DAT/SPL/DAT to continous DAT/SPL/DAT/SPL. What I'd like to do is have a quick check to see whether a paper or an imp has stepped on the trigger, and then alter my code to do the more appropriate coreclear. So, any adivce that anyone can give me is appreciated. That includes telling me whether this whole idea is good or bad, or if any warrior in the past have used anything like it. Is the idea of a "trigger" point a good or bad one? It CAN end up making my bombing run end very early if the enemy gets lucky. So far, I figure some kind of SLT.A is probably the best quickie imp spiral vs paper detector, but I could be wrong... From: Planar Subject: Re: Detecting imps? Date: 1996/01/11 Message-ID: <4d3ftv$s8e@news-rocq.inria.fr>#1/1 references: newsgroups: rec.games.corewar In article , lewin@netcom.com (Karl Lewin) writes: > jmz.f ..., trigger > mov.f is_imp, trigger > sne.i is_imp, trigger > jmp not_imp > jmp is_an_imp >is_imp mov.i #0, 0 This is a bit slow. You could use a technique that I found in an old posting: compare trigger and @trigger. If they are identical, then this is an imp: jmz.b ..., trigger seq.i trigger, @trigger jmp not_an_imp is_an_imp ... So this is only one instruction shorter, but in Core War, every instruction counts. Oh, and this only works for imps of the "MOV #0, step" kind. If the imp is "MOV #step, *0", you lose. You could replace the JMZ.B by JMZ.F, but then any instruction with a 0 b-field will be taken for an imp. -- Planar From: jklewis@stimpy.us.itd.umich.edu (John K. Lewis) Subject: Re: Detecting imps? Date: 1996/01/11 Message-ID: <4d3bdo$c7g@lastactionhero.rs.itd.umich.edu>#1/1 references: newsgroups: rec.games.corewar David Boeren (akemi@netcom.com) wrote: : : Does anyone know a good rule-of-thumb method to quickly detect if a : particular instruction is likely to be part of an imp spiral? Of course it : doesn't have to be all that accurate. Actaully, all I really need is : something that will tell an imp from a paper, it can give random answers : for everything else. If you cmp two instructions next to one another and they are the same, then it's probably an imp. ptr DAT range,range+1 CMP *ptr,@ptr : : My coreclear is a continuous 2-pass coreclear. By decrementing one : B-Field I can change it from continuous SPL/DAT/SPL/DAT to continous : DAT/SPL/DAT/SPL. What I'd like to do is have a quick check to see whether : a paper or an imp has stepped on the trigger, and then alter my code to : do the more appropriate coreclear. : : So, any adivce that anyone can give me is appreciated. That includes telling : me whether this whole idea is good or bad, or if any warrior in the past : have used anything like it. Is the idea of a "trigger" point a good or : bad one? It CAN end up making my bombing run end very early if the enemy : gets lucky. Pretty cool idea. If you get landed on, the it wont matter anyway. How are you going to test if you've been overrun? : : So far, I figure some kind of SLT.A is probably the best quickie imp spiral : vs paper detector, but I could be wrong... : SLT would work if there weren't imp spirals like in die-hard, or if you couldn't switch the range field in paper. A- Field B- Field paper SPL 1293,0 SPL @0,1293 MOV >-1,}-1 MOV }-1,>-1 imps MOV.I #2667,*0 MOV 0,2667 See my point? John Kipling Lewis From: Planar Subject: Re: I'm new - how do I stop/kill imps pls? Date: 1996/01/11 Message-ID: <4d2mid$mvh@news-rocq.inria.fr>#1/1 references: <11E40245.2276.Hello!@kechb.demon.co.uk> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar In article <11E40245.2276.Hello!@kechb.demon.co.uk>, Iain writes: >I appologise for what may be a simple question, but I am new >to corewars, but... It's a good question, and not so simple. >How do I stop an imp beating me? How do I kill imp makers? >Any code a simple and commented as possible please. You'll find a great "hint" section about imps in a back issue of Push Off: http://pauillac.inria.fr/~doligez/corewar/pushoff/1993.09.29.txt It starts like this: > On Killing Imps. Oh yes, they can be killed. Here are some of the ways. > > 1. Gates. Gates. Gates. Say again. Gates. Gates. Gates Of course, he's not talking about Bill. Torch gets a good score against Impfinity, and I think it's because of its gate. But there are other ways. -- Planar From: John K W Subject: Re: Bi-directional Corewars Date: 1996/01/11 Message-ID: <4d3i5k$i6j@feenix.metronet.com>#1/1 references: <0099BE50.1F24D8E0.103@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz> <4ck612$k88@lastactionhero.rs.itd.umich.edu><4cmc75$ih7@feenix.metronet.com> <394@arbroath.win-uk.net> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar rossd@arbroath.win-uk.net (Derek Ross) wrote: >>But the confusion factor is it's best selling point! :) >> > >I like it! It's confusing but is it confusing enough yet ? How about >generalising it like this ? Yes! > REV x, 1 ;Program flow jumps to x then continues > REV y, 2 ;Program flow jumps to y then continues > REV z, 3 ;Program flow jumps to z then continues > REV x, CORESIZE-1 ;Program flow jumps to x then continues > REV y, CORESIZE-2 ;Program flow jumps to y then effectively > REV z, 0 ;Program flow jumps to z then repeatedly > ;executes the instruction at that location I like it! Very nice. >Of course the name should be left as REV to keep the confusion value >high. This operation now implements quasiduodimensional flow >control or possibly pseudopolypatetic process threading and would be >a definite step forwards, backwards, sideways - or running on the >spot - in theoretical core war design. Great! And, in keeping with the design, all #'s which are added or subtracted would need to be "vectored" in the "direction" the program is excecuting. So, MOV #1, #0 would create MOV #1, #1 after one instruction in all scenarios. However, MOV #1, 1 would move the to the instruction one VECTOR unit ahead of it. This would allow imps to continue in all directions, so therefore: REV 1, 2667 MOV #0, 1 Would be a single-process, three-point imp spiral. I like it. It the perfect multi-dimensional array! The array size is fully independant of everything. That's super nifty. :) -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | "I don't have the power because I've got the monkeys. I've got | \ the power because I'll set the monkeys LOOSE." -Dave Foley / -=- http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~ifio452/ -=- From: John K W Subject: Re: Idea for more opcode modifiers Date: 1996/01/11 Message-ID: <4d3he0$i6j@feenix.metronet.com>#1/1 references: newsgroups: rec.games.corewar akemi@netcom.com (David Boeren) wrote: > >Nobody has to take this seriously, but a couple ideas: > >.AF -> Reads A and writes to both A and B using the value from A in both. >.BF -> Same thing, only reading from B and writing both. >.IX -> accesses entire instructions, except that it swaps A/B in the manner > of .X. > >Anyway, if anyone has some input on these ideas, feel free to comment. Naw... sounds like overkill to me. Simplicity is sometimes it's own reward, eh? :) -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | "I don't have the power because I've got the monkeys. I've got | \ the power because I'll set the monkeys LOOSE." -Dave Foley / -=- http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~ifio452/ -=- From: lewin@netcom.com (Karl Lewin) Subject: Re: Detecting imps? Date: 1996/01/11 Message-ID: #1/1 references: newsgroups: rec.games.corewar David Boeren (akemi@netcom.com) wrote: : Does anyone know a good rule-of-thumb method to quickly detect if a : particular instruction is likely to be part of an imp spiral? Of course it : doesn't have to be all that accurate. Actaully, all I really need is : something that will tell an imp from a paper, it can give random answers : for everything else. I'm not sure how valuable this is but here goes: trigger dat #0, #0 ; or whatever ... ... ... jmz.f ..., trigger mov.f is_imp, trigger sne.i is_imp, trigger jmp not_imp jmp is_an_imp is_imp mov.i #0, 0 This won't detect all imps but it could be modified to check for multiple kinds of imp. It may be too large to be worth the trouble though. (Ok, someone who knows more tell me why this is a bad idea :) Karl -- From: akemi@netcom.com (David Boeren) Subject: Re: Detecting imps? Date: 1996/01/11 Message-ID: #1/1 references: <4d3bdo$c7g@lastactionhero.rs.itd.umich.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar John K. Lewis (jklewis@stimpy.us.itd.umich.edu) wrote: : David Boeren (akemi@netcom.com) wrote: : : : : Does anyone know a good rule-of-thumb method to quickly detect if a : : particular instruction is likely to be part of an imp spiral? Of course it : : doesn't have to be all that accurate. Actaully, all I really need is : : something that will tell an imp from a paper, it can give random answers : : for everything else. : If you cmp two instructions next to one another and they are the same, : then it's probably an imp. Yeah, that's what I came up with about 5 minutes after I posted. Duh. : : My coreclear is a continuous 2-pass coreclear. By decrementing one : : B-Field I can change it from continuous SPL/DAT/SPL/DAT to continous : : DAT/SPL/DAT/SPL. What I'd like to do is have a quick check to see whether : : a paper or an imp has stepped on the trigger, and then alter my code to : : do the more appropriate coreclear. : : : : So, any adivce that anyone can give me is appreciated. That includes telling : : me whether this whole idea is good or bad, or if any warrior in the past : : have used anything like it. Is the idea of a "trigger" point a good or : : bad one? It CAN end up making my bombing run end very early if the enemy : : gets lucky. : Pretty cool idea. If you get landed on, the it wont matter anyway. How : are you going to test if you've been overrun? My main concern right now is if the extra 2 instructions in size are going to hurt me more than they help me. Time for another big test run tonight... My current problem is that I either beat papers OR imps, but not both. this is one idea that I'm trying in order to see if I can beat both of them at least close to the percentage that I can beat them individually. Other ideas for the same results are in the works too. For example, I'm testing one version that when the trigger is hit behind me will do a partial DAT coreclear from about trigger-8 to my code, and THEN go into a SPL/DAT/SPL/DAT continuous coreclear. This is hoping that if a spiral is what set off my trigger then that little clear may hurt it, but since I only lose a couple hundred cycles doing this partial coreclear the papers will not have managed to make too much progress during that short a time, so my SPL pass will still mop them up pretty well. Again, I do not know if these ideas are really original, but I can at least say that I didn't see them anywhere before thinking of them. You'd be seeing some versions trying the 94 hill that implement some of these concepts, but I am waiting until the blockage clears before submitting any more programs. I don't want to contribute to the delays, and I don't really want to get results back 3 days later anyway... Well, any more comments? Maybe we can turn this into a forum for figuring out how to beat paper/imp combo programs. These guys are the only ones I'm REALLY not effective against right now, with most of my scores around 85 points. At least I can get around 100 vs. Impfinity, and someof my versions score 130 vs Impfinity, but at the cost of being papered to death pretty hard. Hmm, hope that revealing all my secrets isn't going to make my programs get clobbered! From: lewin@netcom.com (Karl Lewin) Subject: Re: seventyfive Date: 1996/01/11 Message-ID: #1/1 references: <9601101759.AA16636@su4-1.ida.liu.se> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar : In my first test I stole the skeleton from crow. The tornado : engine could be straightforwardly replaced by the seventyfive : engine. It scored about 5 points higher than crow. : Unfortunately I have not been able to improve it. On the contrary, : all my 'improvements' makes it drop 5 points on the hill :-( : So all credits go to Karl Lewin. : /Anders and for crow I must credit Beppe Bezzi for tornado and Paul Kline for the clear (which I think is almost straight out of his Pink posting.) While I'm at it I would also like to thank/credit Magnus Paulsson for theMystery which is what Night Train and Doormat are based on (as well as to some degree Flyfishing w/Plastic Worms) I just love that paper/imp deal. Karl -- From: Robert Macrae Subject: Re: Detecting imps? Date: 1996/01/12 Message-ID: <4d6817$e0q@soap.news.pipex.net>#1/1 references: newsgroups: rec.games.corewar akemi@netcom.com (David Boeren) wrote: .. >basic problem is that the trigger is unlikely to be pressed by an imp >spiral during the short (couple thousand) cycles which the bombing phase >lasts. It gets hit by bombs sometimes, and even if the enemy IS an imp, >that doesn't mean he will reach the trigger in time for us to detect >him. I know its a fairly radical change of tack, but how about scanning for the Imp? You could use a standard scan, with a test for Imps after you get a hit. The bombing routine could be either a normal SPL carpet (etc) for non-imps, or something Imp-specific when you find two adjacent identical nonzero cells... All you have to do is rewrite the whole warrior :) From: jklewis@stimpy.us.itd.umich.edu (John K. Lewis) Subject: Re: I'm new - how do I stop/kill imps pls? Date: 1996/01/12 Message-ID: <4d62f5$hfi@lastactionhero.rs.itd.umich.edu>#1/1 references: <11E40245.2276.Hello!@kechb.demon.co.uk> <4d2mid$mvh@news-rocq.inria.fr> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Planar (Damien.Doligez@inria.fr) wrote: : Of course, he's not talking about Bill. Torch gets a good score : against Impfinity, and I think it's because of its gate. But there : are other ways. : : -- Planar I think my program RedPixel does very well against Imps of all kinds... I will post it as soon as it dies of old age or gets pushed off the Beginner hill. I think it does well because of a special pointer variable that I use... more on that later. John - From: o0619@genio.eui.upm.es (Jose Santos Pulido Garcia) Subject: Fire Master v1.5 Date: 1996/01/12 Message-ID: <9601121629.AA18296@genio.eui.upm.es> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Greetings. David Boeren has published the carpet (Exodus) bomb so I'm going to publish the code of Fire Master. Fire Master v1.5 is a normal JMZ scan which drops "carpet" bombs with a mod5 pattern. The only interesting thing is the way it goes to core clear. This is the code after boot: add.ab #INC, 3 start jmz.f -1, @eye mov.i bomb2, @eye clptr eye mov.i bomb, *DES ;gate jmn.b start-1, -1 ;hit cl mov.i bomb3, }clptr djn.f -1, 1 bomb2 spl -1, #1 bomb3 dat 12, -1 When the last bomb is dropped the spl line is executed and creates two proc. B and C: mov.i bomb2, @eye clptr eye mov.i 1, >1 ;C spl -1, #1 ;A* cl mov.i bomb3, }clptr ;B djn.f -1, 1 ;C dat 12, -1 ;A cl mov.i bomb3, }clptr ;B* djn.f -1, 1 spl -1, #1 D. Boeren has said all important things about it in its standard form. I can only say if you need a zero you can use this variation: mov.i @0, >1 spl -1, #1 This other form for higher bomb rates: s spl -1, #m+1 . . . . . . . . . m mov.i @0, >s Another: mov.i 1, {1 spl -1, #xxx This creates a bigger carpet (at starvation every proccess fall through the mov) but don't stun very well (so what starvation?:-). With a jmp is a good vamp pit: mov.i 1, {1 spl -1, xxx jmp [-2|-1], xxx It creates a big spl carpet with widespread processes on it, so it's more difficult to kill all the processes. With jmp -1 creates more processes (I need a synonymous :-) with jmp -2 the spl carpet is bigger. To be sure at least one process is at mov line: mov.i 1, {2 spl -1, xxx jmp -2, xxx And this is the end (by now) Bye. Jose. *If I had been working on my warrior the whole time I had been working with my dictionary, my warrior would be on the top spot :-)* ;redcode-94 ;name Fire Master v1.5 ;author JS Pulido ;strategy JMZ Scan MOV/SPL bomb -> DJN/DAT coreclear ;strategy 1.5 boot bug fixed ;assert CORESIZE==8000 INC EQU (2365) ; 2365 m5 DES EQU ( 1) BOOTPTR EQU (1998) boot mov.i bomb3, {copy ;* mov.i bomb2, {copy mov.i bomb, {copy mov.i cl+2, {copy mov.i cl+1, {copy ;* mov.i cl, {copy mov.i cl-1, {copy mov.i eye, {copy mov.i eye-1, {copy ;* mov.i start, {copy mov.i start-1, {copy copy spl BOOTPTR mov.i 1, -1 ;* dat 1, 1 dat 1, 1 dat 1, 1 dat 1, 1 DAT 0,0 add.ab #INC, 3 start jmz.f -1, @eye mov.i bomb2-2, @eye clptr eye mov.i bomb-2, *DES ;gate DAT 0,0 jmn.b start, -1 ;hit cl mov.i bomb3-1, }clptr+1 djn.f -1, 1 bomb2 spl -1, #1 bomb3 dat 12, -1 DAT 1,1 DAT 0,0 DECOY FOR (MAXLENGTH-CURLINE)/5 A FOR 4 DAT #bomb3-(DECOY*A), #bomb3+(DECOY*A) ROF DAT 0,0 ROF END boot From: akemi@netcom.com (David Boeren) Subject: Re: Detecting imps? Date: 1996/01/12 Message-ID: #1/1 references: newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Well, for those of you who are following this thread, I've got some results for you. I tried out several variations of my program which used this "trigger" idea, set about 200 locations before my program body. Some just terminated bombing when the trigger was pressed, some of them took an additonal step and tried to apply the imp detection algorithm like so: SNE -200, -201 I had high hopes for it, but it was pretty much a flop overall. The basic problem is that the trigger is unlikely to be pressed by an imp spiral during the short (couple thousand) cycles which the bombing phase lasts. It gets hit by bombs sometimes, and even if the enemy IS an imp, that doesn't mean he will reach the trigger in time for us to detect him. This was probably the bigger problem. Considering how slowly spirals tend to move, it's not a big surprise when you look at it though. I think I can be mostly certain that the "trigger" technique was the problem here, and not the 2 differnt coreclears. Luckily my code was st up in such a way that I could change from a SPL/DAT/SPL/DAT continous coreclear to a DAT continuous coreclear by only copying one instuction or decrementing two b-fields. This made it easy to put in that 2-instruction bit that would switch clears. But since the spirals usually failed to activate the trigger it ended up being just 2 more instructions of size for scanners to find and bombers to hit. Another brilliant idea bites the dust... On the positive side, I'm manged to come up with a new coreclear that is effective against papers but doesn't lose quite as badly against Impfinity as my old one did. Annoyance is the mother of invention... From: akemi@netcom.com (David Boeren) Subject: Re: Detecting imps? Date: 1996/01/12 Message-ID: #1/1 references: <4d6817$e0q@soap.news.pipex.net> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Robert Macrae (ff95@dial.pipex.com) wrote: : akemi@netcom.com (David Boeren) wrote: : .. : >basic problem is that the trigger is unlikely to be pressed by an imp : >spiral during the short (couple thousand) cycles which the bombing phase : >lasts. It gets hit by bombs sometimes, and even if the enemy IS an imp, : >that doesn't mean he will reach the trigger in time for us to detect >him. : I know its a fairly radical change of tack, but how about scanning for : the Imp? You could use a standard scan, with a test for Imps after you : get a hit. The bombing routine could be either a normal SPL carpet (etc) : for non-imps, or something Imp-specific when you find two adjacent : identical nonzero cells... : All you have to do is rewrite the whole warrior :) Well, it's something to consider. Probably more like something to consider for a later program though. I'm planning to learn to write a scanner soon, seeing as how my bomber is doing fairly well. Maybe it would be an interesting project to write a scanner that has two different attack routines for imps/non-imps. Don't know how well it would do, but it's worth a try. First though, I have to figure out how to write a scanner in the first place. I had an idea for a JMZ scanner that will be more decoy-resistant, just gotta find the time to work on it... From: John K W Subject: Re: Tournament, Comments from a Non-Specialist :-) Date: 1996/01/12 Message-ID: <4d4dus$kql@feenix.metronet.com>#1/1 references: <4d3i3f$jv6@soap.news.pipex.net> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar That was possibly the worst bit of mail I've ever seen in rec.games.corewar. :) Was that guy totally stoned or something? -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | "I don't have the power because I've got the monkeys. I've got | \ the power because I'll set the monkeys LOOSE." -Dave Foley / -=- http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~ifio452/ -=- From: ruhl@phoebe.cair.du.edu (Robert A. Uhl) Subject: Re: Pre-Newbie, Redcoder bug? Date: 1996/01/13 Message-ID: <4d99pa$qr9@hermes.cair.du.edu>#1/1 references: <4d6rcr$2vn@netnews.upenn.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Mike Mayer spake thusly: >(I apologize in advance, if this question does not belong here.) Of course it does! That's what this group is for: questions about corewars, redcode & simulators and information thereon. >I am still trying to get a handle on "becoming" a corewar newbie, > but am having difficulty getting any simulators to work on my Mac. > Core!1.1 appears to have conflicts with MacsBug and Redcoder2.1 > cannot seem to load fighters (I get an alert telling me that a > "File not found" error occurred). While I've not had these problems with Redcoder, I have had problems with Core! x.x. I'd stick with Redcoder. You might wish to try creating new fighter sets and run from them. Sometimes folders/files cannot be found when an app moves around (say, from the programmer's hard drive to yours...). -- +------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Bob Uhl | Spectre | `En touto nika' + | | U of D | PGG FR No. 42 | http://mercury.cair.du.edu/~ruhl/ | +------------------------------------------------------------------------+ From: akemi@netcom.com (David Boeren) Subject: Anyone have hints on tighter MODs? Date: 1996/01/13 Message-ID: #1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar I'm wondering if anyone has some advice or tips to give on how to make your program work with tighter MOD values. I'm trying to alter my bomber from mod-8 to mod-5, but since it's a 14-instruction program and needs one extra blank instruction after the end too, it's proving to be tricky. I'm really close to making it work, I've managed to get a 14-location "free space" where my program can be and not get damaged, but I'm having trouble getting one more so that my coreclear can work properly. Currently, if the DJN.F ever falls through then I'll start executing my own SPL bomb/carpet, which is a pretty ugly thing to happen. I've already looked in the tutorials and all the back issues of Core Warrior, 94 Warrior, and Push Off, and haven't found anything that talks about how to tighten mods without bombing yourself. Could this be a possible future hint for Core Warrior? Any advice is appreciated. In the meantime, I'm going to go back to my experiments and see if I can squeeze one more location of "safety zone" out of this thing... From: akemi@netcom.com (David Boeren) Subject: Koolaid revealed! Date: 1996/01/13 Message-ID: newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Well, JS Pulido has released his code for Fire Master 1.5, so I may as well let everyone have a look at my code too. :) Here's the version that's currently neck-and-neck with Fire Master 1.6 for the top of the beginner hill: ;redcode-b ;name Koolaid II: The Wrath of Goofy Grape v0.1 ;author David Boeren ;assert CORESIZE == 8000 ;strategy stun bomber -> coreclear ;strategy v0.1 New bombing engine with ideas from Tornado ;strategy Wasn't able to make it work with the Exodus bomb though... step equ 404 ; modulo 8 bombing stepb equ (2*step) stepc equ (3*step) gate equ loop-3 org loop loop MOV.I bomb2, @targ MOV.I bomb1, gate ; Coreclear modified from Phosphorus DJN.F clear, {gate kill DAT.F #0, #20 bomb1 SPL.B #2, #stepb+2 ; heavy stun bomb bomb2 MOV.I -1, }-1 vamp JMP.B -(step+1), {2667 END Basically, I throw 2-line stun bombs around core and JMP lines that point to them. The bombing loop runs at .5c and bombs mod-8. The stun bomb looks like this: spl.b #2, #stepb+2 mov.i -1, }-1 This does pretty good stunning, but I don't like it nearly as much as the Exodus. Unfortunately, I needed a field free, and the Exodus does not have any free fields left, so I had to go with this one. What I like about the Exodus over other incendiary style bombs is that it creates an infinte SPL carpet, rather than a limited size one. This means that the SPL carpet has the potential to engulf other enemy proceses lurking downstream, ie - It will possibly overrun some more copies of his paper. There isa tradeoff between how much time the stunned enemy should spend splitting and how much time he should spend making the SPL carpet larger. Here are a few different infinite-carpet stun bombs and stats: ; Exodus bomb, burn everything! ; 20 cycles: carpet=5 100 cycles: carpet=18 1000 cycles: carpet=93 ; procs=16 procs=84 procs=822 MOV.I 1, >1 SPL.A -1, #1 ; Faster-growing stun bomb ; 20 cycles: carpet=8 100 cycles: carpet=28 1000 cycles: carpet=224 ; procs=16 procs=76 procs=782 SPL.A #0, #95 MOV.I 1, >1 SPL.A -2, #1 ; Even faster-growing stun bomb ; 20 cycles: carpet=10 100 cycles: carpet=30 1000 cycles: carpet=257 ; procs=14 procs=74 procs=749 MOV.I 2, >2 MOV.I 1, >1 SPL.A -2, #1 ; Heavy stun bomb ; 20 cycles: carpet=5 100 cycles: carpet=7 1000 cycles: carpet=10 ; procs=18 procs=96 procs=993 SPL.A #0, #2 MOV.I -1, >-1 As you can see, the faster growth means that there is less splitting. The Exodus bomb is ideal due to being only 2 lines long, which makes your program bomb faster and saves space. The "Heavy Stun Bomb" is what Koolaid uses now. It's 2 instructions long, has 1 free field for putting a step or other data value in, and makes the opponent split very heavy, at almost 1c in fact! The only drawback is that it's not going to be able to overrun other copies of paper nearby. However, the superiority in stunning power over a SPL 0/JMP-1 or even a SPL 0/SPL 0/JMP-2 should be very evident, since these only stun at .5c and .66c respectively, and the .66c version needs an extra instruction. And it does have a little short-term growth, just enouhg to get the next couple instructions in the enemy loop. Well, I think we've got stun bombs pretty well covered now. My bombing loop drops 999 bombs at .5c, and then I start the coreclear. The coreclear is self-splitting, which helps me tie imps if I get overrun, or if my DJN is bobmed then I can continue the clear mostly functional. It's a continuous forward DAT and backward DJN.F combo which will run until time runs out. As you can see, I first learned about this style of coreclear from Phosphorus, but the same code is in quite a lot of other warriors as well. Well, that's about it for the secrets of Koolaid II v0.1. I'm working on a new version now, but it's still undergoing refinements and is not ready to be submitted to the hill yet, much less be released here. I promise to release it eventually though... I hope that at least a few of you have learned something interesting, like why SPL 0/JMP -1 bombs just don't cut it anymore! Anyway, if anyone has any questions or comments, I'd love to hear them. Oh, and if anyone wants source to any earlier version of Koolaid (before it became Koolaid II) you can just ask and I'll send it to you. The old ones didn't have the .5c bombing conversion in them yet and used the Exodus bomb instead, but they still may be useful to someone... From: John K W Subject: Re: Detecting imps? Date: 1996/01/13 Message-ID: <4d7cer$64@feenix.metronet.com>#1/1 references: <4d6817$e0q@soap.news.pipex.net> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Robert Macrae wrote: >I know its a fairly radical change of tack, but how about scanning for >the Imp? You could use a standard scan, with a test for Imps after you >get a hit. The bombing routine could be either a normal SPL carpet (etc) >for non-imps, or something Imp-specific when you find two adjacent >identical nonzero cells... > >All you have to do is rewrite the whole warrior :) Problem: bombing carpets and djn streams look a lot like imps, don't you think? I mean... on a comparison level. Whatever you did would probably increase losses against programs which did either of those two things. I think the way to go would be to perform a normal SPL stun, and DAT core clear, and then and only then go imp-hunting. The only problem with that idea is that the imp might have overrun you by then, and you'd probably be increasing the size of your warrior. :/ -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | "I don't have the power because I've got the monkeys. I've got | \ the power because I'll set the monkeys LOOSE." -Dave Foley / -=- http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~ifio452/ -=- From: Robert Macrae Subject: Re: Detecting imps? Date: 1996/01/14 Message-ID: <4dautq$qoj@soap.news.pipex.net>#1/1 references: newsgroups: rec.games.corewar akemi@netcom.com (David Boeren) wrote: >basic problem is that the trigger is unlikely to be pressed by an imp >spiral during the short (couple thousand) cycles which the bombing phase >lasts. I new I'd seen an anti-imp specialist somewhere :) James Layland entered Ivscan for one of the past tournaments (you still out there James?) and it has a scan followed by a custom Imp-stunner if appropriate. I am taking the liberty of posting his code since it is in the tournament archives. ;redcode-94 ;name ivscan ;author J.Layland ;strategy Kill imps and vamps. Otherwise die. org start ;macro ; Try very hard to kill imps and vamps. Die horribly when faced with ; anything else. Probably choke if I see a quick-cmp like Jazz. ; I had wanted to submit an anti-imp paper warrior in this round, and ; save this for the big coresize, but I couldn't tune my paper to ; reliably kill both imps&vamps at the same time, especially while trying ; to keep a slim startup to avoid a quick-cmp. I need another week... ; Steve Morrell's imps seem to be relatively immune to my anti-imp paper ; attempts. I'm not sure why. ; This scans for non-zero core, throws away small b-fields (+-1) and ; assumes it found either an imp or a fang. Wrong guesses will probably ; lead to stupid behavior. ; This could be slimmer, but I'm so big it probably wouldn't make ; much difference without radical recoding. And time. ; I've had major version-control problems developing this. Hopefully ; this is actually a version that works... test equ step+2000 step dat -7, -7 start add step, loc scan jmz.f -1, @loc mov @loc, test add #1, test slt #2, test jmp start loc seq @-33, -33 jmp avamp impsize mov @loc, 0 mov split, @loc add impsize, loc djn -2, #100 split spl #0, <-15 mov gate, <-12 jmp -1, <-17 gate dat <-17, <-16 avamp sub @loc, loc jmz.f @loc, start mov gate, @loc spl start spl 1 mov -1, 0 spl 1 l001 mov #6, 6 ;set source p001 mov #1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Hello everyone, It seems not enough people are testing the new version of the hill. I've spent alot of time working on this, as well as the fact that everyone screams for mods and then won't help test to get them implemented! There are 2 more functions in this release for testing : 1) ;version (So you can tell if there has been a fix to a module since the last time you submitted a warrior) 2) ;newredcode (You submit a warrior with a desired replacement ;redcode line, ;name and ;password and it'll replace the old ;redcode line with the one on the new message. That way you can change ";redcode quiet" to ";redcode verbose" or whatever) As always , we need help testing the ;newpasswd function and all other items as this is a BRAND NEW FROM SCRATCH IN A NEW LANGUAGE hill we have going..... kothtest@stormking.com (;help for a menu) -- * --- --- |Scott J. Ellentuch, Pres | The Telecom Security Group * * | | | |Comm. and Comp. Security | (Storm King family of Companies) * * | |__|__ |Consultants and Engineers | P.O. Box 69, Newburgh, NY 12551 * From: Robert Macrae Subject: Re: Anyone have hints on tighter MODs? Date: 1996/01/14 Message-ID: <4davoc$r36@soap.news.pipex.net>#1/1 references: newsgroups: rec.games.corewar akemi@netcom.com (David Boeren) wrote: > >I'm wondering if anyone has some advice or tips to give on how to make >your program work with tighter MOD values. I'm trying to alter my >bomber from mod-8 to mod-5, but since it's a 14-instruction pro= gram and >needs one extra blank instruction after the end too, it's proving to be >tricky. .. >Currently, if the DJN.F ever falls through then I'll start executing my >own SPL bomb/carpet, which is a pretty ugly thing to happen. I hit this problem with some variants of Brand. It doesn't matter falling through to a single SPL, but a carpet or an incendiary is nasty. You could use mild incendiaries :) but how about 1) making sure the first bomb is not an incendiary, and 2) leaving a gap to the start of the SPL carpet? Most clears allow you to choose where the carpet begins... 14 sounds pretty long for a bomber. Brand is 5 main loop + 2 coreclear + 3 nonexecuted constants/bombs/etc, which can go anywhere. This means that tight mod is not too much of a problem; I use mod-1 constants which finish the run when I bomb myself. From: pk6811s@acad.drake.edu Subject: Re: Anyone have hints on tighter MODs? Date: 1996/01/14 Message-ID: <1996Jan14.180117@acad.drake.edu>#1/1 references: newsgroups: rec.games.corewar akemi@netcom.com (David Boeren) writes: > > I'm wondering if anyone has some advice or tips to give on how to make > your program work with tighter MOD values. I'm trying to alter my bomber > from mod-8 to mod-5, but since it's a 14-instruction program and needs > one extra blank instruction after the end too, it's proving to be tricky. >[...] Depends on your loop code. If you have a spl-fed bombing loop you should have a few 'misses' where two ADDs are executed without an intervening MOV. This will create holes in the pattern where you can locate your program, but trial-and-error may be the only way to find them. Paul Kline pk6811s@acad.drake.edu From: akemi@netcom.com (David Boeren) Subject: Re: Anyone have hints on tighter MODs? Date: 1996/01/14 Message-ID: #1/1 references: <4davoc$r36@soap.news.pipex.net> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Robert Macrae (ff95@dial.pipex.com) wrote: : akemi@netcom.com (David Boeren) wrote: : >I'm wondering if anyone has some advice or tips to give on how to make : >your program work with tighter MOD values. I'm trying to alter my : >bomber from mod-8 to mod-5, but since it's a 14-instruction program and : >needs one extra blank instruction after the end too, it's proving to be : >tricky. : I hit this problem with some variants of Brand. It doesn't matter falling : through to a single SPL, but a carpet or an incendiary is nasty. You : could use mild incendiaries :) but how about 1) making sure the first : bomb is not an incendiary, and 2) leaving a gap to the start of the SPL : carpet? Most clears allow you to choose where the carpet begins... Well, it doesn't matter much anymore. I got a mod-5 version working and it scored lower versus 28 of the 30 programs in my test suite. The way I did it was to bomb asymmetrically and then tweak constants so that one of the larger unbombed gaps coincided with my program's position. : 14 sounds pretty long for a bomber. Brand is 5 main loop + 2 coreclear + : 3 nonexecuted constants/bombs/etc, which can go anywhere. This means that : tight mod is not too much of a problem; I use mod-1 constants which : finish the run when I bomb myself. Yeah, I'd be very happy to make it smaller, but I have't figured out how yet. I used to be smaller before moving to the Tornado style engine to bomb with stun bombs at .5c. Here's my profile: 6 instruction bombing loop (4 MOV/ADD/DJN) 1 vamp instruction 2 bomb instructions (SPL+MOV) 2 coreclear instructions (MOV/DJN) 1 self-split instruction (also holds bombing steps) 2 for multi-pass coreclear (SPL->DAT) I know the bombing loop can't be smaller if I want to keep dropping 3 bombs. I have to keep the vamp for the bombing. (See Quiksand for how this works). I've tried different arrangements to share more code between the bomb/self-split/multipass, but I can never make it work. Everything needs too many constants, or at least puts constraints on them, and I can't find a set that every part of the program can use. I can save one instuction just doing a DAT coreclear, but then papers score a lot higher against me. I'll keep working on it, but I'm not sure what I haven't tried yet. A lot of size seems to be in the coreclear, so maybe I need a different/better one? 4 instructions are just for the coreclear, and it shares 1/2 of 2 others. This is the same basic routine from Phosphorus, Torch t15, and several other programs, just modified to be multi-pass in the manner of Hint Test as described in Core Warrior. Anyway, I'm open to advice on shrinking the code if anyone has got some ideas. From: macaulay@mundil.cs.mu.OZ.AU (Alexander William MACAULAY) Subject: Re: Pre-Newbie, Redcoder bug? Date: 1996/01/15 Message-ID: <9601513.27759@mulga.cs.mu.OZ.AU>#1/1 references: <4d6rcr$2vn@netnews.upenn.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar mayer@idefix.seas.upenn.edu (Mike Mayer) writes: >I am still trying to get a handle on "becoming" a corewar newbie, > but am having difficulty getting any simulators to work on my Mac. > Core!1.1 appears to have conflicts with MacsBug and Redcoder2.1 > cannot seem to load fighters (I get an alert telling me that a > "File not found" error occurred). >Certainly, I am not the first person to have encountered these > difficulties... What should I do? Hi there, I fixed up the problem in Redcoder some time ago, but I never got around to releasing it. I'll try to stick it on ftp.csua.berkeley.edu in the next few days if I can find it. The fixed version was called version 2.1.1. I'll stick a reference to it on my web page when I find it. Alex (macaulay@mundil.cs.mu.oz.au). From: John K W Subject: Re: Anyone have hints on tighter MODs? Date: 1996/01/15 Message-ID: <4dcimd$ict@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu>#1/1 references: newsgroups: rec.games.corewar akemi@netcom.com (David Boeren) wrote: >I'm really close to making it work, I've managed to get a 14-location >"free space" where my program can be and not get damaged, but I'm having >trouble getting one more so that my coreclear can work properly. >Currently, if the DJN.F ever falls through then I'll start executing my >own SPL bomb/carpet, which is a pretty ugly thing to happen. Don't be afraid to use JMP instead of DJN.F... sometimes those "fall throughs" hurt you more than the stream of decrements hurts your opponent. -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | "I don't have the power because I've got the monkeys. I've got | \ the power because I'll set the monkeys LOOSE." -Dave Foley / -=- http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~ifio452/ -=- From: John K W Subject: Re: Massive Imbalance Date: 1996/01/15 Message-ID: <4dchp9$ict@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu>#1/1 references: <4cteu7$pqf@feenix.metronet.com> <4cvqhu$i0a@charnel.ecst.csuchico.