From: "JKW" Subject: Re: Pizza Hills: Good News and Bad News Date: 1996/06/01 Message-ID: <199606020141.UAA29445@mail.utexas.edu>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar >At 06.55 01/06/96 -0400, you wrote: >>: >I have a list, but the first two that spring to mind are removing self >> >>We never had an actual vote about self fights. I think it's not that >>clear cut. We should have a vote. >> >I agree to have a vote, but how should we vote? > >One vote every person, so I can tell my brother to vote, even if he doesn't >ever know what's corewar. I hereby decree that anyone who has submitted a warrior to Stormking or Pizza, or who has posted a corewar-related message to r.g.c on or before May 31st, 1996 is eligible to vote. -John K W- Ok, so I don't have the power to make decrees. Sue me. :) From: Beppe Bezzi Subject: Re: Pizza Hills: Good News and Bad News Date: 1996/06/01 Message-ID: #1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar At 06.55 01/06/96 -0400, you wrote: >: >I have a list, but the first two that spring to mind are removing self > >We never had an actual vote about self fights. I think it's not that >clear cut. We should have a vote. > I agree to have a vote, but how should we vote? One vote every person, so I can tell my brother to vote, even if he doesn't ever know what's corewar. One vote every warrior on hill, I have just a few to send to the -b hill and it's funny Stefan won't vote ??? I'm sure we'll found something reasonable, anyway I vote _YES_ for self fight removal i.e. I don't want them anymore >Nandor. > -Beppe From: "Martin M. Pedersen" Subject: pcrobots at http://www.daimi.aau.dk/~tusk/pbmserv/crobots Date: 1996/06/01 Message-ID: <199606011137.HAA10336@valhalla.stormking.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Hey, There have been some talking about Crobots in the last few days. I have some Crobots ( and some Probots) and some software at my homepage. I can not think you more exactly right now because I dont have access to my account in DK. Anyway try http://www.daimi.aau.dk/~tusk/pbmserv/crobots/index.html Please send comments to tusk@daimi.aau.dk and NOT this address. Martin M. Pedersen/chaz/tusk From: D.vanDam@is.twi.tudelft.nl (David van Dam) Subject: Re: Pizza Hills: Good News and Bad News Date: 1996/06/01 Message-ID: <31b0aef8.34492@mo6.rc.tudelft.nl>#1/1 references: <4ol7dm$8sa@charnel.ecst.csuchico.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar sd@ecst.csuchico.edu (Lord Kymbote) wrote: > Now, the good news: I have not been ignoring you. Now that school is out > and I have some free time, I will be making upgrades to the pizza hills. > I have a list, but the first two that spring to mind are removing self > fights and adding a "test" ability speed up fine-tuning and lower artificial > aging. I also want to do some cosmetic stuff. So if you have an idea, spit > it out now while I'm in the mood. :) 1. Changing calculation of the hill score How about that the warrior pushed of the hill, don't take part in the calculation of the score. So only use the score of the 25 warriors on the hill to calculate the score. 2. Changing secret number of self fight (if they are kept) Give the self fights their own secret number (-F xxx). This to protect the hill from spies, which send the secret number to his programmer. 3. New option to control the e-mail stream of the hill (like Beppe suggested) To stop the big stream off e-mails, while your on vacantion (or something else). 4. New option to change ;strategy lines of a warrior Sometime you make a error in the strategy line, but you don't like to lose your age. Because you don't correct it by sending the same warrior with the corrected strategy lines. 5. About a Test option If you create a test option, you have to add this to e-mail stream control commands. So maybe then you get: quit/normal/test/verbose. Because I like to know what other people are doing on the hill. quit -> no e-mail, except for get on the hill and pushed of the hill normal -> only succesfull challenges are mailed test -> tests which would be a succesfull challenge of the hill verbose -> the hill sends you as much mail as possible Cu at the top ------------------------------------------------------------ David van Dam (D.vanDam@is.twi.tudelft.nl) The King is dead (snif), long live the King! From: Adrian O'Grady Subject: Help! I'm new to this Date: 1996/06/01 Message-ID: <31AFA88C.52BF@vossnet.co.uk>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Where can i find a basic tutorial to red code and any other stuff i might need to play corewar? Adrian O'Grady From: tuc@news.stormking.com () Subject: Important SKI-ICWS News Date: 1996/06/01 Message-ID: <4oommi$5so@valhalla.stormking.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Hello all, Recently SKI-ICWS suffered a serious problem. In an effort to monitor the hill, we create log files. Last week we ran out of disk space which caused the corruption of the Standard Hill. At the time this happened we didn't know it was corrupt, so we removed the log file that we could have used to re-create everything. I re-created the files and re-ran the battles and found that I didn't do it correctly, so it was re-run. The re-run went a little better, but I can not get the hill to 100% where it was again. The warriors that are suffering as a part of it are : PacMan v5 David Moore K-test P.E.M Test Wayne Sheppard Christopher Steven Morrell Since I lost the information about the battles for these warriors, I took the following approach.... Each warrior, in a battle with itself won 125 times, lost 125 times and never tied. Each warrior, in a battle with one of the other warriors listed above won 0, lost 0, tied 250 times. If any of these warriors wanted to be deleted and re-submitted, I will completely understand. Steps are being taken to see that this doesn't happen again. We are also close to finishing the web based submission and wish that people would test out the compiler to see what browsers can use it. Thanks, Tuc -- Scott J. Ellentuch, The Telecom Security Group, Newburgh, NY "Over the UUCP link, out the ethernet, through the media converter, down the fiber, off a router, down the 56K, past my ISP...nothing but Net" - with poetic license from Dave Owen of IBM From: sieben@imap1.asu.edu Subject: Re: Pizza Hills: Good News and Bad News Date: 1996/06/01 Message-ID: <4ool88$87k@news.asu.edu>#1/1 references: <4ol7dm$8sa@charnel.ecst.csuchico.edu> <4on9ta$e97@server-b.cs.interbusiness.it> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar : >I have a list, but the first two that spring to mind are removing self We never had an actual vote about self fights. I think it's not that clear cut. We should have a vote. : >fights and adding a "test" ability speed up fine-tuning and lower artificial : >aging. I also want to do some cosmetic stuff. So if you have an idea, spit : >it out now while I'm in the mood. :) Well I suggested this many times. I'd like to see the current scores of my warrior against everybody on the hill, so that I don't have to collect the reports every time somebody new gets on the hill. Also a table would be nice like 1 2 ... 1. mice 2 8 2. dwarf 1 7 . . meaning that mice against dwarf is 80% win 10% lost 10% draw. Nandor. From: kozubik@rintintin.Colorado.EDU (KOZUBIK JOHN THEODORE) Subject: Hey! do you live in the 3O3 AREA CODE ????? Date: 1996/06/01 Message-ID: #1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar *** 303-543-8367 *** Do you live in the 303 area code? There is a new BBS in the 303 AC called Nickelodeon...this BBS has eight lines (rollover lines) and 9 cdroms online. This BBS is a COMMUNITY of gamers, for gamers, and by gamers. Whether you are into the Gameboy emulator scene, adding levels to warcraft 2 and command and conquer, or role playing, Nickelodeon is the place for you. We have multiplayer online gaming which means no more calling one friend with a modem to play the same old deathmatch of hexen the two of you always do - it means you can call, mingle online, meet a new player, decide on a special .wad file to use just for this game, and have a deathmatch with four other players! We have forums online (message areas) where users are actively discussing everything from cartridge copiers to strategies for duke nukem 3d. Our file areas are huge with add on levels for everything from simcity 2000 to hexen to command and conquer, plus a huge library of cracks and cheats and emulators. Check us out! call 303-543-8367 and join a COMMUNITY! From: "Brian Haskin Jr." Subject: Re: Pizza Hills: Good News and Bad News Date: 1996/06/02 Message-ID: #1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar On Sat, 1 Jun 1996, Beppe Bezzi wrote: [snip] > > ??? > > I'm sure we'll found something reasonable, anyway I vote _YES_ for self > fight removal i.e. I don't want them anymore > Seeing as how I've only made it on the "pro" hill for about 30 challenges total maybe my vote doesn't count, but I vote _YES_ for self fight removal also. > > > >Nandor. > > > > -Beppe > Brian Haskin From: Anton Marsden Subject: Re: Pizza Hills: Good News and Bad News Date: 1996/06/02 Message-ID: #1/1 references: <4ol7dm$8sa@charnel.ecst.csuchico.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar On 30 May 1996, Lord Kymbote wrote: > Now, the good news: I have not been ignoring you. Now that school is out > and I have some free time, I will be making upgrades to the pizza hills. > I have a list, but the first two that spring to mind are removing self > fights and adding a "test" ability speed up fine-tuning and lower artificial > aging. I also want to do some cosmetic stuff. So if you have an idea, spit > it out now while I'm in the mood. :) It would be nice if after a successful challenge only one mail message was sent to each person on the Hill containing all results for all their warriors, rather than multiple messages. From: jreed@mail.tds.net (Jason Reed) Subject: Re: Wilkies Date: 1996/06/03 Message-ID: #1/1 references: <31B429F9.7CE7@cam.ac.uk> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar In article <31B429F9.7CE7@cam.ac.uk> Philip Kendall writes: >From: Philip Kendall >Subject: Wilkies >Date: Tue, 04 Jun 1996 13:20:09 +0100 >Just a quick newbie query: (about) how many Wilkies would a warrior need >to get onto (say) the beginner's hill? >Many thanks > >-- > +-------------------------------------------------------------+ > | Philip Kendall (pak21@cam.ac.uk pak21@kendalls.demon.co.uk) | > +-------------------------------------------------------------+ I would guess at least 100... I submitted a 65.2W warrior which scored about a 70 on the beginner's hill. The sad part is that was the best ---Jason From: Justin Kao <102741.2022@CompuServe.COM> Subject: Re: mailing list--unsubscribe? Date: 1996/06/03 Message-ID: <960603214934_102741.2022_GHT138-3@CompuServe.COM>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar >Sorry to bother you, but I have exactly the same problem - is there >any chance you could tell me what the answer is? This is going to sound ridiculous, but.... I never did figure it out. I emailed Tuc, who owns this mailing list and also does the Stormking hills, and he took me off the list. Justin Kao P.S. And then my BBS never did get USENET and it also went down for a month, so now I'm subscribed to the mailing list at two addresses. :-) From: BLC Subject: HI Date: 1996/06/03 Message-ID: <2.2.32.19960603082957.006c4668@today>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Do not hit reply! The 1 million email addresses comes in 3 fields This package comes on 50 Floppy's.. Our database is ideal for advertising your product or service. The only cost to advertise your product or service is your connect time charges. 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Mail payment to: USA Computers / Basic Learning, Corp. 2119 Patterson Rd, Suite 11 Riverbank, CA 95367 USA To Order 1-209-869-5717 Fax 1-209-869-5721 Office Hours 9:00am to 5:00pm Monday - Friday Pacific Standard Time Please include this form with your payment TO BE REMOVED PLEASE CALL 209-569-1339 From: KOTH Tourney Server Subject: SKI-ICWS: Status - ICWS Experimental 94 06/03/96 Date: 1996/06/03 Message-ID: <199606030400.AAA10611@valhalla.stormking.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Weekly Status on 06/03/96 ***NEW*** On line pre-compile and the Wilkies Benchmark now available! ***NEW*** See up to the second scores and the latest Core War information at : http://www.stormking.com/~koth *FAQ* http://www.stormking.com/~koth/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the StormKing Industries ICWS Experimental 94 CoreWar Hill: Last battle concluded at : Sun Jun 2 12:26:53 EDT 1996 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 37/ 4/ 60 Evol Cap 4 X John Wilkinson 170 21 2 48/ 39/ 12 Memories Beppe Bezzi 157 28 3 43/ 30/ 27 Lithium X 8 John K Wilkinson 156 12 4 46/ 38/ 16 Stepping Stone 94x Kurt Franke 154 7 5 43/ 34/ 23 BigBoy Robert Macrae 152 46 6 45/ 39/ 16 Frontwards v2 Steven Morrell 151 51 7 45/ 40/ 15 Illusion-94/55 Randy Graham 149 3 8 35/ 22/ 44 Variation M-1 Jay Han 147 1 9 46/ 45/ 9 S.E.T.I. 4-X JKW 147 22 10 45/ 43/ 12 Pagan John K W 147 6 11 39/ 34/ 27 Tornado 2.0 x Beppe Bezzi 143 45 12 41/ 40/ 19 Fire Master Xv1 JS Pulido 142 43 13 32/ 24/ 44 Aleph 1 Jay Han 141 11 14 40/ 40/ 20 Derision M R Bremer 140 38 15 31/ 24/ 45 Hector 2 Kurt Franke 137 41 16 39/ 44/ 17 Watcher Kurt Franke 134 44 17 39/ 45/ 16 Watcher-h Kurt Franke 133 40 18 31/ 36/ 33 Nice Try M R Bremer 127 50 19 33/ 40/ 26 Riff Steven Morrell 126 2 20 36/ 52/ 11 Withershins Thrice P.Kline 120 4 21 15/ 79/ 5 Escape Philipp Offermann 51 0 From: KOTH Tourney Server Subject: SKI-ICWS: Status - ICWS Tournament 06/03/96 Date: 1996/06/03 Message-ID: <199606030400.AAA10586@valhalla.stormking.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Weekly Status on 06/03/96 ***NEW*** On line pre-compile and the Wilkies Benchmark now available! ***NEW*** See up to the second scores and the latest Core War information at : http://www.stormking.com/~koth *FAQ* http://www.stormking.com/~koth/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the StormKing Industries Annual ICWS Tournament CoreWar Hill: Last battle concluded at : Fri Apr 12 13:30:57 EDT 1996 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 48/ 10/ 43 Cannonade Paul Kline 185 88 2 56/ 29/ 16 Miss Carefree Derek Ross 183 20 3 46/ 33/ 20 Giskard v0.5 Ken Mitton 158 61 4 46/ 34/ 19 Old Tire Swing Randy Graham 158 45 5 47/ 37/ 16 Miss Carry Derek Ross 157 52 6 44/ 32/ 24 Yop La Boum v2.1 P.E.M & E.C. 156 18 7 35/ 15/ 51 Nothing Special G. Eadon 155 3 8 35/ 18/ 47 Turkey Beppe Bezzi 153 4 9 37/ 28/ 34 Pommes-Ketchup V1.35 S. Schroeder 146 1 10 33/ 22/ 45 One Fat Lady Robert Macrae 145 5 11 45/ 47/ 8 Agony T Stefan Strack 142 89 12 40/ 44/ 15 test88 P.Kline 136 7 13 37/ 47/ 16 Slaver v1.1i Christoph C. Birk 126 49 14 36/ 47/ 17 Illusion Randy Graham 124 47 15 36/ 49/ 15 DoubleStone v0.7 Christoph C. Birk 123 31 16 28/ 38/ 33 Chris Steven Morrell 119 10 17 32/ 47/ 21 WhirlWind-88 Randy Graham 118 25 18 32/ 48/ 20 Maya v1.6 Christoph C. Birk 115 62 19 33/ 51/ 16 Baby Swing Randy Graham 115 6 20 36/ 57/ 8 xtc stefan roettger 114 93 21 20/ 67/ 13 nain HLN 72 0 From: KOTH Tourney Server Subject: SKI-ICWS: Status - Standard 06/03/96 Date: 1996/06/03 Message-ID: <199606030400.AAA05446@valhalla.stormking.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Weekly Status on 06/03/96 ***NEW*** On line pre-compile and the Wilkies Benchmark now available! ***NEW*** See up to the second scores and the latest Core War information at : http://www.stormking.com/~koth *FAQ* http://www.stormking.com/~koth/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the StormKing Industries Standard KotH CoreWar Hill : Last battle concluded at : Sat Jun 1 18:03:29 EDT 1996 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 42/ 37/ 22 PacMan v5 David Moore 147 1 2 39/ 40/ 21 Stasis David Moore 139 9 3 28/ 21/ 51 CAPS KEY IS STUCK AGAIN Steven Morrell 134 99 4 25/ 16/ 59 ttti nandor sieben 134 83 5 26/ 21/ 53 Hydra Stephen Linhart 132 207 6 24/ 17/ 59 Cannonade P.Kline 131 133 7 30/ 30/ 39 Yop La Boum v2.1 P.E.M & E.C. 130 33 8 38/ 46/ 15 Iron Gate Wayne Sheppard 130 227 9 21/ 11/ 68 Imperfic II John Wilkinson 130 19 10 25/ 20/ 54 Blue Funk 88 Steven Morrell 130 97 11 33/ 37/ 30 Keystone t21 P.Kline 128 120 12 35/ 43/ 22 Beholder's Eye V1.7 W. Mintardjo 127 177 13 19/ 12/ 69 test John Wilkinson 126 6 14 23/ 19/ 59 K-test P.E.M 126 5 15 23/ 21/ 57 Peace Mr. Jones 125 107 16 23/ 23/ 53 Test Wayne Sheppard 123 122 17 31/ 39/ 29 Giskard v0.5 Ken Mitton 123 71 18 28/ 37/ 35 Christopher Stephen Morrell 120 98 19 32/ 44/ 24 Tuctest Elmer J. Fudd 119 27 20 32/ 46/ 22 Request v2.0 Brant D. Thomsen 117 69 21 2/ 2/ 0 PacMan v5 David Moore 7 2 From: KOTH Tourney Server Subject: SKI-ICWS: Status - Multiwarrior Experimental 94 06/03/96 Date: 1996/06/03 Message-ID: <199606030400.AAA22121@valhalla.stormking.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Weekly Status on 06/03/96 ***NEW*** On line pre-compile and the Wilkies Benchmark now available! ***NEW*** See up to the second scores and the latest Core War information at : http://www.stormking.com/~koth *FAQ* http://www.stormking.com/~koth/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the StormKing Industries MultiWarrior Experimental 94 CoreWar Hill: Last battle concluded at : Fri Apr 26 16:59:57 EDT 1996 # Name Author Score Age 1 TimeScapeX (0.1) J. Pohjalainen 5936 59 2 jaded M R Bremer 5936 30 3 This is Test1 Kurt Franke 5936 24 4 Test2 George Eadon 5936 19 5 Paper8 G. Eadon 5913 25 6 Paperone Beppe Bezzi 5889 44 7 Fork v0.2-9p/51b Christoph C. Birk 5882 1 8 Gluttony J E Long 5862 17 9 Shwing! T. H. Davies 5771 55 10 Saat V2.01 S. Schroeder 5738 13 11 Wait A Lot v0.1 Justin Kao 5638 4 12 Anthill 5 Planar 5481 21 13 Leviathan2 harleyQ2 5395 11 14 life Nandor Sieben 5354 60 15 Pommes-Ketchup V1.35 S. Schroeder 5158 8 16 lifedwarf Nandor Sieben 4880 36 17 Variation M-1 Jay Han 4793 6 18 Hidden M.C.Diskett Bullfrog 4787 29 19 Leviathan harleyQ2 4472 12 20 Piggy 3 Bob Uhl 3795 32 21 Wait A Lot(big step, real Justin Kao 0 2 From: KOTH Tourney Server Subject: SKI-ICWS: Status - MultiWarrior 94 06/03/96 Date: 1996/06/03 Message-ID: <199606030400.AAA13924@valhalla.stormking.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Weekly Status on 06/03/96 ***NEW*** On line pre-compile and the Wilkies Benchmark now available! ***NEW*** See up to the second scores and the latest Core War information at : http://www.stormking.com/~koth *FAQ* http://www.stormking.com/~koth/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the StormKing Industries Multiwarrior 94 CoreWar Hill: Last battle concluded at : Sun Jun 2 13:14:33 EDT 1996 # Name Author Score Age 1 Die Hard P.Kline 5055 26 2 Son of Imp Steven Morrell 5055 39 3 Evol Cap -- John Wilkinson 5055 5 4 Super Evol Cap John Wilkinson 5043 3 5 60% Cotton Wilkinson 5043 22 6 90% Cotton v5c Wilkinson 5030 21 7 TJ Maurizio Vittuari 5030 15 8 TESTI Maurizio Vittuari 5030 14 9 sisyphus Kafka 4995 4 10 Fork v0.2-9p/51b Christoph C. Birk 4980 1 11 Hunter V 0.91 O.Fechner 4919 0 From: bremermr@cartoon.ecn.purdue.edu (Myer R. Bremer) Subject: Core Warrior 32 Date: 1996/06/03 Message-ID: <4ovcov$hsa@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 32 June 3, 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 Newbies should check the stormking page for the FAQ, language specification, guides, and tutorials. Post questions to rec.games.corewar. All new players are infinitely welcome! If ftp.csua.berkeley.edu is unreachable, you can download pMARS at: Terry's web page--http://www.infi.net/~wtnewton/corewar/ Planar fpt site--ftp://ftp.inria.fr/INRIA/Projects/para/doligez/cw/pmars ______________________________________________________________________________ Greetings. Not much action on either hill this week so there is little to report, but big changes are coming to a pizza hill near you. Thos has proposed two upgrades to the hill script: 1) eliminate self fights and 2) include the 'test' option. While the merit of self fights may still be discussed, the addition of the 'test' option will be welcome by everyone. Not only will it increase hill throughput by reducing full 25 challenge test warriors, but this feature should eliminate some of the artificial aging. Other much wanted options mentioned in the newsgroup include: -- consolidated e-mail with all warrior results -- updates on your warriors' score against all current warriors -- ability to change the ;redcode line to control e-mail from the hill -- ability to modify the ;strategy lines These are not demands, merely wishful suggestions to two individuals--Thos and Tuc--who donate some of their time and effort to making core war a much more enjoyable game. Having trouble picking that magic constant? Want to know how to most efficiently cover core? Read Stefan Strack's short tutorial on MOPT, the multiple constant optimizer. Also in this issue, Paul Kline discusses how to deal with all those nasty imp/ stones that have invaded the hill lately. Look for it in this week's hint. --M R Bremer ______________________________________________________________________________ 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 42/ 37/ 21 Twister Beppe Bezzi 147 31 2 41/ 38/ 22 Blur Anton Marsden 144 323 3 37/ 31/ 32 Osseil John K W 144 76 4 35/ 26/ 40 the historian bjoern guenzel 144 50 5 42/ 41/ 17 Yogi P.Kline 143 2 6 34/ 26/ 40 Scotch Broth 1.0 Robert Macrae 143 40 7 38/ 34/ 28 stoninc Maurizio 142 170 8 43/ 47/ 10 d-clear II bjoern guenzel 139 8 9 39/ 39/ 22 Chameleon M R Bremer 139 1387 10 38/ 38/ 24 T.N.T. pro Maurizio Vittuari 139 295 11 37/ 37/ 25 Thermite II Robert Macrae 137 1916 12 27/ 17/ 56 Hazy Shade II John K W 137 875 13 40/ 43/ 17 Scan Man David van Dam 137 336 14 40/ 45/ 15 HopScotch 1.6 Robert Macrae 136 44 15 35/ 35/ 30 Bomber Boy David van Dam 134 205 16 28/ 22/ 49 Rosebud Beppe 134 250 17 39/ 45/ 16 Stepping Stone Kurt Franke 134 729 18 40/ 48/ 12 test P P.Kline 133 1 19 35/ 37/ 28 Grilled Octopus v0.5 David Boeren 133 1132 20 29/ 26/ 45 blue candle bjoern guenzel 132 164 21 38/ 45/ 16 Violent Micro v0.4 basehead 132 181 22 22/ 15/ 63 ompega Steven Morrell 130 177 23 23/ 18/ 59 EIF John K W 127 124 24 22/ 22/ 56 Wicked John K W 122 12 25 30/ 52/ 18 Test Steven Morrell 109 3 Weekly age: 42 ( 127 last week, 88 the week before ) New warriors: 7 Turnover/age rate 17% Average age: 341 ( 311 last week, 435 the week before ) Average score: 136 ( 140 last week, 141 the week before ) The top 25 warriors are represented by 13 authors: Wilkinson with 4, guenzel and Macrae with 3, and Bezzi, Morrell, Kline, Vittuari, and van Dam with 2. Only 42 successful challenges! d-clear reigned early in the week, until Bezzi submitted his newest version of Twister, which utilizes a qscan before the Tornado type bomber. Kline shortens Yogi Bear to Yogi, changes some plogic, and voila, a top five warrior. EIF, Rosebud, blue candle, and Violent Micro have all dropped in the standings while veterans Thermite II and Chameleon manage to gain a few spots. Blur and Osseil have remained relatively stable, neither one dropping out of the top ten. One time king Scan Man has been everywhere from number 2 to number 21. Hopefully there will be some more action next week or when the new hill scripts get finished and authors take their vengence on specific warriors. ______________________________________________________________________________ 94 - What's New # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 21 28/ 29/ 43 Scotch Broth 1.0 Robert Macrae 128 1 1 42/ 38/ 20 Twister Beppe Bezzi 146 1 23 22/ 19/ 59 Wicked John K W 125 1 2 45/ 44/ 11 d-clear II bjoern guenzel 145 1 25 31/ 51/ 18 Test Steven Morrell 111 1 3 42/ 42/ 17 Yogi P.Kline 142 1 18 40/ 48/ 12 test P P.Kline 133 1 Twister has been near the top spot ever since it was submitted. d-clear started off strong, but is now in the 8th slot. Yogi is still young and most likely has a lot more testing to go before Paul is satisfied with him. ______________________________________________________________________________ 94 - What's No More # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 26 1/ 0/ 3 007 David van Dam 5 4 26 0/ 0/ 3 Test Paper Robert Macrae 4 4 26 2/ 1/ 2 test rtiqe1 Beppe 6 57 26 1/ 1/ 1 Yogi Bear P.Kline 5 35 26 2/ 1/ 2 d-clear bjoern guenzel 7 29 26 1/ 0/ 3 Lithium And Water John K W 5 24 26 0/ 47/ 53 Unknown Anonymous 53 2 Most of these were killed by their authors. ______________________________________________________________________________ 94 - What's Old # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 11 37/ 37/ 25 Thermite II Robert Macrae 137 1916 9 39/ 39/ 22 Chameleon M R Bremer 139 1387 19 35/ 37/ 28 Grilled Octopus v0.5 David Boeren 133 1132 12 27/ 17/ 56 Hazy Shade II John K W 137 875 17 39/ 45/ 16 Stepping Stone Kurt Franke 134 729 13 40/ 43/ 17 Scan Man David van Dam 137 336 2 41/ 38/ 22 Blur Anton Marsden 144 323 Scan Man and Blur are beginning to show some age, but have a long way to go before they become eligible for the Hall of Fame. ______________________________________________________________________________ HALL OF FAME * means the warrior is still active. Pos Name Author Age Strategy 1 Impfinity v4g1 Planar 1993 Stone/ imp 2 Thermite II Robert Macrae 1916 * Qscan -> bomber 3 Jack in the box Beppe Bezzi 1620 P-warrior 4 Tornado 3.0 Beppe Bezzi 1567 Bomber 5 Torch t18 P.Kline 1539 Bomber 6 Frontwards v2 Steven Morrell 1420 One shot scanner 7 Chameleon Myer R Bremer 1387 * P-warrior 8 Evol Cap 6.6 John Wilkinson 1299 Imp / stone 9 quiz Schitzo 1262 Scanner/ bomber 10 T.N.T. Maurizio Vittuari 1204 Bomber 11 Grilled Octopus v0.5 David Boeren 1132 * P-warrior 12 Iron Gate 1.5 Wayne Sheppard 926 CMP scanner 13 Agony II Stefan Strack 912 CMP scanner 14 Barrage Anton Marsden 876 Qscan -> replicator 17 Hazy Shade II John Wilkinson 875 * P-warrior 15 Blue Funk Steven Morrell 869 Stone/ imp 16 Flurry Anton Marsden 835 Qscan -> pwarrior 18 Thermite 1.0 Robert Macrae 802 Qscan -> bomber 19 Blue Funk 3 Steven Morrell 766 Stone/ imp 20 Night Train Karl Lewin 755 Replicator 21 Mirage 1.5 Anton Marsden 736 Scanner/ bomber 23 Stepping Stone Kurt Franke 729 * Qscan -> Vampire 22 Blizzard Anton Marsden 713 Qscan -> replicator 24 HeremScimitar A.Ivner,P.Kline 666 Bomber 25 La Bomba Beppe Bezzi 650 Qscan -> replicator Thermite II continues its trek towards the top of the Hall of Fame standings and the 2000 mark. Hazy Shade II advances two places and Stepping Stone moves up one spot. The next warrior that could enter the hall is van Dam's Scan Man, but it is still a long ways away at an age of 323. ______________________________________________________________________________ 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 61/ 28/ 11 Violent Micro v0.4b basehead 194 51 2 58/ 30/ 12 Sapper Andrew Fabbro 185 25 3 51/ 31/ 18 Mace Edgar 170 19 4 49/ 31/ 21 scan test bjoern guenzel 167 79 5 47/ 31/ 22 Toxin IVa Edgar 162 94 6 49/ 36/ 15 radar.b John K. Lewis 162 48 7 46/ 32/ 22 Trebuchet Andrew Fabbro 160 32 8 43/ 26/ 31 Hunter V 0.8 O.Fechner 159 21 9 45/ 31/ 24 Toxin IVb Edgar 158 81 10 50/ 41/ 9 Drill 1.2 Edgar 158 23 11 50/ 43/ 8 Drill 1.1 Edgar 157 96 12 47/ 40/ 12 Rusty.2 John Lewis 154 4 13 44/ 34/ 22 Extremely Prejudiced Scott Manley 153 26 14 40/ 33/ 27 Fork v0.1-13p (i) Christoph C. Birk 147 6 15 41/ 43/ 16 Bloodhound Mk III Andrew Fabbro 139 89 16 39/ 44/ 17 testvss2 Iain Hogg 133 16 17 38/ 44/ 18 Yet Another Try 1a Justin Kao 133 2 18 41/ 50/ 9 Micro Centurion (mod) Edgar 132 53 19 37/ 45/ 18 testvss Iain Hogg 128 17 20 25/ 40/ 35 Hunter V 0.5 beta O.Fechner 111 28 21 24/ 39/ 36 Mutant Strain John K. Lewis 109 5 22 30/ 59/ 10 gundam John K. Lewis 101 3 23 26/ 62/ 12 Roundup Jeff Hafner 90 1 24 20/ 55/ 25 bomberQ2 harleyQ2 84 29 25 23/ 66/ 11 Test1 Oscar Strawczynski 80 9 Only 23 successful challenges! Of course it is summer vacation for most colleges. John K. Lewis has increased his presence on the hill with some new warriors. O.Fechner seems to have brought Hunter out of beta and is enjoying some success in the top ten. ______________________________________________________________________________ The Hint by Paul Kline Beppe and others seem to be taking the 94 Hill over with those strong, fast stone-imp warriors. So it's time for an antidote :-) Now, there are many ways to kill stones including paper, dodgers, faster stones, and sometimes big slow imps. One principle that works well is numbers. A single stand-still program is at a disadvantage against an opponent running at multiple locations. Kill one part and the others just run faster. Even a pair of bombers running at half-speed will prove very tough on the stone. I was working on this concept for a couple of days with some success and just about to submit something to the Hill for a trial when lo-and-behold Bjoern Guenzel published the perfect component for this purpose -> d-clear. My concept (not a new one) was to start a pair of core-clears running at a separation of 4000. The stone would probably cripple one of them but the other might last long enough to get him. And even with rough implementation it worked pretty well. After the stone is wiped, any imps advance to the forward-clear pointer and are killed as well. I just have to say something about Bjoern's innovative use of the djn.f to drive his forward clear. Many of us had tried the forward decrement in a program or two, but it has mostly been abandoned for that purpose. Unfortunately when the decrement hits it's own pointer it stops - the pointer is both incremented and decremented in the same instruction so there is no more progress, making it less destructive than a backward decrement. Bjoern on the other hand saw this as a feature and used it to drive a forward core clear at 100% of c, alternately bombing and decrementing core multiple times until the whole thing has been dat-wiped. If the clear-pointer is hit by dat it skips the clear code as usual. But if the decrement hits the pointer it leaves it at zero until the dat is written there - wonderful! Wanting to see how d-clear worked against my own pair of programs, I ran a trial. Yikes! d-clear won about 60% of the rounds, what magic is he using??? A close inspection shows that d-clear starts his bombing run halfway around core from himself, meaning that the first of my components he kills is the one nearest to killing him. Then a race to catch the other part, but since he is running at 100% of c and mine only at 66% he stands an excellent chance of killing that one too. Replacing my two components with d-clear -like code gave enormous improvement and good results against the stone-imps. Here are some examples: Rosebud 101/37 EIF 128/31 d-clear 191/18 blue candle 91/65 impfinity 117/35 (almost 60%!) Ompega 58/50 the historian 77/91 (my best score against him) On the other hand: Twister 57/124 Blur 25/164 TestBB 71/116 Thermite 61/113 Hazy Shade 47/125 So you can see that it is vulnerable to papers and any kind of stun-bomb or continuous scanning program, which after all are designed to kill multi-location programs. A good p-component? So here is the code for test P, renamed 'P-clear' for publication: ;redcode-94 ;name P-clear ;kill P-clear ;author P.Kline ;assert CORESIZE == 8000 ;strategy pair of forward dat-wipers based on Guenzel's d-clear ;strategy outnumber stones and forward-wipe imps paGate equ Pair-7 slPair mov #-3950,paGate+1300-7 ; initialize wipe pointers mov #-3950,paGate+5302-7 spl 1 ; use multiple processes spl 1 mov -1,0 mov paGate ; fast forward clear djn.f -1 ,>paGate dat 0,0 paBomb dat 0,15 end slPair Paul Kline pk6811s@acad.drake.edu ______________________________________________________________________________ Extra Extra by Stefan Strack A brief mopt tutorial ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mopt, short for _M_ultiple constant _opt_imizer, is a program that simulates a core warrior in order to find an optimal combination of bombing or scanning constants. First of all, what is an optimal constant? An optimal constant is a bomb/scan increment that covers core evenly, such that gaps between adjacent bombed or scanned locations shrink at similar rates. For example, a bomb increment of 4 is fairly bad, because it bisects core unevenly, leaving one small and one huge gap. There are a number of programs, e.g. Jay Han's CoreStep and Nandor Sieben's Optima, that find _single_ optimal constants by analytical and iterative methods. These programs work well for simple warriors like A.K. Dewdney's Dwarf. However, most modern warriors are more complicated, dropping several bombs or scanning several locations in each loop. Consider for example the scan loop of a prototypical, SPL-carpet bombing CMP-scanner: scan sub.f incr,comp comp cmp.i FIRST,FIRST-CDIST ;larger number is A slt.a #len,comp ;compare to A-number djn.f scan, Mopt stops prompting for input of (offset,increment) pairs when you input an empty line and produces: 42 12 42 -> 35.187500 The higher the value, the better the (offset,increment) combination. This is not terribly useful, however; you want Mopt to _find_ an optimal (offset,increment) combination. To do this, you substitute a "value" with a "generator", which outputs a range of values. In our example, let's try different values for CDIST, the scan offset, in the range of 10 to 15 (shorter would be inefficient, longer would take too long to SPL-carpet). In our notation: (0,42),([10..15],42). The generator to accomplish this is: a=10,a<=15,a=a+1 This looks remarkably like the for loop syntax of the C-language; "a=10" initializes variable a to 10, "a<=15" is the condition that has to be satisfied for the loop to continue, and "a=a+1" increments the loop variable and generates the values for optimization. Mopt uses the pMARS expression evaluator, so you can use all its logical and arithmetic operators, as well as assigment and 26 single letter variables. Variables are "global", i.e. they retain their values between generators. We're now ready to start up Mopt again: Coresize: 8000 Increment value or generator #1: 42 Offset value or generator #2: a=10,a<=15,a=a+1 Increment value or generator #2: 42 Offset value or generator #3: The best: 42 12 42 -> 35.187500 42 14 42 -> 34.975875 42 11 42 -> 34.431000 42 13 42 -> 34.361125 42 15 42 -> 34.007750 42 10 42 -> 33.761125 So, a scan offset of 12 is best, followed by 14, 11, a.s.o.. Now that we have the basics, we can let Mopt optimize _both_ scan increment and offset. We'll pick a mod-2 pattern in the range 22 through 98: b=22,b<99,b=b+2 Note that this generator will also produce mod-4, mod-6, .. numbers, which we have to weed out later. Coresize: 8000 Increment value or generator #1: b=22,b<99,b=b+2 Offset value or generator #2: a=10,a<=15,a=a+1 Increment value or generator #2: b Offset value or generator #3: The best: 28 14 28 -> 44.714625 26 14 26 -> 44.443625 34 14 34 -> 42.757750 26 13 26 -> 42.690000 98 14 98 -> 42.347875 28 15 28 -> 42.242250 78 14 78 -> 42.231125 ... (Side note: If you're now wondering why Rave uses a 42,12 scan instead of the more optimal 28,14 pattern: 42,12 turns out to be a better imp-killer). Another example: spl #A,#-B add -1,1 mov <2,<2 jmp -2 The bomb pattern is (0,A),(0,-B) and we're trying to find optimal mod-5 values for A and B: Coresize: 8000 Increment value or generator #1: a=5,a<200,b=b+5 Offset value or generator #2: 0 Increment value or generator #2: b=-5,b>-200,b=b-5 Offset value or generator #3: The best: 155 0 -155 -> 83.736000 155 0 -185 -> 79.708125 185 0 -155 -> 79.704375 155 0 -195 -> 79.425250 195 0 -155 -> 79.420875 155 0 -165 -> 78.837750 165 0 -155 -> 78.834625 ... Now that you understand how to translate your warrior's bombing/scanning loop into the (offset,increment) notation, Mopt should be a snap to use. Mopt is part of the ptools10.zip archive, and comes as portable C-source and DOS executable. To compile it yourself, you also need eval.c and the header files of the pMARS source distribution. The URL is: http://www.stormking.com/~koth/pmars.html Plans for the next version of Mopt include the ability to specify a "maximum target size". In the current version, this is hardwired to 200, the MAXLENGTH of the 94x hills. -Stefan Strack (stst@idnsun.gpct.vanderbilt.edu) ______________________________________________________________________________ Questions? Concerns? Comments? Complaints? Mail them to people who care. authors: Beppe Bezzi or Myer Bremer From: sd@ecst.csuchico.edu (Lord Kymbote) Subject: Re: Pizza Hills: Good News and Bad News Date: 1996/06/03 Message-ID: <4ovlq3$771@charnel.ecst.csuchico.edu>#1/1 references: <4ol7dm$8sa@charnel.ecst.csuchico.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Anton Marsden wrote: > >It would be nice if after a successful challenge only one mail message >was sent to each person on the Hill containing all results for all their >warriors, rather than multiple messages. I think I should make it factorial instead. For n warriors you have on the hill, it would send (n!) messages to you after every challenge. Then maybe everyone would realize that having lots of your warriors on a hill is not a good thing. Thos From: sd@ecst.csuchico.edu (Lord Kymbote) Subject: Re: Pizza Hills: Good News and Bad News Date: 1996/06/03 Message-ID: <4ovmeo$77r@charnel.ecst.csuchico.edu>#1/1 references: <199606020141.UAA29445@mail.utexas.