From: "John K. Lewis" Subject: IWT update. Date: 1999/06/01 Message-ID: <7VZ43.140$Sw.3252@news.itd.umich.edu>#1/1 It's my sad duty to inform everyone that there were no entries in the IWT. I'm not sure if it was simply bad timing on my part, or a lack of interest in the community. With that in mind, I'm asking how many here would be interested in entering if I extended the deadline for a week or so. Respond here if you are interested in an extention. If four people respond here, I will extend the tournament. Otherwise I will let this tourney fall to the side. John K. Lewis From: phil@pknight.demon.co.uk (Phil Knight) Subject: CoreWar Tournament Utility Date: 1999/06/01 Message-ID: <3753eb8c.11659355@news.demon.co.uk>#1/1 Some while ago I knocked out a windows utility that schedules and runs a round-robin tournament involving two, three or four warriors per fight and produces a rank listing at the end of the tournament based on each warrior's total score. I've recently tidied it up a bit, added a help file and made it available at: http://www.pknight.demon.co.uk/corewar It has been tested on Windows95 and Windows NT. I assume it will be fine on Windows 98 too. You will also need the pmars program for your system. I hope beginners especially might find it a useful little program. Phil Knight. From: cgbean@alaska.net Subject: Re: IWT update. Date: 1999/06/02 Message-ID: <3755F945.A34@alaska.net>#1/1 > We could mention CW to others, have http://www.koth.org/ in .sigs, scatter > links on the web.. Hey, maybe we could get mentioned on Slashdot. > A very good idea. The only place on-line I've seen a mention of Core War (besides 'Hacker Dictionaries', etc. , which I assume don't get many hits. Correct me if I'm wrong) is in an issue of the Happy Hacker's Guide to (Mostly) Harmless Hacking (HHGTMHH) where Core War is described as being played by "The Uberest Of Uberhackers". =p. They get a WHOLE lot of hits. I could send in the URL...hopefully they'll add it... -WFB From: "Simon W" Subject: Anyone there Date: 1999/06/02 Message-ID: <19990602132816.81438.qmail@hotmail.com>#1/1 Is anyone still playing corewars? If not, I'm off elsewhere. ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com From: John Metcalf Subject: Re: IWT update. Date: 1999/06/02 Message-ID: #1/1 Greetings... > Respond here if you are interested in an extention. If four people > respond here, I will extend the tournament. Otherwise I will let > this tourney fall to the side. I would, my entry was only half completed by the deadline. Regards, John From: iltzu@sci.fi (Ilmari Karonen) Subject: Re: IWT update. Date: 1999/06/02 Message-ID: <7j39r3$l64$1@tron.sci.fi>#1/1 On Tue, 01 Jun 1999 23:20:35 GMT, John K. Lewis (jklewis@jane.itd.umich.edu) wrote: : It's my sad duty to inform everyone that there were no entries in In-bloody-credible.. I had a proof-of-concept warrior written, but then decided I didn't have enough time to tweak it. I'd expected there to be dozens of participants, and felt there to be little point in entering a slow and clumsy warrior. I was wrong, it seems. : the IWT. I'm not sure if it was simply bad timing on my part, or : a lack of interest in the community. The CW community is small indeed, and it seems only a fraction of it ever participates in tournaments. Yet I'd really consider this bad luck. Maybe what we need is advertisement. There's still action on the hills, so CW can't be completely dead. Maybe the hill owners could add a mention of ongoing tournaments to status reports, reminding newbies that there's more to CW than the 94b hill. And I think there's more to be done if only we weren't so damn apathic. We could mention CW to others, have http://www.koth.org/ in .sigs, scatter links on the web.. Hey, maybe we could get mentioned on Slashdot. : With that in mind, I'm asking how many here would be interested in : entering if I extended the deadline for a week or so. I suggest more than a week. Think of it as starting a new tournament. And this time let's try to get some interest up. Yes, it's a challenging one, with all the "intelligent" stuff. But that also means that it's almost as hard for the old-timers as it is for newbies. After this, I'm damn surely going to enter *something*. It might be that incredibly sneaky thing I was planning, or it might be just some stupid scanner. That depends on how much time I'll have. But I hereby promise I'll enter a warrior to this tournament. It might be JMP 0 if I can't get anything else to work, but *I* *will* *participate*. And I suggest everyone else do so too. Give us a few weeks, and we'll see how many of us care enough to lift a finger. Remember, it's only as fun as you make it. -- . _, .. j u s t. h o w l.i n g i n .t h e n.i g h t .. ._, . , )'' . /\_ . ' ,/\ . , ``( , _\__/ |__.'\._______,--;_'_`-.___,.______,/_,_`.__,-.__'__,/`-._,_| \____ ,_f_)\. Ilmari Karonen iltzu@sci.fi http://www.sci.fi/~iltzu/ /(_|_,. From: "Ransom Smith" Subject: Re: pmars Date: 1999/06/02 Message-ID: <6e953.62$664.36037@news-west.eli.net>#1/1 I think you're thinking of pmarsv.exe, It's available at http://www.koth.org/pmars/pmarsv.zip. From: "Sapan J Bhatia" Subject: pmars Date: 1999/06/02 Message-ID: <7j451v$i41$1@news.vsnl.net.in>#1/1 Hi I've just returned to the Core Wars scene after a long time. The last time I played (about a year ago) I had a version of pmars that graphically showed what happened. You could also step through if you wanted. Does anyone know where I can get that one from now? Thanks in advance SB From: "John K. Lewis" Subject: IWT update. Date: 1999/06/03 Message-ID: <1Wz53.130$oy.2720@news.itd.umich.edu>#1/1 ANNOUNCEMENT: Due to demand, the IWT tournament will be extended for one month. The website will soon have the new dates, but suffice it to say that at least one more month of time will be allowed for entries. Programmers, start you editors. From: anton@paradise.net.nz (Anton Marsden) Subject: Core War Frequently Asked Questions (rec.games.corewar FAQ) Date: 1999/06/03 Message-ID: Archive-name: games/corewar-faq Last-Modified: February 25, 1999 Version: 4.1 URL: http://www.paradise.net.nz/~anton/corewar-faq.html Copyright: (c) 1999 Anton Marsden Maintainer: Anton Marsden Posting-Frequency: once every 2 weeks Core War Frequently Asked Questions (rec.games.corewar FAQ) These are the Frequently Asked Questions (and answers) from the Usenet newsgroup rec.games.corewar. A plain text version of this document is poste= d every two weeks. The latest hypertext version is available at http://www.paradise.net.nz/~anton/cw/corewar-faq.html and the latest plain text version is available at http://www.paradise.net.nz/~anton/cw/corewar-faq.txt. This document is currently being maintained by Anton Marsden (anton@paradise.net.nz). Last modified: Thu Feb 25 20:08:13 NZDT 1999 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ To Do * Add the new No-PSpace '94 hill location * Add online location of Dewdney's articles * Make question 17 easier to understand. Add a state diagram? * Add info about infinite hills, related games (C-Robots, Tierra?, ...) * New question: How do I know if my warrior is any good? Refer to beginners' benchmarks, etc. * Add a Who's Who list? * Would very much like someone to compile a collection of the "revolutionary" warriors so that beginners can see how the game has developed over the years. Mail me if interested. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ What's New * Vector-launching code was fixed thanks to Ting Hsu. * Changed the location of Ryan Coleman's paper (LaunchPad -> Launchpad) * Changed pauillac.inria.fr to para.inria.fr * Made some changes/additions/fixes based on a good FAQ review by Joonas Pihlaja. Not all of the suggestions have been dealt with yet, but the FAQ is now less ambiguous in some areas. Thanks Joonas! * Added stuff about pMARS under Win95 (question 9), and the location of = a HTML version of the ICWS'94 draft (question 5) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 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 o= f the current instruction set? 5. What is ICWS'94? Which simulators support ICWS'94? 6. What is the ICWS? 7. What is Core Warrior? 8. Where are the Core War archives? 9. Where can I find a Core War system for ...? 10. Where can I find warrior code? 11. I do not have FTP. How do I get all this great stuff? 12. I do not have access to Usenet. How do I post and receive news? 13. Are there any Core War related WWW sites? 14. What is KotH? How do I enter? 15. Is it DAT 0, 0 or DAT #0, #0? How do I compare to core? 16. How does SLT (Skip if Less Than) work? 17. What is the difference between in-register and in-memory evaluation? 18. What is P-space? 19. What does "Missing ;assert .." in my message from KotH mean? 20. How should I format my code? 21. Are there any other Core War related resources I should know about? 22. What does (expression or term of your choice) mean? 23. Other questions? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. 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 virtua= l computer called MARS (for Memory Array Redcode Simulator). The object of th= e game is to cause all processes of the opposing program to terminate, leavin= g your program in sole posession of the machine. There are Core War systems available for most computer platforms. Redcode has been standardised by the ICWS, and is therefore transportable between all standard Core War systems. The system in which the programs run is quite simple. The core (the memory of the simulated computer) is a continuous array of instructions, empty except for the competing programs. The core wraps around, so that after the last instruction comes the first one again. There are no absolute addresses in Core War. That is, the address 0 doesn't mean the first instruction in the memory, but the instruction that contains the address 0. The next instruction is 1, and the previous one obviously -1= =2E However, all numbers are treated as positive, and are in the range 0 to CORESIZE-1 where CORESIZE is the amount of memory locations in the core - this means that -1 would be treated as CORESIZE-1 in any arithmetic operations, eg. 3218 + 7856 =3D (3218 + 7856) mod CORESIZE. Many people get confused by this, and it is particularly important when using the SLT instruction. Note that the source code of a program can still contain negative numbers, but if you start using instructions like DIV #-2, #5 it i= s important to know what effect they will have when executed. The basic unit of memory in Core War is one instruction. Each Redcode instruction contains three parts: * the opcode * the source address (a.k.a. the A-field) * the destination address (a.k.a. the B-field) The execution of the programs is equally simple. The MARS executes one instruction at a time, and then proceeds to the next one in the memory, unless the instruction explicitly tells it to jump to another address. If there is more than one program running, (as is usual) the programs execute alternately, one instruction at a time. The execution of each instruction takes the same time, one cycle, whether it is MOV, DIV or even DAT (which kills the process). Each program may have several processes running. These processes are stored in a task queue. When it is the program's turn to execute an instruction it dequeues a process and executes the corresponding instruction. Processes that are not killed during the execution of the instruction are put back into the task queue. Processes created by a SPL instruction are added to th= e task queue after the creating process is put back into the task queue. [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2. 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] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 3. Where can I find more information about Core War? Core War was first described in the Core War Guidelines of March, 1984 by D= =2E 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: Library of Author Title Published ISBN Congress Call Number The Armchair Dewdney, Universe: An New York: W. QA76.6 .D517 A. K. Exploration of H. Freeman =A90-7167-1939-8 1988 Computer Worlds 1988 The Magic 0-7167-2125-2 Dewdney, Machine: A New York: W.(Hardcover), QA76.6 A. K. Handbook of H. Freeman =A90-7167-2144-9 .D5173 199= 0 Computer Sorcery 1990 (Paperback) 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. For those who are interested, Dewdney has a home page at http://www.csd.uwo.ca/faculty/akd/. [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4. 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 ftp://www.koth.org/corewar/documents/standards/redcode-icws-88.Z. This document is formatted awkwardly and contains ambiguous statements. For a more approachable intro to Redcode, take a look at Mark Durham's tutorials, ftp://www.koth.org/corewar/documents/tutorial.1.Z and ftp://www.koth.org/corewar/documents/tutorial.2.Z. Steven Morrell has prepared a more practically oriented Redcode tutorial that discusses different warrior classes with lots of example code. This an= d various other tutorials can be found at http://www.koth.org/papers.html. Even though ICWS'88 is still the "official" standard, you will find that most people are playing by ICWS'94 draft rules and extensions. [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 5. 