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar sd@ecst.csuchico.edu (Chia Head) wrote: >When I first proposed the beginner's hill so long ago, nobody thought >it was a particularly good idea. I went ahead with it anyway, wrote >the scripts and put it up. It has since become very popular. I dare >say it has attracted more new faces to corewar and KotH than any other >idea. You can see why I would therefore be reluctant to give it away. Well, it's certainly not your fault that your system can't always meet the requests for CPU time... however, these massive backlogs occur way to frequently. :/ If not the begginer Hill, which you seem to have a parental fondness for, then what about the normal -94? I hate to complain here, but the solution to the problem seems within our reach... >I don't understand why no one plays on Stormking. Scott came up with >a great idea for a new hill, which got a grand total of 11 submissions. >When you see there are 20 warriors in pizza's holding pen, why don't >you send something to Stormking? Hmmmmm... I suppose that's good advice, although if you've been developing '94 standard warriors, Pizza's got all THREE of the Hills for you to test 'em out on. -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | "I don't have the power because I've got the monkeys. I've got | \ the power because I'll set the monkeys LOOSE." -Dave Foley / -=- http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~ifio452/ -=- From: John K W Subject: Re: Detecting imps? Date: 1996/01/15 Message-ID: <4dd2on$26@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu>#1/1 references: <4d3ftv$s8e@news-rocq.inria.fr> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Planar wrote: >This is a bit slow. You could use a technique that I found in an old >posting: compare trigger and @trigger. If they are identical, then >this is an imp: > > jmz.b ..., trigger > seq.i trigger, @trigger > jmp not_an_imp >is_an_imp ... That's a reasonable assumption... >So this is only one instruction shorter, but in Core War, every >instruction counts. Yep. >Oh, and this only works for imps of the "MOV #0, step" kind. If the >imp is "MOV #step, *0", you lose. You could replace the JMZ.B by >JMZ.F, but then any instruction with a 0 b-field will be taken for an >imp. Now this is the part I don't understand. The b-field of "MOV #STEP, *0" points to itself. So, comparing it to itself gives the same thing, and the gate would think it had found an imp. What's the problem with that? -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | "I don't have the power because I've got the monkeys. I've got | \ the power because I'll set the monkeys LOOSE." -Dave Foley / -=- http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~ifio452/ -=- From: KOTH Tourney Server Subject: SKI-ICWS: Status - ICWS Tournament 01/15/96 Date: 1996/01/15 Message-ID: <199601150500.AAA11536@valhalla.stormking.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Weekly Status on 01/15/96 See up to the second scores at http://www.stormking.com/~koth Check it out for the latest in Core War information *FAQ* is at http://www.stormking.com/~koth/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the StormKing Industries Annual ICWS Tournament CoreWar Hill: Last battle concluded at : Tue Dec 19 14:43:53 EST 1995 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 50/ 9/ 40 Cannonade Paul Kline 191 86 2 53/ 30/ 17 Miss Carefree Derek Ross 175 18 3 38/ 14/ 47 Nothing Special G. Eadon 163 1 4 39/ 17/ 45 Turkey Beppe Bezzi 161 2 5 46/ 33/ 21 Giskard v0.5 Ken Mitton 158 59 6 45/ 35/ 20 Yop La Boum v2.1 P.E.M & E.C. 155 16 7 43/ 36/ 21 Old Tire Swing Randy Graham 151 43 8 44/ 38/ 17 Miss Carry Derek Ross 150 50 9 36/ 22/ 42 One Fat Lady Robert Macrae 150 3 10 41/ 43/ 15 test88 P.Kline 139 5 11 43/ 48/ 9 Agony T Stefan Strack 139 87 12 36/ 49/ 15 DoubleStone v0.7 Christoph C. Birk 124 29 13 34/ 44/ 22 WhirlWind-88 Randy Graham 123 23 14 29/ 36/ 36 Chris Steven Morrell 122 8 15 34/ 48/ 18 Maya v1.6 Christoph C. Birk 121 60 16 34/ 48/ 18 Illusion Randy Graham 120 45 17 34/ 49/ 16 Slaver v1.1i Christoph C. Birk 120 47 18 33/ 52/ 16 Baby Swing Randy Graham 114 4 19 30/ 48/ 22 stone matthew householder 112 98 20 35/ 57/ 7 xtc stefan roettger 112 91 21 31/ 53/ 16 warrior 42 stefan roettger 109 99 From: KOTH Tourney Server Subject: SKI-ICWS: Status - MultiWarrior 94 01/15/96 Date: 1996/01/15 Message-ID: <199601150500.AAA10774@valhalla.stormking.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Weekly Status on 01/15/96 See up to the second scores at http://www.stormking.com/~koth Check it out for the latest in Core War information *FAQ* is at http://www.stormking.com/~koth/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the StormKing Industries Multiwarrior 94 CoreWar Hill: Last battle concluded at : Thu Jan 11 09:32:14 EST 1996 # Name Author Score Age 1 Son of Imp Steven Morrell 5081 31 2 TESTI Maurizio Vittuari 5069 6 3 Die Hard P.Kline 5057 18 4 75% Cotton v3b Wilkinson 5057 15 5 60% Cotton Wilkinson 5057 14 6 90% Cotton v5c Wilkinson 5051 13 7 Silkworm 1.1 Beppe Bezzi 5043 28 8 TJ Maurizio Vittuari 5030 7 9 P_Banzai_v1.2 Calvin Loh 4975 3 10 Dunno-1@3 Cadellin 4958 1 11 P_Banzai_v1.1 Calvin Loh 4906 2 From: KOTH Tourney Server Subject: SKI-ICWS: Status - Standard 01/15/96 Date: 1996/01/15 Message-ID: <199601150500.AAA29702@valhalla.stormking.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Weekly Status on 01/15/96 See up to the second scores and the latest Core War information at : http://www.stormking.com/~koth *FAQ* is at http://www.stormking.com/~koth/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the StormKing Industries Standard KotH CoreWar Hill : Last battle concluded at : Sat Jan 13 20:45:56 EST 1996 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 41/ 41/ 18 Beholder's Eye V1.7 W. Mintardjo 140 151 2 37/ 35/ 28 Giskard v0.5 Ken Mitton 140 45 3 42/ 44/ 14 Iron Gate Wayne Sheppard 139 201 4 39/ 39/ 22 Miss Carefree Derek Ross 138 5 5 38/ 41/ 21 Christopher Steven Morrell 135 72 6 29/ 22/ 48 CAPS KEY IS STUCK AGAIN Steven Morrell 135 73 7 26/ 17/ 57 Cannonade P.Kline 134 107 8 37/ 41/ 21 Tuctest Elmer J. Fudd 134 1 9 34/ 34/ 32 Yop La Boum v2.1 P.E.M & E.C. 133 7 10 38/ 43/ 18 Request v2.0 Brant D. Thomsen 133 43 11 30/ 26/ 44 Test Wayne Sheppard 132 96 12 28/ 23/ 49 Hydra Stephen Linhart 132 181 13 36/ 39/ 25 Keystone t21 P.Kline 132 94 14 25/ 18/ 57 ttti nandor sieben 132 57 15 26/ 19/ 55 Peace Mr. Jones 132 81 16 27/ 22/ 51 Blue Funk 88 Steven Morrell 132 71 17 34/ 38/ 29 Double Clown v1.1 P.E.M 130 2 18 29/ 28/ 43 Der Zweiter Blitzkrieg Mike Nonemacher 129 102 19 39/ 49/ 12 bigproba nandor sieben 129 95 20 24/ 23/ 53 jmp/add crasher Randy Graham 124 31 21 32/ 46/ 22 CHIMP V1.2 Dave Newton 117 0 From: bremermr@cartoon.ecn.purdue.edu (Myer R. Bremer) Subject: Core Warrior #12 Date: 1996/01/15 Message-ID: <4defcg$gtd@mozo.cc.purdue.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar .xX$$x. .x$$$$$$$x. d$$$$$$$$$$$ ,$$$$$$$P' `P' , . $$$$$$P' ' .d b $$$$$P b ,$$x ,$$x ,$$x ,$$b $$. Y$$$$' `$. $$$$$$. $$$$$$ $$P~d$. d$$$b d d$$$ `$$$$ ,$$ $$$$$$$b $$$P `$ $$$b.$$b `Y$$$d$d$$$' . . a . a a .aa . a `$$$ ,$$$,$$' `$$$ $$$' ' $$P$XX$' `$$$$$$$$$ .dP' `$'$ `$'$ , $''$ `$'$ `Y$b ,d$$$P `$b,d$P' `$$. `$$. , `$$P $$$' Y $. $ $ $ Y..P $ `$$$$$$$' $$$P' `$$b `$$$P `P `$' `Y'k. $. $. $. $$' $. Issue 12 January 15, 1996 ______________________________________________________________________________ Core_Warrior_ is a weekly newsletter promoting the game of corewar. Emphasis is placed on the most active hills--currently the '94 draft hill and the beginner hill. Coverage will follow where ever the action is. If you have no clue what I'm talking about then check out these five-star internet locals for more information: FAQs are available by anonymous FTP from rtfm.mit.edu as pub/usenet/news.answers/games/corewar-faq.Z FTP site is: ftp.csua.berkeley.edu /pub/corewar Web pages are at: http://www.stormking.com/~koth ;Stormking http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~pizza/koth ;Pizza http://pauillac.inria.fr/~doligez/corewar/ ;Planar ______________________________________________________________________________ Greetings. Everyone get a chance to check out that mega-queue at Pizza? Sheesh. It's interesting that everyone concentrates almost exclusively on the one vs one coresize equals 8000 hills. Other hills were created out of discussions in the newsgroup, and many initially received a lot of activity. But everyone eventually moves back to the -94 and -b hills. The beginners' hill may condition authors to the one vs one 8000 style hill. The -94 hill is a logical progression. And since all the veterans still submit there quite regularly, that's where all the competition is. With the corewar farm system the way it is and the momentum of the -94 draft hill, the situation won't likely get any more diverse. Which is a shame since Tuc recently has revised Stormking's hills to accomodate a lot of the requests mentioned in various postings. Revisions include the following: ;password identifies the password for this warrior. ;kill kills a warrior. Must be used with ;password ;newpasswd assigns a new password for a warrior. Must be used with the original ;redcode ;name and ;password lines. ;newredcode assigns a new redcode line for a warrior. Must include the new ;redcode line ;name and ;password lines. This allows allows authors to change from ;redcode quiet to ;redcode verbose or whatever the desired response level. For a complete listing mail kothtest@stormking.com (;help for a menu). There are also additional modifications to the web page that let browsers view strategy lines and source code at the author's discretion. Lots of thanks goes to Tuc for his work. Let's really put his coding skills to the test and try to break his hills. ______________________________________________________________________________ Current Status of the Internet Pizza Server ICWS '94 Draft Hill: Hill Specs: coresize: 8000 max. processes: 8000 duration: after 80,000 cycles, a tie is declared. max. entry length: 100 minimum distance: 100 rounds fought: 200 instruction set: ICWS '94 Draft Last challenge: Mon Jan 15 05:13:19 PST 1996 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 35/ 39/ 26 quiz Schitzo 131 388 2 21/ 12/ 67 Impfinity v4g1 Planar 130 188 3 31/ 33/ 36 Test Robert Macrae 130 38 4 17/ 6/ 77 Evol Cap 6.6 John Wilkinson 129 3 5 22/ 15/ 63 Hector 2 Kurt Franke 128 303 6 25/ 23/ 51 Jack in the box Beppe Bezzi 128 755 7 33/ 38/ 29 Harmony P.Kline 127 30 8 16/ 6/ 78 Evol Cap 6.2a John Wilkinson 127 22 9 34/ 42/ 24 Frontwards v2 Steven Morrell 127 241 10 15/ 5/ 79 Night Train Karl Lewin 126 275 11 24/ 23/ 54 La Bomba Beppe Bezzi 125 383 12 28/ 33/ 39 Mason 2.0 Robert Macrae 124 124 13 14/ 5/ 81 DoorMat v0.1 K Lewin 124 237 14 33/ 42/ 25 Provascan 3.0 Beppe Bezzi 123 138 15 17/ 11/ 71 Cheap Hack M R Bremer 123 75 16 31/ 39/ 31 Boombastic Maurizio Vittuari 123 123 17 30/ 37/ 33 Koolaid II: WoGG v2.2 David Boeren 123 5 18 16/ 10/ 73 Evol Cap VII .3 John Wilkinson 123 19 19 13/ 5/ 82 .2 Evolve VIII John Wilkinson 122 9 20 31/ 39/ 30 testnorm Maurizio Vittuari 122 7 21 26/ 30/ 43 Torch t18 P.Kline 122 767 22 20/ 19/ 61 juliet and paper M R Bremer, B. Bezzi 121 384 23 29/ 38/ 33 paris Kafka 120 2 24 24/ 28/ 48 Blue Funk 5 Steven Morrell 120 24 25 10/ 0/ 90 Evolve VIII John Wilkinson 119 1 The hill has aged 47 this week. Average scores continue downward to 120 (128 last week, 136 the week before) as the five versions of evol* tie everything on the hill. Only 12 points separate number 1 from number 25. The average age is 182 compared with 162 last week. Torch has been suffering lately. It was seen as high as fifth, but it has been sulking in the high teens and low twenties the last few challenges. Jack in the box continues to prove effective. With the loss of interest in pspace and as a result--brainwashing, Jack can adapt fairly well to new warriors. Redundant scanners and Torch style bombers are effective against it, but some--Pulido's FireMaster and Macrae's Harm--were forced off the hill earlier. Now Jack rides in 6th place. Dat bombers seem to be ineffective. Aeka and juliet storm were removed from the hill after debuting quite well. The newest version of Tornado was also eliminate. Blue Funk 5 still clings to life, but with a tenuous grasp at best. It did shoot up the hill into the top ten with the introduction of a few scanners, but they were very short lived. Impfinity seems to be an exception, even with a published source code. Also successful is Macrae's Test warrior which the strategy lines proclaim to be a quick scan / bomber. quiz is on top of the heap as usual. However it's grasp is not the steel fist it once was. Impfinity, Test, and Frontwards have all been in first place this week. ______________________________________________________________________________ 94 - What's New 3 31/ 33/ 36 Test Robert Macrae 130 38 4 17/ 6/ 77 Evol Cap 6.6 John Wilkinson 129 3 17 30/ 37/ 33 Koolaid II: WoGG v2.2 David Boeren 123 5 18 16/ 10/ 73 Evol Cap VII .3 John Wilkinson 123 19 19 13/ 5/ 82 .2 Evolve VIII John Wilkinson 122 9 20 31/ 39/ 30 testnorm Maurizio Vittuari 122 7 23 29/ 38/ 33 paris Kafka 120 2 24 24/ 28/ 48 Blue Funk 5 Steven Morrell 120 24 25 10/ 0/ 90 Evolve VIII John Wilkinson 119 1 Test entered the hill in first place and reclaims that spot every few hill challenges. Perhaps Macrae will give his warrior a name sometime soon. ______________________________________________________________________________ 94 - What's No More 26 2/ 2/ 0 test9 Maurizio Vittuari 5 2 26 3/ 1/ 0 itest ai 8 8 26 25/ 47/ 28 John's Zizzor 2h John Wilkinson 103 2 26 17/ 19/ 65 myOmy Paulsson 114 15 26 28/ 35/ 37 Tornado 2.0 h1 Beppe Bezzi 122 193 26 0/ 0/ 4 Evol Cap 6.2 John Wilkinson 4 38 26 25/ 30/ 45 endpoint . M R Bremer 121 37 26 24/ 24/ 52 juliet storm M R Bremer 124 59 26 34/ 47/ 19 seventyfive Anders Ivner 121 82 Tornado is the biggest loss at age 193. ______________________________________________________________________________ What's Old 21 26/ 30/ 43 Torch t18 P.Kline 122 767 6 25/ 23/ 51 Jack in the box Beppe Bezzi 128 755 1 35/ 39/ 26 quiz Schitzo 131 388 22 20/ 19/ 61 juliet and paper M R Bremer, B. Bezzi 121 384 11 24/ 23/ 54 La Bomba Beppe Bezzi 125 383 5 22/ 15/ 63 Hector 2 Kurt Franke 128 303 10 15/ 5/ 79 Night Train Karl Lewin 126 275 9 34/ 42/ 24 Frontwards v2 Steven Morrell 127 241 13 14/ 5/ 81 DoorMat v0.1 K Lewin 124 237 Another of Lewin's warriors, DoorMat, enters the over 200 mark. La Bomba, juliet and paper, and quiz all begin their journey up the hall of fame ranks. ______________________________________________________________________________ HALL OF FAME * means the warrior is still running. Pos Name Author Age Strategy 1 Iron Gate 1.5 Wayne Sheppard 926 CMP scanner 2 Agony II Stefan Strack 912 CMP scanner 3 Blue Funk Steven Morrell 869 Stone/ imp 4 Thermite 1.0 Robert Macrae 802 Qscan -> bomber 5 Torch t18 P.Kline 767 * Bomber 6 Blue Funk 3 Steven Morrell 766 Stone/ imp 7 Jack in the box Beppe Bezzi 755 * P-warrior 8 HeremScimitar A.Ivner,P.Kline 666 Bomber 9 myVamp v3.7 Paulsson 643 Vampire 10 Armory - A5 Wilkinson 609 P-warrior 11 Phq Maurizio Vittuari 589 Qscan -> replicator 12 B-Panama X Steven Morrell 518 Stone/ replicator 13 quiz Schitzo 388 * scanner/ bomber 14 NC 94 Wayne Sheppard 387 Stone/ imp 15 juliet and paper Bremer & Bezzi 384 * P-warrior 16 La Bomba Beppe Bezzi 383 * Qscan -> replicator 17 Cannonade P.Kline 382 Stone/ imp 18 Torch t17 P.Kline 378 Bomber 19 Lucky 3 Stefan Strack 355 Stone/ imp 20 Derision M R Bremer 351 Scanner 21 Request v2.0 Brant D. Thomsen 347 Qvamp -> vampire 22 Dragon Spear c w blue 346 CMP scanner 23 Leprechaun on speed Anders Ivner 344 Qscan -> scanner/bomber The hall of fame will be slowly expanded to 25 slots to match the number of rankings on the '94 hill. ______________________________________________________________________________ Current Status of the Internet Pizza Server Beginner's Hill: Hill Specs: coresize: 8000 max. processes: 8000 duration: after 80,000 cycles, a tie is declared. max. entry length: 100 minimum distance: 100 maximum age: At age 100, warriors are retired. rounds fought: 200 instruction set: ICWS '94 Draft Last challenge: Sun Jan 14 17:35:23 PST 1996 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 57/ 23/ 20 Fire Master v1.6 JS Pulido 191 4 2 58/ 27/ 15 Koolaid II: The Wrath of David Boeren 190 34 3 51/ 29/ 20 Our Vamp v2 R Bartolome & JS Pul 173 83 4 48/ 36/ 16 Assassin XII Andy Nevermind 160 16 5 34/ 9/ 57 RingWorm_v2.5 Calvin Loh 160 23 6 46/ 36/ 19 Monitor M R Bremer 155 12 7 36/ 22/ 42 Spacehead1.1 Warpi 151 95 8 32/ 19/ 48 Thunder V 1.0 Andy Nevermind 145 30 9 39/ 34/ 27 Winter Werewolf W. Mintardjo 143 75 10 35/ 32/ 33 Inherit v0.9 Philemon 138 14 11 37/ 37/ 25 RedPixel.2 John Lewis 137 31 12 37/ 38/ 25 Test Stone #1 David Boeren 135 50 13 35/ 39/ 26 test.1 Anton Marsden 131 1 14 31/ 34/ 34 Everybody Must Get Vamped Nathan Summers 129 42 15 22/ 21/ 57 Spiral Again Calvin Loh 122 24 16 21/ 21/ 57 Spiral Again Calvin Loh 121 22 17 29/ 40/ 31 EveryoneMustGetStoned 2.5 Nathan Summers 117 41 18 11/ 5/ 84 Evol Cap 6.1 John Wilkinson 117 13 19 17/ 19/ 65 SpiralTest2 Calvin Loh 115 33 20 25/ 36/ 39 StoneTest v2.1 Raul Bartolome 114 8 21 29/ 44/ 27 Forked Lite Ning 4.07 Ansel Greenwood Serm 114 5 22 23/ 44/ 33 Mixed 0.1 Philemon 101 7 23 23/ 47/ 29 StoneTest v1.2 Raul Bartolome 99 11 24 24/ 50/ 26 FireSilk v1.3B Raul Bartolome 98 20 25 26/ 56/ 17 Test Ian Oversby 96 2 Koolaid had a lock on the top spot until Pulido re-introduced Fire Master. However, Koolaid has settled in on the '94 draft hill at 17th place while Fire Master was pushed off. Don't be discouraged if your warrior does well on the b-hill and not the '94 draft hill. The composition of the hill has a lot to do with a warrior's success. Keep trying. A big welcome to some of the new names I've seen here. The core war community is generally willing to answer your questions in the rec.games.corewar newgroup. Don't be shy. The 'Monitor'ing warrior I submitted to track the hill is included below. Feel free to hack any piece of it for yourself. ;redcode-b ;name Monitor ;author M R Bremer ;kill Monitor ;strategy Need to track the b-hill. ;strategy 3-shot to scan to partial spl dat clear ;strategy Not the time or energy for full double spl/dat u jmp o, o s add.f inc, 2 mov.i off, @1 p mov.i >-2, @0 jmz.a -3, *-1 djn.b -4, #2 o spl #20, 10 ; self hit in b field sometimes mov.i @u, }p mov.i @u, }p djn.f -2, <-20 d dat 20, <2667 for 27 dat 0, 0 rof off dat 1, 445 inc dat -445, 445*2 ______________________________________________________________________________ The Hint C. The speed of light. Authors use C to denote the speed of a scan or bomb pattern. A sne/seq/mov quick scan operates at 2c or 200% of C until it finds something. An add/mov/djn bomber dat bombs at .33c. The decrement or increment in the move and the djn stream typically makes it more viscious. At times, a corewar challenge simply reduces to who can find who first. So the quest becomes to increase speed while keeping as small a profile as possible. A cmp scanner usually uses an add/cmp/slt/djn engine. This warrior will search core at .66c. By postponing the djn and 'unrolling' the engine, we can increase the speed to .8c. Taking Names is a good example. Notice the scan engine now uses an add/sne/add/seq/slt/djn sequence. If the sne spots something, the second add is skipped and the seq will fall through to the slt instruction. ;redcode-94 quiet ;name Taking Names ;kill Taking Names ;author P.Kline ;strategy sne.x/seq.x scanner using spl-spl-jmp bomb ;strategy and continuous forward-clear step equ 98 clrptr dat jump+2 dat 0,0 reset dat #step-2,#step for 19 dat 0,0 rof attack mov jump,*comp ; drop wide bomb on a-pointer compptr mov split,{comp mov split,{comp ; after bombing, reset to sub reset,@compptr ; make b-pointer the next a-pointer scan add split,@compptr comp sne 2*step,3*step ; take a look add split,@compptr seq *comp,@comp ; take another look slt #100+step,@compptr ; don't attack self ctr djn scan,#1000 ; countdown to finish jmn attack,-1 split spl.i #(2*step),#(2*step) clear mov reset,>clrptr ; continuous forward clear jump jmp -1 for 30 dat 0,0 rof for 12 dat #1,1 ; simple decoy mov.i #attack+1000,2667 rof end comp Of course you pay for the increased speed with increased size. Is an increase from .66c to .8c worth 2 extra instructions? Perhaps. Another way to increase speed is to use on of your bombs as a pointer for the other. A .5c jmz scan can be increase to .66c using just one more instruction. bomb add.ab #8, scan ;of course you can use anything as the bomb mov.i bomb, @scan ;the bomb falls wherever scan points to scan jmz.f -2, *XXXX ;the scan is made +8 addresses from the bomb This loop can be further modified to scan/bomb at .75c by adding yet another instruction. add.f inc, stone ;you'll need an inc and bomb line mov.i bomb, @stone stone mov.i XX, @XX jmz.f -3, *-1 Ivner created a .75c bomber using the following code. While more a hybrid scanner/bomber, this fragment bombs normally until the cmp finds something. Then the bomb pattern is realigned so that the bomb hits the scanned locations. b1 dat #2*STEP,#2*STEP c dat #3*STEP,#3*STEP loop add c, pt mov b1, @pt pt cmp A, @A-STEP sub b1, pt djn loop, #COUNT Here is the full code to Anders Ivner's seventyfive. ;redcode-94 ;name seventyfive ;kill seventyfive ;author Anders Ivner ;assert (CORESIZE == 8000) ;strategy 75% bomber -> separate multipass coreclear ;strategy Credits to Karl Lewin for crow. STEP EQU 14 ORG bomber STEPB EQU 85 COUNT EQU 500 A equ (jump+STEPB*2) head dat #0, #tail+100 d1 dat <0, head mov.i @tail, >head tail djn.b go, {s1 for 74 dat 0,0 rof bd dat #2*STEPB,#2*STEPB incrb spl #3*STEPB,#3*STEPB dat 0, 0 bomber mov bd, @pt pt cmp A, @A-STEPB sub bd, pt add incrb, pt jump djn.b bomber, #COUNT jmp incr end Porch Swing takes this type of idea and expands it to .8c by adding another bombing line before the cmp instruction and changing the cmp to indirect addressing in the a field. However, Porch Swing does not loop back to the beginning when the scan finds something like seventyfive does. Once the scan finds something, PS moves on to a core clear. It is simple to change this into a bombing loop if desired. ;redcode-94 ;name Porch Swing ;kill Porch Swing ;Author Randy Graham ;assert 1 ;strategy Swing with a little wider range. ;strategy Now 80% bomb/scan with djn-stream once-thru STEP equ 12 EXTRA equ 4 DJNOFF equ (-426-EXTRA) dat.f #gate-10, step-gate+5 gate dat.f #gate-10, sneer-STEP+1 dat2 dat.f #gate-20, step-gate+5 dat1 dat.f #gate-25, step-gate+5 site2 spl.a #gate-30, step-gate+5 site spl.a #gate-40, step-gate+5 for EXTRA dat.f 0, 0 rof adder sub.f sweeper, sneer hithigh mov.i step, *sneer hitlow mov.i step, @sneer sneer sne.i @gate+STEP*6-1-EXTRA, *gate+STEP*3-EXTRA ;so we bomb step looper djn.b adder, gate swinger djn.b mover, {site step dat.f does the same thing. Macro execution --------------- Macros are executed, you guessed it, with the "macro" command. To continue our example above, (cdb) m hello prints the line "hello world". With the PC version of pMARS, you can display the help screen by pressing the "F1" key. With other versions of pMARS you have to execute this macro with "m F1". Of course, macros can call other macros. This way, you can write complicated macro programs that are longer than one line. I am explaining some of them below. They are contained in the default macro file "pmars.mac". Predefined macros ----------------- ctrl-n= m next next= echo Advancing to next round~@pq~@f0,$~dat 0,0~@pq off~@go~@st This macro aborts the current round and advances to the beginning of the next round. This may be much quicker than waiting it out with the "go" command. To kill the current program, "next" uses a command we haven't talked about yet: the process queue or pqueue command. In pqueue mode, "list", "edit" and "fill" operate on the process queue instead of core addresses. What the "@f0,$~dat 0,0" sequence does is to fill each core address about to be executed with dat 0,0. We could have gotten the same effect by wiping out the entire core, but this would've been slower. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- count= &ca z=.~m w?~&ca x=.,c=0~!!~m w?~&ca c=c+1~if .!=x~!~ca c~&l z w?= &search , "Count" is extremely useful if you want to find out things like how many bombs have been dropped, how far paper replication has gone, etc.. The macro reports the number of core addresses the match the search string given in the "w?" macro. As is, "count" searches for a comma, which matches all non-zero addresses. To count something else, say all SPL instructions, simply replace the "w?" macro from within CDB: (cdb) m= w?= &search spl . (cdb) By the way, the "&" operator is similar to "@", but whereas "@" only suppresses screen output, "&" also suppresses output to logfiles. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- pcur - count number of processes pointing to the current address pcur= m _pstep~if.==z~@ca n=n+1~m _pend These two (sub)macros are shared code: _pstep=@ca z=.,c=n=0~!!~@pq~@l c=(c+1)%($+1)~@pq off _pend=if c!=0~!~ca n~@l z pseg - calculates how many processes are operating inside segment [x,y] pseg= m _pstep~m _ptest~m _pend _ptest= if y>=x && x<=. && y>=. || y=.)~@ca n=n+1 "pcur" and "pseg" are related macros that use shared submacros. It is a good idea to use a special naming convention for macros that are not to be called directly from the CDB prompt. In "pmars.mac", submacros start with the underscore character. One scenario where, e.g. "pseg" is useful: You want to find out how many processes are still alive in an imp-spiral at the end of a round, but you also have a self-splitting stone, so "registers" won't work. Simply exclude the range that the stone occupies and run "pseg". Suppose the stone extends from 0 to 4: (cdb) ca x=5,y=7999 5,7999 (cdb) m pseg 19 (cdb) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Macro check: execute until a core segment [x,y] changes check= if x==y && x==0~m c_err~@ca c=0~!!~m c_step ~m _check~if z==c~!~m _cd Subroutine c_step, advance execution. Change this to "@skip n" for more speed c_step= @step Subroutine _check computes the actual checksum, expects x,y; uses i,j; returns z _check= @ca (i=x)&&(j=(y+1)%($+1)),z=0~!!~@l i~m _c2 _c2= @ca z=z+i+(A+B),i=(i+1)%($+1)~if i != j~!~if !c~@ca c=z A difference was detected _cd=@ca c=z~echo Code segment has changed Usage info if x and y were not set _ce= echo Set x to start, y to end of code to be checksummed (x <= y)~reset "Check" is one the more complex macros in "pmars.mac". It is does the same thing as Planar's commands to detect self-bombing of "Fahrenheit", but is more general. The macro steps and then calculates a checksum over a user-defined core range. If the range has changed, the macro stops with the message "Code segment has changed". A warning: "check" is very slow, and it is not practical to use a range of more than 10 addresses or so. You can speed up execution by rewriting the "c_step" submacro. Replacing the "@step" with "@skip 10" will do the trick, or set a break point inside a loop and use "@go". ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Exercises: 1) The "next" macro only works for battles with one or two warriors. Modify it so it skips to the next round even if more than 2 warriors are loaded. 2) Write a macro that steps until the number of processes of a warrior decreases (Hint: use the pqueue command). ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Answers to the exercises from part 2: Hello, this is Planar again. I got only one answer to my request for answers to the exercises. Are you all sleeping or what ? Since I'm very lazy, I'll mostly quote. (I didn't have the time to test the following, so a good exercise is to find the bugs and fix them.) >From: jgpletin@vub.ac.be (Pletinckx Jurgen) > >Okay. Let's see about this. Your original instructions were: > >(cdb) ca C=1003,X=3039 >(cdb) !!~ca C=C+1,D=0~@ed1~mov.i<100,B==X~!~ca d~@g~@s~!4 > >First off, I rewrote this to a couple of macros. (I _am_ new to cdb, >it's just that I'm lazy enough to dig macro's.) > >tilt=@ca c=999~!!~m prep~m inn~@g~@s~!8 >prep=@ca c=c+1,d=0~@ed1~mov.i <100, inn=!!~@ca d=d+1~@s~@0~if b==3039~!~ca c,d > >where "prep" does the preparation and "inn" is the inner loop. >"tilt" would mean "boinkers", or perhaps "wacko", if you need to know. > >|1. The above loop will take a lot of time. Accelerate it by stepping >| 10 by 10 instead of 1 by 1. > >Pretty easy. I just change "inn" to > >inn=!!~@ca d=d+10~sk9~@0~if b==3039~!~ca c,d ^ maybe you should insert an @ here > >|2. We're only interested in the value that gives the greatest number >| of cycles. Change the command line to display only that value and >| the corresponding number of cycles. > >Let's say I store the maximum number of steps in e, and the correspon- >ding constant in f. I don't need to change "prep", and I can leave off >the last ca in "inn": > >tilt=@ca c=999,e=0~!!~m prep~m inn~if d>e~@ca e=d,f=c~@g~@s~!8~ca f,e >inn=!!~@ca d=d+1~@s~@0~if b==3039~! > >|3. Use "fill" to abort the current battle instead of finishing it with >| "go". How much faster is this ? > >Pass. If I understand correctly, you'd want to fill lines 0-4 with >"dat0,0", so that the warrior crashes on its next step? So that you can >replace the "g" with a single "s"? Yes, or you can use what Stefan taught us today and change the "@g~@s" in "tilt" to a "@m next": tilt=@ca c=999,e=0~!!~m prep~m inn~if d>e~@ca e=d,f=c~@m next~!8~ca f,e >|4. Even faster: instead of doing the inner loop step by step all the >| way, skip to the greatest number of cycles so far, and start >| stepping from there if the SPL is still not bombed. (Is that >| clear ?) > >I can nicely use the counter d for this. Add a skip to "tilt", and initialise >d to maximum-1, instead of to 0. To make it work, I need to initialise >e to 1 instead of to 0. And I keep the modifications from question 2. > >tilt=@ca c=999,e=1~!!~m prep~sk d~m inn~if d>e~@ca e=d,f=c~@g~@s~!8~ca f,e >prep=@ca c=c+1,d=e-1~@ed1~mov.i <100, |5. Figure out a way of putting a sequence of instructions under an >| "if" instead of a single instruction, so that the sequence is >| executed only when the condition is true. > >Pass. Something with !!, if I recall correctly. But what's the point of >a tutorial, if I have to go look things up in a manual :)? OK, then I'll give you the answer: use a loop with a counter of 1. When the next command after an "if" is a loop, CDB will skip the whole loop if the condition is false. If it's true, CDB will loop once, i.e. execute the sequence, so you'd write: if condition ~ !! ~ command 1 ~ command 2 ~ !1 For a real example, you'll have to wait a few weeks, or you can look up "_sd" in pmars.mac. >|6. [hard] The inner loop fails to stop if the self-bombing doesn't >| occur on the SPL. How do you make it work in all cases ? > >I haven't got a clue. You can't just go and check each line, I guess. >And neither can you just store away an untouched version of the warrior >since it wouldn't remain untouched in the core for very long. Hmpf. >Sounds like an important question, though. You could stop at the bombing lines and check what they are going to bomb. You could try to use the macro "check" but the "ADD" line will get in the way. I was hoping that somebody could come up with a better idea. I'll publish one or two solutions next week. >-- > Jurgen Pletinckx Department of Ultrastructure > Vrije Universiteit Brussel Belgium jgpletin@vub.ac.be > ***************** Kwaliteit drijft boven ***************** Congratulations Jurgen, you gave the best answer to every exercise. You win a lifetime subscription to Core Warrior :-) ______________________________________________________________________________ Questions? Concerns? Comments? Complaints? Mail them to people who care: Beppe Bezzi , Myer R Bremer or Maurizio Vittuari From: John K W Subject: Re: Detecting imps? Date: 1996/01/15 Message-ID: <4de797$kij@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu>#1/1 references: <4d3ftv$s8e@news-rocq.inria.fr> <4dd2on$26@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu> <4ddm98$sag@news-rocq.inria.fr> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Planar wrote: >The problem is that the JMZ.B will not fall through, so you'll never >execute the SEQ. So change it to JMZ.F?? I still don't see how it fails... -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | "I don't have the power because I've got the monkeys. I've got | \ the power because I'll set the monkeys LOOSE." -Dave Foley / -=- http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~ifio452/ -=- From: Robert Macrae Subject: Re: seventyfive Date: 1996/01/15 Message-ID: <4de6rd$p91@soap.news.pipex.net>#1/1 references: <9601101759.AA16636@su4-1.ida.liu.se> <4dct02$r38@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar John K W wrote: >lewin@netcom.com (Karl Lewin) wrote: >>: So all credits go to Karl Lewin... >>and for crow I must credit Beppe Bezzi for tornado and Paul Kline... >And I would like to thank God, for creating this world, and my... I wish to associate myself with this thread :) From: Robert Macrae Subject: Re: Anyone have hints on tighter MODs? Date: 1996/01/15 Message-ID: <4de6jf$p91@soap.news.pipex.net>#1/1 references: <4davoc$r36@soap.news.pipex.net> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar akemi@netcom.com (David Boeren) wrote: .. > Here's my profile: > >6 instruction bombing loop (4 MOV/ADD/DJN) >1 vamp instruction >2 bomb instructions (SPL+MOV) >2 coreclear instructions (MOV/DJN) >1 self-split instruction (also holds bombing steps) >2 for multi-pass coreclear (SPL->DAT) .. >I can save one instuction just doing a DAT coreclear, but then papers >score a lot higher against me .. >This is the same basic routine >from Phosphorus, Torch t15, and several other programs, just modified to >be multi-pass in the manner of Hint Test as described in Core Warrior. I found that you can get away with a single DAT clear so long as the bombrun is long enough and the bombs are Silk-hostile enough. As I understand the profile, the only parts which execute are >6 instruction bombing loop (4 MOV/ADD/DJN) >1 self-split instruction (also holds bombing steps) >2 coreclear instructions (MOV/DJN) the rest are just bombs and constants, so can be some distance away from the code. I certainly like the idea of using an irregular pattern and hiding in the holes (I had a 4-word bomber, Modron, which had this is as its only tactic:) and the only other thing I'd suggest is SPL-bombing the DJN of the bombing loop to terminate the loop and start the coreclear; this lets you lose the self-split. From: Kurt Franke Subject: Re: Detecting imps? Date: 1996/01/15 Message-ID: <30FB17A4.2B4F@rice.edu>#1/1 references: <4d6817$e0q@soap.news.pipex.net> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Robert Macrae wrote: > I know its a fairly radical change of tack, but how about scanning for > the Imp? You could use a standard scan, with a test for Imps after you > get a hit. The bombing routine could be either a normal SPL carpet (etc) > for non-imps, or something Imp-specific when you find two adjacent > identical nonzero cells... > > All you have to do is rewrite the whole warrior :) I have written a warrior which will search for imps. But I make it easy. I do a two pass spl clear; then anything I find after that which doesn't compare to the instruction I use to clear with is an imp. I decode the step size from the found instruction and begin a short bombing run using that step size, then continue scanning. Finally, I do a dat clear to wipe out all the stunned processes. This works against any imp, but unfortunately (for me) some people don't play fair; they put a stone in with their imp. My 15 line imp hunter does not appreciate this at all. I'll dig up the code if anyone is interested. The idea doesn't work because of the length. Kurt From: Planar Subject: Re: Detecting imps? Date: 1996/01/15 Message-ID: <4ddm98$sag@news-rocq.inria.fr>#1/1 references: <4d3ftv$s8e@news-rocq.inria.fr> <4dd2on$26@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar I wrote: >> jmz.b ..., trigger >> seq.i trigger, @trigger >> jmp not_an_imp >>is_an_imp ... In article <4dd2on$26@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu>, John K W writes: >[...] The b-field of "MOV #STEP, *0" >points to itself. So, comparing it to itself gives the same thing, >and the gate would think it had found an imp. > >What's the problem with that? The problem is that the JMZ.B will not fall through, so you'll never execute the SEQ. -- Planar From: John K W Subject: Re: SKI-ICWS-2: New release Date: 1996/01/15 Message-ID: <4dcieb$ict@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu>#1/1 references: <4da64o$n4f@valhalla.stormking.com> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar tuc@news.stormking.com (Scott J. Ellentuch) wrote: > There are 2 more functions in this release for testing : .. > As always , we need help testing the ;newpasswd function and all >other items as this is a BRAND NEW FROM SCRATCH IN A NEW LANGUAGE hill >we have going..... Wow... so are all these new functions set up on the current Hill, or do you need to send warriors to the below address to check 'em out? > > kothtest@stormking.com (;help for a menu) -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | "I don't have the power because I've got the monkeys. I've got | \ the power because I'll set the monkeys LOOSE." -Dave Foley / -=- http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~ifio452/ -=- From: KOTH Tourney Server Subject: SKI-ICWS: Status - Multiwarrior Experimental 94 01/15/96 Date: 1996/01/15 Message-ID: <199601150500.AAA08220@valhalla.stormking.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Weekly Status on 01/15/96 See up to the second scores at http://www.stormking.com/~koth Check it out for the latest in Core War information *FAQ* is at http://www.stormking.com/~koth/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the StormKing Industries MultiWarrior Experimental 94 CoreWar Hill: Last battle concluded at : Tue Jan 9 16:51:01 EST 1996 # Name Author Score Age 1 Paperone Beppe Bezzi 6781 23 2 This is Test1 Kurt Franke 6711 3 3 life Nandor Sieben 6621 39 4 TimeScapeX (0.1) J. Pohjalainen 6608 38 5 Paper8 G. Eadon 6565 4 6 Lucky 13 Stefan Strack 6487 40 7 Anthill 4 Planar 6420 1 8 jaded M R Bremer 6397 9 9 Hidden M.C.Diskett Bullfrog 5869 8 10 lifedwarf Nandor Sieben 5860 15 11 Shwing! T. H. Davies 5646 34 12 Piggy 3 Bob Uhl 5125 11 13 Piggy 2 Bob Uhl 5085 13 14 AB Scanner 2.9 Chris Hodson 4869 27 15 Whirlwind Bob Uhl 4817 25 16 Miss Treatment Derek Ross 3930 18 17 Whirlwind 2 Bob Uhl 3795 26 18 Futility M R Bremer 3646 5 19 Illusion-94/55 Randy Graham 3506 17 20 Miss Carry Derek Ross 3440 19 21 Anthill 3 Planar 0 2 From: John K W Subject: Re: Anyone have hints on tighter MODs? Date: 1996/01/15 Message-ID: <4de5er$j98@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu>#1/1 references: <4davoc$r36@soap.news.pipex.net> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar >Anyway, I'm open to advice on shrinking the code if anyone has got some >ideas. If you really want assistance, the first step is to post your code and briefly explain your goal. -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | "I don't have the power because I've got the monkeys. I've got | \ the power because I'll set the monkeys LOOSE." -Dave Foley / -=- http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~ifio452/ -=- From: falar@panix.com (Ross Schulman) Subject: Re: Anyone have hints on tighter MODs? Date: 1996/01/16 Message-ID: #1/1 references: <4davoc$r36@soap.news.pipex.net> <4de6jf$p91@soap.news.pipex.net> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar I'm not sure if this is out of place, seeing as I'm a newbie and not entirely too sure about all the concepts. Anyway, I'm writing my first warrior right now and he's pretty simple, just an spl bomb run than a DAT core clear. So, to get to the point, during my startup sequence, I boot my program into two seperate parts, the bomber about a bit behind the carpeter in memory. I managed to get it so the two are very small (something like 4 words or something) so they don't bomb each other (by the time the carpet gets to the bomber, it had killed itself). Well, I don't know if that will solve your problem, but it does leave some room for bombs to land and makes individual parts of the program smaller. My $0.02, Ross From: falar@panix.com (Ross Schulman) Subject: Re: Pre-Newbie, Redcoder bug? Date: 1996/01/16 Message-ID: #1/1 references: <4d6rcr$2vn@netnews.upenn.edu> <4d99pa$qr9@hermes.cair.du.