From: Lukasz Grabun Subject: Vanquisher & Executor Date: Sat, 2 Mar 2002 23:31:08 +0000 (UTC) Message-ID: for couple of weeks i've been working on complex bombers. my very first one was really frenzy II -- the modified version of really frenzy. the most important thing i found out during developing rf ii was that two parts of incendiary bomb cannot be very far from each other. for example rf ii uses 15 - cell gap betwen mov ... , ... and spl ... , ... (the same is for executor and vanquisher as 15 seems to be optimal number as far as my tests are concerned). what i was trying to do i to develop such a bomber that could beat modern stones/bombers, trash scanners and tie with a paper. though results are not as good i think that vanquisher is a good piece of code and it contains some ideas that might be developed further. the structure i started from was my good-old really frenzy ii. first thing i changed was the step warrior uses. though regular mod-10 pattern is quite good it seems that quasi-random mod-1 patterns (not specially optimal) are better (still can't find the reason for that, can anyone enlighten me?). i wanted to keep the airbagged structure. this limited me to d-clears instead of spl/dat clears - if one process is kept in the main warrior body and it was overwritten by a spl stream it would slow down all vital procesess of the clear and the result of the battle would probably be a tie not a win. so: no double clears. otoh, during my scanner development i found out that i lose battles mainly due to lack of a proper clear; it seems that d-clear is not enough to kill all processes of modern paper. so maybe two dclears would solve the problem? well, it's still not enough but having two independent dclears helps a lot. it also works well against stone/imps. the drawback (ugh, there must be a drawback) is that the warrior scores less against scanners with spl carpet and vampires (as Bugtown Rap by Steve Gunnell). they tend to hit all not-dat-0-0 cells with a nasty spl carpet and this slows the remaining clear down. the other thing i learnt is that the clear must be little above the main body; the reason is that if the warrior was hit with a spl bomb (or even sometimes with a spl/jmp bomb) and other processes would jump into d-clear and wipe the stunned ones. so, here's the vanquisher's code (executor is quite similar and was sent to Koenigstuhl). as usual, any comments and hints are mostly welcome. ;redcode-94nop verbose ;author Lukasz Grabun ;name Vanquisher ;strategy q^4 -> suicidial stone + two independent dclears ;assert 1 org qGo bOff equ 19 bDist equ 15 bStep equ 159 bAway equ 4000 cOff equ -15 cGate equ (cTop-4) cAway equ (bAway+cOff) bSpl equ (cOff+bMov) dOff equ cOff-4301 dAway equ (bAway+dOff) bBoot mov bIncen , bOff+bAway-4-CURLINE mov bSpare , bAway-CURLINE bSrc spl 2 , bStart+5 bDest spl 2 , bAway-CURLINE cSrc spl 1 , cStart+4 mov bDest , #5 cDest jmp bAway-CURLINE-4 , cAway-CURLINE bStart add #bStep , bPtr bMov mov bOff , @bPtr bPtr mov >bEvac , @2-bDist jmz.b bStart , cGate djn.f -1 , >cGate cBmb dat >5335 , 2-cGate for 5 dat 0 , 0 rof bIncen mov bDist , }bDist for 31 dat 0 , 0 rof qf equ qKil qs equ 200 qd equ 4000 qi equ 7 qr equ 8 qBmb dat {qi*qr-10 , {1 qGo seq qd+qf+qs , qf+qs ; 1 jmp qSki , {qd+qf+qs+qi+2 sne qd+qf+5*qs , qf+5*qs ; B+1 seq qf+4*qs , {qTab ; B jmp qFas , }qTab sne qd+qf+8*qs , qf+8*qs ; A seq qf+7*qs , {qTab-1 ; A-1 jmp qFas , {qFas sne qd+qf+10*qs , qf+10*qs ; C seq qf+9*qs , {qTab+1 ; C-1 jmp qFas , }qFas seq qd+qf+2*qs , qf+2*qs ; B-2 jmp qFas , {qTab seq qd+qf+6*qs , qf+6*qs ; A-2 djn.a qFas , {qFas seq qd+qf+3*qs , qf+3*qs ; B-1 jmp qFas , {qd+qf+3*qs+qi+2 sne qd+qf+14*qs , qf+14*qs ; E+1 seq qf+13*qs , qTab sne qd+qf+17*qs , qf+17*qs ; D seq qf+16*qs , > what i was trying to do i to develop such a bomber that could > beat modern stones/bombers, trash scanners and tie with a paper. > though results are not as good i think that vanquisher is a good > piece of code and it contains some ideas that might be developed > further. I recall Joonas and I were hoping for the same results for Son of Vain! :) Still, the hill results look good for all of us. Congratulations, you have improved very quickly. > the structure i started from was my good-old really frenzy ii. > first thing i changed was the step warrior uses. though regular mod-10 > pattern is quite good it seems that quasi-random mod-1 patterns (not > specially optimal) are better (still can't find the reason for that, can > anyone enlighten me?). One of the reasons that mod-1 is better than mod-10 is that it is better for decoying mod-5 scanners. If you are a mod-10 bomber, then you will only decoy a mod-5 scanner approximately one round in every five. Then if his size / speed ratio if as good or better than yours, he has a very good chance to win. With a mod-1 step, you are decoying him on every round so you have a much better chance. Thank you for the write-up. It was very interesting. Regards, Ian From: martinankerl@web.de (Martin) Subject: qmars 1.0 Date: 6 Mar 2002 01:55:00 -0800 Message-ID: <453a311f.0203060155.76248c43@posting.google.com> a first version of qmars, a quicker mars, can be found here: http://qmars.martinankerl.cjb.net It is designed to be used in evolvers, which depend a lot on the speed of the simulator. At the moment qmars does not support LDP+SDP, no multiwarrior and has a dumb parser, but it is about 50% faster than pmars on my machine. I have tested qmars only with g++ 2.95.3. Beware that qmars uses a lot of resources when compiling: up to 110MB RAM, more than 1 minute on my AMD Duron 650. have fun, martin :wq! From: sascha Subject: Wanna go to Tournament. Date: 9 Mar 2002 12:02:52 -0500 Message-ID: <200203040920.g249KB3s009790@smtp.netcologne.de> Hi Multiple recipients, Stunner is a fast Incendiary Stone ( spl-mov Bomb ) and a two Pass Coreclear. The Componenents will be Bootstrapped away, so that there ist a Dummy for Scanner. The Componenet are <=8 Instructions big. The Warrior is designed for a Coresize 800. I've collected a small Benchmark from Koenigstuhl tiny/00clear.red tiny/betadine.red tiny/clock12.red tiny/clockwork.red tiny/dustingwebs.red tiny/hemulen.red tiny/hired.red tiny/killerbees.red tiny/moomintroll.red tiny/muskrat.red tiny/portert12.red tiny/sniff.red tiny/snufkin.red tiny/tinyshot.red tiny/venom.red tiny/wing66.red tiny/wingshot.red But mostly i'm at the last Place of this Hill. I don't know what's wrong with it. I have tried to split the bomb from spl ... mov ... to spl ... ... ... ... mov But, then the Ranking is the same. Some Tips are very welcome... Here's the Warrior ----------------------8<----------------8<---------------8<------------------- ;redcode-94 ;name Stunner ;author Sascha Zapf ;assert CORESIZE==800 ;strategy Fast Incendiary Bomber, Twopass Coreclear ;strategy Two Bombing steps, Bootstrapping backstart EQU adder+1 forestart EQU adder+1+5 splpos EQU movb+199+100 movpos EQU movb+198+100 movb mov.i -1, }-1 splb spl #2, #loop+100 ; Erste h�lfte der SPL-Bomb spl #-1, -7 mov.i *ccb+1, oldblop, >oldccb mov.i }bclear, >splb djn.b bloop, #8 oldccb jmp loop+100, #movpos bclear dat loop, 0 ; B-Feld leer loop mov.i splpos-100, *posmov ; Erste splb A-Indirekt ( Backcarpet ) mov.i }posmov, >posmov ; splb kopieren ( Forewardcarpet ) mov.i movpos-100, *posmov ; erste movb A-Indirekt ( Backcarpet ) posmov mov.i backstart, forestart ; movb kopieren ( Forewardcarpet ) add.f adder, posmov djn.b loop, #78 oldblop jmp.i splpos-100, #movb ; weggebootet CC starten. adder dat.f #310-1, #10-1 ; Stepsize end bloop -----------------8<-----------------8<---------------------8<------------------------- CU Sascha From: Koth Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - 94 No Pspace 03/04/02 Date: 9 Mar 2002 12:04:16 -0500 Message-ID: <200203040509.AAA18475@gevjon.ttsg.com> Weekly Status on 03/04/02 -=- irc.KOTH.org is up! Meetings held in #corewars -=- Tons of new features on www.KOTH.org/koth.html pages -=- *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 Mar 2 19:47:47 EST 2002 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 39/ 25/ 36 Inky Ian Oversby 152 389 2 34/ 23/ 42 Son of Vain Oversby/Pihlaja 146 499 3 33/ 22/ 45 nPaper II Paul-V Khuong 144 910 4 42/ 40/ 18 Vanquisher Lukasz Grabun 143 1 5 35/ 29/ 36 Quicksilver Michal Janeczek 141 672 6 41/ 42/ 16 Behemot Michal Janeczek 141 733 7 33/ 27/ 39 Olivia Ben Ford 139 638 8 32/ 26/ 42 Hopper Phooey 139 36 9 41/ 44/ 16 Hazy Lazy ... Steve Gunnell 138 252 10 34/ 30/ 36 Revival Fire P.Kline 138 378 11 33/ 30/ 37 Uninvited John Metcalf 137 592 12 34/ 34/ 32 Blacken Ian Oversby 134 1157 13 39/ 45/ 15 Test C Phooey 134 37 14 37/ 42/ 21 Really Frenzy II Lukasz Grabun 133 70 15 38/ 44/ 17 Deep Freeze X Lukasz Grabun 132 99 16 40/ 48/ 12 G3-b David Moore 132 180 17 33/ 35/ 32 Keyser Soze Anton Marsden 131 611 18 34/ 40/ 26 Bugtown Rap Steve Gunnell 129 16 19 35/ 51/ 14 Kenshin D Steve Gunnell 119 15 20 23/ 33/ 44 Kernel Trojan II Joshua 112 4 21 2/ 2/ 1 test Lukasz Grabun 7 2 From: Koth Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - ICWS Experimental 94 03/04/02 Date: 9 Mar 2002 12:05:44 -0500 Message-ID: <200203040506.AAA18417@gevjon.ttsg.com> Weekly Status on 03/04/02 -=- irc.KOTH.org is up! Meetings held in #corewars -=- Tons of new features on www.KOTH.org/koth.html pages -=- *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 : Sat Feb 23 12:57:29 EST 2002 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 53/ 33/ 15 Fire and Ice II David Moore 172 3 2 33/ 21/ 46 KAT v5 Dave Hillis 146 35 3 37/ 35/ 28 Black Moods Ian Oversby 140 99 4 27/ 16/ 56 Katafutr Michal Janeczek 138 43 5 23/ 7/ 70 Evol Cap 4 X John Wilkinson 138 172 6 21/ 8/ 71 Denial David Moore 135 44 7 33/ 32/ 35 Controlled Aggression Ian Oversby 134 103 8 24/ 14/ 62 Kin John Metcalf 134 11 9 34/ 36/ 30 Ogre Christian Schmidt 132 51 10 37/ 43/ 19 Greetings From Asbury Par JKW 132 63 11 28/ 25/ 47 Damage Inflicted Robert Macrae 130 42 12 31/ 32/ 37 Big I.F.F.S. Dave Hillis 129 32 13 24/ 20/ 57 Venom v0.2b Christian Schmidt 128 125 14 17/ 7/ 76 Evolve X v4.0 John Wilkinson 127 120 15 17/ 7/ 76 Black Box v1.1 JKW 127 66 16 26/ 36/ 38 test CS 117 60 17 30/ 44/ 26 Pagan John K W 116 157 18 26/ 37/ 37 La Vibra 19 Lukasz Grabun 115 1 19 21/ 28/ 51 Disaster Area 2.8 Stefan Foerster 114 30 20 19/ 23/ 58 Purple v0.1 Christian Schmidt 114 124 21 3/ 55/ 42 KI Wayne Sheppard 51 0 From: Koth Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - MultiWarrior 94 03/04/02 Date: 9 Mar 2002 12:13:33 -0500 Message-ID: <200203040503.AAA18379@gevjon.ttsg.com> Weekly Status on 03/04/02 -=- irc.KOTH.org is up! Meetings held in #corewars -=- Tons of new features on www.KOTH.org/koth.html pages -=- *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 Feb 7 18:29:45 EST 2002 # Name Author Score Age 1 fclear Brian Haskin 45 71 2 test John Metcalf 42 15 3 clock strikes twelve John Metcalf 37 1 4 D-clearM Ken Espiritu 33 87 5 Her Majesty P.Kline 30 106 6 Xord Monominer XOSC:01 Gino Oblena 30 26 7 QuiVa John Metcalf 28 180 8 8thTest Gino Oblena 21 18 9 Pitbull Christian Schmidt 18 43 10 sptst (4D-p) Stefan Foerster 7 4 11 Evolver 4890 x 200 Anonymous 0 0 From: Koth Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - Standard 03/04/02 Date: 9 Mar 2002 12:15:03 -0500 Message-ID: <200203040500.AAA18312@gevjon.ttsg.com> Weekly Status on 03/04/02 -=- irc.KOTH.org is up! Meetings held in #corewars -=- Tons of new features on www.KOTH.org/koth.html pages -=- *FAQ* page located at: www.KOTH.org/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the KOTH.ORG Standard KotH CoreWar Hill : Last battle concluded at : Tue Feb 26 04:22:56 EST 2002 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 44/ 37/ 18 Oneshot '88 John Metcalf 152 1 2 34/ 21/ 45 Freight Train David Moore 148 80 3 33/ 21/ 47 Test Alexander (Sasha) Wa 145 19 4 42/ 43/ 15 Foggy Swamp Beppe Bezzi 142 76 5 31/ 22/ 46 Guardian Ian Oversby 140 79 6 42/ 43/ 15 Blur '88 Anton Marsden 140 117 7 32/ 23/ 45 sIMPly.Red v0.95 Leonardo Humberto 140 37 8 33/ 30/ 37 vala John Metcalf 137 2 9 37/ 37/ 26 PacMan David Moore 136 109 10 36/ 38/ 26 Tangle Trap David Moore 134 153 11 37/ 41/ 23 Stasis David Moore 133 187 12 24/ 17/ 59 EV Paper John K Wilkinson 132 93 13 26/ 20/ 54 Jinglo John Metcalf 131 4 14 27/ 23/ 50 Shish-Ka-Bob Ben Ford 131 35 15 25/ 20/ 54 Test I Ian Oversby 131 136 16 31/ 32/ 37 Frog Sticker P.Kline 131 29 17 26/ 22/ 52 Evoltmp 88 John K W 130 130 18 35/ 42/ 23 Beholder's Eye V1.7 W. Mintardjo 128 355 19 37/ 47/ 16 Iron Gate Wayne Sheppard 128 405 20 37/ 48/ 15 ig Wayne Sheppard 126 7 21 0/ 44/ 56 Test Test 56 0 From: Lukasz Grabun Subject: vampires Date: Sun, 10 Mar 2002 12:32:12 +0000 (UTC) Message-ID: do vampires have any chance of success against modern warriors? -- Lukasz Grabun (reply-to field is scrambled, remove NOSPAM) GM d+ s: a-- C++ UL P L++ E---- W-- N++ o? K- w-- O@ M@ V- PS+ PE+ Y PGP t-@ 5@ X++(+++) R tv-() b+++ DI+ D- G++ e++ h! r++ y+ From: Koth Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - 94 No Pspace 03/11/02 Date: 11 Mar 2002 09:11:32 -0500 Message-ID: <200203110509.AAA13672@gevjon.ttsg.com> Weekly Status on 03/11/02 -=- irc.KOTH.org is up! Meetings held in #corewars -=- Tons of new features on www.KOTH.org/koth.html pages -=- *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 : Sun Mar 10 18:04:37 EST 2002 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 43/ 45/ 12 G3-b David Moore 141 200 2 32/ 25/ 43 Inky Ian Oversby 140 409 3 41/ 43/ 16 Hazy Test 22 Steve Gunnell 139 4 4 40/ 41/ 19 test2 John Metcalf 139 8 5 29/ 21/ 50 nPaper II Paul-V Khuong 137 930 6 40/ 42/ 18 Vanquisher Lukasz Grabun 137 21 7 29/ 22/ 49 Son of Vain Oversby/Pihlaja 137 519 8 40/ 44/ 16 Behemot Michal Janeczek 137 753 9 32/ 27/ 41 Quicksilver Michal Janeczek 137 692 10 40/ 46/ 15 Hazy Lazy ... Steve Gunnell 134 272 11 29/ 26/ 45 Olivia Ben Ford 133 658 12 30/ 28/ 42 Uninvited John Metcalf 132 612 13 27/ 23/ 51 papertest 6 Lukasz Grabun 130 1 14 28/ 28/ 44 Revival Fire P.Kline 129 398 15 38/ 46/ 16 Deep Freeze X Lukasz Grabun 129 119 16 27/ 26/ 47 Hopper Phooey 129 56 17 32/ 35/ 32 Keyser Soze Anton Marsden 129 631 18 31/ 34/ 34 Blacken Ian Oversby 128 1177 19 37/ 48/ 15 Test C Phooey 126 57 20 0/ 0/ 4 papertest 5 Lukasz Grabun 5 3 21 0/ 0/ 4 papertest 5 Lukasz Grabun 5 2 From: Koth Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - ICWS Experimental 94 03/11/02 Date: 11 Mar 2002 09:12:58 -0500 Message-ID: <200203110506.AAA13607@gevjon.ttsg.com> Weekly Status on 03/11/02 -=- irc.KOTH.org is