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 new addressing modes 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'9= 4 draft at ftp://www.koth.org/corewar/documents/icws94.0202.Z for more information. There is a HTML version of this document available at http://www.koth.org/info/icws94.html. 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://www.koth.org/corewar. Note that Redcoder onl= y supports a subset of ICWS'94. [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 6. What is the ICWS? About one year after Core War first appeared in Scientific American, the "International Core War Society" (ICWS) was established. Since that time, the ICWS has been responsible for the creation and maintenance of Core War standards and the running of Core War tournaments. There have been six annual tournaments and two standards (ICWS'86 and ICWS'88). The ICWS is no longer active. [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 7. What is Core Warrior? Following in the tradition of the Core War News Letter, Push Off, and The 9= 4 Warrior, Core Warrior is a newsletter about strategies and current standing= s in Core War. Started in October 1995, back issues of Core Warrior (and the other newsletters) are available at http://para.inria.fr/~doligez/corewar/. There is also a Core Warrior index page at http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Park/5427/warrior.htm which has a summary of the contents of each issue of Core Warrior. Many of the earlier issues contain useful information for beginners. [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 8. 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 ftp://ftp.csua.berkeley.edu/pub/corewar. 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. This site is mirrored at: * http://www.koth.org/corewar/ * ftp://www.koth.org/corewar/ * ftp://ftp.inria.fr/INRIA/Projects/para/doligez/cw/mirror The plain text version of this FAQ is automatically archived by news.answer= s (but this version is probably out-of-date). [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 9. Where can I find a Core War system for . . . ? Core War systems are available via anonymous FTP from www.koth.org in the 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 ftp://www.koth.org/corewar/incoming 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 www.koth.org. Generally, the older the program - the less likely it will be ICWS compatible. If you are looking for an ICWS'94 simulator, get pMARS, which is available for many platforms and can be downloaded from: * ftp://ftp.csua.berkeley.edu/pub/corewar (original site) * ftp://www.koth.org/corewar (Stormking mirror) * ftp://ftp.inria.fr/INRIA/Projects/para/doligez/cw/mirror (Planar mirror) * http://www.nc5.infi.net/~wtnewton/corewar/ (Terry Newton) * ftp://members.aol.com/ofechner/corewar (Fechter) Notes: * If you have trouble running pMARS with a graphical display under Win95 then check out http://www.koth.org/pmars.html which should have a pointer to the latest compilation of pMARS for this environment. * RPMs for the Alpha, PowerPC, Sparc and i386 can be found at ftp://ftp.inria.fr/INRIA/Projects/para/doligez/cw/pmars-rpm/ 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 www.koth.org: 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 pvms08.zip pMARS v0.8 for VMS build files/help (req. pmars08s.zip) ApMARS03.lha pMARS executable for Amiga (port of version 0.3.1) wincor11.zip MS-Windows system, shareware ($15) [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 10. Where can I find warrior code? To learn the game, it is a good idea to study previously posted warrior code. The FTP archives have code in the ftp://www.koth.org/corewar/redcode directory. A clearly organized on-line warrior collection is available at the Core War web sites (see below). [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 11. I do not have FTP. How do I get all this great stuff? There is an FTP email server at bitftp@pucc.princeton.edu. This address may no longer exist. I haven't tested it yet. Send email with a subject and bod= y text of "help" (without the quotes) for more information on its usage. Note that many FTP email gateways are shutting down due to abuse. To get a current list of FTP email servers, look at the Accessing the Internet by E-mail FAQ posted to news.answers. If you don't have access to Usenet, you can retrieve this FAQ one of the following ways: * Send mail to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with the body containing "send usenet/news.answers/internet-services/access-via-email". * Send mail to mailbase@mailbase.ac.uk with the body containing "send lis-iis e-access-inet.txt". [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 12. 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@ttsg.com). Servers that allow you to post (but not receive) articles are available. Refer to the Accessing the Internet by E-Mail FAQ for more information. [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 13. 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 http://www.koth.org; pizza's is http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~pizza/koth . Damien Doligez (a.k.a. Planar) has a web page that features convenient access to regular newsletters (Push Off, The '94 Warrior, Core Warrior) and a well organized library of warriors: http://para.inria.fr/~doligez/corewar/. Convenient for U.S. users= , this site is also mirrored at Stormking. [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 14. 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 point= s 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 ha= s 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, KotH= s based on Bill's UNIX scripts but offering a wider variety of hills are are running at two sites: koth@koth.org is maintained by Scott J. Ellentuch (tuc@ttsg.com) and pizza@ecst.csuchico.edu by Thomas H. Davies (sd@ecst.csuchico.edu). Up until May '95, the two sites provided overlappin= g 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 divide= d up among the sites. The way you submit warriors to both KotHs is pretty muc= h 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 * Write a corewar program. KotH is fully ICWS '88 compatible, EXCEPT tha= t a comma (",") is required between two arguments. * 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. 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. Using ";name" is mandatory on the Pizza hills. 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-94, ;redcode-b, ;redcode-lp, ;redcode-x, ;redcode, ;redcode-94x or ;redcode-94m. The former four run at "pizza"= , the latter three at "stormking". More information on these hills is listed below. * Mail this file to koth@koth.org or pizza@ecst.csuchico.edu. "Pizza" requires a subject of "koth" (use the -s flag on most mailers). * 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. * 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 25 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 25 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. Duration Max. Hill Name Hill Core Max. Before Entry Min. Rounds I= nstr. Size Size Processes Distance Fought = Set Tie Length Pizza's ICWS '94 Draft Hill Ex= tended (Accessed with 25 8000 8000 80000 100 100 200 IC= WS '94 ";redcode-94") Dr= aft Pizza's Beginner's Hill Ex= tended (Accessed with 25 8000 8000 80000 100 100 200 IC= WS '94 ";redcode-b") Dr= aft Pizza's Experimental Ex= tended (Small) Hill 25 800 800 8000 20 20 200 IC= WS '94 (Accessed with Dr= aft ";redcode-x") Pizza's Limited Process (LP) Ex= tended Hill (Accessed 25 8000 8 80000 200 200 200 IC= WS '94 with Dr= aft ";redcode-lp") Stormking's ICWS '88 Standard Hill 20 8000 8000 80000 100 100 250 IC= WS '88 (Accessed with ";redcode") Stormking's ICWS '94 Experimental Ex= tended (Big) Hill 20 55440 55440 500000 200 200 250 IC= WS '94 (Accessed with Dr= aft ";redcode-94x") Stormking's ICWS '94 Draft Multi-Warrior Ex= tended Hill (Accessed 10 8000 8000 80000 100 100 200 IC= WS '94 with Dr= aft ";redcode-94m") Note: Warriors on the beginner's hill are retired at age 100. 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 assemble= d but not actually pitted against the warriors on the hill. At "pizza", you can use ";redcode[-??] test" to do a test challenge of the Hill without affecting the status of the Hill. These challenges can be used to see how well your warrior does against the current Hill warriors. All hills run portable MARS (pMARS) version 0.8, a platform-independent Cor= e War system available at www.koth.org. The '94 and '94x hills allow five experimental opcodes and three experimental addressing modes currently not covered in the ICWS'94 draft document: * LDP - Load P-Space * STP - Store P-Space * 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] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 15. 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 (in source code) under ICWS'88 rules and strictly compliant assemblers (such as KotH o= r pmars -8) will not let you have a DAT 0, 0 instruction in your source code = - 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, fo= r comparison. Note that under ICWS'94, DAT 0, 0 is a legal instruction. [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 16. 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 (core 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 tha= n zero. [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 17. 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 Colour 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. Decrement Resistant Property of warriors making them functional (or at least partially functional) when overrun by a DJN-stream. 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 memor= y 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 www.koth.org. Paper A Paper-like program is one which replicates itself many times. Part o= f the Scissors (beats) Paper (beats) Stone (beats Scissors) analogy. P-Warrior A warrior which uses the results of previous round(s) in order to determine which strategy it will use. 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. Q^2 Scan A modern version of the Quick Scan where anything found is attacked almost immediately. 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 p= ointer 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 nothin= g 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 locatio= ns seq start+400*s1+200, start+400*s1+300 ;check two locatio= ns 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 nothin= g 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 -1, 0 spl 1 ;generate 6 consecutive processes silk spl 3620, #0 ;split to new copy mov >-1, }-1 ;copy self to new location mov bomb, >2000 ;linear bombing mov bomb, }2042 ;A-indirect bombing for anti-vamp jmp silk, {silk ;reset source pointer, make new cop= y bomb dat >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= =2E 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: sz EQU 2667 spl 1 spl 1 jmp @vt, }0 vt dat #0, imp+0*sz ; start of vector table dat #0, imp+1*sz dat #0, imp+2*sz dat #0, imp+3*sz ; end of vector table imp mov.i #0, sz [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 23. Other questions? Just ask in the rec.games.corewar newsgroup or contact me. 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: * Mark Durham (wrote the original version of the FAQ) * Paul Kline * Randy Graham * Stefan Strack (maintained a recent version of the FAQ) The rec.games.corewar FAQ is Copyright =A9 1999 and maintained by Anton Marsden (anton@paradise.net.nz). ------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: Paul-V Khuong Subject: Re: IWT update. Date: 1999/06/03 Message-ID: <19990603012115.9726.rocketmail@web113.yahoomail.com>#1/1 "John K. Lewis" wrote: > It's my sad duty to inform everyone that there were > no entries in > the IWT. I'm not sure if it was simply bad timing > on my part, or > a lack of interest in the community. Bad timing for me... > With that in mind, I'm asking how many here would be > interested in > entering if I extended the deadline for a week or > so. Wouldn't be much better for me 2-3 weeks would be much better... === Vive le Qu�bec libre... d� souverainistes!!! _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com From: Paul-V Khuong Subject: Re: Anyone there Date: 1999/06/03 Message-ID: <19990603012559.10553.rocketmail@web113.yahoomail.com>#1/1 Simon W wrote: > Is anyone still playing corewars? If not, I'm off > elsewhere. about at least 50 people active, but more lurkers probably... Yes, i play... === Vive le Qu�bec libre... d� souverainistes!!! _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com From: Planar Subject: Re: IWT update. Date: 1999/06/03 Message-ID: <7j5o7r$mnp@news-rocq.inria.fr>#1/1 >From: "John K. Lewis" >Respond here if you are interested in an extention. I am, but I'd like more than one week. -- Planar From: spredan@fly.srk.fer.hr (Stipe [Stajp]) Subject: Re: Anyone there Date: 1999/06/03 Message-ID: #1/1 On 2 Jun 1999 11:02:36 -0400, Simon W wrote: >Is anyone still playing corewars? If not, I'm off elsewhere. There are many others on mailing list .. don't ask me where couse I forgot .. look in the FAQ .. -- Stajp spredan@fly.cc.fer.hr WN ZEMVZ FIR XBWV FR BQNMVINWH AN VZR CRGNE From: colemanr@marietta.edu Subject: Re: IWT update. Date: 1999/06/05 Message-ID: <7ja4do$uf0$1@nnrp1.deja.com>#1/1 In article <7j5o7r$mnp@news-rocq.inria.fr>, Planar wrote: > >From: "John K. Lewis" > > >Respond here if you are interested in an extention. > > I am, but I'd like more than one week. > > -- > Planar > I think I'd chalk this one up to bad luck/timing. Most college are either just letting out or were out like a week ago. Secondly, my hard drive died. I've got my corewars directory backed up on a cd, but, well, no excuses, I was too lazy to put together a warrior. Ryan Coleman Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ Share what you know. Learn what you don't. From: John.Metcalf@p18.f94.chaos.camelot.co.uk (John Metcalf) Subject: Lost instruction Date: 1999/06/06 Message-ID: #1/1 JS> Hi, I just discovered CW and I like the idea very JS> much. Now I'am trying to understand some warriors and I found JS> some strange behaviour of pMARS. This assembled okay for me using pMars v0.8.0 for Dos. There doesn't appear to be anything wrong with the code either... From: bford@asf.com Subject: Re: Lost instruction Date: 1999/06/06 Message-ID: <7jeumj$862$1@nnrp1.deja.com>#1/1 In article , Jan Sochman wrote: > Hi, > I just discovered CW and I like the idea very much. Now I'am trying to > understand some warriors and I found some strange behaviour of pMARS. I've > downloaded this warrior: > > ;redcode-94 > ;name Paperone > ;author Beppe Bezzi > ;strategy Silk replicator > ;kill Paperone > ;assert CORESIZE == 8000 > > start spl 1, <300 ;\ Well, your error is in this line. I'm guessing that you are running on some sort of UNIX box where the '\' tells it to supress the newline. Thus, the next line is being treated as being a comment. It should work if you delete the slash. > spl 1, <150 ; generate 7 consecutive processes > mov -1, 0 ;/ > > silk spl 3620, #0 ;split to new copy > mov.i >-1, }-1 ;copy self to new location > > mov.i bomb, >2005 ;linear bombing > mov.i bomb, }2042 ;A-indirect bombing for anti-vamp > > add.a #50, silk ;distance new copy > jmp silk, bomb dat.f >2667, >5334 ;anti-imp bomb > > But when I run 'pmars paperone.red' (the file I have it in), it writes me > that pmars translated it to this: > > ORG START > START SPL.B $ 1, < 300 > MOV.I $ -1, $ 0 > SPL.B $ 3620, # 0 > MOV.I > -1, } -1 > MOV.I $ 4, > 2005 > MOV.I $ 3, } 2042 > ADD.A # 50, $ -4 > JMP.B $ -5, < -5 > DAT.F > 2667, > -2666 > > But this code generates only 3 proceses (against 7 declared above). It is > because second instruction is missing. But why is missing? I realy don't > know... Could you help me? > > Thanks > Jen~a -Ben Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ Share what you know. Learn what you don't. From: Jan Sochman Subject: Lost instruction Date: 1999/06/06 Message-ID: #1/1 Hi, I just discovered CW and I like the idea very much. Now I'am trying to understand some warriors and I found some strange behaviour of pMARS. I've downloaded this warrior: ;redcode-94 ;name Paperone ;author Beppe Bezzi ;strategy Silk replicator ;kill Paperone ;assert CORESIZE == 8000 start spl 1, <300 ;\ spl 1, <150 ; generate 7 consecutive processes mov -1, 0 ;/ silk spl 3620, #0 ;split to new copy mov.i >-1, }-1 ;copy self to new location mov.i bomb, >2005 ;linear bombing mov.i bomb, }2042 ;A-indirect bombing for anti-vamp add.a #50, silk ;distance new copy jmp silk, 2667, >5334 ;anti-imp bomb But when I run 'pmars paperone.red' (the file I have it in), it writes me that pmars translated it to this: ORG START START SPL.B $ 1, < 300 MOV.I $ -1, $ 0 SPL.B $ 3620, # 0 MOV.I > -1, } -1 MOV.I $ 4, > 2005 MOV.I $ 3, } 2042 ADD.A # 50, $ -4 JMP.B $ -5, < -5 DAT.F > 2667, > -2666 But this code generates only 3 proceses (against 7 declared above). It is because second instruction is missing. But why is missing? I realy don't know... Could you help me? Thanks Jen~a From: Koth Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - ICWS Experimental 94 06/07/99 Date: 1999/06/07 Message-ID: <199906070400.AAA23262@gevjon.ttsg.com>#1/1 Weekly Status on 06/07/99 -=- www.KOTH.org is now hosting a '94 No Pspace Hill. -=- View the stats of all the Hills at: www.KOTH.org/standings.html -=- *FAQ* page located at: www.KOTH.org/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the KOTH.ORG ICWS Experimental 94 CoreWar Hill: Last battle concluded at : Sun May 23 01:39:48 EDT 1999 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 55/ 31/ 14 Black Moods Ian Oversby 180 3 2 52/ 30/ 17 Controlled Aggression Ian Oversby 174 7 3 40/ 16/ 45 Venom v0.2b Christian Schmidt 164 29 4 33/ 5/ 61 Evol Cap 4 X John Wilkinson 161 76 5 30/ 2/ 67 Evolve X v4.0 John Wilkinson 158 24 6 34/ 19/ 47 Rosebud Beppe 148 55 7 38/ 38/ 23 Dr. Gate X Franz 138 47 8 36/ 37/ 28 BigBoy Robert Macrae 134 101 9 26/ 18/ 56 Sphere v0.2 Christian Schmidt 134 18 10 41/ 48/ 12 S.E.T.I. 4-X JKW 133 77 11 38/ 43/ 19 Pagan John K W 133 61 12 27/ 22/ 51 Purple v0.1 Christian Schmidt 131 28 13 36/ 41/ 23 Stepping Stone 94x Kurt Franke 131 62 14 37/ 45/ 18 Memories Beppe Bezzi 128 83 15 31/ 38/ 31 Lithium X 8 John K Wilkinson 125 67 16 33/ 41/ 26 Dr. Recover Franz 125 46 17 35/ 46/ 18 Tsunami v0.3 X Ian Oversby 125 1 18 37/ 50/ 13 BiShot Christian Schmidt 124 15 19 39/ 54/ 8 HSA Copy 55440 Robert Macrae 124 44 20 32/ 46/ 22 13 Christian Schmidt 118 14 21 24/ 72/ 4 clear Hugues Salamin 77 0 From: Koth Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - 94 No Pspace 06/07/99 Date: 1999/06/07 Message-ID: <199906070400.AAA23267@gevjon.ttsg.com>#1/1 Weekly Status on 06/07/99 -=- www.KOTH.org is now hosting a '94 No Pspace Hill. -=- View the stats of all the Hills at: www.KOTH.org/standings.html -=- *FAQ* page located at: www.KOTH.org/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the KOTH.ORG 94 No Pspace CoreWar Hill: Last battle concluded at : Fri Jun 4 10:29:20 EDT 1999 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 40/ 28/ 33 The Stormbringer Christian Schmidt 152 168 2 40/ 35/ 25 BiShot v1.0 Christian Schmidt 146 66 3 39/ 35/ 26 Liquid Fire Christian Schmidt 143 130 4 37/ 30/ 33 Blacken Ian Oversby 143 144 5 36/ 29/ 35 Vain Ian Oversby 142 234 6 36/ 30/ 34 Baseline Plus Ken Espiritu 141 215 7 43/ 46/ 11 Win! David Moore 140 132 8 35/ 30/ 34 Recovery Ian Oversby 140 157 9 40/ 42/ 18 Zooom... John Metcalf 138 33 10 40/ 43/ 17 Boys are Back in Town 1.1 Philip Kendall 137 159 11 32/ 29/ 39 Brigadeer M Joonas Pihlaja 136 153 12 41/ 46/ 13 Nuke it! (V 0.4) Silvio Sampietro 136 1 13 35/ 34/ 31 Spooky Wench John Metcalf 136 21 14 26/ 18/ 57 _romanian_killah_ Costin Bontas rulez 133 126 15 43/ 53/ 4 Neon Spring John Metcalf 133 16 16 33/ 34/ 33 Fixed Ken Espiritu 133 217 17 25/ 18/ 58 The Fugitive David Moore 132 236 18 30/ 30/ 40 Quickest Zeta Leonardo Humberto 130 10 19 39/ 52/ 9 t5 John Metcalf 127 4 20 39/ 52/ 9 t8 John Metcalf 125 2 21 36/ 51/ 14 t7 John Metcalf 121 5 From: Koth Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - Standard 06/07/99 Date: 1999/06/07 Message-ID: <199906070400.AAA23252@gevjon.ttsg.com>#1/1 Weekly Status on 06/07/99 -=- www.KOTH.org is now hosting a '94 No Pspace Hill. -=- View the stats of all the Hills at: www.KOTH.org/standings.html -=- *FAQ* page located at: www.KOTH.org/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the KOTH.ORG Standard KotH CoreWar Hill : Last battle concluded at : Sun May 23 03:45:42 EDT 1999 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 40/ 20/ 40 Freight Train David Moore 159 44 2 36/ 24/ 39 sIMPly.Red v0.95 Leonardo Humberto 148 1 3 35/ 22/ 43 Guardian Ian Oversby 147 43 4 32/ 22/ 45 The Marlboro Man 1.13 M Joonas Pihlaja 142 19 5 29/ 17/ 54 EV Paper John K Wilkinson 141 57 6 41/ 40/ 19 Stasis David Moore 141 151 7 39/ 38/ 23 PacMan David Moore 141 73 8 42/ 44/ 14 Iron Gate Wayne Sheppard 139 369 9 38/ 38/ 24 Kitchen Sink Robert Macrae 138 42 10 39/ 41/ 20 Beholder's Eye V1.7 W. Mintardjo 138 319 11 37/ 37/ 26 Leapfrog David Moore 137 72 12 41/ 44/ 15 Blur '88 Anton Marsden 137 81 13 28/ 20/ 52 Test I Ian Oversby 137 100 14 42/ 47/ 12 Blurstone '88 M. J. Pihlaja 137 38 15 28/ 19/ 53 Nightfall 2.1cc David Moore 136 7 16 28/ 22/ 50 Evoltmp 88 John K W 135 94 17 40/ 45/ 15 Foggy Swamp Beppe Bezzi 134 40 18 28/ 24/ 48 TESTE Leonardo Humberto 132 2 19 37/ 41/ 22 Tangle Trap David Moore 132 117 20 39/ 48/ 13 Skewer Ben Ford 130 5 21 16/ 83/ 1 clear Hugues Salamin 50 0 From: Koth Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - MultiWarrior 94 06/07/99 Date: 1999/06/07 Message-ID: <199906070400.AAA23256@gevjon.ttsg.com>#1/1 Weekly Status on 06/07/99 -=- www.KOTH.org is now hosting a '94 No Pspace Hill. -=- View the stats of all the Hills at: www.KOTH.org/standings.html -=- *FAQ* page located at: www.KOTH.org/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the KOTH.ORG Multiwarrior 94 CoreWar Hill: Last battle concluded at : Fri Jun 4 10:37:26 EDT 1999 # Name Author Score Age 1 BiShot v1.0 Christian Schmidt 55 51 2 Her Majesty P.Kline 47 2 3 Cinderella Ben Ford 35 10 4 QuiVa John Metcalf 35 76 5 QueensGuard P.Kline 35 4 6 QueensGuard P.Kline 34 5 7 QueensGuard P.Kline 33 3 8 Diamonds and more Rust Christian Schmidt 33 49 9 Nuke it! Silvio Sampietro 33 1 10 Sharkrage Christian Schmidt 32 50 11 Nuke it! Silvio Sampietro 0 8 From: guenzel.p1@blinker.net (Bjoern Guenzel) Subject: I'll be back :-) Date: 1999/06/09 Message-ID: <375ee0e4.2468600@news.demon.co.uk>#1/1 Hello! I have just read some messages, and since there is (once again) some speculation about the future of Corewar, I just wanted to say that I am definitely going to be back playing, as soon as I got my bloody degree finished... So please keep it alive in the meantime - happy imp stomping! (Hello Robert - I send you an email soon, promise!) Bjoern Guenzel -- always look on the bright side of death (e.glavas) From: Jan Sochman Subject: Re: Lost instruction Date: 1999/06/10 Message-ID: #1/1 Thank you for your advices. It was because '\' on end of the line. I think it is strange behaviour of pMARS, but I will respect it in future. Interesting is, that there is no allusion to it in man pages... Jen~a From: jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu Subject: Re: Lost instruction (fwd) Date: 1999/06/10 Message-ID: <4.1.19990609184405.0092b920@pop-server>#1/1 >Hi, > I just discovered CW and I like the idea very much. Now I'am trying to >understand some warriors and I found some strange behaviour of pMARS. I've >downloaded this warrior: > I don't know what to tell you. I copy-pasted the above code into a file, compiled it, and got the expected correct results. -jkw >> D:\CWAR\08>pmars papers\paper1.red >> Program "Paperone" (length 10) by "Beppe Bezzi" >> >> ORG START >> START SPL.B $ 1, < 300 >> SPL.B $ 1, < 150 >> MOV.I $ -1, $ 0 >> SPL.B $ 3620, # 0 >> MOV.I > -1, } -1 >> MOV.I $ 4, > 2005 >> MOV.I $ 3, } 2042 >> ADD.A # 50, $ -4 >> JMP.B $ -5, < -5 >> DAT.F > 2667, > -2666 From: bford@asf.com Subject: testing warriors Date: 1999/06/10 Message-ID: <7jp0io$pgu$1@nnrp1.deja.com>#1/1 Hello, I was wondernig if anone had a good selection of warriors to use for testing purposes. The wilkie and wilmoo benchmarks seem to be fairly out of date. -Ben Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ Share what you know. Learn what you don't. From: Christian Schmidt Subject: Re: testing warriors Date: 1999/06/11 Message-ID: #1/1 Maybe we can create a new benchmark.I would vote for the following warriors. Newt / Vain The Stormbringer / Spooky Wench Blue Candle The Fugitive / Fixed Benj's Revenge Shadow / Recovery / Puddleglum He Scans Alone The Machine / Zoom / Blur Phantasm 50 or maybe another oneshot Recycle Bits Electric Head / Nomolos Fire and Ice / NCC-1701-A Christian On Thu, 10 Jun 1999 bford@asf.com wrote: > Hello, > I was wondernig if anone had a good selection of warriors to use for > testing purposes. The wilkie and wilmoo benchmarks seem to be fairly > out of date. > > -Ben > > > Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ > Share what you know. Learn what you don't. > > From: cgbean@alaska.net Subject: Re: IWT update. Date: 1999/06/13 Message-ID: <37647B2D.4896@alaska.net>#1/1 Could everyone say how they heard about Corewars...? > Just for my own demographic curiosity. Heh... Let's take a trip in the waaaayyyy back machine (NewsRadio-best sitcom around. Watch it!)