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar JKW wrote: >>At 06.55 01/06/96 -0400, you wrote: >>> >>>We never had an actual vote about self fights. I think it's not that >>>clear cut. We should have a vote. >>> >>I agree to have a vote, but how should we vote? >> > >I hereby decree that anyone who has submitted a warrior to Stormking or >Pizza, or who has posted a corewar-related message to r.g.c on or before >May 31st, 1996 is eligible to vote. > >-John K W- > >Ok, so I don't have the power to make decrees. Sue me. :) No, but I do. :) It has been stated before that pspace makes self fights pointless (that is, too easy to cheat). I therefore decree that there will be no self fights on hills where pspace is available. No vote necessary. You can try to convince me otherwise if you like. Thos From: jreed@mail.tds.net (Jason Reed) Subject: ftp.csua.berkeley.edu? Date: 1996/06/04 Message-ID: #1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Are there any mirrors for this place? I haven't been able to get in for weeks now... is it down, or is it just me? ---Jason From: jreed@mail.tds.net (Jason Reed) Subject: Re: making money with Corewar... :-) Date: 1996/06/04 Message-ID: #1/1 references: <4p26aq$ckh@sparcserver.lrz-muenchen.de> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar In article <4p26aq$ckh@sparcserver.lrz-muenchen.de> guenzel@extern.lrz-muenchen.de (Bjoern Guenzel) writes: >From: guenzel@extern.lrz-muenchen.de (Bjoern Guenzel) >Subject: making money with Corewar... :-) >Date: Tue, 04 Jun 1996 21:32:09 GMT >I just had an idea: Core War is a kind of sport. In sports you earn >money from advertisments. Why not become professional and find a >sponsor? I could include an ad into my strategy lines: "sponsored by >sun computers" or something... >How many people would read it if my warrior lives, say, 2 months? >Thermite's strategy line probably has been read more than 1500 times >(although not 1500 different people)... >What do you think? Would you be annoyed by ads in my strategy lines? >How much should I ask for? >I just want to check that out before I start searching a firm willing >to pay my Core War studies, not that I get banned from pizza or >something... :-) Hehe. I just saw a cartoon today, depicting a prototypical geek wearing a '(some electronic-sounding brand name) calculators jacket', with caption "after he aced three consectuive calculus exams, the endorsements just came rolling in..." >Bjoern >P.S.: Of course again, I am not really serious. Why not? :D ---Jason From: "Steven C. Morrell" Subject: The Pushed off warrior SHOULD count in scoring because... Date: 1996/06/04 Message-ID: #1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar A few remarks on "the warrior pushed off the hill" affecting scores: First, the warrior pushed off the hill affects no scores in rounds following when it gets pushed off. Thus, for instance, if your program "Foo" wins 100% against Thermite II and 0% against everything else, it will score about 13 points, so Foo will never push Thermite II off (unless the hill is _really_ tough on Thermite II), even if Foo is submitted repeatedly. So the score is based entirely on the 26 warriors that have been fighting. But, some may say, the 26th warrior affects the 25 programs that stay on the hill, making it impossible to accurately benchmark the permanent hill. Personally, I would Much Rather see how new programs affect the hill than how the old hill does against itself. For instance, Beppe Bezzi was once testing a program called "FrKill" that was designed to win against one of my programs that was doing quite well at the time. I can't remember what happened over the course of time, but the first few tests did not make it onto the hill. The way this affected the hill was very interesting to me, because Beppe's warriors tend to make it to the hill eventually. If that isn't compelling enough, there is a way to accurately benchmark the current hill: Send in a warrior that never wins. And thirdly, let's look how scores would be calculated: Each warrior is scored against 25 other programs, and the lowest scoring program would get kicked off. Then the hill scores would have to be recalculated without the loser. Finally, the results would be sent. This, of course, isn't much extra calculation, but I don't want to be the one explaining to someone why their warrior got pushed off, even though the score reported for it was higher than the score of the 25'th place warrior. (Yes, this could actually happen if, say, 25'th place brainwashed and the new program had a P-space bug.) [This is in response to a couple of threads on the newsgroup, but I haven't attempted to quote what has been said.] -- Steven Morrell morrell@math.utah.edu From: "Steven C. Morrell" Subject: Rambling on step-sizes (Not much math) Date: 1996/06/04 Message-ID: #1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar My philosophy on step-sizes is not that there are some really good step-sizes compared to the rest, but that there are some really bad step-sizes, and optima programs currently are most useful for avoiding bad step-sizes. (And giving me something to write about.) Beppe Bezzi notes that an optima number picked with bad parameters actually scored better than a correct optima number, so I will try to explain why. First, as Paul Kline pointed out a couple of years ago, it doesn't really matter how fast a program of 1500 instructions is found, because there are no redcode programs that large. The classic optima formulae show how good step sizes are in general, and not just against small warriors. Second, how imp-numbery a step-size is will affect your score at least as much as how "optimal" it is against heavy imp programs. Third, since there are only a handful of the best of the best optima numbers, these probably are being overused. If two warriors are using the same step-size, in opposite directions, the step no longer is optimal -- it is magic. One of the warriors will score a lot better than what he would with similar steps. --- So, how can I come up with similar step-sizes to optima numbers? Read on! A recent thread compares optimal numbers generated by CoreStep and Mopt. The following are the best mod-5 corsize-8000 numbers, stolen from a post: CoreStep Mopt 3315 1295 2365 1545 2895 2365 3095 3315 3065 2835 Mopt cuts the length of programs off at 200, so the Mopt numbers should do better. I have seen three different ways of seeing how "optimal" a step-size is, and all yeild similar, but not identical results. So the optima purist will ask, which one is the best? I don't know, but I have managed to isolate a formula that measures the best optima results in rough terms: (Math mode on for a very short time, I promise): If you have a step-size of K in coresize N and is a list of coefficients from the Euclidean Algorithm (or N/K as a continued fraction), then let's call a+b+c+... the _index_ of K. (That wasn't so bad, was it?) The first two numbers in the CoreStep list have index 17, and the rest have index 18, so I would bet that the first two will give you better results. The best Mopt step-size is 1295, which has index 20, but most of this comes from the first couple of coefficients, which measure lack of spread of big gaps. The coefficients at the end of all the Mopt numbers are mostly 1's and 2's, which seems to be a Good Thing. Note that these indexes are small integers, so there is not that much variety among possible step-sizes. I am not sure that the refinement in the other optima formulae actually correspond to better scores, so when I pick an optima number, I just try out all of those with lowest index (and the right mod). It doesn't seem to be too difficult to modify CoreStep to calculate this sort of thing, so if there is interest in indexes and nobody else wants to do this, I suppose I could try it and post the changes. Details on the math will be forthcoming in my TeX'ed and revised paper on the mathematics of step-sizes, but this should help everybody who doesn't want to wade through it. -- Steven Morrell morrell@math.utah.edu From: Ross Morgan-Linial Subject: Help improving warrior Date: 1996/06/04 Message-ID: <31B4ED99.826@fhcrc.org>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar This is my warrior, Not Very Pretty. It is getting around 107 points on the '94 hill at Pizza - not quite enough to make it on. Does anyone have any advice on improving it? Apologies in advance for the hard-to-read code. I don't completely understand how it works myself :=( ;redcode-94b ;name Not Very Pretty 1.0 ;author Ross Morgan-Linial ;assert CORESIZE==8000 ;strategy FAST bomber -> two-pass coreclear -> imp gate ;version 1.0 org start start loop1 ;first, a 50% of C bombing loop add.i addto, indic mov bomb, @indic mov bomb, *indic djn loop1, #799 ; now, a two-pass coreclear spl 0, <-30 ;don't bomb here mov *ptr, Subject: Re: Pizza Hills: Good News and Bad News Date: 1996/06/04 Message-ID: <199606041807.NAA14362@mail.utexas.edu>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar sd@ecst.csuchico.edu wrote: >Anton Marsden wrote: >> >>It would be nice if after a successful challenge only one mail message >>was sent to each person on the Hill containing all results for all their >>warriors, rather than multiple messages. > >I think I should make it factorial instead. For n warriors you have on >the hill, it would send (n!) messages to you after every challenge. Then >maybe everyone would realize that having lots of your warriors on a hill >is not a good thing. Uh... What? Would you explain that? -JKW- From: spm@star.arm.ac.uk (Scott Manley) Subject: Re: Pizza Hills: Good News and Bad News Date: 1996/06/04 Message-ID: <199606040944.KAA10620@arsun6>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar > I think I should make it factorial instead. For n warriors you have on > the hill, it would send (n!) messages to you after every challenge. Then > maybe everyone would realize that having lots of your warriors on a hill > is not a good thing. Yeah that would definately discourage people from using handshaking to take over the hill, 25! = 15511210040000000000000000 (approximately) Mail bomb yourself with every challenge. Scott Manley From: spm@star.arm.ac.uk (Scott Manley) Subject: Re: Wilkies Date: 1996/06/04 Message-ID: <199606041600.RAA16589@arsun6>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar > Just a quick newbie query: (about) how many Wilkies would a warrior need > to get onto (say) the beginner's hill? > > Many thanks A very interesting question, my early warriors reached the begginners hill and some of them scored less than 50 wilkies. However I think the quality of corewar players has increased in the last year and I think that 50 is probably a lower limit on a favourable hill. If you can beat 100 then you're proabably guaranteed a place on the beginners hill and you'll probably die of old age. As for the draft hill, I think 130+ on average will make the lower places on the hill. Scott Manley From: JKW Subject: Re: Core Warrior 32 Date: 1996/06/04 Message-ID: <4p1vvo$15j@excelsior.flash.net>#1/1 references: <4ovcov$hsa@mozo.cc.purdue.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar bremermr@cartoon.ecn.purdue.edu (Myer R. Bremer) wrote: >Replacing my two components with d-clear -like code gave enormous improvement >and good results against the stone-imps. Here are some examples: Ya know why this does so well? The fact that you don't use the A-field for anything allows you to focus all your energy on one "side" of the imp, which makes for much more effective kills... Great code, Bjoern and Paul! :) >Plans for the next version of Mopt include the ability to specify a "maximum >target size". In the current version, this is hardwired to 200, the >MAXLENGTH of the 94x hills. Wouldn't it be better to have this be a variable instead of a constant? How much of a difference do you think changing that to 100 would make on 100-length optimizations? :/ -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | Founder and Co-Chairman of the Americans For The | \ Annexation of Canada, Mexico, Cuba and Kansas. / -=- http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~ifio452/ -=- From: JKW Subject: Re: Wilkies Date: 1996/06/04 Message-ID: <4p1u85$15j@excelsior.flash.net>#1/1 references: <31B429F9.7CE7@cam.ac.uk> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Philip Kendall wrote: >Just a quick newbie query: (about) how many Wilkies would a warrior need >to get onto (say) the beginner's hill? Well... there's no single answer, of course. However, most of the time the beginner's Hill has a few "free" spots on the bottom. However, the idea of the benchmark was that the rating should come close to about the score your warrior would get on a generalized Beginner Hill... -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | Founder and Co-Chairman of the Americans For The | \ Annexation of Canada, Mexico, Cuba and Kansas. / -=- http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~ifio452/ -=- From: guenzel@extern.lrz-muenchen.de (Bjoern Guenzel) Subject: making money with Corewar... :-) Date: 1996/06/04 Message-ID: <4p26aq$ckh@sparcserver.lrz-muenchen.de>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar I just had an idea: Core War is a kind of sport. In sports you earn money from advertisments. Why not become professional and find a sponsor? I could include an ad into my strategy lines: "sponsored by sun computers" or something... How many people would read it if my warrior lives, say, 2 months? Thermite's strategy line probably has been read more than 1500 times (although not 1500 different people)... What do you think? Would you be annoyed by ads in my strategy lines? How much should I ask for? I just want to check that out before I start searching a firm willing to pay my Core War studies, not that I get banned from pizza or something... :-) Bjoern P.S.: Of course again, I am not really serious. However, it might be fun to ask some firms - curious for the responses.... (probably none). BTW, does anybody know eligible firms...? From: guenzel@extern.lrz-muenchen.de (Bjoern Guenzel) Subject: Re: Pizza Hills: Good News and Bad News Date: 1996/06/04 Message-ID: <4p24q5$89a@sparcserver.lrz-muenchen.de>#1/1 references: <4ol7dm$8sa@charnel.ecst.csuchico.edu> <4ovlq3$771@charnel.ecst.csuchico.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar sd@ecst.csuchico.edu (Lord Kymbote) wrote: >Anton Marsden wrote: >> >>It would be nice if after a successful challenge only one mail message >>was sent to each person on the Hill containing all results for all their >>warriors, rather than multiple messages. >I think I should make it factorial instead. For n warriors you have on >the hill, it would send (n!) messages to you after every challenge. Then >maybe everyone would realize that having lots of your warriors on a hill >is not a good thing. That is of course true, on the other hand: what am I supposed to do with all my ideas? I can't find peace until I tested them... :-) Perhaps merge them all into one big, fat p-spacer... I wouldn't like to have more than three warriors at once on the hill, even three is a bit much :/ What if my old warriors remain on the hill for months - what is it like having to wait for so long? How do others solve this problem? Bjoern >Thos From: guenzel@extern.lrz-muenchen.de (Bjoern Guenzel) Subject: Re: Wilkies Date: 1996/06/04 Message-ID: <4p24q3$89a@sparcserver.lrz-muenchen.de>#1/1 references: <31B429F9.7CE7@cam.ac.uk> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Philip Kendall wrote: >Just a quick newbie query: (about) how many Wilkies would a warrior need >to get onto (say) the beginner's hill? Haven't tested the b-hill for a while. On the pro-hill strange enough my first warriors that made it (for a short time) had almost exactly the same score as their wilkie-ratings (120-130). With 120 or more wilkies you are probably in the top 10 of the b-hill? However, wilkies are not always true. For example my d-clear scores only 110 wilkies, but was on top of the pro-hill for a short while (not very long, it scored so few wilkies because it is useless against paper...). Probably wilkies are more useful for the b-hill than for the pro hill, because there are usually not so many papers on the pro (that's a hint for those trying to make it - don't focus so much on papers, in my opinion - there is neither enough paper to kill, nor can you score high enough with a paer alone. But that is only my opinion, and perhaps only true at this given time...). Bjoern >Many thanks > >-- > +-------------------------------------------------------------+ > | Philip Kendall (pak21@cam.ac.uk pak21@kendalls.demon.co.uk) | > +-------------------------------------------------------------+ From: Philip Kendall Subject: Wilkies Date: 1996/06/04 Message-ID: <31B429F9.7CE7@cam.ac.uk>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Just a quick newbie query: (about) how many Wilkies would a warrior need to get onto (say) the beginner's hill? Many thanks -- +-------------------------------------------------------------+ | Philip Kendall (pak21@cam.ac.uk pak21@kendalls.demon.co.uk) | +-------------------------------------------------------------+ From: Woodside-Agency@msn.com (James Leonard) Subject: ALL WRITERS Date: 1996/06/04 Message-ID: <00001f35+0000080b@msn.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar New York City based literary agency: Florida branch. We are accepting ALL fiction and All nonfiction. Including all plays, poems, and short stories. Novels: submit brief synopsis, first 10 pages, self- addressed, stamped envelope (S.A.S.E) Nonfiction: Synopsis, first 10 pages, S.A.S.E. Short Stories: Synopsis, first 3 pages, S.A.S.E. Poems: Submit 3, S.A.S.E. Plays-Screenplays: Synopsis, first 10 pages, S.A.S.E. Magazine Articles: Synopsis only, S.A.S.E. No complete manuscripts, unless requested. Mail to: The Woodside Literary Agency 1190 North Collier Blvd. Marco Island, Florida 33937 Care of Susan Day Tele: 941-642-9660 From: Robert Macrae Subject: Re: Pizza Hills: Good News and Bad News Date: 1996/06/04 Message-ID: <4p18iq$9jc@soap.news.pipex.net>#1/1 references: <199606020141.UAA29445@mail.utexas.edu> <4ovmeo$77r@charnel.ecst.csuchico.edu> <4ovuq2$7qc@excelsior.flash.net> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar JKW wrote: >sd@ecst.csuchico.edu (Lord Kymbote) wrote: >>No, but I do. :) It has been stated before that pspace makes self fights >>pointless (that is, too easy to cheat). I therefore decree that there >>will be no self fights on hills where pspace is available. No vote >>necessary. You can try to convince me otherwise if you like. > >Sounds good to me. I think the majority is definately headed that way. One Man, One Vote, unanimous decision :) From: Robert Macrae Subject: Re: Self Mutating concepts Date: 1996/06/04 Message-ID: <4p189b$9jc@soap.news.pipex.net>#1/1 references: <4ojbn5$8or$1@mhade.production.compuserve.com> <4okbjv$pdf@lastactionhero.rs.itd.umich.edu> <4omjih$t43@soap.news.pipex.net> <4p0rp9$j91@sparcserver.lrz-muenchen.de> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar guenzel@extern.lrz-muenchen.de (Bjoern Guenzel) wrote: >My early efforts to attain smaller mod's (smaller than 4) usually >ended up with a lower score, eg once I had almost exactly the same >vampire with mod 5 and a shifted mod 5 (B..B..B), and the version with >the shorter bombing run (getting to the clear earlier) scored much >better. I concluded from that that a longer bombing run isn't >necessarily an advantage, but thinking it over again, the reason might >have been my imperfect 'Beginner-code' rather than the longer >bomb-run... It depends a bit on the bombs and the opponents. One version of Brand, optimised against papers, has a very long incendiary bombing run; against bombers its better to stick to 2000 or fewer bombs as the bombed wreckage may still be running a DJN trail. [And if Brand had a two-pass coreclear, I might not need the run then. Hmmm...] >>Modron spl #1469, >-155 ; Mod 5 } attack >> add.x -1, 1 ; and Mod 1 bomb. >> mov.i }2, -3109-2 ; Offet to miss myself. >> jmp -2, {-3 ; Gates if bombed. > >That is amazing, how did you manage to write it? (How did you find the >magic numbers?) :) I was proud of it at the time, though I now think all the effort was rather mis-directed. I wrote a pascal simulator to do a brute-force search for patterns which had good bomb spread, good final coverage, and left just enough space for the bomber not to suicide. I tried ><}{ attacks, and against my testset } was the marginal winner. My motivation was to create a short warrior so I could have as long a QS as possible :/ From: guenzel@extern.lrz-muenchen.de (Bjoern Guenzel) Subject: Re: Pizza Hills: Good News and Bad News Date: 1996/06/04 Message-ID: <4p0rpc$j91@sparcserver.lrz-muenchen.de>#1/1 references: <4ol7dm$8sa@charnel.ecst.csuchico.edu> <31b0aef8.34492@mo6.rc.tudelft.nl> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar D.vanDam@is.twi.tudelft.nl (David van Dam) wrote: >1. Changing calculation of the hill score >How about that the warrior pushed of the hill, don't take part in the calculation of the >score. So only use the score of the 25 warriors on the hill to calculate the score. I think that would be nice, as the influence of the 26th warrior also makes it difficult to judge my tests. >2. Changing secret number of self fight (if they are kept) >Give the self fights their own secret number (-F xxx). This to protect the hill from >spies, which send the secret number to his programmer. >3. New option to control the e-mail stream of the hill (like Beppe suggested) >To stop the big stream off e-mails, while your on vacantion (or something else). I think everybody agrees on that... >4. New option to change ;strategy lines of a warrior >Sometime you make a error in the strategy line, but you don't like to lose your age. >Because you don't correct it by sending the same warrior with the corrected strategy >lines. While you are at it, it would be nice to be able to change lines from the code, too... :-) >5. About a Test option >If you create a test option, you have to add this to e-mail stream control commands. So >maybe then you get: quit/normal/test/verbose. Because I like to know what other people are >doing on the hill. I think that is important - it would be much less fun to see a warrior arrive only every two weeks, because you see only the final versions. Would be much less life... About artificial aging - is it not a kind of merit of a warrior, if others need more tests to actually make the hill with a satisfying result? That way it could be said that a warrior deserves the 'artificial' age it gets. Besides I think artificial aging is a method of reducing the number of tests - the other warriors get older and older, while you always have to start from zero... Bjoern P.S.: I would like the report-function nandor suggested, too. I can't keep all the mails because my mail program is not yet configured for it (and my harddisc is almost full :-( ) >Cu at the top >------------------------------------------------------------ >David van Dam (D.vanDam@is.twi.tudelft.nl) >The King is dead (snif), long live the King! I want to be king instead of the king... (Isnogud) From: guenzel@extern.lrz-muenchen.de (Bjoern Guenzel) Subject: Re: Self Mutating concepts Date: 1996/06/04 Message-ID: <4p0rp9$j91@sparcserver.lrz-muenchen.de>#1/1 references: <4ojbn5$8or$1@mhade.production.compuserve.com> <4okbjv$pdf@lastactionhero.rs.itd.umich.edu> <4omjih$t43@soap.news.pipex.net> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Robert Macrae wrote: >>tom (70771.2371@CompuServe.COM) wrote: >>: What I want to do is create a stone >>: w/imp-gate that changes the frequency of bombs at least a couple >>: of times each run through. (e.g. - first it bombs every five >>: spaces, then every six and so on.) An idea would be to bomb the cell that contains the bomb, but I have never tried it, like step dat mod5step,mod5step .... bomb dat mod8step,mod8step My early efforts to attain smaller mod's (smaller than 4) usually ended up with a lower score, eg once I had almost exactly the same vampire with mod 5 and a shifted mod 5 (B..B..B), and the version with the shorter bombing run (getting to the clear earlier) scored much better. I concluded from that that a longer bombing run isn't necessarily an advantage, but thinking it over again, the reason might have been my imperfect 'Beginner-code' rather than the longer bomb-run. In general I think it is not worth the effort if it costs you too many instructions - for example one of my brilliant attempts was a bomber that would jump to a 'restore'-code after the first bomb hit it. That was of course completely pointless, since the restore-coded added far too much space... >Modron changes its step every time around the loop in an attempt to >carpet the whole of core. When I wrote it it scored about 100 against the >hill, but it might do better now? >Modron spl #1469, >-155 ; Mod 5 } attack > add.x -1, 1 ; and Mod 1 bomb. > mov.i }2, -3109-2 ; Offet to miss myself. > jmp -2, {-3 ; Gates if bombed. That is amazing, how did you manage to write it? (How did you find the magic numbers?) I think a > instead of a } usually works better as an attack, although I don't understand why... Bjoern From: JKW Subject: Re: Pizza Hills: Good News and Bad News Date: 1996/06/04 Message-ID: <4ovuq2$7qc@excelsior.flash.net>#1/1 references: <199606020141.UAA29445@mail.utexas.edu> <4ovmeo$77r@charnel.ecst.csuchico.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar sd@ecst.csuchico.edu (Lord Kymbote) wrote: >>I hereby decree that anyone who has submitted a warrior to Stormking or >>Pizza, or who has posted a corewar-related message to r.g.c on or before >>May 31st, 1996 is eligible to vote. >> >>-John K W- >> >>Ok, so I don't have the power to make decrees. Sue me. :) > >No, but I do. :) It has been stated before that pspace makes self fights >pointless (that is, too easy to cheat). I therefore decree that there >will be no self fights on hills where pspace is available. No vote >necessary. You can try to convince me otherwise if you like. Sounds good to me. I think the majority is definately headed that way. -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | Founder and Co-Chairman of the Americans For The | \ Annexation of Canada, Mexico, Cuba and Kansas. / -=- http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~ifio452/ -=- From: "Steven C. Morrell" Subject: Re: making money with Corewar... :-) Date: 1996/06/05 Message-ID: #1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar This actually sounds a lot more feasable than my latest idea, which was to write the Official Corewar Program of the 1996 Olympics. I have a bad feeling that it would cost quite a bit more than all of the money ever made on corewar. I recall one contest actually had $35 in prize money, but that was the only time I've ever seen money in this group. I guess I'll have to find a job... -- Steven Morrell morrell@math.utah.edu From: JKW Subject: Re: Rambling on step-sizes (Not much math) Date: 1996/06/05 Message-ID: <4p4cct$57q@excelsior.flash.net>#1/1 references: <4p4agd$i27@msunews.cl.msu.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar mooredav@cps.msu.edu (David Matthew Moore) wrote: >Summary: If you want to find the best increment, you need to guess > at the lengths of your opponents. Often, when using mopt to get numbers, I will do something like this mopt 8000 -m 4 -cf 4 8 12 16 20 -b 20 This will give you a lot of numbers that sort of bomb in a scissors-like fashion. But if you go through the list of 20 or so numbers, you can usually find one with a good spread, and still good at getting those small sizes. -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | Founder and Co-Chairman of the Americans For The | \ Annexation of Canada, Mexico, Cuba and Kansas. / -=- http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~ifio452/ -=- From: stst@vuse.vanderbilt.edu (Stefan Strack) Subject: Core War Frequently Asked Questions (rec.games.corewar FAQ) Date: 1996/06/05 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: mooredav@cps.msu.edu (David Matthew Moore) Subject: Re: Rambling on step-sizes (Not much math) Date: 1996/06/05 Message-ID: <4p4agd$i27@msunews.cl.msu.edu>#1/1 references: newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Steven C. Morrell (morrell@math.utah.edu) wrote: : My philosophy on step-sizes is not that there are some really good : step-sizes compared to the rest, but that there are some really bad : step-sizes, and optima programs currently are most useful for avoiding bad : step-sizes. (And giving me something to write about.) You're absolutely right, there is no best increment for every opponent in general. The effectiveness of an increment depends on the length of the opponent. Some increments work well for bombing/finding scanners (length 12) and others are better versus stones (length 5). To get a measure for the overall effectiveness of an increment, you need a pdf (probability density function) for the length of the opponent, like this: length % opponents ----------- ----------- 1 0 2 .01 3 .03 4 .12 5 .10 6 .09 etc. __________ total 1 Given such a pdf, you can find the probability that any opponent (whose length is given by the pdf) will have been bombed/scanned by some amount of time ( "time" is the number of locations bombed ). Summary: If you want to find the best increment, you need to guess at the lengths of your opponents. It was for this reason that I wrote some of my own CoreStep-like routines which accepted a length as input and used it in the analysis. I found that I had much better win rate with increments that did well against typical stones and typical scanners. Another strategy for boosting your long-term win rate might be to make your warrior some uncommon length. Maybe this summer I will rewrite my programs so that they are readable; I hacked in all of the features as I needed them, so now the word "spaghetti" comes to mind when I look at it. If I do rewrite it, then I would be happy to share it. If you have any interest in the C routines now, please e-mail me and I will send the spaghetti. David Moore mooredav@cps.msu.edu From: JKW Subject: Re: Help improving warrior Date: 1996/06/05 Message-ID: <4p30sg$h93@excelsior.flash.net>#1/1 references: <31B4ED99.826@fhcrc.org> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Ross Morgan-Linial wrote: >This is my warrior, Not Very Pretty. It is getting around 107 points on >the '94 hill at Pizza - not quite enough to make it on. Does anyone have >any advice on improving it? Apologies in advance for the hard-to-read >code. I don't completely understand how it works myself :=( Well, I started off by making the code legible. :) Jeez. Put the variable names on the same line as the line itself. And try to put the code in sort of a paralell line, ya know? Anyway... the main problem seems to be that you have this very large setup for your core clear. You might want to try seperating your code. Ya know, put 80 "dat 0,0" statements in the middle there? Also, I find it interesting that your going to so much effort to have this "<" coreclear... any particular reason why? And why don't you combine "addto" and "bomb2"? Perhaps get rid of the "spl 0, <-30" statement, and replace it with "spl #4730, #4730"? ;redcode-94b ;name Not Very Pretty 1.0 ;author Ross Morgan-Linial ;assert CORESIZE==8000 ;strategy FAST bomber -> two-pass coreclear -> imp gate ;version 1.0 org start start loop1 add.i addto, indic ;first, a 50% of C bombing loop mov bomb, @indic mov bomb, *indic djn loop1, #799 ; now, a two-pass coreclear spl 0, <-30 ;don't bomb here mov *ptr, Subject: Re: Wilkies Date: 1996/06/05 Message-ID: <4p2vsh$h93@excelsior.flash.net>#1/1 references: <31B429F9.7CE7@cam.ac.uk> <4p24q3$89a@sparcserver.lrz-muenchen.de> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar guenzel@extern.lrz-muenchen.de (Bjoern Guenzel) wrote: >Probably wilkies are more useful for the b-hill than for the pro hill, >because there are usually not so many papers on the pro (that's a hint >for those trying to make it - don't focus so much on papers, in my >opinion - there is neither enough paper to kill, nor can you score >high enough with a paer alone. But that is only my opinion, and >perhaps only true at this given time...). Well, the -94 Hill has a much greater chance of swinging off balance because many people will attempt to get on the Hill by optimizing their warrior for the current Hill. I don't think anything that scores poorly on the Beginner's or Wilbez benchmark could ever stay on the -94 Hill for very long... :/ -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | Founder and Co-Chairman of the Americans For The | \ Annexation of Canada, Mexico, Cuba and Kansas. / -=- http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~ifio452/ -=- From: JKW Subject: Re: The Pushed off warrior SHOULD count in scoring because... Date: 1996/06/05 Message-ID: <4p309i$h93@excelsior.flash.net>#1/1 references: newsgroups: rec.games.corewar "Steven C. Morrell" wrote: >...I don't want to be the one explaining to >someone why their warrior got pushed off, even though the score reported >for it was higher than the score of the 25'th place warrior. > >(Yes, this could actually happen if, say, 25'th place brainwashed and the >new program had a P-space bug.) What? You would explain those two statements? I was following you right up until that. :) 'Course, if you -really- want to solve this, the server could just put the with 26th warrior and w/o 26th warrior version of the Hill in the mail and on the WWW... -- / John K. Wilkinson - jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu \ | Founder and Co-Chairman of the Americans For The | \ Annexation of Canada, Mexico, Cuba and Kansas. / -=- http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~ifio452/ -=- From: Offermann@t-online.de (Philipp Offermann) Subject: No answer form pizza@ecst.csuchio.edu Date: 1996/06/05 Message-ID: <4p4mig$dk5@news00.btx.dtag.de>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar I don't get a answer if I try to send my programm to pizza. Even "koth help" don't work. What did I do wrong? Thank you, Philipp From: iltzu@sci.fi (Ilmari Karonen) Subject: Re: mailing list--unsubscribe? Date: 1996/06/05 Message-ID: <4p4pjt$qfm@tron.sci.fi>#1/1 references: <960603214934_102741.2022_GHT138-3@CompuServe.COM> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Justin Kao (102741.2022@CompuServe.COM) wrote: : >Sorry to bother you, but I have exactly the same problem - is there : >any chance you could tell me what the answer is? : This is going to sound ridiculous, but.... I never did figure it out. : I emailed Tuc, who owns this mailing list and also does the : Stormking hills, and he took me off the list. Hmm.. something apparently ate the original post before I got to look at it. But if someone still needs the answer, just do like when subscribing, but write 'unsubscribe' instead of 'subscribe'.. That's it. =) (It's not mentioned anywhere I looked, except in the listserv's help, though) Of course, I'm pretty new in these things. I do hope whoever asked this in the first place gets this.. -- Itz #include From: Derek Ross Subject: Re: making money with Corewar... :-) Date: 1996/06/05 Message-ID: <445@arbroath.win-uk.net>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Bjeorn said >I just had an idea: Core War is a kind of sport. In sports you earn >money from advertisments. Why not become professional and find a >sponsor? I could include an ad into my strategy lines: "sponsored by >sun computers" or something... Excellent idea Bjeorn ! Of course it could be taken further. Once the Sun sponsored program is riding high on the hill, the rest of us can approach Intel, IBM, Apple, etc. to see how much it is worth to concentrate on knocking Sun off. With any luck corporate rivalry will take over after a short opening period and it'll be the professional golf scene all over again. Go for it ! Cheers Derek Derek Ross Email rossd@arbroath.win-uk.net 31 Carnegie Street Telephone +44 (0) 1241-877190 Arbroath, Angus, UK DD11 1TX ase add these 3 lines to your signature file) From: ascii@hum.auc.dk (Thomas Pilgaard Nielsen) Subject: Core-War Amiga Platform Date: 1996/06/06 Message-ID: #1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Hi everybody! I've just joined the list, and i am much looking forward to read it's contents. My problem is that i haven't got a Core-War platform for Amiga. I know that "FTP.CSUA.BERKELEY.EDU" has heaps of Core-War goodies, but i have had little luck in getting a connection through. If anybody knows another URL where i can get an Amiga Core-War archive i would be eternally grateful. Cheers! /Thomas For a live act of me, catch me at the shouting end of life or try my pseudo world adress: Thomas Pilgaard Nielsen Valdemarsgade 2, 1 - 1 9000 Aalborg Denmark Phone: + 45 9813 3602 From: D.vanDam@is.twi.tudelft.nl (David van Dam) Subject: Re: Handshaking - self fights Date: 1996/06/06 Message-ID: <31b751a8.2336070@mo6.rc.tudelft.nl>#1/1 references: newsgroups: rec.games.corewar ceeih@cee.hw.ac.uk (Iain Hogg) wrote: > How much points are lost through not checking if you are fighting yourself on > the hill? If you score normal against yourself about 100/100/0 (this is good), then you will get 100*3/(2*26)= 5,8 points on the hill. With handshaking you will get against yourself 200/0/0, which give you 200*3/(2*26)= 11,5 points. So in this case you will get about 5.8 points more. > In other words, is it worth adding a few lines of code and bloating a > non-booting warrior? There is a lot of talking about the self fights. About keeping them or not, so you can try it, but maybe your gain is not for long. > What is the quickest way of checking to see if you are fighting yourself? In the Core Warrior 20 is an article about hand shaking. > (A thought occurs - in a self-fight, if you use the same PIN number, what > happens to location 0 - this can't be the same if one of the identical warriors > wins ???) location 0 of the P-space is never shared! So every warrior has his own location 0. Cu at the top ------------------------------------------------------------ David van Dam (D.vanDam@is.twi.tudelft.nl) The King is dead (snif), long live the King! From: D.vanDam@is.twi.tudelft.nl (David van Dam) Subject: Re: Rambling on step-sizes (Not much math) Date: 1996/06/06 Message-ID: <31b6e0bf.1859046@mo6.rc.tudelft.nl>#1/1 references: newsgroups: rec.games.corewar "Steven C. Morrell" wrote: > CoreStep Mopt > 3315 1295 > 2365 1545 > 2895 2365 > 3095 3315 > 3065 2835 555 2895 > > Mopt cuts the length of programs off at 200, so the Mopt numbers should do > better. I don't think your right. When I test a bomber with a step size of 555 (mopt give for 555 -> 84.619750 and for 3315 -> 84.791625) it scores about 3-4 points less then with 3315. Also all the other steps of Mopt other than CoreStep gives scores lower. I think you are forget the papers. A paper has as goal to copy through the core as fast as possible (and then the warrior isn't smaller than 200). With a step size of 3315 you will bomb better through the core and so you will score better against papers. I think an option for Mopt to change the cut value, would be very nice. Cu at the top ------------------------------------------------------------ David van Dam (D.vanDam@is.twi.tudelft.nl) The King is dead (snif), long live the King! From: ceeih@cee.hw.ac.uk (Iain Hogg) Subject: Handshaking - self fights Date: 1996/06/06 Message-ID: #1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar How much points are lost through not checking if you are fighting yourself on the hill? In other words, is it worth adding a few lines of code and bloating a non-booting warrior? What is the quickest way of checking to see if you are fighting yourself? (A thought occurs - in a self-fight, if you use the same PIN number, what happens to location 0 - this can't be the same if one of the identical warriors wins ???) Thanks for any help -- Iain Hogg : WWW: http://www.cee.hw.ac.uk/~ceeih ceeih@cee.hw.ac.uk : Home of the UK National Lottery Predictor! .........Segmentation Fault - All bananas have escaped......... From: guenzel@extern.lrz-muenchen.de (Bjoern Guenzel) Subject: Re: Help improving warrior Date: 1996/06/06 Message-ID: <4p6gr5$av8@sparcserver.lrz-muenchen.de>#1/1 references: <31B4ED99.826@fhcrc.org> <4p30sg$h93@excelsior.flash.net> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar JKW wrote: >Ross Morgan-Linial wrote: >>This is my warrior, Not Very Pretty. It is getting around 107 points on >>the '94 hill at Pizza - not quite enough to make it on. Does anyone have >>any advice on improving it? Apologies in advance for the hard-to-read >>code. I don't completely understand how it works myself :=( >Well, I started off by making the code legible. :) Jeez. Put the >variable names on the same line as the line itself. And try to put >the code in sort of a paralell line, ya know? Anyway... the main >problem seems to be that you have this very large setup for your core >clear. You might want to try seperating your code. Ya know, put 80 >"dat 0,0" statements in the middle there? >Also, I find it interesting that your going to so much effort to have >this "<" coreclear... any particular reason why? >And why don't you combine "addto" and "bomb2"? Perhaps get rid of the >"spl 0, <-30" statement, and replace it with "spl #4730, #4730"? >;redcode-94b >;name Not Very Pretty 1.0 >;author Ross Morgan-Linial >;assert CORESIZE==8000 >;strategy FAST bomber -> two-pass coreclear -> imp gate >;version 1.0 >org start >start >loop1 add.i addto, indic ;first, a 50% of C bombing loop > mov bomb, @indic > mov bomb, *indic > djn loop1, #799 ; now, a two-pass coreclear > spl 0, <-30 ;don't bomb here > mov *ptr, jmp -1, <-32 > dat $0, $0 > dat $0, $0 > dat $0, $0 ;bomb here >addto dat #4730, #4730 >indic dat #start+3999, #start+4 >bomb dat <2666, <2667 >bomb2 spl #0, #0 > dat $0, $0 ;bomb here > spl #-1, #start-3 > dat <-31, #-11 >ptr dat #-2, #start-1 ;this line will be overwritten by the clear >end You could get rid of the indic line as well, by using add.f addto,indic indic mov xyz,abc mov bomb,*indic or wait, at the moment you would have to swap the movs, but I STRONGLY recommend making the stone self-splitting (I never did that in my early warriors, because I didn'T understand how the processes behave, but once you understood it, it is easy). Almost always self-splitting improved my scores very much (the instructions are then executed in reverse order. Ask again if you don't understand, please). I am not sure if it's worth the effort of having a two-pass clear, since you are not bombing with stun bombs (what do Beppe and Maurizio do in their stones, which I think don't have stun-bombs in their stones, either?). Just try to save as many instructions as possible... At the moment, all my stones on the 94-hill only have a dat-clear, and they work fine. (Self Justice II went to Pos 5, of course I don't know how long it would have lasted untill it would have been pushed off...) I have to go now, so I couldn't test your warrior yet (I don't know how it jumps to the clear). Maybye later ... :-) Bjoern From: sieben@imap1.asu.edu Subject: Re: Pizza Hills: Good News and Bad News Date: 1996/06/07 Message-ID: <4pa2ee$sps@news.asu.edu>#1/1 references: <4ol7dm$8sa@charnel.ecst.csuchico.edu> <31b82ce9.199817@mo6.rc.tudelft.nl> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar David van Dam (D.vanDam@is.twi.tudelft.nl) wrote: : 2. How about a holding pen with priorities. I've you already have a warrior in the holding : pin, the next warrior which is added to the holding pen, will have a lower priority. So : you don't have to wait very long at somebody who has send a lot of test warriors to the : hill. Example holding pen: : Test 1 from David prior.1 : Test 2 from David prior.2 This is very nice. I back it up. Nandor. From: Kurt Alan Franke Subject: Re: Handshaking - self fights Date: 1996/06/07 Message-ID: <4p9ge3$ju8@larry.rice.edu>#1/1 references: newsgroups: rec.games.corewar ceeih@cee.hw.ac.uk (Iain Hogg) wrote: >How much points are lost through not checking if you are fighting yourself on >the hill? >In other words, is it worth adding a few lines of code and bloating a >non-booting warrior? >What is the quickest way of checking to see if you are fighting yourself? >(A thought occurs - in a self-fight, if you use the same PIN number, what >happens to location 0 - this can't be the same if one of the identical warriors >wins ???) > >Thanks for any help See my handshaking article in core warrior #20, http://pauillac.inria.fr/~doligez/corewar/corewarrior/020.txt The best way to see if it is worth it is to try both versions against some test warriors and the hill... Kurt From: dslater@gate.net (David Slater) Subject: Re: ftp.csua.berkeley.edu? Date: 1996/06/07 Message-ID: <4p9g6q$2ere@news.gate.net>#1/1 references: newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Jason Reed (jreed@mail.tds.net) wrote: : Are there any mirrors for this place? I haven't been able to get in for weeks : now... : : is it down, or is it just me? : ---Jason I've been trying to get through to it for about a week myself. Anyone know what the problem is? Dave From: jstott@poly.phys.cwru.edu (Jonathan Stott) Subject: Re: ftp.csua.berkeley.edu? Date: 1996/06/07 Message-ID: <4p9igo$4gd@madeline.INS.CWRU.Edu>#1/1 references: newsgroups: rec.games.corewar In article , Jason Reed wrote: >Are there any mirrors for this place? I haven't been able to get in for weeks >now... > >is it down, or is it just me? >---Jason It's not just you. I haven't been able to get through for at least as long. -JS -- Jonathan Stott O- jjs17@po.cwru.edu CWRU Dept. of Physics jstott@poly.phys.cwru.edu School of Graduate Studies http://poly.phys.cwru.edu:8080/~jstott/ From: D.vanDam@is.twi.tudelft.nl (David van Dam) Subject: Re: Pizza Hills: Good News and Bad News Date: 1996/06/07 Message-ID: <31b82ce9.199817@mo6.rc.tudelft.nl>#1/1 references: <4ol7dm$8sa@charnel.ecst.csuchico.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar sd@ecst.csuchico.edu (Lord Kymbote) wrote: > So if you have an idea, spit it out now while I'm in the mood. :) I just thought about 2 other things: 1. Oeps, just realized it isn't possible. 2. How about a holding pen with priorities. I've you already have a warrior in the holding pin, the next warrior which is added to the holding pen, will have a lower priority. So you don't have to wait very long at somebody who has send a lot of test warriors to the hill. Example holding pen: Test 1 from David prior.1 Test 2 from David prior.2 If some one send a warrior to the hill the holding pen will be like: Test 1 from David prior.1 Test A from stranger prior.1 Test 2 from David prior.2 And after Test 1 has challenged the hill, Test 2 will get a higher priority: Test A from stranger prior.1 Test 2 from David prior.1 This system has 2 advantages: 1. You now can send a lot of warriors to the hill, without making the other people mad. 2. You don't have to wait to long if somebody is testing the hill. Cu at the top ------------------------------------------------------------ David van Dam (D.vanDam@is.twi.tudelft.nl) The King is dead (snif), long live the King! From: guenzel@extern.lrz-muenchen.de (Bjoern Guenzel) Subject: Re: The Pushed off warrior SHOULD count in scoring because... Date: 1996/06/07 Message-ID: <4p8njk$rha@sparcserver.lrz-muenchen.de>#1/1 references: newsgroups: rec.games.corewar "Steven C. Morrell" wrote: [...] there are certainly good reasons for counting the 26th warrior >If that isn't compelling enough, there is a way to accurately benchmark the >current hill: Send in a warrior that never wins. I had that idea before, but that means that everybody with verbose-lines get's twice as much mail... Hm, all I need is the 'absolute' score (only against the 25) of my new warrior and the absolute score of my old warrior to be able to compare them. Perhaps that's a feature that could be added to the mail? Of course there is another way to get an accurate benchmark - calculate the scores by hand, but why are we living in the age of computers? Bjoern From: Robert Macrae Subject: Re: Rambling on step-sizes (Not much math) Date: 1996/06/07 Message-ID: <4p9pqo$efi@soap.news.pipex.net>#1/1 references: <4p4agd$i27@msunews.cl.msu.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar mooredav@cps.msu.edu (David Matthew Moore) wrote: >Steven C. Morrell (morrell@math.utah.edu) wrote: >: My philosophy on step-sizes is not that there are some really good >: step-sizes compared to the rest, but that there are some really bad >: step-sizes, and optima programs currently are most useful for avoiding >: step-sizes. (And giving me something to write about.) > >You're absolutely right, there is no best increment for every opponent >general. The effectiveness of an increment depends on the length of the >opponent. Some increments work well for bombing/finding scanners >(length 12) and others are better versus stones (length 5). To get a >measure for the overall effectiveness of an increment, you need a pdf >(probability density function) for the length of the opponent .. General agreement, with two minor additions: A small refinement is to look at how seriously hits in different places damage warriors; for example, a hit to a bomber's coreclear will not stop it bombing, so is likely to be worth a draw against an incendiary bomber and nothing against a hard DAT bomber. More importantly, you have to consider the likelihood of surviving long enough to complete the pattern. It really doesn't matter, for example, if your mod-1 pattern never hits the last few possible length 5 targets, because you can assume that such a target has bombed you after 4000 cycles (mod 4 pattern=> 2000 targets, at 0.5c). Since, on average, you only get to throw 1000 bombs yourself, its the spread of *that* 1000 which matters most. I tend to evaluate patterns by counting the proportion of likely targets (perhaps length 5, 8, 13) which have been hit after 250, 500, 750, 1000 bombs, and choose from amongst those which are good on all these measures. The best general-purpose number that I remember, against small targets, is 17... From: guenzel@extern.lrz-muenchen.de (Bjoern Guenzel) Subject: Re: Help improving warrior Date: 1996/06/07 Message-ID: <4p8njr$rha@sparcserver.lrz-muenchen.de>#1/1 references: <31B4ED99.826@fhcrc.org> <4p30sg$h93@excelsior.flash.net> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar >;redcode-94b >;name Not Very Pretty 1.0 >;author Ross Morgan-Linial >;assert CORESIZE==8000 >;strategy FAST bomber -> two-pass coreclear -> imp gate >;version 1.0 >org start >start >loop1 add.i addto, indic ;first, a 50% of C bombing loop > mov bomb, @indic > mov bomb, *indic > djn loop1, #799 ; now, a two-pass coreclear > spl 0, <-30 ;don't bomb here > mov *ptr, jmp -1, <-32 > dat $0, $0 > dat $0, $0 > dat $0, $0 ;bomb here >addto dat #4730, #4730 >indic dat #start+3999, #start+4 >bomb dat <2666, <2667 >bomb2 spl #0, #0 > dat $0, $0 ;bomb here > spl #-1, #start-3 > dat <-31, #-11 >ptr dat #-2, #start-1 ;this line will be overwritten by the clear >end further hints... try to make the b-field of the bomb a 1, it's a much better attack on clears (and almost every warrior contains a clear...) - dat >2667,>1. I think your step is mod 10, have you tried a smaller one? I think with your current warrior you could achieve mod 4. Unfortunately, if you make it self-splitting it becomes a bit more complicated to switch to the clear. I have no really good idea for that, I don't know if the following possibilities work good: a) use a jmz loop1,last bombed position instead of the djn (probably the easiest way) b) use spl ptr mov mov hit add steps,ptr ;bomb here with djn.f @hit,2667,clear-hit (this used to be my favourite idea, but I don't know if it really works good) c) some complicated self-modification (I don't know if it is possible, you would have to change the bomb to spl sometime in your run, perhaps by bombing a pointer or something...) Bjoern From: Edgar Subject: (no subject) Date: 1996/06/07 Message-ID: <4p8oun$ccf@bagan.srce.hr>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Hello. (since this is just my second post to this newsgroup please don't be too harsh with the flames. Thank you.) Being stuck with papers for a while, I developed one that did rather well,namely Toxin. It floated somewhere in the top 10 of the b-hill for most of its lifetime , and IMHO it was doing rather good,but since the last version I haven't been able to improve its scores. I tried to make a paper that would be aggressive instead of one that was only surviving , so after each copy does its bombing (3*8 locations) it dies, thus releasing the processes and making the copies that are still active execute faster. The improvements I managed to include increased the overall score of the warrior somewhat, but the wins were also traded for draws. The constants are also not optimal , as I used the first ones that proved to cover the core well. I am thankful for any suggestions. ;redcode-b ;name Toxin IVa ;author Edgar ;strategy silk ... shorter boot, new constants ;assert CORESIZE==8000 step1 equ 3217 step2 equ 2701 org boot false for 25 cmp -false,-false*3 rof boot spl 1,}2000 spl 1,}4000 spl 1,}6000 mov -1,}-1 spl step2,0 mov >-1,}-1 mov bom,}2000 mov bom,}4000 mov bom,}6000 bom dat <1,<1 decoy for (MAXLENGTH-CURLINE) nop decoy*2,decoy*3 rof From: Beppe Bezzi Subject: Re: (no subject) Date: 1996/06/08 Message-ID: #1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar At 15.52 08/06/96 -0400, Robert Macrae wrote: >Edgar wrote: > >> Being stuck with papers for a while, I developed one that >>did rather well,namely Toxin. ... >I havn't had much success with papers (yet:) but there are a couple of >ideas I've picked up. > >1) Its worth leaving some 'dead' space after the warriors (DATs) so that >enemy processes can 'fall off' the end of the paper and die rather than >executing on. I made some experiment with paper using more processes than needed, the one in Jack is an example, and I noticed that, sometimes, it scores a little better. I have no idea why. Toxin has a dat at the end, but for a paper is enough to have a closed loop. An overwritten enemy will hitch a ride only if it has more processes running (very difficult) or if the paper has filled almost all the core, so as there are executable instructions everywhere. -Beppe From: Oliver Fechner <100524.3702@CompuServe.COM> Subject: RE:ftp.csua.berkeley.edu? Date: 1996/06/08 Message-ID: <960608155506_100524.3702_JHB55-1@CompuServe.COM>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar > Are there any mirrors for this place? I haven't been able to get in for weeks > now... > Just visit my FTP site. I've just uploaded all the corewar stuff that I downloaded from ftp.csua.berkeley.edu. I had the same problem connecting to ftp.csua.berkeley.edu, but you should find everything you'll need ;-) at my FTP site. The address is FTP://members.aol.com/ofechner/corewar ____________________________________________________ Oliver Fechner 100524.3702@compuserve.com OFechner@aol.com From: Beppe Bezzi Subject: Re: No answer form pizza@ecst.csuchio.edu Date: 1996/06/08 Message-ID: #1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar At 05.48 08/06/96 -0400, you wrote: >I don't get a answer if I try to send my programm to pizza. Even "koth >help" don't work. What did I do wrong? With most chances nothing. I'm waiting too the answer for a warrior submitted yesterday night, I haven't got any answer. Perhaps the hill is still under maintenance, like it was las wek end. > Thank you, Philipp > > -Beppe From: iltzu@sci.fi (Ilmari Karonen) Subject: Re: Core-War Amiga Platform Date: 1996/06/08 Message-ID: <4pcoof$l34@tron.sci.fi>#1/1 references: newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Thomas Pilgaard Nielsen (ascii@hum.auc.dk) wrote: : Hi everybody! : I've just joined the list, and i am much looking forward to read it's contents. : My problem is that i haven't got a Core-War platform for Amiga. I know that "FTP.CSUA.BERKELEY.EDU" has heaps of Core-War goodies, but i have had little luck in getting a connection through. : If anybody knows another URL where i can get an Amiga Core-War archive i would be eternally grateful. sigh.. That's exactly the same problem as I have. I do have the pMARS 0.8 sources, but I don't have enough memory and my C compiler sucks. It'd be great if someone could compile it and send me the binaries, but until then I have to code my warriors "blind". (Hmm.. just remembered that I could probably get to use a A4000 if I asked, now all I need to do is dig up a good shareware C compiler..) -- Itz #include From: iltzu@sci.fi (Ilmari Karonen) Subject: Re: Pizza Hills: Good News and Bad News Date: 1996/06/08 Message-ID: <4pcnq6$l34@tron.sci.fi>#1/1 references: <4ol7dm$8sa@charnel.ecst.csuchico.edu> <31b82ce9.199817@mo6.rc.tudelft.nl> <4pa2ee$sps@news.asu.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar sieben@imap1.asu.edu wrote: : : 2. How about a holding pen with priorities. I've you already have a warrior in the holding : : pin, the next warrior which is added to the holding pen, will have a lower priority. So : : you don't have to wait very long at somebody who has send a lot of test warriors to the : : hill. Example holding pen: : : Test 1 from David prior.1 : : Test 2 from David prior.2 : This is very nice. I back it up. It seems there would be some implementation problems. For example, what about the following example? Test 1 from David (p1) Test 625 (sigh) from Ilmari (p1) Test 626 (SIGH) from Ilmari (p2) Test 2 from David (p2) Now the queue advances.. Test 625 (sigh) from Ilmari (p1) Test 626 (SIGH) from Ilmari (p2) Test 2 from David (p2) If David now sends Test 3 in, what would it's priority be? 3? 1? even 2? Or would the priority of Test 2 change to 1? And if it would, would it's position in the queue change? Also, would the priority be determined by the amount of warriors in the holding pen, or by the total amount of warriors both in the pen and on the hill? And what about pushed off warriors? Since my pathetic warriors usually don't make it on the hill, it would be better for me in both cases to wait until my previous warrior has finished challenging the hill, so that my next warrior would get priority 1. The best solution to the problem IMHO would be that when Test 1 gets out of the pen, Test 2 gets a new priority and gets repositioned: Test 625 (sigh) from Ilmari (p1) Test 2 from David (p1) Test 626 (SIGH) from Ilmari (p2) I admit that it's unfair on Test 626, but it would be even more unfair in any other system I can think of. Don't get me wrong, it's a great idea. It just seems to me that with every possible implementation there also comes at least one way to cheat. :( -- Itz #include From: D.vanDam@is.twi.tudelft.nl (David van Dam) Subject: Re: Help! I'm new to this Date: 1996/06/08 Message-ID: <31b9f4e8.778342@mo6.rc.tudelft.nl>#1/1 references: <31AFA88C.52BF@vossnet.co.uk> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Adrian O'Grady wrote: > Where can i find a basic tutorial to red code and any other stuff i > might need to play corewar? > > Adrian O'Grady Try: http://pauillac.inria.fr/~doligez/corewar/ http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~pizza/koth/ http://www.stormking.com/~koth/ Cu at the top ------------------------------------------------------------ David van Dam (D.vanDam@is.twi.tudelft.nl) The King is dead (snif), long live the King! From: Grimlore Subject: Omega Date: 1996/06/08 Message-ID: <31B9F514.2706@io.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar There was a game put out by Origin about 8-10 years ago called Omega. It was an AI tank game, if anyone has it, and can get it to me, or if they know where I can get it, please resond thanks. From: D.vanDam@is.twi.tudelft.nl (David van Dam) Subject: Re: No answer form pizza@ecst.csuchio.edu Date: 1996/06/08 Message-ID: <31b9f407.553204@mo6.rc.tudelft.nl>#1/1 references: <4p4mig$dk5@news00.btx.dtag.de> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Philipp Offermann wrote: > I don't get a answer if I try to send my programm to pizza. Even "koth > help" don't work. What did I do wrong? > Thank you, Philipp > I experience the same. Friday the pizza hill was very slow (1 fight in a hour) and at the end of the day no response any more. I think the pizza server is out of order, because also the WWW-pages don't work at the moment. Cu at the top ------------------------------------------------------------ David van Dam (D.vanDam@is.twi.tudelft.nl) The King is dead (snif), long live the King! From: guenzel@extern.lrz-muenchen.de (Bjoern Guenzel) Subject: Re: Help improving warrior Date: 1996/06/08 Message-ID: <4pbldc$a04@sparcserver.lrz-muenchen.de>#1/1 references: <31B4ED99.826@fhcrc.org> <4p30sg$h93@excelsior.flash.net> <4p8njr$rha@sparcserver.lrz-muenchen.de> <4pafqs$lpl@mule.fhcrc.org> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar rmorganl@fred (Ross Morgan-Linial) wrote: >Bjoern Guenzel (guenzel@extern.lrz-muenchen.de) wrote: >: further hints... >: try to make the b-field of the bomb a 1, it's a much better attack on >: clears (and almost every warrior contains a clear...) - dat >2667,>1. >: I think your step is mod 10, have you tried a smaller one? I think >: with your current warrior you could achieve mod 4. Unfortunately, if >: you make it self-splitting it becomes a bit more complicated to switch >: to the clear. I have no really good idea for that, I don't know if the >: following possibilities work good: >Someone sent me a *MUCH* better coreclear, so I replaced the old one. What is it like? The problem I mentioned is not the Core Clear, but how to get to the Core Clear (at least for me it's a problem, I am always happy about new ideas). >Actually, my step size is 5. It looks like 10 because I have two step-10 >bombing runs offset by 5... but it hits every 5th location. It's a simple >optimization. Yes, sorry, I discovered that in the meantime, too :-) >: c) some complicated self-modification (I don't know if it is possible, >: you would have to change the bomb to spl sometime in your run, perhaps >: by bombing a pointer or something...) In the meantime I made up an example for variant (c), because I always wanted to test a bomber with imp-bombs. It doesn't score good (my guess, couldn't reach pizza yet), but perhaps if I replace the bomb by dat >1,>1 or mov.i #1,2 ,it's ok (guess I'll have to wait till monday :-( ) Will pizza be down every weekend now? I thought the rewiring was only last weekend? Planar is having a lot of work with me these days... :-) (I hope it's ok...) Bjoern ;redcode-94 ;name Imperator ;author bjoern guenzel ;strategy bomber with imp bombs ;assert CORESIZE==8000 ;p-class: stone,clear ;release 7.6.96 ;kill Imperator shift equ -3000 step equ (10*21) gate dat 0,0 for 8 dat 0,0 rof bptr dat imp,1 ;bomb here to change to spl-bomb steps spl #step,>-step ptr mov.i hit+step,bptr-5*step mov.i *bptr,*ptr add.f steps,ptr hit jmp.b ptr,>gate ;bomb here to change to clear mov.i clbomb,gate imp mov.i #1,1 ;used as bomb clbomb dat >1,>gate boot mov.i clbomb,*booptr for 9 mov.i {boot,{booptr rof booptr spl @imp+1+shift,>1000 mov.i #0,-1 dat >2000,>1500 z for MAXLENGTH-CURLINE spl #z*103,z*(-101) rof end boot From: Robert Macrae Subject: Re: (no subject) Date: 1996/06/08 Message-ID: <4pc4dk$mu1@soap.news.pipex.net>#1/1 references: <4p8oun$ccf@bagan.srce.hr> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Edgar wrote: > Being stuck with papers for a while, I developed one that >did rather well,namely Toxin. It floated somewhere in the top 10 of the >for most of its lifetime , and IMHO it was doing rather go= od,but since >last version I haven't been able to improve its scores. I havn't had much success with papers (yet:) but there are a couple of ideas I've picked up. 1) Its worth leaving some 'dead' space after the warriors (DATs) so that enemy processes can 'fall off' the end of the paper and die rather than executing on. 2) SPL @0, }xxxx works better than SPL xxxx, 0 because once you have executed the following MOV it becomes SPL @8, }xxxx -- likely to point to random core, not your own warriors. Again, this makes it less likely that warriors you overwrite will just hitch a ride on your paper! I should add that these are just theories, so far... From: Robert Macrae Subject: Re: Help improving warrior Date: 1996/06/08 Message-ID: <4pc3tk$mu1@soap.news.pipex.net>#1/1 references: <31B4ED99.826@fhcrc.org> <4p30sg$h93@excelsior.flash.net> <4p6gr5$av8@sparcserver.lrz-muenchen.de> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar guenzel@extern.lrz-muenchen.de (Bjoern Guenzel) wrote: >I STRONGLY >recommend making the stone self-splitting (I never did that in my >early warriors, because I didn'T understand how the processes behave, >but once you understood it, it is easy). Almost always self-splitting >improved my scores very much (the instructions are then executed in >reverse order. Ask again if you don't understand, please). Self splitting can gain a lot; mainly I think because a DJN stream, imp or bomb from a warrior you have damaged should only draw against you, not win. Try adding a SPL #step, #step as the first instruction; the bomb pattern gets a few holes in it but once you have 20+ processes running, efficiency is hardly affected. Switching over to the CC *is* harder. One easy trick is to bomb yourself with a SPL (or anything except a DAT) on the DJN; this is what Torch and many imitators do. Another is to follow the DJN with a MOV which overwrites the DJN with a JMP to the coreclear; its longer and more vulnerable, but helps separate the clear from the rest of the code. >I am not sure if it's worth the effort of having a two-pass clear, >since you are not bombing with stun bombs (what do Beppe and Maurizio >do in their stones, which I think don't have stun-bombs in their >stones, either?). Just try to save as many instructions as possible... Currently there don't seem to be too many replicators about, so this is good advice. OTOH they will be back, and stun or incendiary bombs and two-pass clears are a good form of insurance against that day :) From: rmorganl@fred (Ross Morgan-Linial) Subject: Re: Help improving warrior Date: 1996/06/08 Message-ID: <4pafqs$lpl@mule.fhcrc.org>#1/1 references: <31B4ED99.826@fhcrc.org> <4p30sg$h93@excelsior.flash.net> <4p8njr$rha@sparcserver.lrz-muenchen.de> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Bjoern Guenzel (guenzel@extern.lrz-muenchen.de) wrote: : >;redcode-94b : >;name Not Very Pretty 1.0 : >;author Ross Morgan-Linial : >;assert CORESIZE==8000 : >;strategy FAST bomber -> two-pass coreclear -> imp gate : >;version 1.0 : >org start : >start : >loop1 add.i addto, indic ;first, a 50% of C bombing loop : > mov bomb, @indic : > mov bomb, *indic : > djn loop1, #799 ; now, a two-pass coreclear : > spl 0, <-30 ;don't bomb here : > mov *ptr, jmp -1, <-32 : > dat $0, $0 : > dat $0, $0 : > dat $0, $0 ;bomb here : >addto dat #4730, #4730 : >indic dat #start+3999, #start+4 : >bomb dat <2666, <2667 : >bomb2 spl #0, #0 : > dat $0, $0 ;bomb here : > spl #-1, #start-3 : > dat <-31, #-11 : >ptr dat #-2, #start-1 ;this line will be overwritten by the clear : >end : further hints... : try to make the b-field of the bomb a 1, it's a much better attack on : clears (and almost every warrior contains a clear...) - dat >2667,>1. : I think your step is mod 10, have you tried a smaller one? I think : with your current warrior you could achieve mod 4. Unfortunately, if : you make it self-splitting it becomes a bit more complicated to switch : to the clear. I have no really good idea for that, I don't know if the : following possibilities work good: Someone sent me a *MUCH* better coreclear, so I replaced the old one. Actually, my step size is 5. It looks like 10 because I have two step-10 bombing runs offset by 5... but it hits every 5th location. It's a simple optimization. : a) use a jmz loop1,last bombed position instead of the djn (probably : the easiest way) : b) use : spl : ptr mov : mov : hit add steps,ptr ;bomb here with : djn.f @hit,2667,clear-hit : (this used to be my favourite idea, but I don't know if it : really works good) : c) some complicated self-modification (I don't know if it is possible, : you would have to change the bomb to spl sometime in your run, perhaps : by bombing a pointer or something...) : Bjoern From: Chessex Subject: Chessex is on the Web! Date: 1996/06/09 Message-ID: <31BBAB50.3EC9@onr.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Introducing the Chessex HomePage! http://www.chessex.com is where you can find all the latest game release dates including Role playing games, Collectible card games, Board games, Models, Figurines, Dice and other Gaming Accessories. Chessex is the #1 distributor of games in the United States and has been since 1993. We carry a full line of chess equipment and more dice than you can roll! Visit us and find links to many of our freinds online such as Wizards of the Coast, White Wolf Publishing, FASA, Decipher and many other manufacturer�s. The Chessex Manufacturing section will show you many of the games we manufacture. We hope to see you soon! Wade Andrews chessex@onr.com From: Robert Macrae Subject: Re: (no subject) Date: 1996/06/09 Message-ID: <4peq0r$at8@soap.news.pipex.net>#1/1 references: newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Beppe Bezzi wrote: >At 15.52 08/06/96 -0400, Robert Macrae wrote: >>1) Its worth leaving some 'dead' space after the warriors (DATs) so >>enemy processes can 'fall off' the end of the paper and die rather than >>executing on. > >I made some experiment with paper using more processes than needed, the >in Jack is an example, and I noticed that, sometimes, it scores a little >better. I have no idea why. If you use 16 processes to copy a 10-word warrior, you also copy 6 DATs; thats what I meant by dead space... From: stst@idnsun.gpct.Vanderbilt.Edu (Stefan Strack) Subject: New version of mopt Date: 1996/06/10 Message-ID: <9606101844.AA01269@idnsun.gpct.Vanderbilt.Edu.noname>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar I have updated mopt, the multiple constant optimizer, to allow for a variable size cut-off (previously fixed to 200). The new version is available as part of ptools11.zip at: http://www.stormking.com/~koth/pmars.html -Stefan From: Beppe Bezzi Subject: Re: (no subject) Date: 1996/06/10 Message-ID: #1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar At 03.04 10/06/96 -0400, you wrote: >Robert Macrae wrote: >>>>1) Its worth leaving some 'dead' space after the warriors (DATs) so >>>>enemy processes can 'fall off' the end of the paper and die rather than >>>>executing on. >>> >>>I made some experiment with paper using more processes than needed, the >>>in Jack is an example, and I noticed that, sometimes, it scores a little >>>better. I have no idea why. >> >>If you use 16 processes to copy a 10-word warrior, you also copy 6 DATs; >>thats what I meant by dead space... > >Yeah, but's it not as though that space is unused. Those extra 6 loctions >may be just what you need to help out in killing that evil scanner that's >trying to take you down. > Surplus processes improve the speed/size ratio of the paper, expecially if there are many bombing lines, like in Jack's paper. Without bombing lines we have a 50% rate, there is a mov >-1,}-1 for every spl and jmp; every mov bomb, >xx drops as many bombs as there are processes running, so the more processes the better the core coverage, and the more noise for scanners, even if the spread of those bombs is very poor being all one after the other. The drawback is that processes are generated more slowly, so an early hit by a stun bomb is likely to slow the replicator a lot. -Beppe From: "JKW" Subject: Re: (no subject) Date: 1996/06/10 Message-ID: <199606100608.BAA10256@mail.utexas.edu>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Robert Macrae wrote: >>>1) Its worth leaving some 'dead' space after the warriors (DATs) so >>>enemy processes can 'fall off' the end of the paper and die rather than >>>executing on. >> >>I made some experiment with paper using more processes than needed, the >>in Jack is an example, and I noticed that, sometimes, it scores a little >>better. I have no idea why. > >If you use 16 processes to copy a 10-word warrior, you also copy 6 DATs; >thats what I meant by dead space... Yeah, but's it not as though that space is unused. Those extra 6 loctions may be just what you need to help out in killing that evil scanner that's trying to take you down. I've sometimes added a line of "dat <1, {1" instructions at the end, but seems to hurt just as much as it helps by giving you a larger profile... From: KOTH Tourney Server Subject: SKI-ICWS: Status - ICWS Experimental 94 06/10/96 Date: 1996/06/10 Message-ID: <199606100400.AAA21212@valhalla.stormking.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Weekly Status on 06/10/96 ***NEW*** On line pre-compile and the Wilkies Benchmark now available! ***NEW*** See up to the second scores and the latest Core War information at : http://www.stormking.com/~koth *FAQ* http://www.stormking.com/~koth/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the StormKing Industries ICWS Experimental 94 CoreWar Hill: Last battle concluded at : Thu Jun 6 04:48:49 EDT 1996 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 36/ 4/ 60 Evol Cap 4 X John Wilkinson 169 21 2 43/ 30/ 27 Lithium X 8 John K Wilkinson 157 12 3 48/ 40/ 12 Memories Beppe Bezzi 155 28 4 43/ 34/ 23 BigBoy Robert Macrae 153 46 5 45/ 38/ 16 Stepping Stone 94x Kurt Franke 153 7 6 45/ 41/ 15 Frontwards v2 Steven Morrell 149 51 7 46/ 45/ 9 S.E.T.I. 4-X JKW 147 22 8 34/ 22/ 44 Variation M-1 Jay Han 147 1 9 45/ 43/ 12 Pagan John K W 147 6 10 42/ 39/ 20 Derision M R Bremer 144 38 11 43/ 42/ 14 Illusion-94/55 Randy Graham 144 3 12 32/ 24/ 44 Aleph 1 Jay Han 140 11 13 31/ 24/ 45 Hector 2 Kurt Franke 137 41 14 36/ 37/ 27 Tornado 2.0 x Beppe Bezzi 136 45 15 39/ 42/ 19 Fire Master Xv1 JS Pulido 136 43 16 39/ 44/ 17 Watcher Kurt Franke 134 44 17 39/ 45/ 16 Watcher-h Kurt Franke 133 40 18 31/ 36/ 33 Nice Try M R Bremer 127 50 19 33/ 40/ 26 Riff Steven Morrell 126 2 20 36/ 55/ 9 Withershins Thrice P.Kline 118 4 21 22/ 71/ 6 Escape2 Philipp Offermann 73 0 From: KOTH Tourney Server Subject: SKI-ICWS: Status - ICWS Tournament 06/10/96 Date: 1996/06/10 Message-ID: <199606100400.AAA21175@valhalla.stormking.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Weekly Status on 06/10/96 ***NEW*** On line pre-compile and the Wilkies Benchmark now available! ***NEW*** See up to the second scores and the latest Core War information at : http://www.stormking.com/~koth *FAQ* http://www.stormking.com/~koth/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the StormKing Industries Annual ICWS Tournament CoreWar Hill: Last battle concluded at : Tue Jun 4 06:47:05 EDT 1996 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 45/ 11/ 44 Cannonade Paul Kline 180 91 2 51/ 34/ 16 Miss Carefree Derek Ross 167 23 3 46/ 33/ 20 Giskard v0.5 Ken Mitton 159 64 4 33/ 15/ 52 Nothing Special G. Eadon 151 6 5 33/ 18/ 49 Turkey Beppe Bezzi 149 7 6 47/ 45/ 8 Agony T Stefan Strack 149 92 7 39/ 29/ 32 Pommes-Ketchup V1.35 S. Schroeder 149 4 8 43/ 42/ 14 test88 P.Kline 144 10 9 41/ 41/ 18 Old Tire Swing Randy Graham 142 48 10 39/ 38/ 23 Yop La Boum v2.1 P.E.M & E.C. 140 21 11 40/ 44/ 16 Miss Carry Derek Ross 135 55 12 29/ 24/ 47 One Fat Lady Robert Macrae 134 8 13 39/ 46/ 14 Traper3_t Waldemar Bartolik 132 1 14 39/ 47/ 14 Slaver v1.1i Christoph C. Birk 131 52 15 37/ 46/ 17 Illusion Randy Graham 127 50 16 37/ 49/ 15 DoubleStone v0.7 Christoph C. Birk 125 34 17 30/ 36/ 33 Chris Steven Morrell 124 13 18 38/ 54/ 7 xtc stefan roettger 121 96 19 35/ 52/ 13 Traper3 Waldemar Bartolik 117 3 20 35/ 52/ 13 Traper3 Waldemar Bartolik 117 2 21 32/ 49/ 19 WhirlWind-88 Randy Graham 114 28 From: KOTH Tourney Server Subject: SKI-ICWS: Status - Standard 06/10/96 Date: 1996/06/10 Message-ID: <199606100400.AAA09901@valhalla.stormking.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Weekly Status on 06/10/96 ***NEW*** On line pre-compile and the Wilkies Benchmark now available! ***NEW*** See up to the second scores and the latest Core War information at : http://www.stormking.com/~koth *FAQ* http://www.stormking.com/~koth/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the StormKing Industries Standard KotH CoreWar Hill : Last battle concluded at : Sat Jun 1 18:03:29 EDT 1996 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 42/ 37/ 22 PacMan v5 David Moore 147 1 2 39/ 40/ 21 Stasis David Moore 139 9 3 28/ 21/ 51 CAPS KEY IS STUCK AGAIN Steven Morrell 134 99 4 25/ 16/ 59 ttti nandor sieben 134 83 5 26/ 21/ 53 Hydra Stephen Linhart 132 207 6 24/ 17/ 59 Cannonade P.Kline 131 133 7 30/ 30/ 39 Yop La Boum v2.1 P.E.M & E.C. 130 33 8 38/ 46/ 15 Iron Gate Wayne Sheppard 130 227 9 21/ 11/ 68 Imperfic II John Wilkinson 130 19 10 25/ 20/ 54 Blue Funk 88 Steven Morrell 130 97 11 33/ 37/ 30 Keystone t21 P.Kline 128 120 12 35/ 43/ 22 Beholder's Eye V1.7 W. Mintardjo 127 177 13 19/ 12/ 69 test John Wilkinson 126 6 14 23/ 19/ 59 K-test P.E.M 126 5 15 23/ 21/ 57 Peace Mr. Jones 125 107 16 23/ 23/ 53 Test Wayne Sheppard 123 122 17 31/ 39/ 29 Giskard v0.5 Ken Mitton 123 71 18 28/ 37/ 35 Christopher Stephen Morrell 120 98 19 32/ 44/ 24 Tuctest Elmer J. Fudd 119 27 20 32/ 46/ 22 Request v2.0 Brant D. Thomsen 117 69 21 2/ 2/ 0 PacMan v5 David Moore 7 2 From: KOTH Tourney Server Subject: SKI-ICWS: Status - Multiwarrior Experimental 94 06/10/96 Date: 1996/06/10 Message-ID: <199606100400.AAA30163@valhalla.stormking.