up! Meetings held in #corewars -=- Tons of new features on www.KOTH.org/koth.html pages -=- *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 Mar 8 07:47:23 EST 2002 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 54/ 34/ 13 Fire and Ice II David Moore 174 3 2 32/ 21/ 46 KAT v5 Dave Hillis 144 35 3 28/ 17/ 55 Katafutr Michal Janeczek 140 43 4 37/ 37/ 26 Black Moods Ian Oversby 137 99 5 34/ 33/ 33 Controlled Aggression Ian Oversby 134 103 6 21/ 8/ 71 Denial David Moore 133 44 7 20/ 8/ 72 Evol Cap 4 X John Wilkinson 133 172 8 38/ 45/ 17 Greetings From Asbury Par JKW 132 63 9 33/ 38/ 29 Ogre Christian Schmidt 129 51 10 28/ 26/ 46 Damage Inflicted Robert Macrae 129 42 11 23/ 17/ 61 Kin John Metcalf 128 11 12 30/ 33/ 37 Big I.F.F.S. Dave Hillis 128 32 13 24/ 20/ 56 Venom v0.2b Christian Schmidt 128 125 14 17/ 7/ 76 Black Box v1.1 JKW 127 66 15 17/ 7/ 76 Evolve X v4.0 John Wilkinson 126 120 16 26/ 37/ 37 test CS 115 60 17 30/ 46/ 25 Pagan John K W 113 157 18 17/ 24/ 59 Purple v0.1 Christian Schmidt 111 124 19 25/ 40/ 35 La Vibra 19 Lukasz Grabun 110 1 20 20/ 30/ 50 Disaster Area 2.8 Stefan Foerster 109 30 21 28/ 48/ 24 Tinyshot John Metcalf 108 0 From: Koth Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - MultiWarrior 94 03/11/02 Date: 11 Mar 2002 09:14:26 -0500 Message-ID: <200203110503.AAA13554@gevjon.ttsg.com> Weekly Status on 03/11/02 -=- irc.KOTH.org is up! Meetings held in #corewars -=- Tons of new features on www.KOTH.org/koth.html pages -=- *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 Mar 8 21:49:35 EST 2002 # Name Author Score Age 1 fclear Brian Haskin 63 72 2 D-clearM Ken Espiritu 62 88 3 test John Metcalf 56 16 4 Her Majesty P.Kline 44 107 5 Tinyshot John Metcalf 31 1 6 Xord Monominer XOSC:01 Gino Oblena 30 27 7 8thTest Gino Oblena 28 19 8 clock strikes twelve John Metcalf 27 2 9 QuiVa John Metcalf 25 181 10 Pitbull Christian Schmidt 20 44 11 Glorious October Revoluti Beable van Polasm Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - Standard 03/11/02 Date: 11 Mar 2002 09:15:51 -0500 Message-ID: <200203110500.AAA13477@gevjon.ttsg.com> Weekly Status on 03/11/02 -=- irc.KOTH.org is up! Meetings held in #corewars -=- Tons of new features on www.KOTH.org/koth.html pages -=- *FAQ* page located at: www.KOTH.org/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the KOTH.ORG Standard KotH CoreWar Hill : Last battle concluded at : Tue Feb 26 04:22:56 EST 2002 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 44/ 37/ 18 Oneshot '88 John Metcalf 152 1 2 34/ 21/ 45 Freight Train David Moore 148 80 3 33/ 21/ 47 Test Alexander (Sasha) Wa 145 19 4 42/ 43/ 15 Foggy Swamp Beppe Bezzi 142 76 5 31/ 22/ 46 Guardian Ian Oversby 140 79 6 42/ 43/ 15 Blur '88 Anton Marsden 140 117 7 32/ 23/ 45 sIMPly.Red v0.95 Leonardo Humberto 140 37 8 33/ 30/ 37 vala John Metcalf 137 2 9 37/ 37/ 26 PacMan David Moore 136 109 10 36/ 38/ 26 Tangle Trap David Moore 134 153 11 37/ 41/ 23 Stasis David Moore 133 187 12 24/ 17/ 59 EV Paper John K Wilkinson 132 93 13 26/ 20/ 54 Jinglo John Metcalf 131 4 14 27/ 23/ 50 Shish-Ka-Bob Ben Ford 131 35 15 25/ 20/ 54 Test I Ian Oversby 131 136 16 31/ 32/ 37 Frog Sticker P.Kline 131 29 17 26/ 22/ 52 Evoltmp 88 John K W 130 130 18 35/ 42/ 23 Beholder's Eye V1.7 W. Mintardjo 128 355 19 37/ 47/ 16 Iron Gate Wayne Sheppard 128 405 20 37/ 48/ 15 ig Wayne Sheppard 126 7 21 0/ 44/ 56 Test Test 56 0 Message-ID: From: anton@paradise.net.nz (Anton Marsden) Subject: Core War Frequently Asked Questions (rec.games.corewar FAQ) Date: 11 Mar 2002 10:29:54 GMT Archive-name: games/corewar-faq Last-Modified: September 4, 1999 Version: 4.2 URL: http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/~anton/cw/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 posted every two weeks. The latest hypertext version is available at http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/~anton/cw/corewar-faq.html and the latest plain text version is available at http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/~anton/cw/corewar-faq.txt. This document is currently being maintained by Anton Marsden (anton@paradise.net.nz). Last modified: Sat Sep 4 00:22:22 NZST 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 * Changed primary location of FAQ (again!) * Changed Philip Kendall's home page address. * Updated list server information * Changed primary location of FAQ * 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Table of Contents 1. What is Core War 2. Is it "Core War" or "Core Wars"? 3. Where can I find more information about Core War? 4. Core War has changed since Dewdney's articles. Where do I get a copy of the current instruction set? 5. What is ICWS'94? Which simulators support ICWS'94? 6. What is the ICWS? 7. What is 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 virtual computer called MARS (for Memory Array Redcode Simulator). The object of the game is to cause all processes of the opposing program to terminate, leaving your program in sole posession of the machine. There are Core War systems available for most computer platforms. Redcode has been 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. 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 = (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 is 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 the 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. 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 �0-7167-1939-8 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 �0-7167-2144-9 .D5173 1990 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 and 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'94 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 only 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 94 Warrior, Core Warrior is a newsletter about strategies and current standings 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.kendalls.demon.co.uk/pak21/corewar/warrior.html 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.answers (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 (koth.org 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 body 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 Koth.Org list processor. To join, send the message SUB COREWAR-L FirstName LastName to listproc@koth.org. You can send mail to corewar-l@koth.org to post even if you are not a member of the list. Responsible for the listserver is Scott J. Ellentuch (ttsg@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 koth.org. [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 points than a warrior that survives together with other warriors. Points are calculated from the formula (W*W-1)/S, where W is the total number of warriors and S the number of surviving warriors. The pMARS documentation has more information on multi-warrior scoring. The idea for an email-based Core War server came from David Lee. The original KotH was developed and run by William Shubert at Intel starting in 1991, and discontinued after almost three years of service. Currently, KotHs based on Bill's UNIX scripts but offering a wider variety of hills are are running at two sites: koth@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 overlapping services, i.e. the some of the hill types were offered by both "pizza" and "stormking". To conserve