...I must have first heard about the game, most likely the name and a description when I was a little kid, maybe 9 or 10. I must have found it interesting, because years later, I remembered hearing about it before when reading a quick mention of Core War in Cyberpunks, an interesting book a picked up at the library. Later that day, I looked up Core War in altavista, and to my surprise found a site (KotH). And that was that... -WFB From: jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu Subject: Re: IWT update. Date: 1999/06/17 Message-ID: <4.1.19990613212305.009293d0@pop-server>#1/1 At 01:04 PM 6/13/99 -0400, you wrote: >> We could mention CW to others, have http://www.koth.org/ in .sigs, scatter >> links on the web.. Hey, maybe we could get mentioned on Slashdot. >> >A very good idea. The only place on-line I've seen a mention of Core >War (besides 'Hacker Dictionaries', etc. , which I assume don't get many >hits. Correct me if I'm wrong) is in an issue of the Happy Hacker's >Guide to (Mostly) Harmless Hacking (HHGTMHH) where Core War is described >as being played by "The Uberest Of Uberhackers". =p. They get a WHOLE >lot of hits. I could send in the URL...hopefully they'll add it... > > -WFB I heard about Corewars from a BBS friend back in like 1993, I think. There was a copy of Stefan Strack's "Corewar Pro" distributed on a BBS network called ArcusNet. Could everyone say how they heard about Corewars...? Just for my own demographic curiosity. Heh... -jkw From: Koth Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - MultiWarrior 94 06/14/99 Date: 1999/06/17 Message-ID: <199906140400.AAA26500@gevjon.ttsg.com>#1/1 Weekly Status on 06/14/99 -=- www.KOTH.org is now hosting a '94 No Pspace Hill. -=- View the stats of all the Hills at: www.KOTH.org/standings.html -=- *FAQ* page located at: www.KOTH.org/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the KOTH.ORG Multiwarrior 94 CoreWar Hill: Last battle concluded at : Thu Jun 10 19:28:26 EDT 1999 # Name Author Score Age 1 Her Majesty P.Kline 55 3 2 Cinderella Ben Ford 43 11 3 WingShot Ben Ford 41 1 4 QuiVa John Metcalf 39 77 5 BiShot v1.0 Christian Schmidt 34 52 6 QueensGuard P.Kline 32 5 7 QueensGuard P.Kline 30 6 8 Sharkrage Christian Schmidt 30 51 9 QueensGuard P.Kline 28 4 10 Diamonds and more Rust Christian Schmidt 26 50 11 Nuke it! Silvio Sampietro 17 2 From: Koth Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - Standard 06/14/99 Date: 1999/06/17 Message-ID: <199906140400.AAA26496@gevjon.ttsg.com>#1/1 Weekly Status on 06/14/99 -=- www.KOTH.org is now hosting a '94 No Pspace Hill. -=- View the stats of all the Hills at: www.KOTH.org/standings.html -=- *FAQ* page located at: www.KOTH.org/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the KOTH.ORG Standard KotH CoreWar Hill : Last battle concluded at : Sun May 23 03:45:42 EDT 1999 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 40/ 20/ 40 Freight Train David Moore 159 44 2 36/ 24/ 39 sIMPly.Red v0.95 Leonardo Humberto 148 1 3 35/ 22/ 43 Guardian Ian Oversby 147 43 4 32/ 22/ 45 The Marlboro Man 1.13 M Joonas Pihlaja 142 19 5 29/ 17/ 54 EV Paper John K Wilkinson 141 57 6 41/ 40/ 19 Stasis David Moore 141 151 7 39/ 38/ 23 PacMan David Moore 141 73 8 42/ 44/ 14 Iron Gate Wayne Sheppard 139 369 9 38/ 38/ 24 Kitchen Sink Robert Macrae 138 42 10 39/ 41/ 20 Beholder's Eye V1.7 W. Mintardjo 138 319 11 37/ 37/ 26 Leapfrog David Moore 137 72 12 41/ 44/ 15 Blur '88 Anton Marsden 137 81 13 28/ 20/ 52 Test I Ian Oversby 137 100 14 42/ 47/ 12 Blurstone '88 M. J. Pihlaja 137 38 15 28/ 19/ 53 Nightfall 2.1cc David Moore 136 7 16 28/ 22/ 50 Evoltmp 88 John K W 135 94 17 40/ 45/ 15 Foggy Swamp Beppe Bezzi 134 40 18 28/ 24/ 48 TESTE Leonardo Humberto 132 2 19 37/ 41/ 22 Tangle Trap David Moore 132 117 20 39/ 48/ 13 Skewer Ben Ford 130 5 21 16/ 83/ 1 clear Hugues Salamin 50 0 From: Koth Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - 94 No Pspace 06/14/99 Date: 1999/06/17 Message-ID: <199906140400.AAA26511@gevjon.ttsg.com>#1/1 Weekly Status on 06/14/99 -=- www.KOTH.org is now hosting a '94 No Pspace Hill. -=- View the stats of all the Hills at: www.KOTH.org/standings.html -=- *FAQ* page located at: www.KOTH.org/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the KOTH.ORG 94 No Pspace CoreWar Hill: Last battle concluded at : Thu Jun 10 20:29:21 EDT 1999 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 39/ 28/ 33 The Stormbringer Christian Schmidt 150 170 2 29/ 11/ 60 _romanian_killah_ Costin Bontas rulez 147 128 3 41/ 36/ 23 WingShot Ben Ford 147 1 4 42/ 40/ 18 Zooom... John Metcalf 145 35 5 36/ 28/ 36 Vain Ian Oversby 145 236 6 28/ 11/ 61 The Fugitive David Moore 145 238 7 37/ 30/ 33 Blacken Ian Oversby 145 146 8 44/ 45/ 11 Win! David Moore 144 134 9 42/ 41/ 17 Boys are Back in Town 1.1 Philip Kendall 143 161 10 36/ 29/ 35 Recovery Ian Oversby 143 159 11 37/ 32/ 31 Fixed Ken Espiritu 142 219 12 33/ 25/ 42 Brigadeer M Joonas Pihlaja 142 155 13 37/ 32/ 31 Spooky Wench John Metcalf 141 23 14 35/ 30/ 35 Baseline Plus Ken Espiritu 141 217 15 38/ 36/ 26 Liquid Fire Christian Schmidt 141 132 16 42/ 46/ 12 Nuke it! (V 0.4) Silvio Sampietro 139 3 17 38/ 38/ 24 BiShot v1.0 Christian Schmidt 139 68 18 34/ 29/ 37 Quickest Zeta Leonardo Humberto 138 12 19 44/ 51/ 4 Neon Spring John Metcalf 137 18 20 40/ 44/ 15 C^3 Christian Schmidt 136 2 21 2/ 98/ 0 0 0 7 0 From: John Metcalf Subject: Re: IWT update. Date: 1999/06/17 Message-ID: #1/1 Greetings... On Thu, 17 Jun 1999 jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu wrote: > I heard about Corewars from a BBS friend back in like 1993, I think. > There was a copy of Stefan Strack's "Corewar Pro" distributed on a BBS > network called ArcusNet. Could everyone say how they heard about Corewars...? > Just for my own demographic curiosity. Heh... I read about Core War in some kind of document about viruses and managed to find Corewar Pro (and several ancient MARS programs) in a shareware catalogue. When I eventually got a modem I discovered that while I could beat all the sample warriors I had (e.g. Dwarf, Juggenaut etc.) I still had a lot to learn :-) regards, John From: Koth Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - ICWS Experimental 94 06/14/99 Date: 1999/06/17 Message-ID: <199906140400.AAA26506@gevjon.ttsg.com>#1/1 Weekly Status on 06/14/99 -=- www.KOTH.org is now hosting a '94 No Pspace Hill. -=- View the stats of all the Hills at: www.KOTH.org/standings.html -=- *FAQ* page located at: www.KOTH.org/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the KOTH.ORG ICWS Experimental 94 CoreWar Hill: Last battle concluded at : Fri Jun 11 16:06:51 EDT 1999 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 55/ 32/ 13 Black Moods Ian Oversby 179 5 2 52/ 30/ 18 Controlled Aggression Ian Oversby 174 9 3 42/ 16/ 42 Venom v0.2b Christian Schmidt 168 31 4 35/ 6/ 59 Evol Cap 4 X John Wilkinson 164 78 5 30/ 2/ 68 Evolve X v4.0 John Wilkinson 158 26 6 34/ 19/ 47 Rosebud Beppe 150 57 7 40/ 37/ 23 Dr. Gate X Franz 143 49 8 38/ 36/ 26 BigBoy Robert Macrae 140 103 9 42/ 47/ 11 S.E.T.I. 4-X JKW 137 79 10 39/ 42/ 18 Pagan John K W 136 63 11 39/ 43/ 18 Tsunami v0.3 X Ian Oversby 135 3 12 40/ 47/ 12 WingShot Ben Ford 134 1 13 26/ 18/ 56 Sphere v0.2 Christian Schmidt 133 20 14 38/ 45/ 17 Memories Beppe Bezzi 132 85 15 27/ 22/ 51 Purple v0.1 Christian Schmidt 131 30 16 33/ 37/ 30 Lithium X 8 John K Wilkinson 130 69 17 35/ 39/ 26 Stepping Stone 94x Kurt Franke 130 64 18 35/ 48/ 17 BiShot Christian Schmidt 122 17 19 32/ 43/ 25 13 Christian Schmidt 120 16 20 35/ 53/ 12 HSA Copy 55440 Robert Macrae 118 46 21 0/ 75/ 25 jmp #0, 0 0 25 0 From: John Metcalf Subject: Re: testing warriors Date: 1999/06/18 Message-ID: #1/1 > Possibly better is my `Boys are Back in Town 1.1'. Oops. Haven't > published it yet... I will when I remember where my copy is... Ian's Autumn Corewar Tournament, Round 1 - published on Ian's Web site. (Haven't got the address to hand, but it is linked from Planar's site and in CW70, 71 and 72.) Regards, John From: russ Subject: Re: IWT update. Date: 1999/06/18 Message-ID: <376B1B28.809EBA76@island.net>#1/1 jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu wrote: > > At 01:04 PM 6/13/99 -0400, you wrote: > >> We could mention CW to others, have http://www.koth.org/ in .sigs, scatter > >> links on the web.. Hey, maybe we could get mentioned on Slashdot. > >> > >A very good idea. The only place on-line I've seen a mention of Core > >War (besides 'Hacker Dictionaries', etc. , which I assume don't get many > >hits. Correct me if I'm wrong) is in an issue of the Happy Hacker's > >Guide to (Mostly) Harmless Hacking (HHGTMHH) where Core War is described > >as being played by "The Uberest Of Uberhackers". =p. They get a WHOLE > >lot of hits. I could send in the URL...hopefully they'll add it... > > > > -WFB > > I heard about Corewars from a BBS friend back in like 1993, I think. > There was a copy of Stefan Strack's "Corewar Pro" distributed on a BBS > network called ArcusNet. Could everyone say how they heard about Corewars...? > Just for my own demographic curiosity. Heh... > > -jkw I read about it in Scientific American, in the "Computer Recreations" column sometime in the 80's. -- ICQ UIN 28813047 Linux Powered http://www.island.net/~russ/ Stop the spammers, save the net! http://www.mcs.com/~jcr/junkemail.html From: philwise@geocities.com (Phil Wise) Subject: Re: IWT update. Date: 1999/06/18 Message-ID: <376aa483.2479175@news.freeserve.net>#1/1 On 17 Jun 1999 15:38:04 -0400, jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu Anounced to the internet: >At 01:04 PM 6/13/99 -0400, you wrote: >>> We could mention CW to others, have http://www.koth.org/ in .sigs, scatter >>> links on the web.. Hey, maybe we could get mentioned on Slashdot. >>> >>A very good idea. The only place on-line I've seen a mention of Core >>War (besides 'Hacker Dictionaries', etc. , which I assume don't get many >>hits. Correct me if I'm wrong) is in an issue of the Happy Hacker's >>Guide to (Mostly) Harmless Hacking (HHGTMHH) where Core War is described >>as being played by "The Uberest Of Uberhackers". =p. They get a WHOLE >>lot of hits. I could send in the URL...hopefully they'll add it... >> >> -WFB > >I heard about Corewars from a BBS friend back in like 1993, I think. >There was a copy of Stefan Strack's "Corewar Pro" distributed on a BBS >network called ArcusNet. Could everyone say how they heard about Corewars...? >Just for my own demographic curiosity. Heh... > >-jkw I think it was mentioned on alt.robotwars... ---------------------------------------- Spam this address and wave goodbye to your internet connection : philwise@geocities.com ---------------------------------------- From: bford@asf.com Subject: Re: IWT update. Date: 1999/06/18 Message-ID: <7kebs0$sbj$1@nnrp1.deja.com>#1/1 In article <4.1.19990613212305.009293d0@pop-server>, jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu wrote: > I heard about Corewars from a BBS friend back in like 1993, I think. > There was a copy of Stefan Strack's "Corewar Pro" distributed on a BBS > network called ArcusNet. Could everyone say how they heard about Corewars...? > Just for my own demographic curiosity. Heh... > > -jkw I heard about Corewars when they were takling about possibilities for Senior Project. CW was mentioned as not being a possibility since someone had done it one year and it turned out to be too simple. About two years later when I was bored one day at work, I remembered having heard the name mentioned and searched the web. -Ben Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ Share what you know. Learn what you don't. From: benford@my-deja.com Subject: imps Date: 1999/06/18 Message-ID: <7keak6$rqe$1@nnrp1.deja.com>#1/1 Hello, I was just wondering why mov #2667, *0 imps seem to be more popular than mov #x, 2667 imps. I would think that the mov #2667, *0 imps you we weaker since both the a and b fields are vulnerable instead of just the b field. -Ben Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ Share what you know. Learn what you don't. From: Philip Kendall Subject: Re: testing warriors Date: 1999/06/18 Message-ID: #1/1 Christian Schmidt writes: > Maybe we can create a new benchmark.I would vote for the following > warriors. [snip] > The Machine / Zoom / Blur Possibly better is my `Boys are Back in Town 1.1'. Oops. Haven't published it yet... I will when I remember where my copy is... Or, if there's a working version of it out there, Edgar's Silver Talons are also very good. Phil -- / Philip Kendall (pak21@cam.ac.uk pak21@kendalls.demon.co.uk) \ \ http://www.kendalls.demon.co.uk/pak21/corewar/index.html / From: Philip Kendall Subject: Re: IWT update. Date: 1999/06/18 Message-ID: #1/1 jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu writes: > Could everyone say how they heard about Corewars...? > Just for my own demographic curiosity. Heh... [Think I've done this before, but...] Read a bit about it in Steven Levy's `Artifical Life' book, then spotted the FAQ in news.answers one day, found r.g.cw and the rest is history :-) Phil -- / Philip Kendall (pak21@cam.ac.uk pak21@kendalls.demon.co.uk) \ \ http://www.kendalls.demon.co.uk/pak21/corewar/index.html / From: anton@paradise.net.nz (Anton Marsden) Subject: Core War Frequently Asked Questions (rec.games.corewar FAQ) Date: 1999/06/18 Message-ID: Archive-name: games/corewar-faq Last-Modified: February 25, 1999 Version: 4.1 URL: http://www.paradise.net.nz/~anton/corewar-faq.html Copyright: (c) 1999 Anton Marsden Maintainer: Anton Marsden Posting-Frequency: once every 2 weeks Core War Frequently Asked Questions (rec.games.corewar FAQ) These are the Frequently Asked Questions (and answers) from the Usenet newsgroup rec.games.corewar. A plain text version of this document is poste= d every two weeks. The latest hypertext version is available at http://www.paradise.net.nz/~anton/cw/corewar-faq.html and the latest plain text version is available at http://www.paradise.net.nz/~anton/cw/corewar-faq.txt. This document is currently being maintained by Anton Marsden (anton@paradise.net.nz). Last modified: Thu Feb 25 20:08:13 NZDT 1999 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ To Do * Add the new No-PSpace '94 hill location * Add online location of Dewdney's articles * Make question 17 easier to understand. Add a state diagram? * Add info about infinite hills, related games (C-Robots, Tierra?, ...) * New question: How do I know if my warrior is any good? Refer to beginners' benchmarks, etc. * Add a Who's Who list? * Would very much like someone to compile a collection of the "revolutionary" warriors so that beginners can see how the game has developed over the years. Mail me if interested. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ What's New * Vector-launching code was fixed thanks to Ting Hsu. * Changed the location of Ryan Coleman's paper (LaunchPad -> Launchpad) * Changed pauillac.inria.fr to para.inria.fr * Made some changes/additions/fixes based on a good FAQ review by Joonas Pihlaja. Not all of the suggestions have been dealt with yet, but the FAQ is now less ambiguous in some areas. Thanks Joonas! * Added stuff about pMARS under Win95 (question 9), and the location of = a HTML version of the ICWS'94 draft (question 5) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 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 o= f the current instruction set? 5. What is ICWS'94? Which simulators support ICWS'94? 6. What is the ICWS? 7. What is Core Warrior? 8. Where are the Core War archives? 9. Where can I find a Core War system for ...? 10. Where can I find warrior code? 11. I do not have FTP. How do I get all this great stuff? 12. I do not have access to Usenet. How do I post and receive news? 13. Are there any Core War related WWW sites? 14. What is KotH? How do I enter? 15. Is it DAT 0, 0 or DAT #0, #0? How do I compare to core? 16. How does SLT (Skip if Less Than) work? 17. What is the difference between in-register and in-memory evaluation? 18. What is P-space? 19. What does "Missing ;assert .." in my message from KotH mean? 20. How should I format my code? 21. Are there any other Core War related resources I should know about? 22. What does (expression or term of your choice) mean? 23. Other questions? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. 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 virtua= l computer called MARS (for Memory Array Redcode Simulator). The object of th= e game is to cause all processes of the opposing program to terminate, leavin= g your program in sole posession of the machine. There are Core War systems available for most computer platforms. Redcode has been standardised by the ICWS, and is therefore transportable between all standard Core War systems. The system in which the programs run is quite simple. The core (the memory of the simulated computer) is a continuous array of instructions, empty except for the competing programs. The core wraps around, so that after the last instruction comes the first one again. There are no absolute addresses in Core War. That is, the address 0 doesn't mean the first instruction in the memory, but the instruction that contains the address 0. The next instruction is 1, and the previous one obviously -1= =2E However, all numbers are treated as positive, and are in the range 0 to CORESIZE-1 where CORESIZE is the amount of memory locations in the core - this means that -1 would be treated as CORESIZE-1 in any arithmetic operations, eg. 3218 + 7856 =3D (3218 + 7856) mod CORESIZE. Many people get confused by this, and it is particularly important when using the SLT instruction. Note that the source code of a program can still contain negative numbers, but if you start using instructions like DIV #-2, #5 it i= s important to know what effect they will have when executed. The basic unit of memory in Core War is one instruction. Each Redcode instruction contains three parts: * the opcode * the source address (a.k.a. the A-field) * the destination address (a.k.a. the B-field) The execution of the programs is equally simple. The MARS executes one instruction at a time, and then proceeds to the next one in the memory, unless the instruction explicitly tells it to jump to another address. If there is more than one program running, (as is usual) the programs execute alternately, one instruction at a time. The execution of each instruction takes the same time, one cycle, whether it is MOV, DIV or even DAT (which kills the process). Each program may have several processes running. These processes are stored in a task queue. When it is the program's turn to execute an instruction it dequeues a process and executes the corresponding instruction. Processes that are not killed during the execution of the instruction are put back into the task queue. Processes created by a SPL instruction are added to th= e task queue after the creating process is put back into the task queue. [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2. 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] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 3. Where can I find more information about Core War? Core War was first described in the Core War Guidelines of March, 1984 by D= =2E 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: Library of Author Title Published ISBN Congress Call Number The Armchair Dewdney, Universe: An New York: W. QA76.6 .D517 A. K. Exploration of H. Freeman =A90-7167-1939-8 1988 Computer Worlds 1988 The Magic 0-7167-2125-2 Dewdney, Machine: A New York: W.(Hardcover), QA76.6 A. K. Handbook of H. Freeman =A90-7167-2144-9 .D5173 199= 0 Computer Sorcery 1990 (Paperback) 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. For those who are interested, Dewdney has a home page at http://www.csd.uwo.ca/faculty/akd/. [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4. 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 ftp://www.koth.org/corewar/documents/standards/redcode-icws-88.Z. This document is formatted awkwardly and contains ambiguous statements. For a more approachable intro to Redcode, take a look at Mark Durham's tutorials, ftp://www.koth.org/corewar/documents/tutorial.1.Z and ftp://www.koth.org/corewar/documents/tutorial.2.Z. Steven Morrell has prepared a more practically oriented Redcode tutorial that discusses different warrior classes with lots of example code. This an= d various other tutorials can be found at http://www.koth.org/papers.html. Even though ICWS'88 is still the "official" standard, you will find that most people are playing by ICWS'94 draft rules and extensions. [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 5. 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 new addressing modes 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'9= 4 draft at ftp://www.koth.org/corewar/documents/icws94.0202.Z for more information. There is a HTML version of this document available at http://www.koth.org/info/icws94.html. 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://www.koth.org/corewar. Note that Redcoder onl= y supports a subset of ICWS'94. [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 6. What is the ICWS? About one year after Core War first appeared in Scientific American, the "International Core War Society" (ICWS) was established. Since that time, the ICWS has been responsible for the creation and maintenance of Core War standards and the running of Core War tournaments. There have been six annual tournaments and two standards (ICWS'86 and ICWS'88). The ICWS is no longer active. [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 7. What is Core Warrior? Following in the tradition of the Core War News Letter, Push Off, and The 9= 4 Warrior, Core Warrior is a newsletter about strategies and current standing= s in Core War. Started in October 1995, back issues of Core Warrior (and the other newsletters) are available at http://para.inria.fr/~doligez/corewar/. There is also a Core Warrior index page at http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Park/5427/warrior.htm which has a summary of the contents of each issue of Core Warrior. Many of the earlier issues contain useful information for beginners. [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 8. 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 ftp://ftp.csua.berkeley.edu/pub/corewar. 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. This site is mirrored at: * http://www.koth.org/corewar/ * ftp://www.koth.org/corewar/ * ftp://ftp.inria.fr/INRIA/Projects/para/doligez/cw/mirror The plain text version of this FAQ is automatically archived by news.answer= s (but this version is probably out-of-date). [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 9. Where can I find a Core War system for . . . ? Core War systems are available via anonymous FTP from www.koth.org in the 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 ftp://www.koth.org/corewar/incoming 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 www.koth.org. Generally, the older the program - the less likely it will be ICWS compatible. If you are looking for an ICWS'94 simulator, get pMARS, which is available for many platforms and can be downloaded from: * ftp://ftp.csua.berkeley.edu/pub/corewar (original site) * ftp://www.koth.org/corewar (Stormking mirror) * ftp://ftp.inria.fr/INRIA/Projects/para/doligez/cw/mirror (Planar mirror) * http://www.nc5.infi.net/~wtnewton/corewar/ (Terry Newton) * ftp://members.aol.com/ofechner/corewar (Fechter) Notes: * If you have trouble running pMARS with a graphical display under Win95 then check out http://www.koth.org/pmars.html which should have a pointer to the latest compilation of pMARS for this environment. * RPMs for the Alpha, PowerPC, Sparc and i386 can be found at ftp://ftp.inria.fr/INRIA/Projects/para/doligez/cw/pmars-rpm/ 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 www.koth.org: 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 pvms08.zip pMARS v0.8 for VMS build files/help (req. pmars08s.zip) ApMARS03.lha pMARS executable for Amiga (port of version 0.3.1) wincor11.zip MS-Windows system, shareware ($15) [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 10. Where can I find warrior code? To learn the game, it is a good idea to study previously posted warrior code. The FTP archives have code in the ftp://www.koth.org/corewar/redcode directory. A clearly organized on-line warrior collection is available at the Core War web sites (see below). [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 11. I do not have FTP. How do I get all this great stuff? There is an FTP email server at bitftp@pucc.princeton.edu. This address may no longer exist. I haven't tested it yet. Send email with a subject and bod= y text of "help" (without the quotes) for more information on its usage. Note that many FTP email gateways are shutting down due to abuse. To get a current list of FTP email servers, look at the Accessing the Internet by E-mail FAQ posted to news.answers. If you don't have access to Usenet, you can retrieve this FAQ one of the following ways: * Send mail to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with the body containing "send usenet/news.answers/internet-services/access-via-email". * Send mail to mailbase@mailbase.ac.uk with the body containing "send lis-iis e-access-inet.txt". [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 12. 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@ttsg.com). Servers that allow you to post (but not receive) articles are available. Refer to the Accessing the Internet by E-Mail FAQ for more information. [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 13. 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 http://www.koth.org; pizza's is http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~pizza/koth . Damien Doligez (a.k.a. Planar) has a web page that features convenient access to regular newsletters (Push Off, The '94 Warrior, Core Warrior) and a well organized library of warriors: http://para.inria.fr/~doligez/corewar/. Convenient for U.S. users= , this site is also mirrored at Stormking. [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 14. 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 point= s 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 ha= s 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, KotH= s based on Bill's UNIX scripts but offering a wider variety of hills are are running at two sites: koth@koth.org is maintained by Scott J. Ellentuch (tuc@ttsg.com) and pizza@ecst.csuchico.edu by Thomas H. Davies (sd@ecst.csuchico.edu). Up until May '95, the two sites provided overlappin= g 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 divide= d up among the sites. The way you submit warriors to both KotHs is pretty muc= h 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 * Write a corewar program. KotH is fully ICWS '88 compatible, EXCEPT tha= t a comma (",") is required between two arguments. * 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. 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. Using ";name" is mandatory on the Pizza hills. 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-94, ;redcode-b, ;redcode-lp, ;redcode-x, ;redcode, ;redcode-94x or ;redcode-94m. The former four run at "pizza"= , the latter three at "stormking". More information on these hills is listed below. * Mail this file to koth@koth.org or pizza@ecst.csuchico.edu. "Pizza" requires a subject of "koth" (use the -s flag on most mailers). * 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. * 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 25 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 25 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. Duration Max. Hill Name Hill Core Max. Before Entry Min. Rounds I= nstr. Size Size Processes Distance Fought = Set Tie Length Pizza's ICWS '94 Draft Hill Ex= tended (Accessed with 25 8000 8000 80000 100 100 200 IC= WS '94 ";redcode-94") Dr= aft Pizza's Beginner's Hill Ex= tended (Accessed with 25 8000 8000 80000 100 100 200 IC= WS '94 ";redcode-b") Dr= aft Pizza's Experimental Ex= tended (Small) Hill 25 800 800 8000 20 20 200 IC= WS '94 (Accessed with Dr= aft ";redcode-x") Pizza's Limited Process (LP) Ex= tended Hill (Accessed 25 8000 8 80000 200 200 200 IC= WS '94 with Dr= aft ";redcode-lp") Stormking's ICWS '88 Standard Hill 20 8000 8000 80000 100 100 250 IC= WS '88 (Accessed with ";redcode") Stormking's ICWS '94 Experimental Ex= tended (Big) Hill 20 55440 55440 500000 200 200 250 IC= WS '94 (Accessed with Dr= aft ";redcode-94x") Stormking's ICWS '94 Draft Multi-Warrior Ex= tended Hill (Accessed 10 8000 8000 80000 100 100 200 IC= WS '94 with Dr= aft ";redcode-94m") Note: Warriors on the beginner's hill are retired at age 100. 