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Weekly Status on 06/10/96 ***NEW*** On line pre-compile and the Wilkies Benchmark now available! ***NEW*** See up to the second scores and the latest Core War information at : http://www.stormking.com/~koth *FAQ* http://www.stormking.com/~koth/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the StormKing Industries MultiWarrior Experimental 94 CoreWar Hill: Last battle concluded at : Thu Jun 6 02:34:44 EDT 1996 # Name Author Score Age 1 TimeScapeX (0.1) J. Pohjalainen 5901 59 2 This is Test1 Kurt Franke 5901 24 3 Test2 George Eadon 5901 19 4 jaded M R Bremer 5901 30 5 Paper8 G. Eadon 5877 25 6 Paperone Beppe Bezzi 5854 44 7 Fork v0.2-9p/51b Christoph C. Birk 5852 1 8 Gluttony J E Long 5851 17 9 Saat V2.01 S. Schroeder 5748 13 10 Shwing! T. H. Davies 5747 55 11 Wait A Lot v0.1 Justin Kao 5732 4 12 Anthill 5 Planar 5400 21 13 Pommes-Ketchup V1.35 S. Schroeder 5236 8 14 life Nandor Sieben 5193 60 15 Leviathan2 harleyQ2 5180 11 16 lifedwarf Nandor Sieben 4930 36 17 Hidden M.C.Diskett Bullfrog 4851 29 18 Variation M-1 Jay Han 4798 6 19 Leviathan harleyQ2 4352 12 20 Piggy 3 Bob Uhl 4163 32 21 Escape2 Philipp Offermann 151 0 From: KOTH Tourney Server Subject: SKI-ICWS: Status - MultiWarrior 94 06/10/96 Date: 1996/06/10 Message-ID: <199606100400.AAA26823@valhalla.stormking.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Weekly Status on 06/10/96 ***NEW*** On line pre-compile and the Wilkies Benchmark now available! ***NEW*** See up to the second scores and the latest Core War information at : http://www.stormking.com/~koth *FAQ* http://www.stormking.com/~koth/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the StormKing Industries Multiwarrior 94 CoreWar Hill: Last battle concluded at : Wed Jun 5 21:09:14 EDT 1996 # Name Author Score Age 1 Super Evol Cap John Wilkinson 5916 3 2 TESTI Maurizio Vittuari 5916 14 3 Die Hard P.Kline 5903 26 4 Evol Cap -- John Wilkinson 5903 5 5 Son of Imp Steven Morrell 5892 39 6 90% Cotton v5c Wilkinson 5879 21 7 60% Cotton Wilkinson 5879 22 8 TJ Maurizio Vittuari 5877 15 9 sisyphus Kafka 5866 4 10 Fork v0.2-9p/51b Christoph C. Birk 5826 1 11 Escape2 Philipp Offermann 576 0 From: Beppe Bezzi Subject: Core Warrior 33 Date: 1996/06/11 Message-ID: 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 32 June 3, 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 Newbies should check the stormking page for the FAQ, language specification, guides, and tutorials. Post questions to rec.games.corewar. All new players are infinitely welcome! If ftp.csua.berkeley.edu is unreachable, you can download pMARS at: Terry's web page--http://www.infi.net/~wtnewton/corewar/ Planar fpt site--ftp://ftp.inria.fr/INRIA/Projects/para/doligez/cw/pmars Fechter ftp site--ftp://members.aol.com/ofechner/corewar ______________________________________________________________________________ Greetings. Another week-end without the hill because of a power outage during the week end Thos was unaware of. Now the hill is down again for maintenance, we all hope it will reopen soon. Considering what we pay for it, we have nothing to complain. :-) Two new warriors in this issue: the historian by Bjoern Guenzel and Vittuari's stoninc. Both authors have added some interesting comments. A few other changes have been suggested; the most interesting is a sort of priority scheduling in the holding pen, so as who submits many warriors at once will have the others queued after a single submission of another player coming later. A good thing, even if one should not submit many warriors at once, waiting at least for the results of first one Last minute. A new enhanced version of Mopt is available as part of ptools11.zip at: http://www.stormking.com/~koth/pmars.html Thanks Stefan --Beppe Bezzi ______________________________________________________________________________ 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 43/ 36/ 22 Twister Beppe Bezzi 149 78 2 42/ 37/ 21 Armory II John K W 147 23 3 35/ 23/ 41 Jack in the box II Beppe Bezzi 147 3 4 36/ 26/ 38 the historian bjoern guenzel 145 97 5 41/ 39/ 20 test John K W 144 10 6 39/ 35/ 25 T.N.T. pro Maurizio Vittuari 144 342 7 43/ 43/ 15 Stepping Stone Kurt Franke 143 776 8 31/ 20/ 49 Atom Smasher Anton Marsden 143 34 9 37/ 32/ 30 test Maurizio 142 22 10 38/ 35/ 27 Thermite II Robert Macrae 142 1963 11 37/ 33/ 29 stoninc Maurizio 142 217 12 43/ 44/ 14 HopScotch 1.6 Robert Macrae 141 91 13 40/ 39/ 21 justice II bjoern guenzel 141 9 14 36/ 34/ 30 Test bb v1.36.boot David van Dam 139 1 15 29/ 20/ 51 Rosebud Beppe 139 297 16 39/ 39/ 22 Blur Anton Marsden 138 370 17 31/ 24/ 45 blue candle bjoern guenzel 138 211 18 35/ 33/ 31 Thalamus mod Edgar 137 25 19 27/ 16/ 57 Hazy Shade II John K W 137 922 20 41/ 45/ 14 Yogi P.Kline 137 49 21 41/ 45/ 14 Scan Man David van Dam 136 383 22 31/ 26/ 43 Scotch Broth 1.0 Robert Macrae 135 87 23 34/ 32/ 34 Manfred v0.1 Ian Oversby 135 24 24 36/ 39/ 25 Chameleon M R Bremer 133 1434 25 25/ 18/ 57 EIF John K W 133 171 Weekly age: 47 ( 42 last week, 127 the week before ) New warriors: 9 Turnover/age rate 19% Average age: 306 ( 341 last week, 311 the week before ) Average score: 140 ( 136 last week, 140 the week before ) The top 25 warriors are represented by 12 authors: Wilkinson with 4, guenzel, Bezzi, Vittuari and Macrae with 3, and Marsden and van Dam with 2. Few challenges also this week because of a power outage during the week end Thos was unaware of. Everything is normal now. Twister has been king for near all the week. The only other warriors reaching the top spot are the old Jack in the box, yes the old one and the new version of Armory. Few challenges i said, but a very high turnover, allowing 9 new warriors to enter the hill, pushing off an age of 1967, the hill is getting younger and younger every week. Two ex kings have been pushed off this week: a veteran like Grilled Octopus, and the king of two weeks ago, d-clear II, that experimented one of the most abrupt falls in the king's hystory. New entries include some interesting warriors, the quality has been very high this week. Worth noting are Marsden Atom Smasher and two new versions of old veterans: Armory II and Jack in the box II. Considering that verion 2 usually live longer than first, maybe we'll see them for long. The veterans. Thermite hovered around 10th 15th spot, showing a good health that should allow it to reach 2000 age. Hazy Shade and Chameleon were near the bottom for most of the time, the Octopus is out and Stepping Stone is having a new youth after some hard times. ______________________________________________________________________________ 94 - What's New # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 2 42/ 37/ 21 Armory II John K W 147 23 3 35/ 23/ 41 Jack in the box II Beppe Bezzi 147 3 5 41/ 39/ 20 test John K W 144 10 8 31/ 20/ 49 Atom Smasher Anton Marsden 143 34 9 37/ 32/ 30 test Maurizio 142 22 13 40/ 39/ 21 justice II bjoern guenzel 141 9 14 36/ 34/ 30 Test bb v1.36.boot David van Dam 139 1 18 35/ 33/ 31 Thalamus mod Edgar 137 25 20 41/ 45/ 14 Yogi P.Kline 137 49 22 31/ 26/ 43 Scotch Broth 1.0 Robert Macrae 135 87 23 34/ 32/ 34 Manfred v0.1 Ian Oversby 135 24 ______________________________________________________________________________ 94 - What's No More # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 26 30/ 51/ 19 Test Steven Morrell 108 4 26 20/ 19/ 61 Wicked John K W 122 14 26 36/ 53/ 11 test P P.Kline 120 4 26 36/ 49/ 15 Violent Micro v0.4 basehead 123 199 26 32/ 38/ 31 Grilled Octopus v0.5 David Boeren 125 1154 26 20/ 15/ 65 ompega Steven Morrell 125 203 26 2/ 1/ 1 Osseil John K W 6 103 26 38/ 54/ 7 d-clear II bjoern guenzel 122 41 26 32/ 37/ 31 Bomber Boy David van Dam 127 245 Another 1000 old warrior, Boeren's Grilled Octopus, leave the hill setting at 11th place in the Hall of Fame. ______________________________________________________________________________ 94 - What's Old # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 11 37/ 37/ 25 Thermite II Robert Macrae 137 1963 9 39/ 39/ 22 Chameleon M R Bremer 139 1434 12 27/ 17/ 56 Hazy Shade II John K W 137 922 17 39/ 45/ 16 Stepping Stone Kurt Franke 134 776 13 40/ 43/ 17 Scan Man David van Dam 137 383 2 41/ 38/ 22 Blur Anton Marsden 144 370 6 39/ 35/ 25 T.N.T. pro Maurizio Vittuari 144 342 A new entry, TNT pro, with Rosebud very near. The hall of fame is still very far. ______________________________________________________________________________ HALL OF FAME * means the warrior is still active. Pos Name Author Age Strategy 1 Impfinity v4g1 Planar 1993 Stone/ imp 2 Thermite II Robert Macrae 1963 * Qscan -> bomber 3 Jack in the box Beppe Bezzi 1620 P-warrior 4 Tornado 3.0 Beppe Bezzi 1567 Bomber 5 Torch t18 P.Kline 1539 Bomber 6 Chameleon Myer R Bremer 1434 * P-warrior 7 Frontwards v2 Steven Morrell 1420 One shot scanner 8 Evol Cap 6.6 John Wilkinson 1299 Imp / stone 9 quiz Schitzo 1262 Scanner/ bomber 10 T.N.T. Maurizio Vittuari 1204 Bomber 11 Grilled Octopus v0.5 David Boeren 1154 P-warrior 12 Iron Gate 1.5 Wayne Sheppard 926 CMP scanner 13 Hazy Shade II John Wilkinson 922 * P-warrior 14 Agony II Stefan Strack 912 CMP scanner 15 Barrage Anton Marsden 876 Qscan -> replicator 16 Blue Funk Steven Morrell 869 Stone/ imp 17 Flurry Anton Marsden 835 Qscan -> pwarrior 18 Thermite 1.0 Robert Macrae 802 Qscan -> bomber 19 Stepping Stone Kurt Franke 776 * Qscan -> Vampire 20 Blue Funk 3 Steven Morrell 766 Stone/ imp 21 Night Train Karl Lewin 755 Replicator 22 Mirage 1.5 Anton Marsden 736 Scanner/ bomber 23 Blizzard Anton Marsden 713 Qscan -> replicator 24 HeremScimitar A.Ivner,P.Kline 666 Bomber 25 La Bomba Beppe Bezzi 650 Qscan -> replicator Thermite II is now very near the top and the 2000 milestone. Chameleon surpasses Frontwards, Grilled Octopus settles in 11th spot, Hazy Shade II and Stepping Stone moves up a little. ______________________________________________________________________________ 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 57/ 26/ 17 Mace Edgar 189 49 2 59/ 32/ 9 Thalamus Edgar 187 29 3 49/ 20/ 32 Hunter V 0.9 O.Fechner 178 30 4 56/ 36/ 9 Thalamus Edgar 175 5 5 55/ 36/ 9 Violent Micro v0.4b basehead 175 81 6 50/ 25/ 25 Fork v0.1-13p (i) Christoph C. Birk 175 36 7 48/ 23/ 29 Hunter V 0.8 O.Fechner 172 51 8 51/ 43/ 6 Not Very Pretty 2.0 Ross Morgan-Linial 158 3 9 50/ 44/ 6 Not Very Pretty 2.1 Ross Morgan-Linial 157 2 10 50/ 45/ 5 Snail Edgar 155 27 11 46/ 41/ 13 Yet Another Try 1i Justin Kao 152 1 12 46/ 44/ 10 Yet Another Try 1.0b Justin Kao 149 14 13 47/ 46/ 7 Sapper Andrew Fabbro 148 55 14 43/ 49/ 8 Not Very Pretty Ross Morgan-Linial 138 22 15 40/ 43/ 17 Extremely Prejudiced Scott Manley 137 56 16 44/ 52/ 3 Congo 1.0b Ross Morgan-Linial 136 10 17 43/ 49/ 8 Not Very Pretty 1.3 Ross Morgan-Linial 136 15 18 42/ 53/ 5 Switch Hitter 0.1t Ross Morgan-Linial 132 6 19 37/ 43/ 20 1,000lb weight Ross Morgan-Linial 131 24 20 38/ 45/ 18 Trebuchet Andrew Fabbro 131 62 21 40/ 50/ 10 radar.b John K. Lewis 129 78 22 37/ 46/ 18 1,000lb weight (X version Ross Morgan-Linial 128 21 23 41/ 54/ 5 Micro Centurion (mod) Edgar 128 83 24 38/ 52/ 11 Yet Another Try 1a Justin Kao 124 32 25 35/ 49/ 16 C-Scan 1.0 Ross Morgan-Linial 121 8 30 challenges this week. Basehead's Violent Micro loses the head to Edgar's Mace and Thalamus ______________________________________________________________________________ The Hint by M. Vittuari To boot or not to boot...this is the problem! During my experiments with bombers, I have seen that a good bombing loop isn't enought to make a good warrior. "Static" warriors often have to choose between some common solution as: - decoy-maker section - booting section - qscan section (+boot) A good qscan means more wins but a little more losses (at the opposite side we have imps!), booting is useful against "smart" enemies like (q)scanners, but it pays something against "dumb" ones like stones/bombers, a decoy-maker may be sometimes a good trade-off. A decoy-maker is able to trash the core very quickly and also it can reach and damage the enemy. I tried lots of different decoy-makers, but the basic thing is to optimize the costants (step, distance, size, etc.): changing just a value sometimes produces very unexpected results! In my tests I have tried to implement both boot and decoy-maker (!), the result is a warrior maybe too "unbalanced", expecially for the oversized dimension of the decoy-maker itself (this makes me to fall an easy prey to some quickscanners). I should try many more tests, but at the moment pizza is down for maintenance and in these days I'm a bit busy... Anyway stoninc is a working (beta) test of this. For the bomber I have used (without permission! Robert_can_you_forgive_me?;-) the good Brand 3.3, belonging to R. MacRae, and used also in Thermite II: it is interesting to see that even if at the moment the difference between Thermite (who use a qscan) and stoninc is very little, some days ago stoninc had 6 points more than his older brother. Another interesting section is the brainwashing pit used to reach the 100 instructions, this makes me gain some additional point (sometimes even imps like to execute it! ;-) So here's the code, with my promise to Robert to delete it very soon ;-) ;redcode-94 ;name stoninc ;author Maurizio ;assert CORESIZE==8000 ;strategy decoy test DIST equ 4200 decA equ (start+DIST-2500) dAUX equ 201 decAA equ (start+DIST+750) ; * * * P I T * * * ;any silk-like warrior here is welcome! ;-) pit spl 16*2, gate-1 cp djn.f clr, {gate-1 ; 3 DAT sm mov -STEP2, >-STEP2 end decoy1 ______________________________________________________________________________ Extra Extra the historian by Bjoern Guenzel The historian is my first and so far only successful p-spacer. I have already posted the components blue candle and self justice, so there is only the brain left to talk about. In my first p-spacer, which was a permanent switch on loss, I faced the problem that often the score I kept was increased by a few wins in the beginning, and therefore wouldn't fall below the critical value quickly enough, if suddenly the first component started losing. To address this problem, in the historian I decided to reset the score every 9 challenges, that is the brain decides whether to switch or switch not only every 9 challenges, based on the results of these 9 challenges. I think the idea is not new... It works fine, but I have not really compared it to other mechanisms. Perhaps a nice idea is the quick way I update my p-space cells every round, storing two values in one p-cell (number of rounds and number of losses). That is for the newbies, I guess the experienced players are using stuff like this already. In the beginning I experimented with building scores for the aktive component, having different switching conditions for each component. That was because I thought the imp-stone was more likely to tie than to win, and I hoped to gain some more wins by doing so. That variant was exactly as fast as the current used, only a table with the minimum score for each strategy was needed. I think this should allow for a very precise tuning of the brain. In my experiments only counting losses worked best, but I later discovered that while I was testing the other variant, there had been a small bug in the brain :-( Perhaps I'll try it again in my next warrior. It would be like strategy dat min_score_strat1,0 ;load strategy here dat min_score_strat2,0 ... slt #actual_score,@strategy switch or not switch... with giving eg 1 point for ties, 3 for wins (I think it is easy to understand). I think when I tried this, I had the wrong preconditions as well, as I thought a win is 2 points, a tie 1 point at the current scoring system (instead of 3/1), so perhaps I really should give it another try... The multi-boot version (about 75 visible instructions) scored a bit better against Thermite and Scan Man (and perhaps others I don't remember) than with seperate boots (about 98 instructions), although it takes two more cycles to boot. Perhaps it is a good compromise between having not enough decoy and the likelihood of being discovered too early. I have no brainwash protection, mostly because I am not sure which component I should switch to. At the moment it is fairly random. A version that would permanently switch to stone-imp after brainwash scored worse :-( I tried making p_init a high value, eg 7000, which means that after brainwashing the brain would probably not switch anymore. Since I assumed it would most likely be washed with something != 0, it would then switch permanently to stone-imp (I had a jmn instead of a jmz then). This really improved my scores against Flurry really good (I think from something like 50/15 to 20/20, I am not sure), but against others it scored worse. Surprisingly against warriors not supposed to be brainwashing, like T.N.T. pro or Scan Man. I may not speculate more, that is up to Maurizio :-) I only conclude that for every p-spacer it is very likely to be brainwashed at least once during 200 battles against any opponent (eg by being hit with a spl in an early stage), so it better should be not too vulnerable against that (for example the historian resets it's brain rather quickly, so occasional brainwashs won't hurt too bad). BTW, I think brainwashing paper is very unlikely to be met, Flurry might be about the only way to do it? That is because paper will most likely come as a p-component, and how would you protect a brainwashing paper from washing itself? (If anybody has an idea, I'd be very interested to hear). Enough talk. I hope the historian has become a dreaded opponent for the one or other, and that it will remain like that for a while :-) (Some are already beating it :-( ). Enjoy Core War, and good luck in climbing the hill (don't be too hard to the historian, so that I finally can get some time for my studys...:) Bjoern P.S.: I changed the p-cell numbers and boot distance, just for safety... ;redcode-94 verbose ;name the historian ;author bjoern guenzel ;strategy p-space l3 s9 inv ;strategy switch stone with stone/spiral ;release 25.5.96 ;assert CORESIZE==8000 ;kill historian ;constants for self justice jstep equ 3315 jcptr equ (jsplit-3) jshift equ stshift ;boot distance ;constants for blue x-torch stshift equ (-2222) ;boot distance gate equ hit+5001 clptr equ (steps-3) sign equ (-1) step4 equ (3364) step equ (sign*step4) magic equ (1000) ;constants for spiral launch istep equ 2667 spshift equ (ptr+stshift+imagic) ;magic boot distance imagic equ (4875-1451+11+14) ;constants for brain samplesize equ 9 ;switch every 9 rounds critical equ 3 ;if losses > critical p_track equ 321 ;loss + rounds count p_strategy equ 456 ;active strategy p_init equ 0 ;don't know what is better p_factor equ 20 ;against brainwashing? ; ********* brain ********* ;table for track update dat p_init+samplesize*p_factor+critical+2,0 ;first round p_table dat p_factor+1,0 ;loss -> add one to loss count dat p_factor+0,0 ;tie -> only update round count dat p_factor+0,0 ;win -> only update round count p_ptr dat #p_strategy,#p_track ;p-space pointers ;make new decision p_switch sub.ab #p_init+(samplesize)*p_factor,p_set ;make readable slt.ab #(critical+1),p_set ;if more than 3 losses, switch jmp p_stay,>3000 ;don't change strategy seq.ab #0,p_decide ;change strategy mov.a #0,p_new ;!0 = strategy 1 p_new stp.a #1,p_ptr ;0 = strategy 2 ldp.ab p_ptr,p_decide ;reload strategy p_stay stp.ab #p_init+1,p_ptr ;reset track jmp p_erase,>2000 ;start here start ldp.ab #0,p_table ;load results of previous fight p_set ldp.b p_ptr,#0 ;load track add.ab @p_table,p_set ;update track p_decide ldp.ab p_ptr,#0 ;load strategy slt.b p_set,#p_init+(samplesize)*p_factor ;if 9 rounds, new decision jmp p_switch,>1000 stp.b p_set,p_ptr p_erase mov.i #0,p_ptr ;erase p-ptrs jmz.b strategy2,p_decide ;boot strategy 1: self justice (anti-clear stone) mov.f #0,bsource ;init boot pointer mov.a #booptr+stshift-30+jstep,booptr mov.i jsplit,*booptr ;crucial spl mov.i {bsource,2001,>3002 ;boot strategy 2: blue candle (0.75c stone + spiral) strategy2 spl stlaunch,>2001 ;start here for 8 mov.i 4003 ;put a second processes into stone! booptr jmp spshift,stshift ;start spiral ; ************* blue torch ************ steps spl #2*step,>-step ;doubles as bomb loop add.x steps,ptr ptr mov.i >ptr+magic*step,@hit+step mov.i steps,@ptr hit djn.f loop, clptr djn.f -1,{clptr bomb dat #-1,2000 ;bombed after 15 process spl 4,>-1 ;spiral has been created spl 2,}j3 j1 jmp imp-1,}0 j2 jmp imp+istep-1,}0 nop }j1,}j2 j3 jmp imp+2*istep-1,}0 imp mov.i #istep,istep ; ********* self justice ********* ; 0.5c bomber with anti-clear bombs (inspired by Beppe Bezzi) ; spl must be booted to jhit+jstep jsplit spl #0,>2660 jptr mov.i jbomb,*jhit+3*jstep mov.i jbomb,@jptr jhit add.ab #2*jstep,jptr djn.f jptr,<-5000 mov.i jcb,>jcptr djn.f -1,{jcptr jcb dat #-1, or Myer Bremer From: al003955@llevant.uji.es (Segarra Flor Juan) Subject: C++Robots Date: 1996/06/11 Message-ID: <4pjl4u$5oe@marti.uji.es>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Some days ago I saw here an http address about the C++Robots. I've try to acceed to this address but I couldn't do it. Maybe I wrote a different address. So, I'd like somebody to send me or post this http address, and I'll try it again. Thanks :-) -- /-- /. \ ______ `*_/\ / --- > ** _) | --- / ** / / \ / / / / + + + + + + \_|_|_|_|_/ - - - - - - - - -------==============| |- | + \ | / | \ \ Juan Segarra Flor | \ \ \ \/ http://www.llevant.uji.es/~al003955 | | / \/\/ al003955@alumail.uji.es | |/ /\\ Enginyeria Informatica | /\\ \\ Tranqui colega!! | / \\ \\ | / \\ \\ \\ - - - - - - - -------==============| \\ \\ \\ | \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ | \\____\\_| From: ez049690@dale.ucdavis.edu (Sonja Streuber) Subject: Play it right! Date: 1996/06/11 Message-ID: <4pilq7$8m2@mark.ucdavis.edu>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * PLAY IT RIGHT! GET THE VISION! * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Get YOUR character drawn by experienced Game character illustrators. - in the pose you want - with the face you want - black and white or in the colors you want ======> YOU NAME IT, WE DRAW IT! <====== Cat's Paw Illustrations: e-mail: sac44452@saclink1.csus.edu phone: (916) 388-1434 fax: (916) 387-5009 From: Justin Kao <102741.2022@CompuServe.COM> Subject: corewar Date: 1996/06/12 Message-ID: <960612234249_102741.2022_GHT68-1@CompuServe.COM>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar ;redcode-94b ;name v.1b This is a test of The Emergency Broadcasting System... ;author Justin Kao ;strategy trying lots of things: testing a scanner. ;strategy By Wilkies, it seems to do equally bad ;strategy against everything. :-( ;assert CORESIZE == 8000 step equ 3045 ;step equ 2376 offset equ -10 org loop ;pointers and bombs split spl #100, 1 found dat #100, -1 split2 spl #10, 2 dat #10, 2 ;scanning loop loop add #step, scan scan jmz.a loop, {offset ;scan falls through, save position, and split back to loop mov.ba scan, found spl loop ;original process begins spl clear starting at "found" mov @found, }found ; djn -1, Subject: oops! help my program? Date: 1996/06/12 Message-ID: <960612234257_102741.2022_GHT68-2@CompuServe.COM> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Sorry everyone... Apparently the Pizza hills are up. (Me having just been deluged with about 25 emails from it after "Send/Recieve All Mail" :) Can anybody give me help on improving my program? Any changes I make just make it worse, so I seem to be stuck at #11 or #12. This is a core clear(same as Yet 1a) with the quick scan from hints/help of The '94 Warrior added to it... ;redcode-94b ;name Yet Another Try 1.0b ;author Justin Kao ;strategy trying lots of things, this is a core clear ;strategy with a quick scan copied from The '94 Warrior Iss #14 ;assert CORESIZE == 8000 ;put the pointers a bit farther away to hide in the spots between? ;#:0123456789012345678901234567890 ;4:x x x x x x x x ;5:x x x x x x x ;me:xx xxx sep EQU 18 bootdist equ 6000 ORG scan ;begin quick scan space equ (CORESIZE/81) ; Step when scanning for code. qbomb equ 6 ; Step when bombing whatever we found. scan sne.X space*1+bottom, space*3+bottom seq.X space*2+bottom, space*4+bottom mov #space*1+bottom-found, found sne.X space*5+bottom, space*7+bottom seq.X space*6+bottom, space*8+bottom mov #space*5+bottom-found, found sne.X space*9+bottom, space*11+bottom seq.X space*10+bottom, space*12+bottom mov #space*9+bottom-found, found sne.X space*13+bottom, space*15+bottom seq.X space*14+bottom, space*16+bottom mov #space*13+bottom-found, found sne.X space*17+bottom, space*19+bottom seq.X space*18+bottom, space*20+bottom mov #space*17+bottom-found, found sne.X space*21+bottom, space*23+bottom seq.X space*22+bottom, space*24+bottom mov #space*21+bottom-found, found sne.X space*25+bottom, space*27+bottom seq.X space*26+bottom, space*28+bottom mov #space*25+bottom-found, found sne.X space*29+bottom, space*31+bottom seq.X space*30+bottom, space*32+bottom mov #space*29+bottom-found, found sne.X space*33+bottom, space*35+bottom seq.X space*34+bottom, space*36+bottom mov #space*33+bottom-found, found sne.X space*37+bottom, space*39+bottom seq.X space*38+bottom, space*40+bottom mov #space*37+bottom-found, found jmn.B found, found ; Get out early if found something. sne.X space*41+bottom, space*43+bottom seq.X space*42+bottom, space*44+bottom mov #space*41+bottom-found, found sne.X space*45+bottom, space*47+bottom seq.X space*46+bottom, space*48+bottom mov #space*45+bottom-found, found sne.X space*49+bottom, space*51+bottom seq.X space*50+bottom, space*52+bottom mov #space*49+bottom-found, found sne.X space*53+bottom, space*55+bottom seq.X space*54+bottom, space*56+bottom mov #space*53+bottom-found, found sne.X space*57+bottom, space*59+bottom seq.X space*58+bottom, space*60+bottom mov #space*57+bottom-found, found sne.X space*61+bottom, space*63+bottom seq.X space*62+bottom, space*64+bottom mov #space*61+bottom-found, found sne.X space*65+bottom, space*67+bottom seq.X space*66+bottom, space*68+bottom mov #space*65+bottom-found, found sne.X space*69+bottom, space*71+bottom seq.X space*70+bottom, space*72+bottom mov #space*69+bottom-found, found sne.X space*73+bottom, space*75+bottom seq.X space*74+bottom, space*76+bottom mov #space*73+bottom-found, found sne.X space*77+bottom, space*79+bottom seq.X space*78+bottom, space*80+bottom mov #space*77+bottom-found, found jmn.B found, found ; Quick-bomb if found something. jmp warrior ; Execute regular code, because nothing found. add #space, found found jmz.F -1, 0 ; Goto the location where we found something. mov.B found, backwd ; Save this value for use in backward bomb. forward mov.I split, >found mov.I jump, @found add #(qbomb-1), found jmn.F forward, @found sub #(2*qbomb), backwd ; Don't re-bomb over forward-scan. backwd mov.I jump, 0 mov.I split, -sep-3 DJN -1, {-sep-3 imp MOV.I #0, 1 ;these are the bombs for the quick scan split spl #0 jump jmp -1 bottom end Justin Kao From: Justin Kao <102741.2022@CompuServe.COM> Subject: "Pizza Hills Closed" for how long? Date: 1996/06/12 Message-ID: <960612230506_102741.2022_GHT122-1@CompuServe.COM>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar >We are sorry, but the Pizza Hills are closed for maintenance purposes. Anybody know how long it's closed? Justin From: jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu Subject: Re: Play it right! Date: 1996/06/12 Message-ID: <199606120118.UAA28618@mail.utexas.edu>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar ez049690@dale.ucdavis.edu wrote: >* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * > PLAY IT RIGHT! GET THE VISION! >* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * > Get YOUR character drawn by experienced Game character illustrators. > - in the pose you want > - with the face you want > - black and white or in the colors you want > > ======> YOU NAME IT, WE DRAW IT! <====== > > Cat's Paw Illustrations: > e-mail: sac44452@saclink1.csus.edu > phone: (916) 388-1434 fax: (916) 387-5009 Wow. I wonder what Thermite II would look like as a large elf? :) No, I think it should be a warlock, with a purple hat. :P From: guenzel@extern.lrz-muenchen.de (Bjoern Guenzel) Subject: brainwashing paper Date: 1996/06/12 Message-ID: <4pmstm$h2q@sparcserver.lrz-muenchen.de>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Ian Oversby asked me to post the following response to my question about brainwashing paper for him, since has no usenet at the moment. Bjoern Hi there, I have no access to newsgroups and this might be of interest to all corewars people. I read that you thought that it would be difficult to include a brainwashing paper as a p-component as it washes itself. Infact, there is more than one solution. Beppe wrote a warrior called Brainwash a while ago which included a brainwashing paper as a p-component. I'm not entirely sure how he did it as I only glanced at the code but he claimed immunity to brainwash. Maybe he used one of the suggestions below. OK, my two methods. I only played around with these a little as papers are a little weak. 1. Use a simple switcher like Jack in the box. Wash all of P-space with the value corresponding to the paper strategy. When the battle is over, the strategy will still be paper and if we lost, we switch to a new strategy because the win/loss cell is not affected. 2. Use a switcher like Wind-up Toy and have paper as the final strategy (not a good idea I feel!) Then brainwash with something that corrupts p-space and forces the warrior to the final strategy: we continue using that strategy. Is this all clear (or viable!)? If you think this is of general interest, feel free to post to the newsgroup. Else, keep my embarrassment to yourself ;-) Ian From: Beppe Bezzi Subject: CW 33 Errata corrige Date: 1996/06/12 Message-ID: #1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar .... `$$$$$$$' $$$P' `$$b `$$$P `P `$' `Y'k. $. $. $. $$' $. Issue 32 June 3, 1996 Replace it with: ' Issue 33 June 10, 1996' Sorry :-( -Beppe From: Philip Kendall Subject: Wilkies (again) Date: 1996/06/13 Message-ID: <31BFECA4.6D19@cam.ac.uk>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar I wrote: > Just a quick newbie query: (about) how many Wilkies would a warrior > need to get onto (say) the beginner's hill? Other people wrote: Various numbers ranging from about 60-100; well, I submitted a 75 Wilkie warrior to the beginner hill, and it lasted to the ripe old age of 1 before being pushed off; I think the necessary number is probably a bit higher :-) -- Philip Kendall (pak21@cam.ac.uk pak21@kendalls.demon.co.uk) From: jklewis@ren.us.itd.umich.edu (John K. Lewis) Subject: Re: the battle royal (?) Date: 1996/06/14 Message-ID: <4psnju$q4@lastactionhero.rs.itd.umich.edu>#1/1 references: <4psf8f$ej1@larry.rice.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar The results (in raw format unfortunatly) were... Bah by Planar scores 2291 Results: 3 11 17 16 25 18 13 4 4 89 Grapeshot by Andrew Fabbro scores 878 Results: 2 1 3 4 10 12 12 4 4 148 life injection by Nandor Sieben scores 1516 Results: 3 4 5 7 24 19 13 4 4 117 Miss Carry by Derek Ross scores 551 Results: 1 1 3 4 6 3 6 4 4 168 Otto by Beppe Bezzi scores 1689 Results: 13 3 3 2 9 8 11 1 4 146 diomedes by Kafka scores 2204 Results: 3 10 13 16 28 17 15 4 4 90 Iocane by John K W scores 3068 Results: 3 18 25 19 34 22 16 4 4 55 Minoxdil by Robert Macrae scores 1502 Results: 8 4 7 4 7 12 10 3 4 141 oldtimer by bjoern guenzel scores 2119 Results: 3 6 11 16 32 21 16 4 4 87 The winner was iocane. Look for a new hill with these parameters soon. John K. Lewis ^^^^^ If i can find it I will send you the full write-up I did on the battle. Kafka (bike) wrote: : Hey. : About two months ago, I submitted a warrior to the battle royal, which was : going to be run by JK Lewis. I've been sporadically checking the newsgroup and : so forth, but have not seen anything as far as results. My warrior was really : dumb and so it probably didn't do so well, but I am still curious about what : the results were. Did this tournament ever happen? : : Kafka : From: sieben@imap1.asu.edu Subject: Re: the battle royal (?) Date: 1996/06/14 Message-ID: <4psnhf$3ma@news.asu.edu>#1/1 references: <4psf8f$ej1@larry.rice.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Kafka (bike) wrote: : Hey. : About two months ago, I submitted a warrior to the battle royal, which was : going to be run by JK Lewis. I've been sporadically checking the newsgroup and : so forth, but have not seen anything as far as results. My warrior was really : dumb and so it probably didn't do so well, but I am still curious about what : the results were. Did this tournament ever happen? : Kafka It took a long long time for my newsreader to get the results, but it finally arrived. Nandor. From: Kafka Subject: the battle royal (?) Date: 1996/06/14 Message-ID: <4psf8f$ej1@larry.rice.edu>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Hey. About two months ago, I submitted a warrior to the battle royal, which was going to be run by JK Lewis. I've been sporadically checking the newsgroup and so forth, but have not seen anything as far as results. My warrior was really dumb and so it probably didn't do so well, but I am still curious about what the results were. Did this tournament ever happen? Kafka From: Robert Macrae Subject: :) Date: 1996/06/14 Message-ID: <4prmet$467@soap.news.pipex.net>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday dear Thermite, Happy birthday to you. :) From: Robert Macrae Subject: Re: oops! help my program? Date: 1996/06/14 Message-ID: <4prmaj$467@soap.news.pipex.net>#1/1 references: <960612234257_102741.2022_GHT68-2@CompuServe.COM> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Justin Kao <102741.2022@CompuServe.COM> wrote: >;redcode-94b >;name Yet Another Try 1.0b >;author Justin Kao >;strategy trying lots of things, this is a core clear >;strategy with a quick scan copied from The '94 Warrior Iss #14 >;assert CORESIZE == 8000 >sep EQU 18 >warrior > ;erase any Bs that have 1 in them > mov.i #0, found-1 > mov.i #0, backwd-1 Is this really worth the effort? All you do is prevent one process falling out of the clear loop? > >boot ;first boot away clear and start it > mov movpointer, movpointer+bootdist > mov djnpointer, djnpointer+bootdist > mov clear, clear+bootdist+sep > mov clear+1, clear+bootdist+sep+1 > mov clear+2, clear+bootdist+sep+2 > mov clear+3, clear+bootdist+sep+3 > > ;erase imp(it has a b-number of 1!) > mov 0, imp > > jmp clear+bootdist+sep > >movpointer > dat 0, 100 >djnpointer > dat -200, sep + 10 >clear > SPL #0, <-sep-5 > MOV -sep-2, >-sep-3 > DJN -1, {-sep-3 > >imp MOV.I #0, 1 Doesn't look terribly fierce? This will forward clear with DATs at 0.5c, occasionally launching an imp. It would most lose to most warriors except imps, and even they might get through the two gates. I think MOV -sep-2, >-sep-3 DJN -1, {-sep-4 would be better, as both the > and { hit the same cell, but I'm not sure. Ways to upgun the clear would include a pass with SPL before the DATs, and using DATs which might help damage small imps, like DAT <2667, 100. There have been some very neat coreclears published recently; I'd see what you can adapt. From: Robert Macrae Subject: Re: corewar Date: 1996/06/14 Message-ID: <4prl10$3lk@soap.news.pipex.net>#1/1 references: <960612234249_102741.2022_GHT68-1@CompuServe.COM> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Justin Kao <102741.2022@CompuServe.COM> wrote: >;redcode-94b >;name v.1b This is a test of The Emergency Broadcasting System... >;author Justin Kao >;strategy trying lots of things: testing a scanner. >;strategy By Wilkies, it seems to do equally bad >;strategy against everything. :-( I tested almost exactly this warrior as Shredder, intended to be an anti- paper Pbit. Mine did badly too :( >;assert CORESIZE == 8000 > >step equ 3045 >;step equ 2376 >offset equ -10 > > org loop > >;pointers and bombs >split spl #100, 1 >found dat #100, -1 >split2 spl #10, 2 > dat #10, 2 > >;scanning loop >loop add #step, scan >scan jmz.a loop, {offset > >;scan falls through, save position, and split back to loop > mov.ba scan, found > spl loop > >;original process begins spl clear starting at "found" > mov @found, }found >; djn -1, jmp -1 I stopped development when nothing seemed to help. As far as I remember the problems were: Scanning at 0.5c when 6 instructions long is not great; all the problems of a scanner, with only the speed/size of Torch. Carpetting at 0.5c isn't great either, and you soon have most of your processes doing this. (OTOH a SPL carpet is great against Silks, should you meet one). Few processes, so a single DAT bomb kills. I really liked the idea of such a small, "few shot" scanner, but I just couldn't see how to fix the problems... then. Now, I have some ideas, but you'll have to wait until RedCarpet makes it onto the hill :) From: mconst@OCF.Berkeley.EDU (Michael Constant) Subject: Re: ftp.csua.berkeley.edu? Date: 1996/06/14 Message-ID: <4pqr9i$9be@agate.berkeley.edu>#1/1 references: <4p9g6q$2ere@news.gate.net> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar David Slater wrote: >Jason Reed (jreed@mail.tds.net) wrote: >: Are there any mirrors for this place? I haven't been able to get in >: for weeks now... >: >: is it down, or is it just me? > >I've been trying to get through to it for about a week myself. Anyone >know what the problem is? I do know what the problem is. Unfortunately, the machine that runs the archive, scotch.csua, is currently completely and totally h0zed (that's CSUA slang for "excessively broken"). It ought to be back online soon, but then again, I said that several months ago... it will be back at some point in the future, but right now I'd hesitate to say when. However, there are mirror sites. I can't recally any at the moment, but there's at least one listed in the Corewar FAQ (available by ftp at rtfm.mit.edu, in /pub/usenet-by-hierarchy/rec/games/corewar). -- Michael Constant (mconst@soda.csua.berkeley.edu) From: app@m4.sprynet.com Subject: Business Opportunity 9 Date: 1996/06/15 Message-ID: <199606151930.MAA00960@sprynet.