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar In article <4d99pa$qr9@hermes.cair.du.edu>, ruhl@phoebe.cair.du.edu (Robert A. Uhl) wrote: > While I've not had these problems with Redcoder, I have had problems > with Core! x.x. I'd stick with Redcoder. You might wish to try > creating new fighter sets and run from them. Sometimes folders/files > cannot be found when an app moves around (say, from the programmer's > hard drive to yours...). Actually I found that the best simulator that I've worked on is MacpMARS 1.99a. You can get it at the Berkeley site and it is virtually bug free so far as I've used it. Ross From: jklewis@stimpy.us.itd.umich.edu (John K. Lewis) Subject: Re: I'm new - how do I stop/kill imps pls? Date: 1996/01/16 Message-ID: <4dgf4p$m9i@lastactionhero.rs.itd.umich.edu>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar All this talk of killing imps has forced me to give the source to RedPixel. While it's still in the first stages of development it loves to kill anything with imps in it. ;redcode-94 ;name RedPixel.2 ;author John Lewis ;strategy jmz.f carpet-bombing scanner based on Rave.red ;assert CORESIZE==8000 ;strategy (which was based on agony) ;strategy V.1 New system, it ever works sometimes! ;strategy V.2 Now with comments! res equ **** ;**** is a secret! (between 600-4821) top sub.ab #res,#-100 ;subtract from traget eyes jmz.f top,@top ;scan for target slt top,#20 ;if it's me, skip it foot jmp vein,150 ;jump to target aquired status jmp top, Subject: Re: Detecting imps? Date: 1996/01/16 Message-ID: <4dfs32$cqs@news-rocq.inria.fr>#1/1 references: <4d3ftv$s8e@news-rocq.inria.fr> <4dd2on$26@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu> <4ddm98$sag@news-rocq.inria.fr> <4de797$kij@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar In article <4de797$kij@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu>, John K W writes: >Planar wrote: >>The problem is that the JMZ.B will not fall through, so you'll never >>execute the SEQ. > >So change it to JMZ.F?? I still don't see how it fails... But then your imp test can be triggered by a bomb with a 0 B-field, and you'll think it's an imp. That's what I meant from the beginning. Obviously, I wasn't clear. -- Planar From: stst@idnsun.gpct.Vanderbilt.Edu (Stefan Strack) Subject: Re: A new idea Date: 1996/01/16 Message-ID: <9601161929.AA17991@idnsun.gpct.Vanderbilt.Edu.noname>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar >BTW where's that picture of Paul I'd like to see an old timer, at Stormking? >(The gifs from the tournament) >-Magnus Paulsson Paul sent his picture right away, and for an "old-timer" he looks like remarkably youthful, you'll see :-). I'm still waiting for Steven Morrell's and Robert Macrae's pictures, then the "Hall of Fame" can go up. BTW, can anyone help me with the new HTML table specification? I need something that looks like a photoalbum page with room for captions for the Hall of Fame. Anything out there that we can simply copy? -Stefan From: mpn@ifm.liu.se (Magnus Paulsson) Subject: A new idea Date: 1996/01/16 Message-ID: <199601161913.UAA01755@ifm.liu.se>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Here's my latest program, it's quite neat. 75% scanner that drops inc bombs at mod 5 I think the engine is quite nice, a new idea, at least for me. Unfortunatly it scores a all time low on the hill, score 90 :-) It is the worst of any program I've spent time on :-) But it was a nobel idea, lets se if I can get a new warior on the hill again soon, otherwise I'll send an old one just to get some mail. BTW where's that picture of Paul I'd like to see an old timer, at Stormking? (The gifs from the tournament) -Magnus Paulsson ;redcode-94 ;name myTest ;author Paulsson ;strategy A.Ivner get's some credit. ;strategy Shorter, gate but will lose to paper instead. ;strategy Submitted: 14 january 96 ;assert CORESIZE > 1 ;kill myTest org new step equ (5*9) dat 0,<-2*step-1 ;gateing bomb back spl #-2*step,<-2*step bmba mov.i -1,{-1 ;core clear djn.f -1,>next dat.f 0,0 dat.f 0,0 next mov.i bmbb,#1/1 references: <9601101759.AA16636@su4-1.ida.liu.se> <4dct02$r38@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar John K W writes: >[...] > And I would like to thank God, for creating this world, and my parents > for bringing me up, and buying me a computer... And I'd like to thank > A.K. Dewdney for inventing Corewars... And I'd like to thank Stefan > Strack, Mintardjo, and ALL the people who've worked on pMARS... And > I'd like to think Chia Head, Scott J.E., and all the Pizza Elves for > making their magic... And I'd also like to thank all the little people > out there! I won't forget you when I'm King of the Hill! A few more versions of Evol Cap and you won't only be King - you'll BE the Hill :-) Paul Kline pk6811s@acad.drake.edu ...now tweaking Harmony to kill more imps... ...new version of Torch in readiness (jic)... From: John K W Subject: Re: Detecting imps? Date: 1996/01/16 Message-ID: <4dgonf$b6m@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu>#1/1 references: <4d3ftv$s8e@news-rocq.inria.fr> <4dd2on$26@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu> <4ddm98$sag@news-rocq.inria.fr> <4de797$kij@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu> <4dfs32$cqs@news-rocq.inria.fr> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Planar wrote: >>>The problem is that the JMZ.B will not fall through, so you'll never >>>execute the SEQ. >> >>So change it to JMZ.F?? I still don't see how it fails... > >But then your imp test can be triggered by a bomb with a 0 B-field, >and you'll think it's an imp. That's what I meant from the beginning. >Obviously, I wasn't clear. Oh, well certainly THAT'S true. In fact, that was the problem I had using something like that once before. Perhaps you could do something like impa: mov.i #0, 0 loop: MOV.I trigger, holder SUB.F holder, holder CMP.I holder, impa Ah well... it's probably way to long to be successful, but it'd work. You could add in an "impb: mov.i 0, *0" if you wanted. That's assuming that CMP.I knows the difference between "#0, 0" and "0, *0"... :/ -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | "I don't have the power because I've got the monkeys. I've got | \ the power because I'll set the monkeys LOOSE." -Dave Foley / -=- http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~ifio452/ -=- From: Robert Macrae Subject: Re: Detecting imps? Date: 1996/01/16 Message-ID: <4dg98r$i7i@soap.news.pipex.net>#1/1 references: <4d6817$e0q@soap.news.pipex.net> <30FB17A4.2B4F@rice.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Kurt Franke wrote: .. >This works against any imp, but unfortunately (for me) some people don't >play fair; they put a stone in with their imp. My 15 line imp hunter >does not appreciate this at all. I'll dig up the code if anyone is >interested. The idea doesn't work because of the length. Is it possible to make the anti-imp stage a parallel activity with the clear? That way you won't often lose if it has been damaged. Something like SPL/DAT clear, then split some processes to the imp-hunter while continuing to clear. If the imp-hunter is damaged at worst you stun yourself, but the clear should have removed everything except imps so you're not likely to lose? From: X I M Oversby Subject: Re: Pre-Newbie, Redcoder bug? Date: 1996/01/16 Message-ID: <4dggkv$aee@info-server.surrey.ac.uk>#1/1 references: <4d6rcr$2vn@netnews.upenn.edu> <4d99pa$qr9@hermes.cair.du.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar I am also having problems with my Redcode simulator. I use pmarsv version 0.8 for DOS but unfortunately I cannot get a proper graphic display. Using any of the options like -v 514 results in a GRSetMode error message. Using the 286 version I can get a graphic display but this is only version 0.6 as far as I can see and does not implement p-space. I am using a Pentium with Number 9 graphics card so I think the system should be up to the job. Any suggestions? From: akemi@netcom.com (David Boeren) Subject: Re: Transitioning to coreclear Date: 1996/01/17 Message-ID: #1/1 references: newsgroups: rec.games.corewar David Boeren (akemi@netcom.com) wrote: : Is there any good file to read explaining different ways to transition to : coreclear, preferably with examples? : As far as I can see, you can do it in several ways: : 1. Decrement a counter. This works for a bomber, but not for scanners. Oops. I should have said "Not for JMZ scanners", which is what I was trying to write. Looks like it's still valid pretty much for CMP scanners, although a little trickier not to bomb yourself. I figured I start with the simpler JMZ before moving up to a CMP scanner... From: sd@ecst.csuchico.edu (Chia Head) Subject: Re: Hill Arrangements Date: 1996/01/17 Message-ID: <4di6e4$dk3@charnel.ecst.csuchico.edu>#1/1 references: newsgroups: rec.games.corewar In article , David Boeren wrote: > >Well, unless something happens to stop the ridiculously high load >averages all the time on Pizza we're going to probably have to seriously >think about rearranging the hills. The load will be returning to normal before February. As I said before, this is winter break for all the important people around here. >Also, I don't think the corewar variants on Stormking are too popular. >Here's the hills they have (to the best of my knowledge): > >ICWS '88 Hill: Everyone is playing the new standard these days, not much > going on over here. >ICWS Annual Tournament Hill: Does this just open once a year or something? >ICWS Multiwarrior (Big and Little): There are a few people I think who play > these hills. But overall multiwarrior seems pretty wierd to me, and > way too random. I don't think it's just me either, or else they'd > get more action. You forgot the '94x hill. Good p-space practice. A whole new ball game. Try it. Bet you don't get first place. >Anyway, I'd LOVE to be able to submit my programs and have them run >quickly and get results back in a couple hours (like Pizza used to a few >weeks ago), The number of warriors sent to pizza per day has not increased. We are simply experiencing a little difficulty with our http server. Like I said, everything will be fixed (or better than fixed) by February. >Is anyone interested in doing a vote or something? Can anyone explain why >Pizza has been under such heavy load and why it seems to go down a lot >lately? Anyone interested in contributing to a "Save the Pizza" fund to >buy a dedicated machine for corewar? :) A dedicated machine is in pizza's future, I guarantee. Just not the near future. :( Thos From: John K W Subject: Re: thanks Date: 1996/01/17 Message-ID: <4dhsjd$857@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu>#1/1 references: <9601101759.AA16636@su4-1.ida.liu.se> <4dct02$r38@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu> <1996Jan16.121147@acad.drake.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar pk6811s@acad.drake.edu wrote: >A few more versions of Evol Cap and you won't only be King - >you'll BE the Hill :-) Haha. Now THAT would be cool! You know, I already got one complaint that I was "all these ties" are "slowing down the hill"... 'Course, I just got a email that Pizza was going down... so now the Hill isn't just slow, it's stopped. :_( >...now tweaking Harmony to kill more imps... >...new version of Torch in readiness (jic)... Can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread imp! -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | "I don't have the power because I've got the monkeys. I've got | \ the power because I'll set the monkeys LOOSE." -Dave Foley / -=- http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~ifio452/ -=- From: harl@yar.cs.wisc.edu (Tyler Novak) Subject: Newbie Help [Addressing Modes] Date: 1996/01/17 Message-ID: <4djn6i$nao@spool.cs.wisc.edu>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Ok. I've looked through the ftp sote at Berkeley and a bunch of web pages. The newest draft I could find is dated Feb 2, 1994. The FAQ says look at the web site for the latest standard. The above mentioned draft is good but contains nothing about the addressing modes '{', '}', and '*'. Now I take '{' and '}' to mean preincrement and post increment respectivly but they are not mentioned anywhere. I don't really have any ideas as to what '*' could mean. Could somebody please fill me in here? -- --Tyler Novak --harl@picard.cs.wisc.edu --http://yar.cs.wisc.edu/~harl From: Chris Arguin Subject: -94 Opcode Modifiers Date: 1996/01/17 Message-ID: #1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar I'm fairly new to Corewars, and haven't found any comprehensize sources on the language. Could somebody explain how the modifiers (.a, .b, .ab...etc) work. What exactly do the do? I've got some rough ideas, but it's giving me quite the headache. -- Chris Arguin | "I realize, of course, that it's no shame to cpa@hopper.unh.edu | be poor... But it's no great honor either!" http://leonardo.sr.unh.edu/ | - The Fiddler on the Roof arguin/home.html | From: akemi@netcom.com (David Boeren) Subject: Transitioning to coreclear Date: 1996/01/17 Message-ID: #1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Is there any good file to read explaining different ways to transition to coreclear, preferably with examples? As far as I can see, you can do it in several ways: 1. Decrement a counter. This works for a bomber, but not for scanners. 2. Arrange for a certain spot that you will not be executing to be hit to signal that coreclear should start. 3. Bomb yourself to begin coreclear. I understand that this is common, but I'm having trouble understanding how to do it so that the bomb doesn't have ill effects. Is this just super-greatly dependant on having the exact right bomb? it would be nice if the method was more general... Anyway, if someone can suggest a file to read or some good warriors which will demonstrate these (or any other) methods in a fairly clear style (maybe even with comments?) then I'd appreciate it. I think this may be a fairly common newbie area of confusion, maybe it could be a good "Hint" column sometime? Of course, I'd also like a good Hint column on how to get lots of wins against Evol Cap, but I guess that's too much to hope for :) From: akemi@netcom.com (David Boeren) Subject: Hill Arrangements Date: 1996/01/17 Message-ID: #1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Well, unless something happens to stop the ridiculously high load averages all the time on Pizza we're going to probably have to seriously think about rearranging the hills. Since beginner started on Pizza, it should remain there. That would mean that the pro hill will have to go to Stormking to reduce the load on Pizza. Again, I don't know what has been causing these very high load averages, but when only one warrior gets run in 6+ hours something has to be changed. Some people have been wondering about why everyone plays only those two hills and never anything else. Actaully, I think it's a pretty simple question. First, beginners will always play on the beginner hill. It was made specifically for them, and it's the only place where they can compete against others of their own skill level. Then we get to the pro hill, or the "ICWS '94 Draft Hill". I think that the reason that the pros play here is so they can play against the other pros. Let's face it, this is the "Real Hill" in everyone's minds. Playing here means playing against all the other top players. There can only be one home of the world championship tournament, and this is it. Therefore, playing on one of the other hills (Experimental, Big, etc) kind of feels like playing in the minors. You submit to some other hill and you aren't playing against the other pros. You're just playing against whatever leftover programs are there. I'm not saying that this is how it SHOULD be, but I think that this is how it is and fairly close to the reasons why things are like they are. Also, I don't think the corewar variants on Stormking are too popular. Here's the hills they have (to the best of my knowledge): ICWS '88 Hill: Everyone is playing the new standard these days, not much going on over here. ICWS Annual Tournament Hill: Does this just open once a year or something? ICWS Multiwarrior (Big and Little): There are a few people I think who play these hills. But overall multiwarrior seems pretty wierd to me, and way too random. I don't think it's just me either, or else they'd get more action. Anyway, I'd LOVE to be able to submit my programs and have them run quickly and get results back in a couple hours (like Pizza used to a few weeks ago), but the bottom line is that at Stormking I don't feel like I'm playing in the pro leagues, and any standing I get on their hills isn't "real" compared to a hill position on Pizza's ICWS '94 hill. Well, this is just a bunch of random mumblings, and you're free to ignore it. I'm just tired of everything being gummed up so badly. I don't submit my warriors often just because I don't want to contribute to the mess and also because by the time I'll get my results back sometimes 2 DAYS later, I'll have a new version anyway. Is anyone interested in doing a vote or something? Can anyone explain why Pizza has been under such heavy load and why it seems to go down a lot lately? Anyone interested in contributing to a "Save the Pizza" fund to buy a dedicated machine for corewar? :) From: tuc@superlink.net (Scott J. Ellentuch) Subject: Re: SKI-ICWS-2: New release Date: 1996/01/17 Message-ID: <4djg0m$klt@earth.superlink.net>#1/1 references: <4da64o$n4f@valhalla.stormking.com> <4dcieb$ict@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar John K W (jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu) wrote: : > As always , we need help testing the ;newpasswd function and all : >other items as this is a BRAND NEW FROM SCRATCH IN A NEW LANGUAGE hill : >we have going..... : Wow... so are all these new functions set up on the current Hill, or do : you need to send warriors to the below address to check 'em out? : > : > kothtest@stormking.com (;help for a menu) In an effort to promote quality, we are asking people to "test the hell out of it" on a set of testing hills before I move them to "production". I never said I was able to program! (Though I do get paid for it!) Please continue to use koth for production and kothtest for test. Tuc From: macaulay@mundil.cs.mu.OZ.AU (Alexander William MACAULAY) Subject: Re: Pre-Newbie, Redcoder bug? Date: 1996/01/17 Message-ID: <9601712.22929@mulga.cs.mu.OZ.AU>#1/1 references: <4d6rcr$2vn@netnews.upenn.edu> <9601513.27759@mulga.cs.mu.OZ.AU> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar mayer@idefix.seas.upenn.edu (Mike Mayer) writes: >I am still trying to get a handle on "becoming" a corewar newbie, > but am having difficulty getting any simulators to work on my Mac. > Core!1.1 appears to have conflicts with MacsBug and Redcoder2.1 > cannot seem to load fighters (I get an alert telling me that a > "File not found" error occurred). >Certainly, I am not the first person to have encountered these > difficulties... What should I do? Hi there, I fixed up the problem in Redcoder some time ago, but I never got around to releasing it. I'll try to stick it on ftp.csua.berkeley.edu in the next few days if I can find it. The fixed version was called version 2.1.1. I'll stick a reference to it on my web page when I find it. Alex (macaulay@mundil.cs.mu.oz.au). From: agserm@aol.com (AGSerm) Subject: Re: Pre-Newbie, Redcoder bug? Date: 1996/01/17 Message-ID: <4dildk$1on@newsbf02.news.aol.com>#1/1 references: <4dggkv$aee@info-server.surrey.ac.uk> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar In article <4dggkv$aee@info-server.surrey.ac.uk>, X I M Oversby writes: >I am also having problems with my Redcode simulator. I use pmarsv version >0.8 >for DOS but unfortunately I cannot get a proper graphic display. Using any >of >the options like -v 514 results in a GRSetMode error message. Using the 286 >version I can get a graphic display but this is only version 0.6 as far as I >can see and does not implement p-space. I am using a Pentium with Number 9 >graphics card so I think the system should be up to the job. Any >suggestions? I have a (at least superficially) similar problem. I have a 486/33 and when I try to run pmarsv (0.7.0 & 0.8.0 - I haven't tested any others) about 35% of the time it locks up, and prints 2 letters, over and over again, in different colors. The colors and letters are different every time. The workaround is to simply turn the machine off turbo. When I run at 12 Mhz I have hed no problems with pmarsv whatsoever My $0.02, Ansel Greenwood Sermersheim From: stst@vuse.vanderbilt.edu (Stefan Strack) Subject: Core War Frequently Asked Questions (rec.games.corewar FAQ) Date: 1996/01/17 Message-ID: newsgroups: rec.games.corewar,rec.answers,news.answers Archive-name: games/corewar-faq Last-Modified: 95/10/12 Version: 3.6 These are the Frequently Asked Questions (and answers) from the Usenet newsgroup rec.games.corewar. A plain text version of this document is posted every two weeks. The hypertext version is available as _________________________________________________________________ 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. Core War has changed since Dewdney's articles. Where do I get a copy of the current instruction set? 5. What is ICWS'94? Which simulators support ICWS'94? 6. What is the ICWS? 7. What is TCWN? 8. How do I join? 9. What is the EBS? 10. Where are the Core War archives? 11. Where can I find a Core War system for ...? 12. I do not have FTP. How do I get all this great stuff? 13. I do not have access to Usenet. How do I post and receive news? 14. Are there any Core War related WWW sites? 15. When is the next tournament? 16. What is KotH? How do I enter? 17. Is it DAT 0, 0 or DAT #0, #0? How do I compare to core? 18. How does SLT (Skip if Less Than) work? 19. What is the difference between in-register and in-memory evaluation? 20. What does (expression or term of your choice) mean? 21. Other questions? _________________________________________________________________ What is Core War? 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 processes of the opposing program to terminate, leaving your program in sole posession 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. [ToC] _________________________________________________________________ Is it "Core War" or "Core Wars"? 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. [ToC] _________________________________________________________________ Where can I find more information about Core War? 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 two anthologies: Author: Dewdney, A. K. Title: The Armchair Universe: An Exploration of Computer Worlds Published: New York: W. H. Freeman (c) 1988 ISBN: 0-7167-1939-8 Library of Congress Call Number: QA76.6 .D517 1988 Author: Dewdney, A. K. Title: The Magic Machine: A Handbook of Computer Sorcery Published: New York: W. H. Freeman (c) 1990 ISBN: 0-7167-2125-2 (Hardcover), 0-7167-2144-9 (Paperback) Library of Congress Call Number: QA76.6 .D5173 1990 A.K. Dewdney's articles are still the most readable introduction to Core War, even though the Redcode dialect described in there is no longer current. [ToC] _________________________________________________________________ Core War has changed since Dewdney's articles. Where do I get a copy of the current instruction set? A draft of the official standard (ICWS'88) is available as . This document is formatted awkwardly and contains ambiguous statements. For a more approachable intro to Redcode, take a look at Mark Durham's tutorial, and . Steven Morrell (morrell@math.utah.edu) is preparing a more practically oriented Redcode tutorial that discusses different warrior classes with lots of example code. Mail him for a preliminary version. Michael Constant (mconst@csua.berkeley.edu) is reportedly working on a beginner's introduction. [ToC] _________________________________________________________________ What is ICWS'94? Which simulators support ICWS'94? There is an ongoing discussion about future enhancements to the Redcode language. A proposed new standard, dubbed ICWS'94, is currently being evaluated. A major change is the addition of "instruction modifiers" that allow instructions to modify A-field, B-field or both. Also new is a post-increment indirect addressing mode and unrestricted opcode and addressing mode combination ("no illegal instructions"). ICWS'94 is backwards compatible; i.e. ICWS'88 warriors will run correctly on an ICWS'94 system. Take a look at the ICWS'94 draft for more information. You can try out the new standard by submitting warriors to the '94 hills of the KotH servers. Two corewar systems currently support ICWS'94, pMARS (many platforms) and Redcoder (Mac), both available at ftp.csua.berkeley.edu. [ToC] _________________________________________________________________ What is the ICWS? 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). [ToC] _________________________________________________________________ What is TCWN? Since March of 1987, "The Core War Newsletter" (TCWN) has been the official newsletter of the ICWS. It is published quarterly and recent issues are also available as Encapsulated PostScript files. [ToC] _________________________________________________________________ How do I join? For more information about joining the ICWS (which includes a subscription to TCWN), or to contribute an article, review, cartoon, letter, joke, rumor, etc. to TCWN, please contact: Jon Newman 13824 NE 87th Street Redmond, WA 98052-1959 email: jonn@microsoft.com (Note: Microsoft has NO affiliation with Core War. Jon Newman just happens to work there, and we want to keep it that way!) Current annual dues are $15.00 in US currency. [ToC] _________________________________________________________________ What is the EBS? 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 are entered into the annual ICWS tournament. All EBS business is conducted in the rec.games.corewar 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. [ToC] _________________________________________________________________ Where are the Core War archives? 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 (128.32.149.19) in the /pub/corewar directories. Also, most of past rec.games.corewar postings (including Redcode source listings) are archived there. Jon Blow (blojo@csua.berkeley.edu) is the archive administrator. When uploading to /pub/corewar/incoming, ask Jon to move your upload to the appropriate directory and announce it on the net. 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. The plain text version of this FAQ is automatically archived by news.answers. [ToC] _________________________________________________________________ Where can I find a Core War system for . . . ? Core War systems are available via anonymous ftp from ftp.csua.berkeley.edu in the /pub/corewar/systems directory. Currently, there are UNIX, IBM PC-compatible, Macintosh, and Amiga Core War systems available there. It is a good idea to check for program updates first. CAUTION! There are many, many Core War systems available which are NOT ICWS'88 (or even ICWS'86) compatible available at various archive sites other than ftp.csua.berkeley.edu. Generally, the older the program - the less likely it will be ICWS compatible. Reviews of Core War systems would be greatly appreciated in the newsgroup and in the newsletter. Below is a not necessarily complete or up-to-date list of what's available at ftp.csua.berkeley.edu: MADgic41.lzh - corewar for the Amiga, v4.1 MAD4041.lzh - older version? MAD50B.lha - corewar for the Amiga, beta version 5.0 Redcoder-21.hqx - corewar for the Mac, supports ICWS'88 and '94 (without extensions) core-11.hqx - corewar for the Mac core-wars-simulator.hqx - same as core-11.hqx? corewar_unix_x11.tar.Z - corewar for UNIX/X-windows, ICWS'86 but not ICWS'88 compatible koth31.tar.Z - corewar for UNIX/X-windows. This program ran the former KotH server at intel.com koth.shar.Z - older version kothpc.zip - port of older version of KotH to the PC deluxe20c.tar.Z - corewar for UNIX (broken X-windows or curses) and PC mars.tar.Z - corewar for UNIX, likely not ICWS'88 compatible icons.zip - corewar icons for MS-Windows macrored.zip - a redcode macro-preprocessor (PC) c88v49.zip - PC corewar, textmode display mars88.zip - PC corewar, graphics mode display corwp302.zip - PC corewar, textmode display, slowish mercury2.zip - PC corewar written in assembly, fast! mtourn11.zip - tournament scheduler for mercury (req. 4DOS) pmars08s.zip - portable system, ICWS'88 and '94, runs on UNIX, PC, Mac, Amiga. C source archive pmars08s.tar.Z - same as above pmars08.zip - PC executables with graphics display, req 386+ macpmars02.sit.hqx - pMARS executable for Mac (port of version 0.2) buggy, no display MacpMARS1.99a.cpt.hqx - port of v0.8 for the Mac, with display and debugger MacpMARS1.0s.cpt.hqx - C source (MPW, ThinkC) for Mac frontend ApMARS03.lha - pMARS executable for Amiga (port of version 0.3.1) wincor11.zip - MS-Windows system, shareware ($15) [ToC] _________________________________________________________________ I do not have FTP. How do I get all this great stuff? There is an ftp email server at ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com. Send email with a subject and body text of "help" (without the quotes) for more information on its usage. If you don't have access to the net at all, send me a 3.5 '' diskette in a self-addressed disk mailer with postage and I will mail it back with an image of the Core War archives in PC format. My address is at the end of this post. [ToC] _________________________________________________________________ I do not have access to Usenet. How do I post and receive news? To receive rec.games.corewar articles by email, join the COREWAR-L list run on the Stormking.Com list processor. To join, send the message SUB COREWAR-L FirstName LastName to listproc@stormking.com. You can send mail to corewar-l@stormking.com to post even if you are not a member of the list. Responsible for the listserver is Scott J. Ellentuch (tuc@stormking.com). Another server that allows you to post (but not receive) articles is available. Email your post to rec-games-corewar@cs.utexas.edu and it will be automatically posted for you. [ToC] _________________________________________________________________ Are there any Core War related WWW sites? You bet. Each of the two KotH sites sport a world-wide web server. Stormking's Core War page is ; pizza's is . A third WWW site is in Koeln, Germany: . Last but not least, Stephen Beitzel's "Unofficial Core War Page" is . All site are in varying stages of construction, so it would be futile to list here what they have to offer. [ToC] _________________________________________________________________ When is the next tournament? The ICWS holds an annual tournament. Traditionally, the deadline for entering is the 15th of December. The EBS usually holds a preliminary tournament around the 15th of November and sends the top finishers on to the ICWS tournament. Informal double-elimination and other types of tournaments are held frequently among readers of the newsgroup; watch there for announcements or contact me. [ToC] _________________________________________________________________ What is KotH? How do I enter? King Of The Hill (KotH) is an ongoing Core War tournament available to anyone with email. You enter by submitting via email a Redcode program (warrior) with special comment lines. You will receive a reply indicating how well your program did against the current top programs "on the hill". There are two styles of KotH tournaments, "classical" and "multi-warrior". The "classical" KotH is a one-on-one tournament, that is your warrior will play 100 battles against each of the 20 other programs currently on the Hill. You receive 3 points for each win and 1 point for each tie. (The existing programs do not replay each other, but their previous battles are recalled.) All scores are updated to reflect your battles and all 21 programs are ranked from high to low. If you are number 21 you are pushed off the Hill, if you are higher than 21 someone else is pushed off. In "multi-warrior" KotH, all warriors on the hill fight each other at the same time. Score calculation is a bit more complex than for the one-on-one tournament. Briefly, points are awarded based on how many warriors survive until the end of a round. A warrior that survives by itself gets more points than a warrior that survives together with other warriors. Points are calculated from the formula (W*W-1)/S, where W is the total number of warriors and S the number of surviving warriors. The pMARS documentation has more information on multi-warrior scoring. The idea for an email-based Core War server came from David Lee. The original KotH was developed and run by William Shubert at Intel starting in 1991, and discontinued after almost three years of service. Currently, KotHs based on Bill's UNIX scripts but offering a wider variety of hills are are running at two sites: "koth@stormking.com" is maintained by Scott J. Ellentuch (tuc@stormking.com) and "pizza@ecst.csuchico.edu" by Thomas H. Davies (sd@ecst.csuchico.edu). Up until May '95, the two sites provided overlapping services, i.e. the some of the hill types were offered by both "pizza" and "stormking". To conserve resources, the different hill types are now divided up among the sites. The way you submit warriors to both KotHs is pretty much the same. Therefore, the entry rules described below apply to both "pizza" and "stormking" unless otherwise noted. 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 a line starting with ";redcode" (or ";redcode-94, etc., see below) 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. (Also, see 5 below). 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 daemon 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. There are currently seven separate hills you can select by starting your program with ;redcode-b, ;redcode-94, ;redcode-94x, ;redcode, ;redcode-icws, ;redcode-94m or ;redcode-94xm. The former three run at "pizza", the latter four at "stormking". More information on these hills is listed below. 3) Mail this file to koth@stormking.com or pizza@ecst.csuchico.edu. "Pizza" requires a subject of "koth" (use the -s flag on most mailers). 4) Within a few minutes you should get mail back telling you whether your program assembled correctly or not. If it did assemble 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 20 (or 10) programs. If no news arrives during that time, don't worry; entries are put in a queue and run through the tournament one at a time. A backlog may develop. Be patient. If your program makes it onto the hill, you will get mail every time a new program makes it onto the hill. If this is too much mail, you can use ";redcode[-??] quiet" when you first mail in your program; then you will only get mail when you make it on the top 20 list or when you are knocked off. Using ";redcode[-??] verbose" will give you even more mail; here you get mail every time a new challenger arrives, even if they don't make it onto the top 20 list. Often programmers want to try out slight variations in their programs. If you already have a program named "foo V1.0" on the hill, adding the line ";kill foo" to a new program will automatically bump foo 1.0 off the hill. Just ";kill" will remove all of your programs when you submit the new one. The server kills programs by assigning an impossibly low score; it may therefore take another successful challenge before a killed program is actually removed from the hill. SAMPLE ENTRY: ;redcode ;name Dwarf ;author A. K. Dewdney ;strategy Throw DAT bombs around memory, hitting every 4th memory cell. ;strategy This program was presented in the first Corewar article. bomb DAT #0 dwarf ADD #4, bomb MOV bomb, @bomb JMP dwarf END dwarf ; Programs start at the first line unless ; an "END start" pseudo-op appears to indicate ; the first logical instruction. Also, nothing ; after the END instruction will be assembled. Here are the Specs for the various hills: ICWS'88 Standard Hill Specs: (Accessed with ";redcode", available at "stormking") hillsize: 20 warriors rounds: 100 coresize: 8000 max. processes: 8000 duration: after 80,000 cycles, a tie is declared. max. entry length: 100 minimum distance: 100 instruction set: ICWS '88 ICWS Annual Tournament Hill Specs: (Accessed with ";redcode-icws", available at "stormking") hillsize: 20 warriors rounds: 100 coresize: 8192 instructions max. processes: 8000 per program duration: After 100,000 cycles, a tie is declared. max. entry length: 300 minimum distance: 300 instruction set: ICWS '88 ICWS'94 Draft Hill Specs: (Accessed with ";redcode-94", available at "pizza") hillsize: 20 warriors rounds: 100 coresize: 8000 max. processes: 8000 duration: after 80,000 cycles, a tie is declared. max. entry length: 100 minimum distance: 100 instruction set: extended ICWS '94 Draft ICWS'94 Beginner's Hill Specs: (Accessed with ";redcode-b", available at "pizza") hillsize: 20 warriors rounds: 100 coresize: 8000 max. processes: 8000 duration: after 80,000 cycles, a tie is declared. max. entry length: 100 minimum distance: 100 instruction set: extended ICWS '94 Draft max. age: after 100 successful challenges, warriors are retired. ICWS'94 Experimental (Big) Hill Specs: (Accessed with ";redcode-94x", available at "pizza") hillsize: 20 warriors rounds: 100 coresize: 55440 max. processes: 10000 duration: after 500,000 cycles, a tie is declared. max. entry length: 200 minimum distance: 200 instruction set: extended ICWS '94 Draft ICWS'94 Draft Multi-Warrior Hill Specs: (Accessed with ";redcode-94m", available at "stormking") hillsize: 10 warriors rounds: 200 coresize: 8000 max. processes: 8000 duration: after 80,000 cycles, a tie is declared. max. entry length: 100 minimum distance: 100 instruction set: extended ICWS '94 Draft ICWS'94 Experimental (Big) Multi-Warrior Hill Specs: (Accessed with ";redcode-94xm", available at "stormking") hillsize: 20 warriors rounds: 100 coresize: 55440 max. processes: 10000 duration: after 500,000 cycles, a tie is declared. max. entry length: 200 minimum distance: 200 instruction set: extended ICWS '94 Draft If you just want to get a status report without actually challenging the hills, send email with ";status" as the message body (and don't forget "Subject: koth" for "pizza"). If you send mail to "pizza" with "Subject: koth help" you will receive instructions that may be more up to date than those contained in this document. At stormking, a message body with ";help" will return brief instructions. If you submit code containing a ";test" line, your warrior will be assembled but not actually pitted against the warriors on the hill. All hills run portable MARS (pMARS) version 0.8, a platform-independent corewar system available at ftp.csua.berkeley.edu. The '94 and '94x hills allow three experimental opcodes and addressing modes currently not covered in the ICWS'94 draft document: SEQ - Skip if EQual (synonym for CMP) SNE - Skip if Not Equal NOP - (No OPeration) * - indirect using A-field as pointer { - predecrement indirect using A-field } - postincrement indirect using A-field [ToC] _________________________________________________________________ Is it DAT 0, 0 or DAT #0, #0? How do I compare to core? Core is initialized to DAT 0, 0. This is an "illegal" instruction under ICWS'88 rules and strictly compliant assemblers (such as KotH or pmars -8) will not let you write a DAT 0, 0 instruction - only DAT #0, #0. So this begs the question, how to compare something to see if it is empty core. The answer is, most likely the instruction before your first instruction and the instruction after your last instruction are both DAT 0, 0. You can use them, or any other likely unmodified instructions, for comparison. Note that under ICWS'94, DAT 0, 0 is a legal instruction. [ToC] _________________________________________________________________ How does SLT (Skip if Less Than) work? SLT gives some people trouble because of the way modular arithmetic works. It is important to note that all negative numbers are converted to positive numbers before a battles begins. Example: (-1) becomes (M - 1) where M is the memory size. Once you realize that all numbers are treated as positive, it is clear what is meant by "less than". It should also be clear that no number is less than zero. [ToC] _________________________________________________________________ What is the difference between in-register and in-memory evaluation? These terms refer to the way instruction operands are evaluated. The '88 Redcode standard ICWS'88 is unclear about whether a simulator should "buffer" the result of A-operand evaluation before the B-operand is evaluated. Simulators that do buffer are said to use in-register evaluation, those that don't, in-memory evaluation. ICWS'94 clears this confusion by mandating in-register evaluation. Instructions that execute differently under these two forms of evaluation are MOV, ADD, SUB, MUL, DIV and MOD where the effective address of the A-operand is modified by evaluation of the B-operand. This is best illustrated by an example: L1 mov L2, mov.i #0,impsize Bootstrapping Strategy of copying the active portion of the program away from the initial location, leaving a decoy behind and making the relocated program as small as possible. B-Scanners Scanners which only recognize non-zero B-fields. example add #10,scan scan jmz example,10 C Measure of speed, equal to one location per cycle. Speed of light. CMP-Scanner A Scanner which uses a CMP instruction to look for opponents. example add step,scan scan cmp 10,30 jmp attack jmp example step dat #20,#20 Color Property of bombs making them visible to scanners, causing them to attack useless locations, thus slowing them down. example dat #100 Core-Clear code that sequentially overwrites core with DAT instructions; usually the last part of a program. Decoys Bogus or unused instructions meant to