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 assemble= d but not actually pitted against the warriors on the hill. At "pizza", you can use ";redcode[-??] test" to do a test challenge of the Hill without affecting the status of the Hill. These challenges can be used to see how well your warrior does against the current Hill warriors. All hills run portable MARS (pMARS) version 0.8, a platform-independent Cor= e War system available at www.koth.org. The '94 and '94x hills allow five experimental opcodes and three experimental addressing modes currently not covered in the ICWS'94 draft document: * LDP - Load P-Space * STP - Store P-Space * 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] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 15. 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 (in source code) under ICWS'88 rules and strictly compliant assemblers (such as KotH o= r pmars -8) will not let you have a DAT 0, 0 instruction in your source code = - 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, fo= r comparison. Note that under ICWS'94, DAT 0, 0 is a legal instruction. [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 16. 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 (core 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 tha= n zero. [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 17. 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 Colour 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. Decrement Resistant Property of warriors making them functional (or at least partially functional) when overrun by a DJN-stream. 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 memor= y 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 www.koth.org. Paper A Paper-like program is one which replicates itself many times. Part o= f the Scissors (beats) Paper (beats) Stone (beats Scissors) analogy. P-Warrior A warrior which uses the results of previous round(s) in order to determine which strategy it will use. 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. Q^2 Scan A modern version of the Quick Scan where anything found is attacked almost immediately. 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 p= ointer 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 nothin= g 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 locatio= ns seq start+400*s1+200, start+400*s1+300 ;check two locatio= ns 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 nothin= g 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 -1, 0 spl 1 ;generate 6 consecutive processes silk spl 3620, #0 ;split to new copy mov >-1, }-1 ;copy self to new location mov bomb, >2000 ;linear bombing mov bomb, }2042 ;A-indirect bombing for anti-vamp jmp silk, {silk ;reset source pointer, make new cop= y bomb dat >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= =2E 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: sz EQU 2667 spl 1 spl 1 jmp @vt, }0 vt dat #0, imp+0*sz ; start of vector table dat #0, imp+1*sz dat #0, imp+2*sz dat #0, imp+3*sz ; end of vector table imp mov.i #0, sz [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 23. Other questions? Just ask in the rec.games.corewar newsgroup or contact me. 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: * Mark Durham (wrote the original version of the FAQ) * Paul Kline * Randy Graham * Stefan Strack (maintained a recent version of the FAQ) The rec.games.corewar FAQ is Copyright =A9 1999 and maintained by Anton Marsden (anton@paradise.net.nz). ------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: Robert Macrae Subject: Re: IWT update. Date: 1999/06/19 Message-ID: <376BECB4.265C@dial.pipex.com>#1/1 russ wrote: > I read about it in Scientific American, in the "Computer Recreations" > column sometime in the 80's. Ditto. Robert Macrae From: John Metcalf Subject: Re: imps Date: 1999/06/19 Message-ID: #1/1 Greetings... > Another topic: how do you find the good number of process to put in > imps in an imp/stone??? How do you find the number of process to put in > the stone or how many time to wait before starting the paper in a > stone/paper??? By experimentation. Write a few variants and see which does best. Then try some more variants based on your findings from the first results! A continuous-imp is more effective though. > Anyone has ever thought about new instruction to put in cw??? I'm > thinking of XCHG and the logic operator... > Maybe some instructions to add some more symmetry to the language... Oh no :-) This discussion re-occurs at intervals! Though some addtional instructions would be nice, if they were of any benefit, they would make every warrior written to date obsolete :-( There are some interesting instructions implemented in CoreWar Pro. Regards John From: Paul-V Khuong Subject: Re: imps Date: 1999/06/19 Message-ID: <19990619142759.20195.rocketmail@web128.yahoomail.com>#1/1 benford@my-deja.com wrote: > Hello, > I was just wondering why mov #2667, *0 imps seem to > be more popular than > mov #x, 2667 imps. I would think that the mov > #2667, *0 imps you we > weaker since both the a and b fields are vulnerable > instead of just the > b field. Yeah, but first, you have to catch the instruction that's currently being executed... and it's 1 position/8000(or 54400)... The only practical way i know of doing this is with a gate and a > gate doesn't affect the star imps, and if you do mov.i #2667, }0, it's also invulnerable to < gate... you can also do an imp � la cannonade but doing the modification on the a-field; it would the also be invulnerable to { gates and b/c you need another imp-spiral to make it work, you could make a warrior constituted of only imps and it would be invulnerable to }{<> gates... Another topic: how do you find the good number of process to put in imps in an imp/stone??? How do you find the number of process to put in the stone or how many time to wait before starting the paper in a stone/paper??? Anyone has ever thought about new instruction to put in cw??? I'm thinking of XCHG and the logic operator... Maybe some instructions to add some more symmetry to the language... === Vive le Qu�bec libre... d� souverainistes!!! _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com From: jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu Subject: Re: imps Date: 1999/06/19 Message-ID: <4.1.19990619011700.00920410@pop-server>#1/1 At 06:34 PM 6/18/99 -0400, you wrote: >Hello, >I was just wondering why mov #2667, *0 imps seem to be more popular than >mov #x, 2667 imps. I would think that the mov #2667, *0 imps you we >weaker since both the a and b fields are vulnerable instead of just the >b field. > >-Ben If I'm not mistaken, the FIRST reason they were made was to dodge "cmp.b" scanners, but they also are more resistant to most djn trains. -jkw From: pixel@shore.net.death.to.spam Subject: Re: frre fun Date: 1999/06/19 Message-ID: #1/1 While prying the lemmings from hir ankles, wrote: >http://members.xoom.com/theGOEROE >for more then "500 Free Fun Downloads" "Frre"? I hope one of those downloads is a spell checker. -- pixelATshoreDOTnet - http://www.shore.net/~pixel An it harm none, do as thou wilt. Mind your mind or it will surely spoil Assistant Forum Manager, MSN IE forums From: bford@asf.com Subject: Re: testing warriors Date: 1999/06/21 Message-ID: <7km24q$ii1$1@nnrp1.deja.com>#1/1 In article <376E670C.30F1@acad.drake.edu>, pk6811s@acad.drake.edu wrote: > I would add Alladin's Cave to your list. It really hurts to have > a program beat you over 90% of the time :-) > > Paul Kline > pk6811s@acad.drake.edu Yeah it does. At least those atests are just tests =). If I could only figure out how to get the BiShot style scanner to work with step sizes other than 10... -Ben Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ Share what you know. Learn what you don't. From: Paul Kline Subject: Re: testing warriors Date: 1999/06/21 Message-ID: <376E670C.30F1@acad.drake.edu>#1/1 I would add Alladin's Cave to your list. It really hurts to have a program beat you over 90% of the time :-) Paul Kline pk6811s@acad.drake.edu Christian Schmidt wrote: > > Maybe we can create a new benchmark.I would vote for the following > warriors. > > Newt / Vain > The Stormbringer / Spooky Wench > Blue Candle > The Fugitive / Fixed > Benj's Revenge > Shadow / Recovery / Puddleglum > He Scans Alone > The Machine / Zoom / Blur > Phantasm 50 or maybe another oneshot > Recycle Bits > Electric Head / Nomolos > Fire and Ice / NCC-1701-A From: Paul Kline Subject: Re: IWT update. Date: 1999/06/21 Message-ID: <376E6833.3C15@acad.drake.edu>#1/1 Robert Macrae wrote: > > russ wrote: > > > I read about it in Scientific American, in the "Computer Recreations" > > column sometime in the 80's. > > Ditto. > > Robert Macrae Me too. Then picked up a copy of Core! for the Mac from a bbs about 1991. Paul Kline From: colemanr@marietta.edu Subject: Re: IWT update. Date: 1999/06/21 Message-ID: <7klpsq$eq3$1@nnrp1.deja.com>#1/1 In article , jpihlaja@cc.helsinki.fi wrote: > On Thu, 17 Jun 1999 jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu wrote: > > > I heard about Corewars from a BBS friend back in like 1993, I think. > > There was a copy of Stefan Strack's "Corewar Pro" distributed on a BBS > > network called ArcusNet. Could everyone say how they heard about Corewars...? > > Just for my own demographic curiosity. Heh... > > A friend had heard about it sometime in 1994 and mailed me a disk with The > MADgic Core on it. I was discouraged by XTC for a long time. :) > > Joonas > > I heard about it spring of 96, while taking an assembly programming course. The professor mentioned it for some reason, probably mentioned Dewdney's articles, I looked on the web sometime and eventually found stormking.com which had moved to koth.org I think. Downloaded FAQ and pMARS and played! Ryan Coleman Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ Share what you know. Learn what you don't. From: Philip Kendall Subject: Re: KOTH.ORG: Status - 94 No Pspace 06/21/99 Date: 1999/06/21 Message-ID: #1/1 Koth writes: > # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age > 1 40/ 42/ 19 Zooom... John Metcalf 138 38 [snip] > 20 38/ 49/ 12 Nuke it! (V 0.4) Silvio Sampietro 128 6 So that's a grand total of 10 points between being KotH and off the Hill -- no wonder my warrior's bouncing around like mad! Phil -- / Philip Kendall (pak21@cam.ac.uk pak21@kendalls.demon.co.uk) \ \ http://www.kendalls.demon.co.uk/pak21/corewar/index.html / From: M Joonas Pihlaja Subject: Re: IWT update. Date: 1999/06/21 Message-ID: #1/1 On Thu, 17 Jun 1999 jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu wrote: > I heard about Corewars from a BBS friend back in like 1993, I think. > There was a copy of Stefan Strack's "Corewar Pro" distributed on a BBS > network called ArcusNet. Could everyone say how they heard about Corewars...? > Just for my own demographic curiosity. Heh... A friend had heard about it sometime in 1994 and mailed me a disk with The MADgic Core on it. I was discouraged by XTC for a long time. :) Joonas From: Koth Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - Standard 06/21/99 Date: 1999/06/21 Message-ID: <199906210400.AAA02604@gevjon.ttsg.com>#1/1 Weekly Status on 06/21/99 -=- www.KOTH.org is now hosting a '94 No Pspace Hill. -=- View the stats of all the Hills at: www.KOTH.org/standings.html -=- *FAQ* page located at: www.KOTH.org/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the KOTH.ORG Standard KotH CoreWar Hill : Last battle concluded at : Sun May 23 03:45:42 EDT 1999 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 40/ 20/ 40 Freight Train David Moore 159 44 2 36/ 24/ 39 sIMPly.Red v0.95 Leonardo Humberto 148 1 3 35/ 22/ 43 Guardian Ian Oversby 147 43 4 32/ 22/ 45 The Marlboro Man 1.13 M Joonas Pihlaja 142 19 5 29/ 17/ 54 EV Paper John K Wilkinson 141 57 6 41/ 40/ 19 Stasis David Moore 141 151 7 39/ 38/ 23 PacMan David Moore 141 73 8 42/ 44/ 14 Iron Gate Wayne Sheppard 139 369 9 38/ 38/ 24 Kitchen Sink Robert Macrae 138 42 10 39/ 41/ 20 Beholder's Eye V1.7 W. Mintardjo 138 319 11 37/ 37/ 26 Leapfrog David Moore 137 72 12 41/ 44/ 15 Blur '88 Anton Marsden 137 81 13 28/ 20/ 52 Test I Ian Oversby 137 100 14 42/ 47/ 12 Blurstone '88 M. J. Pihlaja 137 38 15 28/ 19/ 53 Nightfall 2.1cc David Moore 136 7 16 28/ 22/ 50 Evoltmp 88 John K W 135 94 17 40/ 45/ 15 Foggy Swamp Beppe Bezzi 134 40 18 28/ 24/ 48 TESTE Leonardo Humberto 132 2 19 37/ 41/ 22 Tangle Trap David Moore 132 117 20 39/ 48/ 13 Skewer Ben Ford 130 5 21 16/ 83/ 1 clear Hugues Salamin 50 0 From: Koth Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - 94 No Pspace 06/21/99 Date: 