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar NOTICE: The following is a secure longe term company, not a "program". Announcing! THE PERFECT BUSINESS A new concept in product and marketing plan. Only one easy sale Company pays daily...fast. Your upline becomes your downline! ---------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, a marketing plan that pays everybody! ---------------------------------------------------------------- No inventory, no lotions, no potions or pills to sell. CALL FOR COMPANY OVERVIEW (contains F.O.D and product Info.) 818 382-7087 THEN CALL 800 677-1207 PIN #1252 Due to the fantastic response, if busy please keep trying. If you're not making $5000 a month with your program we need to talk! If you have received this email in error, please fax a note to: 703 904-9322. From: jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu Subject: Re: oops! help my program? Date: 1996/06/15 Message-ID: <199606150712.CAA18577@mail.utexas.edu>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar >>warrior >> ;erase any Bs that have 1 in them >> mov.i #0, found-1 >> mov.i #0, backwd-1 >Is this really worth the effort? All you do is prevent one process >falling out of the clear loop? Yeah... that is kinda silly. :/ >> ;erase imp(it has a b-number of 1!) >> mov 0, imp Why? You're just wasting time. > MOV -sep-2, >-sep-3 > DJN -1, {-sep-4 > >would be better, as both the > and { hit the same cell, but I'm not sure. No no. He had it right the first time. I think. sep is a location, not and EQU, right? If it's a pointer to a location, then the first one is right... if it's an EQU, then yours would be right. :/ >Ways to upgun the clear would include a pass with SPL before the DATs, >and using DATs which might help damage small imps, like DAT <2667, 100. >There have been some very neat coreclears published recently; I'd see >what you can adapt. Yeah, you can also use this thing MOV -1, >-5 DJN.F 0, {-5 It helps certain warriors, mainly against papers. From: server@news.stormking.com (StormKing ListProc Account) Subject: here you can ftp corewar stuff Date: 1996/06/16 Message-ID: <199606160513.HAA11291@carbon.daimi.aau.dk>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar I have about 4MB corewar stuff from the once working ftp-site. You are welcome to DL from http://www.daimi.aau.dk/~tusk/corewar/ please do it soon because I may remove it again. Martin M. Pedersen tusk@daimi.aau.dk From: KOTH Tourney Server Subject: SKI-ICWS: Status - ICWS Experimental 94 06/17/96 Date: 1996/06/17 Message-ID: <199606170400.AAA13772@valhalla.stormking.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Weekly Status on 06/17/96 ***NEW*** On line pre-compile and the Wilkies Benchmark now available! ***NEW*** See up to the second scores and the latest Core War information at : http://www.stormking.com/~koth *FAQ* http://www.stormking.com/~koth/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the StormKing Industries ICWS Experimental 94 CoreWar Hill: Last battle concluded at : Thu Jun 6 04:48:49 EDT 1996 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 36/ 4/ 60 Evol Cap 4 X John Wilkinson 169 21 2 43/ 30/ 27 Lithium X 8 John K Wilkinson 157 12 3 48/ 40/ 12 Memories Beppe Bezzi 155 28 4 43/ 34/ 23 BigBoy Robert Macrae 153 46 5 45/ 38/ 16 Stepping Stone 94x Kurt Franke 153 7 6 45/ 41/ 15 Frontwards v2 Steven Morrell 149 51 7 46/ 45/ 9 S.E.T.I. 4-X JKW 147 22 8 34/ 22/ 44 Variation M-1 Jay Han 147 1 9 45/ 43/ 12 Pagan John K W 147 6 10 42/ 39/ 20 Derision M R Bremer 144 38 11 43/ 42/ 14 Illusion-94/55 Randy Graham 144 3 12 32/ 24/ 44 Aleph 1 Jay Han 140 11 13 31/ 24/ 45 Hector 2 Kurt Franke 137 41 14 36/ 37/ 27 Tornado 2.0 x Beppe Bezzi 136 45 15 39/ 42/ 19 Fire Master Xv1 JS Pulido 136 43 16 39/ 44/ 17 Watcher Kurt Franke 134 44 17 39/ 45/ 16 Watcher-h Kurt Franke 133 40 18 31/ 36/ 33 Nice Try M R Bremer 127 50 19 33/ 40/ 26 Riff Steven Morrell 126 2 20 36/ 55/ 9 Withershins Thrice P.Kline 118 4 21 22/ 71/ 6 Escape2 Philipp Offermann 73 0 From: KOTH Tourney Server Subject: SKI-ICWS: Status - ICWS Tournament 06/17/96 Date: 1996/06/17 Message-ID: <199606170400.AAA16823@valhalla.stormking.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Weekly Status on 06/17/96 ***NEW*** On line pre-compile and the Wilkies Benchmark now available! ***NEW*** See up to the second scores and the latest Core War information at : http://www.stormking.com/~koth *FAQ* http://www.stormking.com/~koth/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the StormKing Industries Annual ICWS Tournament CoreWar Hill: Last battle concluded at : Tue Jun 4 06:47:05 EDT 1996 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 45/ 11/ 44 Cannonade Paul Kline 180 91 2 51/ 34/ 16 Miss Carefree Derek Ross 167 23 3 46/ 33/ 20 Giskard v0.5 Ken Mitton 159 64 4 33/ 15/ 52 Nothing Special G. Eadon 151 6 5 33/ 18/ 49 Turkey Beppe Bezzi 149 7 6 47/ 45/ 8 Agony T Stefan Strack 149 92 7 39/ 29/ 32 Pommes-Ketchup V1.35 S. Schroeder 149 4 8 43/ 42/ 14 test88 P.Kline 144 10 9 41/ 41/ 18 Old Tire Swing Randy Graham 142 48 10 39/ 38/ 23 Yop La Boum v2.1 P.E.M & E.C. 140 21 11 40/ 44/ 16 Miss Carry Derek Ross 135 55 12 29/ 24/ 47 One Fat Lady Robert Macrae 134 8 13 39/ 46/ 14 Traper3_t Waldemar Bartolik 132 1 14 39/ 47/ 14 Slaver v1.1i Christoph C. Birk 131 52 15 37/ 46/ 17 Illusion Randy Graham 127 50 16 37/ 49/ 15 DoubleStone v0.7 Christoph C. Birk 125 34 17 30/ 36/ 33 Chris Steven Morrell 124 13 18 38/ 54/ 7 xtc stefan roettger 121 96 19 35/ 52/ 13 Traper3 Waldemar Bartolik 117 3 20 35/ 52/ 13 Traper3 Waldemar Bartolik 117 2 21 32/ 49/ 19 WhirlWind-88 Randy Graham 114 28 From: KOTH Tourney Server Subject: SKI-ICWS: Status - Standard 06/17/96 Date: 1996/06/17 Message-ID: <199606170400.AAA17839@valhalla.stormking.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Weekly Status on 06/17/96 ***NEW*** On line pre-compile and the Wilkies Benchmark now available! ***NEW*** See up to the second scores and the latest Core War information at : http://www.stormking.com/~koth *FAQ* http://www.stormking.com/~koth/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the StormKing Industries Standard KotH CoreWar Hill : Last battle concluded at : Sat Jun 15 14:54:50 EDT 1996 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 42/ 35/ 23 PacMan v5 David Moore 149 1 2 39/ 39/ 23 Stasis David Moore 139 9 3 28/ 19/ 53 Hydra Stephen Linhart 137 207 4 32/ 28/ 40 Yop La Boum v2.1 P.E.M & E.C. 137 33 5 28/ 20/ 51 CAPS KEY IS STUCK AGAIN Steven Morrell 136 99 6 25/ 15/ 60 ttti nandor sieben 135 83 7 39/ 44/ 17 Iron Gate Wayne Sheppard 134 227 8 25/ 16/ 59 Cannonade P.Kline 134 133 9 26/ 20/ 54 Blue Funk 88 Steven Morrell 132 97 10 25/ 19/ 56 K-test P.E.M 131 5 11 34/ 36/ 31 Keystone t21 P.Kline 131 120 12 20/ 11/ 69 Imperfic II John Wilkinson 130 19 13 35/ 41/ 23 Beholder's Eye V1.7 W. Mintardjo 130 177 14 26/ 24/ 50 Test Wayne Sheppard 128 122 15 19/ 12/ 69 test John Wilkinson 127 6 16 23/ 20/ 57 Peace Mr. Jones 127 107 17 32/ 38/ 30 Giskard v0.5 Ken Mitton 125 71 18 30/ 38/ 32 Christopher Stephen Morrell 121 98 19 32/ 43/ 25 Tuctest Elmer J. Fudd 120 27 20 31/ 44/ 25 Request v2.0 Brant D. Thomsen 119 69 21 12/ 47/ 41 Ide Eiji Kako 77 0 From: KOTH Tourney Server Subject: SKI-ICWS: Status - Multiwarrior Experimental 94 06/17/96 Date: 1996/06/17 Message-ID: <199606170400.AAA18372@valhalla.stormking.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Weekly Status on 06/17/96 ***NEW*** On line pre-compile and the Wilkies Benchmark now available! ***NEW*** See up to the second scores and the latest Core War information at : http://www.stormking.com/~koth *FAQ* http://www.stormking.com/~koth/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the StormKing Industries MultiWarrior Experimental 94 CoreWar Hill: Last battle concluded at : Thu Jun 6 02:34:44 EDT 1996 # Name Author Score Age 1 TimeScapeX (0.1) J. Pohjalainen 5901 59 2 This is Test1 Kurt Franke 5901 24 3 Test2 George Eadon 5901 19 4 jaded M R Bremer 5901 30 5 Paper8 G. Eadon 5877 25 6 Paperone Beppe Bezzi 5854 44 7 Fork v0.2-9p/51b Christoph C. Birk 5852 1 8 Gluttony J E Long 5851 17 9 Saat V2.01 S. Schroeder 5748 13 10 Shwing! T. H. Davies 5747 55 11 Wait A Lot v0.1 Justin Kao 5732 4 12 Anthill 5 Planar 5400 21 13 Pommes-Ketchup V1.35 S. Schroeder 5236 8 14 life Nandor Sieben 5193 60 15 Leviathan2 harleyQ2 5180 11 16 lifedwarf Nandor Sieben 4930 36 17 Hidden M.C.Diskett Bullfrog 4851 29 18 Variation M-1 Jay Han 4798 6 19 Leviathan harleyQ2 4352 12 20 Piggy 3 Bob Uhl 4163 32 21 Escape2 Philipp Offermann 151 0 From: KOTH Tourney Server Subject: SKI-ICWS: Status - MultiWarrior 94 06/17/96 Date: 1996/06/17 Message-ID: <199606170400.AAA17855@valhalla.stormking.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Weekly Status on 06/17/96 ***NEW*** On line pre-compile and the Wilkies Benchmark now available! ***NEW*** See up to the second scores and the latest Core War information at : http://www.stormking.com/~koth *FAQ* http://www.stormking.com/~koth/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the StormKing Industries Multiwarrior 94 CoreWar Hill: Last battle concluded at : Fri Jun 14 04:38:56 EDT 1996 # Name Author Score Age 1 Super Evol Cap John Wilkinson 6007 3 2 Evol Cap -- John Wilkinson 6007 5 3 90% Cotton v5c Wilkinson 6007 21 4 Son of Imp Steven Morrell 6007 39 5 TJ Maurizio Vittuari 6007 15 6 60% Cotton Wilkinson 6007 22 7 Die Hard P.Kline 5994 26 8 sisyphus Kafka 5994 4 9 TESTI Maurizio Vittuari 5981 14 10 Fork v0.2-9p/51b Christoph C. Birk 5968 1 11 launcherQ2 harleyQ2 0 0 From: tusk@daimi.aau.dk (Martin M|ller Pedersen) Subject: here you can DL corewar stuff Date: 1996/06/17 Message-ID: <4q2d4l$jv5@gjallar.daimi.aau.dk>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar The officiel ftp-site is still down. I have about 4MB corewar stuff from the once working ftp-site. You are welcome to DL from http://www.daimi.aau.dk/~tusk/corewar/ please do it soon because I may remove it again someday. Martin M. Pedersen tusk@daimi.aau.dk From: model12@netvoyage.net (Jerad Waggener) Subject: Make thousands of dollars in a couple of months Date: 1996/06/18 Message-ID: <31c6ef03.6313463@news>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar ATTENTION EVERYONE: Take the time to read this and you will be on your way to the easiest way to make money since winning the state lottery This detailed, yet simple program will allow you to make a small fortune in under 2 months with starting costs of 5 dollars! I am talking about money around $10,000-20,000 depending on how much time you put in to it. Print this article out now! JUST TRY THIS--ALL YOU HAVE TO LOSE IS ABOUT $8!!!!! All you have to do is give this a try and judge for yourself. You will definately be satisfied with the conclusion you will reach. Here's the program. 1. Mail $1 to each of the five names you see on the list at the end of the letter. 2. Send a note on a piece of paper saying "Please add me to your list" and also mention what slot or number the person was in when you mailed them $1. For example, if John Dow was in slot #1, you would write, "John,you were in slot #1". 3.Move the names on the list up one incremint. This means the number #1 person will no longer be on the list and everyone will move "up" one number. PLACE YOUR NAME IN SLOT #5 RIGT NOW!! 4. Take this letter with your name added to the list and post it in as many newsgroups and BBS as you can. Re-post the letter after a week has passed to as many newsgroups as you can. Re-post as many times as you like in the initial three (3) weeks. THE MORE THE BETTER. The more newsgroups you post this means more money you will make. You want to expose this to as many people as possible 5. Post a catchy subject line in each newsgroup to attract people to reading your letter. 6. Just sit back and relax. If you have followed the instructions and posted to enough groups, you are going to have a new car or whatever else you want to buy in less than two months. There will be money coming in slowly until the third week when you will get a FLOOD of letters with $1 in them! If you're like me, you'll have a stack of $1's over ten feet high. You'll be laughing all the way to the bank with your newly acquired 10,000 one dollar bills. 7. The last thing to remember is to save the pieces of paper you recieved from people with the $1 in it to be legal and avoid hassel with the IRS. 8. This business is totally legal under title 18, Section 1302 and 1341of the Postal Lottery Laws. 9. Make sure to remain honest at all times and to keep the integrity of the list intact. We are all working for each other and on the same side! HERE IS THE LIST: #1-->Patrick Tenney, 3722 Edgemere Drive, Ashtabula, Ohio 44004 #2-->Rick S. Scardino, 55 Barrett Road, Cleveland, Ohio 44111 #3-->Ryan Reed, 15122 Triskett Road, Cleveland, Ohio 44111 #4-->Peter Carbutti, 251 Quinnipiac Street, Wallingford, CT 06492 #5-->Jerad Waggener, 12701 Bolivar Place, Garden Grove, CA 92643 From: iltzu@sci.fi (Ilmari Karonen) Subject: 3-clear 0.5 Date: 1996/06/18 Message-ID: <19199643.Amiga@sci.fi>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Well, this (v0.3 actually) is the first of my warriors to establish a position on the beginner hill. Any ideas for improvement are welcome. Actually, I don't think there's much room for improvement without turning it into a completely different warrior. The original clear was a simplified version of the clear in Symmetry 0.4, my first warrior ever. (I think it reached the mighty age of 3 on the b hill.. =) I first tried making 3-clear use a multipass version of d-clear's clear, ie. SPL mixed with djn stream. This is what Symmetry 5.0 still uses. Unfortunately I found that no matter how many DAT passes I made, after 80000 cycles there were still SPL's present because of the djn, giving me too many draws. Changing the spl to go backwards seemed to improve the score greatly against everything else except it's own previous versions. =) I probably sent 3-clear to the hill at a very bad time; All the papers had just fallen off the hill, everybody was doing coreclears inspired by d-clear, and the top of the b hill was (still is) filled by big mean scanners/p-spacers. :( If the papers ever come back, though, we might even see 3-clear on the big hill someday. (wishful thinking) The other problem is that clears are strongly affected by starting positions and boot distances. (v0.4 actually got 4 more points on the hill than v0.5 just by luck) The current version still seems to bounce around the 10th position on the b hill, killing papers and all those fancy warriors (like Impfinity!) that just can't match a simple brute-force attack. =) OK, thanks for reading all that crap. Here's the program. Any newbies (and others too) are free to use it as a p-component etc.. ;redcode-b verbose ;name 3-clear 0.6 ;author Ilmari Karonen ;date June 13, 1996 ;strategy Cclr + djn (reverse djn version) ;strategy Simple and easy to adapt to different situations. ;comments 'd-clear' converted into a multipass cclr! ;history 0.1 - Works.. (SPL/SPL/DAT[/DAT]...) ;history 0.2 - Starts spl again after SPL/SPL/DAT/DAT. ;history 0.3 - Fixed a VERY stupid bug! ;history 0.4 - Test: splits less, clears faster? ;history 0.5 - Back to SPL/SPL/SPL/DAT[/DAT]... ;history 0.6 - Switched to backward djn.. hmm? Added more space. ;planar clear, stun ;size 3 ;speed ~1c ;assert 1 == 1 org split tail equ (kill+1) toe equ (head+MAXLENGTH) space equ (MINDISTANCE) head bomb dat #stun, #toe+space dat 0, 0 stun spl #start-bomb, #tail-bomb start spl #split-bomb, #tail-bomb split spl #kill-bomb, #tail-bomb loop mov.i *bomb, >bomb mov.i *bomb, >bomb djn.f loop, Subject: Re: the battle royal (?) Date: 1996/06/18 Message-ID: <4q7dko$o1r@larry.rice.edu>#1/1 references: <4psf8f$ej1@larry.rice.edu> <4psnju$q4@lastactionhero.rs.itd.umich.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar jklewis@ren.us.itd.umich.edu (John K. Lewis) wrote: >should look at.> Look for a new hill with these parameters soon. > Well, third isn't so bad. And almost second. I guess if you're going to try to make a hill with these specifications, I would note that my program was just an 8-process 3-pt imp spiral and it still did pretty well... consequently, I would not be so sure that these specs would effectively expunge the imps from the multiwarrior hills... Kafka From: Beppe Bezzi Subject: Re: 3-clear 0.5 Date: 1996/06/19 Message-ID: #1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Magnus Paulsson wrote: ... > >What is the most effective coreclear? > >ptr dat.f 0,0 > dat.f 0,30 > dat.f 0,30 >start spl #0,30 > mov.i @2,>ptr > mov.i @1,>ptr > djn.b -2,{start > >6 lines (effectively 5), spl/spl/dat coreclear, will kill most imps. > It works well also with but one mov, and also works with djn.f even if it stops after a few passes. >Or ... >ptr dat.f 0,0 > dat.f 0,0 > dat.f 0,0 > spl #?,? > mov.i bmb,>ptr > djn.f -1,>ptr >bmb dat.f 0,30 > >4 lines (with a and b field free in the spl!), dat/djn clear, kills >most imps and even some papers if you stun them before. > >Has anyone run a comparison between different coreclears, which is the BEST? > I think that it will depend most on what is thrown at them and what is together them. We need a balanced benchmark and someone with a fast machine to do the dirty work. I can publish results in the newsletter. >-Magnus Paulsson >(myVamp is still alive, send some papers on it and it will drop like a stone!) > > I think that some paper on the hill will make many things fall like stones. -Beppe From: "Myer R. Bremer" (by way of Beppe Bezzi ) Subject: core warrior 34 Date: 1996/06/19 Message-ID: newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Myer asked me to redirect it to you and here it is. -Beppe .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 34 June 17, 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 Newbies should check the stormking page for the FAQ, language specification, guides, and tutorials. Post questions to rec.games.corewar. All new players are infinitely welcome! If ftp.csua.berkeley.edu is unreachable, you can download pMARS at: Terry's web page--http://www.infi.net/~wtnewton/corewar/ Planar fpt site--ftp://ftp.inria.fr/INRIA/Projects/para/doligez/cw/pmars Fechter ftp site--ftp://members.aol.com/ofechner/corewar ______________________________________________________________________________ Greetings. Hopefully all the changes to the pizza hill are complete. I know I should mail Thos and find out for sure, but I'm supremely lazy. If the berkeley archive site is still down, you may want to try the German archive at iraun1.ira.uka.de (129.13.10.90) in the /pub/x11/corewars directory. The site contains core war simulators for various platforms. There are a few other files, but it's not near as complete as the berkeley site. --M R Bremer ______________________________________________________________________________ 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 35/ 25/ 40 Jack in the box II Beppe Bezzi 144 48 2 40/ 37/ 23 Jo Clark II Ian Oversby 144 49 3 42/ 42/ 16 myVamp5.0 Paulsson 143 52 4 39/ 37/ 24 Twister Beppe Bezzi 142 145 5 39/ 39/ 22 jupiter crash bjoern guenzel 140 7 6 29/ 21/ 51 Rosebud Beppe 137 364 7 40/ 43/ 17 Stepping Stone Kurt Franke 136 843 8 35/ 36/ 29 Thermite II Robert Macrae 134 2030 9 40/ 45/ 16 HopScotch 1.6 Robert Macrae 134 158 10 35/ 36/ 29 T.N.T. pro Maurizio Vittuari 134 409 11 31/ 28/ 41 the historian bjoern guenzel 133 164 12 30/ 27/ 43 test 1 bjoern guenzel 133 24 13 23/ 13/ 64 ompega Steven Morrell 132 42 14 35/ 39/ 26 Versatility 1.2 Ross Morgan-Linial 131 1 15 32/ 34/ 33 Thalamus mod Edgar 131 92 16 33/ 35/ 32 test Maurizio 130 89 17 28/ 27/ 45 Armory II John K W 130 54 18 33/ 36/ 32 stoninc Maurizio 130 284 19 35/ 41/ 24 Blur Anton Marsden 130 437 20 35/ 40/ 25 Versatility 1.0 Ross Morgan-Linial 129 11 21 34/ 40/ 26 Scimitar 2 P.Kline 129 15 22 28/ 27/ 46 blue candle bjoern guenzel 129 278 23 32/ 35/ 33 Test bb v1.41 David van Dam 128 37 24 26/ 25/ 49 Atom Smasher Anton Marsden 128 101 25 23/ 19/ 58 Hazy Shade II John K W 126 989 Weekly age: 67 ( 47 last week, 42 the week before ) New warriors: 11 Turnover/age rate 16% Average age: 269 ( 306 last week, 341 the week before ) Average score: 133 ( 140 last week, 136 the week before ) The top 25 warriors are represented by 14 authors: guenzel with 4, Bezzi, and Vittuari with 3, JKW, Macrae, Marsden, and newcomer Morgan-Linial with 2. King Report: the top spot predominantly belonged to Bezzi or Oversby. Bezzi's Twister or Jack in the box II has been vying with Oversby's Manfred and Jo Clark. Paulsson was actually able to slip by for three challenges and claim the top spot with myVamp 5.0. Good to see you back. Other famailar faces appearing on the hill include an updated version of Scimitar by Paul Kline and Armory II by JKW. The first Armory was introduced when pspace was still young and lasted over 600 challenges, which at the time propelled it far into the hall of fame. Now, 650 is the minimum price of admission for 25th place. One time king Scan Man was pushed off the hill this week, leading van Dam to try out a new test series. Unfortunately, none of the tests have yet to lead him to the top of the hill. guenzel has been busy with his own tests, trying out versions of blue torch, jupiter crash, and justice. He now has more warriors on the hill than any- one. Replicators have been in short supply for a few weeks, but Jack and Versatility have increased the amount of paper products on the hill. Armory probably has one stashed in there somewhere too. Perhaps this will stop the run up in 'imp heavy' warriors. ______________________________________________________________________________ 94 - What's New # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 7 29/ 24/ 47 Armory II John K W 133 1 3 35/ 24/ 40 Jack in the box II Beppe Bezzi 146 1 2 42/ 36/ 22 Jo Clark II Ian Oversby 149 1 14 36/ 41/ 23 jupiter crash v6 bjoern guenzel 131 1 5 40/ 43/ 17 myVamp5.0 Paulsson 138 1 18 21/ 12/ 67 ompega Steven Morrell 129 1 11 34/ 38/ 28 Scimitar 2 P.Kline 131 1 7 30/ 26/ 44 test 1 bjoern guenzel 135 1 24 32/ 36/ 32 Test bb v1.41 David van Dam 127 1 12 34/ 38/ 28 Versatility 1.0 Ross Morgan-Linial 130 1 14 35/ 39/ 26 Versatility 1.2 Ross Morgan-Linial 131 1 JKW and Bezzi are still testing versions of well known pspace veterans Armory and Jack in the box. ______________________________________________________________________________ 94 - What's No More # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 26 26/ 28/ 46 Scotch Broth 1.0 Robert Macrae 125 125 26 36/ 49/ 15 Scan Man David van Dam 124 412 26 1/ 1/ 2 Jack in the box II Beppe Bezzi 5 19 26 1/ 2/ 1 justice II bjoern guenzel 5 30 26 33/ 41/ 26 Chameleon M R Bremer 125 1437 26 22/ 18/ 60 EIF John K W 126 172 26 1/ 1/ 2 Armory II John K W 5 55 26 31/ 35/ 34 Manfred v0.1 Ian Oversby 126 29 26 1/ 1/ 1 Test bb v1.36.boot David van Dam 5 5 26 26/ 26/ 48 test John K W 126 7 26 37/ 50/ 14 Yogi P.Kline 123 96 Another 1000+ warrior departs the hill this week, dear-to-me Chameleon, a pspaced scanner/bobmer-imp. With the recent loss of Impfinity, Grilled Octopus, and Chameleon, the hill is much younger these days. ______________________________________________________________________________ 94 - What's Old # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 8 35/ 36/ 29 Thermite II Robert Macrae 134 2030 25 23/ 19/ 58 Hazy Shade II John K W 126 989 7 40/ 43/ 17 Stepping Stone Kurt Franke 136 843 19 35/ 41/ 24 Blur Anton Marsden 130 437 10 35/ 36/ 29 T.N.T. pro Maurizio Vittuari 134 409 6 29/ 21/ 51 Rosebud Beppe 137 364 Rosebud joins ranks as Scan Man departs. ______________________________________________________________________________ HALL OF FAME * means the warrior is still active. Pos Name Author Age Strategy 1 Thermite II Robert Macrae 2030 * Qscan -> bomber 2 Impfinity v4g1 Planar 1993 Stone/ imp 3 Jack in the box Beppe Bezzi 1620 P-warrior 4 Tornado 3.0 Beppe Bezzi 1567 Bomber 5 Torch t18 P.Kline 1539 Bomber 6 Chameleon Myer R Bremer 1437 P-warrior 7 Frontwards v2 Steven Morrell 1420 One shot scanner 8 Evol Cap 6.6 John Wilkinson 1299 Imp / stone 9 quiz Schitzo 1262 Scanner/ bomber 10 T.N.T. Maurizio Vittuari 1204 Bomber 11 Grilled Octopus v0.5 David Boeren 1154 P-warrior 12 Hazy Shade II John Wilkinson 989 * P-warrior 13 Iron Gate 1.5 Wayne Sheppard 926 CMP scanner 14 Agony II Stefan Strack 912 CMP scanner 15 Barrage Anton Marsden 876 Qscan -> replicator 16 Blue Funk Steven Morrell 869 Stone/ imp 17 Stepping Stone Kurt Franke 843 * Qscan -> Vampire 18 Flurry Anton Marsden 835 Qscan -> pwarrior 19 Thermite 1.0 Robert Macrae 802 Qscan -> bomber 20 Blue Funk 3 Steven Morrell 766 Stone/ imp 21 Night Train Karl Lewin 755 Replicator 22 Mirage 1.5 Anton Marsden 736 Scanner/ bomber 23 Blizzard Anton Marsden 713 Qscan -> replicator 24 HeremScimitar A.Ivner,P.Kline 666 Bomber 25 La Bomba Beppe Bezzi 650 Qscan -> replicator Everyone active moves up at least a spot. Thermite breaks the 2000 barrier and is showing little sign of slowing. Thermite's long life can be attributed to its qscan which has dealt with the pspace uprising quite effectively, and its versatile incendiary bombing. Chameleon is pushed off just after passing Frontwards v2. There are no other warriors even close to making the hall. ______________________________________________________________________________ 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 54/ 32/ 13 Thalamus Edgar 177 59 2 51/ 29/ 21 Versatility 1.2 Ross Morgan-Linial 173 2 3 50/ 29/ 20 Mace Edgar 171 79 4 53/ 36/ 11 Saboteur v0.3p shar 169 9 5 50/ 39/ 11 Thalamus Edgar 160 35 6 38/ 24/ 37 Avenger I Oliver Fechner 153 6 7 38/ 25/ 37 Hunter V 0.9 O.Fechner 152 60 8 40/ 28/ 31 Fork v0.1-13p (i) Christoph C. Birk 152 66 9 38/ 29/ 34 Hunter V 0.8 O.Fechner 146 81 10 42/ 41/ 17 Yet Another Try 1i Justin Kao 144 31 11 44/ 44/ 12 Sapper Andrew Fabbro 143 85 12 43/ 43/ 14 3-clear 0.6 Ilmari Karonen 143 10 13 44/ 46/ 9 Not Very Pretty 2.0 Ross Morgan-Linial 142 33 14 42/ 43/ 16 Yet Another Try 1.0b Justin Kao 141 44 15 39/ 47/ 14 hyper 1.0 Ross 131 7 16 35/ 40/ 25 3-clear 0.5 I. Karonen 131 24 17 37/ 44/ 19 Trebuchet Andrew Fabbro 130 92 18 39/ 49/ 12 Switch Hitter 0.3t Ross Morgan-Linial 130 14 19 23/ 20/ 57 Nematode v1.0b Jonathan Stott 125 1 20 38/ 53/ 9 Snail Edgar 124 57 21 33/ 43/ 24 Borzoi shar 123 25 22 32/ 44/ 24 1,000lb weight Ross Morgan-Linial 121 54 23 34/ 47/ 20 Extremely Prejudiced Scott Manley 121 86 24 36/ 56/ 8 Congo 1.0b Ross Morgan-Linial 117 40 25 33/ 53/ 14 Not Very Pretty Ross Morgan-Linial 113 52 The top two authors have respectable showings on the '94 draft hill. shar is a new author that shows much promise with Saboteur holding 4th place. ______________________________________________________________________________ Questions? Concerns? Comments? Complaints? Mail them to people who care. authors: Beppe Bezzi or Myer Bremer From: tusk@daimi.aau.dk (Martin M|ller Pedersen) Subject: Re: Help! Date: 1996/06/19 Message-ID: <4q9m1n$s38@gjallar.daimi.aau.dk>#1/1 references: <4q97j3$2jl@mtinsc01-mgt.ops.worldnet.att.net> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Thus spake Jeff Cherny : >I am new to corewar and want to learn how to use it. Can you give me >some redcode stuff so I can start learning it? Hey, Welcome to the corewar world. If you have access to www read http://www.stormking.com/~koth/ If you can't get the FAQ and other documents because the ftp server is broken try http://www.daimi.aau.dk/~tusk/corewar/ cheers Martin M. Pedersen From: jklewis@ren.us.itd.umich.edu (John K. Lewis) Subject: Re: the battle royal (?) Date: 1996/06/19 Message-ID: <4q9u4p$4oi@lastactionhero.rs.itd.umich.edu>#1/1 references: <4psf8f$ej1@larry.rice.edu> <4psnju$q4@lastactionhero.rs.itd.umich.edu> <4q7dko$o1r@larry.rice.edu> <4q8enh$7hl@news-rocq.inria.fr> <4q9lc1$enp@larry.rice.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Kurt Alan Franke (kfranke) wrote: : Planar wrote: : >In article <4q7dko$o1r@larry.rice.edu>, Kafka writes: : > : >>Well, third isn't so bad. (etc) : > : >Hey, I thought *I* was third. Anyway, my program was also just an : >8-process 3-pt imp spiral... : : That's right, Kafka was second and Planar was third. Those scores : must not be the same as the original posting. Did you run the battles : over again for some reason, JKL? : : Kurt Yep, I accidently left Bezzi's warrior out when the first set was run. I ran the second to assure myself I had crowned the Battle Royale king correctly. This new list is the "official" score. Hey, holding a tournament is hard work, and I'm still getting used to it. John K. Lewis (the K stands for ascii 75!) From: Robert Macrae Subject: Re: 3-clear 0.5 Date: 1996/06/19 Message-ID: <4q9n3b$n7a@soap.news.pipex.net>#1/1 references: <19199643.Amiga@sci.fi> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar iltzu@sci.fi (Ilmari Karonen) wrote: > I probably sent 3-clear to the hill at a very bad time; All the papers >had just fallen off the hill, everybody was doing coreclears inspired >by d-clear, and the top of the b hill was (still is) filled by big mean >scanners/p-spacers. :( Not a great recipe, but still worth developing as part of a P-warrior to take on the Silk components. .. > org split >tail equ (kill+1) >toe equ (head+MAXLENGTH) >space equ (MINDISTANCE) > > >head >bomb dat #stun, #toe+space > dat 0, 0 >stun spl #start-bomb, #tail-bomb >start spl #split-bomb, #tail-bomb >split spl #kill-bomb, #tail-bomb >loop mov.i *bomb, >bomb > mov.i *bomb, >bomb > djn.f loop, kill dat #kill-bomb, #tail-bomb This seems to start both the DJN trail and the clear close to your warrior. It might not matter, but you are certainly helping any one-shot scanners out there, because their clear is going to start close to you. How about launching the clear, or adding a decoy-launcher like Harmony's? I'm not sure how many scanners are around, but it can't do much harm... Otherwise, I think the best step is to develop other components which do well against the warriors which beat this, and Pswitch them. From: Kurt Alan Franke Subject: Re: the battle royal (?) Date: 1996/06/19 Message-ID: <4q9lc1$enp@larry.rice.edu>#1/1 references: <4psf8f$ej1@larry.rice.edu> <4psnju$q4@lastactionhero.rs.itd.umich.edu> <4q7dko$o1r@larry.rice.edu> <4q8enh$7hl@news-rocq.inria.fr> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Planar wrote: >In article <4q7dko$o1r@larry.rice.edu>, Kafka writes: > >>Well, third isn't so bad. (etc) > >Hey, I thought *I* was third. Anyway, my program was also just an >8-process 3-pt imp spiral... That's right, Kafka was second and Planar was third. Those scores must not be the same as the original posting. Did you run the battles over again for some reason, JKL? Kurt From: bremermr@cartoon.ecn.purdue.edu (Myer R. Bremer) Subject: Core Warrior 34 Date: 1996/06/19 Message-ID: <4q9jhp$h4l@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 34 June 17, 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 Newbies should check the stormking page for the FAQ, language specification, guides, and tutorials. Post questions to rec.games.corewar. All new players are infinitely welcome! If ftp.csua.berkeley.edu is unreachable, you can download pMARS at: Terry's web page--http://www.infi.net/~wtnewton/corewar/ Planar fpt site--ftp://ftp.inria.fr/INRIA/Projects/para/doligez/cw/pmars Fechter ftp site--ftp://members.aol.com/ofechner/corewar ______________________________________________________________________________ Greetings. Hopefully all the changes to the pizza hill are complete. I know I should mail Thos and find out for sure, but I'm supremely lazy. If the berkeley archive site is still down, you may want to try the German archive at iraun1.ira.uka.de (129.13.10.90) in the /pub/x11/corewars directory. The site contains core war simulators for various platforms. There are a few other files, but it's not near as complete as the berkeley site. --M R Bremer ______________________________________________________________________________ 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 35/ 25/ 40 Jack in the box II Beppe Bezzi 144 48 2 40/ 37/ 23 Jo Clark II Ian Oversby 144 49 3 42/ 42/ 16 myVamp5.0 Paulsson 143 52 4 39/ 37/ 24 Twister Beppe Bezzi 142 145 5 39/ 39/ 22 jupiter crash bjoern guenzel 140 7 6 29/ 21/ 51 Rosebud Beppe 137 364 7 40/ 43/ 17 Stepping Stone Kurt Franke 136 843 8 35/ 36/ 29 Thermite II Robert Macrae 134 2030 9 40/ 45/ 16 HopScotch 1.6 Robert Macrae 134 158 10 35/ 36/ 29 T.N.T. pro Maurizio Vittuari 134 409 11 31/ 28/ 41 the historian bjoern guenzel 133 164 12 30/ 27/ 43 test 1 bjoern guenzel 133 24 13 23/ 13/ 64 ompega Steven Morrell 132 42 14 35/ 39/ 26 Versatility 1.2 Ross Morgan-Linial 131 1 15 32/ 34/ 33 Thalamus mod Edgar 131 92 16 33/ 35/ 32 test Maurizio 130 89 17 28/ 27/ 45 Armory II John K W 130 54 18 33/ 36/ 32 stoninc Maurizio 130 284 19 35/ 41/ 24 Blur Anton Marsden 130 437 20 35/ 40/ 25 Versatility 1.0 Ross Morgan-Linial 129 11 21 34/ 40/ 26 Scimitar 2 P.Kline 129 15 22 28/ 27/ 46 blue candle bjoern guenzel 129 278 23 32/ 35/ 33 Test bb v1.41 David van Dam 128 37 24 26/ 25/ 49 Atom Smasher Anton Marsden 128 101 25 23/ 19/ 58 Hazy Shade II John K W 126 989 Weekly age: 67 ( 47 last week, 42 the week before ) New warriors: 11 Turnover/age rate 16% Average age: 269 ( 306 last week, 341 the week before ) Average score: 133 ( 140 last week, 136 the week before ) The top 25 warriors are represented by 14 authors: guenzel with 4, Bezzi, and Vittuari with 3, JKW, Macrae, Marsden, and newcomer Morgan-Linial with 2. King Report: the top spot predominantly belonged to Bezzi or Oversby. Bezzi's Twister or Jack in the box II has been vying with Oversby's Manfred and Jo Clark. Paulsson was actually able to slip by for three challenges and claim the top spot with myVamp 5.0. Good to see you back. Other famailar faces appearing on the hill include an updated version of Scimitar by Paul Kline and Armory II by JKW. The first Armory was introduced when pspace was still young and lasted over 600 challenges, which at the time propelled it far into the hall of fame. Now, 650 is the minimum price of admission for 25th place. One time king Scan Man was pushed off the hill this week, leading van Dam to try out a new test series. Unfortunately, none of the tests have yet to lead him to the top of the hill. guenzel has been busy with his own tests, trying out versions of blue torch, jupiter crash, and justice. He now has more warriors on the hill than any- one. Replicators have been in short supply for a few weeks, but Jack and Versatility have increased the amount of paper products on the hill. Armory probably has one stashed in there somewhere too. Perhaps this will stop the run up in 'imp heavy' warriors. ______________________________________________________________________________ 94 - What's New # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 7 29/ 24/ 47 Armory II John K W 133 1 3 35/ 24/ 40 Jack in the box II Beppe Bezzi 146 1 2 42/ 36/ 22 Jo Clark II Ian Oversby 149 1 14 36/ 41/ 23 jupiter crash v6 bjoern guenzel 131 1 5 40/ 43/ 17 myVamp5.0 Paulsson 138 1 18 21/ 12/ 67 ompega Steven Morrell 129 1 11 34/ 38/ 28 Scimitar 2 P.Kline 131 1 7 30/ 26/ 44 test 1 bjoern guenzel 135 1 24 32/ 36/ 32 Test bb v1.41 David van Dam 127 1 12 34/ 38/ 28 Versatility 1.0 Ross Morgan-Linial 130 1 14 35/ 39/ 26 Versatility 1.2 Ross Morgan-Linial 131 1 JKW and Bezzi are still testing versions of well known pspace veterans Armory and Jack in the box. ______________________________________________________________________________ 94 - What's No More # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 26 26/ 28/ 46 Scotch Broth 1.0 Robert Macrae 125 125 26 36/ 49/ 15 Scan Man David van Dam 124 412 26 1/ 1/ 2 Jack in the box II Beppe Bezzi 5 19 26 1/ 2/ 1 justice II bjoern guenzel 5 30 26 33/ 41/ 26 Chameleon M R Bremer 125 1437 26 22/ 18/ 60 EIF John K W 126 172 26 1/ 1/ 2 Armory II John K W 5 55 26 31/ 35/ 34 Manfred v0.1 Ian Oversby 126 29 26 1/ 1/ 1 Test bb v1.36.boot David van Dam 5 5 26 26/ 26/ 48 test John K W 126 7 26 37/ 50/ 14 Yogi P.Kline 123 96 Another 1000+ warrior departs the hill this week, dear-to-me Chameleon, a pspaced scanner/bobmer-imp. With the recent loss of Impfinity, Grilled Octopus, and Chameleon, the hill is much younger these days. ______________________________________________________________________________ 94 - What's Old # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 8 35/ 36/ 29 Thermite II Robert Macrae 134 2030 25 23/ 19/ 58 Hazy Shade II John K W 126 989 7 40/ 43/ 17 Stepping Stone Kurt Franke 136 843 19 35/ 41/ 24 Blur Anton Marsden 130 437 10 35/ 36/ 29 T.N.T. pro Maurizio Vittuari 134 409 6 29/ 21/ 51 Rosebud Beppe 137 364 Rosebud joins ranks as Scan Man departs. ______________________________________________________________________________ HALL OF FAME * means the warrior is still active. Pos Name Author Age Strategy 1 Thermite II Robert Macrae 2030 * Qscan -> bomber 2 Impfinity v4g1 Planar 1993 Stone/ imp 3 Jack in the box Beppe Bezzi 1620 P-warrior 4 Tornado 3.0 Beppe Bezzi 1567 Bomber 5 Torch t18 P.Kline 1539 Bomber 6 Chameleon Myer R Bremer 1437 P-warrior 7 Frontwards v2 Steven Morrell 1420 One shot scanner 8 Evol Cap 6.6 John Wilkinson 1299 Imp / stone 9 quiz Schitzo 1262 Scanner/ bomber 10 T.N.T. Maurizio Vittuari 1204 Bomber 11 Grilled Octopus v0.5 David Boeren 1154 P-warrior 12 Hazy Shade II John Wilkinson 989 * P-warrior 13 Iron Gate 1.5 Wayne Sheppard 926 CMP scanner 14 Agony II Stefan Strack 912 CMP scanner 15 Barrage Anton Marsden 876 Qscan -> replicator 16 Blue Funk Steven Morrell 869 Stone/ imp 17 Stepping Stone Kurt Franke 843 * Qscan -> Vampire 18 Flurry Anton Marsden 835 Qscan -> pwarrior 19 Thermite 1.0 Robert Macrae 802 Qscan -> bomber 20 Blue Funk 3 Steven Morrell 766 Stone/ imp 21 Night Train Karl Lewin 755 Replicator 22 Mirage 1.5 Anton Marsden 736 Scanner/ bomber 23 Blizzard Anton Marsden 713 Qscan -> replicator 24 HeremScimitar A.Ivner,P.Kline 666 Bomber 25 La Bomba Beppe Bezzi 650 Qscan -> replicator Everyone active moves up at least a spot. Thermite breaks the 2000 barrier and is showing little sign of slowing. Thermite's long life can be attributed to its qscan which has dealt with the pspace uprising quite effectively, and its versatile incendiary bombing. Chameleon is pushed off just after passing Frontwards v2. There are no other warriors even close to making the hall. ______________________________________________________________________________ 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 54/ 32/ 13 Thalamus Edgar 177 59 2 51/ 29/ 21 Versatility 1.2 Ross Morgan-Linial 173 2 3 50/ 29/ 20 Mace Edgar 171 79 4 53/ 36/ 11 Saboteur v0.3p shar 169 9 5 50/ 39/ 11 Thalamus Edgar 160 35 6 38/ 24/ 37 Avenger I Oliver Fechner 153 6 7 38/ 25/ 37 Hunter V 0.9 O.Fechner 152 60 8 40/ 28/ 31 Fork v0.1-13p (i) Christoph C. Birk 152 66 9 38/ 29/ 34 Hunter V 0.8 O.Fechner 146 81 10 42/ 41/ 17 Yet Another Try 1i Justin Kao 144 31 11 44/ 44/ 12 Sapper Andrew Fabbro 143 85 12 43/ 43/ 14 3-clear 0.6 Ilmari Karonen 143 10 13 44/ 46/ 9 Not Very Pretty 2.0 Ross Morgan-Linial 142 33 14 42/ 43/ 16 Yet Another Try 1.0b Justin Kao 141 44 15 39/ 47/ 14 hyper 1.0 Ross 131 7 16 35/ 40/ 25 3-clear 0.5 I. Karonen 131 24 17 37/ 44/ 19 Trebuchet Andrew Fabbro 130 92 18 39/ 49/ 12 Switch Hitter 0.3t Ross Morgan-Linial 130 14 19 23/ 20/ 57 Nematode v1.0b Jonathan Stott 125 1 20 38/ 53/ 9 Snail Edgar 124 57 21 33/ 43/ 24 Borzoi shar 123 25 22 32/ 44/ 24 1,000lb weight Ross Morgan-Linial 121 54 23 34/ 47/ 20 Extremely Prejudiced Scott Manley 121 86 24 36/ 56/ 8 Congo 1.0b Ross Morgan-Linial 117 40 25 33/ 53/ 14 Not Very Pretty Ross Morgan-Linial 113 52 The top two authors have respectable showings on the '94 draft hill. shar is a new author that shows much promise with Saboteur holding 4th place. ______________________________________________________________________________ Questions? Concerns? Comments? Complaints? Mail them to people who care. authors: Beppe Bezzi or Myer Bremer From: jklewis@ren.us.itd.umich.edu (John K. Lewis) Subject: Re: the battle royal (?) Date: 1996/06/19 Message-ID: <4q95bp$oab@lastactionhero.rs.itd.umich.edu>#1/1 references: <4psf8f$ej1@larry.rice.edu> <4psnju$q4@lastactionhero.rs.itd.umich.edu> <4q7dko$o1r@larry.rice.edu> <4q8enh$7hl@news-rocq.inria.fr> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Planar (Damien.Doligez@inria.fr) wrote: : In article <4q7dko$o1r@larry.rice.edu>, Kafka writes: : : >Well, third isn't so bad. And almost second. I guess if you're going to try : >to make a hill with these specifications, I would note that my program was just : >an 8-process 3-pt imp spiral and it still did pretty well... : : Hey, I thought *I* was third. Anyway, my program was also just an : 8-process 3-pt imp spiral... Heh, yeah, but you both died to something completely different. Iocane is just plain evil and I don't think it will ever be defeated. I trust Iocane will sit pretty on top of this hill for years to come. [This is my best imitation of Don King] John K. Lewis (the 'K' stands for King) From: Jeff Cherny Subject: Help! Date: 1996/06/19 Message-ID: <4q97j3$2jl@mtinsc01-mgt.ops.worldnet.att.net>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar I am new to corewar and want to learn how to use it. Can you give me some redcode stuff so I can start learning it? From: jklewis@ren.us.itd.umich.edu (John K. Lewis) Subject: Re: the battle royal (?) Date: 1996/06/19 Message-ID: <4q956g$oab@lastactionhero.rs.itd.umich.edu>#1/1 references: <4psf8f$ej1@larry.rice.edu> <4psnju$q4@lastactionhero.rs.itd.umich.edu> <4q7dko$o1r@larry.rice.