slow down Scanners. Typically, DATs with non-zero B-fields. DJN-Stream (also DJN-Train) Using a DJN command to rapidly decrement core locations. example ... ... djn example,<4000 Dwarf the prototypical small bomber. Gate-busting (also gate-crashing) technique to "interweave" a decrement-resistant imp-spiral (e.g. MOV 0, 2668) with a standard one to overrun imp-gates. Hybrids warriors that combine two or more of the basic strategies, either in sequence (e.g. stone->paper) or in parallel (e.g. imp/stone). Imp Program which only uses the MOV instruction. example MOV 0, 1 or example MOV 0, 2 MOV 0, 2 Imp-Gate A location in core which is bombed or decremented continuously so that an Imp can not pass. Also used to describe the program-code which maintains the gate. example ... ... SPL 0, mov.i #0,impsize Mirror see reflection. On-axis/off-axis On-axis scanners compare two locations M/2 apart, where M is the memory size. Off-axis scanners use some other separation. Optimal Constants (also optima-type constants) Bomb or scan increments chosen to cover core most effectively, i.e. leaving gaps of uniform size. Programs to calculate optimal constants and lists of optimal numbers are available at ftp.csua.berkeley.edu. Paper A Paper-like program. One which replicates itself many times. Part of the Scissors (beats) Paper (beats) Stone (beats Scissors) analogy. Pit-Trapper (also Slaver, Vampire). A program which enslaves another. Usually accomplished by bombing with JMPs to a SPL 0 pit with an optional core-clear routine. Quick Scan 2c scan of a set group of core locations with bombing if anything is found. Both of the following codes snips scan 16 locations and check for a find. If anything is found, it is attacked, otherwise 16 more locations are scanned. Example: start s1 for 8 ;'88 scan cmp start+100*s1, start+100*s1+4000 ;check two locations mov #start+100*s1-found, found ;they differ so set pointer rof jmn attack, found ;if we have something, get it s2 for 8 cmp start+100*(s2+6), start+100*(s2+6)+4000 mov #start+100*(s2+6)-found, found rof found jmz moveme, #0 ;skip attack if qscan found nothing attack cmp @found, start-1 ;does found points to empty space? add #4000, found ;no, so point to correct location mov start-1, @found ;move a bomb moveme jmp 0, 0 In ICWS'94, the quick scan code is more compact because of the SNE opcode: start ;'94 scan s1 for 4 sne start+400*s1, start+400*s1+100 ;check two locations seq start+400*s1+200, start+400*s1+300 ;check two locations mov #start+400*s1-found, found ;they differ so set pointer rof jmn which, found ;if we have something, get it s2 for 4 sne start+400*(s2+4), start+400*(s2+4)+100 seq start+400*(s2+4)+200, start+400*(s2+4)+300 mov #start+400*(s2+4)-found-100, found rof found jmz moveme, #0 ;skip attack if qscan found nothing add #100, -1 ;increment pointer till we get the which jmn -1, @found ;right place mov start-1, @found ;move a bomb moveme jmp 0, 0 Reflection Copy of a program or program part, positioned to make the active program invisible to a CMP-scanner. Replicator Generic for Paper. A program which makes many copies of itself, each copy also making copies. Self-Splitting Strategy of amplifying the number of processes executing a piece of code. example SPL 0 loop ADD #10, example MOV example, @example JMP loop Scanner A program which searches through core for an opponent rather than bombing blindly. Scissors A program designed to beat replicators, usually a (B-field scanning) vampire. Part of the Paper-Scissors-Stone analogy. Self-Repair Ability of a program to fix it's own code after attack. Silk A replicator which splits off a process to each new copy before actually copying the code. This allows it to replicate extremely quickly. This technique is only possible under the '94 draft, because it requires post-increment indirect addressing. Example: spl 1 mov.i -1, 0 spl 1 ;generate 6 consecutive processes silk spl 3620, #0 ;split to new copy mov.i >-1, }-1 ;copy self to new location mov.i bomb, >2000 ;linear bombing mov.i bomb, }2042 ;A-indirect bombing for anti-vamp jmp silk, {silk ;reset source pointer, make new copy bomb dat.f >2667, >5334 ;anti-imp bomb Slaver see Pit-Trapper. Stealth Property of programs, or program parts, which are invisible to scanners, accomplished by using zero B-fields and reflections. Stone A Stone-like program designed to be a small bomber. Part of the Paper-Scissors-Stone analogy. Stun A type of bomb which makes the opponent multiply useless processes, thus slowing it down. Example is referred to as a spl-jmp bomb. example spl 0 jmp -1 Two-Pass Core-Clear (also spl/dat Core-Clear) core clear that fills core first with SPL instructions, then with DATs. This is very effective in killing paper and certain imp-spiral variations. Vampire see Pit-Trapper. Vector Launch one of several means to start an imp-spiral running. As fast as Binary Launch, but requiring much less code. See also JMP/ADD Launch and Binary Launch. This example is one form of a Vector Launch: impsize equ 2667 example spl 1 ; extend by adding more spl 1's spl 1 djn.a @imp,#0 ; jmp @ a series of pointers dat #0,imp+(3*impsize) dat #0,imp+(2*impsize) dat #0,imp+(1*impsize) dat #0,imp+(0*impsize) imp mov.i #0,impsize [ToC] _________________________________________________________________ Other questions? Just ask in the rec.games.corewar newsgroup or contact me (address below). If you are shy, check out the Core War archives first to see if your question has been answered before. [ToC] _________________________________________________________________ Credits Additions, corrections, etc. to this document are solicited. Thanks in particular to the following people who have contributed major portions of this document: Paul Kline, Randy Graham. Mark Durham wrote the first version of the FAQ. The rec.games.corewar FAQ is Copyright 1995 and maintained by: Stefan Strack, PhD stst@vuse.vanderbilt.edu Dept. Molecular Physiol. and Biophysics stst@idnsun.gpct.vanderbilt.edu Rm. 762, MRB-1 stracks@vuctrvax.bitnet Vanderbilt Univ. Medical Center Voice: +615-322-4389 Nashville, TN 37232-6600, USA FAX: +615-322-7236 _________________________________________________________________ $Id: corewar-faq.html,v 3.6 1995/10/12 22:44:37 stst Exp stst $ From: marsden_a@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz Subject: Queueueues Date: 1996/01/18 Message-ID: <0099CA14.4EDA0CC0.2@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar The queue on the Pizza Hill seems to be growing by the minute... mostly because people are submitting their warriors to more than one hill or submitting several warriors in a short period of time. Can Pizza be rigged up so that only one program per author can be in the holding pen? This may be a good solution. I'm just a beginner at Core Wars and I've found that the best way to test a warrior is by downloading other warriors and running your own tests. When you have a close-to-decent warrior you then submit it to the hill. It saves everyone time... but if you can't get access to a simulator this is not possible :-( Anton. From: Chris Arguin Subject: Re: Pre-Newbie, Redcoder bug? Date: 1996/01/18 Message-ID: #1/1 references: <4d6rcr$2vn@netnews.upenn.edu> <4d99pa$qr9@hermes.cair.du.edu> <4dggkv$aee@info-server.surrey.ac.uk> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar On 16 Jan 1996, X I M Oversby wrote: > I am also having problems with my Redcode simulator. I use pmarsv version 0.8 > for DOS but unfortunately I cannot get a proper graphic display. Using any of > the options like -v 514 results in a GRSetMode error message. Using the 286 > version I can get a graphic display but this is only version 0.6 as far as I > can see and does not implement p-space. I am using a Pentium with Number 9 > graphics card so I think the system should be up to the job. Any suggestions? I realize that this may not be the answer you want, but I have the same simulator and, after having gotten the graphics modes to work, decided that I much prefered the text display. It's easier to see what is going on. -- Chris Arguin | "I realize, of course, that it's no shame to cpa@hopper.unh.edu | be poor... But it's no great honor either!" http://leonardo.sr.unh.edu/ | - The Fiddler on the Roof arguin/home.html | From: sieben@imap1.asu.edu Subject: Re: Pre-Newbie, Redcoder bug? Date: 1996/01/18 Message-ID: <4dk7lc$iqc@news.asu.edu>#1/1 references: <4dggkv$aee@info-server.surrey.ac.uk> <4dildk$1on@newsbf02.news.aol.com> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar : I have a (at least superficially) similar problem. I have a 486/33 and : when I try to run pmarsv (0.7.0 & 0.8.0 - I haven't tested any others) : about 35% of the time it locks up, and prints 2 letters, over and over : again, in different colors. The colors and letters are different every : time. The workaround is to simply turn the machine off turbo. When I run : at 12 Mhz I have hed no problems with pmarsv whatsoever : My $0.02, : Ansel Greenwood Sermersheim The grx library used to compile pmarsv is very fast and on the edge. I think this is why sometimes there are problems. I had to disable my 0-wait state jumper on my AGVA graphics card to make some of the library functions work. I still have missing pixels in the cdb output in graphics mode, but otherwise it works fine and it is fast. One thing you can try is to install a specific driver for your graphics card. This is done by setting a go32 environment variable. The drivers are available either in the djgpp or the grx distribution (I'm not sure which but try the grx first). This worked in one occasion. The default video driver is VESA and it sometimes doesn't work even with VESA compatible graphics cards. Nandor. From: bremermr@cartoon.ecn.purdue.edu (Myer R. Bremer) Subject: Re: Newbie Help [Addressing Modes] Date: 1996/01/18 Message-ID: <4dlh05$bs@mozo.cc.purdue.edu>#1/1 references: <4djn6i$nao@spool.cs.wisc.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar In article <4djn6i$nao@spool.cs.wisc.edu>, Tyler Novak wrote: > >says look at the web site for the latest standard. The above mentioned >draft is good but contains nothing about the addressing modes '{', '}', >and '*'. Now I take '{' and '}' to mean preincrement and post increment >respectivly but they are not mentioned anywhere. I don't really have any >ideas as to what '*' could mean. > { is pre decrement from the a field } is post increment from the a field * is simply indirect address from the a field. no incr or decr. of course <,>,and @ serve the same purpose but point off the b field instead. m r bremer From: bremermr@cartoon.ecn.purdue.edu (Myer R. Bremer) Subject: Re: Transitioning to coreclear Date: 1996/01/18 Message-ID: <4dlgrb$4e@mozo.cc.purdue.edu>#1/1 references: newsgroups: rec.games.corewar In article , David Boeren wrote: > >Is there any good file to read explaining different ways to transition to >coreclear, preferably with examples? > >As far as I can see, you can do it in several ways: >1. Decrement a counter. This works for a bomber, but not for scanners. >2. Arrange for a certain spot that you will not be executing to be hit to > signal that coreclear should start. >3. Bomb yourself to begin coreclear. I understand that this is common, but > I'm having trouble understanding how to do it so that the bomb doesn't > have ill effects. Is this just super-greatly dependant on having the > exact right bomb? it would be nice if the method was more general... > greetings. typically bombers and scanners have coreclears so we'll start off with how they typically begin their clears. a spl/add/mov/djn usually drops its spl onto it's djn to start the clear. spl #STEP,-STEP add -1, 1 mov }-1, 1 <--this bombs core and then increments to -1,1 djn.f -2, #1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar >From: o0619@genio.eui.upm.es (Jose Santos Pulido Garcia) >26 2/ 97/ 1 JS_TEST_L JS Pulido 7 0 > Is this the worst koth result of the corewar history? :'-( > (Planar, answer 'NO' please) Why me ? Anyway, if you go back and read the second issue of Push Off (March 17, 1993), you'll see that a much shorter program can get an even worse result. But getting 0/100/ 0 would take a bit more work. -- Planar From: John K W Subject: Re: paris Date: 1996/01/19 Message-ID: <4doqev$rtt@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu>#1/1 references: <4dn6nf$beg@larry.rice.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar ptr spl {200, >4200 bomb dat {10,>4010 sbomb spl #20, < -100 ;execution begins here go mov sbomb, > ptr mov sbomb, } ptr djn.a $go, 4200 bomb dat {10,>4010 sbomb spl #20, <3900 ;execution begins here go mov sbomb, > ptr mov sbomb, } ptr djn.a $go, <-100 -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | "I don't have the power because I've got the monkeys. I've got | \ the power because I'll set the monkeys LOOSE." -Dave Foley / -=- http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~ifio452/ -=- From: Kurt Franke Subject: stormking 94x (big) hill Date: 1996/01/19 Message-ID: <30FFC66C.7B81E309@rice.edu>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Well, I wrote my own handshake code (using Robert Macrae's idea), put a once through cmp scanner after it, and am now king of the 94x hill. This hill is of a much different flavor -- the top two warriors use handshaking. Does anyone want to try to knock me off? The hill isn't even full yet. Kurt From: Kafka Subject: paris Date: 1996/01/19 Message-ID: <4dn6nf$beg@larry.rice.edu>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar I only recently graduated to the "pro" ranks of the main hill from being a beginner for several months. I had a couple of warriors that made it on at the extreme lower part of the hill (23rd and below), until I submitted paris. Granted, it did not do spectacularly, having already fallen off at the age of 11, although it was once as high as 8th. However, it was my first warrior to place solidly on the hill, and I was further impressed with it because of the simplicity of the program. It is just a core clear! Ha, ha! I know that most would have thought it impossible for a core clear to get on the main hill, but I made one that did. Here's the code, after I boot it away: ptr spl {200, >4200 bomb dat {10,>4010 sbomb spl #20, < -100 ;execution begins here go mov sbomb, > ptr mov sbomb, } ptr djn.a $go, Subject: SSLT (last message) Date: 1996/01/20 Message-ID: #1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Opps... Now I feel like an idiot. If you haven't responded yet, you can ignore that last message. Sorry. Was staring at it too long I guess :) -- Chris Arguin | "I realize, of course, that it's no shame to cpa@hopper.unh.edu | be poor... But it's no great honor either!" http://leonardo.sr.unh.edu/ | - The Fiddler on the Roof arguin/home.html | From: Chris Arguin Subject: SLT and PMARS.8 Date: 1996/01/20 Message-ID: #1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar WARNING: The code that follows is ugly. Keep in mind that I've only started this stuff a week ago. I'm sure it has plenty of bugs in it. I've been trying to write a bomber in PMars ver .8. According to the FAQ file that gets posted here, all address get converted to positive numbers, right? And right in the FAQ, it says something about how nothing is less than zero. I was orginially depending on that, and when my program still wasn't working correctly, I changed the instruction that wasn't working (an SLT) so that it would test against a zero. In Theory, it should never skip the next instruction, right? It did. The complete code is below: ;redcode-94 ;name Sample Bomber ;author Chris Arguin ;assert CORESIZE==8000 org start s dat #5333, #5333 ; Start in thirds, don't hit MY third start mov.i -1, 2666 ; Bomb Address add.ab #2666, start ; Get ready to hit next location slt #0, s ; If we aren't at about to kill ourselves jmp start ; Return to hit again div.ab #2, start ; Increase hitting area mov.ba start, start+1 ; Decrease Increment size mov.b start+2, 0 ; Get ready to calculate add.b start, -1 ; Find out maximum size mov.b -2, s ; Set the guard paramater mov.b start, -2 ; Reset a paramater exuent jmp start end Any clue? Am I misunderstanding something? -- Chris Arguin | "I realize, of course, that it's no shame to cpa@hopper.unh.edu | be poor... But it's no great honor either!" http://leonardo.sr.unh.edu/ | - The Fiddler on the Roof arguin/home.html | From: John K W Subject: Re: paris Date: 1996/01/20 Message-ID: <4drpgj$sc9@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu>#1/1 references: <4drad6$d8v@larry.rice.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Kafka wrote: >Here's the code for paris. I think this is the one I turned in to koth, >but the only changes really would be with the junk lines I have to >confuse scanners. I'm not sure, but I think the changes that JKW made >would not have improved it's performance. Specifiaclly, he sacrificed >the coloring of the spl bombs, which lowers the warrior's score by >something like fifty points aginst agony (140 .vs. 90). I'm also not >sure what he meant when he said that it misses some spots in memory. >The only places I know that it doesn't get are the ones 4000 away from >the warrior, and the changes don't appear to affect that. Ah, well, here >it is, in any case: Yeah, after I did that, out of curiosity I tried it against scanners... I know what you mean. The thing is, I've been so obsessed with killing imp programs lately, that I'm looking at all warriors in terms of beating them. :) -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | "I don't have the power because I've got the monkeys. I've got | \ the power because I'll set the monkeys LOOSE." -Dave Foley / -=- http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~ifio452/ -=- From: Kafka Subject: paris Date: 1996/01/20 Message-ID: <4drad6$d8v@larry.rice.edu>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Here's the code for paris. I think this is the one I turned in to koth, but the only changes really would be with the junk lines I have to confuse scanners. I'm not sure, but I think the changes that JKW made would not have improved it's performance. Specifiaclly, he sacrificed the coloring of the spl bombs, which lowers the warrior's score by something like fifty points aginst agony (140 .vs. 90). I'm also not sure what he meant when he said that it misses some spots in memory. The only places I know that it doesn't get are the ones 4000 away from the warrior, and the changes don't appear to affect that. Ah, well, here it is, in any case: ;redcode-94 ;assert CORESIZE == 8000 ;author Kafka ;name paris ;strategy boot-> spl/spl/dat clear bdist equ 3300 boot i for 6 mov ptr-1+i,ptr-1+i+bdist rof jmp sbomb+bdist,<-50 ptr spl {200, >4200 bomb dat {10,>4010 sbomb spl #20, < -100 ;excecution starts here after boot go mov sbomb, > ptr mov sbomb, } ptr djn.a $go, Subject: Don't Read This Unless You're Bored!! Date: 1996/01/20 Message-ID: <4dqkqq$5v9@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar I've got good news and bad news. The good news is Pizza has been operating with an etremely low load today. I think I got one submission back in under 5 minutes! The bad news is, I felt OBLIGATED to submit corewars programs, because they kept coming back so fast. I've been programming redcodes for about 13 hours, and it is now 5 in the morning. My brain is turning into apple sauce... (Looking at what I just wrote, I realize that I forgot to eat dinner...) Heh. But it was all worthwhile, 'cause I got two brand new warriors on the Hill. :) So I guess I've really got good news, and bad news, and good news... Damn I'm tired. -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | "I don't have the power because I've got the monkeys. I've got | \ the power because I'll set the monkeys LOOSE." -Dave Foley / -=- http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~ifio452/ -=- From: John K W Subject: Re: Don't Read This Unless You're Bored!! Date: 1996/01/21 Message-ID: <4drvnf$3jt@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu>#1/1 references: <4dqkqq$5v9@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu> <4droni$4a3@charnel.ecst.csuchico.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar sd@ecst.csuchico.edu (Chia Head) wrote: >Congratulations, Mr. Wilkinson, I think you set a record. Looking >at the log, you sent 15 pieces of mail in a little more than 12 >hours. Wow. Be careful not to burn yourself out. :) Yay!! Do I win a prize? >As you may have already guessed, the pizza hills are fixed. They >are actually better than fixed, and barring any unforseen events, >they will be remaining at this performance level for some time. Not bad... What happened? -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | "I don't have the power because I've got the monkeys. I've got | \ the power because I'll set the monkeys LOOSE." -Dave Foley / -=- http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~ifio452/ -=- From: sd@ecst.csuchico.edu (Chia Head) Subject: Re: Don't Read This Unless You're Bored!! Date: 1996/01/21 Message-ID: <4du5r1$gdi@charnel.ecst.csuchico.edu>#1/1 references: <4dqkqq$5v9@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu> <4droni$4a3@charnel.ecst.csuchico.edu> <4drvnf$3jt@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar John K W wrote: >sd@ecst.csuchico.edu (Chia Head) wrote: >>As you may have already guessed, the pizza hills are fixed. They >>are actually better than fixed, and barring any unforseen events, >>they will be remaining at this performance level for some time. > >Not bad... What happened? Well, spring semester starts tomorrow, so I finally got a hold of someone with enough power to help me out. The hills will probably slow down a bit once everyone gets back, but only during the day. Thos From: akemi@netcom.com (David Boeren) Subject: Re: koth using a fixed position series? Date: 1996/01/22 Message-ID: #1/1 references: <4dv1fl$dao@larry.rice.edu> <4e02ao$cfb@mozo.cc.purdue.edu> <4e0moa$6uo@larry.rice.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Kafka (bike@rice.edu) wrote: : wonder about the fixed position series that it is using, because I have : had the experience that certain of my warriors will score significantly : worse (on the order of 40 points) against some warrior that I have the : source code for when I submit it to the hill than what I get on my : computer. That is very frustarting for a neophyte such as myself. Another reason that this occurs is that some people release source code with different constants than their hill version uses. ie - different step size, different boot distance, etc, etc... : capabilities of the main hill without giving away the series, I am of : the opinion that the main hill should not run a fixed psition series. : Anybody with me? I'll agree that fixed distances probably serve no useful purpose. If they are supposed to be there to test boot distances and the like, any change in results is purely illusionary, and will probably reverse when the constant distances change. Since the purpose is supposed to be giving people feedback to IMPROVE their warriors, this seems counter-productive. From: akemi@netcom.com (David Boeren) Subject: Koolaid Pushed Off (code inside) Date: 1996/01/22 Message-ID: #1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Well, Koolaid II v2.2 finally got pushed off today at the age of 51. Not too bad for my first pro-level warrior. I ended up contributing to my own end by the submission of my 2nd pro-level warrior, Time Lapse, who tends to beat up on Koolaid a bit. Anyway, I'm releasing the full source code to Koolaid II v2.2 so that everyone can enjoy/learn/mock it or whatever they want. All constants are the same as the one on the hill, I didn't change anything. ;redcode-94 verbose ;name Koolaid II: WoGG v2.2 ;author David Boeren ;assert CORESIZE == 8000 ;strategy Koolaid II: The Wrath of Goofy Grape v2.2 ;strategy heavy stun bomber -> coreclear ;strategy v0.1 New bombing engine with ideas from Tornado ;strategy v2.0 Major rewrite for smaller code ;strategy v2.1 Improved coreclear ;strategy v2.2 Added boot & decoy step equ 184 ; modulo 8 bombing stepb equ (step*2) stepc equ (step*3) gate equ ptr-7 org boot ptr JMP.B step, #2 DAT.F #16, #0 SPL.B #16, #1 bomb1 SPL.B #2, #-step bomb2 MOV.I -1, }-1 ; heavy stun bomb loop MOV.I bomb2, @targ MOV.I bomb1, #1/1 references: <4dv1fl$dao@larry.rice.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Kafka (bike@rice.edu) wrote: : I recently submitted the same warrior to the hill twice, because I : expectd it's performance to vary significantly with different : submissions due to the warrior's character. However, the warrior got : EXACTLY the same scores against every warrior that was still on the hill : from the previous submission. That is it's score against Hector 2 the : first time was 46/69/85 and the second time it was 46/69/85! I can only : assume, then, that pizza is using a fixed position series to run each : warrior, a fact that I was unaware of until now. Am I the only one who : did not know this? Doesn't the fact that pizza runs a fixed position : series mean that if someone were to figure this series out s/he would : have an unfair advantage on the hill? Is it supposed to be running this : way? I am quite confused, in case you cannot tell..... I cannot explain what you saw, but I know that Pizza does not use fixed positions because on occasions that I have submitted the same exact program twice to the beginner hill they have not gotten identical scores. In fact, you can see examples often on beginner where the same exact program scored differently enough to make a full point higher or lower on the hill score. Of course it's possible that only the pro hill uses a fixed position, but I don't see why they'd do this. Personally, I think you just ended up in some odd situation where the same random number seed was used, perhaps due to a program reset. Or maybe you just got lucky. The reason that Pizza runs many battles is to ensure that the results wil NOT have much random variation, maybe it's actually doing a good job of that? Even so it'd take a lot of luck though. Hmm, we know that Pizza stores your scores against all the warriors so it can look them up instead of re-running the battles every time someone new comes on the hill. Maybe it got confused because your program had the exact same name? Maybe you ought to try using version numbers? :) From: John K W Subject: Re: SSLT (last message) Date: 1996/01/22 Message-ID: <4dur7g$sjq@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu>#1/1 references: newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Chris Arguin wrote: > >Opps... Now I feel like an idiot. If you haven't responded yet, you can >ignore that last message. Sorry. Was staring at it too long I guess :) slt #0, s ; If we aren't at about to kill ourselves I'm curious... was this line suppose to be: slt s, #0 ; If we aren't at about to kill ourselves -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | "I don't have the power because I've got the monkeys. I've got | \ the power because I'll set the monkeys LOOSE." -Dave Foley / -=- http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~ifio452/ -=- From: bremermr@cartoon.ecn.purdue.edu (Myer R. Bremer) Subject: Re: koth using a fixed position series? Date: 1996/01/22 Message-ID: <4e02ao$cfb@mozo.cc.purdue.edu>#1/1 references: <4dv1fl$dao@larry.rice.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar In article <4dv1fl$dao@larry.rice.edu>, Kafka wrote: >I recently submitted the same warrior to the hill twice, because I >expectd it's performance to vary significantly with different >submissions due to the warrior's character. However, the warrior got >EXACTLY the same scores against every warrior that was still on the hill >from the previous submission. That is it's score against Hector 2 the >first time was 46/69/85 and the second time it was 46/69/85! I can only >assume, then, that pizza is using a fixed position series to run each >warrior, a fact that I was unaware of until now. Am I the only one who greetings. while i'm not exactly the authority on this subject i think i may know the answer. the pizza hills DO run with a fixed position series so that you can change a boot distance, step size, etc and see it's true effect on your score instead of random fluctuations due to the random number stream. However, this number is changed each month so learning the series really won't do you much good. the powers that be may have a more compete explanation. m r bremer From: lewin@netcom.com (Karl Lewin) Subject: Re: koth using a fixed position series? Date: 1996/01/22 Message-ID: #1/1 references: <4dv1fl$dao@larry.rice.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar I'm pretty sure that it does use a fixed series and it is changed monthly or so. I'm not sure of the details but this is close I think. David Boeren (akemi@netcom.com) wrote: : Kafka (bike@rice.edu) wrote: : : I recently submitted the same warrior to the hill twice, because I : : expectd it's performance to vary significantly with different : : submissions due to the warrior's character. However, the warrior got : : EXACTLY the same scores against every warrior that was still on the hill : : from the previous submission. That is it's score against Hector 2 the : : first time was 46/69/85 and the second time it was 46/69/85! I can only : : assume, then, that pizza is using a fixed position series to run each : : warrior, a fact that I was unaware of until now. Am I the only one who : : did not know this? Doesn't the fact that pizza runs a fixed position : : series mean that if someone were to figure this series out s/he would : : have an unfair advantage on the hill? Is it supposed to be running this : : way? I am quite confused, in case you cannot tell..... : I cannot explain what you saw, but I know that Pizza does not use fixed : positions because on occasions that I have submitted the same exact : program twice to the beginner hill they have not gotten identical : scores. In fact, you can see examples often on beginner where the same : exact program scored differently enough to make a full point higher or : lower on the hill score. : Of course it's possible that only the pro hill uses a fixed position, but : I don't see why they'd do this. Personally, I think you just ended up : in some odd situation where the same random number seed was used, perhaps : due to a program reset. Or maybe you just got lucky. The reason that : Pizza runs many battles is to ensure that the results wil NOT have much : random variation, maybe it's actually doing a good job of that? Even so : it'd take a lot of luck though. : Hmm, we know that Pizza stores your scores against all the warriors so it : can look them up instead of re-running the battles every time someone new : comes on the hill. Maybe it got confused because your program had the : exact same name? Maybe you ought to try using version numbers? :) -- From: Kafka Subject: Re: koth using a fixed position series? Date: 1996/01/22 Message-ID: <4e0moa$6uo@larry.rice.edu>#1/1 references: <4dv1fl$dao@larry.rice.edu> <4e02ao$cfb@mozo.cc.purdue.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Okay, I guess I can understand the idea of testing boot distances and such in the absence of random fluctuations; however, I would question wether these are "real" effects or just results of the particular sequence of fixed positions that are currently being used. I also wonder about the fixed position series that it is using, because I have had the experience that certain of my warriors will score significantly worse (on the order of 40 points) against some warrior that I have the source code for when I submit it to the hill than what I get on my computer. That is very frustarting for a neophyte such as myself. I am of the opinion that the hill should be as similar as possible to the pMARS simulator that we have, i.e. the hill should run a "random position series" or the pMARS simulator should have the same type of fixed position series capability that the main hill does. Since there is really no way to give the pMARS simulator the fixed position capabilities of the main hill without giving away the series, I am of the opinion that the main hill should not run a fixed psition series. Anybody with me? -Kafka From: Chris Arguin Subject: Re: SSLT (last message) Date: 1996/01/22 Message-ID: #1/1 references: <4dur7g$sjq@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar On 22 Jan 1996, John K W wrote: > Chris Arguin wrote: > > > >Opps... Now I feel like an idiot. If you haven't responded yet, you can > >ignore that last message. Sorry. Was staring at it too long I guess :) > > slt #0, s ; If we aren't at about to kill ourselves > > I'm curious... was this line suppose to be: > > slt s, #0 ; If we aren't at about to kill ourselves Yep... It wasn't orginially that, but when I was having trouble, I changed the code so that it would always trigger the condition. That's why it confused me when it never did... I just had to back off for a few minutes to see my mistake. -- Chris Arguin | "I realize, of course, that it's no shame to cpa@hopper.unh.edu | be poor... But it's no great honor either!" http://leonardo.sr.unh.edu/ | - The Fiddler on the Roof arguin/home.html | From: John K W Subject: (no subject) Date: 1996/01/22 Message-ID: <4e0htl$279@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Well, guess what? After premiering at NUMBER ONE, # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 42/ 46/ 13 SETI JKW 138 1 2 38/ 39/ 23 quiz Schitzo 137 407 3 21/ 8/ 71 Evol Cap 6.6 John Wilkinson 134 22 4 37/ 41/ 22 Frontwards v2 Steven Morrell 133 260 5 24/ 16/ 60 Impfinity v4g1 Planar 133 207 SETI was pushed off the hill two days later at the age of 37. How, might you ask, did this happen? Well, SETI was a DieHard killer extrodinaire. And the Hill underwent a staggering change, with the loss of several impy programs... 22 36/ 42/ 22 odysseus Kafka 129 9 23 38/ 47/ 15 Provascan 3.0 Beppe Bezzi 129 193 24 36/ 43/ 21 Wraith Kurt Franke 128 4 25 34/ 42/ 24 Persistence Kurt Franke 126 1 26 37/ 51/ 12 SETI JKW 124 37 Here's the coreclear (given to me by Anders Ivner), which both allowed it to slaughter imps, and caused it to be slaughtered by almost everything else. :) add.a #ISTEP+1,cpt mov @-1, {cpt jmp -2 dat -10, -10 c dat -STEP, -STEP glue spl #0, #0 cpt spl }2, #3 -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | "I don't have the power because I've got the monkeys. I've got | \ the power because I'll set the monkeys LOOSE." -Dave Foley / -=- http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~ifio452/ -=- From: Kafka Subject: koth using a fixed position series? Date: 1996/01/22 Message-ID: <4dv1fl$dao@larry.rice.edu>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar I recently submitted the same warrior to the hill twice, because I expectd it's performance to vary significantly with different submissions due to the warrior's character. However, the warrior got EXACTLY the same scores against every warrior that was still on the hill from the previous submission. That is it's score against Hector 2 the first time was 46/69/85 and the second time it was 46/69/85! I can only assume, then, that pizza is using a fixed position series to run each warrior, a fact that I was unaware of until now. Am I the only one who did not know this? Doesn't the fact that pizza runs a fixed position series mean that if someone were to figure this series out s/he would have an unfair advantage on the hill? Is it supposed to be running this way? I am quite confused, in case you cannot tell..... Kafka From: John K W Subject: Re: Don't Read This Unless You're Bored!! Date: 1996/01/22 Message-ID: <4dur1c$sjq@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu>#1/1 references: <4dqkqq$5v9@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu> <4droni$4a3@charnel.ecst.csuchico.edu> <4drvnf$3jt@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu> <4du5r1$gdi@charnel.ecst.csuchico.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar sd@ecst.csuchico.edu (Chia Head) wrote: >>Not bad... What happened? > >Well, spring semester starts tomorrow, so I finally got a hold of >someone with enough power to help me out. The hills will probably >slow down a bit once everyone gets back, but only during the day. Yeah, I noticed you were getting approximately 0 load on your server a lot of the time... That can't last forever. :) -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | "I don't have the power because I've got the monkeys. I've got | \ the power because I'll set the monkeys LOOSE." -Dave Foley / -=- http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~ifio452/ -=- From: Kurt Franke Subject: Re: FINDING FUN WEB SIGHTS Date: 1996/01/23 Message-ID: <31059141.2EC94F87@rice.edu>#1/1 references: <00001f35+000005f4@msn.com> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Lee Hobart wrote: :> :> blah blah blah :> :> That's why we have came up with the TREASURE HUNT! :> :> We will be offering tremendous treasure for those astute enough :> to find it. It will take detective :> work and persistence for you to locate. Get your friends and family :> to help. The prizes will be worth ;> the effort. :> :> blah blah blah. :> DIPPYNAME@AOL.COM You people sure are lucky I posted the code for persistence. All right, who's holding out on the code for "detective work". We need that warrior to find the magical mystery prizes! -- and then dat-bomb them! Kurt From: bremermr@cartoon.ecn.purdue.edu (Myer R. Bremer) Subject: ;fight option Date: 1996/01/23 Message-ID: <4e3k56$hjt@mozo.cc.purdue.edu>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar greetings. i really like jkw's idea of the ;fight option. many times my warrior would have a particularly nasty time with one of the others on the hill. a few ;fight options against the trouble makers would help me out more AND reduce the load on pizza. this is a good idea. how difficult would it be to implement? jkw and i will be really annoying if the powers that be don't respond. regards. From: John K W Subject: Program "0 for 100" (length 6) by "John K W" Date: 1996/01/23 Message-ID: <4e3dgi$5cq@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Program "0 for 100" (length 6) by "John K W" (contact address "jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu"): ;strategy Lose points. Break records. :-) 0 for 100 wins: 0 Ties: 0 Your overall score: 0.000000 You have been pushed off the ICWS '94 Draft hill. The current ICWS '94 Draft hill: # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 32/ 13/ 55 Impfinity v4g1 Planar 150 271 2 42/ 39/ 19 quiz Schitzo 146 471 3 32/ 18/ 50 Hector 2 Kurt Franke 145 386 4 32/ 23/ 44 La Bomba Beppe Bezzi 141 466 5 37/ 34/ 29 Thermite II Robert Macrae 141 72 6 40/ 38/ 22 testnorm Maurizio Vittuari 141 54 7 34/ 27/ 39 Jack in the box Beppe Bezzi 140 838 8 41/ 42/ 18 Frontwards v2 Steven Morrell 140 324 9 23/ 8/ 69 Evol Cap 6.6 John Wilkinson 139 86 10 30/ 20/ 50 juliet and paper M R Bremer, B. Bezzi 139 467 11 38/ 39/ 23 Boombastic Maurizio Vittuari 138 206 12 25/ 12/ 64 Hazy.Shade.Of.Winter John K W 138 18 13 33/ 29/ 38 Blue Funk 5 Steven Morrell 137 107 14 35/ 33/ 32 Mason 2.0 Robert Macrae 137 207 15 36/ 35/ 29 odysseus Kafka 137 19 16 23/ 9/ 68 Night Train Karl Lewin 136 358 17 38/ 41/ 21 Time Lapse v0.8 David Boeren 136 9 18 40/ 44/ 16 Provascan 3.0 Beppe Bezzi 136 221 19 34/ 32/ 35 Torch t18 P.Kline 135 850 20 38/ 41/ 21 Wraith Kurt Franke 135 22 21 26/ 18/ 56 Test John Wilkinson 135 6 22 35/ 37/ 28 Time Lapse v0.1 David Boeren 134 42 23 38/ 43/ 19 Harmony P.Kline 133 25 24 28/ 23/ 49 Hazy Shade Of Winter John K W 133 61 25 40/ 50/ 10 Solo P.Kline 131 1 26 0/100/ 0 0 for 100 John K W 0 0 Hahaha. Do I win a prize? Here's the code, for all you masochistic, suicidal players to put at the start of your best warriors. :) And Planar, if your listening, I wanna see this in your archives! _____________________________________________________________ ;redcode-94 ;name 0 for 100 ;author John K W ;strategy Lose points. Break records. :-) p: ldp.b #0, #0 sne.b p, #-1 ;die first round dat 100, 200 seq.b p, #0 jmp 1 dat 100, 200 _____________________________________________________________ -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | "I don't have the power because I've got the monkeys. I've got | \ the power because I'll set the monkeys LOOSE." -Dave Foley / -=- http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~ifio452/ -=- From: John K W Subject: Re: Queues? How the !@$!