resources, the different hill types are now divided up among the sites. The way you submit warriors to both KotHs is pretty much the same. Therefore, the entry rules described below apply to both "pizza" and "stormking" unless otherwise noted. Entry Rules for King of the Hill Corewar * Write a corewar program. KotH is fully ICWS '88 compatible, EXCEPT that 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 Instr. Size Size Processes Distance Fought Set Tie Length Pizza's ICWS '94 Draft Hill Extended (Accessed with 25 8000 8000 80000 100 100 200 ICWS '94 ";redcode-94") Draft Pizza's Beginner's Extended Hill (Accessed 25 8000 8000 80000 100 100 200 ICWS '94 with ";redcode-b") Draft Pizza's Experimental Extended (Small) Hill 25 800 800 8000 20 20 200 ICWS '94 (Accessed with Draft ";redcode-x") Pizza's Limited Process (LP) Hill Extended (Accessed with 25 8000 8 80000 200 200 200 ICWS '94 ";redcode-lp") Draft Stormking's ICWS '88 Standard Hill (Accessed with 20 8000 8000 80000 100 100 250 ICWS '88 ";redcode") Stormking's ICWS '94 No Pspace Hill (Accessed with 20 8000 8000 80000 100 100 250 ICWS '94 ";redcode-94nop") Stormking's ICWS '94 Experimental Extended (Big) Hill 20 55440 55440 500000 200 200 250 ICWS '94 (Accessed with Draft ";redcode-94x") Stormking's ICWS '94 Multi-Warrior Extended Hill (Accessed 10 8000 8000 80000 100 100 200 ICWS '94 with Draft ";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 assembled 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 Core 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 or 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, for 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 than 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 memory size. Off-axis scanners use some other separation. Optimal Constants (also optima-type constants) Bomb or scan increments chosen to cover core most effectively, i.e. leaving gaps of uniform size. Programs to calculate optimal constants and lists of optimal numbers are available at www.koth.org. Paper A Paper-like program is one which replicates itself many times. Part of 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 pointer rof jmn attack, found ;if we have something, get it s2 for 8 cmp start+100*(s2+6), start+100*(s2+6)+4000 mov #start+100*(s2+6)-found, found rof found jmz moveme, #0 ;skip attack if qscan found nothing attack cmp @found, start-1 ;does found points to empty space? add #4000, found ;no, so point to correct location mov start-1, @found ;move a bomb moveme jmp 0, 0 In ICWS'94, the quick scan code is more compact because of the SNE opcode: start ;'94 scan s1 for 4 sne start+400*s1, start+400*s1+100 ;check two locations seq start+400*s1+200, start+400*s1+300 ;check two locations mov #start+400*s1-found, found ;they differ so set pointer rof jmn which, found ;if we have something, get it s2 for 4 sne start+400*(s2+4), start+400*(s2+4)+100 seq start+400*(s2+4)+200, start+400*(s2+4)+300 mov #start+400*(s2+4)-found-100, found rof found jmz moveme, #0 ;skip attack if qscan found nothing add #100, -1 ;increment pointer till we get the which jmn -1, @found ;right place mov start-1, @found ;move a bomb moveme jmp 0, 0 Reflection Copy of a program or program part, positioned to make the active program invisible to a CMP-scanner. Replicator Generic for Paper. A program which makes many copies of itself, each copy also making copies. Self-Splitting Strategy of amplifying the number of processes executing a piece of code. example spl 0 loop add #10, example mov example, @example jmp loop Scanner A program which searches through core for an opponent rather than bombing blindly. Scissors A program designed to beat replicators, usually a (B-field scanning) vampire. Part of the Paper-Scissors-Stone analogy. Self-Repair Ability of a program to fix it's own code after attack. Silk A replicator which splits off a process to each new copy before actually copying the code. This allows it to replicate extremely quickly. This technique is only possible under the '94 draft, because it requires post-increment indirect addressing. Example: spl 1 mov -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 copy 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. 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) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Copyright � 1999 Anton Marsden. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium, provided this notice is preserved. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: zlip@zlip-nospam.com Subject: win32 corewars Message-ID: Date: Wed, 13 Mar 2002 18:59:25 -0700 Has anyone got a Win32 version of corewars found at: corewars.sourceforge.net Thanks for the help. From: jn1@hawaii.rr.com (Jim Newsham) Subject: jmars status? Message-ID: <3c8fa795.3401060@news-server> Date: Wed, 13 Mar 2002 19:48:43 GMT Hi, I just discovered code wars, and tried to get a few mars vm's running. The DOS versions are archaic (sorry, but DOS? character-based graphics? no mouse?)... Pmars for windows looks the same for me as pmars for dos... I was very interested in running the java version, but it appears to have a few bugs which prevent me from running it. The link on koth.org points to an older version ("pre-alpha"), I found a newer one at http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/4333/jmars.html ("0.1"). This appears to be the home page. There is a link which says that development has moved to the "core war" project at sourceforge, but I only find pmars at that project. So my question is, what is the current status of this port? Is it abandoned? Have I indeed found the latest development version? If so, I'll take a shot at fixing the bugs, and may even consider some improvements if there is community interest or I'm having fun with it. The bugs I have found appear to be multithread related -- lack of synchronization, perhaps thread prioritization... Thanks for any feedback, JN From: zlip@zlip-nospam.com Subject: Re: KOTH.ORG: Status - ICWS Experimental 94 03/11/02 Message-ID: Date: Wed, 13 Mar 2002 21:01:17 -0700 > -=- irc.KOTH.org is up! Meetings held in #corewars -=- Tons of new > features on www.KOTH.org/koth.html pages -=- *FAQ* page located at: > www.KOTH.org/corewar-faq.html i'm there! where is everyone? come on!!! ;) From: jn1@hawaii.rr.com (Jim Newsham) Subject: Re: jmars status? Message-ID: <3c8fbdf1.9125092@news-server> Date: Wed, 13 Mar 2002 21:06:22 GMT On Wed, 13 Mar 2002 19:48:43 GMT, jn1@hawaii.rr.com (Jim Newsham) wrote: > >Hi, > >I just discovered code wars, and tried to get a few mars vm's running. >The DOS versions are archaic (sorry, but DOS? character-based >graphics? no mouse?)