1999/06/21 Message-ID: <199906210400.AAA02619@gevjon.ttsg.com>#1/1 Weekly Status on 06/21/99 -=- www.KOTH.org is now hosting a '94 No Pspace Hill. -=- View the stats of all the Hills at: www.KOTH.org/standings.html -=- *FAQ* page located at: www.KOTH.org/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the KOTH.ORG 94 No Pspace CoreWar Hill: Last battle concluded at : Sat Jun 19 12:45:21 EDT 1999 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 40/ 42/ 19 Zooom... John Metcalf 138 38 2 33/ 28/ 39 The Stormbringer Christian Schmidt 137 173 3 39/ 42/ 19 Boys are Back in Town 1.1 Philip Kendall 136 164 4 24/ 12/ 65 _romanian_killah_ Costin Bontas rulez 136 131 5 31/ 28/ 41 Vain Ian Oversby 135 239 6 41/ 46/ 13 Win! David Moore 135 137 7 35/ 36/ 29 WingShot Ben Ford 133 4 8 31/ 29/ 39 Blacken Ian Oversby 133 149 9 43/ 53/ 4 Neon Spring John Metcalf 133 21 10 22/ 12/ 66 The Fugitive David Moore 132 241 11 33/ 33/ 34 The Outsider Simon Wainwright 132 2 12 31/ 31/ 38 Baseline Plus Ken Espiritu 132 220 13 32/ 33/ 35 Fixed Ken Espiritu 131 222 14 33/ 36/ 30 Liquid Fire Christian Schmidt 131 135 15 28/ 26/ 45 Brigadeer M Joonas Pihlaja 130 158 16 25/ 20/ 55 Redemption John Metcalf 130 1 17 30/ 29/ 41 Recovery Ian Oversby 130 162 18 31/ 33/ 35 Spooky Wench John Metcalf 130 26 19 28/ 29/ 43 Quickest Zeta Leonardo Humberto 128 15 20 38/ 49/ 12 Nuke it! (V 0.4) Silvio Sampietro 128 6 21 28/ 29/ 43 PlumBoom Christian Schmidt 127 3 From: Koth Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - MultiWarrior 94 06/21/99 Date: 1999/06/21 Message-ID: <199906210400.AAA02608@gevjon.ttsg.com>#1/1 Weekly Status on 06/21/99 -=- www.KOTH.org is now hosting a '94 No Pspace Hill. -=- View the stats of all the Hills at: www.KOTH.org/standings.html -=- *FAQ* page located at: www.KOTH.org/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the KOTH.ORG Multiwarrior 94 CoreWar Hill: Last battle concluded at : Thu Jun 10 19:28:26 EDT 1999 # Name Author Score Age 1 Her Majesty P.Kline 55 3 2 Cinderella Ben Ford 43 11 3 WingShot Ben Ford 41 1 4 QuiVa John Metcalf 39 77 5 BiShot v1.0 Christian Schmidt 34 52 6 QueensGuard P.Kline 32 5 7 QueensGuard P.Kline 30 6 8 Sharkrage Christian Schmidt 30 51 9 QueensGuard P.Kline 28 4 10 Diamonds and more Rust Christian Schmidt 26 50 11 Nuke it! Silvio Sampietro 17 2 From: Koth Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - ICWS Experimental 94 06/21/99 Date: 1999/06/21 Message-ID: <199906210400.AAA02614@gevjon.ttsg.com>#1/1 Weekly Status on 06/21/99 -=- www.KOTH.org is now hosting a '94 No Pspace Hill. -=- View the stats of all the Hills at: www.KOTH.org/standings.html -=- *FAQ* page located at: www.KOTH.org/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the KOTH.ORG ICWS Experimental 94 CoreWar Hill: Last battle concluded at : Fri Jun 11 16:06:51 EDT 1999 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 55/ 32/ 13 Black Moods Ian Oversby 179 5 2 52/ 30/ 18 Controlled Aggression Ian Oversby 174 9 3 42/ 16/ 42 Venom v0.2b Christian Schmidt 168 31 4 35/ 6/ 59 Evol Cap 4 X John Wilkinson 164 78 5 30/ 2/ 68 Evolve X v4.0 John Wilkinson 158 26 6 34/ 19/ 47 Rosebud Beppe 150 57 7 40/ 37/ 23 Dr. Gate X Franz 143 49 8 38/ 36/ 26 BigBoy Robert Macrae 140 103 9 42/ 47/ 11 S.E.T.I. 4-X JKW 137 79 10 39/ 42/ 18 Pagan John K W 136 63 11 39/ 43/ 18 Tsunami v0.3 X Ian Oversby 135 3 12 40/ 47/ 12 WingShot Ben Ford 134 1 13 26/ 18/ 56 Sphere v0.2 Christian Schmidt 133 20 14 38/ 45/ 17 Memories Beppe Bezzi 132 85 15 27/ 22/ 51 Purple v0.1 Christian Schmidt 131 30 16 33/ 37/ 30 Lithium X 8 John K Wilkinson 130 69 17 35/ 39/ 26 Stepping Stone 94x Kurt Franke 130 64 18 35/ 48/ 17 BiShot Christian Schmidt 122 17 19 32/ 43/ 25 13 Christian Schmidt 120 16 20 35/ 53/ 12 HSA Copy 55440 Robert Macrae 118 46 21 0/ 75/ 25 jmp #0, 0 0 25 0 From: "Derek Ross" Subject: Re: IWT update. Date: 1999/06/21 Message-ID: <7kk4f6$lov$1@news6.svr.pol.co.uk>#1/1 jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu wrote in message <4.1.19990613212305.009293d0@pop-server>... :At 01:04 PM 6/13/99 -0400, you wrote: : :I heard about Corewars from a BBS friend back in like 1993, I think. :There was a copy of Stefan Strack's "Corewar Pro" distributed on a BBS :network called ArcusNet. Could everyone say how they heard about Corewars...? :Just for my own demographic curiosity. Heh... : Read about it in Scientific American in 1984 Cheers Derek From: jwilkinson@mail.utexas.edu Subject: Re: IWT update. Date: 1999/06/21 Message-ID: <4.1.19990621150410.00916920@pop-server>#1/1 At 02:00 PM 6/21/99 -0400, you wrote: > I also read about CoreWars in Scientific American in the 80's. >Since then I never played it or read about it until October >of last year. I don't know how or why, but CoreWars came to my >mind again. I performed a query in Altavista and I found KOTH. Well these responses seem to indicate a need for advertising corewar to people that might be interested... does anyone know of any highly relevant newsgroups the FAQ could be posted to? From: "Leonardo H. Liporati" Subject: Re: IWT update. Date: 1999/06/21 Message-ID: <005b01bebc0d$a3968520$52b8fbc8@ispent>#1/1 I also read about CoreWars in Scientific American in the 80's. Since then I never played it or read about it until October of last year. I don't know how or why, but CoreWars came to my mind again. I performed a query in Altavista and I found KOTH. From: John.Metcalf@p18.f94.chaos.camelot.co.uk (John Metcalf) Subject: IWT Deadline Date: 1999/06/22 Message-ID: #1/1 Greetings... Could someone please remind me of the exact date of the IWT deadline; I seem to have missed it. Regards, John From: jkw@austin.rr.com Subject: lp hill Date: 1999/06/22 Message-ID: <4.1.19990622122232.0092e320@pop-server>#1/1 Ok Ben asked for the code to the warrior that's listed as "testing pizza's lp hill"... I did some searching and found it was originally called "LP and Feelin' Fine."... the reason it doesn't have a name on pizza's hill was apparently that pizza was down at the time of the tournament... http://www.KOTH.org/planar/rc/LPandFeelin'Fine.txt From: Nathanael Tucker Subject: Re: IWT update. Date: 1999/06/22 Message-ID: <37701D87.17FD785A@olywa.net>#1/1 I heard about it about a year ago from a friend of mine, and I'm just now getting around to downloading all the stuff and reading all the FAQ's. Still trying to figure out how the dang thing works...=) Nate From: Koth Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - 94 No Pspace 06/28/99 Date: 1999/06/28 Message-ID: <199906280400.AAA07398@gevjon.ttsg.com>#1/1 Weekly Status on 06/28/99 -=- www.KOTH.org is now hosting a '94 No Pspace Hill. -=- View the stats of all the Hills at: www.KOTH.org/standings.html -=- *FAQ* page located at: www.KOTH.org/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the KOTH.ORG 94 No Pspace CoreWar Hill: Last battle concluded at : Sat Jun 26 23:14:15 EDT 1999 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 38/ 35/ 27 WingShot Ben Ford 141 7 2 39/ 41/ 20 Boys are Back in Town 1.1 Philip Kendall 136 167 3 41/ 46/ 14 Win! David Moore 136 140 4 39/ 42/ 19 Zooom... John Metcalf 135 41 5 30/ 26/ 44 Vain Ian Oversby 134 242 6 30/ 27/ 43 The Stormbringer Christian Schmidt 132 176 7 42/ 52/ 5 Neon Spring John Metcalf 132 24 8 21/ 11/ 67 _romanian_killah_ Costin Bontas rulez 131 134 9 30/ 29/ 42 Blacken Ian Oversby 131 152 10 20/ 12/ 68 The Fugitive David Moore 129 244 11 27/ 25/ 48 Brigadeer M Joonas Pihlaja 128 161 12 24/ 21/ 55 Alive and K(qu)icking Zet Leonardo H. Liporati 127 1 13 27/ 28/ 45 Recovery Ian Oversby 127 165 14 29/ 32/ 39 Fixed Ken Espiritu 127 225 15 29/ 30/ 41 Baseline Plus Ken Espiritu 127 223 16 29/ 32/ 39 Spooky Wench John Metcalf 126 29 17 30/ 35/ 34 Liquid Fire Christian Schmidt 126 138 18 22/ 19/ 59 Redemption John Metcalf 125 4 19 30/ 34/ 37 The Outsider Simon Wainwright 125 5 20 21/ 19/ 60 Slippery Eels Ben Ford 124 2 21 25/ 28/ 47 Quickest Zeta Leonardo Humberto 123 18 From: Koth Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - MultiWarrior 94 06/28/99 Date: 1999/06/28 Message-ID: <199906280400.AAA07388@gevjon.ttsg.com>#1/1 Weekly Status on 06/28/99 -=- www.KOTH.org is now hosting a '94 No Pspace Hill. -=- View the stats of all the Hills at: www.KOTH.org/standings.html -=- *FAQ* page located at: www.KOTH.org/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the KOTH.ORG Multiwarrior 94 CoreWar Hill: Last battle concluded at : Sat Jun 26 22:50:50 EDT 1999 # Name Author Score Age 1 Her Majesty P.Kline 40 3 2 QuiVa John Metcalf 37 77 3 WingShot Ben Ford 35 1 4 QueensGuard P.Kline 33 4 5 Cinderella Ben Ford 31 11 6 QueensGuard P.Kline 27 5 7 QueensGuard P.Kline 26 6 8 BiShot v1.0 Christian Schmidt 23 52 9 Diamonds and more Rust Christian Schmidt 23 50 10 Sharkrage Christian Schmidt 21 51 11 T1 Leonardo Humberto 6 0 From: Koth Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - Standard 06/28/99 Date: 1999/06/28 Message-ID: <199906280400.AAA07384@gevjon.ttsg.com>#1/1 Weekly Status on 06/28/99 -=- www.KOTH.org is now hosting a '94 No Pspace Hill. -=- View the stats of all the Hills at: www.KOTH.org/standings.html -=- *FAQ* page located at: www.KOTH.org/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the KOTH.ORG Standard KotH CoreWar Hill : Last battle concluded at : Sun May 23 03:45:42 EDT 1999 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 40/ 20/ 40 Freight Train David Moore 159 44 2 36/ 24/ 39 sIMPly.Red v0.95 Leonardo Humberto 148 1 3 35/ 22/ 43 Guardian Ian Oversby 147 43 4 32/ 22/ 45 The Marlboro Man 1.13 M Joonas Pihlaja 142 19 5 29/ 17/ 54 EV Paper John K Wilkinson 141 57 6 41/ 40/ 19 Stasis David Moore 141 151 7 39/ 38/ 23 PacMan David Moore 141 73 8 42/ 44/ 14 Iron Gate Wayne Sheppard 139 369 9 38/ 38/ 24 Kitchen Sink Robert Macrae 138 42 10 39/ 41/ 20 Beholder's Eye V1.7 W. Mintardjo 138 319 11 37/ 37/ 26 Leapfrog David Moore 137 72 12 41/ 44/ 15 Blur '88 Anton Marsden 137 81 13 28/ 20/ 52 Test I Ian Oversby 137 100 14 42/ 47/ 12 Blurstone '88 M. J. Pihlaja 137 38 15 28/ 19/ 53 Nightfall 2.1cc David Moore 136 7 16 28/ 22/ 50 Evoltmp 88 John K W 135 94 17 40/ 45/ 15 Foggy Swamp Beppe Bezzi 134 40 18 28/ 24/ 48 TESTE Leonardo Humberto 132 2 19 37/ 41/ 22 Tangle Trap David Moore 132 117 20 39/ 48/ 13 Skewer Ben Ford 130 5 21 16/ 83/ 1 clear Hugues Salamin 50 0 From: Koth Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - ICWS Experimental 94 06/28/99 Date: 1999/06/28 Message-ID: <199906280400.AAA07394@gevjon.ttsg.com>#1/1 Weekly Status on 06/28/99 -=- www.KOTH.org is now hosting a '94 No Pspace Hill. -=- View the stats of all the Hills at: www.KOTH.org/standings.html -=- *FAQ* page located at: www.KOTH.org/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the KOTH.ORG ICWS Experimental 94 CoreWar Hill: Last battle concluded at : Fri Jun 25 14:58:40 EDT 1999 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 55/ 32/ 14 Black Moods Ian Oversby 178 6 2 51/ 31/ 18 Controlled Aggression Ian Oversby 171 10 3 41/ 17/ 43 Venom v0.2b Christian Schmidt 165 32 4 34/ 6/ 60 Evol Cap 4 X John Wilkinson 163 79 5 31/ 3/ 66 Evolve X v4.0 John Wilkinson 160 27 6 35/ 20/ 45 Rosebud Beppe 150 58 7 40/ 37/ 24 Dr. Gate X Franz 143 50 8 39/ 38/ 23 Stepping Stone 94x Kurt Franke 141 65 9 37/ 33/ 30 Draken Fire X Ben Ford 141 1 10 38/ 36/ 26 BigBoy Robert Macrae 139 104 11 42/ 47/ 12 S.E.T.I. 4-X JKW 137 80 12 39/ 42/ 19 Pagan John K W 136 64 13 27/ 18/ 55 Sphere v0.2 Christian Schmidt 135 21 14 39/ 44/ 18 Memories Beppe Bezzi 133 86 15 26/ 22/ 52 Purple v0.1 Christian Schmidt 131 31 16 33/ 36/ 31 Lithium X 8 John K Wilkinson 131 70 17 39/ 48/ 13 WingShot Ben Ford 130 2 18 37/ 45/ 18 Tsunami v0.3 X Ian Oversby 130 4 19 38/ 49/ 13 BiShot Christian Schmidt 127 18 20 39/ 53/ 8 HSA Copy 55440 Robert Macrae 126 47 21 2/ 98/ 0 0 0 7 0 From: David Matthew Moore Subject: Re: testing warriors Date: 1999/06/28 Message-ID: <7l86jr$4jo$1@msunews.cl.msu.edu>#1/1 Christian Schmidt wrote: > > Maybe we can create a new benchmark.I would vote for the following > warriors. > > Newt / Vain > The Stormbringer / Spooky Wench > Blue Candle > The Fugitive / Fixed > Benj's Revenge > Shadow / Recovery / Puddleglum > He Scans Alone > The Machine / Zoom / Blur > Phantasm 50 or maybe another oneshot > Recycle Bits > Electric Head / Nomolos > Fire and Ice / NCC-1701-A It looks like there are many new P^3 and Q^3 programs on the hill. Why not wait until some of those are published? ... and then revise those quick-scanners after I provide a hint about how to make them a little faster and a lot smaller. From: David Matthew Moore Subject: Re: IWT update. Date: 1999/06/29 Message-ID: <7lbkva$bvr$1@msunews.cl.msu.edu>#1/1 John Metcalf wrote: : JKW> Well these responses seem to indicate a need for advertising : JKW> corewar to people that might be interested... does anyone : JKW> know of any highly relevant newsgroups the FAQ could be posted : JKW> to? : Perhaps the FAQ could have some sections removed (like the glossary) : and be partially rewritten to create a mini-FAQ to be posted to : other newsgroups. The only other related Usenet group is rec.games.pbm (play-by-mail). : Also, if it could convey a bit of recent history too which may generate : interest... e.g. Macrae breaking the '94m deadlock etc. Speaking of which, the -94m hill has moved from deadlock to chaos. Obviously, too few battles are being computed. From: "John K. Lewis" Subject: Re: Beginner's Hill Date: 1999/06/29 