@#$ do you spell that? :-) Date: 1996/01/23 Message-ID: <4e37rm$192@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu>#1/1 references: <0099CA14.4EDA0CC0.2@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar marsden_a@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz wrote: >The queue on the Pizza Hill seems to be growing by the minute... mostly >because people are submitting their warriors to more than one hill or >submitting several warriors in a short period of time. I thought Pizza had been doing extradoinary the last couple days?? >Can Pizza be rigged up so that only one program per author can be in the >holding pen? This may be a good solution. Ehh. That'd just be annoying, I think. How about no more than one per author when the queue has more than 6 warriors waiting. However, I think we can police OURSELVES in this regard. I've tried to make sure I never took more 15% or so of the queue when it's gridlocked... >I'm just a beginner at Core Wars and I've found that the best way to test >a warrior is by downloading other warriors and running your own tests. When >you have a close-to-decent warrior you then submit it to the hill. It saves >everyone time... but if you can't get access to a simulator this is not >possible :-( The main problem is that unpublished warriors pose a unforseen threat. The perfect solution (in my opinion) is the ';fight' operand that I proposed a few months ago... However, I never got a reply from ANYONE about it, so maybe everyone ignored it. :/ Anyway the idea is that you'd put the lines ;fight quiz ;fight Evol Cap 6.6 ;fight Harmony In your submission. Then, your warrior would NOT challenge the Hill, but would rather simply return the results of THOSE three fights. That way, you don't waste time with battles you don't care about, and it'd avoid the nasty "artificial aging" of the Hill. -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | "I don't have the power because I've got the monkeys. I've got | \ the power because I'll set the monkeys LOOSE." -Dave Foley / -=- http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~ifio452/ -=- From: agserm@aol.com (AGSerm) Subject: Re: SSLT (last message) Date: 1996/01/23 Message-ID: <4e2utg$gp7@newsbf02.news.aol.com>#1/1 references: <4dur7g$sjq@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar In article <4dur7g$sjq@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu>, John K W writes: >>Opps... Now I feel like an idiot. If you haven't responded yet, you can >>ignore that last message. Sorry. Was staring at it too long I guess :) > > slt #0, s ; If we aren't at about to kill ourselves > >I'm curious... was this line suppose to be: > > slt s, #0 ; If we aren't at about to kill ourselves This will never be true. -1 is equal to CORESIZE-1 (i.e. normally 7999), therefore nothing can ever be less than zero. What I suspect will work is: seq s, #0 My 2 bits, Ansel Greenwood Sermersheim From: Chris Arguin Subject: P-Space Date: 1996/01/23 Message-ID: #1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar I've been looking at how I might be able to use P-space (although I won't use it until I can get a regular warrior on the beginners hill for at least a week). There appears to be one major limitation to P-space. Is there anyway to record in P-space how many rounds you've won or lost? I can't see how, but without that, how can you decide to change strategies? The best I've been able to come up with is too sweep the memory on your first run, to get your opponet's PIN number, and then scrambling his P-space on every round after that. A rather limited attack. While I'm here, any clues for Newbies on how to beat paper? I had a fairly good warrior that virtually annihilated the top two warriors on the beginner's hill, but didn't make it on because it died against rings and paper. Any modifications that have a chance to TIE with paper don't stand against anything else. I can only beat it with a luck bomb. -- Chris Arguin | "...All we had were Zeros and Ones -- And cpa@hopper.unh.edu | sometimes we didn't even have Ones." +--------------+ - Dilbert, by Scott Adams http://leonardo.sr.unh.edu/arguin/home.html | From: John K W Subject: Stormking test Date: 1996/01/23 Message-ID: <4e1e10$p04@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar I sent ';help' mail to Stormking, and recieved the help list. However, nothing I did after that cause me to recieve a reply from Stormking... What am I supposed to do here? -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | "I don't have the power because I've got the monkeys. I've got | \ the power because I'll set the monkeys LOOSE." -Dave Foley / -=- http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~ifio452/ -=- From: Steve Bailey Subject: Is there a FAQ? Date: 1996/01/23 Message-ID: <488911718wnr@zed-inst.demon.co.uk>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar I'm vaguely interested in this stuff (7 day lurker). I once read about it in Byte (or was it Sci Am?), ooh, 20 years ago? How do you do it? Is there a place to send a program or can you run them at home an a PC? ...? === Steve Bailey ZED Instruments Ltd sgb@zed-inst.demon.co.uk http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/SGBailey Work: Electronics Play: Go 2kyu WestSurrey 101374.624@compuserve.com JETHRO TULL; John, Elton; Khachaturian; Knight, Gladys & The Pips; From: John K W Subject: SETI Date: 1996/01/23 Message-ID: <4e1v2f$8mq@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu>#1/1 references: <4e0htl$279@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar John K W wrote: > add.a #ISTEP+1,cpt > mov @-1, {cpt > jmp -2 > dat -10, -10 >c dat -STEP, -STEP >glue spl #0, #0 >cpt spl }2, #3 Whoops. That last line should be "cpt spl #2, #3"... I think. :) That clear was ripped on-line, so I didn't test it... -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | "I don't have the power because I've got the monkeys. I've got | \ the power because I'll set the monkeys LOOSE." -Dave Foley / -=- http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~ifio452/ -=- From: John K W Subject: Re: koth using a fixed position series? Date: 1996/01/23 Message-ID: <4e1dt6$p04@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu>#1/1 references: <4dv1fl$dao@larry.rice.edu> <4e02ao$cfb@mozo.cc.purdue.edu> <4e0moa$6uo@larry.rice.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Kafka wrote: >capabilities of the main hill without giving away the series, I am of >the opinion that the main hill should not run a fixed psition series. >Anybody with me? > > -Kafka Originally, I was definately with you. The problem with using random settings is that people will want to submit their warriors multiple times to get a better picture of what's going on. At the same time, they will certainly only kill the "unluckiest" of their submissions. I don't know... The only totally fair solution, it would seem, is to run all possibilities. Without pspace, that only ammounts to 16,000 rounds, per warrior on the Hill. (only!!! :) With pspace, it's on the order of several quadrillion if I remember correctly... Another, more interesting solution, would be to have some sort of 'back burner' system. Whereby you could request another SET of random challenges for your warrior. Get it? So like, instead of submitting over and over until you got lucky, you could request replays, and they would all be averaged together. It would be a 'back burner' because NEW challenges would take precedance over additional replays. -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | "I don't have the power because I've got the monkeys. I've got | \ the power because I'll set the monkeys LOOSE." -Dave Foley / -=- http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~ifio452/ -=- From: H_H_RARITIES@msn.com (Lee Hobart) Subject: FINDING FUN WEB SIGHTS Date: 1996/01/23 Message-ID: <00001f35+000005f4@msn.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar The newest form of entertainment on the NET. We know how much fun it is to go around the world and see the different sights. But instead of just going blindly we want to make it fun. That's why we have came up with the TREASURE HUNT! We will be offering tremendous treasure for those astute enough to find it. It will take detective work and persistence for you to locate. Get your friends and family to help. The prizes will be worth the effort. Twice a week you will be Emailed clues to figure out. These will include web pages from around the world. On those pages you will have to find the answer to the clue. After you have figured out all the clues and you know where the treasure is hidden you Email us with your answer. The first one to our Email box with the correct answer wins. To join the hunt is simple. Email us with your Email address for details. Place Hunt in the subject and body of the letter and Email COINSAREUS@AOL.COM From: akemi@netcom.com (David Boeren) Subject: Re: Program "0 for 100" (length 6) by "John K W" Date: 1996/01/23 Message-ID: #1/1 references: <4e3dgi$5cq@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar John K W (jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu) wrote: : ;redcode-94 : ;name 0 for 100 : ;author John K W : ;strategy Lose points. Break records. :-) : p: ldp.b #0, #0 : sne.b p, #-1 ;die first round : dat 100, 200 : seq.b p, #0 : jmp 1 : dat 100, 200 Nice code! I think you can make it smaller though by replacing the SEQ.B with a JMZ.B -1, p though, can't you? Any more ideas on how to "improve" this code? :) Hmm, I'll have to try when I get home, but I think this can be done in only 4 instructions. I'll post it if it works... Anyone know how to do it without using pspace? That would be REALLY impressive! From: John K W Subject: Re: SSLT (last message) Date: 1996/01/23 Message-ID: <4e3d9n$5cq@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu>#1/1 references: <4dur7g$sjq@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu> <4e2utg$gp7@newsbf02.news.aol.com> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar agserm@aol.com (AGSerm) wrote: >> slt #0, s ; If we aren't at about to kill ourselves >> >>I'm curious... was this line suppose to be: >> >> slt s, #0 ; If we aren't at about to kill ourselves > >This will never be true. -1 is equal to CORESIZE-1 (i.e. normally 7999), >therefore nothing can ever be less than zero. What I suspect will work >is: > >seq s, #0 No no... that line was designed to keep the program from attacking itself. When actually put into practice for play, the #0 would be changed to #20 or so. -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | "I don't have the power because I've got the monkeys. I've got | \ the power because I'll set the monkeys LOOSE." -Dave Foley / -=- http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~ifio452/ -=- From: Chris Arguin Subject: Re: 2/97/1 Date: 1996/01/24 Message-ID: #1/1 references: <9601191333.AA11389@couchey.inria.fr> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar On 19 Jan 1996, Damien Doligez wrote: > >From: o0619@genio.eui.upm.es (Jose Santos Pulido Garcia) > > >26 2/ 97/ 1 JS_TEST_L JS Pulido 7 0 > > Is this the worst koth result of the corewar history? :'-( > > (Planar, answer 'NO' please) > > Why me ? Anyway, if you go back and read the second issue of Push Off > (March 17, 1993), you'll see that a much shorter program can get an > even worse result. > > But getting 0/100/ 0 would take a bit more work. Due to a popular demand (yes, A popular demand) org start start dat 0, 0 end -- Chris Arguin | "...All we had were Zeros and Ones -- And cpa@hopper.unh.edu | sometimes we didn't even have Ones." +--------------+ - Dilbert, by Scott Adams http://leonardo.sr.unh.edu/arguin/home.html | From: Kafka Subject: Re: ;fight option Date: 1996/01/24 Message-ID: <4e5u87$sv4@larry.rice.edu>#1/1 references: <4e3k56$hjt@mozo.cc.purdue.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar bremermr@cartoon.ecn.purdue.edu (Myer R. Bremer) wrote: >greetings. > >i really like jkw's idea of the ;fight option. many times >my warrior would have a particularly nasty time with one >of the others on the hill. a few ;fight options against >the trouble makers would help me out more AND reduce the >load on pizza. this is a good idea. how difficult would >it be to implement? jkw and i will be really annoying >if the powers that be don't respond. > >regards. > I am also quite enthousiastic about this ;fight option I know that 90% of the time I am only interested in how a test warrior does against three or maybe four others on the hill, so the other twenty runs just waste time. Plus, I have noticed a lot of artificial aging of late caused by people submitting new versions of old warriors and killing the old versions. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that, but it would be ice if it could be avoided. In fact, it would be good if we could even have a simple option ;test that would allow you to run without actually challenging the hill. I only suggest this because I thought it might be easier to add such an option. -Kafka From: Kurt Franke Subject: Re: Program "0 for 100" (length 6) by "John K W" Date: 1996/01/24 Message-ID: <31066CA6.51D0566B@rice.edu>#1/1 references: <4e3dgi$5cq@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Greetings.. Steven Morrell will probably point this out as well... I believe the lose-all-battles strategy has already been written. This is from Steve's Page: ;name Scorekeeper ;author Steven Morrell ;strategy P-space marvel ldp #0,#0 jmz -2,-1 nop 0,0 end ---------------- And running it we see: protector:~/redcode/warriors$ pmars -r 500 scorekeeper.red scorekeeper.red -b Scorekeeper by Steven Morrell scores 0 Scorekeeper by Steven Morrell scores 1500 Results: 0 500 0 ---------------- But while we go for records, here is my two-liner: ;name Loser ;author Kurt Franke ;strategy Lose always ldp #0,#0 jmn -1,>-1 end - Kurt From: Planar Subject: Re: Program "0 for 100" (length 6) by "John K W" Date: 1996/01/24 Message-ID: <4e537t$jb7@news-rocq.inria.fr>#1/1 references: <4e3dgi$5cq@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu> <4e4967$pn2@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar In article , akemi@netcom.com (David Boeren) writes: >Not bad! Make sure these new ones get in the warrior library, ok Planar? Of course. Every warrior posted to this newsgroup goes into the library. >I guess now I'll have to do a 2-instruction version if I'm gonna get any >fame around here. Too late: ;redcode-94 quiet ;name Loser ;author Planar ;kill test ;strategy Try to lose 100%. ;assert MAXLENGTH >= 2 for 0 How to lose every time in only two instructions. Contents of pspace[0] action -1 (first round) lose on the 3rd cycle 0 (lost) lose on the 3rd cycle 1 (won) do not lose before 3rd cycle 2 (tied) (should not happen) In the self-battle, on the first round the first program to play will lose. Then the loser will continue to lose. rof; 0 ldp.b 0, #0 jmp <-1 end >Either that or do it without pspace in ANY number of >instructions. I don't think it's possible without pspace. -- Planar From: Planar Subject: Re: P-Space Date: 1996/01/24 Message-ID: <4e5320$jb7@news-rocq.inria.fr>#1/1 references: newsgroups: rec.games.corewar In article , akemi@netcom.com (David Boeren) writes: >One thing I can say though: A plain stone rarely has much chance to do well >these days. At the least you will need a coreclear, preferably >self-splitting so you can tie imp spirals, or a gate if you can manage it. Or you can use a great classic: the stone/spiral combination. The spiral will turn the stone's losses into ties. It can be very successful if you do it right (see Push Off, 29 sep 93). Spirals are not so hard to write, you know. If you can't beat them, join them. -- Planar From: John K W Subject: Re: Time Lapse (source code) Date: 1996/01/24 Message-ID: <4e4abc$pn2@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu>#1/1 references: newsgroups: rec.games.corewar >for (MAXLENGTH-CURLINE) / 4 > DAT.F loop, clear ; big decoy to confuse scanners > DAT.F targ, boot ; No two are alike! > DAT.F boot, targ > DAT.F clear, loop >rof Ya, know this seems to work just fine for me: for (MAXLENGTH-CURLINE) dat loop*3877, loop*4173 rof But suit yourself. :) -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | "I don't have the power because I've got the monkeys. I've got | \ the power because I'll set the monkeys LOOSE." -Dave Foley / -=- http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~ifio452/ -=- From: bremermr@cartoon.ecn.purdue.edu (Myer R. Bremer) Subject: Re: Program "0 for 100" (length 6) by "John K W" Date: 1996/01/24 Message-ID: <4e6bjs$dfq@mozo.cc.purdue.edu>#1/1 references: <4e3dgi$5cq@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu> <31066CA6.51D0566B@rice.edu> <4e6bdb$9tb@mozo.cc.purdue.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar In article <4e6bdb$9tb@mozo.cc.purdue.edu>, Matthias Wollnik wrote: >Now, am I missing something or wouldn't a simple 1 liner like > >start: dat 0,0 > >work as well? > nope. you will lose against everybody else, but during the self fight against yourself you will tie 50% of the time since both programs alternate going first. From: wollnik@hillres153.cc.purdue.edu (Matthias Wollnik) Subject: Re: Program "0 for 100" (length 6) by "John K W" Date: 1996/01/24 Message-ID: <4e6bdb$9tb@mozo.cc.purdue.edu>#1/1 references: <4e3dgi$5cq@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu> <31066CA6.51D0566B@rice.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar In article <31066CA6.51D0566B@rice.edu>, Kurt Franke wrote: >Greetings.. > >;name Scorekeeper >;author Steven Morrell >;strategy P-space marvel > >ldp #0,#0 >jmz -2,-1 >nop 0,0 > >end Now, am I missing something or wouldn't a simple 1 liner like start: dat 0,0 work as well? Matt Wollnik From: graham@hal.mathcs.rhodes.edu (Randy Graham) Subject: Re: ;fight option Date: 1996/01/24 Message-ID: <1996Jan24.102236.3129@rhodes>#1/1 references: <4e3k56$hjt@mozo.cc.purdue.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Myer R. Bremer (bremermr@cartoon.ecn.purdue.edu) wrote: : greetings. : jkw and i will be really annoying : if the powers that be don't respond. Don't kid yourself - your already annoying :-> Actually, I doubt this would be too hard for Tuc, but we have to test it for him. I am supposed to test for him, but I have been so busy at work, and my machine at home is dead, so I haven't had a chance to help out. : regards. Randy From: pk6811s@acad.drake.edu Subject: Re: koth using a fixed position series? Date: 1996/01/24 Message-ID: <1996Jan24.122530@acad.drake.edu>#1/1 references: <4dv1fl$dao@larry.rice.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Kafka writes: > I recently submitted the same warrior to the hill twice, because I > expectd it's performance to vary significantly with different > submissions due to the warrior's character. However, the warrior got > EXACTLY the same scores against every warrior that was still on the hill Several months ago the decision was made to use a fixed series on the 94 Hill (don't know about the others). The effects are: - resubmitting the same code gives the same results, which should preclude the possibility of improving your score by resubmitting it - freezing all the current residents into a set of start locations, leaving you free to experiment with boot distances and step sizes Paul Kline pk6811s@acad.drake.edu From: akemi@netcom.com (David Boeren) Subject: Re: Program "0 for 100" (length 6) by "John K W" Date: 1996/01/24 Message-ID: #1/1 references: <4e3dgi$5cq@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu> <4e4967$pn2@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar John K W (jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu) wrote: : akemi@netcom.com (David Boeren) wrote: : >Hmm, I'll have to try when I get home, but I think this can be done in only : >4 instructions. I'll post it if it works... : Geez, I hadn't even CONSIDERED optimizing it. :) : p: ldp.b #0, #0 : seq.b p, #-1 ;die first round : seq.b p, #0 : jmp 1 : There. That should do it in four lines. Three lines would be more difficult. : Hmmm.... Ahh, I've got it. Here: : ;redcode-94 : ;name 0 for 100 v4 : ;author John K W : ;strategy Lose points. Break records. :-) : ;strategy v4- commit suicide more efficiently. :P : p: ldp.b #0, #0 : seq.b p, #-1 ;die first round : jmz.b }0, p : >Anyone know how to do it without using pspace? That would be REALLY : >impressive! : Impressive, yes. Impossible, almost. Not bad! Make sure these new ones get in the warrior library, ok Planar? I guess now I'll have to do a 2-instruction version if I'm gonna get any fame around here. Either that or do it without pspace in ANY number of instructions. Maybe I'll just go write a warrior who WINS instead... :) From: John K W Subject: Re: FINDING FUN WEB SIGHTS Date: 1996/01/24 Message-ID: <4e4993$pn2@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu>#1/1 references: <00001f35+000005f4@msn.com> <31059141.2EC94F87@rice.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Kurt Franke wrote: >:> blah blah blah. >:> DIPPYNAME@AOL.COM > >You people sure are lucky I posted the code for persistence. All right, >who's holding out on the code for "detective work". We need that >warrior to find the magical mystery prizes! -- and then dat-bomb them! How about find Mr.dippyname over there, and mail-bombing him? :) -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | "I don't have the power because I've got the monkeys. I've got | \ the power because I'll set the monkeys LOOSE." -Dave Foley / -=- http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~ifio452/ -=- From: John K W Subject: Re: Program "0 for 100" (length 6) by "John K W" Date: 1996/01/24 Message-ID: <4e4967$pn2@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu>#1/1 references: <4e3dgi$5cq@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar akemi@netcom.com (David Boeren) wrote: >John K W (jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu) wrote: >: ;redcode-94 >: ;name 0 for 100 >: ;author John K W >: ;strategy Lose points. Break records. :-) > >: p: ldp.b #0, #0 > >: sne.b p, #-1 ;die first round >: dat 100, 200 > >: seq.b p, #0 >: jmp 1 >: dat 100, 200 > >Hmm, I'll have to try when I get home, but I think this can be done in only >4 instructions. I'll post it if it works... Geez, I hadn't even CONSIDERED optimizing it. :) p: ldp.b #0, #0 seq.b p, #-1 ;die first round seq.b p, #0 jmp 1 There. That should do it in four lines. Three lines would be more difficult. Hmmm.... Ahh, I've got it. Here: ;redcode-94 ;name 0 for 100 v4 ;author John K W ;strategy Lose points. Break records. :-) ;strategy v4- commit suicide more efficiently. :P p: ldp.b #0, #0 seq.b p, #-1 ;die first round jmz.b }0, p >Anyone know how to do it without using pspace? That would be REALLY >impressive! Impressive, yes. Impossible, almost. -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | "I don't have the power because I've got the monkeys. I've got | \ the power because I'll set the monkeys LOOSE." -Dave Foley / -=- http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~ifio452/ -=- From: akemi@netcom.com (David Boeren) Subject: Time Lapse (source code) Date: 1996/01/24 Message-ID: #1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar OK, Time Lapse v0.1 has been pushed off the 94 hill, so here's the code for you all to enjoy: ;redcode-94 verbose ;name Time Lapse v0.1 ;author David Boeren ;assert CORESIZE == 8000 ;strategy Bomber -> SPL/DAT coreclear ;strategy v0.1 Fast bomber, does not use stun bombs step equ 184 stepb equ (step*2) stepc equ (step*3) gate equ loop-7 org boot ptr JMP.B #step, #2 DAT.F #16, #0 SPL.B #16, #1 loop MOV.I ptr, *targ ; Tornado bombing with JMP 0's MOV.I ptr, @targ targ MOV.I step, *stepb ADD.F inc, targ DJN.B loop, #333 inc SPL.B #stepc, #stepc clear MOV.I @ptr, }ptr ; Coreclear modified from Phosphorus DJN.F clear, 100, >101 ; die in a core-coloring way for (MAXLENGTH-CURLINE) / 4 DAT.F loop, clear ; big decoy to confuse scanners DAT.F targ, boot ; No two are alike! DAT.F boot, targ DAT.F clear, loop rof END Basically, it's like Tornado, but using JMP 0 bombs instead of DATs and refitted with a SPL/DAT coreclear. I wanted something that could do reasonably well against papers, which Tornado gets clobbered by. My theory was that by using JMP 0's for bombs then at least the enemy would not get his processor time back when a process got hit. That, plus the SPL coreclear pass helps me get a reasonable score versus papers. Although I do get more points against papers, it often happens that my coreclear will get hit by bombers and scanners, making me unable to finish off these single-process warriors who are just sitting there helpless on my JMP 0. Obviously that means that I get more ties when I would have gotten a win if I'd used a DAT. Anyway, although it was not a wild success, it performs reasonably well for a beginner's program. From: akemi@netcom.com (David Boeren) Subject: Re: P-Space Date: 1996/01/24 Message-ID: #1/1 references: newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Chris Arguin (cpa@hopper.unh.edu) wrote: : Is there anyway to record in P-space how many rounds you've won or lost? : I can't see how, but without that, how can you decide to change : strategies? The best I've been able to come up with is too sweep the : memory on your first run, to get your opponet's PIN number, and then : scrambling his P-space on every round after that. A rather limited attack. Most warriors only switch based on the results of the last round. They store what strategy they are using, and then if they lose they look at what strategy they were using and change to the next one. Or some of them switch if they win OR tie. It's all up to you. You CAN write a more complex switcher, but it's difficult to make one that's significantly better without being slow. I'm afraid I don't see what you mean about the PIN numbers though. : While I'm here, any clues for Newbies on how to beat paper? I had a : fairly good warrior that virtually annihilated the top two warriors on : the beginner's hill, but didn't make it on because it died against rings : and paper. Any modifications that have a chance to TIE with paper don't : stand against anything else. I can only beat it with a luck bomb. Well, the first lesson is that no program beats everything. Every program has strengths and weaknesses. If they didn't the game would get boring very fast! YOu have probably seen references to the paper/stone/scissors analogy in some of the documentation. Paper as you know refers to replicators. Stones are usually small bombers. Scissors are generally scanners and some stun bombers. Imp spirals kind of don't fit in much with this analogy. Anyway, your program was pretty much a stone, so you would expect it to do well against scanners and scissor-bombers. Lucky for you these are the kind of programs that are currently high on the beginner hill! The reason that a stone beats these programs is that it's small and fast. It's small enough that scanners don't find it quickly, and it throws bombs faster than the stun bomber, who must use more complex multi-instruction bombs in order to catch papers. You will often run into that kind of situation where trying to score better against one type of warrior will lower your score against other types. You just have to do the bst you can, and try to optimise for whatever there are a lot of on the hill. One thing that will help you against papers would be changing your coreclear to do one pass of SPL 0's before doing a DAT coreclear. Basically, to kill papers the only chance is to stun them. You have to hit them with SPL's really hard and then once they have so many processes they can barely move then you finish them off with your coreclear. If you look at the source code to Koolaid that I published a few days ago, you can see that I bomb with a 2-instruction bomb that creates a carpet of SPL statements. Consequently, I score well against papers. In return for that, I get my butt kicked by stones. One thing I can say though: A plain stone rarely has much chance to do well these days. At the least you will need a coreclear, preferably self-splitting so you can tie imp spirals, or a gate if you can manage it. I'm still working on how to write a multipass coreclear that turns into a 100% gate, but once I can make one then maybe I can get back to a good spot on the 94 Draft Hill. From: John K W Subject: Re: Program "0 for 100" (length 6) by "John K W" Date: 1996/01/24 Message-ID: <4e5p93$okb@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu>#1/1 references: <4e3dgi$5cq@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu> <4e4967$pn2@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar akemi@netcom.com (David Boeren) wrote: >Not bad! Make sure these new ones get in the warrior library, ok Planar? >I guess now I'll have to do a 2-instruction version if I'm gonna get any >fame around here. Either that or do it without pspace in ANY number of >instructions. Maybe I'll just go write a warrior who WINS instead... :) WIN?!! Geez, how boring... :P -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | "I don't have the power because I've got the monkeys. I've got | \ the power because I'll set the monkeys LOOSE." -Dave Foley / -=- http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~ifio452/ -=- From: John K W Subject: Re: Free games of Corewar? Date: 1996/01/24 Message-ID: <4e67uu$6g1@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu>#1/1 references: <4e5tgg$snc@cis.clark.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar tyren@clark.edu (Shane DeSeranno) wrote: >Hello. I was just wondering if there are any _free_ corewar competitions >going on. If you know of any please write me: > Shane DeSeranno > tyren@clark.edu As far as I know, they are ALL free. :) Check out the FAQ at www.stormking.com for more info... -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | "I don't have the power because I've got the monkeys. I've got | \ the power because I'll set the monkeys LOOSE." -Dave Foley / -=- http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~ifio452/ -=- From: jpiccin@cln.etc.bc.ca (Jessie Piccin) Subject: to oblivion and beyond!!!!! Date: 1996/01/24 Message-ID: <1996Jan24.185746.19438@news.etc.bc.ca>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar I need to find a mud that has not magic this and satan rules that.(yuck) so if you can tell me where a good science fiction mud I would be more than happy. rock on. (composed by JUDGES) and if your on thsi mud I will be your alies. mey e-mail is jpiccin@cln.etc.bc.ca it is immportant you send me by E-MAIL because a I am not part of the board. From: pan0178@comune.bologna.it (MV) Subject: koth!!! Date: 1996/01/25 Message-ID: <9601231921.AA14234@uu3.psi.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar 1 41/ 39/ 20 testnorm Maurizio Vittuari 143 23 2 42/ 40/ 18 quiz Schitzo 143 440 3 36/ 30/ 34 Jack in the box Beppe Bezzi 142 807 4 30/ 19/ 50 Impfinity v4g1 Planar 141 240 ............... testnorm is a quite simple 60%c bomber... Hey! It's the first time that a "dumb" bomber is koth! ;-) (Planar, can you confirm this ?) Maurizio From: stst@idnsun.gpct.Vanderbilt.Edu (Stefan Strack) Subject: Re: koth using a fixed position series Date: 1996/01/25 Message-ID: <9601231611.AA19312@idnsun.gpct.Vanderbilt.Edu.noname>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Kafka wrote: >[...] I can only >assume, then, that pizza is using a fixed position series to run each >warrior, a fact that I was unaware of until now. Am I the only one who >did not know this? Doesn't the fact that pizza runs a fixed position >series mean that if someone were to figure this series out s/he would >have an unfair advantage on the hill? [...] Yes, the -F option is indeed used to reduce "random" score variability. However, the position series changes every month in a way that only the KotH maintainers know, so there's little chance that anyone could take unfair advantage of it. -Stefan From: Eric Humphries Subject: Cancel Date: 1996/01/25 Message-ID: #1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar I would like to cancel my subscription to the corewar letter please... I dont like getting flooded by mail every day. From: KOTH Tourney Server Subject: SKI-ICWS: Status - ICWS Experimental 94 01/22/96 Date: 1996/01/25 Message-ID: <199601220500.AAA29319@valhalla.stormking.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Weekly Status on 01/22/96 See up to the second scores at http://www.stormking.com/~koth Check it out for the latest in Core War information *FAQ* is at http://www.stormking.com/~koth/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the StormKing Industries ICWS Experimental 94 CoreWar Hill: Last battle concluded at : Fri Jan 19 03:51:56 EST 1996 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 75/ 17/ 8 Watcher-h Kurt Franke 232 1 2 70/ 17/ 12 BigBoy Robert Macrae 224 7 3 71/ 19/ 10 Watcher Kurt Franke 223 5 4 68/ 18/ 15 Frontwards v2 Steven Morrell 218 12 5 68/ 20/ 11 Fire Master Xv1 JS Pulido 216 4 6 66/ 18/ 16 Tornado 2.0 x Beppe Bezzi 214 6 7 51/ 12/ 38 Hector 2 Kurt Franke 190 2 8 51/ 22/ 27 Nice Try M R Bremer 180 11 9 48/ 17/ 35 Tican John Wilkinson 179 3 10 54/ 34/ 12 Mister Greedy Derek Ross 175 8 11 46/ 17/ 37 Night Train 55440 Karl Lewin 175 9 12 45/ 19/ 36 White warrior Nandor & Stefan 171 13 13 45/ 22/ 32 Paper8-IV (54400) G. Eadon 168 10 14 19/ 81/ 0 Top O The World Scott J. Ellentuch 57 14 15 2/ 64/ 0 None Nobody 7 14 16 2/ 64/ 0 None Nobody 7 14 17 2/ 64/ 0 None Nobody 7 14 18 2/ 64/ 0 None Nobody 7 14 19 2/ 64/ 0 None Nobody 7 14 20 2/ 64/ 0 None Nobody 7 14 21 2/ 64/ 0 None Nobody 7 14 From: Beppe Bezzi Subject: Re: Ideas for KoTH Date: 1996/01/25 Message-ID: <199601252218.XAA01176@iol-mail.iol.it>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar At 11.59 25/01/96 -0500, you wrote: > >I have two ideas that I wanted to mention for possibly improving the hills. > >First, people are concerned about artificial aging. It definately exists, >and is rampant these days. Way back when, it took 14 months fo Agony II to >get to age 912. How long does it take for a warrior to age that much now? Jack has not (yet, crossing fingers) aget that much, but maybe a good example: Date: Wed, 27 Sep 1995 15:43:15 -0700 From: Internet Pizza Server To: bezzi@iol.it Subject: 94 : Jack in the box challenge results It aged 870 in 4 months, near three times Agony's rate. I don't know how much of that is because of innatural aging, Jack saw many promising warrior fall during their youth. >Anyway, here's my idea. How about if warriors on the hill only age if the >warrior that falls off was NOT ;killed? That ought to greatly reduce the >artificial aging, right? > It's a thing I proposed some time ago, not to age the hill if the outgoing warrior scores less than 100 points, IMO the simpler way to implement the thing. Another option, I proposed to Tuc for new kothtest@stormking.com is the chance to submit a warrior with the ;test option, you get back results but the hill remains unchanged, when you are finished and satisfied ,you remove the option and submit to kill. >Second, I have an idea which would be a great convenience to authors trying >to track their code performance. >... send a >message to pizza that says something like ;ask and it would >send them an up-to-date file in the same form as the one you get with >your initial challenge ... Sounds good, such way I can clear some space on my small and crowded disk. -Beppe Bezzi From: "Tom Murray - Teacher (Computers)" Subject: Newbie Help!!!! Date: 1996/01/25 Message-ID: <25JAN96.22760319.0021@MUSICM.MCGILL.CA>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Hello all, I intend to start playing CoreWar...But before I start I'd like to know if any of you happen to know somewhere (hopefully anonymous ftp) where I can get EXTENSIVE stuff on Corewar like commands etc... I've read the FAQ and going to get the tutorials...I wonder if you guys got an prof suggestions. Coldly Yours, Shadonre Ignore the sender, this account is a school account. :( From: Beppe Bezzi Subject: Core Warrior 13 Date: 1996/01/25 Message-ID: <199601222249.XAA04002@iol-mail.iol.it> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar .xX$$x. .x$$$$$$$x. d$$$$$$$$$$$ ,$$$$$$$P' `P' , . $$$$$$P' ' .d b $$$$$P b ,$$x ,$$x ,$$x ,$$b $$. Y$$$$' `$. $$$$$$. $$$$$$ $$P~d$. d$$$b d d$$$ `$$$$ ,$$ $$$$$$$b $$$P `$ $$$b.