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Kafka (bike) wrote: : Well, third isn't so bad. And almost second. I guess if you're going to try : to make a hill with these specifications, I would note that my program was just : an 8-process 3-pt imp spiral and it still did pretty well... consequently, I : would not be so sure that these specs would effectively expunge the imps from : the multiwarrior hills... While expunging imps was a possible side effect of using an 8-process hill, the actual goal was to break the deadlock on scores and strategies. I think that imps will still have a place in an 8-process hill (as will limited papers), but I think there will also be other strategies and more variation in scores. John K. Lewis ^^^^^ <- From: Magnus Paulsson Subject: Re: 3-clear 0.5 Date: 1996/06/19 Message-ID: <199606190725.JAA18654@watt.ifm.liu.se>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar > Well, this (v0.3 actually) is the first of my warriors to establish a > position on the beginner hill. Any ideas for improvement are welcome. > .... lots deleted .... > head > bomb dat #stun, #toe+space > dat 0, 0 > stun spl #start-bomb, #tail-bomb > start spl #split-bomb, #tail-bomb > split spl #kill-bomb, #tail-bomb > loop mov.i *bomb, >bomb > mov.i *bomb, >bomb > djn.f loop, kill dat #kill-bomb, #tail-bomb > > for MAXLENGTH-CURLINE > dat 0, 0 ; free space > rof > > end > If I looked like you, I'd live in a ZOO ! What is the most effective coreclear? ptr dat.f 0,0 dat.f 0,30 dat.f 0,30 start spl #0,30 mov.i @2,>ptr mov.i @1,>ptr djn.b -2,{start 6 lines (effectively 5), spl/spl/dat coreclear, will kill most imps. Or ... ptr dat.f 0,0 dat.f 0,0 dat.f 0,0 spl #?,? mov.i bmb,>ptr djn.f -1,>ptr bmb dat.f 0,30 4 lines (with a and b field free in the spl!), dat/djn clear, kills most imps and even some papers if you stun them before. Has anyone run a comparison between different coreclears, which is the BEST? -Magnus Paulsson (myVamp is still alive, send some papers on it and it will drop like a stone!) From: Planar Subject: Re: the battle royal (?) Date: 1996/06/19 Message-ID: <4q8enh$7hl@news-rocq.inria.fr>#1/1 references: <4psf8f$ej1@larry.rice.edu> <4psnju$q4@lastactionhero.rs.itd.umich.edu> <4q7dko$o1r@larry.rice.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar In article <4q7dko$o1r@larry.rice.edu>, Kafka writes: >Well, third isn't so bad. And almost second. I guess if you're going to try >to make a hill with these specifications, I would note that my program was just >an 8-process 3-pt imp spiral and it still did pretty well... Hey, I thought *I* was third. Anyway, my program was also just an 8-process 3-pt imp spiral... -- Planar P.S. Your "From:" line is broken. From: tusk@daimi.aau.dk (Martin M|ller Pedersen) Subject: help me compiling pmars on IRIX Date: 1996/06/20 Message-ID: <4qc8a4$jf0@gjallar.daimi.aau.dk>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Hey, I would like to compile pmars on my SGI machine. /a/home/scandium5/tusk/tmp2(29) uname -a IRIX thorium 5.3 11091812 IP22 mips /a/home/scandium5/tusk/tmp2(26) make Making pmars with compiler flags -O -DEXT94 -DGRAPHX Compiling pmars.o Compiling asm.o Compiling eval.o Compiling disasm.o Compiling cdb.o Compiling sim.o In file included from sim.c:47: curdisp.c:157: parse error curdisp.c:180: parse error *** Error code 1 (bu21) and the beginning of my makefile looks like this: generic UNIX makefile #CC = gcc # req. for linux CC = gcc # if you don't have gcc # Configuration options: # # No. Name Incompatible with Description # (1) -DSERVER 2 disables cdb debugger (koth server # version) # (2) -DGRAPHX 1 enables platform specific core # graphics # (3) -DKEYPRESS only for curses display on SysV: # enter cdb upon keypress (use if # Ctrl-C doesn't work) # (4) -DEXT94 ICWS'94 + SEQ,SNE,NOP,*,{,} # (5) -DSMALLMEM 16-bit addresses, less memory # (6) -DXWINGRAPHX 1 X-Windows graphics (UNIX) CFLAGS = -O -DEXT94 -DGRAPHX LFLAGS = -x LIB = -lcurses -ltermlib # enable this one for curses display # LIB = -lvgagl -lvga # enable this one for Linux/SVGA LIB = -lX11 # enable this one for X11 -- It is not economical to go to bed early to save the candles if the result is twins. Chinese Proverb From: "cd004417@interramp.com" Subject: Health & wealth Date: 1996/06/20 Message-ID: <199606202325.TAA01384@interramp.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Would you let our $500.00 help you grow your home based business? Are you interested in earning extra $$$s in your spare time? Does improving your health and that of others appeal to you? If so, Super Blue Green Algae products and network marketing may be the answer. Health & Wealth, Inc. Is seeking a few dynamic people to mentor to great success. We're offering $500.00 incentive bonuses to successful start ups. Please call for details and an info pack --- 810-338-0463. This is an Unregistered Version of The Email Cannon From: Beppe Bezzi Subject: Re: core warrior 34 Date: 1996/06/20 Message-ID: #1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar >Myer asked me to redirect it to you and here it is. > >-Beppe > .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 34 June 17, 1996 Oops, sorry for reposting, I had to send it to Planar and a few others and I forgot to remove corewar-l from the list. -Beppe From: Jeff Cherny Subject: reply Date: 1996/06/20 Message-ID: <4qblr3$ndj@mtinsc01-mgt.ops.worldnet.att.net>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Thanks man, I really needed that! Thanks again, Jeff's son Kent P.S.You can mail me at cybyrpunk@worldnet.att.net From: stst@idnsun.gpct.Vanderbilt.Edu (Stefan Strack) Subject: Re: Compiler problem Date: 1996/06/21 Message-ID: <9606212200.AA02677@idnsun.gpct.Vanderbilt.Edu.noname>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar >I downloaded the pMars08s.tar.Z archive last night and tried compiling >it on 'my' (ahum :)) HP-UX workstation. However, for some obscure >reason, the cc compiler choked on the token.c file with an >'illegal parameter declaration' in two functions: > >ch_in_set and . > >They are the only two which use the uShrt type for their parameters, >but strangely enough, asm.c (which is littered with that type) com- >piled ok. Can anyone help me with this? > >Maarten The only two functions where uShrt is the first of two or more parameters are in token.c. This leads me to believe that your compiler has a problem with aligning 16-bit parameters to 32-bit by padding (the parameter after uShrt may not be properly aligned, that is). Try changing the uShrt typedef in global.h to: typedef unsigned int uShrt; In any event, this sounds like a compiler bug to me and I second the suggestion to switch to gcc. -Stefan From: jxidus@aol.com (JXidus) Subject: Newbie question... Date: 1996/06/21 Message-ID: <4qfi7q$rc0@newsbf02.news.aol.com>#1/1 references: <21199620.Amiga@sci.fi> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Hi, I'm just getting interested in Corewars, having never heard about it before. I found the FAQ, and, looking through it, it looks like most of the Corewars stuff is at ftp.csua.berkeley.edu/pub/corewars. However, I haven't yet been able to contact ftp.csua.berkeley.edu. I always get the message: "Can't create data socket: (xxx.xx.xx,20 (IP address, forgot what it is exactly)): Address already in use. / listing failed." Since this is the main site for Corewars (apparently), could someone please tell me how I'm supposed to get the stuff to get started? Thanx, Jeremy Weatherford jxidus@aol.com --- Looking for a quick and easy way to 'fly' a 'camera' around your OGl scene? Contact me at the above address for info on the CAM module, v1.1. From: server@news.stormking.com (StormKing ListProc Account) Subject: Re: Compiler problem Date: 1996/06/21 Message-ID: <199606211811.UAA25757@ruble.daimi.aau.dk>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar -> -> I downloaded the pMars08s.tar.Z archive last night and tried compiling -> it on 'my' (ahum :)) HP-UX workstation. However, for some obscure -> reason, the cc compiler choked on the token.c file with an -> 'illegal parameter declaration' in two functions: -> -> ch_in_set and . -> -> They are the only two which use the uShrt type for their parameters, -> but strangely enough, asm.c (which is littered with that type) com- -> piled ok. Can anyone help me with this? -> -> Maarten -> Hey Maarten, if you can try use gcc instead of cc. Cheers Martin M. Pedersen -- "The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers." -- Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) From: iltzu@sci.fi (Ilmari Karonen) Subject: Re: 3-clear 0.5 Date: 1996/06/21 Message-ID: <21199620.Amiga@sci.fi>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar >> org split >>tail equ (kill+1) >>toe equ (head+MAXLENGTH) >>space equ (MINDISTANCE) >> >>head >>bomb dat #stun, #toe+space >> dat 0, 0 >>stun spl #start-bomb, #tail-bomb >>start spl #split-bomb, #tail-bomb >>split spl #kill-bomb, #tail-bomb >>loop mov.i *bomb, >bomb >> mov.i *bomb, >bomb >> djn.f loop, >kill dat #kill-bomb, #tail-bomb > >This seems to start both the DJN trail and the clear close to your >warrior. It might not matter, but you are certainly helping any one-shot >scanners out there, because their clear is going to start close to you. > >How about launching the clear, or adding a decoy-launcher like Harmony's? >I'm not sure how many scanners are around, but it can't do much harm... I did this in v0.7, but it scored much worse. I might try to use a forward djn stream starting at the opposite side of the core. ie. djn.f loop, >bomb-space+(CORESIZE/2) Of course, some cmp scanners might just ignore the clear entirely. As another improvement against scanners, I'm not sure whether 3 spl passes are a bit of an overkill.. > >Otherwise, I think the best step is to develop other components which do >well against the warriors which beat this, and Pswitch them. That's exactly what I'm doing. =) Unfortunately 3-clear is my first successful warrior, which makes it a bit difficult. But if I find the right constants for my new and improved silk, it might turn out pretty good. -- Itz (Is this ******* mailer still attaching funny tags without asking me??) Like a Bird in The Sky That Craps in your eye ! From: jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu Subject: Re: ;kill Date: 1996/06/21 Message-ID: <199606211900.OAA11286@mail.utexas.edu>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar >As I was told a while ago in r.g.c., ;kill uses the grep command (if >I remember correctly). Thus every warrior whose name contains a match >is killed (that's why you can kill x 1.0 with kill x, I assume). >You could also kill The Avalanche by kill The... > >There was also a way mentioned to alter the behaviour, I think by >giving a kind of command line for grep, but I don't remember. I could >forward the respective articles from r.g.c to you if you want. Yes, there is. If you submit the line ";kill The" it is re-interpreted by the Pizza script to effectively be ";kill *The*" However, if you submit ";kill Th." it will kill any warrior that is exactly 3 characters long, with the first to letters being "Th" You may also submit a kill line of ";kill The.*" which will kill any warrior that STARTS with The, but not any warrior with The in the middle or end of the name. I finally understand this thing after a discussion I had with Thos... I just have to remember to add a little "." to the end of all my kill lines, to avoid that weird pre-process thing. From: stst@idnsun.gpct.Vanderbilt.Edu (Stefan Strack) Subject: Re: help me compiling pmars on IRIX Date: 1996/06/21 Message-ID: <9606211947.AA02630@idnsun.gpct.Vanderbilt.Edu.noname>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar >I would like to compile pmars on my SGI machine. >[..] >In file included from sim.c:47: >curdisp.c:157: parse error >curdisp.c:180: parse error >*** Error code 1 (bu21) > The offending lines are #if SYSV && KEYPRESSED My guess is that irix #defines the SYSV symbol as a string instead of an integer, and you get the parse error because you can't AND strings. Try #if defined(SYSV) && defined(KEYPRESSED) and let me know if this works. >LIB = -lcurses -ltermlib # enable this one for curses display ># LIB = -lvgagl -lvga # enable this one for Linux/SVGA >LIB = -lX11 # enable this one for X11 > Curses and X displays are mutually exclusive, so while it doesn't hurt to link in both libraries, it unnecessarily bloates the binary. If you just specify -DGRAPHX, the curses display is enabled. -Stefan From: guenzel@extern.lrz-muenchen.de (Bjoern Guenzel) Subject: vampires and justice Date: 1996/06/21 Message-ID: <4qe5is$a6@sparcserver.lrz-muenchen.de>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 42/ 41/ 18 Stepping Stone Kurt Franke 143 916 2 42/ 41/ 17 myVamp5.1 Paulsson 142 14 3 37/ 32/ 31 Jo Clark II Ian Oversby 142 122 4 33/ 25/ 42 Jack in the box II Beppe Bezzi 142 121 5 37/ 33/ 29 T.N.T. pro Maurizio Vittuari 141 482 6 38/ 35/ 26 Twister Beppe Bezzi 141 218 7 42/ 43/ 16 HopScotch 1.6 Robert Macrae 141 231 .... Funny, it seems that justice and jupiter really had put some pressure on vampires .... :-) Bjoern From: sieben@imap1.asu.edu Subject: Re: Corewar standard? Date: 1996/06/21 Message-ID: <4qeqpq$4e2@news.asu.edu>#1/1 references: <4qe12a$ruf@mo6.rc.tudelft.nl> <4qedok$ftk@lastactionhero.rs.itd.umich.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar John K. Lewis (jklewis@ren.us.itd.umich.edu) wrote: : We in the Corewars community have been a bit laxed in keeping the : standard up. Perhaps we should make steps to remedy this. We certanly should, but we probably have to wait until the end of Summer so that more people can get involved. Nandor. From: jklewis@ren.us.itd.umich.edu (John K. Lewis) Subject: Re: Corewar standard? Date: 1996/06/21 Message-ID: <4qedok$ftk@lastactionhero.rs.itd.umich.edu>#1/1 references: <4qe12a$ruf@mo6.rc.tudelft.nl> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar This is a hard question to answer. The two major hills are using a modified 94 standard. If you have a web browser you can view this standard at: http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~pizza/koth/icws94.html There are new opcodes and improved resolution (or at least improved standardization). Most of the current koth (king of the hill) systems are using what I'll call "94+" which include a couple of new opcodes dealing with P-Space. We in the Corewars community have been a bit laxed in keeping the standard up. Perhaps we should make steps to remedy this. John - Jong Maarten_de (maarten@cpt6.stm.tudelft.nl) wrote: : What is the current official standard for Corewar? I have obtained almost all : documents about it, but they are not exactly clear on the status of those : standards. When I started playing I learned the 88 standard, and every document : I read since only spoke of 'draft versions' of 94 -- it confuses me a little. : Can somebody shed some light on the subject? : : From: maarten@cpt6.stm.tudelft.nl (Jong Maarten_de) Subject: Corewar standard? Date: 1996/06/21 Message-ID: <4qe12a$ruf@mo6.rc.tudelft.nl>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar What is the current official standard for Corewar? I have obtained almost all documents about it, but they are not exactly clear on the status of those standards. When I started playing I learned the 88 standard, and every document I read since only spoke of 'draft versions' of 94 -- it confuses me a little. Can somebody shed some light on the subject? From: maarten@cpt6.stm.tudelft.nl (Jong Maarten_de) Subject: Compiler problem Date: 1996/06/21 Message-ID: <4qe0mm$ruf@mo6.rc.tudelft.nl>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar I downloaded the pMars08s.tar.Z archive last night and tried compiling it on 'my' (ahum :)) HP-UX workstation. However, for some obscure reason, the cc compiler choked on the token.c file with an 'illegal parameter declaration' in two functions: ch_in_set and . They are the only two which use the uShrt type for their parameters, but strangely enough, asm.c (which is littered with that type) com- piled ok. Can anyone help me with this? Maarten From: stst@vuse.vanderbilt.edu (Stefan Strack) Subject: Core War Frequently Asked Questions (rec.games.corewar FAQ) Date: 1996/06/21 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: iltzu@sci.fi (Ilmari Karonen) Subject: Paper constants? Date: 1996/06/22 Message-ID: <23199653.Amiga@sci.fi>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Can anyone give any hints about optimizing paper constants? I've been working on a IMHO pretty effective paper (just submitted v0.1 to the b hill), but the problem is finding good constants for it. The original version needed 10 independent constants to optimize. (I changed it to require only 7) And that's for only one initial body. Is there any effective way to optimize them except by trial and error? btw, I noticed at least one useful thing during my attempts in cdb optimizing. It's a good idea to give a paper some pretty random constants that occasionally bomb it's own copies with dats. Cannon Fodder, when run alone, falls often down to even 103 processes, just to bounce back to 8000. The good thing is that in the self fight, it won 44 of the battles against itself. AFAIK that's pretty good for a pure paper. -- Itz #include From: jklewis@ren.us.itd.umich.edu (John K. Lewis) Subject: pmars option Date: 1996/06/22 Message-ID: <4qhs6r$dru@lastactionhero.rs.itd.umich.edu>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar What is the pmars option for scoring only wins. I can't seem to figure it out. John K. Lewis (the "K" is for "ready to feel dumb") From: sd@ecst.csuchico.edu (Lord Kymbote) Subject: Pizza changes underway Date: 1996/06/23 Message-ID: <4qi4au$pvl@charnel.ecst.csuchico.edu>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Well, the first stage of the impending changes is complete. I've made some major mods to the scripts, which should make it much easier to make all the changes I have in mind, and any other changes in the future. There shouldn't be any noticable difference yet, so if you do notice anything strange, please send me some mail. Here is the list of changes I intend to make. If you have any problems with these, we can put them through one more round of discussion. o Remove self fights on all hills that use pspace. o Add the "test" command to decrease artificial aging of the hill. I think the best (and easiest) way to do this would be as an argument to the ";redcode" command like "quiet" and "verbose" are now. ";redcode test" would challenge all the warriors on the hill (only 100 times?), but the results would be discarded. This way you could see how your changes affect your performance against all the warriors on the hill, but you get the results back twice as fast. o Add the ";password" command, to make it harder to forge ";kill" commands. o Make ";name" commands mandatory, and make blank ";kill" commands illegal. o Add the ";url" and ";show" commands for web access. ";url" is pretty much self explanatory, but ";show" will be used to customize how much info on your warrior you want to make public. "[no]source" and "[no]score" are two possible arguments to add. o Add the ";change [warrior name]" command to allow you to change info in your warrior without having to kill it and resubmit it. If you wanted to make it "quiet" while you go on vacation, or change the ";url", just send one piece of mail with ";change" in it. This would do a substring match like ";kill", and any other commands in the mail would be changed in the warrior. Does this make sense? Any other ideas, or comments on the above proposals? Thos -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\/~~\ /~~~\/\ / \ \ / /~\ /~~~~~YY~~~\\ /~~ Thomas "Thos" 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: sd@ecst.csuchico.edu (Lord Kymbote) Subject: Re: ;kill Date: 1996/06/23 Message-ID: <4qi2s0$pqk@charnel.ecst.csuchico.edu>#1/1 references: <199606211900.OAA11286@mail.utexas.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar In article <199606211900.OAA11286@mail.utexas.edu>, wrote: >>As I was told a while ago in r.g.c., ;kill uses the grep command (if >>I remember correctly). Thus every warrior whose name contains a match >>is killed (that's why you can kill x 1.0 with kill x, I assume). >>You could also kill The Avalanche by kill The... >> >>There was also a way mentioned to alter the behaviour, I think by >>giving a kind of command line for grep, but I don't remember. I could >>forward the respective articles from r.g.c to you if you want. > >Yes, there is. If you submit the line ";kill The" it is re-interpreted >by the Pizza script to effectively be ";kill *The*" > >However, if you submit ";kill Th." it will kill any warrior that is exactly >3 characters long, with the first to letters being "Th" > >You may also submit a kill line of ";kill The.*" which will kill any warrior >that STARTS with The, but not any warrior with The in the middle or end of the >name. > >I finally understand this thing after a discussion I had with Thos... I just >have to remember to add a little "." to the end of all my kill lines, to avoid >that weird pre-process thing. It looks like you still don't quite grasp it there John. ";kill" uses the string after it in a substring match of all warrior names. If you use wildcards or not, it's still a substring match. Using your example, ";kill Th." would kill your warrior if it was named "The Avalanche", "That thing", or even "baThing suit". Remember, the "." acts like a "?". Thos From: tusk@daimi.aau.dk (Martin M|ller Pedersen) Subject: ERROR at pizza Date: 1996/06/23 Message-ID: <4qklke$il2@gjallar.daimi.aau.dk>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar I have just got this from pizza: (My program is rhodium v1.3) Subject: 94b : rhodium v1.3 vs. Test A challenger has arrived on the Beginner hill! Vital statistics: Your program Yet Another Try 1i fights 200 times: Yet Another Try 1i wins: 117 Test wins: 51 Ties: 32 Your overall score: 115.576923 Thalamus has been pushed off the Beginner hill. The current Beginner hill: # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 0/ 0/ 0 0 0 2 25/ 37/ 34 rhodium Martin M. Pedersen 108 9 3 27/ 41/ 28 1,000lb weight Ross Morgan-Linial 109 67 4 30/ 43/ 23 Extremely Prejudiced Scott Manley 112 99 5 29/ 41/ 26 Yet Another Try 1.0b Justin Kao 114 57 6 24/ 30/ 43 Hunter V 0.8 O.Fechner 114 94 7 33/ 49/ 14 Switch Hitter 0.3t Ross Morgan-Linial 114 27 8 28/ 37/ 30 Yet Another Try 1i Justin Kao 116 44 9 31/ 40/ 25 3-clear 0.5 I. Karonen 118 37 10 25/ 22/ 49 Avenger I Oliver Fechner 124 19 11 33/ 38/ 24 test Justin Kao 124 12 12 16/ 4/ 76 Nematode v1.2b Jonathan Stott 125 3 13 28/ 24/ 43 Hunter V 0.9 O.Fechner 129 73 14 40/ 46/ 11 Not Very Pretty 2.0 Ross Morgan-Linial 130 46 15 28/ 22/ 46 Cannon Fodder I. Karonen 130 2 16 40/ 43/ 13 3-clear 0.6 Ilmari Karonen 133 23 17 31/ 24/ 41 Fork v0.1-13p (i) Christoph C. Birk 135 79 18 26/ 13/ 57 rhodium v1.3 Martin M. Pedersen 135 7 19 41/ 42/ 13 Sapper Andrew Fabbro 135 98 20 40/ 41/ 15 hyper 1.0 Ross 135 20 21 28/ 21/ 51 Test Anonymous 136 1 22 28/ 14/ 55 test-paper Martin M. Pedersen 138 11 23 43/ 41/ 12 Thalamus Edgar 141 48 24 43/ 31/ 23 Mace Edgar 151 92 25 46/ 37/ 13 Saboteur v0.3p shar 152 22 26 48/ 36/ 12 Thalamus Edgar 156 72 From: Derek Ross Subject: Re: ;kill Date: 1996/06/23 Message-ID: <458@arbroath.win-uk.net>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar In a previous posting John K Wilkinson is rumoured to have said: >What?! Geez. I thought I'd finally found a way around it. You mean even >if I explicitly specific the warrior name MASK, it still applies it as a >substring? That's just... uhm... for lack of a better word, bad. > I haven't tried this so it may be bulls**t but... Let's assume that you have three warriors called: MASK MASK-2A Mr MASK If the ;kill regular expressions are the same as the egrep ones, I would have thought that you could ;kill MASK while ignoring MASK-2A or Mr MASK like this: ; kill ^MASK$ That should work because ^ only matches a BeginningOfLine character and $ only matches an EndOfLine character. If you wanted to ;kill MASK and MASK-2A you would use: ;kill ^MASK if you wanted to kill MASK and Mr MASK you would use: ;kill MASK$ Of course the current KotH scripts may not support this usage. If not, it would be worth changing them so that they do. Cheers Derek Derek Ross Email rossd@arbroath.win-uk.net 31 Carnegie Street Telephone +44 (0) 1241-877190 Arbroath, Angus, UK DD11 1TX From: iltzu@sci.fi (Ilmari Karonen) Subject: Re: 3-clear 0.5 Date: 1996/06/23 Message-ID: <23199651.Amiga@sci.fi>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar >I have not tested yet, but I hope that d-clear has the advantage that >in the first pass not all the spl's are deleted, therefore the paper >perhaps remains stunned enough to be completely deleted in the >following rounds :-) > >Btw, it seems nobody managed to create a successful multi-pass >d-clear, so the concept seems to be limited to dat's That's exactly what I was trying to do with 3-clear 0.5. =) But you just wrote yourself the reason why it didn't work. Some of the spl's of the first pass always survived to the end of the battle. (Self-splitting makes it near impossible to fix that.) -- Itz #include From: iltzu@sci.fi (Ilmari Karonen) Subject: Re: Paper constants? Date: 1996/06/23 Message-ID: <23199647.Amiga@sci.fi>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar >article on that in Corewarrior 3, you can find it at Planar's web page, >explaining how to use cdb to make a macro that should help, but results are >sometimes puzzling. I know. I read it, and made some macros of my own. >Supposing a simple paper, with but one bombing line, I use the following method > >silk spl @0, A1 > mov }-1, >-1 >silk1 spl @0, A2 > mov }-1, >-1 > mov bomb, >B1 > mov {silk1, silk2 jmp @0, >A3 >bomb dat <2667, <2*2667 > >To have an aggressive paper: >A1 is a big modulo number 100-400 optimized with corestep. >A2 is an average modulo 20-40 Why not larger? In Cannon Fodder I used as A2 a value near 2000, and as A1 a value optimized for max. coverage. (about -1000) >A3 is optimized searching the max number of processes running Actually, having lots of coverage in the end also implies that not too many copies were killed, so I'd optimize for that. But the again this is my first paper, so.. >B1 is last done searching max core coverage. I have several bombing lines in my paper. The most improtant constant (3 anti-imp carpets offset by 2667) was optimized for max. processes. After doing this I found out that the number of processes changed during the battle from 8000 to 300 and back in a roughly regular fashion. The rest of the constants were optimized for coverage. =) I also used (A2*-10+silk1) as one of the bombing constants. Bombing backwards, this seems like a pretty good way to kill stunned copies. Since my paper only makes 3 copies before suiciding, it should be empty by then, unless stunned. >DISCLAIMER: I'm now working on a silk module using this method and I haven't >been able to put it in a decent position in the hill :-( Just a beginner's guess, but do you leave enough scanner bait? If your copies never suicide, a spl carpet on any of then can be fatal. -- Itz #include From: tusk@daimi.aau.dk (Martin M|ller Pedersen) Subject: Re: Paper constants? Date: 1996/06/23 Message-ID: <4qkjpm$ias@gjallar.daimi.aau.dk>#1/1 references: <23199653.Amiga@sci.fi> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Thus spake iltzu@sci.fi (Ilmari Karonen): >Can anyone give any hints about optimizing paper constants? I've been >working on a IMHO pretty effective paper (just submitted v0.1 to the b >hill), but the problem is finding good constants for it. The original >version needed 10 independent constants to optimize. (I changed it to >require only 7) And that's for only one initial body. Is there any >effective way to optimize them except by trial and error? >btw, I noticed at least one useful thing during my attempts in cdb >optimizing. It's a good idea to give a paper some pretty random >constants that occasionally bomb it's own copies with dats. Cannon >Fodder, when run alone, falls often down to even 103 processes, just to >bounce back to 8000. The good thing is that in the self fight, it won >44 of the battles against itself. AFAIK that's pretty good for a pure >paper. > -- Itz >#include I have optimized my rhodium warrior with the hint in corewarrior 94 issue 3. Cheers Martin M. Pedersen From: guenzel@extern.lrz-muenchen.de (Bjoern Guenzel) (by way of mpn@ifm.liu.se Subject: Re: 3-clear 0.5 Date: 1996/06/23 Message-ID: #1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Here is something Bjoern Guenzel wrote to me but was intended for Corewar-l. -Magnus Paulsson On 19 Jun 1996 04:57:52 -0400, you wrote: >> Well, this (v0.3 actually) is the first of my warriors to establish a >> position on the beginner hill. Any ideas for improvement are welcome. >> >.... lots deleted .... >> head >> bomb dat #stun, #toe+space >> dat 0, 0 >> stun spl #start-bomb, #tail-bomb >> start spl #split-bomb, #tail-bomb >> split spl #kill-bomb, #tail-bomb >> loop mov.i *bomb, >bomb >> mov.i *bomb, >bomb >> djn.f loop, > kill dat #kill-bomb, #tail-bomb Two passes with spl are usually enough. You could also seperate the instructions to fit into the holes of mod 4 or mod 5 bombers (dropping one of the movs?). making the clearpointer the bomb-pointer as well has the disadvantage that you don't kill imps like mov.i #-step,step... >> >> for MAXLENGTH-CURLINE >> dat 0, 0 ; free space >> rof >> >> end >> If I looked like you, I'd live in a ZOO ! >What is the most effective coreclear? >ptr dat.f 0,0 > dat.f 0,30 > dat.f 0,30 >start spl #0,30 > mov.i @2,>ptr > mov.i @1,>ptr > djn.b -2,{start >6 lines (effectively 5), spl/spl/dat coreclear, will kill most imps. I usually prefer this version, which goes back to David van Damn, I think? All I know that it has probably the highest wilkie-rating, together with boot&decoy it scored 150 wilkies. ptr dat -500,1000 ;these values can be chosen randomly (?) dat 0,0 dat 0,0 first spl #0,>gate mov.i *bptr,>ptr djn.f -1,{ptr dat 0,0 dat 0,0 bptr dat 1,last-ptr+2 last spl #-10-44+11+2,last-ptr+2 ;values have to be tested for ;precise timing >Or ... >ptr dat.f 0,0 > dat.f 0,0 > dat.f 0,0 > spl #?,? > mov.i bmb,>ptr > djn.f -1,>ptr >bmb dat.f 0,30 >4 lines (with a and b field free in the spl!), dat/djn clear, kills >most imps and even some papers if you stun them before. I have not tested yet, but I hope that d-clear has the advantage that in the first pass not all the spl's are deleted, therefore the paper perhaps remains stunned enough to be completely deleted in the following rounds :-) Btw, it seems nobody managed to create a successful multi-pass d-clear, so the concept seems to be limited to dat's >Has anyone run a comparison between different coreclears, which is the BEST? >-Magnus Paulsson >(myVamp is still alive, send some papers on it and it will drop like a stone!) From: iltzu@sci.fi (Ilmari Karonen) Subject: Re: Paper constants? Date: 1996/06/23 Message-ID: <23199649.Amiga@sci.fi>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar >I have had good luck with dividing core into equal parts and off setting >by a constant. Example: Core divided by 11 = 727. With a slight >offset you could use 737. This would cause a nice dispersion for the >all important initial thrust. By doubling this number you can create a >leap frog saturation of core on you first jump. Hmm.. looking at it, it seems very similar to the way optimal bombing patterns are found. Actually I did get the most important copy distance from corestep. Maybe someone would like to code a paper step optimizer? (Or can Mopt already do something like this?) >If you have 10 constants, I must guess that you either are starting a >lot of papers early or you have rather large papers. It's might be Yes, I have a large paper. The idea is to include a rather large bombing block which is run only once. The advantage in this is that any enemy caught under the bombing code will just do some bombing for me and then suicide. (Another reason for so many constants is prob. that this is still beginner code..) >better to start with a lower number of papers in order to gain some >speed for reproduction... possibly your only chance against a >scanner/stunner. It actually does quite well against scanners. The strategy (slightly inspired by Toxin and some of my weird experiments) is to first create many copies of the paper, then do a lot of bombing, and suicide. If I survive for about 2 paper generations, there's already some much scanner bait around that I usually win. >I don't know if being able to kill yourself is a good thing with a >paper. Most paper's I have seen always tie against themselves. If you >are losing to yourself then you may be vulnerable to other papers, and >thereby be losing points you would otherwise gain from ties. I thought so too, but this doesn't seem to happen. Possibly this is because differences in copy distances. If in a self fight one of the copies hits another, then it's children will also be hit since the copy distances are equal. (did I make any sense?) >But you may have come up with a paper killing paper, in which case you >might have something special. :-) Hmm.. =) Actually, the more bombing a paper does the better it _should_ score against other papers. So the best chance might be to stick the lines SPL @0, -1 in front of a fast stone.. =) -- Itz #include From: Beppe Bezzi Subject: Re: Pizza changes underway Date: 1996/06/23 Message-ID: #1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar At 23.52 22/06/96 -0400, you wrote: >Well, the first stage of the impending changes is complete. > >Here is the list of changes I intend to make. If you have any problems >with these, we can put them through one more round of discussion. > ... > o Add the "test" command to decrease artificial aging of the hill. > I think the best (and easiest) way to do this would be as an > argument to the ";redcode" command like "quiet" and "verbose" are > now. ";redcode test" would challenge all the warriors on the hill > (only 100 times?), but the results would be discarded. This way > you could see how your changes affect your performance against all > the warriors on the hill, but you get the results back twice as > fast. Other warriors already on the hill will notice, i.e. get results of, my ;redcode test attempt? I think it would be better yes, unless they are quiet of course, according to the 'virtual' score my test makes; i.e. verbose warriors will notice all tests while standard warriors will notice but test that would have made the hill if they were not test. ... > o Add the ";url" and ";show" commands for web access. ";url" is > pretty much self explanatory, but ";show" will be used to customize > how much info on your warrior you want to make public. "[no]source" > and "[no]score" are two possible arguments to add. > May be good to implement something to keep hidden a part of the source even when you have ;show source, something like ;name Jack ... ;show source ;show on step equ 85 imp equ 2667 ;show off bootdist equ 4000 ;show on [code I want to show] How will ;show xxx default? I think to xxx, noyyy, nozzz >Any other ideas, or comments on the above proposals? > >Thos > -Beppe Bezzi From: Beppe Bezzi Subject: Re: Paper constants? Date: 1996/06/23 Message-ID: #1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar At 18.50 22/06/96 -0400, you wrote: >Can anyone give any hints about optimizing paper constants? I've been > >... Is there any >effective way to optimize them except by trial and error? > Optimizing paper constants is, IMO, more atr than science. I wrote an article on that in Corewarrior 3, you can find it at Planar's web page, explaining how to use cdb to make a macro that should help, but results are sometimes puzzling. The macro changed one of the parameters and calculated, after some cycles, number of processes running and core coverage, making the assert that the more of both the better for the score. Apart the fact that it worked on but a parm, the assert proved wrong, having more processes running and a better coverage doesn't mean a better score. >btw, I noticed at least one useful thing during my attempts in cdb >optimizing. It's a good idea to give a paper some pretty random >constants that occasionally bomb it's own copies with dats. That's true, self bombing old modules is a good thing to get rid of modules that could have been stunned; how much to do that is the problem. As a general guideline, the more core coverage will add wins against bombers and imps while a fast self bombing will add against scanners. Supposing a simple paper, with but one bombing line, I use the following method. silk spl @0, A1 mov }-1, >-1 silk1 spl @0, A2 mov }-1, >-1 mov bomb, >B1 mov {silk1, A3 bomb dat <2667, <2*2667 To have an aggressive paper: A1 is a big modulo number 100-400 optimized with corestep. A2 is an average modulo 20-40 A3 is optimized searching the max number of processes running B1 is last done searching max core coverage. To have a resilient, but winning less, module. A1,A2 as above. A3 for max core coverage B1 to bomb your starting position when executing silk2 line. DISCLAIMER: I'm now working on a silk module using this method and I haven't been able to put it in a decent position in the hill :-( > > -- Itz > >#include > > -Beppe Bezzi From: guenzel@extern.lrz-muenchen.de (Bjoern Guenzel) Subject: Re: Pizza changes underway Date: 1996/06/23 Message-ID: <4qkcss$fi5@sparcserver.lrz-muenchen.de>#1/1 references: <4qi4au$pvl@charnel.ecst.csuchico.edu> <7kF6UDATEVzxEwx9@kendalls.demon.co.uk> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Philip Kendall wrote: >In article <4qi4au$pvl@charnel.ecst.csuchico.edu>, Lord Kymbote > writes >> >> o Add the ";url" and ";show" commands for web access. ";url" is >> pretty much self explanatory, but ";show" will be used to customize >> how much info on your warrior you want to make public. "[no]source" >> and "[no]score" are two possible arguments to add. >> >(Apologies if I've misunderstood here...) - would the "noscore" argument >mean that the score of the warrior would not be displayed? I feel that >the scores should always be seen, so people can tell how close they are >to the top/bottom/next warrior. I hope the interpretation is: With scores on, you can connect to pizza via WWW and get a score report of the warrior (similiar to the one nandor suggests), if allowed? That would be nice (although scores per e-mail would be nice, too...:). I hope the test-option won't alter the fun too much, I am not sure if it's a good idea (I thought it would allow testing against specific warriors rather than against the whole hill, how about that?). >Phil >-- > Philip Kendall (pak21@cam.ac.uk pak21@kendalls.demon.co.uk) Bjoern From: Philip Kendall Subject: Re: Pizza changes underway Date: 1996/06/23 Message-ID: <7kF6UDATEVzxEwx9@kendalls.demon.co.uk>#1/1 references: <4qi4au$pvl@charnel.ecst.csuchico.