... > >Pmars for windows looks the same for me as pmars for dos... > >I was very interested in running the java version, but it appears to >have a few bugs which prevent me from running it. > >The link on koth.org points to an older version ("pre-alpha"), I found >a newer one at >http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/4333/jmars.html ("0.1"). >This appears to be the home page. There is a link which says that >development has moved to the "core war" project at sourceforge, but I >only find pmars at that project. Well, I had only looked at the bundled releases in sourceforge. I just now discovered that jmars is in cvs, and it's indeed a later version than what I found previously. It still does not work for me -- the display remains blank, but I get 0.1 ms average cycle times (8 s for 80000 cycles) on an Athlon 700MHz. I assume there's still synchronization issues. > >So my question is, what is the current status of this port? Is it >abandoned? Have I indeed found the latest development version? > >If so, I'll take a shot at fixing the bugs, and may even consider some >improvements if there is community interest or I'm having fun with it. >The bugs I have found appear to be multithread related -- lack of >synchronization, perhaps thread prioritization... > >Thanks for any feedback, > >JN From: zlip@zlip-nospam.com Subject: Re: qmars 1.0 Message-ID: Date: Wed, 13 Mar 2002 21:09:44 -0700 very cool, i'm compiling it right now... On Wed, 06 Mar 2002 02:55:00 -0700, Martin wrote: > a first version of qmars, a quicker mars, can be found here: > > http://qmars.martinankerl.cjb.net > > It is designed to be used in evolvers, which depend a lot on the speed > of the simulator. > At the moment qmars does not support LDP+SDP, no multiwarrior and has a > dumb parser, but it is about 50% faster than pmars on my machine. > > I have tested qmars only with g++ 2.95.3. Beware that qmars uses a lot > of resources when compiling: up to 110MB RAM, more than 1 minute on my > AMD Duron 650. > > have fun, > > martin > :wq! From: jn1@hawaii.rr.com (Jim Newsham) Subject: Re: redcodejavac? :-) Message-ID: <3c8fbf95.9545410@news-server> Date: Wed, 13 Mar 2002 21:22:23 GMT Yes interesting idea, the idea briefly crossed my mind as well. However unfortunately the java classloader architecture does not allow this -- and for good security reasons. The redcode vm allows executable code to be modified at runtime; it's a critical feature of the game. However in java, you cannot modify a class's bytecode once it has been loaded into the jvm. Even if it did work, you would only be able to run one warrior thread at a time, unless you built some sort of task switching mechanism to manage multiple warriors and processes. And then you want a graphical monitor to see what's going on... From: Aristoteles Pagaltzis (pagaltzis@gmx.de) Subject: redcodejavac? :-) Newsgroups: rec.games.corewar Date: 2002-02-06 11:09:42 PST I just had a wild idea.. you know, Corewars runs in a VM, and Java bytecode runs in a VM. Can it really be that hard to compile Redcode to Java bytecode? Any single Redcode instruction would likely map to a series of JAsm instructions of course. I also guess something reminiscent of a "MARS" would still be required to provide for loading the requested warrior .class files and setting up the necessary framework. However it wouldn't interpret anything. I know only someone with some experience in JAsm can make a call here but I found the idea intriguing, guessed it might be possible and figured the result is likely to leave a straight jMARS in the dust performance wise - so I went ahead to toss this brainfart in here. :-) From: jn1@hawaii.rr.com (Jim Newsham) Subject: Re: jmars status? Message-ID: <3c8fd167.14107736@news-server> Date: Wed, 13 Mar 2002 22:24:52 GMT On Wed, 13 Mar 2002 21:06:22 GMT, jn1@hawaii.rr.com (Jim Newsham) wrote: > >Well, I had only looked at the bundled releases in sourceforge. I >just now discovered that jmars is in cvs, and it's indeed a later >version than what I found previously. It still does not work for me >-- the display remains blank, but I get 0.1 ms average cycle times (8 >s for 80000 cycles) on an Athlon 700MHz. I assume there's still >synchronization issues. > I just found out I was testing with an "uninteresting" red file, so that nothing would show on the display. It now works for me. From: acid__burn02@hotmail.com (Melphen) Subject: I'm new and I think I need lots of help! Date: 14 Mar 2002 18:07:04 -0800 Message-ID: <2d0a4685.0203141807.3adbe1e9@posting.google.com> I just found out about Core Wars today and I have been amazed with the idea for the past 14 hours. The only problem is I can't understand the programming at all. I think this is made worse by the fact that I have programmed in the logic languages I read that Redcode is very not logical like other language. I was wondering is someone could help me a little. I have a guide file that came with the game version I was given, yet I find that is helping me little to none. Also I was wondering where I might find the newest version of the game. I have a version that seems to be the one listed on many sites as the newest but then when I click to download from sites claiming to have newer I get an error that it there is no file to download. If anyone could help me get started I would be forever thankful. From: Lukasz Grabun Subject: Re: I'm new and I think I need lots of help! Date: Sat, 16 Mar 2002 13:01:05 +0000 (UTC) Message-ID: pi�, 15 mar 2002 o 02:07 GMT, Melphen: > I just found out about Core Wars today and I have been amazed with the [.. snip ..] > help me get started I would be forever thankful. you should check www.koth.org page - you can find useful links there (a link for A. Marsden's sourceforge page with most corrent version of pmars). there's also plenty of tutorials + old corewarrior issues. -- Lukasz Grabun (reply-to field is scrambled, remove NOSPAM) GM d+ s: a-- C++ UL P L++ E---- W-- N++ o? K- w-- O@ M@ V- PS+ PE+ Y PGP t-@ 5@ X++(+++) R tv-() b+++ DI+ D- G++ e++ h! r++ y+ From: Lukasz Grabun Subject: Deep Freeze X Date: Sun, 17 Mar 2002 13:19:41 +0000 (UTC) Message-ID: here's Deep Freeze X - currently my oldest warrior which I don't like very much. Its structure was heavilly based on A. Marsden's Blur/Mirage scanner series as well as on hints in CW 36. It's Blur-like scanner with some anti-stone improvements. I've modified step and the core corrupting scanning. It does not improve the score however though DF X was seen as high as ninth place on KOTH nop hill. But still there's no comparision with Steve's Hazy Lazy not mentioning his number one Hazy Test 26 that currently dominates the hill. after having a closer look on warrior's code I think it's even more begginer's-like that I thought it was. Some things might (should) have been improved; but - as I said before - I don't like this warrior. ;redcode-94nop ;name Deep Freeze X ;author Lukasz Grabun ;strategy scanner ;assert 1 step equ 1072 safe equ (tail-top+3) ;dunno why it's here, maybe it ;comes from older version gate equ (top-4) away equ 3000 org boot ;decoy for 9 spl #1 , #1 spl #step , step rof boot mov bmb , away for 9 mov {boot , ptr scan seq }2*step , }2*step+8 mov.ab scan , ptr add spb , scan jmn.a atk , scan spb spl #step , #step mov bmb , >gate djn.f -1 , >gate bmb dat >5335 , 2-gate -- Lukasz Grabun (reply-to field is scrambled, remove NOSPAM) GM d+ s: a-- C++ UL P L++ E---- W-- N++ o? K- w-- O@ M@ V- PS+ PE+ Y PGP t-@ 5@ X++(+++) R tv-() b+++ DI+ D- G++ e++ h! r++ y+ From: Paul-V Khuong Subject: Re: Deep Freeze X Date: 17 Mar 2002 21:02:47 -0500 Message-ID: <20020317170238.79862.qmail@web11604.mail.yahoo.com> --- Lukasz Grabun wrote: > here's Deep Freeze X - currently my oldest warrior > which I > don't like very much. Its structure was heavilly > based on A. Marsden's > Blur/Mirage scanner series as well