Message-ID: #1/1 Philip Kendall wrote: > 1) Strongly encourage everybody on the Pro Hill to ;kill any warriors > they may have on the Beginner's Hill. I agree with this. If you are on the Pro hill, please take some time to remove that program from the beginner hill. > 2) Put some stuff in the FAQ and/or on Pizza giving some guidelines when > to play on the Beginner's Hill and when on the Pro Hill. I would feel > that any warrior above about 20th on the Pro Hill should be killed from > the Beginner's, and once you can get warriors which last more than a few > challenges on the Pro Hill, you shouldn't really be playing on the > Beginner's any more. A walk through of how to make a warrior -> to posting it on the hill would be a wonderful thing. While perhaps not appopo. for the FAQ, the walk through might make an excellant stand alone document. > 3) Lower the age limit on the Beginner's Hill (to say 20), due to the > very tough anti-aging stuff that is now present on Pizza. I agree again. This smaller limit might provoke more action on that kill. Or perhaps removing the test option, forcing players to face and age the begginer hill in the old fashioned way. < john k. lewis > < jklewis@umich.edu > From: Philip Kendall Subject: Re: Beginner's Hill Date: 1999/06/29 Message-ID: #1/1 In article , M Joonas Pihlaja wrote > >I can see it might be hard to get on -94b as there is a lot of >overlap with the pro hill. There probably aren't many beginners >left so we should do everything we can to help them stay interested. >I can't see a beginner being encouraged by getting his head torn >off time and time again by pro players. Whilst I haven't looked at the b-hill recently, some possible suggestions: 1) Strongly encourage everybody on the Pro Hill to ;kill any warriors they may have on the Beginner's Hill. 2) Put some stuff in the FAQ and/or on Pizza giving some guidelines when to play on the Beginner's Hill and when on the Pro Hill. I would feel that any warrior above about 20th on the Pro Hill should be killed from the Beginner's, and once you can get warriors which last more than a few challenges on the Pro Hill, you shouldn't really be playing on the Beginner's any more. 3) Lower the age limit on the Beginner's Hill (to say 20), due to the very tough anti-aging stuff that is now present on Pizza. Opinions, anybody? Phil -- / Philip Kendall (pak21@cam.ac.uk pak21@kendalls.demon.co.uk) \ \ http://www.kendalls.demon.co.uk/pak21/corewar/index.html / From: M Joonas Pihlaja Subject: Beginner's Hill Date: 1999/06/29 Message-ID: #1/1 I can see it might be hard to get on -94b as there is a lot of overlap with the pro hill. There probably aren't many beginners left so we should do everything we can to help them stay interested. I can't see a beginner being encouraged by getting his head torn off time and time again by pro players. Joonas From: Ben Ford Subject: Pattel's Virus Date: 1999/06/29 Message-ID: <7l9ll5$6nf$1@nnrp1.deja.com>#1/1 Well, Pattel's Virus finally fell off the hill at the age of 52. Its weaknesses to papers and stone/papers finally caught up to it. But it did fairly well for the first warrior I got to stick on the hill for any length of time. There isn't much new code in it, just a bunch of components thrown together from various sources combined with the P^3 switcher. I think I made at least one minor tweak to each of the components. One part I think is neat is overlapping the spl's for the paper with the mod numbers for the switcher, saves a few lines of code. The logic can probably be improved since forcing the p^3 to always picks the scanner scores way higher against a range of papers than the hill scores indicated. ;redcode-94 ;name Pattel's Virus ;author Ben Ford ;strategy p^3: clear / scissor / paper / stone ;assert CORESIZE == 8000 && MAXLENGTH >= 100 org think ; **** P-SPACE BRAIN **** STORE equ 256 ; state storage location w0 equ dwarf w1 equ clear w2 equ scissor w3 equ paper think ldp.a #0, in ldp.a #STORE, table mod.ba *in, table stp.b *table, #STORE ; LL WW TT table jmp }0, 226 ; =(22*10)+ 6=(25* 9)+ 1=(20*11)+ 6 ;initial state dat w0, 650 ; =(65*10)+ 0=(72* 9)+ 2=(59*11)+ 1 dat w0, 101 ; =(10*10)+ 1=(11* 9)+ 2=( 9*11)+ 2 dat w1, 886 ; =(88*10)+ 6=(98* 9)+ 4=(80*11)+ 6 dat w1, 653 ; =(65*10)+ 3=(72* 9)+ 5=(59*11)+ 4 dat w1, 104 ; =(10*10)+ 4=(11* 9)+ 5=( 9*11)+ 5 dat w2, 889 ; =(88*10)+ 9=(98* 9)+ 7=(80*11)+ 9 dat w2, 656 ; =(65*10)+ 6=(72* 9)+ 8=(59*11)+ 7 dat w2, 107 ; =(10*10)+ 7=(11* 9)+ 8=( 9*11)+ 8 dat w3, 630 ; =(63*10)+ 0=(70* 9)+ 0=(57*11)+ 3 dat w0, 226 ; =(22*10)+ 0=(25* 9)+ 1=(20*11)+ 6 ;unreachable in dat 0, 10 ; must have non-zero b-field in the previous cell paper spl 2, 9 spl 2, 11 spl 1, >-400 ; ***** PAPER ***** p1 equ 2333 p2 equ 1737 spl @0, >p1 mov }-1, >-1 mov {-2, <1 spl @0, >p2 mov.i #2*p1, }-p1 ; ***** CLEAR ***** CDIST equ 2500 clear mov.ab #clend+3, @kdst add #cstart-2-gate, kdst mov cbmb, >kdst mov cbmb, >kdst ksrc spl @kdst, cstart mov >ksrc, >kdst mov >ksrc, >kdst mov >ksrc, >kdst mov >ksrc, >kdst spl @kdst, cstart mov >ksrc, >kdst mov >ksrc, >kdst mov >ksrc, >kdst mov >ksrc, >kdst kdst div.f #0, think+CDIST+gate-cstart gate equ (cstart-5) ; dat 0, 0 ; dat 0, 0 ; dat <-2666, <2667 cbmb dat <-2666, <2667 cstart spl #0, gate mov cbmb, >gate djn.f -1, {gate spl #0, gate mov cbmb, >gate clend djn.f -1, {gate ; **** SCISSOR **** STEP equ 5379 SDIST equ (think+5923+sclr-scan) sgate equ (scan-2) scissor mov *sclr, @sptr mov {sclr, scan-1 pscan jmz.f scan, @scan slt scan, #sclr+1-scan chg mov.i @pscan, @mv chk jmn scan, scan mov.f dclr, >chk djn.f 1 Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ Share what you know. Learn what you don't. From: John.Metcalf@p18.f94.chaos.camelot.co.uk (John Metcalf) Subject: Beginner's Hill Date: 1999/06/30 Message-ID: #1/1 Greetings... PK> I'm not sure that would help that much due to the thing that PK> says when a warrior with a score less than 120(?) is pushed PK> off a Hill on Pizza, there is still no aging, Not on the beginners' hill though. 50 would be a more suitable age, since there are 25 warriors on the hill, so a retirement age <=25 would mean every warrior submitted would get onto the hill. John. From: Planar Subject: Re: Beginner's Hill Date: 1999/06/30 Message-ID: <7lcvug$2oo$1@ites.inria.fr>#1/1 >From: offpath@hawaii.rr.com (Dale Neal) >But, what I would REALLY >like to see is a tutorial that told how to use the debugger in pmars. >I've been fiddling around with it, but I just can't figure out how to >use it effectively. There are the three articles about cdb that Stefan Strack and I wrote for Core Warrior 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 17: [...] Feedback is still welcome. -- Planar From: Philip Kendall Subject: Re: Beginner's Hill Date: 1999/06/30 Message-ID: #1/1 In article , John K. Lewis wrote >Philip Kendall wrote: > >> 3) Lower the age limit on the Beginner's Hill (to say 20), due to the >> very tough anti-aging stuff that is now present on Pizza. > >I agree again. This smaller limit might provoke more action on that >kill. Or perhaps removing the test option, forcing players to face >and age the begginer hill in the old fashioned way. I'm not sure that would help that much due to the thing that says when a warrior with a score less than 120(?) is pushed off a Hill on Pizza, there is still no aging, so sending in a new version of your warrior and killing the old one still doesn't age the Hill. Phil -- / Philip Kendall (pak21@cam.ac.uk pak21@kendalls.demon.co.uk) \ \ http://www.kendalls.demon.co.uk/pak21/corewar/index.html / From: Philip Kendall Subject: Re: Beginner's Hill Date: 1999/06/30 Message-ID: #1/1 In article <37795ea6.12544471@news-server>, Dale Neal wrote >But, what I would REALLY like to see is a tutorial that told how to use >the debugger in pmars. See Core Warriors 9,10,12,14 and 17, or just my (almost up to date...) Core Warrior Index at: http://www.kendalls.demon.co.uk/corewar/warrior.html HTH Phil -- / Philip Kendall (pak21@cam.ac.uk pak21@kendalls.demon.co.uk) \ | New? Read the FAQ: http://www.kendalls.demon.co.uk/cssfaq/ | | The Threat to Spectrum Emulation: | \ http://www.kendalls.demon.co.uk/pak21/spectrum/threat.html / From: Anton Marsden Subject: Re: IWT update. Date: 1999/06/30 Message-ID: #1/1 The FAQ is still quite generic in that it deals with both '88 and '94 instruction sets. It also provides the necessary terminology to allow people to understand what is being discussed in the newsgroup (although some of the more recent terminology may not be in the glossary). I don't think the FAQ should be changed too much because it already answers many FAQs that come from beginners (the target audience of the FAQ). Core War is unpopular for several reasons: 1. There is insufficient advertising in appropriate areas. Relevant newsgroups that come to mind are assembly language groups, comp.games.pbm, comp.programming.contests, etc. However, the CW FAQ should not be crossposted to these groups because it is not relevant enough. Perhaps a solicited (ie. ask the moderator/FAQ maintainer) EMail containing a pointer to the CW FAQ could be periodically posted to partially relevant groups. Even a pointer from within another FAQ would be adequate. 2. It is very hard to become a good Redcoder. It can take a long time to learn the basics if you have no knowledge of an assembly language. Additionally, you have to learn all the terminology and strategies. It is also beneficial to know the history of the game, eg. who were/are the good players, which strategies work on which Hills, etc. Beginners' guides and tutorials help complete beginners to become familiar with the key concepts of Core War, but there aren't many tutorials that will help players that know the basics to learn in-depth knowledge about a particular warrior class, or learn some neat tricks for optimising warrior code. The tutorials that do exist tend to be too specific. Some good ones are Steven Morrell's two tutorials, but these are out-of-date. I would like to see someone create a decent history of the game which would include: - a timeline of major events - ground breaking warriors - how the warriors work, why they were designed (eg. to kill another warrior). - info about authors - info about the change in rules Perhaps I ask for too much, but this would be the ultimate tutorial because beginners could follow the thinking of the authors at the time --- "Mice" was a good warrior for its time, but is no match for a modern warrior. As the timeline moves on, warriors become smaller, faster and more powerful. A disadvantage of such a tutorial is that "students" can't start writing state-of-the-art programs until they have looked at recent warriors. What is the status of jMARS? A HTML tutorial with Java applets would be very user friendly and platform independent. Any volunteers? :-) Anton. On Tue, 29 Jun 1999, John Metcalf wrote: > Greetings > > JKW> Well these responses seem to indicate a need for advertising > JKW> corewar to people that might be interested... does anyone > JKW> know of any highly relevant newsgroups the FAQ could be posted > JKW> to? > Perhaps the FAQ could have some sections removed (like the glossary) > and be partially rewritten to create a mini-FAQ to be posted to > other newsgroups. Also, if it could convey a bit of recent history > too which may generate interest... e.g. Macrae breaking the '94m > deadlock etc. From: Ben Ford Subject: Re: IWT update. Date: 1999/06/30 Message-ID: <7lda4p$fpr$1@nnrp1.deja.com>#1/1 In article <7lbkva$bvr$1@msunews.cl.msu.edu>, David Matthew Moore wrote: > : Also, if it could convey a bit of recent history too which may generate > : interest... e.g. Macrae breaking the '94m deadlock etc. > > Speaking of which, the -94m hill has moved from deadlock to chaos. > Obviously, too few battles are being computed. I think thats partly because the -94m hill has a bunch of bomb-resistant core-clears on it (sometimes with a one-shot scanner). The linear attacks make starting position extremely important. So the chaos is coming from whichever coreclear is lucky enough to be the farthest from the others. I don't think that more battles will help that out too much. -Ben Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ Share what you know. Learn what you don't. From: "Ransom Smith" Subject: Re: Beginner's Hill Date: 1999/06/30 Message-ID: <89oe3.533$TN3.265659@news-west.eli.net>#1/1 > I can see it might be hard to get on -94b as there is a lot of > overlap with the pro hill. There probably aren't many beginners > left so we should do everything we can to help them stay interested. > I can't see a beginner being encouraged by getting his head torn > off time and time again by pro players. > Joonas I'm still around. I just haven't gotten onto any hills yet. (That one time doesn't count. It was an bug in the program.) Anyway, I would like to say that I completely agree. From: offpath@hawaii.rr.com (Dale Neal) Subject: Re: Beginner's Hill Date: 1999/06/30 Message-ID: <37795ea6.12544471@news-server>#1/1 Being a beginner myself, I'd have to agree. It's a pretty tough jump to first get onto the beginner hill. Most of the tutorials that I've seen around aren't for the '94 draft, either. But, what I would REALLY like to see is a tutorial that told how to use the debugger in pmars. I've been fiddling around with it, but I just can't figure out how to use it effectively. -Dale