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar In article <4qi4au$pvl@charnel.ecst.csuchico.edu>, Lord Kymbote writes > > o Add the ";url" and ";show" commands for web access. ";url" is > pretty much self explanatory, but ";show" will be used to customize > how much info on your warrior you want to make public. "[no]source" > and "[no]score" are two possible arguments to add. > (Apologies if I've misunderstood here...) - would the "noscore" argument mean that the score of the warrior would not be displayed? I feel that the scores should always be seen, so people can tell how close they are to the top/bottom/next warrior. Phil -- Philip Kendall (pak21@cam.ac.uk pak21@kendalls.demon.co.uk) From: jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu Subject: Re: ;kill Date: 1996/06/23 Message-ID: <199606230651.BAA22779@mail.utexas.edu>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar >>I finally understand this thing after a discussion I had with Thos... I just >>have to remember to add a little "." to the end of all my kill lines, to avoid >>that weird pre-process thing. > >It looks like you still don't quite grasp it there John. ";kill" uses the >string after it in a substring match of all warrior names. If you use >wildcards or not, it's still a substring match. Using your example, >";kill Th." would kill your warrior if it was named "The Avalanche", >"That thing", or even "baThing suit". Remember, the "." acts like a "?". What?! Geez. I thought I'd finally found a way around it. You mean even if I explicitly specific the warrior name MASK, it still applies it as a substring? That's just... uhm... for lack of a better word, bad. From: jklewis@ren.us.itd.umich.edu (John K. Lewis) Subject: Re: Pizza changes underway Date: 1996/06/23 Message-ID: <4qicvs$inh@lastactionhero.rs.itd.umich.edu>#1/1 references: <4qi4au$pvl@charnel.ecst.csuchico.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Lord Kymbote (sd@ecst.csuchico.edu) wrote: : o Add the ";change [warrior name]" command to allow you to change info : in your warrior without having to kill it and resubmit it. If you : wanted to make it "quiet" while you go on vacation, or change the : ";url", just send one piece of mail with ";change" in it. This would : do a substring match like ";kill", and any other commands in the mail : would be changed in the warrior. Does this make sense? You couldn't change the actual code itself could you? I would be against anything that allowed you to "upgrade" code after it had been submitted. : Thos John K. Lewis From: jklewis@ren.us.itd.umich.edu (John K. Lewis) Subject: Re: Paper constants? Date: 1996/06/23 Message-ID: <4qicrc$inh@lastactionhero.rs.itd.umich.edu>#1/1 references: <23199653.Amiga@sci.fi> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Ilmari Karonen (iltzu@sci.fi) wrote: : Can anyone give any hints about optimizing paper constants? I've been : working on a IMHO pretty effective paper (just submitted v0.1 to the b : hill), but the problem is finding good constants for it. The original : version needed 10 independent constants to optimize. (I changed it to : require only 7) And that's for only one initial body. Is there any : effective way to optimize them except by trial and error? I have had good luck with dividing core into equal parts and off setting by a constant. Example: Core divided by 11 = 727. With a slight offset you could use 737. This would cause a nice dispersion for the all important initial thrust. By doubling this number you can create a leap frog saturation of core on you first jump. If you have 10 constants, I must guess that you either are starting a lot of papers early or you have rather large papers. It's might be better to start with a lower number of papers in order to gain some speed for reproduction... possibly your only chance against a scanner/stunner. : btw, I noticed at least one useful thing during my attempts in cdb : optimizing. It's a good idea to give a paper some pretty random : constants that occasionally bomb it's own copies with dats. Cannon : Fodder, when run alone, falls often down to even 103 processes, just to : bounce back to 8000. The good thing is that in the self fight, it won : 44 of the battles against itself. AFAIK that's pretty good for a pure : paper. : : -- Itz Bombing your own paper is also handy in getting rid of stunned papers. If you can time your bombing to start right after your processes should be done with the code, you can be sure of only killing "stunned" processes. I don't know if being able to kill yourself is a good thing with a paper. Most paper's I have seen always tie against themselves. If you are losing to yourself then you may be vulnerable to other papers, and thereby be losing points you would otherwise gain from ties. But you may have come up with a paper killing paper, in which case you might have something special. :-) John K. Lewis From: sieben@imap1.asu.edu Subject: Re: Pizza changes underway Date: 1996/06/23 Message-ID: <4qi9eh$avn@news.asu.edu>#1/1 references: <4qi4au$pvl@charnel.ecst.csuchico.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar : Any other ideas, or comments on the above proposals? Well I had one. I have a feeling it never will be implemented, but I still think that the current scores of a warrior would be very useful. Furthermore access to all the scores would be nice too. I'd like something like gate imp dwarf imp 0 0 0 gate 0 a 0 dwarf 5 2 6 numbers mean win times 10 percent (a means 10). Please back me up if you'd like something like this. Nandor. From: rossd@arbroath.win-uk.net (Derek Ross) Subject: Re: pmars option Date: 1996/06/23 Message-ID: <455@arbroath.win-uk.net>#1/1 references: <4qhs6r$dru@lastactionhero.rs.itd.umich.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar In article <4qhs6r$dru@lastactionhero.rs.itd.umich.edu>, John K. Lewis (jklewis@ren.us.itd.umich.edu) writes: >What is the pmars option for scoring only wins. I can't seem to figure >it out. > How about: pmars -= "(W - S)" -etc. That should give you 1 point per round win in a 2 warrior match and 0 points otherwise. Or: pmars -= "(S != W) * 3" -etc. That should give you 3 points per round win and 0 points otherwise. On the other hand: pmars -= "(S != W) * (W - S)" -etc. should give you (W - S) points per round which you survive with (S - 1) other warriors in a W warrior match unless all other warriors survive in which case you get 0 points Cheers Derek Derek Ross Email rossd@arbroath.win-uk.net 31 Carnegie Street Telephone +44 (0) 1241-877190 Arbroath, Angus, UK DD11 1TX From: Beppe Bezzi Subject: Core Warrior 35 Date: 1996/06/24 Message-ID: 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 35 June 24, 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 Newbies should check the stormking page for the FAQ, language specification, guides, and tutorials. Post questions to rec.games.corewar. All new players are infinitely welcome! If ftp.csua.berkeley.edu is unreachable, you can download pMARS at: Terry's web page--http://www.infi.net/~wtnewton/corewar/ Planar fpt site--ftp://ftp.inria.fr/INRIA/Projects/para/doligez/cw/pmars Fechter ftp site--ftp://members.aol.com/ofechner/corewar ______________________________________________________________________________ Greetings. Pizza hill changes are going to be implemented, Thos is at work and new feature will soon be available, mail your comments, proposals and bug finds to J.K. Lewis and Andrew Fabbro have opened a new hill on their server. Presently they run a limited process hill with all other stats like 94 hill, you can play and help them testing sending your warriors to: with a ;redcode-94lp header. The hill implements many features, to get more info send a mail with a subject of 'help' (no quotation marks) to the above address. I hope the hill masters will agree for a common syntax of commands, having a different one in every server is sure confusing. --Beppe Bezzi ______________________________________________________________________________ New Pizza features o Remove self fights on all hills that use pspace. o Add the "test" command to decrease artificial aging of the hill. I think the best (and easiest) way to do this would be as an argument to the ";redcode" command like "quiet" and "verbose" are now. ";redcode test" would challenge all the warriors on the hill (only 100 times?), but the results would be discarded. This way you could see how your changes affect your performance against all the warriors on the hill, but you get the results back twice as fast. o Add the ";password" command, to make it harder to forge ";kill" commands. o Make ";name" commands mandatory, and make blank ";kill" commands illegal. o Add the ";url" and ";show" commands for web access. ";url" is pretty much self explanatory, but ";show" will be used to customize how much info on your warrior you want to make public. "[no]source" and "[no]score" are two possible arguments to add. o Add the ";change [warrior name]" command to allow you to change info in your warrior without having to kill it and resubmit it. If you wanted to make it "quiet" while you go on vacation, or change the ";url", just send one piece of mail with ";change" in it. This would do a substring match like ";kill", and any other commands in the mail would be changed in the warrior. Does this make sense? Any other ideas, or comments on the above proposals? Thos ______________________________________________________________________________ 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 41/ 41/ 14 Goldfinch P.Kline 137 1 2 37/ 36/ 23 Yogi Bear P.Kline 134 3 3 31/ 26/ 39 Jack in the box II Beppe Bezzi 133 156 4 35/ 35/ 26 Jo Clark II Ian Oversby 132 157 5 20/ 5/ 71 The Avalanche John Wilkinson 131 22 6 35/ 36/ 25 Twister Beppe Bezzi 131 253 7 27/ 20/ 50 Rosebud Beppe 130 472 8 30/ 28/ 38 test jb21 Beppe Bezzi 129 4 9 21/ 10/ 65 ompega Steven Morrell 129 150 10 35/ 39/ 22 Blur 2 Anton Marsden 128 5 11 37/ 42/ 17 myVamp5.1 Paulsson 128 49 12 25/ 18/ 53 rhodium v1.3 Martin M. Pedersen 128 24 13 34/ 37/ 26 T.N.T. pro Maurizio Vittuari 127 517 14 37/ 44/ 15 HopScotch 1.6 Robert Macrae 126 266 15 26/ 23/ 48 blue candle bjoern guenzel 126 386 16 32/ 35/ 29 Thermite II Robert Macrae 125 2138 17 36/ 44/ 16 Stepping Stone Kurt Franke 124 951 18 31/ 35/ 30 Scotch Broth 1.2 Robert Macrae 124 48 19 27/ 27/ 42 the historian bjoern guenzel 124 272 20 30/ 33/ 34 Thalamus mod Edgar 123 200 21 32/ 37/ 27 Goliath David van Dam 123 19 22 30/ 35/ 31 test Maurizio 123 197 23 22/ 17/ 58 Hazy Shade II John K W 123 1097 24 30/ 34/ 32 * Satura * bjoern guenzel 122 10 25 31/ 37/ 29 test E P.Kline 121 7 Weekly age: 108 ( 67 last week, 47 the week before ) New warriors: 11 Turnover/age rate 10% Average age: 296 ( 269 last week, 306 the week before ) Average score: 127 ( 133 last week, 140 the week before ) The top 25 warriors are represented by 14 authors: Bezzi with 4, guenzel, Macrae and Kline with 3, Vittuari and JKW with 2. A burst of activity on the hill, after some quiet weeks this one we had more than 100 challenges. King Report: Jack in the box held king position for the first days, then come some rumble, with many warriors alternating at the top, until Paul Kline set thing in his favourite manner, placing strongly his new pspacer Goldfinch with a good lead over the second, his other pspacer Yogi bear. Blur was pushed off but a new version toke its place, in a very good position, adding to the number of 'versions number two'; presently there are five plus TNT pro that can be considered a version two itself too. All but Jo Clark are childrens of successful warriors. Replicator are back and holding the hill in fifth and twelfth position, with JKW Avalanche and rhodium by the newcomer Petersen. The coming of paper caused the fall of some bombers holding top positions last weeks. ______________________________________________________________________________ 94 - What's New # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 41/ 41/ 14 Goldfinch P.Kline 137 1 2 37/ 36/ 23 Yogi Bear P.Kline 134 3 5 20/ 5/ 71 The Avalanche John Wilkinson 131 22 8 30/ 28/ 38 test jb21 Beppe Bezzi 129 4 10 35/ 39/ 22 Blur 2 Anton Marsden 128 5 11 37/ 42/ 17 myVamp5.1 Paulsson 128 49 12 25/ 18/ 53 rhodium v1.3 Martin M. Pedersen 128 24 18 31/ 35/ 30 Scotch Broth 1.2 Robert Macrae 124 48 21 32/ 37/ 27 Goliath David van Dam 123 19 24 30/ 34/ 32 * Satura * bjoern guenzel 122 10 25 31/ 37/ 29 test E P.Kline 121 7 Many new interesting warriors did the hill this week, half of the top ten scorers are new. ______________________________________________________________________________ 94 - What's No More # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 26 1/ 1/ 2 Armory II John K W 5 55 26 1/ 1/ 2 test 1 bjoern guenzel 5 28 26 2/ 1/ 1 Versatility 1.0 Ross Morgan-Linial 7 18 26 32/ 38/ 31 stoninc Maurizio 126 301 26 2/ 1/ 0 Scimitar 2 P.Kline 7 35 26 2/ 1/ 1 jupiter crash bjoern guenzel 6 30 26 34/ 43/ 23 Blur Anton Marsden 124 463 26 1/ 1/ 1 myVamp5.0 Paulsson 5 108 26 1/ 1/ 1 Test bb v1.41 David van Dam 5 106 26 21/ 23/ 56 Atom Smasher Anton Marsden 120 172 26 32/ 41/ 27 Versatility 1.2 Ross Morgan-Linial 123 105 Marsden's Blur is the the oldest warrior pushed off; it has been quickly replaced by a new, more effective, version. ______________________________________________________________________________ 94 - What's Old # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 16 32/ 35/ 29 Thermite II Robert Macrae 125 2138 22 22/ 17/ 58 Hazy Shade II John K W 123 1097 17 36/ 44/ 16 Stepping Stone Kurt Franke 124 951 13 34/ 37/ 26 T.N.T. pro Maurizio Vittuari 127 517 8 27/ 20/ 50 Rosebud Beppe 130 472 15 26/ 23/ 48 blue candle bjoern guenzel 126 386 Blur is no more, blue candle enters. Hazy shade II enters the over 1000 group. _____________________________________________________________________________ HALL OF FAME * means the warrior is still active. Pos Name Author Age Strategy 1 Thermite II Robert Macrae 2138 * Qscan -> bomber 2 Impfinity v4g1 Planar 1993 Stone/ imp 3 Jack in the box Beppe Bezzi 1620 P-warrior 4 Tornado 3.0 Beppe Bezzi 1567 Bomber 5 Torch t18 P.Kline 1539 Bomber 6 Chameleon Myer R Bremer 1437 P-warrior 7 Frontwards v2 Steven Morrell 1420 One shot scanner 8 Evol Cap 6.6 John Wilkinson 1299 Imp / stone 9 quiz Schitzo 1262 Scanner/ bomber 10 T.N.T. Maurizio Vittuari 1204 Bomber 11 Grilled Octopus v0.5 David Boeren 1154 P-warrior 12 Hazy Shade II John Wilkinson 1097 * P-warrior 13 Stepping Stone Kurt Franke 951 * Qscan -> Vampire 14 Iron Gate 1.5 Wayne Sheppard 926 CMP scanner 15 Agony II Stefan Strack 912 CMP scanner 16 Barrage Anton Marsden 876 Qscan -> replicator 17 Blue Funk Steven Morrell 869 Stone/ imp 18 Flurry Anton Marsden 835 Qscan -> pwarrior 19 Thermite 1.0 Robert Macrae 802 Qscan -> bomber 20 Blue Funk 3 Steven Morrell 766 Stone/ imp 21 Night Train Karl Lewin 755 Replicator 22 Mirage 1.5 Anton Marsden 736 Scanner/ bomber 23 Blizzard Anton Marsden 713 Qscan -> replicator 24 HeremScimitar A.Ivner,P.Kline 666 Bomber 25 La Bomba Beppe Bezzi 650 Qscan -> replicator Thermite passes the 2100 and is still in good health even if dropping a bit, Hazy shade resists and passes the 1000 milestone. Stepping stone gains some positions and is now near 1000 age. But three living warriors are in the hall, compared to the seven of last month; perhaps scores are setting, after the increment for the introduction of five more spots, and making the hall is getting harder. ______________________________________________________________________________ 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 45/ 28/ 23 Versatility 1.2 Ross Morgan-Linial 158 14 2 48/ 36/ 12 Thalamus Edgar 156 71 3 46/ 37/ 13 Saboteur v0.3p shar 152 21 4 43/ 31/ 23 Mace Edgar 151 91 5 43/ 41/ 12 Thalamus Edgar 141 47 6 28/ 14/ 55 test-paper Martin M. Pedersen 138 10 7 40/ 41/ 15 hyper 1.0 Ross 135 19 8 41/ 42/ 13 Sapper Andrew Fabbro 135 97 9 26/ 13/ 57 rhodium v1.3 Martin M. Pedersen 135 6 10 31/ 24/ 41 Fork v0.1-13p (i) Christoph C. Birk 135 78 11 40/ 43/ 13 3-clear 0.6 Ilmari Karonen 133 22 12 28/ 22/ 46 Cannon Fodder I. Karonen 130 1 13 40/ 46/ 11 Not Very Pretty 2.0 Ross Morgan-Linial 130 45 14 28/ 24/ 43 Hunter V 0.9 O.Fechner 129 72 15 16/ 4/ 76 Nematode v1.2b Jonathan Stott 125 2 16 33/ 38/ 24 test Justin Kao 124 11 17 25/ 22/ 49 Avenger I Oliver Fechner 124 18 18 31/ 40/ 25 3-clear 0.5 I. Karonen 118 36 19 28/ 37/ 30 Yet Another Try 1i Justin Kao 116 43 20 33/ 49/ 14 Switch Hitter 0.3t Ross Morgan-Linial 114 26 21 24/ 30/ 43 Hunter V 0.8 O.Fechner 114 93 22 29/ 41/ 26 Yet Another Try 1.0b Justin Kao 114 56 23 30/ 43/ 23 Extremely Prejudiced Scott Manley 112 98 24 27/ 41/ 28 1,000lb weight Ross Morgan-Linial 109 66 25 25/ 37/ 34 rhodium Martin M. Pedersen 108 8 But 12 challenges, little is changed. The top authors are the same even if they exchanged the king position ______________________________________________________________________________ The hint A new p-switcher by Paul Kline A colorful variety of p-switching mechanisms are sprouting this Spring, and it would be nice if someone would round them all up for comparison. Also nice if people would POST a few :-) A simple, fast switch-on-loss routine for two p-components might look like this: pflag equ (somenumber.lt.500) pGold ldp.ab #0,#0 ; get results of last battle ldp.a #pflag ,pGold ; retrieve attempted strategy add.a #1 ,@pGold ; if a loss, increment strategy mod.a #2 ,pGold ; safeguard against brainwashing stp.ab pGold ,#pflag ; store current strategy jmz.a select1 ,pGold ; select strategy 1 jmp select2 ; select strategy 2 (The last jmp is unnecessary if strategy 2 immediately follows) A powerful adaptation of the routine can be made with no extra instructions. By increasing the MOD number we have an assymetric switcher, by which the second strategy is selected more often than the first. This can be very helpful in pairing up a strong all-purpose warrior like Torch, with a special-purpose warrior like Clisson. Like many fast programs with spl-dat clears, Torch is vulnerable to a stone, which is in turn highly vulnerable to Clisson. Using an assymetric switcher to select Torch most frequently gives the best results against a variety of opponents, and the infrequent Clission strategy breaks up a protracted series of stone attacks. This is the switcher used by Goldfinch which pairs a one-shot scanner w/multipass clear, with Clisson's dodger. Paul Kline pk6811s@acad.drake.edu ______________________________________________________________________________ Extra Extra Twister by Beppe Bezzi Tornado is, beetween my warriors,one my favourites and, being a very flexible bombing engine, I like a lot to tweak and improve it, testing new bombs and variations. When Tornado 3.0, that had a success beyond my expectations, was near the bottom of the hill, a long time indeed :-), I tried to fix some problems that caused its fall and I coded v 3.3 that's the one included in Twister. Jack uses a slightly different version but you can fit this one in the old Jack, using but one paper module, and results won't differ too much from those on the hill (let me something to publish next week :-) The bombs are common dat <1,{1 deadly against clears and slowing djn stream users, intermixed with one spl #xx to allow self bombing to enter the core clear. Worth noting are the pattern, not exacly mod 5 but slightly translated, such way it's more difficult for a one shot scanner to slip through my bombs without noticing them, and the djn protection, jmz.b start,#0 stolen from Torch. The qscan is rather similar to the one in Stepping Stone, being only a bit slower overall even if with a better bomb distribution. I coded it from the warrior I sent to J K Lewis tournament, a thing that proved deadly, I won 13 rounds alone, but too weak. It's a 50%c vamp engine dropping one far jump to the pit and two near jumps through and to the far jump in a six instructions loop, something like that: jn jmp *qqstep, qqstep ;jump near jf jmp -bombn+pit-(3*qqstep)-qdisp,-qqstep ;jump far jn ..[qqstep cells].. jn .. [qqstep cells] .. jf The first jn jumps to jf using a-field of the second jn, the other jumps go to the pit. The pit is a standard self destructing, brainwashing pit. ;redcode-94 ;name Twister ;author Beppe Bezzi ;strategy qscan -> Tornado bomber ;assert CORESIZE == 8000 ;kill Twister step equ -45 away equ 4000+2 ;mod 5 +2 gate1 equ (gate-4) org startq qstep equ 6 qrounds equ 8 qdisp equ -qstep*(qrounds*3/2-1)-60 qqstep equ qstep*qrounds bigst equ 100 ;or something more :-) qstart equ startq+145 qst equ qstart -(4*bigst) pstep equ 40 spacer equ 4 cldst equ (bclr-bgate+spacer+5) pit spl 4 pit1 mov -3, <1300 spl pit1 spl pit1 stp.b #0, @pit1 jmp pit1 ;----Qscan ;don't ever think it's the right qscan pattern :-) startq s3 for 4 sne.i qst+4*bigst*(s3+0), qst+4*bigst*(s3+0)+bigst*1 seq.i qst+4*bigst*(s3+0)+bigst*2, qst+4*bigst*(s3+0)+bigst*3 mov.ab #qst+4*bigst*(s3+0)-found, found rof jmn.b which, found s2 for 4 sne.i qst+4*bigst*(s2+5), qst+4*bigst*(s2+5)+bigst*1 seq.i qst+4*bigst*(s2+5)+bigst*2, qst+4*bigst*(s2+5)+bigst*3 mov.ab #qst+4*bigst*(s2+5)-found, found rof jmn.b which, found s1 for 4 sne.i qst+4*bigst*(s1+10), qst+4*bigst*(s1+10)+bigst*1 seq.i qst+4*bigst*(s1+10)+bigst*2, qst+4*bigst*(s1+10)+bigst*3 mov.ab #qst+4*bigst*(s1+10)-found, found rof jmn which, found which found jmz.b boot, #0 ;Pyramid decoding add.b found, pt2 sne.i @found, @pt2 add.ab #(bigst*2),found sne.i -100, @found add.ab #bigst, found qattack ;found.b punta il bersaglio mov bombm, @found ;dat bomb found position add.ba found, qstone ;\ add.b found, qstone ; >setup vamp pointers sub.ba found, bombf ;/ ;---vamp attack --- qb1 mov bombn, *qstone qb2 mov bombf, @qstone qstone mov (1*qqstep)+bombn+qdisp,@(3*qqstep)+bombn+qdisp qstart1 sub qincr, @qb1 add.a qincr, bombf qjump djn.b qb1, #qrounds jmp boot bombn jmp *qqstep, qqstep qincr dat >-1*qstep,>-1*qstep bombf jmp -bombn+pit-(3*qqstep)-qdisp,-qqstep for 5 dat 0,0 rof ;--- Tornado start boot mov gate, }pt2 mov gate, *pt2 mov last, gate1 mov @djmp, >gate1 djmp djn.b clr, {bombs incr dat >-3*step,>-3*step last bombm dat <1, {1 shift dat #40, #40 ______________________________________________________________________________ Questions? Concerns? Comments? Complaints? Mail them to people who care. authors: Beppe Bezzi or Myer Bremer From: PK6811S@ACAD.DRAKE.EDU Subject: Re: pizza changes underway Date: 1996/06/24 Message-ID: <01I6AHEVKRLU001AU4@ACAD.DRAKE.EDU>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar > There isn't much science in choosing the pattern, and every pattern works > the same if its step is larger than 100, so the simpler way is putting a > remark in the showed part telling: Actually there is a certain science to choosing the pattern. A qscan that examines every 100 locations sequentally is easily decoyed. Put those locations into a different order and you can look around decoys :-) Paul Kline pk6811s@acad.drake.edu From: Beppe Bezzi Subject: Re: Pizza changes underway Date: 1996/06/24 Message-ID: #1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu wrote: >>> how much info on your warrior you want to make public. "[no]source" >>> and "[no]score" are two possible arguments to add. >> >>(Apologies if I've misunderstood here...) - would the "noscore" argument >>mean that the score of the warrior would not be displayed? ... > >No, the score option would allow EVERYONE to see the score your warrior >got against every other warrior. > >Frankly, I feel that if this feature is created, one should not allow it >to be turned on or off. It should be either on for everyone or off for >everyone. Allthough I haven't made up my mind as to which of those it >should be... > I agree with JKW, scores should be public for all or for none; I'm favourable to make them public for all, thus reducing the disadvantage for published warriors. About how to show scores, Nandor's idea is good, even if it it's better to have right values. To fit all results in an 80 column email we can use this format. A- King B- second C- third .. Y- Last on hill (25th) A B C D E F G H ...(25 * 3) + 4 SPACES =79 + = 80 A 50 23 35 42 ... B 60 33 ... C 31 ... -Beppe From: PK6811S@ACAD.DRAKE.EDU Subject: Re: Paper constants? Date: 1996/06/24 Message-ID: <01I6A4KZBIC2001A1D@ACAD.DRAKE.EDU>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Well, it's not a paper constant, but this little line seems to make certain papers nearly invulnerable to scanners like Memories and Harmony: retinA mov.i #space*7,}-space*4-10 ; makes one young again :-) where 'space' is the lowest-level spacing increment. Not much help against fast spl-dat clears though. Paul Kline pk6811s@acad.drake.edu From: Anders Ivner Subject: Re: Pizza changes underway Date: 1996/06/24 Message-ID: <9606241107.AA26603@su3-2.ida.liu.se>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar > jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu wrote: > >>;show source > >>;show on > >>;show off > >Yeah, that really would be fairly important. However, what would qscanners > >do to prevent people from reversing their scan series? > > > > > There isn't much science in choosing the pattern, and every pattern works > the same if its step is larger than 100, so the simpler way is putting a > remark in the showed part telling: > > 'here there are 15 sne seq mov qscan blocks, broken by a jmz every 5' > > Another way may be: > > .. > ;show off > [real pattern] > > ;show on > for 0 > [fake similar pattern] > rof > > [warrior] > > In practice what we do when posting one. > > -Beppe Qscans are usually generated with for loops, so you could just have a secret constant to scamble it: ;show off C1 equ 7 ; generator for Z_20 C2 equ 6 ; offset in pattern ;show on i for 19 sne 100*4*(i*C1+C2), 100*4*(i*C1+C2)+100 seq 100*4*(i*C1+C2)+200, 100*4*(i*C1+C2)+300 mov rof Now that I think about it, maybe we need to do the math modulo 19 instead to avoid qscanning ourselves... but the general idea should be the same. DISCLAIMER: I haven't tested the above. It probably doesn't work :-) /Anders From: Anders Ivner Subject: Re: Pizza changes underway Date: 1996/06/24 Message-ID: <9606240908.AA26069@su3-2.ida.liu.se>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar > : Any other ideas, or comments on the above proposals? > > Well I had one. I have a feeling it never will be implemented, but I > still think that the current scores of a warrior would be very useful. > Furthermore access to all the scores would be nice too. > I'd like something like > > gate imp dwarf > imp 0 0 0 > gate 0 a 0 > dwarf 5 2 6 > > numbers mean win times 10 percent (a means 10). Please back me up if > you'd like something like this. > > Nandor. Yes, I second this. Although I think the actual precentages should be shown. Also, it would be nice to be able to see ;strategy lines via WWW. If someone uses the ;change option maybe mail should be sent to those with warriors on the hill saying something like: New strategy lines for warrior "SuperBlaster": ;strategy kill kill kill!!! hahaha! Lastly (and most unrealistic), how about being able to see (on WWW) how the current challenge progresses? Like: Challenger TinyTest v0.3 vs VeryGoodWarrior 100/0/0 GoodWarrior 90/5/5 ... Last fight: MediocreWarrior ;strategy kill (sometimes) MediocreWarrior wins 66 TinyTest v0.3 wins 66 ties: 68 Currently fighting: AverageWarrior ;strategy do some weird stuff... Remaining opponents: NotSoGoodWarrior LousyWarrior ... /Anders (if you reply to this message, check so you get the To: line right, since I sent this message both to corewar-l and Thos) From: Beppe Bezzi Subject: Re: Paper constants? Date: 1996/06/24 Message-ID: #1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar iltzu@sci.fi (Ilmari Karonen) wrote: >>article on that in Corewarrior 3, you can find it at Planar's web page, >>explaining how to use cdb to make a macro that should help, but results are >>sometimes puzzling. > >I know. I read it, and made some macros of my own. > >>Supposing a simple paper, with but one bombing line, I use the following method >> >>silk spl @0, A1 >> mov }-1, >-1 >>silk1 spl @0, A2 >> mov }-1, >-1 >> mov bomb, >B1 >> mov {silk1, >silk2 jmp @0, >A3 >>bomb dat <2667, <2*2667 >> >>To have an aggressive paper: >>A1 is a big modulo number 100-400 optimized with corestep. >>A2 is an average modulo 20-40 > >Why not larger? In Cannon Fodder I used as A2 a value near 2000, and as >A1 a value optimized for max. coverage. (about -1000) > I haven't said A2 is in the 20-40 range but modulo 20-40, the size is usually a big number. La Bomba paper uses those values: A1 equ 2200 ;best modulo 200 number A2 equ 3740 ;best modulo 20 number in alternate scoring A3 equ -1278 ;optimized with pmars B1 equ 933 ;optimized with pmars and by hand >>A3 is optimized searching the max number of processes running > >Actually, having lots of coverage in the end also implies that not too >many copies were killed, so I'd optimize for that. But the again this >is my first paper, so.. > >>B1 is last done searching max core coverage. > >I have several bombing lines in my paper. The most improtant constant >(3 anti-imp carpets offset by 2667) was optimized for max. processes. >After doing this I found out that the number of processes changed >during the battle from 8000 to 300 and back in a roughly regular >fashion. The rest of the constants were optimized for coverage. =) > Coverage and processs are related, not very stricly because you can have corrupt processes running, but they are. The more processes you have the less you are subject to stunning effects. Many bombing lines make your paper more aggressive, but also more subject to scanners and incendiary attacks. Your papers stay executing for more time and you lose the decoymaking effect of executed modules. >I also used (A2*-10+silk1) as one of the bombing constants. Bombing >backwards, this seems like a pretty good way to kill stunned copies. >Since my paper only makes 3 copies before suiciding, it should be empty >by then, unless stunned. Bombing forward, using post increment, is a bit better against imps and vampires. > >>DISCLAIMER: I'm now working on a silk module using this method and I haven't >>been able to put it in a decent position in the hill :-( > >Just a beginner's guess, but do you leave enough scanner bait? If your >copies never suicide, a spl carpet on any of then can be fatal. > I think the main difference is in how we see a result as 'decent'. When I was a beginner just entering 94 hill in last spot was an 'excellent' result, now I'm trying to put Jack at the top, or to put a paper using a new idea in a good position; anything else isn't a decent result. > -- Itz > >#include > > -Beppe From: Beppe Bezzi Subject: Re: Pizza changes underway Date: 1996/06/24 Message-ID: #1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu wrote: >>May be good to implement something to keep hidden a part of the source even >>when you have ;show source, something like >> >>;name Jack >>.. >>;show source >>;show on >> >>step equ 85 >>imp equ 2667 >> >>;show off >> >>bootdist equ 4000 >> >>;show on >> >>[code I want to show] > >Yeah, that really would be fairly important. However, what would qscanners >do to prevent people from reversing their scan series? > > There isn't much science in choosing the pattern, and every pattern works the same if its step is larger than 100, so the simpler way is putting a remark in the showed part telling: 'here there are 15 sne seq mov qscan blocks, broken by a jmz every 5' Another way may be: ... ;show off [real pattern] ;show on for 0 [fake similar pattern] rof [warrior] In practice what we do when posting one. -Beppe From: Justin Kao <102741.2022@CompuServe.COM> Subject: Pizza hill weirdness? Date: 1996/06/24 Message-ID: <960624054414_102741.2022_GHT74-1@CompuServe.COM>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar There is something wrong with the Pizza hill.... >Subject: 94b : Yet Another Try 1.0b vs. Test > >A challenger has arrived on the Beginner hill! Vital statistics: > >Your program Switch Hitter 0.3t fights 200 times: ^^^^^^^^^^^^^what?! >Subject: 94b : Yet Another Try 1i vs. Test > >A challenger has arrived on the Beginner hill! Vital statistics: > >Your program Fork v0.1-13p (i) fights 200 times: ^^^^^^this isn't my program either... and... >Thalamus has been pushed off the Beginner hill. >The current Beginner hill: > # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age > 1 0/ 0/ 0 0 0 > 2 25/ 37/ 34 rhodium Martin M. Pedersen 108 9 I've also gotten another challenge report where the programs were listed in reverse order and the highest score was pushed off! What happened to Pizza? Justin From: PK6811S@ACAD.DRAKE.EDU Subject: Yogi Bear Date: 1996/06/24 Message-ID: <01I6A8AUEXZM001CUG@ACAD.DRAKE.EDU> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar With Pizza down, it is a perfect time to polish up your code and POST it :-) Here is Yogi Bear: Yogi's table-based switcher allows a high level of flexibility after a loss the pointer moves forward one entry after a tie the pointer moves to the entry indicated by the a-operand after a win the pointer moves to the entry indicated by the b-operand first two portions of the table alternate stone-imp and one-shot 1st portion is switch-on-loss, stick on tie or win should beat non-pspace programs 2nd portion is switch-on-loss-or-win, stick on tie should beat two-component pspacers the last portion is a solo stone to handle certain fast opponents and is also the designated qscan defense qscanners are detected by a failure in the one-shot launch interrupting the one-shot launch causes the table to jump to stone and stays there until he loses twice ;redcode-94 ;name Yogi Bear ;kill Yogi ;author P.Kline ;assert CORESIZE == 8000 ;strategy table-based switcher (smarter than the average bear :-) ;strategy improved Emerald, one-shot, qscan alert ;strategy more bug fixes ptable ; AfterTie , AfterWin p1ST1 dat p1ST1-ptable,p1ST1-ptable p1WT1 dat p1WT1-ptable,p1WT1-ptable p1ST2 dat p1ST1-ptable,p1ST1-ptable p1WT2 dat p1WT1-ptable,p1WT1-ptable ptable2 p2ST1 dat p2ST1-ptable,p2WT1-ptable p2WT1 dat p2WT1-ptable,p2ST1-ptable p2ST2 dat p2ST1-ptable,p2WT1-ptable p2WT2 dat p2WT1-ptable,p2ST1-ptable ptable3 p3QK1 dat p3QK1-ptable,p3QK1-ptable dat p3QK1-ptable,p3QK1-ptable pstuff ldp.ab #0,#0 ; result of the last round pflag ldp.ab #1 ,ptable ; last strategy jmn pwintie,pstuff ; did we lose? add #1 ,ptable ; yes - bump the pointer jmp pcommit pwintie sne #2 ,pstuff ; no - use the table mov.ab @ptable,@ptable mov.b @ptable,ptable pcommit mod #pstuff-ptable ,ptable ; brainwash protection stp.ba ptable,pflag ; save the current strategy slt ptable,#p3QK1-ptable ; are we selecting stone? jmp slQuick ; yes mov.ba ptable,ptable ; no mod.a #2,ptable ; select stone-imp or one-shot jmz.a slStone,ptable wBoot equ 250 wStep equ 11 slWither stp.a #p3QK1-ptable-1,pflag ; set pointer to stone mov wGate,wGate+wBoot ; boot the one-shot mov wGate mov @1,>wGate djn.b -2,{wWipe dat 0,0 dat 0,0 wNext sub wScan ,wGate ; one-shot 80% scanner sne *wGate ,@wGate sub wScan ,wGate seq }wGate ,>wGate wScan sne.x *wGate ,@wGate ; ignore single bombs djn.f wNext ,<-2001 spl wWipe ,-28 ; stone mov -2,<-111 add Stone,1 mov >0,-2 djn.f -2,<6500 dat 0,0 dat 0,0 dat 0,0 gate equ (hide1-19) hide1 spl #0 ,gate djn.f -1 ,>gate dat 0,0 hbomb dat <2667,2-gate end pstuff Paul Kline pk6811s@acad.drake.edu From: sd@ecst.csuchico.edu (Lord Kymbote) Subject: Re: Pizza changes underway Date: 1996/06/24 Message-ID: <4qn79k$h6p@charnel.ecst.csuchico.edu>#1/1 references: <199606240129.UAA30008@mail.utexas.