$$b `Y$$$d$d$$$' . . a . a a .aa . a `$$$ ,$$$,$$' `$$$ $$$' ' $$P$XX$' `$$$$$$$$$ .dP' `$'$ `$'$ , $''$ `$'$ `Y$b ,d$$$P `$b,d$P' `$$. `$$. , `$$P $$$' Y $. $ $ $ Y..P $ `$$$$$$$' $$$P' `$$b `$$$P `P `$' `Y'k. $. $. $. $$' $. Issue 13 January 22, 1996 ______________________________________________________________________________ Core_Warrior_ is a weekly newsletter promoting the game of corewar. Emphasis is placed on the most active hills--currently the '94 draft hill and the beginner hill. Coverage will follow where ever the action is. If you have no clue what I'm talking about then check out these five-star internet locals for more information: FAQs are available by anonymous FTP from rtfm.mit.edu as pub/usenet/news.answers/games/corewar-faq.Z FTP site is: ftp.csua.berkeley.edu /pub/corewar Web pages are at: http://www.stormking.com/~koth ;Stormking http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~pizza/koth ;Pizza http://pauillac.inria.fr/~doligez/corewar/ ;Planar ______________________________________________________________________________ Greetings. Guessing from the lot of mail I got in last week end, Pizza's problem has been solved, as Thos told us some time ago, good. At Stormking Tuc is working on new hill scripts, with a lot of new features like password and newredcode. Everybody is invited to help development mailing to kothtest@stormking.com with ;help for menu, and submitting their warrior to the -94x test hill. It's good for beginners too, the rules are the same as those of 94 but the coresize is bigger. We are invited to try crashing the hill, yes we can do it, to see if there is some bug hidden in the script, have fun. Everybody is waiting the Corewar hall of fame, with gifs of last tournament winners; Stefan asked for help, should someone have an .htm page good for including names and faces, please mail it to I have been very busy at work this week and Myer too. So we invite everybody to join the staff and make his own number of Corewarrior as did Maurizio during Xmas holydays. ______________________________________________________________________________ Current Status of the Internet Pizza Server ICWS '94 Draft Hill: Hill Specs: coresize: 8000 max. processes: 8000 duration: after 80,000 cycles, a tie is declared. max. entry length: 100 minimum distance: 100 rounds fought: 200 instruction set: ICWS '94 Draft # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 37/ 29/ 34 Jack in the box Beppe Bezzi 145 811 2 35/ 25/ 40 La Bomba Beppe Bezzi 144 439 3 31/ 18/ 52 Impfinity v4g1 Planar 144 244 4 40/ 39/ 21 testnorm Maurizio Vittuari 142 27 5 32/ 23/ 46 juliet and paper M R Bremer, B. Bezzi 141 440 6 41/ 41/ 18 quiz Schitzo 140 444 7 24/ 8/ 68 Night Train Karl Lewin 140 331 8 22/ 6/ 71 Evol Cap 6.6 John Wilkinson 139 59 9 40/ 42/ 17 Frontwards v2 Steven Morrell 139 297 10 39/ 41/ 20 Wraith Kurt Franke 137 3 11 29/ 22/ 48 Hector 2 Kurt Franke 137 359 12 38/ 41/ 21 Boombastic Maurizio Vittuari 136 179 13 36/ 36/ 29 Thermite II Robert Macrae 135 45 14 35/ 34/ 31 Mason 2.0 Robert Macrae 135 180 15 33/ 31/ 36 Blue Funk 5 Steven Morrell 134 80 16 34/ 35/ 31 Tornado 2.3 a Beppe Bezzi 133 43 17 33/ 33/ 34 Torch t18 P.Kline 132 823 18 34/ 38/ 27 Time Lapse v0.1 David Boeren 131 15 19 37/ 45/ 18 Harmony P.Kline 130 8 20 34/ 39/ 27 jtest Kafka 129 1 21 26/ 23/ 51 Hazy Shade Of Winter John K W 129 34 22 36/ 44/ 19 Mirage 1.3 Anton Marsden 129 6 23 38/ 47/ 15 Provascan 3.0 Beppe Bezzi 128 194 24 35/ 44/ 20 Wraith Kurt Franke 126 5 25 34/ 42/ 24 Persistence Kurt Franke 126 2 One is always happy to write a report of such an hill :-) The hill has aged 56 this week. Average scores jumped up to 135 (120 last week and 128 the week before) 19 points separate number 1 from number 25. The average age is 203 (182 last week). Torch had very bad times this week, going to just one step from being pushed off; Jack in the box is having a second jouth, performing better than ever against the new wave of warriors, and climbing to the top of the hill. After many weeks quiz loses the hilltop, it has already happened in past weeks but never on monday :-) Many warriors alternated in King position this week: Thermite II, Harmony, Evol cap 6.6, SETI, Jack in the box, juliet and paper, Impfinity and testnorm. Near to incredible SETI's performance, entering at king position to be pushed off at age 37, a real comet; the cause of this behaviour is, with most chances, that it toke most of its points from warrior that have been pushed off shortly after. ______________________________________________________________________________ 94 - What's New 2 41/ 39/ 20 testnorm Maurizio Vittuari 143 1 9 40/ 40/ 20 Wraith Kurt Franke 139 1 4 31/ 33/ 36 Thermite II Robert Macrae 129 1 10 29/ 32/ 38 Tornado 2.3 a Beppe Bezzi 126 1 14 35/ 37/ 28 Time Lapse v0.1 David Boeren 133 1 19 27/ 27/ 46 Hazy Shade Of Winter John K W 128 1 22 36/ 43/ 21 Mirage 1.3 Anton Marsden 129 1 18 37/ 43/ 19 Harmony P.Kline 131 1 7 39/ 40/ 22 odysseus Kafka 137 1 6 39/ 40/ 21 Wraith Kurt Franke 139 1 25 34/ 42/ 24 Persistence Kurt Franke 126 1 Some interesting new entries this week caused another revolution with eleven new entries and standings changed a lot. Worth mention testnorm, Wraith, Thermite II, odysseus, and new Tornado, all them entering in the top ten. ______________________________________________________________________________ 94 - What's No More. 26 16/ 11/ 73 DoorMat v0.1 K Lewin 121 257 26 21/ 18/ 61 Cheap Hack M R Bremer 125 126 26 34/ 42/ 24 Koolaid II: WoGG v2.2 David Boeren 126 51 26 1/ 2/ 1 Test Robert Macrae 4 40 26 1/ 2/ 0 testnorm Maurizio Vittuari 5 37 26 1/ 2/ 1 Harmony P.Kline 5 36 26 16/ 10/ 74 .2 Evolve VIII John Wilkinson 122 31 26 0/ 0/ 4 Evol Cap VII .3 John Wilkinson 4 30 26 2/ 0/ 6 Evol Cap 6.2a John Wilkinson 11 26 26 29/ 40/ 31 paris Kafka 119 11 26 8/ 0/ 92 Evolve VIII John Wilkinson 115 2 Main losses are DoorMat at 257 age and Cheap Hack. Nothing else over 100 age ______________________________________________________________________________ What's Old 17 33/ 33/ 34 Torch t18 P.Kline 132 823 1 37/ 29/ 34 Jack in the box Beppe Bezzi 145 811 6 41/ 41/ 18 quiz Schitzo 140 444 5 32/ 23/ 46 juliet and paper M R Bremer, B. Bezzi 141 440 2 35/ 25/ 40 La Bomba Beppe Bezzi 144 439 11 29/ 22/ 48 Hector 2 Kurt Franke 137 359 7 24/ 8/ 68 Night Train Karl Lewin 140 331 9 40/ 42/ 17 Frontwards v2 Steven Morrell 139 297 3 31/ 18/ 52 Impfinity v4g1 Planar 144 244 A new entry in the over 200 club, Planar's Impfinity, and one loss, Lewin's DoorMat v01 ______________________________________________________________________________ HALL OF FAME * means the warrior is still running. Pos Name Author Age Strategy 1 Iron Gate 1.5 Wayne Sheppard 926 CMP scanner 2 Agony II Stefan Strack 912 CMP scanner 3 Blue Funk Steven Morrell 869 Stone/ imp 4 Torch t18 P.Kline 823 * Bomber 5 Jack in the box Beppe Bezzi 811 * P-warrior 6 Thermite 1.0 Robert Macrae 802 Qscan -> bomber 7 Blue Funk 3 Steven Morrell 766 Stone/ imp 8 HeremScimitar A.Ivner,P.Kline 666 Bomber 9 myVamp v3.7 Paulsson 643 Vampire 10 Armory - A5 Wilkinson 609 P-warrior 11 Phq Maurizio Vittuari 589 Qscan -> replicator 12 B-Panama X Steven Morrell 518 Stone/ replicator 13 quiz Schitzo 444 * scanner/ bomber 14 juliet and paper Bremer & Bezzi 440 * P-warrior 15 La Bomba Beppe Bezzi 439 * Qscan -> replicator 16 NC 94 Wayne Sheppard 387 Stone/ imp 17 Cannonade P.Kline 382 Stone/ imp 18 Torch t17 P.Kline 378 Bomber 19 Hector 2 Kurt Franke 359 * Qscan -> replicator 20 Lucky 3 Stefan Strack 355 Stone/ imp 21 Derision M R Bremer 351 Scanner 22 Request v2.0 Brant D. Thomsen 347 Qvamp -> vampire 23 Dragon Spear c w blue 346 CMP scanner 24 Leprechaun on speed Anders Ivner 344 Qscan -> scanner/bomber The hall of fame will be expanded to 25 slots with next entry. The 'twins', Torch and Jack in the box, passed 800 milestone and Thermite; now they are near Blue Funk and the all time podium positions. The other trio is quickly climbing the standings while Hector makes its entry in 19th position. ______________________________________________________________________________ Current Status of the Internet Pizza Server Beginner's Hill: Hill Specs: coresize: 8000 max. processes: 8000 duration: after 80,000 cycles, a tie is declared. max. entry length: 100 minimum distance: 100 maximum age: At age 100, warriors are retired. rounds fought: 200 instruction set: ICWS '94 Draft # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 52/ 32/ 17 Koolaid II: The Wrath of David Boeren 171 67 2 36/ 8/ 57 RingWorm_v2.5 Calvin Loh 164 56 3 47/ 34/ 18 Mirage 1.0 Anton Marsden 160 17 4 35/ 14/ 51 Papery Ian Oversby 156 25 5 28/ 9/ 64 RingWorm_v2.6 Calvin Loh 147 26 6 42/ 38/ 20 Our Vamp v3 R Bartolome & JS Pul 145 1 7 33/ 22/ 45 Spacehead 1.3 Warpi & Philemon 144 23 8 38/ 31/ 31 Qwiksand Wayne Sheppard 144 11 9 42/ 41/ 18 Mary Janes J. E. Long 142 12 10 40/ 39/ 21 Assassin XII Andy Nevermind 142 49 11 28/ 17/ 55 Thunder V 1.0 Andy Nevermind 140 63 12 37/ 41/ 22 Monitor M R Bremer 134 45 13 37/ 42/ 21 White Rose v0.14 Tomasz Radon 132 15 14 35/ 47/ 18 Equalizer Matthias Wollnik 124 20 15 32/ 41/ 27 RedPixel.2 John Lewis 124 64 16 20/ 20/ 59 Spiral Again Calvin Loh 121 55 17 18/ 16/ 66 SpiralTest2 Calvin Loh 120 66 18 20/ 20/ 60 Spiral Again Calvin Loh 120 57 19 31/ 43/ 27 Three Core Monty Andrew Fabbro 119 9 20 12/ 5/ 82 Evol Cap 6.1 John Wilkinson 119 46 21 23/ 29/ 49 live 0.2 Philemon 117 24 22 24/ 40/ 36 Inherit v0.9 Philemon 108 14 23 28/ 48/ 24 Test Stone #1 David Boeren 107 83 24 21/ 40/ 39 Veeble Jr. T. H. Davies 103 2 25 23/ 43/ 34 EveryoneMustGetStoned 2.5 Nathan Summers 102 74 Koolaid hold top position, followed by RingWorm and Mirage 01. None of those warriors is in the 94 hill, even if Boeren and Marsden have others. ______________________________________________________________________________ The Hint Spiral and Stargate It's not Science Fiction, it's still corewar; Spiral is an imp spiral and Stargate is my nickname for the clear: gate dat stun, 100 ... stun spl #kill-gate, 100 clr mov *gate, >gate djn clr, {nnn kill dat kill-gate, 100 this come from the instuction mov *gate,>gate; being 'asterisk' too long, I like to call it 'star' This clear is simple and very good against silk, with his djn.f stream; I always considered it good against imps too, but I had to change my mind. Forward running clears are usually good against spirals because, when an imp instryction overwrites gate it transfers the attack to the next process, it works with imp instructions like Blue Funk's one mov.i #3044, 2667 but if we use an instruction of the form: mov.i #-5, 2667 ;any small negative value is good the clear will copy an imp instruction over the next imp instruction, and this is not the best way to kill a spiral.:-) To be effective we have to use this other clear I used in my last Tornado. gate1 ... gate dat -25, last-gate1+3 bombs spl #-step, step ... jump spl #nn, #nn clr mov @djmp, >gate1 djmp djn.b clr, {bombs last Being sure to have some space beetween gate1 and our code. In this way we are sure to move a dat instruction over the next process and avoid the spiral crashing our gate. The increase in performances is real, against Impfinity for example: Tornado 2.0 h1 wins: 25 ;uses Stargate clear Impfinity v4g1 wins: 91 Ties: 84 Tornado 2.3 wins: 75 ;uses new clear Impfinity v4g1 wins: 61 Ties: 64 It right to say that the clear used by Tornado 2.3 is the same used by Torch, another code snippet I have stolen from Paul, and that the improvement against Impfinity is not all thanks the clear, new code is stronger, more decrement resistant, and one line shorter; I'll post it but not today. ;-) The drawback, there is always a drawback, is that the djn.b is less effective against silk and, if we use djn.f instead we'll end jumping to our spl, and this will reduce the anti imp effectiveness having some delays beetween executions of the mov that the imp can use to slip through. Again the last hint is: test this one and the other one against some published warrior, looking when one is better and when the other one. Stepping while the imp is overwriting the clear is a good exercise, you can use sk 500 till the spiral is near, then use sk 1 to position in the leading process of the spiral and ctrl-t to advance the spiral step by step. As usual, if you have problems, mail me ______________________________________________________________________________ Planar's Corner These are the solutions to exercise 6 from part 2 of the tutorial. I'm short of time, so this is all untested code. The problem was: >6. [hard] The inner loop fails to stop if the self-bombing doesn't > occur on the SPL. How do you make it work in all cases ? The first solution is to stop Fahrenheit each time it is about to bomb some core location, and check whether this location is within Fahrenheit itself. Borrowing from Jurgen's code, I get the following: tilt=@ca c=999~!!m prep~m inn~@m next~!8 prep=@ca c=c+1,d=0~@ed1~mov.i<100,, Myer R Bremer or Maurizio Vittuari From: Kurt Franke Subject: Re: Program "0 for 100" (length 6) by "John K W" Date: 1996/01/25 Message-ID: <3107D0B5.233C0B79@rice.edu>#1/1 references: <4e3dgi$5cq@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu> <31066CA6.51D0566B@rice.edu> <4e6bdb$9tb@mozo.cc.purdue.edu> <4e6bjs$dfq@mozo.cc.purdue.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Myer R. Bremer wrote: > > In article <4e6bdb$9tb@mozo.cc.purdue.edu>, > Matthias Wollnik wrote: > >Now, am I missing something or wouldn't a simple 1 liner like > > > >start: dat 0,0 > > > >work as well? > > > nope. > > you will lose against everybody else, but during the self fight against > yourself you will tie 50% of the time since both programs alternate > going first. (should be "win", not "tie".) ---------- This idea of self-fights is a bit confusing, so I'll explain what is happening. When you fight a warrior, you play some number of rounds. The first round you, the challenger, goes first. The second round your opponent goes first. And so on... You also fight yourself (I don't understand why, but this is what happens). You get points from the version which moves first on the first round. (The other version is considered your opponent) So the point of these p-space marvels is to figure out who moves first on the first round and have them lose every round. (Not a very lofty goal, imo) just having a dat 0,0 will always have the version which moves first lose, regardless of which round it is. Since you take turns moving first with your double, you score 50/50/0 against yourself. The antithesis of the p-space marvel is a handshake, which is designed to get a lot of wins for the version which moves first on the first round. (the other version usually kills itself) It is just a trick to take advantage of the self fights. Hope this clears things up, Kurt From: KOTH Tourney Server Subject: SKI-ICWS: Status - MultiWarrior 94 01/22/96 Date: 1996/01/25 Message-ID: <199601220500.AAA24942@valhalla.stormking.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Weekly Status on 01/22/96 See up to the second scores at http://www.stormking.com/~koth Check it out for the latest in Core War information *FAQ* is at http://www.stormking.com/~koth/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the StormKing Industries Multiwarrior 94 CoreWar Hill: Last battle concluded at : Sun Jan 21 00:54:59 EST 1996 # Name Author Score Age 1 75% Cotton v3b Wilkinson 5720 18 2 Die Hard P.Kline 5707 21 3 90% Cotton v5c Wilkinson 5707 16 4 60% Cotton Wilkinson 5690 17 5 Dunno-1@3 Cadellin 5677 2 6 TJ Maurizio Vittuari 5675 10 7 Son of Imp Steven Morrell 5662 34 8 Test 1 Kurt Franke 5652 1 9 TESTI Maurizio Vittuari 5634 9 10 casandra Kafka 5625 3 11 The Imp of Anarchy Chris Arguin 1635 0 From: KOTH Tourney Server Subject: SKI-ICWS: Status - ICWS Tournament 01/22/96 Date: 1996/01/25 Message-ID: <199601220500.AAA12387@valhalla.stormking.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Weekly Status on 01/22/96 See up to the second scores at http://www.stormking.com/~koth Check it out for the latest in Core War information *FAQ* is at http://www.stormking.com/~koth/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the StormKing Industries Annual ICWS Tournament CoreWar Hill: Last battle concluded at : Tue Dec 19 14:43:53 EST 1995 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 50/ 9/ 40 Cannonade Paul Kline 191 86 2 53/ 30/ 17 Miss Carefree Derek Ross 175 18 3 38/ 14/ 47 Nothing Special G. Eadon 163 1 4 39/ 17/ 45 Turkey Beppe Bezzi 161 2 5 46/ 33/ 21 Giskard v0.5 Ken Mitton 158 59 6 45/ 35/ 20 Yop La Boum v2.1 P.E.M & E.C. 155 16 7 43/ 36/ 21 Old Tire Swing Randy Graham 151 43 8 44/ 38/ 17 Miss Carry Derek Ross 150 50 9 36/ 22/ 42 One Fat Lady Robert Macrae 150 3 10 41/ 43/ 15 test88 P.Kline 139 5 11 43/ 48/ 9 Agony T Stefan Strack 139 87 12 36/ 49/ 15 DoubleStone v0.7 Christoph C. Birk 124 29 13 34/ 44/ 22 WhirlWind-88 Randy Graham 123 23 14 29/ 36/ 36 Chris Steven Morrell 122 8 15 34/ 48/ 18 Maya v1.6 Christoph C. Birk 121 60 16 34/ 48/ 18 Illusion Randy Graham 120 45 17 34/ 49/ 16 Slaver v1.1i Christoph C. Birk 120 47 18 33/ 52/ 16 Baby Swing Randy Graham 114 4 19 30/ 48/ 22 stone matthew householder 112 98 20 35/ 57/ 7 xtc stefan roettger 112 91 21 31/ 53/ 16 warrior 42 stefan roettger 109 99 From: KOTH Tourney Server Subject: SKI-ICWS: Status - Standard 01/22/96 Date: 1996/01/25 Message-ID: <199601220500.AAA45397@valhalla.stormking.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Weekly Status on 01/22/96 See up to the second scores and the latest Core War information at : http://www.stormking.com/~koth *FAQ* is at http://www.stormking.com/~koth/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the StormKing Industries Standard KotH CoreWar Hill : Last battle concluded at : Sat Jan 20 18:49:38 EST 1996 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 29/ 19/ 51 Hydra Stephen Linhart 140 182 2 36/ 35/ 28 Keystone t21 P.Kline 136 95 3 28/ 20/ 52 CAPS KEY IS STUCK AGAIN Steven Morrell 136 74 4 25/ 14/ 61 Cannonade P.Kline 135 108 5 24/ 15/ 60 ttti nandor sieben 133 58 6 28/ 24/ 48 Test Wayne Sheppard 133 97 7 38/ 42/ 20 Beholder's Eye V1.7 W. Mintardjo 133 152 8 26/ 19/ 55 Blue Funk 88 Steven Morrell 132 72 9 21/ 9/ 70 Imperfic John Wilkinson 132 1 10 33/ 36/ 31 Double Clown v1.1 P.E.M 131 3 11 24/ 17/ 59 Peace Mr. Jones 131 82 12 39/ 46/ 15 Iron Gate Wayne Sheppard 131 202 13 33/ 36/ 30 Giskard v0.5 Ken Mitton 130 46 14 35/ 39/ 26 Christopher Steven Morrell 130 73 15 31/ 32/ 36 Yop La Boum v2.1 P.E.M & E.C. 130 8 16 36/ 42/ 22 Request v2.0 Brant D. Thomsen 130 44 17 35/ 39/ 26 Miss Carefree Derek Ross 130 6 18 34/ 40/ 26 Tuctest Elmer J. Fudd 129 2 19 27/ 26/ 47 Der Zweiter Blitzkrieg Mike Nonemacher 128 103 20 22/ 19/ 58 jmp/add crasher Randy Graham 124 32 21 13/ 48/ 39 Three Core Monty Andrew Fabbro 77 0 From: KOTH Tourney Server Subject: SKI-ICWS: Status - Multiwarrior Experimental 94 01/22/96 Date: 1996/01/25 Message-ID: <199601220500.AAA40826@valhalla.stormking.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Weekly Status on 01/22/96 See up to the second scores at http://www.stormking.com/~koth Check it out for the latest in Core War information *FAQ* is at http://www.stormking.com/~koth/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the StormKing Industries MultiWarrior Experimental 94 CoreWar Hill: Last battle concluded at : Tue Jan 9 16:51:01 EST 1996 # Name Author Score Age 1 Paperone Beppe Bezzi 6781 23 2 This is Test1 Kurt Franke 6711 3 3 life Nandor Sieben 6621 39 4 TimeScapeX (0.1) J. Pohjalainen 6608 38 5 Paper8 G. Eadon 6565 4 6 Lucky 13 Stefan Strack 6487 40 7 Anthill 4 Planar 6420 1 8 jaded M R Bremer 6397 9 9 Hidden M.C.Diskett Bullfrog 5869 8 10 lifedwarf Nandor Sieben 5860 15 11 Shwing! T. H. Davies 5646 34 12 Piggy 3 Bob Uhl 5125 11 13 Piggy 2 Bob Uhl 5085 13 14 AB Scanner 2.9 Chris Hodson 4869 27 15 Whirlwind Bob Uhl 4817 25 16 Miss Treatment Derek Ross 3930 18 17 Whirlwind 2 Bob Uhl 3795 26 18 Futility M R Bremer 3646 5 19 Illusion-94/55 Randy Graham 3506 17 20 Miss Carry Derek Ross 3440 19 21 Anthill 3 Planar 0 2 From: tuc@superlink.net (Scott J. Ellentuch) Subject: Re: Queues? How the !@$!@#$ do you spell that? :-) Date: 1996/01/25 Message-ID: <4e81b8$uk@earth.superlink.net>#1/1 references: <0099CA14.4EDA0CC0.2@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz> <4e37rm$192@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar John K W (jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu) wrote: : The main problem is that unpublished warriors pose a unforseen threat. : The perfect solution (in my opinion) is the ';fight' operand that I : proposed a few months ago... However, I never got a reply from ANYONE : about it, so maybe everyone ignored it. :/ : Anyway the idea is that you'd put the lines : ;fight quiz : ;fight Evol Cap 6.6 : ;fight Harmony : In your submission. Then, your warrior would NOT challenge the Hill, : but would rather simply return the results of THOSE three fights. : That way, you don't waste time with battles you don't care about, and : it'd avoid the nasty "artificial aging" of the Hill. John, Thats a great idea, and if I could be more sure that the newer version of Koth is production ready, I don't see it as a big problem. HINT! HINT! Tuc From: John K W Subject: Re: Queues? How the !@$!@#$ do you spell that? :-) Date: 1996/01/25 Message-ID: <4e8gnj$n5j@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu>#1/1 references: <0099CA14.4EDA0CC0.2@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz> <4e37rm$192@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu> <4e81b8$uk@earth.superlink.net> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar tuc@superlink.net (Scott J. Ellentuch) wrote: >: The main problem is that unpublished warriors pose a unforseen threat. >: The perfect solution (in my opinion) is the ';fight' operand that I >: proposed a few months ago... However, I never got a reply from ANYONE >: about it, so maybe everyone ignored it. :/ >John, > > Thats a great idea, and if I could be more sure that the newer >version of Koth is production ready, I don't see it as a big problem. Yay...! > HINT! HINT! :) > Tuc Oh, yeah, and about that self-fight thing which I just wrote about in response Matthias' question: Why DOES Pizza run those self-fight things? I don't think that should effect your score. It's just WEIRD. -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | "I don't have the power because I've got the monkeys. I've got | \ the power because I'll set the monkeys LOOSE." -Dave Foley / -=- http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~ifio452/ -=- From: John K W Subject: Re: Program "0 for 100" (length 6) by "John K W" Date: 1996/01/25 Message-ID: <4e8gga$n5j@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu>#1/1 references: <4e3dgi$5cq@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu> <31066CA6.51D0566B@rice.edu> <4e6bdb$9tb@mozo.cc.purdue.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar wollnik@hillres153.cc.purdue.edu (Matthias Wollnik) wrote: >Now, am I missing something or wouldn't a simple 1 liner like > >start: dat 0,0 > > >work as well? > >Matt Wollnik No... The Pizza Hills run a 'self-fight' giving you a score based on this ethereal concept of how well your program scores against itself when one of the two programs (the one that MATTERS) gets to go first on the very first fight. God knows why we have that thing... -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | "I don't have the power because I've got the monkeys. I've got | \ the power because I'll set the monkeys LOOSE." -Dave Foley / -=- http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~ifio452/ -=- From: John K W Subject: Re: Ideas for KoTH Date: 1996/01/25 Message-ID: <4e8gtb$n5j@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu>#1/1 references: newsgroups: rec.games.corewar akemi@netcom.com (David Boeren) wrote: >Of course, it could be extended so that authors can make their code public >so that anyone can ;ask it, but that's something for later. > >Anyway, let me know what you all think... I proposed this about 4 months ago... Along with ";fight" and all the new stuff which Stormking now has. Since I haven't been able to get the new Stormking stuff to work, I don't know if he has it. But it should be implemented, if no plans are in place yet. -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | "I don't have the power because I've got the monkeys. I've got | \ the power because I'll set the monkeys LOOSE." -Dave Foley / -=- http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~ifio452/ -=- From: akemi@netcom.com (David Boeren) Subject: Ideas for KoTH Date: 1996/01/25 Message-ID: #1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar I have two ideas that I wanted to mention for possibly improving the hills. First, people are concerned about artificial aging. It definately exists, and is rampant these days. Way back when, it took 14 months fo Agony II to get to age 912. How long does it take for a warrior to age that much now? Anyway, here's my idea. How about if warriors on the hill only age if the warrior that falls off was NOT ;killed? That ought to greatly reduce the artificial aging, right? Second, I have an idea which would be a great convenience to authors trying to track their code performance. Currently, I try to keep track of how my program scored versus all warriors on the hill. When I get my big initial results file I immediately calculate the points versus each warrior, and I periodically update this with the new scores against all the new hill programs and have to re-order the results to reflect current hill order. Needless to say, this is a lot of work and I don't like to do it too often. It would be a great convenience if the author of a program could send a message to pizza that says something like ;ask and it would send them an up-to-date file in the same form as the one you get with your initial challenge so that you can easily see how you are doing against all the new warriors. I am pretty sure this is not difficult to implement, and there's no way to abuse it since it only lets you ;ask your own warriors. Of course, it could be extended so that authors can make their code public so that anyone can ;ask it, but that's something for later. Anyway, let me know what you all think... From: Beppe Bezzi Subject: Re: Another newbie question Date: 1996/01/26 Message-ID: <199601261749.SAA17416@iol-mail.iol.it>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar At 10.44 26/01/96 -0500, you wrote: >I've got as far as reading the FAQ and part 1 of Durham's tutorial. >(PS FAQ gave an http: to a www address & it didn't work. When I FTPed to >the parent directory I found TUTORIAL.1.Z. Is this a FAQ error?) > What's the wrong http: ? >Anyway - Is it permissible to create a totally boring warrior such as: > mov 0, 1 >and post it just to test the mechanisms? > Yes it's possible, but why not try something better. >=== Steve Bailey ZED Instruments Ltd sgb@zed-inst.demon.co.uk -Beppe Bezzi From: Beppe Bezzi Subject: Re: Ideas for KoTH Date: 1996/01/26 Message-ID: <199601261749.SAA17413@iol-mail.iol.it>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar At 10.24 26/01/96 -0500, you wrote: >... > > ;fight Jack in the Box > What's that, the call of a crusade, there is another warrior to take care of before :-) >For those concerned about 'artificial aging', it is only the choice of >measurement that is artificial. A better statistic would be number of >days on the Hill. The higher rate of aging today vs. yesterday is probably >related to the faster turnaround at Pizza vs Newman's old Hill, which >lends itself to more tweaking. Days on hill may not be meaningful, there are periods with great production and others with much less, like during the tournament or when Pizza had problems. Sure when I submit Tornado x2 killing x1 the hill ages and no warrior is at minimal risk of being pushed off, but fine tuning has to be done 'on the battlefield' >...Also, large numbers of unpublished >warriors means the only way to test is to submit to Pizza. And ;strategy lines often forget to tell the warrior strategy. > >And self-fights should be dropped. Playing king-of-the-hill as a child >I never had to fight myself, only the other kids on the pile. > I agree, self fight is meaningless. BTW it's possible to use pspace and make an handshake allowing the warrior to beat himself 90% times; this, compared to a good 45/45/10 means 5 more points in the score, some 10 positions in the hill. >Paul Kline >pk6811s@acad.drake.edu > -Beppe Bezzi From: wsheppar@st6000.sct.edu (Wayne Sheppard) Subject: Re: KotH question Date: 1996/01/26 Message-ID: <4ebol8$2434@st6000.sct.edu>#1/1 references: <1974535wnr@zed-inst.demon.co.uk> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar In article <1974535wnr@zed-inst.demon.co.uk>, Steve Bailey wrote: >There's lots of chat about warriors getting kicked off and ways to beat >the hill here. But surely the algorithms aren't _general_ and what you >need to beat the top 20 today may beed a different strategy to that >which would have worked a year ago. > >I mean the warriors may not necessarily be getting "better", but just >different. Maybe a defeated warrior from a year ago would happily win >against all current comers. While improvements are being made to warriors, it is impossible to compare them to older warriors. The rules have made some warriors obsolete. A warrior written in 88 doesn't have much of a chance on the current hill (maybe a new contest?) There are some really impressive warriors out there now. But I liked it better in the old days. The main thing I dislike about the current hill is the coreclear is so important. I remembered when coreclears looked like: spl 0 mov 1,<-1 Nowdays they have to be SPL/SPL/DAT/DAT to kill some warriors. And sometimes the coreclear is larger than the main body of the warrior. And because the coreclear needs to be repeating, I can't use a gate anymore. Wayne . -- Wayne Sheppard wsheppar@st6000.sct.edu From: Planar Subject: Re: koth!!! Date: 1996/01/26 Message-ID: <4eabv9$opb@news-rocq.inria.fr>#1/1 references: <9601231921.AA14234@uu3.psi.com> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar In article <9601231921.AA14234@uu3.psi.com>, pan0178@comune.bologna.it (MV) writes: >testnorm is a quite simple 60%c bomber... > >Hey! >It's the first time that a "dumb" bomber is koth! ;-) >(Planar, can you confirm this ?) I really have no idea, but you'll notice that Impfinity gets a lot of points from testnorm. Impfinity is an "intelligent" bomber (i.e. a dumb bomber coupled with an even dumber spiral). -- Planar From: bremermr@cartoon.ecn.purdue.edu (Myer R. Bremer) Subject: Re: Ideas for KoTH Date: 1996/01/26 Message-ID: <4ebc13$cbu@mozo.cc.purdue.edu>#1/1 references: <199601252218.XAA01176@iol-mail.iol.it> <1996Jan26.083428@acad.drake.edu> <4eb2qc$gov@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar greetings. if i ever become wealthy, i'm going to buy the corewar community a dedicated supercomputer. we'll get our results back _before_ we get the 'good compile' mail. regarding self-fights: despite all the hand-shaking stuff, even before pspace, self-fighting penalized certain warrior forms. scanners score tons more points against themselves than paper. and the 4% speed increase would be nice even if i don't really notice it. all in the mind. so ;fight is in. self-fights are out. what gives with stormking? i can't get the web page or challenge results. more modifications? m r bremer From: bremermr@cartoon.ecn.purdue.edu (Myer R. Bremer) Subject: Re: koth!!! Date: 1996/01/26 Message-ID: <4eak1a$6v7@mozo.cc.purdue.edu>#1/1 references: <9601231921.AA14234@uu3.psi.com> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar In article <9601231921.AA14234@uu3.psi.com>, MV wrote: >1 41/ 39/ 20 testnorm Maurizio Vittuari 143 23 > >testnorm is a quite simple 60%c bomber... > >Hey! >It's the first time that a "dumb" bomber is koth! ;-) >(Planar, can you confirm this ?) > >Maurizio > greetings. besides impfinity, i think it's been the first bomber on top since pspace. mcrae's test program was a qs --> bomber and that made it on top. before pspace plenty of bombers have made it to the top of the hill--night crawler, sphinx(?), and juliet storm to name a few. m r bremer From: wollnik@hillres153.cc.purdue.edu (Matthias Wollnik) Subject: Re: Program "0 for 100" (length 6) by "John K W" Date: 1996/01/26 Message-ID: <4e9kub$mqk@mozo.cc.purdue.edu>#1/1 references: <4e3dgi$5cq@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu> <31066CA6.51D0566B@rice.edu> <4e6bdb$9tb@mozo.cc.purdue.edu> <4e6bjs$dfq@mozo.cc.purdue.edu> <3107D0B5.233C0B79@rice.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Whoops, I totally forgot that we do have the self fight. So you're right. A one liner wouldn't work. Matt Wollnik From: akemi@netcom.com (David Boeren) Subject: New Record? Date: 1996/01/26 Message-ID: #1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Well I just now managed to go from 16th on the hill to 26th in one challenge! Paper Towel v0.4 was just pushed off by Anton Marsden's "Blur 0.1", to my surprise. I'd expected it to take a few challenges to gradually lower my ranks. Has anyone else fallen off the hill from higher? Hey Anton! What do you put in those scanners anyway? I score just fine against most of them, and quite high against some. Just not yours... From: natewild@mbnet.mb.ca (Nathan T. Wild) Subject: Core Ware FAQ WHERE? Date: 1996/01/26 Message-ID: #1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Sorry if this is a recurring post, but where is the COREWAR FAQ? AND can some one point me at a good DOS, Windows or Linux COREWAR assembler/local areana? |--------------------------------------------------------------------| | ooooO (``) (``) Ooooo | Nathan T. Wild | | ( ) ) ( ) ( ( ) | natewild@mbnet.mb.ca | | ) ( ( ) ( ) ) ( | ftp://ftp.mbnet.mb.ca/pub/natewild | | (__) ooooO Ooooo (__) | http://www.mbnet.mb.ca/~natewild | |--------------------------------------------------------------------| From: Steve Bailey Subject: Another newbie question Date: 1996/01/26 Message-ID: <863531130wnr@zed-inst.demon.co.uk>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar I've got as far as reading the FAQ and part 1 of Durham's tutorial. (PS FAQ gave an http: to a www address & it didn't work. When I FTPed to the parent directory I found TUTORIAL.1.Z. Is this a FAQ error?) Anyway - Is it permissible to create a totally boring warrior such as: mov 0, 1 and post it just to test the mechanisms? === Steve Bailey ZED Instruments Ltd sgb@zed-inst.demon.co.uk http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/SGBailey Work: Electronics Play: Go 2kyu WestSurrey 101374.624@compuserve.com Levellers; Lightfoot, Gordon; Lindisfarne; Live; Magna Carta; From: akemi@netcom.com (David Boeren) Subject: Re: Ideas for KoTH Date: 1996/01/26 Message-ID: #1/1 references: <199601252218.XAA01176@iol-mail.iol.it> <1996Jan26.083428@acad.drake.edu> <4eb2qc$gov@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar pk6811s@acad.drake.edu wrote: >And self-fights should be dropped. Playing king-of-the-hill as a child >I never had to fight myself, only the other kids on the pile. After consideration, I agree completely with this. Consider: You can add handshaing to your warrior in only a few instructions so that you will score 100% wins on the self-fights. That's 300 points. Let's be generous and say that an average program scores 150 in self-fights. Many score lower, but like I said, we're going to be generous. So with the handshaking, you get 150 extra points. Divide that by 26 slots on the hill, and you see that you get about 6 full points higher! This is a HUGE bonus, enough to add at least 4 ranks to your position. This is a "Bad Thing" because: 1. The points are false, they do not reflect your warrior's true ability. 2. It keeps new players from getting on the hill because they do not know about this "gimmick". They will get discouraged and stop playing. Besides, I can't think of any POSITIVE reasons for self-fights. Besides, if we drop them then the hill automatically becomes 4% faster! From: Steve Bailey Subject: KotH question Date: 1996/01/26 Message-ID: <1974535wnr@zed-inst.demon.co.uk>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar There's lots of chat about warriors getting kicked off and ways to beat the hill here. But surely the algorithms aren't _general_ and what you need to beat the top 20 today may beed a different strategy to that which would have worked a year ago. I mean the warriors may not necessarily be getting "better", but just different. Maybe a defeated warrior from a year ago would happily win against all current comers. Is this possible? === Steve Bailey ZED Instruments Ltd sgb@zed-inst.demon.co.uk http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/SGBailey Work: Electronics Play: Go 2kyu WestSurrey 101374.624@compuserve.com Levellers; Lightfoot, Gordon; Lindisfarne; Live; Magna Carta; From: John K W Subject: Re: Ideas for KoTH Date: 1996/01/26 Message-ID: <4eb2qc$gov@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu>#1/1 references: <199601252218.XAA01176@iol-mail.iol.it> <1996Jan26.083428@acad.drake.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar pk6811s@acad.drake.edu wrote: >For those concerned about 'artificial aging', it is only the choice of >measurement that is artificial. A better statistic would be number of >days on the Hill. The higher rate of aging today vs. yesterday is probably >related to the faster turnaround at Pizza vs Newman's old Hill, which >lends itself to more tweaking. Also, large numbers of unpublished >warriors means the only way to test is to submit to Pizza. Days? No, that'd be even worse. What if the Hill got no succesful challenges on a given day? I think the best thing to do is only age the Hill iff the warrior pushed off has an age greater than 1 and a score greater than 100. >And self-fights should be dropped. Playing king-of-the-hill as a child >I never had to fight myself, only the other kids on the pile. Haha... that's what I don't get. It's just such a weird idea. :) -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | "I don't have the power because I've got the monkeys. I've got | \ the power because I'll set the monkeys LOOSE." -Dave Foley / -=- http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~ifio452/ -=- From: pan0178@comune.bologna.it (MV) Subject: Re: koth!!! Date: 1996/01/26 Message-ID: <199601270116.UAA39801@valhalla.stormking.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar >In article <9601231921.AA14234@uu3.psi.com>, >MV wrote: >>1 41/ 39/ 20 testnorm Maurizio Vittuari 143 23 >> >>testnorm is a quite simple 60%c bomber... >> >>Hey! >>It's the first time that a "dumb" bomber is koth! ;-) >>(Planar, can you confirm this ?) >> >>Maurizio >> > >greetings. > >besides impfinity, i think it's been the first bomber on top >since pspace. mcrae's test program was a qs --> bomber and >that made it on top. before pspace plenty of bombers have >made it to the top of the hill--night crawler, sphinx(?), >and juliet storm to name a few. > >m r bremer > That's right! testnorm wasn't the first! :( Never mind... testnorm WILL BE the first! ;-) hahaha! (anyway impfinity isn't a pure bomber...) Maurizio From: John K W Subject: (no subject) Date: 1996/01/26 Message-ID: <4eb952$mca@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Quoting holdingpen.cgi: >remshd: Account is disabled. I'm guessing that's a bad thing, right? What's it mean? -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | "I don't have the power because I've got the monkeys. I've got | \ the power because I'll set the monkeys LOOSE." -Dave Foley / -=- http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~ifio452/ -=- From: pk6811s@acad.drake.edu Subject: Re: Ideas for KoTH Date: 1996/01/26 Message-ID: <1996Jan26.083428@acad.drake.edu>#1/1 references: <199601252218.XAA01176@iol-mail.iol.it> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar I would like to see a koth option to fight a single warrior, which would not count in the aging process, but would be helpful to tune a program against a specific problem opponent. Something like: ;fight Jack in the Box For those concerned about 'artificial aging', it is only the choice of measurement that is artificial. A better statistic would be number of days on the Hill. The higher rate of aging today vs. yesterday is probably related to the faster turnaround at Pizza vs Newman's old Hill, which lends itself to more tweaking. Also, large numbers of unpublished warriors means the only way to test is to submit to Pizza. And self-fights should be dropped. Playing king-of-the-hill as a child I never had to fight myself, only the other kids on the pile. Paul Kline pk6811s@acad.drake.edu (in this neighborhood, "Jack" is frequently pronounced "Yuck" :-) From: tuc@news.stormking.com (Scott J. Ellentuch) Subject: !!SKI-ICWS!! - More going on! Date: 1996/01/27 Message-ID: <4eec5j$14ab@valhalla.stormking.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Hello all, Again, I'd like to say I'm sorry about the problems my ISP has caused to the players. We are looking to recitfy it, in more ways than 1! We have put the corewar-l archives up for D/L at ftp://ftp.stormking.com/pub/corewar I also have cleaned up the koth index page a tad, and hope to make it even sleeker in the next few days. I have also had some PC problems, which force me to send out my "tucslap.stormking.com" machine. It will come back better than ever, but in the mean time, I lost EVERYONES suggestions and bug reports. So, what I did was hack a Guestbook script from Matt Wright (credit where it is due) and added : Bug Report New Function That will now be THE place that matters. After I get a few, I will start posting a "Production Release" page, which will outline what will be released and when. HOWEVER, the when is driven HEAVILY by : People testing (HINT HINT) People reporting test results (HINT! HINT!) People making suggestions (HIN!! HINT!!) I will be commenting on the Bug Reports too.... Tuc -- * --- --- |Scott J. Ellentuch, Pres | The Telecom Security Group * * | | | |Comm. and Comp. Security | (Storm King family of Companies) * * | |__|__ |Consultants and Engineers | P.O. Box 69, Newburgh, NY 12551 * From: tuc@news.stormking.com (Scott J. Ellentuch) Subject: Re: Cancel Date: 1996/01/27 Message-ID: <4eebhp$14ab@valhalla.stormking.com>#1/1 references: newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Eric Humphries (eh4529@acc.mcneese.edu) wrote: : I would like to cancel my subscription to the corewar letter please... : I dont like getting flooded by mail every day. Send "help" to listproc@stormking.com. You can set an option to send only digests. Tuc -- * --- --- |Scott J. Ellentuch, Pres | The Telecom Security Group * * | | | |Comm. and Comp. Security | (Storm King family of Companies) * * | |__|__ |Consultants and Engineers | P.O. Box 69, Newburgh, NY 12551 * From: jdb@jdb.org (jdb) Subject: Please Date: 1996/01/27 Message-ID: <1548@jdb.org>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Can you please remove me or my system from your mailer... I am not sure which user subscribed to your service, but I will try to make sure it doesn't happen again. Thanks. Jason D. Borenstein (JDB) jdb@jdb.org Internet jdb@1614008 MultiNet jdb@6141059 Virtual Net jdb@1:226/390 FIDONet If you cant remove me, can you please send me instructions on how to drop your service? From: John K W Subject: Re: (no subject) Date: 1996/01/27 Message-ID: <4ee62j$m6s@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu>#1/1 references: <4eb952$mca@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu> <4eckb1$mvf@charnel.ecst.csuchico.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar sd@ecst.csuchico.edu (Chia Head) wrote: >>>remshd: Account is disabled. >> >>I'm guessing that's a bad thing, right? What's it mean? > >It means that in a wild flurry of upgrades, something tiny >got overlooked. It means that you won't be able to see the >machine load for a day or two over the web. If you really >want to know, use "koth status" through the mail. Ah, well that's not realli bad. I can always guess how well Pizza is doing by how often I get mail from it... -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | "I don't have the power because I've got the monkeys. I've got | \ the power because I'll set the monkeys LOOSE." -Dave Foley / -=- http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~ifio452/ -=- From: tuc@superlink.net (Scott J. Ellentuch) Subject: Re: Stormking test Date: 1996/01/27 Message-ID: <4edjsr$ovk@earth.superlink.net>#1/1 references: <4e1e10$p04@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar John K W (jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu) wrote: : I sent ';help' mail to Stormking, and recieved the help list. : However, nothing I did after that cause me to recieve a reply : from Stormking... : What am I supposed to do here? Our ISP has been having ALOT of problems lately. 