as on hints in CW > 36. It's > Blur-like scanner with some anti-stone improvements. > I've modified step > and the core corrupting scanning. [snip] > ;redcode-94nop > ;name Deep Freeze X > ;author Lukasz Grabun > ;strategy scanner > ;assert 1 > > step equ 1072 > safe equ (tail-top+3) ;dunno why it's here, maybe > it > ;comes from older version > gate equ (top-4) > away equ 3000 > > org boot > > ;decoy > for 9 > spl #1 , #1 > spl #step , spl #step , *step > spl #step , @step > spl #step , }step > spl #step , {step > spl #step , step > spl #step , >step > rof > > boot mov bmb , away > for 9 > mov {boot , rof > add #2 , boot ;stupid idea; > ;should be done in one > ;instruction > jmp @boot , 0 > > top > ptr jmp spb+1 , -away+9 > atk mov -away-64 , >ptr > scan seq }2*step , }2*step+8 > mov.ab scan , ptr > add spb , scan > jmn.a atk , scan > spb spl #step , #step > mov bmb , >gate > djn.f -1 , >gate > bmb dat >5335 , 2-gate Well, frankly, i don't really understand how you can even hope to compete with a paper given your bombing speed(1 Spl bomb/4 cycles). Why don't you try something like a "real" scan directed clear? Against papers, a one-shot is better than a 25%c spl-clear. I think imp/stones prefer facing a scanner instead of a clear. Against scanners, however, you don't want to clear too fast. So, here's what i'd try bptr dat.f 0,0 [...} switch mov.a scan, bptr spl m start add sp, @3 scan seq.f {x, {x+y djn switch, *scan ;might escape a few dat 1,1 jmn.a start, scan mov.a #dbmb-2,2 sp spl #step, #step mov.i sbmb, >bptr djn.f -1, >bptr [...] dbmb dat.f >whatever, sp-bptr+3 sbmb spl #1, >1 I'm not sure if it'd work any better, since i never tried it, but i think it will be better. I'm not sure if a spl dclear will stun well enough, though. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Sports - live college hoops coverage http://sports.yahoo.com/ From: "John Metcalf" Subject: Tournament Date: 17 Mar 2002 21:10:15 -0500 Message-ID: Hi, Does anyone have any ideas for prizes for the tournament, if possible related to Corewar in some way? I think cash is a pretty boring, but might end up having to settle for that. Regards, John _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp. From: Paul-V Khuong Subject: Re: jmars status? Date: 17 Mar 2002 21:11:42 -0500 Message-ID: <20020313221738.27922.qmail@web11605.mail.yahoo.com> Read the docs. Switching to graphical mode(SVGA), will give you a graphical interface, with mouse support... Not that i really understand what it really is good for, scine if you really want to debug warriors that need complex stuff, you'll most probably use a few macros. --- Jim Newsham wrote: > > Hi, > > I just discovered code wars, and tried to get a few > mars vm's running. > The DOS versions are archaic (sorry, but DOS? > character-based > graphics? no mouse?)... > > Pmars for windows looks the same for me as pmars for > dos... > > I was very interested in running the java version, > but it appears to > have a few bugs which prevent me from running it. > > The link on koth.org points to an older version > ("pre-alpha"), I found > a newer one at > http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/4333/jmars.html > ("0.1"). > This appears to be the home page. There is a link > which says that > development has moved to the "core war" project at > sourceforge, but I > only find pmars at that project. > > So my question is, what is the current status of > this port? Is it > abandoned? Have I indeed found the latest > development version? > > If so, I'll take a shot at fixing the bugs, and may > even consider some > improvements if there is community interest or I'm > having fun with it. > The bugs I have found appear to be multithread > related -- lack of > synchronization, perhaps thread prioritization... > > Thanks for any feedback, > > JN __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Try FREE Yahoo! Mail - the world's greatest free email! http://mail.yahoo.com/ From: Koth Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - 94 No Pspace 03/18/02 Date: 18 Mar 2002 08:50:20 -0500 Message-ID: <200203180509.AAA28519@gevjon.ttsg.com> Weekly Status on 03/18/02 -=- irc.KOTH.org is up! Meetings held in #corewars -=- Tons of new features on www.KOTH.org/koth.html pages -=- *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 Mar 16 18:00:22 EST 2002 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 43/ 36/ 20 Hazy Test 26 Steve Gunnell 150 31 2 43/ 41/ 16 Behemot Michal Janeczek 144 785 3 42/ 41/ 17 Vanquisher Lukasz Grabun 143 53 4 32/ 21/ 47 Son of Vain Oversby/Pihlaja 143 551 5 34/ 27/ 39 Quicksilver Michal Janeczek 141 724 6 42/ 44/ 15 Hazy Lazy ... Steve Gunnell 140 304 7 30/ 21/ 48 Purifier Lukasz Grabun 140 2 8 33/ 27/ 40 Inky Ian Oversby 139 441 9 42/ 46/ 12 G3-b David Moore 139 232 10 33/ 29/ 38 Revival Fire P.Kline 137 430 11 41/ 44/ 16 Deep Freeze X Lukasz Grabun 137 151 12 32/ 27/ 41 Olivia Ben Ford 136 690 13 32/ 27/ 41 Uninvited John Metcalf 136 644 14 30/ 23/ 48 nPaper II Paul-V Khuong 136 962 15 35/ 34/ 31 Keyser Soze Anton Marsden 135 663 16 40/ 46/ 14 Test C Phooey 135 89 17 34/ 33/ 33 Blacken Ian Oversby 134 1209 18 38/ 43/ 19 test2 John Metcalf 132 40 19 28/ 27/ 44 Hopper Phooey 129 88 20 38/ 47/ 15 Dettol Test 10 Steve Gunnell 128 1 21 10/ 43/ 47 Gunzip Joshua 78 0 From: Koth Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - ICWS Experimental 94 03/18/02 Date: 18 Mar 2002 08:51:45 -0500 Message-ID: <200203180506.AAA27850@gevjon.ttsg.com> Weekly Status on 03/18/02 -=- irc.KOTH.org is up! Meetings held in #corewars -=- Tons of new features on www.KOTH.org/koth.html pages -=- *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 Mar 17 23:42:07 EST 2002 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 53/ 34/ 13 Fire and Ice II David Moore 172 3 2 33/ 21/ 47 KAT v5 Dave Hillis 144 35 3 37/ 36/ 27 Black Moods Ian Oversby 137 99 4 26/ 16/ 58 Katafutr Michal Janeczek 135 43 5 34/ 33/ 33 Controlled Aggression Ian Oversby 135 103 6 23/ 14/ 62 Kin John Metcalf 133 11 7 29/ 25/ 46 Damage Inflicted Robert Macrae 133 42 8 20/ 7/ 73 Evol Cap 4 X John Wilkinson 132 172 9 20/ 8/ 72 Denial David Moore 132 44 10 37/ 45/ 18 Greetings From Asbury Par JKW 129 63 11 18/ 7/ 75 Black Box v1.1 JKW 128 66 12 32/ 36/ 31 Ogre Christian Schmidt 128 51 13 17/ 7/ 75 Evolve X v4.0 John Wilkinson 127 120 14 30/ 32/ 38 Big I.F.F.S. Dave Hillis 127 32 15 22/ 21/ 58 Venom v0.2b Christian Schmidt 123 125 16 31/ 45/ 25 Pagan John K W 116 157 17 19/ 23/ 58 Purple v0.1 Christian Schmidt 114 124 18 21/ 28/ 51 Disaster Area 2.8 Stefan Foerster 114 30 19 24/ 36/ 40 test CS 113 60 20 26/ 39/ 36 La Vibra 19 Lukasz Grabun 113 1 21 12/ 42/ 46 262155-4093-eve2 bvowk 83 0 From: Koth Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - MultiWarrior 94 03/18/02 Date: 18 Mar 2002 08:53:10 -0500 Message-ID: <200203180503.AAA27786@gevjon.ttsg.com> Weekly Status on 03/18/02 -=- irc.KOTH.org is up! Meetings held in #corewars -=- Tons of new features on www.KOTH.org/koth.html pages -=- *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 Mar 8 21:49:35 EST 2002 # Name Author Score Age 1 fclear Brian Haskin 63 72 2 D-clearM Ken Espiritu 62 88 3 test John Metcalf 56 16 4 Her Majesty P.Kline 44 107 5 Tinyshot John Metcalf 31 1 6 Xord Monominer