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar In article <199606240129.UAA30008@mail.utexas.edu>, wrote: > >No, the score option would allow EVERYONE to see the score your warrior >got against every other warrior. Correct. Instead of a table like Nandor wants, I was thinking more like a "benchmark" list, ala Planar's Mt.Olympus. Listing the scores against that one warrior from best to worst. >Frankly, I feel that if this feature is created, one should not allow it >to be turned on or off. It should be either on for everyone or off for >everyone. Allthough I haven't made up my mind as to which of those it >should be... Maybe. I think a little choice in the matter might be nice though. I don't think most people will mind showing how they scored, but it is something new, information that wasn't easily available before, so a choice will probably be best for now. Thos From: sd@ecst.csuchico.edu (Lord Kymbote) Subject: Re: ;kill Date: 1996/06/24 Message-ID: <4qn132$g0i@charnel.ecst.csuchico.edu>#1/1 references: <458@arbroath.win-uk.net> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar In article <458@arbroath.win-uk.net>, Derek Ross wrote: > >In a previous posting John K Wilkinson is rumoured to have said: > >>What?! Geez. I thought I'd finally found a way around it. You mean even >>if I explicitly specific the warrior name MASK, it still applies it as a >>substring? That's just... uhm... for lack of a better word, bad. >> > >I haven't tried this so it may be bulls**t but... > >Let's assume that you have three warriors called: > > MASK > MASK-2A > Mr MASK > >If the ;kill regular expressions are the same as the egrep ones, I >would have thought that you could ;kill MASK while ignoring MASK-2A >or Mr MASK like this: > > ; kill ^MASK$ unix regular expressions are much the same in any environment. But remember, the name line is not just MASK, it's ";name MASK". To kill just that warrior, you need to say ";kill ^;name MASK$". >Of course the current KotH scripts may not support this usage. If >not, it would be worth changing them so that they do. How would you propose doing so? I can't think of a simple way. Perhaps checking every kill string for "^", and inserting ";name " after it, but what if someone uses two spaces, or a tab? It won't match. >Cheers > >Derek Thos -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\/~~\ /~~~\/\ / \ \ / /~\ /~~~~~YY~~~\\ /~~ Thomas "Thos" 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 T. Rhodes" Subject: WIN A FREE VIDEO GAME!!! Date: 1996/06/24 Message-ID: <31CF010B.2764@altercom.net>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Check out: http://www.netcom.com/~herbman1/ for your chance to win a free video game. From: KOTH Tourney Server Subject: SKI-ICWS: Status - Multiwarrior Experimental 94 06/24/96 Date: 1996/06/24 Message-ID: <199606240400.AAA22127@valhalla.stormking.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Weekly Status on 06/24/96 ***NEW*** On line pre-compile and the Wilkies Benchmark now available! ***NEW*** See up to the second scores and the latest Core War information at : http://www.stormking.com/~koth *FAQ* http://www.stormking.com/~koth/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the StormKing Industries MultiWarrior Experimental 94 CoreWar Hill: Last battle concluded at : Thu Jun 6 02:34:44 EDT 1996 # Name Author Score Age 1 TimeScapeX (0.1) J. Pohjalainen 5901 59 2 This is Test1 Kurt Franke 5901 24 3 Test2 George Eadon 5901 19 4 jaded M R Bremer 5901 30 5 Paper8 G. Eadon 5877 25 6 Paperone Beppe Bezzi 5854 44 7 Fork v0.2-9p/51b Christoph C. Birk 5852 1 8 Gluttony J E Long 5851 17 9 Saat V2.01 S. Schroeder 5748 13 10 Shwing! T. H. Davies 5747 55 11 Wait A Lot v0.1 Justin Kao 5732 4 12 Anthill 5 Planar 5400 21 13 Pommes-Ketchup V1.35 S. Schroeder 5236 8 14 life Nandor Sieben 5193 60 15 Leviathan2 harleyQ2 5180 11 16 lifedwarf Nandor Sieben 4930 36 17 Hidden M.C.Diskett Bullfrog 4851 29 18 Variation M-1 Jay Han 4798 6 19 Leviathan harleyQ2 4352 12 20 Piggy 3 Bob Uhl 4163 32 21 Escape2 Philipp Offermann 151 0 From: KOTH Tourney Server Subject: SKI-ICWS: Status - MultiWarrior 94 06/24/96 Date: 1996/06/24 Message-ID: <199606240400.AAA27752@valhalla.stormking.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Weekly Status on 06/24/96 ***NEW*** On line pre-compile and the Wilkies Benchmark now available! ***NEW*** See up to the second scores and the latest Core War information at : http://www.stormking.com/~koth *FAQ* http://www.stormking.com/~koth/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the StormKing Industries Multiwarrior 94 CoreWar Hill: Last battle concluded at : Fri Jun 14 04:38:56 EDT 1996 # Name Author Score Age 1 Super Evol Cap John Wilkinson 6007 3 2 Evol Cap -- John Wilkinson 6007 5 3 90% Cotton v5c Wilkinson 6007 21 4 Son of Imp Steven Morrell 6007 39 5 TJ Maurizio Vittuari 6007 15 6 60% Cotton Wilkinson 6007 22 7 Die Hard P.Kline 5994 26 8 sisyphus Kafka 5994 4 9 TESTI Maurizio Vittuari 5981 14 10 Fork v0.2-9p/51b Christoph C. Birk 5968 1 11 launcherQ2 harleyQ2 0 0 From: jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu Subject: Re: Paper constants? Date: 1996/06/24 Message-ID: <199606240129.UAA21568@mail.utexas.edu>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar >Just a beginner's guess, but do you leave enough scanner bait? If your >copies never suicide, a spl carpet on any of then can be fatal. Why would you have your paper processes suicide, when they can be put to much better use by jumping off to another paper module at the end? From: jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu Subject: Re: Pizza changes underway Date: 1996/06/24 Message-ID: <199606240129.UAA30008@mail.utexas.edu>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar >> how much info on your warrior you want to make public. "[no]source" >> and "[no]score" are two possible arguments to add. > >(Apologies if I've misunderstood here...) - would the "noscore" argument >mean that the score of the warrior would not be displayed? I feel that >the scores should always be seen, so people can tell how close they are >to the top/bottom/next warrior. No, the score option would allow EVERYONE to see the score your warrior got against every other warrior. Frankly, I feel that if this feature is created, one should not allow it to be turned on or off. It should be either on for everyone or off for everyone. Allthough I haven't made up my mind as to which of those it should be... From: jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu Subject: Re: Paper constants? Date: 1996/06/24 Message-ID: <199606240116.UAA28413@mail.utexas.edu>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar >silk spl @0, A1 > mov }-1, >-1 >silk1 spl @0, A2 > mov }-1, >-1 > mov bomb, >B1 > mov {silk1, silk2 jmp @0, >A3 >bomb dat <2667, <2*2667 > >To have an aggressive paper: >A1 is a big modulo number 100-400 optimized with corestep. >A2 is an average modulo 20-40 >A3 is optimized searching the max number of processes running >B1 is last done searching max core coverage. One thing I like to do is make A1 and A2 next-biggest multiples of the number of processes. That way, actual paper CODE should almost never overwrite itself. Like, if you've got a 9 process paper, make A2 mod 10 or mod 20 or mod 40. Get it? A1 should be a multiple of A2's mod, or vice versa, so that the papers will interleave. After that, it's just trial and error for me. From: jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu Subject: Re: Pizza changes underway Date: 1996/06/24 Message-ID: <199606240116.UAA25962@mail.utexas.edu>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar >May be good to implement something to keep hidden a part of the source even >when you have ;show source, something like > >;name Jack >.. >;show source >;show on > >step equ 85 >imp equ 2667 > >;show off > >bootdist equ 4000 > >;show on > >[code I want to show] Yeah, that really would be fairly important. However, what would qscanners do to prevent people from reversing their scan series? From: KOTH Tourney Server Subject: SKI-ICWS: Status - ICWS Experimental 94 06/24/96 Date: 1996/06/24 Message-ID: <199606240400.AAA23928@valhalla.stormking.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Weekly Status on 06/24/96 ***NEW*** On line pre-compile and the Wilkies Benchmark now available! ***NEW*** See up to the second scores and the latest Core War information at : http://www.stormking.com/~koth *FAQ* http://www.stormking.com/~koth/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the StormKing Industries ICWS Experimental 94 CoreWar Hill: Last battle concluded at : Thu Jun 6 04:48:49 EDT 1996 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 36/ 4/ 60 Evol Cap 4 X John Wilkinson 169 21 2 43/ 30/ 27 Lithium X 8 John K Wilkinson 157 12 3 48/ 40/ 12 Memories Beppe Bezzi 155 28 4 43/ 34/ 23 BigBoy Robert Macrae 153 46 5 45/ 38/ 16 Stepping Stone 94x Kurt Franke 153 7 6 45/ 41/ 15 Frontwards v2 Steven Morrell 149 51 7 46/ 45/ 9 S.E.T.I. 4-X JKW 147 22 8 34/ 22/ 44 Variation M-1 Jay Han 147 1 9 45/ 43/ 12 Pagan John K W 147 6 10 42/ 39/ 20 Derision M R Bremer 144 38 11 43/ 42/ 14 Illusion-94/55 Randy Graham 144 3 12 32/ 24/ 44 Aleph 1 Jay Han 140 11 13 31/ 24/ 45 Hector 2 Kurt Franke 137 41 14 36/ 37/ 27 Tornado 2.0 x Beppe Bezzi 136 45 15 39/ 42/ 19 Fire Master Xv1 JS Pulido 136 43 16 39/ 44/ 17 Watcher Kurt Franke 134 44 17 39/ 45/ 16 Watcher-h Kurt Franke 133 40 18 31/ 36/ 33 Nice Try M R Bremer 127 50 19 33/ 40/ 26 Riff Steven Morrell 126 2 20 36/ 55/ 9 Withershins Thrice P.Kline 118 4 21 22/ 71/ 6 Escape2 Philipp Offermann 73 0 From: KOTH Tourney Server Subject: SKI-ICWS: Status - ICWS Tournament 06/24/96 Date: 1996/06/24 Message-ID: <199606240400.AAA22107@valhalla.stormking.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Weekly Status on 06/24/96 ***NEW*** On line pre-compile and the Wilkies Benchmark now available! ***NEW*** See up to the second scores and the latest Core War information at : http://www.stormking.com/~koth *FAQ* http://www.stormking.com/~koth/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the StormKing Industries Annual ICWS Tournament CoreWar Hill: Last battle concluded at : Tue Jun 4 06:47:05 EDT 1996 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 45/ 11/ 44 Cannonade Paul Kline 180 91 2 51/ 34/ 16 Miss Carefree Derek Ross 167 23 3 46/ 33/ 20 Giskard v0.5 Ken Mitton 159 64 4 33/ 15/ 52 Nothing Special G. Eadon 151 6 5 33/ 18/ 49 Turkey Beppe Bezzi 149 7 6 47/ 45/ 8 Agony T Stefan Strack 149 92 7 39/ 29/ 32 Pommes-Ketchup V1.35 S. Schroeder 149 4 8 43/ 42/ 14 test88 P.Kline 144 10 9 41/ 41/ 18 Old Tire Swing Randy Graham 142 48 10 39/ 38/ 23 Yop La Boum v2.1 P.E.M & E.C. 140 21 11 40/ 44/ 16 Miss Carry Derek Ross 135 55 12 29/ 24/ 47 One Fat Lady Robert Macrae 134 8 13 39/ 46/ 14 Traper3_t Waldemar Bartolik 132 1 14 39/ 47/ 14 Slaver v1.1i Christoph C. Birk 131 52 15 37/ 46/ 17 Illusion Randy Graham 127 50 16 37/ 49/ 15 DoubleStone v0.7 Christoph C. Birk 125 34 17 30/ 36/ 33 Chris Steven Morrell 124 13 18 38/ 54/ 7 xtc stefan roettger 121 96 19 35/ 52/ 13 Traper3 Waldemar Bartolik 117 3 20 35/ 52/ 13 Traper3 Waldemar Bartolik 117 2 21 32/ 49/ 19 WhirlWind-88 Randy Graham 114 28 From: KOTH Tourney Server Subject: SKI-ICWS: Status - Standard 06/24/96 Date: 1996/06/24 Message-ID: <199606240400.AAA23126@valhalla.stormking.com>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Weekly Status on 06/24/96 ***NEW*** On line pre-compile and the Wilkies Benchmark now available! ***NEW*** See up to the second scores and the latest Core War information at : http://www.stormking.com/~koth *FAQ* http://www.stormking.com/~koth/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the StormKing Industries Standard KotH CoreWar Hill : Last battle concluded at : Sat Jun 15 14:54:50 EDT 1996 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 42/ 35/ 23 PacMan v5 David Moore 149 1 2 39/ 39/ 23 Stasis David Moore 139 9 3 28/ 19/ 53 Hydra Stephen Linhart 137 207 4 32/ 28/ 40 Yop La Boum v2.1 P.E.M & E.C. 137 33 5 28/ 20/ 51 CAPS KEY IS STUCK AGAIN Steven Morrell 136 99 6 25/ 15/ 60 ttti nandor sieben 135 83 7 39/ 44/ 17 Iron Gate Wayne Sheppard 134 227 8 25/ 16/ 59 Cannonade P.Kline 134 133 9 26/ 20/ 54 Blue Funk 88 Steven Morrell 132 97 10 25/ 19/ 56 K-test P.E.M 131 5 11 34/ 36/ 31 Keystone t21 P.Kline 131 120 12 20/ 11/ 69 Imperfic II John Wilkinson 130 19 13 35/ 41/ 23 Beholder's Eye V1.7 W. Mintardjo 130 177 14 26/ 24/ 50 Test Wayne Sheppard 128 122 15 19/ 12/ 69 test John Wilkinson 127 6 16 23/ 20/ 57 Peace Mr. Jones 127 107 17 32/ 38/ 30 Giskard v0.5 Ken Mitton 125 71 18 30/ 38/ 32 Christopher Stephen Morrell 121 98 19 32/ 43/ 25 Tuctest Elmer J. Fudd 120 27 20 31/ 44/ 25 Request v2.0 Brant D. Thomsen 119 69 21 12/ 47/ 41 Ide Eiji Kako 77 0 From: jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu Subject: Re: Pizza changes underway Date: 1996/06/25 Message-ID: <199606250648.BAA08617@mail.utexas.edu>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar >In article <199606240129.UAA30008@mail.utexas.edu>, >Maybe. I think a little choice in the matter might be nice though. >I don't think most people will mind showing how they scored, but it >is something new, information that wasn't easily available before, >so a choice will probably be best for now. I disagree. The information WAS available before. However, you would have had to sat there with a calculator and do a LOT of computing. And you're data would've been approximate due to the way Pizza effectively divides your real score by 26... Nevertheless, the scores could've been computed to a degree. :/ From: Anders Ivner Subject: Re: Pizza changes underway Date: 1996/06/25 Message-ID: <9606251547.AA26711@su4-4.ida.liu.se>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar An idea to solve the controversy about the -F switch: Let test challenges set their own -F number like ;redcode-94 test -F 1234 but have "real" challenges played without the -F switch. This would allow people to avoid the random fluctuations while testing their warriors, and remove the risk of any systematic biases or "over tweaking". /Anders From: Beppe Bezzi Subject: Re: Pizza changes underway Date: 1996/06/25 Message-ID: #1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Lord Kymbote wrote: >In article <199606240129.UAA30008@mail.utexas.edu>, > wrote: ... >>Frankly, I feel that if this feature is created, one should not allow it >>to be turned on or off. It should be either on for everyone or off for >>everyone. Allthough I haven't made up my mind as to which of those it >>should be... > >Maybe. I think a little choice in the matter might be nice though. >I don't think most people will mind showing how they scored, but it >is something new, information that wasn't easily available before, >so a choice will probably be best for now. Now everyone can have this information, only for published warriors, submitting them under fake name. > >Thos > > -Beppe From: jxidus@aol.com (JXidus) Subject: Re: ;kill Date: 1996/06/25 Message-ID: <4qpiqa$l43@newsbf02.news.aol.com>#1/1 references: <199606250606.BAA18724@mail.utexas.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar In article <199606250606.BAA18724@mail.utexas.edu>, jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu writes: >Whoa whoa whoa. Hold the phone, buddy. Are you telling me that if I >submit a warrior with the line ";kill spl" that it will kill any warrior of >mine that uses an spl instruction in the CODE??? I've just been following this thread, and I think I can answer this question... The GREP is only done against each ;name foo line for each of your warriors. The problem is that it's tested exactly against these lines, and thus, ^foo$ (that is, beginning of line, 'foo', end of line) will NOT match ';name foo', which is what it's compared against. I think that answers your question... Jeremy Weatherford jxidus@aol.com (sorry about the sig - meant for another newsgroup) --- Looking for a quick and easy way to 'fly' a 'camera' around your OGl scene? Contact me at the above address for info on the CAM module, v1.1. From: guenzel@extern.lrz-muenchen.de (Bjoern Guenzel) Subject: sorry for unanswered emails Date: 1996/06/25 Message-ID: <4qp60e$hho@sparcserver.lrz-muenchen.de>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Sorry if I didn't answer some emails. The mail server I pepend upon seems to be down forever... :-( Yesterday I send of 11 mails, but most likely they are lost :-( Bjoern From: jklewis@stimpy.us.itd.umich.edu (John K. Lewis) Subject: Re: Paper constants? Date: 1996/06/25 Message-ID: <4qp1p6$iv7@lastactionhero.rs.itd.umich.edu>#1/1 references: <23199649.Amiga@sci.fi> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Ilmari Karonen (iltzu@sci.fi) wrote: : >But you may have come up with a paper killing paper, in which case you : >might have something special. :-) : : Hmm.. =) Actually, the more bombing a paper does the better it _should_ : score against other papers. So the best chance might be to stick the : lines SPL @0, -1 in front of a fast stone.. =) I tried that once. I didn't like the results. I've been working on a paper that would drop stun bombs, and then go to a clear, but I haven't had a lot of success. The problem is how to get all the papers to go to clear at the same time... I've been thinking about using P-Space to do this... but then I was thinking, man all those inline processes all checking P-Space, that wont work. So I came up with the idea of a two part paper... the theory goes like this. If you have a paper with eight lines, and *nine* processes, [ eight inline processes and one single process in a second module] and you divide the paper into two parts like this: top spl @0,721 ;not real numbers, just an example mov }top,>top ;again, not real. (okay, so they would be =) mov <500,{1000 ;still not real. jmp top,{top -* -* second module -* -* this would be the top, the under it could be four lines being run by a single process. The single process would need to do a spl to the second part of the paper that was just created, but then could do some other task that inline processes would not be well suited for. You could have a single paper module dropping bombers, after eight copies, the bombers would start being the predominant process count. (this assumes you don't have a jmp back to the start of the first paper module.) John K. Lewis From: Robert Macrae Subject: Re: Pizza changes underway Date: 1996/06/25 Message-ID: <4qovnc$1k6@soap.news.pipex.net>#1/1 references: <4qi4au$pvl@charnel.ecst.csuchico.edu> <4qi9eh$avn@news.asu.edu> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar sieben@imap1.asu.edu wrote: >Well I had one. I have a feeling it never will be implemented, but I >still think that the current scores of a warrior would be very useful. Isn't this handled by resubmitting with a test option? >Furthermore access to all the scores would be nice too. >I'd like something like > > gate imp dwarf >imp 0 0 0 >gate 0 a 0 >dwarf 5 2 6 > >numbers mean win times 10 percent (a means 10). Please back me up if >you'd like something like this. I think all scores should be available. If not, you need to run occasional batteries of probe warriors (imp, coreclear, dat bomber etc) to work out the vulnerabilities of the existing hill. Lack of transparency also favours those with warriors on the hill; they have inside information. I think I'd prefer a different detail format; perhaps imp gate dwarf imp x 0 98 gate 300 x 25 dwarf 104 250 x each element would be the score of against , so gate beats imp and dwarf usually beats gate. But the big question is -- do people mind their scores being public? From: Robert Macrae Subject: Re: 3-clear 0.5 Date: 1996/06/25 Message-ID: <4qougq$1k6@soap.news.pipex.net>#1/1 references: <21199620.Amiga@sci.fi> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar >>How about launching the clear, or adding a decoy-launcher like Harmony's? >>I'm not sure how many scanners are around, but it can't do much harm... > >I did this in v0.7, but it scored much worse. Strange. Are you sure you weren't hitting yourself somehow, or another bug? A 12-MOV launcher like Harmony is really too ephemeral to add much to your vulnerability, and starting the clear away shouldn't hurt too much either... unless maybe vs other coreclears? >I might try to use >a forward djn stream starting at the opposite side of the core. ie. > > djn.f loop, >bomb-space+(CORESIZE/2) > Make sure that "bomb-space+(CORESIZE/2)" doesn't contain a zero :) From: guenzel@extern.lrz-muenchen.de (Bjoern Guenzel) Subject: tiny scan - selfmutating scanner Date: 1996/06/25 Message-ID: <4qoemc$efn@sparcserver.lrz-muenchen.de> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Hello everybody! Many weeks ago, when Scanny Boy was still king, David van Damn told me it was an eight instructions scanner. Not wanting to make a one-shot, since then I have tried to make a small scanner. One of the ideas I was obsessed with was to turn the attack of the scanner into a 0.66c clear. I just was unsatisfied with having no further use for two mov.i bomb,>ptr in a row, it seemed to be too perfect for a fast clear. I have tried MANY things... Countless hours, for me it turned out to be very difficult (although it might seem easy, if you see it now). A few days ago I gave it another try, and now here it is :-) I am glad that at least I got my idea to work, only it doesn't score well. I am unhappy with having to store some bombs so far away from the main code - since paper attacks with carpets, the scanner could as well be 30 instructions long, then... Also the clear tends to be unstable - in earlier versions it often ended up with only spl, because it overwrote the pointer with the wrong bomb. In this version it's better, but there are the dispersed bombs... :-( Anyway, I am satisfied with the scan engine itself - I think it is quite neat (?), and one of the faster ones. A problem is that if it hits a location that is constantly changed (eg a djn stream pointer), it is stuck... But I think other scanners like memories or Iron Gate have the same problem? (not sure) I also made a version that jumped to a seperate clear after the scan, which does much better, but it hasn't got the feature I wanted... I hope it interests someone - I guess it is one of the smaller scanners of it's kind (bombing s/s/j) :-). If anyone has an idea how to improve it, I would be very glad to hear!!! Also about other comments of any kind! Any hints how to make it score well? I doubt scanners have good odds, but after all, tiny scan theoretically has a better size/speed ratio than most bombers (?? at least better than justice, which is my best) - not counted the time wasted on decoys, unfortunately... Aaargh, please help me to make it good, I am exhausted from dealing with it............................... Thanks for listening! Bjoern P.S.: Has somebody else tried a similiar thing, perhaps found different solutions? I really tried a lot of things, this is the only one I got to work... I guess I could also have called it 'bag of tricks', but somebody else did that before :-) ;redcode-94 ;name tiny scan ;author bjoern guenzel ;strategy paper x-tinction ??? Probably not :-( ;strategy 0.66c size 12 scanner, bombs with s/s/j -> s/d/d... clear ;strategy beta test - no boot or decoy yet ;assert CORESIZE==8000 ;release 22.6.96 ;kill test step5 equ 15 dist equ step5 step spl #2*step5+1,#2*step5 b0 spl 0,#0 ;first compared+decr dat 0,0 ;semi-gate dat 0,0 ;scanned, better put same to +/- dist dat 0,0 loop add.x step,@ref return sne.f *ptr,ptr ref mov.i b1,>ptr decref mov.i jb,@ptr ;hit with jb -> clear :-) modi djn.b return,@decref ;last action: decrement return last dat 0,0 ;scanned, 5 to ptr,12 to b0 for 17 dat 0,0 rof dat >2667,#last-ptr+1 ;30 to b0, 23 to ptr for 10 dat 0,0 rof b1 spl #-7,#3 ;34 to ptr for MAXLENGTH-CURLINE dat 0,0 rof end return Here is an example of how to use my scan engine in an old fashioned way, scan-> jump to clear. (one of the earlier stages in my quest for a small scanner... it's only 13 instructions :) It also needs some improvement, I only include it as a demo. ;redcode-94 ;name tinc 2 ;author bjoern guenzel ;strategy scanner, not as small as I had hoped... ;assert CORESIZE==8000 ;release ;kill test step5 equ 15 dist equ step5 clptr equ step dat 0,0 ;scan dat 0,0 loop add.f step,@return return sne.i @ptr,{ptr jb jmp loop,#sp-loop ptr mov.x #ptr+step5+1,#ptr+step5+dist mov.i sp,}ptr mov.i sp,}ptr mov.i jb,*ptr jmp @loop,{ptr dat 0,0 ;scan for 8 dat 0,0 rof step spl #2*step5+1,#2*step5 dat 0,0 ;scan dat #1,#last-clptr+3 sp spl #-4,#last-clptr+3 mov.i @1,>clptr last djn.b -1,{sp dat 0,0 ;scan end return From: Planar Subject: Re: Pizza changes underway Date: 1996/06/25 Message-ID: <4qo99j$ce4@news-rocq.inria.fr>#1/1 references: newsgroups: rec.games.corewar In article , Beppe Bezzi writes: >;show off >[real pattern] > >;show on >for 0 >[fake similar pattern] >rof > >[warrior] Better yet: ;show off [real pattern] for 0 ;show on [fake pattern] ;show off rof ;show on [warrior] -- Planar :-> From: jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu Subject: Re: ;kill Date: 1996/06/25 Message-ID: <199606250606.BAA18724@mail.utexas.edu>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar >unix regular expressions are much the same in any environment. But >remember, the name line is not just MASK, it's ";name MASK". To kill >just that warrior, you need to say ";kill ^;name MASK$". > >>Of course the current KotH scripts may not support this usage. If >>not, it would be worth changing them so that they do. > >How would you propose doing so? I can't think of a simple way. Perhaps >checking every kill string for "^", and inserting ";name " after it, but >what if someone uses two spaces, or a tab? It won't match. Whoa whoa whoa. Hold the phone, buddy. Are you telling me that if I submit a warrior with the line ";kill spl" that it will kill any warrior of mine that uses an spl instruction in the CODE??? From: jstott@poly.phys.cwru.edu (Jonathan Stott) Subject: Re: Paper constants? Date: 1996/06/25 Message-ID: <4qnjcp$i8q@madeline.INS.CWRU.Edu>#1/1 references: newsgroups: rec.games.corewar In article , Beppe Bezzi wrote: >At 18.50 22/06/96 -0400, you wrote: >>Can anyone give any hints about optimizing paper constants? I've been >> >>... Is there any >>effective way to optimize them except by trial and error? >> >Optimizing paper constants is, IMO, more atr than science. I wrote an >article on that in Corewarrior 3, you can find it at Planar's web page, >explaining how to use cdb to make a macro that should help, but results are >sometimes puzzling. Second that. I actually ran a brute force check (computed Wilkies) using almost every product of 2 primes less than 2000 and also checked *every* value over a particularly likely-looking range (ca 400 numbers total) for a 1 parameter paper [silk], and the results were nearly random (a very slow peaked curve was there, but the variance of the points was much greater than the maximum increase). The number I ended up using was significantly better, but has NO interesting properties (not a mopt bombing number, not prime+1, etc.). -JS PS. Yes, it was worth it. -- Jonathan Stott O- jjs17@po.cwru.edu CWRU Dept. of Physics jstott@poly.phys.cwru.edu School of Graduate Studies http://poly.phys.cwru.edu:8080/~jstott/ From: Ross Morgan-Linial Subject: P-space engine Date: 1996/06/25 Message-ID: #1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Since Corewarrior called for new pspace engines, here's Versatility's. It's pretty fast and extremely versatile. It works by finding a table index stored from the last round, then adding the result and looking up the new table index and warrior to use. It can simulate any sort of switch-on-loss algorithm. Have fun! toffs equ (table-tindex) TIDX equ 1 ;changed to protect me... start LDP.ab #TIDX, tindex result LDP.ab #0, #0 ADD.b result, tindex SEQ.ab #0, tindex ;brainwash check - zero SLT.b tindex, #endtab+1-tindex ;brainwash check - too ;large MOV.ab #fsttab-tindex, tindex ;use data at fsttab on ;first ;round and when ;brainwashed STP.ab @tindex, #TIDX MOV.ba @tindex, jump jump JMP 0 fsttab DAT #toffs+0, #w1-jump ;this is used for the ;first round ;and when brainwashed tindex DAT #0, #0 ;index into table ;the table has been reordered, to deter brainwashers table DAT #toffs+6, #w3-jump ;w1->w3 on loss DAT #toffs+0, #w1-jump ;w1->w1 on win DAT #toffs+6, #w3-jump ;w1->w3 on tie DAT #toffs+0, #w1-jump ;w2->w1 on loss DAT #toffs+3, #w2-jump ;w2->w2 on win DAT #toffs+6, #w3-jump ;w2->w3 on tie DAT #toffs+3, #w2-jump ;w3->w2 on loss DAT #toffs+6, #w3-jump ;w3->w3 on win endtab DAT #toffs+6, #w3-jump ;w3->w3 on tie ;w1, w2, and w3 (boot points) go here --------- [This space for rent] Ross Morgan-Linial rmorganl@fhcrc.org From: Bjoern Guenzel Subject: Re: gate crushing Date: 1996/06/26 Message-ID: <31D1403D.2A6A@mmk.e-technik.tu-muenchen.de>#1/1 references: <31D12E73.26A0@mmk.e-technik.tu-muenchen.de> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar I forgot to add: the jmz.b loop,#0 is of course stolen from torch :-) Bjoern From: Bjoern Guenzel Subject: gate crushing Date: 1996/06/26 Message-ID: <31D12E73.26A0@mmk.e-technik.tu-muenchen.de>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar I never understood why mov.i #istep,*0 (istep might be 2667) is a good imp, but now I see it, and I want to warn everybody: if our little imp arrives at an incrementing gate, the result might be something like gate mov.i #istep,*1 dat 0,0 which of course means that the imp surpasses the gate. Of course some luck is needed, it might as well be incremented more than once. Anyway, better to have a strange dat behind the gate (I think there are some anti-imp dats, but that ask Beppe or others). In any case it is an even worse idea to create a gate like clptr dat >0,last+2 bomb dat >2667,last-clptr+2 which I did at times, I think... Good Luck for Rosebud & Co dat >-2667,last-clptr+2 is less dangerous, I think(?) Note on Gate Setups: In my pure dat clears, I usually use a setup like this (Beginner hint...): clptr dat >1,#last+2 bomb dat >1,#last-clptr+2 .... here is my stone... jmz.b loop,#0 ;bombed with spl or fall through by decr. mov.i bomb,>clptr last djn.f -1,{clptr which has the advantage that in case of being decremented, the clptr becomes the new bomb, and the clear still works properly. Please tell me if I missed something about the imp or if there are more important hints about gating. Bjoern From: jklewis@stimpy.us.itd.umich.edu (John K. Lewis) Subject: Re: Pizza changes underway Date: 1996/06/26 Message-ID: <4qq5o7$2jg@lastactionhero.rs.itd.umich.edu>#1/1 references: <9606251547.AA26711@su4-4.ida.liu.se> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Anders, you're brilliant. :-) John K. Lewis Anders Ivner (d91andiv@und.ida.liu.se) wrote: : An idea to solve the controversy about the -F switch: : : Let test challenges set their own -F number like : ;redcode-94 test -F 1234 : but have "real" challenges played without the -F switch. : : This would allow people to avoid the random fluctuations : while testing their warriors, and remove the risk of any : systematic biases or "over tweaking". : : /Anders : From: PK6811S@ACAD.DRAKE.EDU Subject: retinA Date: 1996/06/27 Message-ID: <01I6EHKRT842001QBG@ACAD.DRAKE.EDU>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Found that working version of retinA. Scores 64% ties on the 94x hill, no imps, no dat-bombs, just a non-optimal paper spread and retinA :-) ;redcode-94 ;name test retinA ;kill test ;author P.Kline ;assert CORESIZE == 8000 ;strategy paper with retinA space equ 1501 start spl 1 mov -1,0 spl 1 spl @0,#space mov.i }-1,>-1 mov.i {-2,<1 spl @0,>space*11 spl -4 retinA mov.i #-space*7,}space*4-7 end start Paul Kline pk6811s@acad.drake.edu From: jklewis@stimpy.us.itd.umich.edu (John K. Lewis) Subject: Re: Paper constants? Date: 1996/06/27 Message-ID: <4quhru$ele@lastactionhero.rs.itd.umich.edu>#1/1 references: <26199647.Amiga@sci.fi> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Ilmari Karonen (iltzu@sci.fi) wrote: : >So I came up with the idea of a two part paper... the theory goes like this. : : (some code deleted) : : >You could have a single paper module dropping bombers, after eight : >copies, the bombers would start being the predominant process count. : >(this assumes you don't have a jmp back to the start of the first paper : >module.) : : Hmm.. would it be too hard to just kill the extra processes? The idea here is that you would still have the paper going. If you killed the extra processes that would take too long. This way you're not killing any of your own processes. John K. Lewis From: "Steven C. Morrell" Subject: Using MOD.x to kill excess processes Date: 1996/06/27 Message-ID: #1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Well, since Paul asked... When you look at it, MOD.x #a,#b is a pretty cool instruction. Let's take a close look. If a=0 or b=0, we get a divide by zero error that kills the process that executes it, and (I think) the instruction doesn't change. If a=b, then after one process executes it, we have MOD.x #0,#0 which will kill all subsequent processes executing it. If a>b and b!=0 then after a process executes this instruction, it becomes MOD.x #b,#c where c=a mod b. Note in this case, that b>c, and the next process that executes this instruction will die if and only if c=0. For completeness, if ab. mov.x data,data ; done mod.x #0,#0 end This would actually be useful for finding the "mod" value of any given step-size if CORESIZE wasn't stored as 0. But, we can patch this by noting that CORESIZE mod a = (CORESIZE-a) mod a (because a removing processes Date: 1996/06/27 Message-ID: <4qtgc9$msj@sparcserver.lrz-muenchen.de>#1/1 references: <01I6DBUOINW6001NQE@ACAD.DRAKE.EDU> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar PK6811S@ACAD.DRAKE.EDU wrote: >To pass an exact number of processes use MOD.X: > mod.x #1,#0 ; pass zero processes > mod.x #1,#2 ; pass exactly 1 process [...] That's really brilliant. I didn't know that mod can be deadly?? Is it deadly to mod something with zero? >Paul Kline >pk6811s@acad.drake.edu >(still looking for that example demonstrating retinA :-) What is retinA? Bjoern From: Rene Perigny Subject: How do you get off this list? Date: 1996/06/28 Message-ID: <01BB6522.05A4CB00@pucc1_onlink6.puc.net>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Its nothing personal everyone... I just don't have the time to it takes to create warriors... :( Omega From: Beppe Bezzi Subject: Two small suggestions for new hill format Date: 1996/06/28 Message-ID: #1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar I have two little thigs that I'd like to see in hill reports, nothing but cosmetic changes: --- Hill submission. Your corewar program has compiled successfully and will be entered into the ICWS '94 Draft tournament. Including your program, there are 2 programs waiting to run. [may be nice to see the holding pen status here] --- Score report ... Your overall score: 131.826923 (15) Adding hill position after the score. -Beppe From: server@news.stormking.com (StormKing ListProc Account) Subject: 94x - what does rounds fought: 5 * 40 means ? Date: 1996/06/28 Message-ID: <199606281154.NAA15350@platinum.daimi.aau.dk>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Dear reader, What is the difference between the 94 (Draft hill) af pizza and the 94x hill ? I can only see that the difference is: 94x: rounds fought: 5 * 40 94 : rounds fought: 200 but wat does 5*20 means exactly ? I hope that my question isn't too silly. Cheers Martin M. Pedersen From: jxidus@aol.com (JXidus) Subject: Re: Paper constants -> removing processes Date: 1996/06/28 Message-ID: <4r031i$k7i@newsbf02.news.aol.com>#1/1 references: <4qtgc9$msj@sparcserver.lrz-muenchen.de> newsgroups: rec.games.corewar In article <4qtgc9$msj@sparcserver.lrz-muenchen.de>, guenzel@extern.lrz-muenchen.de (Bjoern Guenzel) writes: >Is it deadly to mod something with zero? Just thought I'd jump in here... ;) mod x, y is the integer remainder after div x, y. For div x, y, y==0 makes it an illegal instruction, and thus deadly. Thus, mod x, y, with y==0, is also deadly. (I apologize if I got the a- and b-fields wrong... I'm very new at this...) Jeremy Weatherford jxidus@aol.com comp.graphics.api.opengl only: --- Looking for a quick and easy way to 'fly' a 'camera' around your OGl scene? Contact me at the above address for info on the CAM module, v1.1. From: server@news.stormking.com (StormKing ListProc Account) Subject: Re: How do you get off this list? Date: 1996/06/29 Message-ID: <199606291848.UAA01056@hafnium.daimi.aau.dk>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar -> -> Its nothing personal everyone... -> -> I just don't have the time to it takes to create warriors... -> -> :( -> -> Omega -> send a mail to listproc@stormking.com with the message: signoff corewar-l to get more help from the ListProc v6.0 program send the message: help /Martin -- 'Some news readers expect disclaimer here' From: sieben@imap1.asu.edu Subject: hall of fame Date: 1996/06/29 Message-ID: <4r27mc$30j@news.asu.edu>#1/1 newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Check out the corewar hall of fame at www.public.asu.edu/~sieben/cwhof/cwhof.htm We have a new picture there. Nandor. From: sd@ecst.csuchico.edu (Lord Kymbote) Subject: Re: Two small suggestions for new hill format Date: 1996/06/30 Message-ID: <4r70dk$b0b@charnel.ecst.csuchico.edu>#1/1 references: newsgroups: rec.games.corewar In article , Beppe Bezzi wrote: >I have two little thigs that I'd like to see in hill reports, nothing but >cosmetic changes: > >--- >Hill submission. > >[may be nice to see the holding pen status here] > >--- >Score report > >Adding hill position after the score. Your wish is my command. Thos