1 of our networks has been down for over 1 1/2 weeks, the other is JUST starting to stabilize. We had moved to dial-up for email during that time, but didn't realize that our OTHER ISP had removed the series of phones we used! If you still have a problem, PLEASE email me at tuc@stormking.com Tuc From: sd@ecst.csuchico.edu (Chia Head) Subject: Re: (no subject) Date: 1996/01/27 Message-ID: <4eckb1$mvf@charnel.ecst.csuchico.edu>#1/1 references: <4eb952$mca@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar John K W wrote: >Quoting holdingpen.cgi: > >>remshd: Account is disabled. > >I'm guessing that's a bad thing, right? What's it mean? It means that in a wild flurry of upgrades, something tiny got overlooked. It means that you won't be able to see the machine load for a day or two over the web. If you really want to know, use "koth status" through the mail. Thos -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\/~~\ /~~~\/\ / \ \ / /~\ /~~~~~YY~~~\\ /~~ Thomas H. Davies V \/\ /\ V / V |\/\/| V\ / sd@ecst.csuchico.edu V \ / | / | V Internet Pizza Server \/ | /\ | Member C.W.M. Corewar King of the Hill information |/oo\| CAVE ON Since 1987 http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~pizza/koth/ |/\| From: John K W Subject: Re: KotH question Date: 1996/01/27 Message-ID: <4ecbsj$ikc@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu>#1/1 references: <1974535wnr@zed-inst.demon.co.uk> <4ebol8$2434@st6000.sct.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar wsheppar@st6000.sct.edu (Wayne Sheppard) wrote: >There are some really impressive warriors out there now. But I liked >it better in the old days. The main thing I dislike about the current >hill is the coreclear is so important. I remembered when coreclears >looked like: > spl 0 > mov 1,<-1 >Nowdays they have to be SPL/SPL/DAT/DAT to kill some warriors. And >sometimes the coreclear is larger than the main body of the warrior. >And because the coreclear needs to be repeating, I can't use a gate >anymore. If you need a spl/spl/dat/dat clear, maybe your warrior isn't good enough to defeat that type of warrior? I don't understand what you mean, but I have only ever put a SPL clear in TWO warriors that I've submitted to the KotH, if I remember correctly... -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | "I don't have the power because I've got the monkeys. I've got | \ the power because I'll set the monkeys LOOSE." -Dave Foley / -=- http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~ifio452/ -=- From: Kurt Franke Subject: Re: SGB_01 Being a total beginner Date: 1996/01/28 Message-ID: <310C3701.30AEBFF3@rice.edu>#1/1 references: <4egkna$brj@dub-news-svc-1.compuserve.com> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar 101374.624@compuserve.com wrote: / / SGB_01.net CORE WARS / / Steve's Guide for Beginners Iss 1 ... / What is Core Wars? / / It is a game for 2 players. The field/board is a / simulated small computer. The player's "piece" is / a program. The objective is to own the computer's / memory and kill the opponents program. You own a / memory location by writing to it. ... The article is good, but I have not heard about owning memory locations. (That is not the way the pmars simulator works, at any rate) You win just by killing the enemy processes. Kurt From: Beppe Bezzi Subject: patroclus Date: 1996/01/28 Message-ID: <199601282315.AAA19385@iol-mail.iol.it>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar >... A challenger has arrived on the ICWS '94 Draft hill! Vital statistics: Program "patroclus" (length 100) by "Kafka and Kurt" (contact address "bike@owlnet.rice.edu"): ;strategy Qscan->replicator ;strategy get lots of free points from LaBomba while they last!!! Your program La Bomba fights 200 times: La Bomba wins: 28 patroclus wins: 143 Ties: 29 >... Why don't you post Hector 2, so I can try getting a lot of points from him :-) -Beppe From: tuc@news.stormking.com (Scott J. Ellentuch) Subject: Re: !!SKI-ICWS!! - More going on! Date: 1996/01/28 Message-ID: <4egqm1$166b@valhalla.stormking.com>#1/1 references: <4eec5j$14ab@valhalla.stormking.com> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar YET MORE HAPPENING, TUC MUST BE DRINKING ALOT OF MOUNTAIN DEW THIS WEEKEND! For those capable, submit a warrior(if there are none in the koth pen already), then cruise on to : http://www.stormking.com/~koth/index2.html And when I mean capable, bring your cup of java or an applet to munch on. Catch my drift? Tuc -- * --- --- |Scott J. Ellentuch, Pres | The Telecom Security Group * * | | | |Comm. and Comp. Security | (Storm King family of Companies) * * | |__|__ |Consultants and Engineers | P.O. Box 69, Newburgh, NY 12551 * From: maelbeunifox@msn.com (Georges CABANES) Subject: Re: Free games of Corewar? Date: 1996/01/28 Message-ID: <00001f35+0000062c@msn.com>#1/1 references: <4e5tgg$snc@cis.clark.edu> <4e67uu$6g1@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Hello,I'M FRENCH!! It's 09:10 P.M (French Hours) I speak not very well English, but if you can speak French,please write me to my adress: NetWorks: (Merde!) I don't know my adress... Internet: Yes,I know,it's UNIFOX1@MicroNet.fr WRITE ME,PLEASE!!!WRITE ME,PLEASE!!!WRITE ME... because I just a new Internet and NetWorks's User. And how can I play a game with NetWorks?? From: <101374.624@compuserve.com> Subject: SGB_01 Being a total beginner Date: 1996/01/28 Message-ID: <4egkna$brj@dub-news-svc-1.compuserve.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar SGB_01.net CORE WARS Steve's Guide for Beginners Iss 1 I am a beginner and I find all this Core Wars stuff VERY confusing, so I am writing this "guide" for my own use, to encourage CONSTRUCTIVE criticism and advice and as a possible aid to other beginners. Such a guide may already exist - in which case please point me at it. During these guides I will make statements that are incorrect in detail, but please don't correct them when the intent of the statement is for beginner simplicity. The bias is towards IBM PC compatibles. The line length is intentionally narrow to ease quoting. ====== Introduction: Some people will have a vague recollection of the concept of Core Wars from the Scientific American article around 1980. Most people have never heard of it. What is Core Wars? It is a game for 2 players. The field/board is a simulated small computer. The player's "piece" is a program. The objective is to own the computer's memory and kill the opponents program. You own a memory location by writing to it. The field of play (the computer) is known as pMARS which stands for "portable Memory Array Redcode Simulator". The programs written are "Warriors" and have names. ====== How to start? I started in rec.games.corewar. Most of the r.g.c. posts are technical gobbledegook, ignore them. Find the FAQ or references to the archives: ftp://ftp.csua.berkeley.edu/pub/corewar From there load down .../documents/tutorial.1.Z, .../documents/tutorial.2.Z and .../systems/pmars08.zip (which is PC executables) (don't download the sources pmars08s.zip) Create yourself a corewar directory (I'll refer to this as /COREWAR). Unpack the tutorials, merge them into one file (I called mine TUTORIAL.TXT) and put it in /COREWAR and read them. Unpack the zip file into /COREWAR then run your virus checker. (I renamed many files to ease my personal use - eg PMARS.DOC is now DOCN.TXT). (If you can't unpack .Z or .zip files, that is a separate matter beyond the scope of this guide.) From DOS, change to /COREWAR, type DIR. You will see 3 *.EXEs and some *.REDs. Just to prove you've done it right, type PMARSV to get the usage prompt. Next choose two *.REDs (I'll pick two as examples here) and type: PMARSV RAVE.RED AEKA.RED Watch it compile and splash pretty patterns on the screen. ====== You are up and running. Next issue will discuss what the patterns mean and what the *.REDs are. If anyone has comments please reply in r.g.c. === Steve Bailey 101374.624@compuserve.com sgb@zed-inst.demon.co.uk http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/SGBailey Work: Electronics Play: Go 2kyu. From: marsden_a@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz Subject: Re: !!SKI-ICWS!! - More going on! Date: 1996/01/28 Message-ID: <0099D13C.30807BE0.14@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar >Oh, and while I'm here, what do you want to call the new option to >"showsource"? Is ";showsource" ok? We'd have a ";noshowsource" to stop >people from viewing the source. How about ";public" and ";private" instead? From: tuc@news.stormking.com (Scott J. Ellentuch) Subject: Re: !!SKI-ICWS!! - More going on! Date: 1996/01/28 Message-ID: <4ef2cm$i03@valhalla.stormking.com>#1/1 references: <4eec5j$14ab@valhalla.stormking.com> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Scott J. Ellentuch (tuc@news.stormking.com) wrote: : I have also had some PC problems, which force me to send out my : "tucslap.stormking.com" machine. It will come back better than ever, : but in the mean time, I lost EVERYONES suggestions and bug reports. So, : what I did was hack a Guestbook script from Matt Wright (credit where it is : due) and added : : Bug Report : New Function Which people are taking advantage of! There have been about 5 or 6 reports, all of which were solved. The only one I think that is open is the ;statistics command. I haven't worked on it since I didn't think anyone used it. Is this true? Is there something better I can supply than the old one? PLEASE email me (tuc@stormking.com) Another 2 features for phase I have been added. ;url and ;newurl. They will allow users, viewing the hill status on the web, to click on a user name, and if there is a url for the warrior, use it, otherwise just "mailto:" the author. This works NOW, I repeat NOW, on the current SKI-ICWS hills, so you can start submitting warriors with that now. ;newurl is going to be a Phase I feature. If anyone wants to have a warrior updated, please send me (tuc@stormking.com) the information in the format we will eventually use for ;newurl : ;redcode ;name ;password ;newurl So, for example ;redcode ;name TucTuc ;password Wabbit ;newurl http://www.storming.com/~koth/ Oh, and while I'm here, what do you want to call the new option to "showsource"? Is ";showsource" ok? We'd have a ";noshowsource" to stop people from viewing the source. Tuc -- * --- --- |Scott J. Ellentuch, Pres | The Telecom Security Group * * | | | |Comm. and Comp. Security | (Storm King family of Companies) * * | |__|__ |Consultants and Engineers | P.O. Box 69, Newburgh, NY 12551 * From: John K W Subject: Re: Core Ware FAQ WHERE? Date: 1996/01/28 Message-ID: <4ees9h$8ci@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu>#1/1 references: newsgroups: rec.games.corewar natewild@mbnet.mb.ca (Nathan T. Wild) wrote: > >Sorry if this is a recurring post, but where is the COREWAR FAQ? AND can >some one point me at a good DOS, Windows or Linux COREWAR assembler/local >areana? http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~pizza/koth/ has links to the FAQ, and to the PMARS page. PMARS is the "arena" program, and is used in all the current Corewar games. -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | "I don't have the power because I've got the monkeys. I've got | \ the power because I'll set the monkeys LOOSE." -Dave Foley / -=- http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~ifio452/ -=- From: tuc@news.stormking.com (Scott J. Ellentuch) Subject: Re: !!SKI-ICWS!! - More going on! Date: 1996/01/28 Message-ID: <4eei2s$t3d@valhalla.stormking.com>#1/1 references: <4eec5j$14ab@valhalla.stormking.com> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar : That will now be THE place that matters. After I get a few, I will : start posting a "Production Release" page, which will outline what will : be released and when. HOWEVER, the when is driven HEAVILY by : : People testing (HINT HINT) : People reporting test results (HINT! HINT!) : People making suggestions (HIN!! HINT!!) : I will be commenting on the Bug Reports too.... It seems there was some confusion about what should be tested and what was currently available and is going to be available. I put up a new page : http://www.stormking.com/~koth/features.html That will explain everything I've been talking about. Also, PLEASE, if you are STILL having problems accessing our web site send a REALLY nasty email to me at webaccess-complaints@stormking.com . Be as mean and nasty as possible, but DONT put in it "I'm complaining just like you asked for" or anything like that. This is being forwarded to my ISP and maybe if they get enough messages they'll fix the problem! Thanks, Tuc From: ANTON MARSDEN Subject: Indirect addressing Date: 1996/01/29 Message-ID: <0099D299.C4B5AC00.84@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar We have post-increment and pre-decrement indirect addressing. What's wrong with pre-increment and post-decrement? They could be very useful. There's still a few curly things in the ASCII tables which haven't been used yet! - ()[] Anton. From: sas.kloppers@digitec.co.za (SAS KLOPPERS) Subject: T-Shirts Date: 1996/01/29 Message-ID: <8B9C366.009B0006EA.uuout@digitec.co.za>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar +------------------------------------------+ | | # Any corporate or sporting | | # design hand silk screened | | # on NATURAL cotton. We also | | # do: +--------------+ +--------------+ # 1. Golf shirts ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| | #~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 2. Special designs, PLUS | | # 3. Custom-made, 3.5cm | | # black-on-yellow Internet | | # Smiley ":-)" pin button... | | # =-===-===-===-=| T-SHIRTS | #==-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-====- | | # | | # Sizes M to XXL. | | # WARNING: Our T-shirts are | | # bigger than normal. Medium +------------+ # will fit most adults! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We offer: * Multi colours * No design limitation. * Quick deliveries/order turnaround times * Low prices * Smallish order quantities * Guaranteed quality Please direct all orders/inquiries via email to any of the following addresses: t-shirt@digitec.co.za nic.patterton#digitec.co.za sas.kloppers@digitec.co.za ___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.12 From: sas.kloppers@digitec.co.za (SAS KLOPPERS) Subject: ۲�� T-SHIRTS ����� Date: 1996/01/29 Message-ID: <8B9C1F5.009B0006E3.uuout@digitec.co.za>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Someone complained that the previous Digitec T-shirt ad was confusing, so let's try again... _####_ _####_ _###################_ ~###~)##DIGITEC##(~###~ ~ )####( )####( ~ ####( )#### ########### ~~~~~~~~~~~ * THE T-SHIRT: 100% cotton in natural cotton colour (slightly creamy). If anyone prefers a polar white poly/cotton T-shirt instead, just specify. * THE DESIGN: Red fake tie with repeating "Digitec Online" motif hand-silkscreened on the front. Real election-type safety pin button with an Internet Smiley ":-)" in black on yellow on breast. * THE SIZES: M, L, XL, XXL. Size M will fit most adults. * THE PRICE: R40. That's cheap -- go check the prices in Woolworths! * TO ORDER: Here or via email: t-shirt@digitec.co.za Specify the quantity, choice of 100% cotton or poly/cotton fabric, and the preferred size. (There's a handy order form below...  ) Feel free to RESERVE if you think you *might* want one. No obligation. * DELIVERY: All T-shirts will be available at the Digitec Do on Saturday, 2 March 1996. ____________________________ORDER_FORM___CUT_HERE______________________ __ to: t-shirt@digitec.co.za "Yes! I want one of those super T-shirts, if for no other reason than the nifty I-smiley button! Please reserve the following quantities..." +-----------------------+---+-------------+---+ | SIZE M : 100% cotton | | poly/cotton | | +-----------------------+---+-------------+---+ | SIZE L : 100% cotton | | poly/cotton | | +-----------------------+---+-------------+---+ | SIZE XL : 100% cotton | | poly/cotton | | +-----------------------+---+-------------+---+ | SIZE XXL: 100% cotton | | poly/cotton | | +-----------------------+---+-------------+---+ ___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.12 From: poke@lyseo.otol.fi (Juho Snellman) Subject: Re: SGB_02 Being a total beginner Date: 1996/01/29 Message-ID: <4ej04a$l7l@pan.otol.fi>#1/1 references: <452578515wnr@zed-inst.demon.co.uk> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Steve Bailey (sgb@zed-inst.demon.co.uk) wrote: : Now try : PM USELESS BORING -s 1000 : The Blue 0 in the top left won't last long. The : green 1s will march all over the top of the : screen. I believe this to be a convincing win for : BORING. Nope... since the idea is to kill the enemy, and the imp (boring in your example) will just convert the opponent to an imp. This will result in a tie. -- Juho Snellman Crbcyr jub pna'g ernq ebg13 fubhyq or onaarq sebz gur arg. From: nosraef@aol.com (Nosraef) Subject: MAGIC SECRETS Date: 1996/01/29 Message-ID: <4ejsfp$s7g@newsbf02.news.aol.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar **** If you want to learn how to levitate things, including yourself. Or if you just like secrets, check out the website at- http://members.aol.com/nosraef/homepage/title.html It's also a nice example of what AOL users can do with the space provided to them on the net by AOL. http://members.aol.com/nosraef/homepage/title.html **** From: Justin Kao <102741.2022@CompuServe.COM> Subject: question from beginner Date: 1996/01/29 Message-ID: <4ejm6d$8p1$1@mhadf.production.compuserve.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Could someone tell me where to find stuff about CoreWar? All I know about it is from A K Dewdney's articles in Scientific American.... Justin From: bremermr@cartoon.ecn.purdue.edu (Myer R. Bremer) Subject: CoreWarrior 14 Date: 1996/01/29 Message-ID: <4ejarc$a2j@mozo.cc.purdue.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar .xX$$x. .x$$$$$$$x. d$$$$$$$$$$$ ,$$$$$$$P' `P' , . $$$$$$P' ' .d b $$$$$P b ,$$x ,$$x ,$$x ,$$b $$. Y$$$$' `$. $$$$$$. $$$$$$ $$P~d$. d$$$b d d$$$ `$$$$ ,$$ $$$$$$$b $$$P `$ $$$b.$$b `Y$$$d$d$$$' . . a . a a .aa . a `$$$ ,$$$,$$' `$$$ $$$' ' $$P$XX$' `$$$$$$$$$ .dP' `$'$ `$'$ , $''$ `$'$ `Y$b ,d$$$P `$b,d$P' `$$. `$$. , `$$P $$$' Y $. $ $ $ Y..P $ `$$$$$$$' $$$P' `$$b `$$$P `P `$' `Y'k. $. $. $. $$' $. Issue 14 January 29, 1996 ______________________________________________________________________________ Core_Warrior_ is a weekly newsletter promoting the game of corewar. Emphasis is placed on the most active hills--currently the '94 draft hill and the beginner hill. Coverage will follow where ever the action is. If you have no clue what I'm talking about then check out these five-star internet locals for more information: FAQs are available by anonymous FTP from rtfm.mit.edu as pub/usenet/news.answers/games/corewar-faq.Z FTP site is: ftp.csua.berkeley.edu /pub/corewar Web pages are at: http://www.stormking.com/~koth ;Stormking http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~pizza/koth ;Pizza http://pauillac.inria.fr/~doligez/corewar/ ;Planar ______________________________________________________________________________ Greetings. Another issue of the world's premier core war e-zine! Tuc has gone insane. He spent the weekend popping Vivarin, chasing them with Mountain Dew, and coding like a maniac. I copied this off the Stormking core war page. It's copyrighted. Please don't sue me. Major changes and improvements are being made to SKI-ICWS to prepare for the release of SKI-ICWS-II, the next generation in Koth service. There are two major areas that this involves, the front end and the back end. The front end is the part of the system that processes your mail and replies back to any immediate requests such as ;status, ;help, etc. These require no processing other than sending a file or two. The back end is where the warriors actually do battle. ;kill gets processed here only because by the time your warrior is ready for battle, it may have already been pushed off the hill. ;password is associated with this for a submission, but not for the ;newpasswd command. Currently, all work is being done on the front end. This means that ;kill and ;password processing is not working, and any other suggestions for battle, like ;fight, are not being worked on. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Phase I - Front End * Ability to add ;redcode lines to a ;status request to only get certain hill results - DONE * Addition of a ;password line in a warrior. If not given, one will be randomly generated for you. - DONE * ;newpasswd has been added to change passwords. - DONE * ;newredcode has been added to allow you to change the ;redcode line to quiet or verbose or standard - DONE * A ;version command has been added to see if a new version of the system is operational and any errors identified fixed. - DONE * ;url to point to a url when viewing the scores via the web - DONE * ;newurl to change what url you point to for those viewing on the web - TBD * (Add a NEW Function) and your idea could be here Phase II - Back End * ;scores to display the last sets of scores for a hill (This is actually a Front-End modification, but requires Back-End work to support it) * ;fight to specifically fight one/more warriors (Front End Mod, but needs Back-End support for it) * (Add a NEW Function) and your idea could be here ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Nice to haves * During reply of a warrior compile and being placed in the pen, estimate the length of time it will be before the battle is completed. - MEDIUM PRIORITY ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Your chance to help out with suggestions/bug reports * Enter a New Function you would like to see * Enter a Bug Report for either SKI-ICWS or SKI-ICWS-II ______________________________________________________________________________ Hill Specs: coresize: 8000 max. processes: 8000 duration: after 80,000 cycles, a tie is declared. max. entry length: 100 minimum distance: 100 rounds fought: 200 instruction set: ICWS '94 Draft Last challenge: Sun Jan 28 22:12:28 PST 1996 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 45/ 39/ 16 Frontwards v2 Steven Morrell 150 405 2 36/ 31/ 33 Tornado 2.7e Beppe Bezzi 140 37 3 37/ 36/ 28 Thermite II Robert Macrae 137 153 4 40/ 43/ 18 Mirage 1.5 Anton Marsden 137 66 5 21/ 6/ 73 Evol Cap 6.6 John Wilkinson 136 167 6 34/ 34/ 32 Mason 2.0 Robert Macrae 135 288 7 25/ 15/ 61 Impfinity v4g1 Planar 135 352 8 38/ 41/ 21 quiz Schitzo 135 552 9 33/ 31/ 36 Torch t18 P.Kline 134 931 10 22/ 11/ 67 Hazy.Shade.Of.Winter John K W 133 99 11 30/ 26/ 44 Jack in the box Beppe Bezzi 133 919 12 37/ 44/ 19 blister soul schitzo 130 39 13 19/ 9/ 72 The Lime Twig 2.1 John K W 130 22 14 25/ 20/ 55 Hector 2 Kurt Franke 130 467 15 36/ 43/ 21 testnorm Maurizio Vittuari 129 2 16 36/ 43/ 21 ajax Kafka and Kurt 129 48 17 34/ 42/ 24 Boombastic Maurizio Vittuari 127 287 18 28/ 28/ 44 La Bomba Beppe Bezzi 127 547 19 24/ 21/ 55 juliet and paper M R Bremer, B. Bezzi 127 548 20 34/ 41/ 25 daedelus Kafka 126 1 21 27/ 29/ 43 patroclus Kafka and Kurt 125 7 22 17/ 9/ 73 Night Train Karl Lewin 125 439 23 27/ 30/ 43 Blue Funk 5 Steven Morrell 124 188 24 35/ 46/ 19 seventyfive Anders Ivner 124 52 25 21/ 21/ 58 Delusion M R Bremer 120 6 Weekly age: 108 Average age: 265 ( 203 last week, 182 the week before ) Average score: 131 ( 135 last week, 120 the week before ) Torch is one tenacious warrior. Many times this week, Torch has fallen into the 20s, even 24th place for a few challenges. But recent challenges have boosted it to 9th place. How long can it ( he/she? ) survive? Are warriors like ships? All female? Reports of Blue Funk's imminent demise ( by me ) was premature. Stones still haven't found the glory they once knew, with Blue Funk 5, seventyfive, and Delusion in the bottom ranks. Impfinity is the exception. Tornado is also doing quite well in second place. All that _tweaking_ gave an extra 15 challenges to the age of all the warriors 8) Anton Marsden is a relatively new name to the '94 draft hill, as is Kafka. Mirage 1.4 is doing quite well at 4th place utilizing a 2/3c scan/bomb strategy. Hopefully the recent hints have helped some. The 25 warriors on the hill are represented by 14 authors. ______________________________________________________________________________ 94 - What's New 7 40/ 45/ 15 Mirage 1.5 Anton Marsden 136 1 17 38/ 45/ 17 seventyfive Anders Ivner 131 1 17 36/ 42/ 22 ajax Kafka and Kurt 130 1 12 23/ 12/ 65 Hazy.Shade.Of.Winter John K W 134 1 8 39/ 44/ 17 blister soul schitzo 135 1 2 38/ 32/ 30 Tornado 2.7e Beppe Bezzi 144 1 22 23/ 22/ 55 Delusion M R Bremer 125 1 22 38/ 47/ 15 patroclus Kafka 128 1 20 34/ 41/ 25 daedelus Kafka 126 1 And The Lime Twig. I don't have records for it. Sorry JKW! ______________________________________________________________________________ 94 - What's No More. 26 2/ 5/ 1 Wraith Kurt Franke 5 8 26 31/ 41/ 29 jtest Kafka 121 8 26 33/ 43/ 24 Persistence Kurt Franke 123 12 26 34/ 45/ 21 Mirage 1.3 Anton Marsden 123 18 26 1/ 2/ 1 Tornado 2.3 a Beppe Bezzi 5 57 26 26/ 25/ 49 Hazy Shade Of Winter John K W 127 99 26 29/ 39/ 31 Time Lapse v0.1 David Boeren 120 44 26 34/ 44/ 22 Wraith Kurt Franke 123 33 26 36/ 46/ 19 Harmony P.Kline 126 91 No significant losses. Yes I called your program insignificant. ______________________________________________________________________________ HALL OF FAME * means the warrior is still running. Pos Name Author Age Strategy 1 Torch t18 P.Kline 931 * Bomber 2 Iron Gate 1.5 Wayne Sheppard 926 CMP scanner 3 Jack in the box Beppe Bezzi 919 * P-warrior 4 Agony II Stefan Strack 912 CMP scanner 5 Blue Funk Steven Morrell 869 Stone/ imp 6 Thermite 1.0 Robert Macrae 802 Qscan -> bomber 7 Blue Funk 3 Steven Morrell 766 Stone/ imp 8 HeremScimitar A.Ivner,P.Kline 666 Bomber 9 myVamp v3.7 Paulsson 643 Vampire 10 Armory - A5 Wilkinson 609 P-warrior 11 Phq Maurizio Vittuari 589 Qscan -> replicator 12 quiz Schitzo 552 * Scanner/ bomber 13 juliet and paper Bremer & Bezzi 548 * P-warrior 14 La Bomba Beppe Bezzi 547 * Qscan -> replicator 15 B-Panama X Steven Morrell 518 Stone/ replicator 16 Hector 2 Kurt Franke 467 * Qscan -> replicator 17 Night Train Karl Lewin 439 * Replicator 18 NC 94 Wayne Sheppard 387 Stone/ imp 19 Cannonade P.Kline 382 Stone/ imp 20 Torch t17 P.Kline 378 Bomber 21 Lucky 3 Stefan Strack 355 Stone/ imp 22 Impfinity v4g1 Damien Doligez 352 * Stone/ imp 23 Derision M R Bremer 351 Scanner 24 Request v2.0 Brant D. Thomsen 347 Qvamp -> vampire 25 Dragon Spear c w blue 346 CMP scanner Torch t18! Torch t18! Torch t18! Torch t18! Torch t18! Torch t18! Torch t18! Paul Kline's Torch t18 claims the top spot in the '94 draft hall of fame. Many of Kline's warriors have reigned on the standard hill and the '94 draft hill. Why not add one more? Congratulations. Karl Lewin and Planar also have warriors climbing up the ranks this week at the expense of Leprechaun on speed. Mason 2.0 is the next in line for ascension. ______________________________________________________________________________ Current Status of the Internet Pizza Server Beginner's Hill: Hill Specs: coresize: 8000 max. processes: 8000 duration: after 80,000 cycles, a tie is declared. max. entry length: 100 minimum distance: 100 maximum age: At age 100, warriors are retired. rounds fought: 200 instruction set: ICWS '94 Draft Last challenge: Mon Jan 29 04:43:28 PST 1996 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 55/ 29/ 16 Mirage 1.0 Anton Marsden 180 31 2 53/ 32/ 15 Koolaid II: The Wrath of David Boeren 175 81 3 37/ 13/ 50 Breeder J. E. Long 162 7 4 32/ 12/ 56 New Papery v0.1 Ian Oversby 153 5 5 44/ 39/ 17 Our Vamp v3 R Bartolome & JS Pul 149 15 6 40/ 30/ 30 Qwiksand Wayne Sheppard 149 25 7 27/ 8/ 66 RingWorm_v2.5 Calvin Loh 146 70 8 30/ 16/ 54 Water Bomb Ian Oversby 144 6 9 31/ 21/ 48 Spacehead 1.3 Warpi & Philemon 142 37 10 24/ 9/ 68 RingWorm_v2.6 Calvin Loh 138 40 11 38/ 41/ 21 Monitor M R Bremer 135 59 12 35/ 37/ 28 RedPixel.2 John Lewis 133 78 13 38/ 44/ 18 Assassin XII Andy Nevermind 133 63 14 23/ 21/ 56 Thunder V 1.0 Andy Nevermind 126 77 15 23/ 27/ 50 Veld Julian 118 11 16 16/ 16/ 68 SpiralTest2 Calvin Loh 117 80 17 34/ 52/ 14 Mary Janes J. E. Long 117 26 18 11/ 6/ 83 Evol Cap 6.1 John Wilkinson 116 60 19 33/ 58/ 9 Our CoreClear v1 R Bartolome & JS Pul 109 4 20 18/ 30/ 52 Veld 3 Julian 107 3 21 27/ 52/ 22 White Rose v0.14 Tomasz Radon 102 29 22 12/ 23/ 64 Spiral Again Calvin Loh 102 69 23 12/ 23/ 64 Spiral Again Calvin Loh 101 71 24 20/ 49/ 31 CounterMeasures V4 Chris Arguin 91 2 25 20/ 66/ 14 Hello Ian Oversby 74 1 Marsden holds first place with Mirage 1.0. An update, Mirage 1.5 holds an impressive 4th place on the '94 draft hill. Koolaid II has had little trouble dominating the b-hill being near the top for the last few weeks. J. E. Long has had a couple impressive warriors. Breeder entered the hill at number two and has remained in the top 5 since. ______________________________________________________________________________ The Hint The question has been asked many times: is the hill getting more difficult or does it merely cycle, with warriors being pushed off the hill only to regain glory at a later date? I looked through some of the old issues of the '94 Warrior and CoreWarrior to see what was successful a month or a year ago. Of course the introduction of pspace has changed the dynamics of the game somewhat, but not many warriors are currently using it. I choose the following veterans--former kings--to assult the hill. Porch Swing by Randy Graham Rank: 19 Score: 38/ 45/ 16 131 points Did not score decisive victory over any current warriors. Less than 15 wins against Evol Cap and Night Train. Total inability to handle Die Hard type warriors. Marginally better than seventyfive and Blue Funk 5. Would have scored less if not for some beginner warriors at the bottom of the hill. HeremScimitar by Paul Kline Rank: 17 Score: 37/ 45/ 18 130 points No analysis. nobody special by Michael Nonemacher Rank: 19 Score: 23/ 18/ 59 128 points Ties all papers and Impfinity. Frontwards and Torch play even. Mirage trounces it. seventyfive scores 33% wins which means it has some decent stun capability. Same with Tornado. Only scores big against Blue Funk 5. Taking Names by Paul Kline Rank: 25 Score: 33/ 50/ 17 116 points Totally inadequate to deal with current replicators. La Bomba has scores over 50% wins as does Hector 2. Frontwards, quiz, Tornado all score massively. Wins big over Mirage and ajax. Pyramid 5.5 by Michael Constant Rank 25 Score: 29/ 52/ 20 106 points Gets annihlated by replicators. Simply cannot handle TimeScape style papers. Night Train destroys it 74% wins, 0% losses. Evol Cap doesn't score like Night Train at all. Interesting. Marginally wins against a few warriors, big over seventyfive. What has happened to make the hill tougher? Replicators have been evolving into increasingly nastier warriors. First there was Silk Paper which introduced silk style replicating (obviously). Silks split so quickly, they are somewhat immune to stunning attempts. Simple split/jump bombs weren't enough to take them out. Then J. Pohjalainen, the same author, gave us TimeScape, which is the replicating engine used in most papers today. Not only does it split faster than Silk Warrior, but leaves behind decoys to fool scanners. Scanners had to move to spl/spl/jmp bombs and two pass coreclears to be effective. Warriors that didn't have as much stunning power had to develop multipass coreclears with multiple split passes. Next Paul Kline develops Die Hard, combining the TimeScape engine with imps. Even some multipass clears were unable to handle it! What else has changed? Many scanners didn't color core in the old days. You could spot a scanner by the lack of instructions in core. Homemade Ice Cream used this property by scanning in one direction in a small step size knowing that the scan would either hit a decoy or the scanner itself. Then it would launch paper. Many scans today are combinations bomb/scans. Not only do they color core, but increase speed as well. Stones have been the poor relation. But they may be gaining a new emergence with continously launching imp spirals ala Impfinity. Some may argue that we've exhausted the possibilities of the '94 draft instruction set with these innovations/evolutions. Possible, but doubtful. If you're interested in the full statistics, just send me mail at bremermr@ ecn.purdue.edu. ______________________________________________________________________________ Planar's Corner by Stefan Strack CDB tutorial, part 4 This week, we're going to cover the "mode" commands: pqueue, wqueue and pspace. We already encountered the pqueue command in the macros covered in part 2 and 3. The mode commands change what is being displayed and edited: When you first enter CDB, "list" works on the core address space, that is, "list 0,10" lists core addresses 0 through 10. We will refer to this default mode as "core mode". After you entered, e.g. the pqueue command, "list", "edit" will work on the process queue instead. Let's fire up Planar's Fahrenheit from part 1 and enter these commands: pq @step~list 0,$ The last command steps and then lists the contents of the process queue. Since Fahrenheit is self-splitting, you'll see two entries in the queue. Process 0 in the process queue points to the address that is about to be executed, process 1 is the following process. If you keep hitting , you can watch the process queue grow every time the SPL instruction is executed. The process queue display is especially helpful if you need to debug a complex multi-process warrior. The dollar symbol in the list command is a predefined variable that is assigned the number of the last element and incremented as the process queue grows. (In core mode, $ is assigned to the last core address). So if you enter calc $+1 CDB gives you the number of processes Fahrenheit has running. There are several examples for the use of $ in the solutions to the macro exercises from part 3 below. The pqueue command takes an optional numeric argument. Without it, the process queue of the current warrior is displayed. "pqueue 1" enters process queue mode for warrior 1, irrespective of whether it is the current warrior. "pqueue off" returns back to core mode. The "pspace" command makes P-space the target of the list, edit and fill commands. Similar to "pqueue", you use an optional number argument to select the P-space of a specific warrior. Finally, "wqueue" is useful if you're running multi-warrior battles: it selects a "warrior queue" display, with one line for the current process of every warrior. I won't give any specific examples here, but check the multi-warrior macros contained in "mw.mac". A feature of the pqueue and wqueue commands that's useful especially in macros: when you re-enter core mode, the current address becomes the address of the last line displayed in process or warrior queue mode. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Solutions to exercises from part 3 > 1)The "next" macro only works for battles with one or two warriors. Modify > it so it skips to the next round even if more than 2 warriors are loaded. Here the original: next= echo Advancing to next round~@pq~@f0,$~dat 0,0~@pq off~@go~@st We'll use the "wqueue" command that we just learned about to get the number of warriors (N=$+1), and then zero each warrior's process queue in a loop using "pqueue N". Since the macro now exceeds the line length, we'll break it up by using a continuation macro: next= echo Advancing to next round~m _next _next=@wq~@ca N=$+1~!!~@pq N~@f0,$~dat 0,0~if N=N-1 > 0~!~@pq off~@go~@st > 2) Write a macro that steps until the number of processes of a warrior > decreases (Hint: use the pqueue command). Here's a version that works when exactly two warriors are running: dying=@pq~@ca N=$~!!~@sk 1~@pq~if $, Myer R Bremer or Maurizio Vittuari From: Steve Bailey Subject: Re: Another newbie question Date: 1996/01/29 Message-ID: <164662153wnr@zed-inst.demon.co.uk>#1/1 references: <199601261749.SAA17416@iol-mail.iol.it> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar In article: <199601261749.SAA17416@iol-mail.iol.it> Beppe Bezzi writes: > > At 10.44 26/01/96 -0500, you wrote: > >I've got as far as reading the FAQ and part 1 of Durham's tutorial. > >(PS FAQ gave an http: to a www address & it didn't work. When I FTPed > >to the parent directory I found TUTORIAL.1.Z. Is this a FAQ error?) > > > > What's the wrong http: ? > I'm cracking up already! (PS FAQ gave an http: to an ftp address & it didn't work. When I FTPed ^^^ === Steve Bailey ZED Instruments Ltd sgb@zed-inst.demon.co.uk http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/SGBailey Work: Electronics Play: Go 2kyu WestSurrey 101374.624@compuserve.com Lindisfarne; Live; Magna Carta; Manilow, Barry; McCartney, Paul; From: Steve Bailey Subject: Re: SGB_01 Being a total beginner Date: 1996/01/29 Message-ID: <179430986wnr@zed-inst.demon.co.uk>#1/1 references: <4egkna$brj@dub-news-svc-1.compuserve.com> <310C3701.30AEBFF3@rice.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar In article: <310C3701.30AEBFF3@rice.edu> Kurt Franke writes: > > 101374.624@compuserve.com wrote: > / > / SGB_01.net CORE WARS > / > / Steve's Guide for Beginners Iss 1 > ... > / What is Core Wars? > / > / It is a game for 2 players. The field/board is a > / simulated small computer. The player's "piece" is > / a program. The objective is to own the computer's > / memory and kill the opponents program. You own a > / memory location by writing to it. > ... > > The article is good, but I have not heard about owning memory > locations. (That is not the way the pmars simulator works, > at any rate) You win just by killing the enemy processes. > > Kurt The bit about owning memory comes from my own 12 year old recollection of corewars. It is enhanced by the way that PMARSV displays things in three colours - black if "unowned" locn, blue if owned by warrior 0 and green if owned by warrior 1. I assume that generally having all memory in your colour is a good thing but as you say that is not the objective. I'll update my "master" copy of issue 1. Thanks. === Steve Bailey ZED Instruments Ltd sgb@zed-inst.demon.co.uk http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/SGBailey Work: Electronics Play: Go 2kyu WestSurrey 101374.624@compuserve.com Lindisfarne; Live; Magna Carta; Manilow, Barry; McCartney, Paul; From: Steve Bailey Subject: SGB_02 Being a total beginner Date: 1996/01/29 Message-ID: <452578515wnr@zed-inst.demon.co.uk>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar SGB_02.net CORE WARS Steve's Guide for Beginners Iss 2 Issue 1 dealt with what is corewars and how to get the really basic stuff downloaded for a PC. ====== I made myself a one-line batch file PM.BAT to ease my DOS typing "PMARSV %3 %4 %1.RED %2.RED" Thus PM RAVE AEKA is the same as PMARSV RAVE.RED AEKA.RED ====== Warriors: The *.RED files are warriors - that is simple programs. You need to study the tutorials and other documents on rec.games.corewar and at the archives to fully understand them. If you have no knowledge of programming and/or no knowlwedge of assembly languages, Core Wars may be too much for you. Meanwhile lets make a very simple warrior. Edit a text file BORING.RED to contain: ;redcode-94 ;name Boring ;author Your Name mov 0,1 end pMARS instructions are all 1 instruction per memory location, all locations addressed with an offset relative to the current Program Counter (IE to the current instruction. So "MOV 0,1" copies the contents of location 0 (the current location whose content is "MOV 0,1") to location 1 (the next location. It then executes the next location refering to that as location 0, thus the program rolls round pMARS's circular memory writing the next intruction to execute into the next location - all 'just in time'. Type PM BORING BORING Watch some compilation text appear then watch blue zeros and green ones scroll around the screen for several seconds. Wait for the Press any Key prompt, then press a key. Observe the results at the end "0 0 1". What you have done is asked program (Warrior) BORING to fight warrior BORING. At the end of the fight, both were still alive, so the results were 0 wins, 0 losses, 1 tie (draw). Now make an absolutely useless warrior as file USELESS.RED: ;redcode-94 ;name Useless ;author Your Name start jmp start end This so-called warrior just jumps to itself, never attacks anything and shouldn't last long. Now type (the case of the -s option matters): PM USELESS USELESS -s 1000 and observe a blue 0 in the top left of the screen and a green one somewhere else in the top half of the screen. It will be the top half 'cos there are 1000 chracter positions in the top half of a 25 line 80 character display and the "-s 1000" makes the pMARS memory size 1000 locations. Patiently wait for the Press any key prompt. The result of that fight is obviously a tie. Now try PM USELESS BORING -s 1000 The Blue 0 in the top left won't last long. The green 1s will march all over the top of the screen. I believe this to be a convincing win for BORING. The results show a tie with both warriors surviving. At this point I need to go and read the documentation some more... ====== Next issue will resolve the last paragraph. (If it doesn't then I'm totally stuck! === Steve Bailey ZED Instruments Ltd sgb@zed-inst.demon.co.uk http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/SGBailey Work: Electronics Play: Go 2kyu WestSurrey 101374.624@compuserve.com Levellers; Lightfoot, Gordon; Lindisfarne; Live; Magna Carta; From: bremermr@cartoon.ecn.purdue.edu (Myer R. Bremer) Subject: Re: Free games of Corewar? Date: 1996/01/29 Message-ID: <4eifnb$2jj@mozo.cc.purdue.edu>#1/1 references: <4e5tgg$snc@cis.clark.edu> <4e67uu$6g1@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu> <00001f35+0000062c@msn.com> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar In article <00001f35+0000062c@msn.com>, Georges CABANES wrote: >Hello,I'M FRENCH!! >It's 09:10 P.M (French Hours) >I speak not very well English, but if you can speak French,please >write me to my adress: >NetWorks: (Merde!) I don't know my adress... >Internet: Yes,I know,it's UNIFOX1@MicroNet.fr > >WRITE ME,PLEASE!!!WRITE ME,PLEASE!!!WRITE ME... >because I just a new Internet and NetWorks's User. >And how can I play a game with NetWorks?? bonjour. je parle un peu le francais. c'est tres mal, je sais. est-ce que tu veux jouer le core wars? je aiderai si tu ecrive tres simple ou en anglais. ton anglais est le mieux mon francais. m r bremer ( where did that come from? ) From: KOTH Tourney Server Subject: SKI-ICWS: Status - ICWS Experimental 94 01/29/96 Date: 1996/01/29 Message-ID: <199601290500.AAA32926@valhalla.stormking.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Weekly Status on 01/29/96 See up to the second scores at http://www.stormking.com/~koth Check it out for the latest in Core War information *FAQ* is at http://www.stormking.com/~koth/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the StormKing Industries ICWS Experimental 94 CoreWar Hill: Last battle concluded at : Fri Jan 26 01:50:56 EST 1996 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 64/ 24/ 13 Derision M R Bremer 204 7 2 55/ 23/ 22 BigBoy Robert Macrae 187 15 3 54/ 25/ 21 Frontwards v2 Steven Morrell 183 20 4 56/ 32/ 12 Watcher-h Kurt Franke 181 9 5 51/ 24/ 25 Tornado 2.0 x Beppe Bezzi 178 14 6 55/ 33/ 12 Watcher Kurt Franke 176 13 7 49/ 35/ 16 Fire Master Xv1 JS Pulido 162 12 8 48/ 36/ 16 Rapid scan Kurt Franke 160 1 9 37/ 15/ 48 Hector 2 Kurt Franke 160 10 10 36/ 21/ 43 Tican John Wilkinson 150 11 11 37/ 29/ 34 Nice Try M R Bremer 145 19 12 32/ 24/ 45 Night Train 55440 Karl Lewin 139 17 13 30/ 24/ 47 White warrior Nandor & Stefan 135 21 14 35/ 36/ 29 Anthill 5 Planar 134 8 15 38/ 43/ 20 Mister Greedy Derek Ross 133 16 16 31/ 30/ 39 Paper8-IV (54400) G. Eadon 132 18 17 32/ 53/ 15 Simple bomber Kurt Franke 111 2 18 27/ 58/ 15 Simple bomber Kurt Franke 97 3 19 22/ 62/ 15 Simple bomber Kurt Franke 82 4 20 18/ 67/ 15 Simple bomber Kurt Franke 68 5 21 0/ 79/ 21 Unknown Anonymous 21 0 From: KOTH Tourney Server Subject: SKI-ICWS: Status - ICWS Tournament 01/29/96 Date: 1996/01/29 Message-ID: <199601290500.AAA17536@valhalla.stormking.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Weekly Status on 01/29/96 See up to the second scores at http://www.stormking.com/~koth Check it out for the latest in Core War information *FAQ* is at http://www.stormking.com/~koth/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the StormKing Industries Annual ICWS Tournament CoreWar Hill: Last battle concluded at : Tue Dec 19 14:43:53 EST 1995 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 50/ 9/ 40 Cannonade Paul Kline 191 86 2 53/ 30/ 17 Miss Carefree Derek Ross 175 18 3 38/ 14/ 47 Nothing Special G. Eadon 163 1 4 39/ 17/ 45 Turkey Beppe Bezzi 161 2 5 46/ 33/ 21 Giskard v0.5 Ken Mitton 158 59 6 45/ 35/ 20 Yop La Boum v2.1 P.E.M & E.C. 155 16 7 43/ 36/ 21 Old Tire Swing Randy Graham 151 43 8 44/ 38/ 17 Miss Carry Derek Ross 150 50 9 36/ 22/ 42 One Fat Lady Robert Macrae 150 3 10 41/ 43/ 15 test88 P.Kline 139 5 11 43/ 48/ 9 Agony T Stefan Strack 139 87 12 36/ 49/ 15 DoubleStone v0.7 Christoph C. Birk 124 29 13 34/ 44/ 22 WhirlWind-88 Randy Graham 123 23 14 29/ 36/ 36 Chris Steven Morrell 122 8 15 34/ 48/ 18 Maya v1.6 Christoph C. Birk 121 60 16 34/ 48/ 18 Illusion Randy Graham 120 45 17 34/ 49/ 16 Slaver v1.1i Christoph C. Birk 120 47 18 33/ 52/ 16 Baby Swing Randy Graham 114 4 19 30/ 48/ 22 stone matthew householder 112 98 20 35/ 57/ 7 xtc stefan roettger 112 91 21 31/ 53/ 16 warrior 42 stefan roettger 109 99 From: KOTH Tourney Server Subject: SKI-ICWS: Status - Standard 01/29/96 Date: 1996/01/29 Message-ID: <199601290500.AAA33135@valhalla.stormking.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Weekly Status on 01/29/96 See up to the second scores and the latest Core War information at : http://www.stormking.com/~koth *FAQ* is at http://www.stormking.com/~koth/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the StormKing Industries Standard KotH CoreWar Hill : Last battle concluded at : Sun Jan 28 14:42:02 EST 1996 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 30/ 20/ 50 CAPS KEY IS STUCK AGAIN Steven Morrell 140 74 2 42/ 44/ 15 Iron Gate Wayne Sheppard 139 202 3 40/ 40/ 20 Beholder's Eye V1.7 W. Mintardjo 139 152 4 37/ 34/ 29 Giskard v0.5 Ken Mitton 139 46 5 38/ 39/ 23 Christopher Steven Morrell 136 73 6 35/ 35/ 30 Double Clown v1.1 P.E.M 136 3 7 25/ 14/ 60 Cannonade P.Kline 136 108 8 35/ 35/ 29 Keystone t21 P.Kline 136 95 9 37/ 39/ 23 Tuctest Elmer J. Fudd 135 2 10 38/ 41/ 20 Request v2.0 Brant D. Thomsen 135 44 11 37/ 39/ 24 Miss Carefree Derek Ross 134 6 12 26/ 19/ 54 Hydra Stephen Linhart 134 182 13 29/ 25/ 45 Der Zweiter Blitzkrieg Mike Nonemacher 133 103 14 20/ 9/ 71 Imperfic John Wilkinson 130 1 15 24/ 19/ 56 Blue Funk 88 Steven Morrell 129 72 16 26/ 23/ 51 Test Wayne Sheppard 128 97 17 22/ 15/ 63 ttti nandor sieben 128 58 18 22/ 17/ 61 Peace Mr. Jones 126 82 19 22/ 19/ 58 jmp/add crasher Randy Graham 125 32 20 28/ 32/ 40 Yop La Boum v2.1 P.E.M & E.C. 125 8 21 1/ 56/ 44 Fort Sumter V1.1 Todd Freeman 46 0 From: KOTH Tourney Server Subject: SKI-ICWS: Status - Multiwarrior Experimental 94 01/29/96 Date: 1996/01/29 Message-ID: <199601290500.AAA08345@valhalla.stormking.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Weekly Status on 01/29/96 See up to the second scores at http://www.stormking.com/~koth Check it out for the latest in Core War information *FAQ* is at http://www.stormking.com/~koth/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the StormKing Industries MultiWarrior Experimental 94 CoreWar Hill: Last battle concluded at : Tue Jan 23 20:57:52 EST 1996 # Name Author Score Age 1 Paperone Beppe Bezzi 6850 24 2 Lucky 13 Stefan Strack 6563 41 3 This is Test1 Kurt Franke 6371 4 4 TimeScapeX (0.1) J. Pohjalainen 6368 39 5 life Nandor Sieben 6289 40 6 jaded M R Bremer 6279 10 7 Paper8 G. Eadon 6169 5 8 Shwing! T. H. Davies 5468 35 9 Anthill 5 Planar 5451 1 10 lifedwarf Nandor Sieben 5437 16 11 Hidden M.C.Diskett Bullfrog 5331 9 12 Miss Treatment Derek Ross 5097 19 13 Piggy 2 Bob Uhl 4880 14 14 AB Scanner 2.9 Chris Hodson 4866 28 15 Illusion-94/55 Randy Graham 4818 18 16 Whirlwind Bob Uhl 4757 26 17 Miss Carry Derek Ross 4661 20 18 Piggy 3 Bob Uhl 4652 12 19 Futility M R Bremer 4258 6 20 Whirlwind 2 Bob Uhl 3768 27 21 Anthill 4 Planar 0 2 From: KOTH Tourney Server Subject: SKI-ICWS: Status - MultiWarrior 94 01/29/96 Date: 1996/01/29 Message-ID: <199601290500.AAA08331@valhalla.stormking.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Weekly Status on 01/29/96 See up to the second scores at http://www.stormking.com/~koth Check it out for the latest in Core War information *FAQ* is at http://www.stormking.com/~koth/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the StormKing Industries Multiwarrior 94 CoreWar Hill: Last battle concluded at : Wed Jan 24 19:44:06 EST 1996 # Name Author Score Age 1 Die Hard P.Kline 5722 21 2 75% Cotton v3b Wilkinson 5577 18 3 TESTI Maurizio Vittuari 5506 9 4 TJ Maurizio Vittuari 5486 10 5 Son of Imp Steven Morrell 5484 34 6 Test 1 Kurt Franke 5478 1 7 60% Cotton Wilkinson 5447 17 8 90% Cotton v5c Wilkinson 5417 16 9 Dunno-1@3 Cadellin 5410 2 10 casandra Kafka 5410 3 11 Mirage 1.4 Anton Marsden 2818 0 From: kfranke@great-horned.owlnet.rice.edu (Kurt Alan Franke) Subject: Hector 2 source Date: 1996/01/29 Message-ID: <4eha68$5d9@larry.rice.edu>#1/1 references: <199601282315.AAA19385@iol-mail.iol.it> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Beppe wrote : >A challenger has arrived on the ICWS '94 Draft hill! Vital statistics: >Program "patroclus" (length 100) by "Kafka and Kurt" >(contact address "bike@owlnet.rice.edu"): >;strategy Qscan->replicator >;strategy get lots of free points from LaBomba while they last!!! < La Bomba takes a beating... > >Why don't you post Hector 2, so I can try getting a lot of points from him :-) > >-Beppe Yes, that sounds fair. Or, I could post my quick scan that beats La Bomba 70% of the time by itself. (Heh heh heh!) Here is Hector 2, my first warrior to have a good position on pizza's 94 hill. Hector is a timescape-like replicator (thanks to corewarrior issue on replicators) with a quickscan (thanks to the faq). The replicator doesn't bomb; I found I could score higher against scanners that way (specifically, against Agony 2). ;redcode ;assert CORESIZE == 8000 ;author Kurt Franke ;name Hector 2 ;strategy qscan -> replicator start ;'94 scan (from FAQ) s1 for 4 sne start+400*s1, start+400*s1+100 seq start+400*s1+200, start+400*s1+300 mov #start+400*s1-found, found rof jmn which, found s3 for 4 sne start+400*(s3+8), start+400*(s3+8)+100 seq start+400*(s3+8)+200, start+400*(s3+8)+300 mov #start+400*(s3+8)-found, found rof jmn which, found s2 for 4 sne start+400*(s2+4), start+400*(s2+4)+100 seq start+400*(s2+4)+200, start+400*(s2+4)+300 mov #start+400*(s2+4)-found-100, found rof found jmz paper, #0 ;skip attack if qscan found nothing add #100, -1 ;increment pointer till we get the right place which jmz -1, @found mov start-1, @found sub #24, found mov start-1, @found add #8, found djn -2, #7 jmp paper for 40 dat 0,0 rof ASTEP equ 2268 ;; replicator (test1) BSTEP equ 5879 CSTEP equ 7901 paper spl 1, <-200 mov -1, 0 spl 1, <-300 one spl @one, }ASTEP onea mov }one, >one two spl @two, }BSTEP twoa mov }two, >two threea mov {two, CSTEP end start From: brettf@netcom.com (Brett Frankenberger) Subject: Re: SGB_02 Being a total beginner Date: 1996/01/30 Message-ID: #1/1 references: <452578515wnr@zed-inst.demon.co.uk> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar In article <452578515wnr@zed-inst.demon.co.uk>, Steve Bailey wrote: > >;redcode-94 >;name Boring >;author Your Name > mov 0,1 > end > >Now make an absolutely useless warrior as file >USELESS.RED: >;redcode-94 >;name Useless >;author Your Name >start jmp start > end > >Now try >PM USELESS BORING -s 1000 >The Blue 0 in the top left won't last long. The >green 1s will march all over the top of the >screen. I believe this to be a convincing win for >BORING. > >The results show a tie with both warriors >surviving. At this point I need to go and read the >documentation some more... This goes back to the "detail error" you made in issue #1 when you said that warriors somehow owned memory locations. They don't. Memory locations are just memory locations. In the example above, useless keeps jumping to the same jmp instruction, and is essentially in an infinite loop. Eventually, boring overwrites that instruction with a "mov 0,1". After that happens, useless then executes the mov 0,1 instruction. Now, both warriors are running the same "mov 0,1" code, and both will surivie until the end of the game, and it's a tie. The fact that 100% of useless's code is gone is irrelevant. For useless to lose, it had to terminate all of its processes (i.e. execute a DAT). Since that never happens, it survives forever. -- - Brett (brettf@netcom.com) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ... Coming soon to a | Brett Frankenberger .sig near you ... a Humorous Quote ... | brettf@netcom.com From: dweezil@alpha1.csd.uwm.edu (Andrew S Mehlos) Subject: Assassin XII Date: 1996/01/30 Message-ID: <4elfhf$mph@uwm.edu>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Following is the source for Assassin XII.. It did OK on the beginner hill, up to 4th place for awhile, I think.. Slowly making it's way down the list, but it'll probably (hopefully) die of old age before being kicked off.. Did OK on the beginner hill, got whomped on the regular one. Any ideas for improvement, or is the makeup of the 94 hill just not right for a CMP scanner? -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ;redcode-94b quiet ;name Assassin XII ;author Andy Nevermind ;strategy CMP scanner, Coreclear+DJN ;assert 1 org scan magic dat.f #65, #65 scan cmp 98, 123 jmp find add.f magic, scan jmp scan find sub #55, scan bonk mov.i clear, >scan djn bonk, #100 clear spl.b #0, <-1 mov 2, <-11 stream djn.f -1, >1 dat.f <-21, #10 -- -[ "Pfftkammmmreow...mrrrrrrrrrriow..mew..meeeeeowmeow.."-- My cat ]- -[ Finger for PGP key | Mmmmmmmmmmmm... Doughhhhhnuts! ]- -["I'm told it [superstition] works whether you believe in it or not. " ]- -[ --N. Bohr ]- From: John K W Subject: Re: Assassin XII Date: 1996/01/30 Message-ID: <4elnfi$phi@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu>#1/1 references: <4elfhf$mph@uwm.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar dweezil@alpha1.csd.uwm.edu (Andrew S Mehlos) wrote: >;redcode-94b quiet>;name Assassin XII>;author Andy Nevermind>;strategy CMP scanner, Coreclear+DJN>;assert 1>org scan>magic da= t.f #65, #65>scan cmp 98, 123> jmp find ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ You could optimize it so that line doesn't exist. > add.f magic, scan> jmp scan>find sub #55, scan>bonk mov.i clear, >scan> djn b= onk, #100 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ One hundred?! Damn... that's an awfully huge carpet of bombing after havning only scanned 2 locations... >clear spl.b #0, <-1 > mov 2, <-11 >stream djn.f -1, >1 > dat.f <-21, #10 -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | "I don't have the power because I've got the monkeys. I've got | \ the power because I'll set the monkeys LOOSE." -Dave Foley / -=- http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~ifio452/ -=- From: jeff.kadlec@intgaming.com (Jeff Kadlec) Subject: Check it out! Date: 1996/01/30 Message-ID: <960130021621591@intgaming.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar INTERNATIONAL GAMING - Minnesota's Largest Gaming BBS (612) 754-3658 - 300 to 28.8k Supported Internet E-Mail: sysop@intgaming.com FidoNet 1:282/4073 International Gaming has a lot to offer it's callers. Here is an example of what we have to offer... o Running the all new WILDCAT! V4.12 version. o FREE FULL ACCESS on your first call using the Call Back Verifier. o 20+ Online Games including registered Trade Wars, Legend of the Red Dragon, Global Wars, and many more. We're always taking your requests. o Cable TV Listings - Updated Daily Humorscope - Updated Daily Humor (Unsensored!) - Updated Daily News of the Weird - Updated Weekly o We're currently members of FidoNet, Simnet, MSI Support, WildNet, Adult Links, ViaSoft Support, and ITCNet. Over 800 message areas to choose from. If we don't have an echo/conference that you want, let us know and we'll pick it up. o We carry ALL the GAME Newsgroups off the Internet Backbone. If there is another Newsgroup that you want us to pick up, let us know and we'll make it available. We have access to over 12,000+ of them. o We have over 11,700+ Game Related files (1.6 gigs) for your downloading pleasure. You can download all you want without ever having to upload. Uploads are not required. o Send/Receive UNLIMITED Internet E-Mail free of charge. o You can choose your very own Internet E-Mail Address in the form of xxxxx@intgaming.com (where xxxxx is anything you want from three to ten characters long). This is also available free of charge. For more information, you can E-Mail me at jkadlec@intgaming.com. International Gaming BBS - 612-754-3658 From: Chris Arguin Subject: Re: SGB_02 Being a total beginner Date: 1996/01/30 Message-ID: #1/1 references: <452578515wnr@zed-inst.demon.co.uk> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar On Mon, 29 Jan 1996, Steve Bailey wrote: > Now try > PM USELESS BORING -s 1000 > The Blue 0 in the top left won't last long. The > green 1s will march all over the top of the > screen. I believe this to be a convincing win for > BORING. That's what I had thought when I started. But it's a tie. It doesn't matter if the information in most (all) of the memory was written by you. The other process is still running. In fact, it's running your code! -- Chris Arguin | "...All we had were Zeros and Ones -- And cpa@hopper.unh.edu | sometimes we didn't even have Ones." +--------------+ - Dilbert, by Scott Adams http://leonardo.sr.unh.edu/arguin/home.html | From: Michael N Nonemacher Subject: blister soul source Date: 1996/01/30 Message-ID: #1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar You might think one of my improvements to "quiz" would actually help the score, but you'd be wrong. Anyway, here's the source to my latest attempt to improve "quiz". blister soul is based on this 6-line 80% bomb/scan engine: a add.f inc, @2 mov.i j, *ptr mov.i j, @ptr ptr seq.i @FIRST, @FIRST+STEP sub.f half, ptr tr jmp a ... inc dat.f STEP*4, STEP*4 half dat.f STEP*2, STEP*2 j jmp cclear-tr, STEP The bombing could be changed to use Torch-style incendiary bombs, since there are always 2 bombs thrown at a time. I didn't try this one... Hmm... And I had to take out the "counting finds" feature of quiz, but I didn't realize just how much it would hurt. This eventually bombs the "jmp a" line, which causes the bomb/scan engine to jump into the coreclear. I figured with 6 lines, bombing and scanning at 80%, I should be able to at least improve on quiz, with 67% in 6 lines, but it didn't work out that way. It started out bombing/scanning at mod-10, so I think that's what the decoy and stuff are optimized for, but I later changed it to mod-8, and it didn't really change the score. It did introduce an interesting bug, tho - if my bombing pattern was such that I bombed the location after my coreclear, and if the djn ever fell thru in my coreclear, I'd jump into the spl-cleared section and settle for a tie. I eventually got around that by bombing the first instruction of the coreclear, and that worked out. But it never did as well as I thought it would. Oh, well. (oh, yeah. extra style points if you know where the name comes from...) Here's the source: ;redcode-94 ;name blister soul ;author schitzo ;strategy 80% bomber/scanner -> multi-pass coreclear ;strategy sorta trying an improvement on quiz... ;strategy fixed a small coreclear bug ;kill blister soul STEP EQU 168 ; mod-8 A EQU tr+STEP B EQU A+STEP C1 EQU (63+3) ; space between scan engine and coreclear C2 EQU (24) ; space between scan engine and inc, half, j BOOT EQU -3207 ; random boot distance org boot boot mov.i inc+2, @b mov.i a+5, {b mov.i a+4, {b mov.i a+3, {b mov.i a+2, {b mov.i a+1, {b mov.i a, {b b spl boot+BOOT+6, boot+BOOT+C2+8 mov.i cptr+6, *b2 mov.i cptr+5, {b2 mov.i cptr+4, {b2 mov.i cptr+3, {b2 mov.i cptr+2, {b2 mov.i cptr+1, {b2 mov.i cptr, {b2 b2 mov.i @boot+BOOT-C1-2+7, #0 mov.i inc+1, 2667 cclear spl #-300, >2667 mov.i @2, >cptr mov.i @1, >cptr djn.b -2, {cclear dat.f #1, 1 ;68 spaces in booted warrior dat.f 1, 1 dat.f @1, @1 a add.f inc+C2, @2 mov.i j+C2, *ptr mov.i j+C2, @ptr ptr seq.i @A, @B sub.f half+C2, @-2 tr jmp a ;20 spaces in booted warrior inc dat.f STEP*4, STEP*4 half dat.f STEP*2, STEP*2 j jmp cclear-tr-C1+9, STEP*2 ; big decoy removed. it's just a bunch of "dat 1, 1"s, all with different ; modifier combinations, except with every 8th instruction the same... or ; something like that... From: Steve Bailey Subject: SGB_03 Being a total beginner Date: 1996/01/30 Message-ID: <735225355wnr@zed-inst.demon.co.uk>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar SGB_03.net CORE WARS Steve's Guide for Beginners Iss 3 Issue 1 dealt with what is corewars and how to get the really basic stuff downloaded for a PC. Issue 2 introduced two "warriors", BORING and USELESS. ====== Sequencing: The programs are run "multi-tasked", swapping programs after each instruction. To "see" what is going on, lets "run" the two programs in a 10 location memory. I'll use "." for an empty location, "j" for one with USELESS's "JMP start" instruction and "m" for one with BORING's "MOV 0 1" instruction. The "j" is at location "0" and the "m" starts at, say, location 6. I'll capitalise the instruction being executed and start each line with "U" or "B" depending upon whose turn it is. (Data is shown before execution of the instruction.) U J.....m... B j.....M... U J.....mm.. B j.....mM.. U J.....mmm. B j.....mmM. U J.....mmmm B j.....mmmM U M.....mmmm B Mm....mmmm U mM....mmmm B mMm...mmmm In other words, USELESS has started running BORING's code and is travelling around memory with the same Program Count as BORING (although it executes first.) This explains why USELESS doesn't die. ====== OK, lets copy BORING.RED to BORING2.RED and edit it to read: ;redcode-94 ;name Boring2 ;author Your Name mov 0,2 mov 0,2 end When we run PM USELESS BORING2 -s 1000 we still have a tie, but we can see the blue and green warriors. It is obvious why there are lots of green 1s. It is also understandable why there is a single blue 0, but I have yet to grasp the meaning of the green "." after the blue 0 or the blue "." after the green ".". U J.....mm.. B j.....Mm.. U J.....mmm. B j.....mMm. U J.....mmmm B j.....mmMm U M.....mmmm B m.m...mmmM U mMm...mmmm B Mmmm..mmmm U mmMm..mmmm B mMmmm.mmmm ====== Ok, so now we get "sophisticated" (refer to a dictionary - 'perverse') and do BORING3.RED which is a two instruction move pair, but the first instruction moves the second one and the second instruction moves the first one. This will have the effect of zapping the "JMP 0" instruction before the following instruction is in place. (Well it will be the case ~50% of the time.) ;redcode-94 ;name Boring3 ;author Your Name mov 1,3 mov -1,1 end I'll use "M" for the "MOV 1,3" and "N" for the "MOV -1,1" instruction and do it twice with BORING3 starting at locn 6 and at locn 7. I'll use "." and "e" for empty locations, the "e" being a significant empty cell. locn 6: U J.....mn.. B j.....Mn.. U J.....mn.n B j.....mN.n U J.....mnmn B j.....mnMn U Jn....mnmn B jn....mnmN U Mn....mnmn B Mn.n..mnmn U mN.n..mnmn B mNmn..mnmn Here USELESS safely runs BORING3's code. locn 7: U J......mne B j......Mne U N......mne B ne.....mNe U nE.....mnm and at this point USELESS crashes. Try running PM USELESS BORING3 -s 1000 several times and compare the results. Also try PM BORING3 USELESS -s 1000. === Steve Bailey 101374.624@compuserve.com sgb@zed-inst.demon.co.uk http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/SGBailey Work: Electronics Play: Go 2kyu. -- === Steve Bailey ZED Instruments Ltd sgb@zed-inst.demon.co.uk http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/SGBailey Work: Electronics Play: Go 2kyu WestSurrey 101374.624@compuserve.com Lindisfarne; Live; Magna Carta; Manilow, Barry; McCartney, Paul; From: pk6811s@acad.drake.edu Subject: Re: SGB_01 Being a total beginner Date: 1996/01/30 Message-ID: <1996Jan30.085800@acad.drake.edu>#1/1 references: <4egkna$brj@dub-news-svc-1.compuserve.com> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar (Steve)<101374.624@compuserve.com> writes: > > SGB_01.net CORE WARS > > Steve's Guide for Beginners Iss 1 > >[...] Now THAT is a beginner's guide! Keep it up. gobble...gobble...gook...gook Paul D. Kline pk6811s@acad.drake.edu From: John K W Subject: Re: question from beginner Date: 1996/01/30 Message-ID: <4ejtlo$lkp@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu>#1/1 references: <4ejm6d$8p1$1@mhadf.production.compuserve.com> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Justin Kao <102741.2022@CompuServe.COM> wrote: >Could someone tell me where to find stuff about CoreWar? All I >know about it is from A K Dewdney's articles in Scientific >American.... > >Justin http://www.stormking.com/~koth has lots of stuff. Also, do you have those original articles? I'd really like to see 'em... -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | "I don't have the power because I've got the monkeys. I've got | \ the power because I'll set the monkeys LOOSE." -Dave Foley / -=- http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~ifio452/ -=- From: GATEWAY@ccmail.monsanto.com Subject: Message not deliverable Date: 1996/01/30 Message-ID: <0016700001320451000002*@MHS>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Status Distribution The message regarding "Re: question from beginner" sent on 1/30/96 5:53AM was addressed to the following invalid recipients. STEPHEN J SVOBODA at MONPCS01 Please consult your cc:Mail Administrator. From: GATEWAY@ccmail.monsanto.com Subject: Message not deliverable Date: 1996/01/30 Message-ID: <0016700001320146000002*@MHS>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Status Distribution The message regarding "MAGIC SECRETS" sent on 1/30/96 4:56AM was addressed to the following invalid recipients. STEPHEN J SVOBODA at MONPCS01 Please consult your cc:Mail Administrator. From: Kurt Franke Subject: Re: SGB_03 Being a total beginner Date: 1996/01/30 Message-ID: <310ED17F.2669A33D@rice.edu>#1/1 references: <735225355wnr@zed-inst.demon.co.uk> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Steve Bailey wrote: > > SGB_03.net CORE WARS > > Steve's Guide for Beginners Iss 3 > ... > When we run PM USELESS BORING2 -s 1000 > we still have a tie, but we can see the blue and > green warriors. It is obvious why there are lots > of green 1s. It is also understandable why there > is a single blue 0, but I have yet to grasp the > meaning of the green "." after the blue 0 or the > blue "." after the green ".". > The blue and green symbols on the dos screen indicate what *last* happened in that memory location. 0 means that the last thing to happen was program 0 executed an instruction there. 1 is similar for program 1 a blinking 0 or 1 means that the last thing that happened was that program 0 or 1 executed an instruction and it was an illegal instruction, killing the process that executed it. Illegal instructions have the opcode DAT (*). The 'empty' locations start out containing DAT 0,0 so if you execute one of these, you die. a dot means that the last thing that happened was something was written to this location. minus signs and small dots mean other things -- I'll explain if you want. I think it is in one of the doc files for pmars. But it is a little more complicated. The core has 8000 locations, but your screen is 80x25 => 2000 locations. So each symbol on the screen stands for 4 locations to make them all fit. The symbol on the screen represents the last thing that happened in any of the four locations. Kurt From: Chris Arguin Subject: Re: SGB_01 Being a total beginner Date: 1996/01/30 Message-ID: #1/1 references: <4egkna$brj@dub-news-svc-1.compuserve.com> <310C3701.30AEBFF3@rice.edu> <179430986wnr@zed-inst.demon.co.uk> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar On Mon, 29 Jan 1996, Steve Bailey wrote: > In article: <310C3701.30AEBFF3@rice.edu> Kurt Franke > writes: > The bit about owning memory comes from my own 12 year old recollection > of corewars. It is enhanced by the way that PMARSV displays things in > three colours - black if "unowned" locn, blue if owned by warrior 0 and > green if owned by warrior 1. The way PMARSV displays things, it's really more like "who read/wrote/executed at this location last". If you press the space bar, the screen cleans up. -- Chris Arguin | "...All we had were Zeros and Ones -- And cpa@hopper.unh.edu | sometimes we didn't even have Ones." +--------------+ - Dilbert, by Scott Adams http://leonardo.sr.unh.edu/arguin/home.html | From: Kurt Franke Subject: Re: Assassin XII Date: 1996/01/30 Message-ID: <310E9878.2C5CDD74@rice.edu>#1/1 references: <4elfhf$mph@uwm.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Andrew S Mehlos wrote: > ;redcode-94b quiet > ;name Assassin XII > ;author Andy Nevermind > ;strategy CMP scanner, Coreclear+DJN > ;assert 1 > org scan > magic dat.f #65, #65 > scan cmp 98, 123 > jmp find > add.f magic, scan > jmp scan > find sub #55, scan > bonk mov.i clear, >scan > djn bonk, #100 > clear spl.b #0, <-1 > mov 2, <-11 > stream djn.f -1, >1 > dat.f <-21, #10 > Here are some ideas for improvements : 1) the main loop is this : scan cmp place1, place2 jmp find add.f magic, scan jmp scan now cmp is the same as seq (skip if equal), but if you use sne (skip if not equal), you can take a line out. This doesn't make the loop run any faster, but it saves you a line. new loop next add.f magic, scan scan sne place1, place2 jmp next 2) it seems like you could use the same instruction for the final dat statement and for the magic statement. Just have the last line be : magic dat <-65, <-65 and then subtract it (sub.f) from scan instead of adding. 3) why just spl-bomb 100 places? Why not go all the way to your warrior? You can do this : bonk mov.i clear, >scan jmn.b bonk, scan the b field of scan is non-zero until you will next write a split onto the scan line. hope this helps, Kurt From: "E-Net Communications" Subject: New Help For People Who Want To Quit Smoking ! Date: 1996/01/31 Message-ID: #1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar The following message is being sent to you by E-Net Communications If you would like to send a message to over 210,000 readers, see the information at the end of this message. 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From: Steve Bailey Subject: Re: SGB_03 Being a total beginner Date: 1996/01/31 Message-ID: <755485314wnr@zed-inst.demon.co.uk>#1/1 references: <735225355wnr@zed-inst.demon.co.uk> <310ED17F.2669A33D@rice.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar In article: <310ED17F.2669A33D@rice.edu> Kurt Franke writes: > > minus signs and small dots mean other things -- I'll > explain if you want. I think it is in one of the doc > files for pmars. > Yes please - I expect I can suss it from the docn, but several short things I finde easier to read than 1 massive doc. === Steve Bailey ZED Instruments Ltd sgb@zed-inst.demon.co.uk http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/SGBailey Work: Electronics Play: Go 2kyu WestSurrey 101374.624@compuserve.com Manilow, Barry; McCartney, Paul; Mike And The Mechanics; Moody Blues; From: Steve Bailey Subject: Re: SGB_03 Being a total beginner Date: 1996/01/31 Message-ID: <814523094wnr@zed-inst.demon.co.uk>#1/1 references: <735225355wnr@zed-inst.demon.co.uk> <310ED17F.2669A33D@rice.edu> <4ems3p$aj@news.asu.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar In article: <4ems3p$aj@news.asu.edu> sieben@imap1.asu.edu writes: > : The blue and green symbols on the dos screen indicate > : what *last* happened in that memory location. > > : 0 means that the last thing to happen was program 0 > : executed an instruction there. > : 1 is similar for program 1 > > ... > > All of this is about the text display. The graphics display is completely > different. > > Second reply to this message. Do you mean that PMARSV can do fancier display? How? === Steve Bailey ZED Instruments Ltd sgb@zed-inst.demon.co.uk http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/SGBailey Work: Electronics Play: Go 2kyu WestSurrey 101374.624@compuserve.com Manilow, Barry; McCartney, Paul; Mike And The Mechanics; Moody Blues; From: Steve Bailey Subject: SGB_04 Being a total beginner Date: 1996/01/31 Message-ID: <133776838wnr@zed-inst.demon.co.uk>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar SGB_04.net CORE WARS Steve's Guide for Beginners Iss 4 Issue 1 dealt with what is corewars and how to get the really basic stuff downloaded for a PC. Issue 2 introduced two "warriors", BORING and USELESS. Issue 3 showed how simple warriors interact, run each other's code and kill each other. ====== I've had to modify PM.BAT to be: PMARSV %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9 %1.RED %2.RED (I've updated SGB_02) ====== Now all that stuff with "." and "j" and "mnMn" is all very well, but PMARSV includes a debugger to assist in this task. My aim here is to get to grips with some of the debug tools - I'm nowhere near ready to contemplate designing Warriors yet. So lets investigate CDB. Type: PM USELESS BORING3 -l 5 -s 20 -e -F 10 (lower case -l, -s and -e) (upper case -F) The "-l 5" limits each warriors source code length to 5 instructions. The "-s 20" specifies a memory size of 20 (which will easily fit on one screen). The "-e" enters the debugger. The "-F 10" Forces BORING3 to start at Adr 10. (Ignore the compilation stuff scrolling up the screen.) You get presented with the instruction about to execute, in this case a blue (USELESS's) "JMP 0". Type "HELP" with several returns to see built-in prompts. At a (cdb) prompt type "L0,$" to list all of memory from Address 0 to the last address (19). I see USELESS at adr 0 and BORING3 at adr 10..11. Adr 0 is blue, for USELESS's current instruction. Adr 10 is green for BORING3's current instruction (MOV 1,3). "s" (for step) executes Adr 0 and displays Adr 10. "s" executes Adr 10 and displays Adr 0 again. "l0,$" displays all memory again and I note that Adr 11 is now green, and that Adr 13 contains a copy of Adr 10. Do a dozen "s" commands (You don't have to type the s each time as ENTER repeats the last command.) Then l0,$ again, you can see how BORING3 has 'grown' (? probably the wrong term). Type "r" to see a summary of the registers. Note that we have done about 7 cycles (IE each warrior has had 7 instruction operations) with only 79993 left to go. 1 copy of USELESS exists and is about to run at Adr 0. 1 copy of BORING3 exists and is about to run at Adr 17. (The P-space stuff is definitely ignorable for the present!) Another eight "s" and we see USELESS executing BORING3's code. BORING3 seems to have disappeared as it has the same Program counter value as USELESS. Type "q" (quit). ====== Now lets repeat all this with PM USELESS BORING3 -l 5 -s 20 -e -F 11 Do 13 "s" and then "l0,$". One "s" and "l0,$". Note that USELESS is about to execute MOV -1,1. One "s" and "l0,$". USELESS's PC is at Adr 1 which has no content. Two "s". The second "s" ends the rouns with USELESS dead at Adr 1. ====== That's the basics of the debugger. It can also search, edit, jump etc etc. === Steve Bailey 101374.624@compuserve.com sgb@zed-inst.demon.co.uk http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/SGBailey Work: Electronics Play: Go 2kyu. From: Steve Bailey Subject: Re: SGB_03 Being a total beginner Date: 1996/01/31 Message-ID: <132625258wnr@zed-inst.demon.co.uk>#1/1 references: <735225355wnr@zed-inst.demon.co.uk> <310ED17F.2669A33D@rice.edu> <4ems3p$aj@news.asu.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar In article: <4ems3p$aj@news.asu.edu> sieben@imap1.asu.edu writes: > > : The blue and green symbols on the dos screen indicate > : what *last* happened in that memory location. > > : 0 means that the last thing to happen was program 0 > : executed an instruction there. > : 1 is similar for program 1 > > ... > > All of this is about the text display. The graphics display is completely > different. > All of this is about code from pmars08.zip running on a PC platform. It appears to be DOS not windows, It appears to be character based. If pmars.exe or go.exe are better than pmarsv.exe please let me know. IFF pmars08.zip was the wrong file to download then the FAQ is confusing as it goes on about pmars being the thing and the file list describes that zip file as the FREE PC executable file. (wincor is $15). === Steve Bailey ZED Instruments Ltd sgb@zed-inst.demon.co.uk http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/SGBailey Work: Electronics Play: Go 2kyu WestSurrey 101374.624@compuserve.com Manilow, Barry; McCartney, Paul; Mike And The Mechanics; Moody Blues; From: agserm@aol.com (AGSerm) Subject: Re: SGB_03 Being a total beginner Date: 1996/01/31 Message-ID: <4eocv9$t5b@newsbf02.news.aol.com>#1/1 references: <132625258wnr@zed-inst.demon.co.uk> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar In article <132625258wnr@zed-inst.demon.co.uk>, Steve Bailey writes: >> All of this is about the text display. The graphics display is >completely >> different. >> > >All of this is about code from pmars08.zip running on a PC platform. It >appears to be DOS not windows, It appears to be character based. Just because a program isn't windows doesn't mean it's character based. Try pmarsv -v 734 and you'll see what I mean. >If pmars.exe or go.exe are better than pmarsv.exe please let me know. The pmars.exe is for when you just want to find out the scores between two warriors, and don't actually want to watch the battles. Also, i would estimate that it runs 25x faster because it doesn't have to write to a display. (This may be slightly skewed. I have a 486/33, not fast, but not slow either, and an archaic video card. I'm sure the discrepancy between the two would make a BIG performance gap. Ansel Greenwood Sermersheim AGSerm@aol.com From: Kurt Franke Subject: Re: SGB_03 Being a total beginner Date: 1996/01/31 Message-ID: <310FFDF1.52C6B659@rice.edu>#1/1 references: <735225355wnr@zed-inst.demon.co.uk> <310ED17F.2669A33D@rice.edu> <755485314wnr@zed-inst.demon.co.uk> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Steve Bailey wrote: > > In article: <310ED17F.2669A33D@rice.edu> Kurt Franke > writes: > > > > minus signs and small dots mean other things -- I'll > > explain if you want. I think it is in one of the doc > > files for pmars. > > > > Yes please - I expect I can suss it from the docn, but several short > things I finde easier to read than 1 massive doc. > The small dots mean that the last thing that happened was a read from that location. But you have to use the v option of pmars to get it to show this. (The default is not to show reads) The instruction mov -1, 1 would : put a 0 on the current location (since we execute it) put a small dot on the previous location (since we are reading it to copy it) put a large dot on the next location (since we are writing to it) except since each character is 4 memory locations, you may only see one symbol (my guess is the final large dot). You have not yet covered the addressing modes, but there are some which will change the value of another instruction by one (mov 0, 1 --> mov 0, 0) These increments and decrements are shown as minus signs. The graphics options of pmarsv are controlled by the -v ### option where the three digits control the speed, the graphics mode used, and the level of display. The level of display controls how much information is shown. The default is to show executes, writes, and inc/decrements. You will have to look in the doc file for specifics. Btw, I could never get pmarsv to work correctly in the graphics modes. I would always get a blank screen. I now have the x-windows version running on linux. In graphics mode, you can see the every location, but the symbols are somewhat harder to understand (imo). Kurt From: tuc@superlink.net (Scott J. Ellentuch) Subject: Re: Ideas for KoTH Date: 1996/01/31 Message-ID: <4enuj6$qc1@earth.superlink.net>#1/1 references: <199601252218.XAA01176@iol-mail.iol.it> <1996Jan26.083428@acad.drake.edu> <4eb2qc$gov@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu> <4ebc13$cbu@mozo.cc.purdue.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Myer R. Bremer (bremermr@cartoon.ecn.purdue.edu) wrote: : what gives with stormking? i can't get the web page or challenge : results. more modifications? Nothing that I know of, please let me know if there is a problem with stormking. tuc@stormking.com From: sieben@imap1.asu.edu Subject: Re: SGB_03 Being a total beginner Date: 1996/01/31 Message-ID: <4ems3p$aj@news.asu.edu>#1/1 references: <735225355wnr@zed-inst.demon.co.uk> <310ED17F.2669A33D@rice.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar : The blue and green symbols on the dos screen indicate : what *last* happened in that memory location. : 0 means that the last thing to happen was program 0 : executed an instruction there. : 1 is similar for program 1 ... All of this is about the text display. The graphics display is completely different. Nandor.