XOSC:01 Gino Oblena 30 27 7 8thTest Gino Oblena 28 19 8 clock strikes twelve John Metcalf 27 2 9 QuiVa John Metcalf 25 181 10 Pitbull Christian Schmidt 20 44 11 Glorious October Revoluti Beable van Polasm Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - Standard 03/18/02 Date: 18 Mar 2002 08:54:34 -0500 Message-ID: <200203180500.AAA27714@gevjon.ttsg.com> Weekly Status on 03/18/02 -=- irc.KOTH.org is up! Meetings held in #corewars -=- Tons of new features on www.KOTH.org/koth.html pages -=- *FAQ* page located at: www.KOTH.org/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the KOTH.ORG Standard KotH CoreWar Hill : Last battle concluded at : Tue Feb 26 04:22:56 EST 2002 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 44/ 37/ 18 Oneshot '88 John Metcalf 152 1 2 34/ 21/ 45 Freight Train David Moore 148 80 3 33/ 21/ 47 Test Alexander (Sasha) Wa 145 19 4 42/ 43/ 15 Foggy Swamp Beppe Bezzi 142 76 5 31/ 22/ 46 Guardian Ian Oversby 140 79 6 42/ 43/ 15 Blur '88 Anton Marsden 140 117 7 32/ 23/ 45 sIMPly.Red v0.95 Leonardo Humberto 140 37 8 33/ 30/ 37 vala John Metcalf 137 2 9 37/ 37/ 26 PacMan David Moore 136 109 10 36/ 38/ 26 Tangle Trap David Moore 134 153 11 37/ 41/ 23 Stasis David Moore 133 187 12 24/ 17/ 59 EV Paper John K Wilkinson 132 93 13 26/ 20/ 54 Jinglo John Metcalf 131 4 14 27/ 23/ 50 Shish-Ka-Bob Ben Ford 131 35 15 25/ 20/ 54 Test I Ian Oversby 131 136 16 31/ 32/ 37 Frog Sticker P.Kline 131 29 17 26/ 22/ 52 Evoltmp 88 John K W 130 130 18 35/ 42/ 23 Beholder's Eye V1.7 W. Mintardjo 128 355 19 37/ 47/ 16 Iron Gate Wayne Sheppard 128 405 20 37/ 48/ 15 ig Wayne Sheppard 126 7 21 0/ 44/ 56 Test Test 56 0 From: birk@andromeda.ociw.edu Subject: Koenigstuhl News Date: 18 Mar 2002 17:50:50 -0500 Message-ID: <200203181955.g2IJt5e29834@andromeda.ociw.edu> Congratulations to 'Oversby/Pihlaja'. Their warrior 'Son of Vain' is the highest ranking (#2) 94nop warrior on the OPEN-Koenigstuhl. Christoph (http://www.ociw.edu/~birk/COREWAR/koenigstuhl.html) From: birk@andromeda.ociw.edu Subject: Re: Deep Freeze X Date: 18 Mar 2002 18:16:25 -0500 Message-ID: <200203182302.g2IN2xn01319@andromeda.ociw.edu> > after having a closer look on warrior's code I think it's even > more begginer's-like that I thought it was. Some things might > (should) have been improved; but - as I said before - I don't like this > warrior. but it entered the 94nop-Koenigstuhl at rank #7. Not bad for a beginner's like :-) Christoph (http://www.ociw.edu/~birk/COREWAR/koenigstuhl.html) From: Lukasz Grabun Subject: Re: Deep Freeze X Date: Tue, 19 Mar 2002 09:04:36 +0000 (UTC) Message-ID: pon, 18 mar 2002 o 23:16 GMT, birk@andromeda.ociw.edu: >> after having a closer look on warrior's code I think it's even >> more begginer's-like that I thought it was. Some things might >> (should) have been improved; but - as I said before - I don't like this >> warrior. > > but it entered the 94nop-Koenigstuhl at rank #7. Not bad for > a beginner's like :-) hm, that the most odd thing I've seen. That's really odd for Vanquisher gets 147 pts against a huge amount of warriors, Purifier (hm, its code is not published yet) 149 and that pathetic Deep Freeze X only 128. -- Lukasz Grabun (reply-to field is scrambled, remove NOSPAM) GM d+ s: a-- C++ UL P L++ E---- W-- N++ o? K- w-- O@ M@ V- PS+ PE+ Y PGP t-@ 5@ X++(+++) R tv-() b+++ DI+ D- G++ e++ h! r++ y+ From: acid__burn02@hotmail.com (Melphen) Subject: How to compile this thing? Date: 19 Mar 2002 12:20:58 -0800 Message-ID: <2d0a4685.0203191220.286598fe@posting.google.com> Ok, so I can at least copy programs to a text file. How do I make the pshell run it as a warrior. I assume that there is a compile option or something, but where is it and how does it work? From: acid__burn02@hotmail.com (Melphen) Subject: How do I compile this program? Date: 19 Mar 2002 13:00:49 -0800 Message-ID: <2d0a4685.0203191300.10abd109@posting.google.com> I've been looking for something in the all the files I hage printed, but I am finding nothing. Then I get a warrior from someone that is in text and I'm thinking maybe that is how the program reads it, but it wont. So I'm guessing that you have to complie these programs in some way. Can someone please help me? From: acid__burn02@hotmail.com (Melphen) Subject: Re: vampires Date: 19 Mar 2002 13:09:12 -0800 Message-ID: <2d0a4685.0203191309.eb53156@posting.google.com> Lukasz Grabun wrote in message news:... > do vampires have any chance of success against modern warriors? A basic vampire, no. A vampire mix, yes. Honestly I may be way off because I am just learning this all now, but I have read about the vampire and have grown to like the idea. There are several ways to beat the crap out of a vampire, but then again a vampire does have some ups and downs. I think that is someone with more know how than I currently have took up the job a vampire could be made unstoppable. From: birk@andromeda.ociw.edu Subject: Re: Deep Freeze X Date: 19 Mar 2002 19:16:06 -0500 Message-ID: <200203191851.g2JIpPi06546@andromeda.ociw.edu> >> but it entered the 94nop-Koenigstuhl at rank #7. Not bad for >> a beginner's like :-) > hm, that the most odd thing I've seen. That's really odd for >Vanquisher gets 147 pts against a huge amount of warriors, Purifier (hm, >its code is not published yet) 149 and that pathetic Deep Freeze X only >128. There are few things I should mention: 1) There is some noise in my measurements; ie. with 200 rounds on the Koenigstuhl I don't have a "perfect" score. 2) On a special 94nop hill (top 50 of 94nop-Koenigstuhl) 'Deep Freeze X' comes in #17, while 'Vanquisher' is #7 ('Executor': #32). So there is some small effect from the overall performance against weaker programs. (I only run 50 rounds for speed; I'll re-run this test-hill with 1000 rounds and post again, if there is a change) Christoph http://www.ociw.edu/~birk/COREWAR/koenigstuhl.html From: Lukasz Grabun Subject: Re: How to compile this thing? Date: Tue, 19 Mar 2002 20:49:18 +0000 (UTC) Message-ID: wto, 19 mar 2002 o 20:20 GMT, Melphen: > Ok, so I can at least copy programs to a text file. How do I make the > pshell run it as a warrior. I assume that there is a compile option or > something, but where is it and how does it work? what is your os? generally you execute a command line pmars warrior.red warrior2.red -r 200 for example. once you run pmars without any options you shall see help screen. -- Lukasz Grabun (reply-to field is scrambled, remove NOSPAM) GM d+ s: a-- C++ UL P L++ E---- W-- N++ o? K- w-- O@ M@ V- PS+ PE+ Y PGP t-@ 5@ X++(+++) R tv-() b+++ DI+ D- G++ e++ h! r++ y+ From: Paul-V Khuong Subject: Re: vampires Date: 19 Mar 2002 21:18:02 -0500 Message-ID: <20020320020454.31541.qmail@web11601.mail.yahoo.com> --- Melphen wrote: > Lukasz Grabun wrote in > message news:... > > do vampires have any chance of success against > modern warriors? > > A basic vampire, no. A vampire mix, yes. Honestly I > may be way off > because I am just learning this all now, but I have > read about the > vampire and have grown to like the idea. There are > several ways to > beat the crap out of a vampire, but then again a > vampire does have > some ups and downs. I think that is someone with > more know how than I > currently have took up the job a vampire could be > made unstoppable. The problem with vampires now is that they don't ahve any UP's anymore. A silk replicator doesn't really care about a fang unless it's dropped very early. Non-paper warriors aren't affected by a fang much more than by a single spl or dat bomb. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Sports - live college hoops coverage http://sports.yahoo.com/ From: oversby@hotmail.com (Ian Oversby) Subject: Re: vampires Date: 20 Mar 2002 01:34:54 -0800 Message-ID: <21fc098d.0203200134.1540a09f@posting.google.com> Paul-V Khuong wrote in message news:<20020320020454.31541.qmail@web11601.mail.yahoo.com>... > --- Melphen wrote: > > Lukasz Grabun wrote in > > message news:... > > > do vampires have any chance of success against > > modern warriors? > > > > A basic vampire, no. A vampire mix, yes. Honestly I > > may be way off > > because I am just learning this all now, but I have > > read about the > > vampire and have grown to like the idea. There are > > several ways to > > beat the crap out of a vampire, but then again a > > vampire does have > > some ups and downs. I think that is someone with > > more know how than I > > currently have took up the job a vampire could be > > made unstoppable. > The problem with vampires now is that they don't ahve > any UP's anymore. > > A silk replicator doesn't really care about a fang > unless it's dropped very early. Non-paper warriors > aren't affected by a fang much more than by a single > spl or dat bomb. This is a very misleading statement. A number of warrior types are far more likely to be disabled with a fang than a spl or dat. Consider spl 0 ; dat / spl hits here - big deal mov bmb, >gate ; dat / spl hits here - big deal mov bmb, >gate ; dat hits here -> clear 33% speed djn.f -1, >gate ; dat hits here -> clear 50% speed If a fang hits any of those locations, the warrior is (or at least should be) effectively disabled. Similarly for a carbonite style stone, two of the instructions are fairly insignificant for dat bombing and one for a spl. I would hazard a guess that if you write a decent myVamp style warrior with a shortish mod-1 bombing run and a Scanman core-clear you will beat up scanners badly, imp/stones reasonably and have some chance against papers without imps. Of course, the points against paper will come from the core-clear as fangs aren't particularly effective against modern silks. Regards, Ian From: oversby@hotmail.com (Ian Oversby) Subject: Re: Deep Freeze X Date: 20 Mar 2002 02:08:41 -0800 Message-ID: <21fc098d.0203200208.47ac6c56@posting.google.com> > Well, frankly, i don't really understand how you can > even hope to compete with a paper given your bombing > speed(1 Spl bomb/4 cycles). The Blur engine is exactly this: 0.25c bomb 0.5c scan and can be very effective against paper. The issue isn't the speed of the bombing, it is laying carpets on enough copies of the paper to make a difference. Hazy Lazy has shown just how effective 0.25c bombing can be. > Why don't you try something like a "real" scan > directed clear? Against papers, a one-shot is better > than a 25%c spl-clear. I think imp/stones prefer > facing a scanner instead of a clear. Against scanners, > however, you don't want to clear too fast. A Blur style scanner should be more effective against paper than a one-shot due to targetting more real copies in a smaller amount of time. The clear may perform better against imp/stones as it is harder to hit (3 instructions in the clearing stage only 1 of which is vulnerable). Ian Message-ID: <3C9814A3.6040202@mikecc.zemos.net> From: mike cramp Subject: DAT Date: Wed, 20 Mar 2002 05:47:04 GMT Guys, I don't understand what the DAT opcode does. Can anybody fill me in? Mike Cramp From: acid__burn02@hotmail.com (Melphen) Subject: Re: How to compile this thing? Date: 20 Mar 2002 11:38:05 -0800 Message-ID: <2d0a4685.0203201138.1580d7b3@posting.google.com> Lukasz Grabun wrote in message news:... > wto, 19 mar 2002 o 20:20 GMT, Melphen: > > Ok, so I can at least copy programs to a text file. How do I make the > > pshell run it as a warrior. I assume that there is a compile option or > > something, but where is it and how does it work? > > what is your os? > > generally you execute a command line > pmars warrior.red warrior2.red -r 200 > for example. once you run pmars without any options you shall > see help screen. Are you trying to say that all you have to do is adsd the .red to a text file and it will run right? We are runnig it on Win 98 and we have been using the pShell prograwm. So whatever you just said, say it in English. You know, like you are talking to people that have never played this game before! From: Lukasz Grabun Subject: Re: How to compile this thing? Date: Wed, 20 Mar 2002 20:06:47 +0000 (UTC) Message-ID: �ro, 20 mar 2002 o 19:38 GMT, Melphen: > Are you trying to say that all you have to do is adsd the .red to a > text file and it will run right? We are runnig it on Win 98 and we > have been using the pShell prograwm. So whatever you just said, say it > in English. You know, like you are talking to people that have never > played this game before! pShell is stated to be "accessory program"; have you downloaded _pMars_ for Win 98? -- Lukasz Grabun (reply-to field is scrambled, remove NOSPAM) GM d+ s: a-- C++ UL P L++ E---- W-- N++ o? K- w-- O@ M@ V- PS+ PE+ Y PGP t-@ 5@ X++(+++) R tv-() b+++ DI+ D- G++ e++ h! r++ y+ Message-ID: <3C98F1B2.1C4969AE@epix.net> From: Nathan McKenzie Subject: Re: DAT Date: Wed, 20 Mar 2002 20:31:21 GMT If a process runs it, the process "dies." When a program has no processes running, it loses the round. Brandon McKenzie mike cramp wrote: > Guys, I don't understand what the DAT opcode does. Can anybody fill me in? > > Mike Cramp From: acid__burn02@hotmail.com (Melphen) Subject: Re: How to compile this thing? Date: 21 Mar 2002 06:24:13 -0800 Message-ID: <2d0a4685.0203210624.31c11d3d@posting.google.com> Lukasz Grabun wrote in message news:... > �ro, 20 mar 2002 o 19:38 GMT, Melphen: > pShell is stated to be "accessory program"; have you downloaded > _pMars_ for Win 98? I don't really know, but I think not. I got this from a CD that a friend got from a program he was involved in over the summer. It was for advanced thinkers you could say. Anyway, it had all kinds of crap and I have no clue what is what and even how to run it all. I'm still reading alot right now. I was given a warrior to try to see how it looked and then to see how it worked. I tried to run it and it wouldn't run. We have since yesterday gotten it to work. Now, what will this pmars 98 do for me? I have 95 at home we just have a research computer at the school that we have been given to do research on Core War. My hope is to get the other people in the school to pick up on this, but I have to know what I'm doinf first. I guess that this graphic that I keep seeing is from the pmars program? I'll get that program right now. Thanks. I'll figure it out. From: pak21@cam.ac.uk (Philip Kendall) Subject: Re: How to compile this thing? Date: 21 Mar 2002 15:34:01 -0000 Message-ID: In article <2d0a4685.0203210624.31c11d3d@posting.google.com>, Melphen wrote: >Thanks. I'll figure it out. Hopefully. Maybe http://www.srcf.ucam.org/~pak21/corewar/start.html and http://www.srcf.ucam.org/~pak21/corewar/submit.html may be helpful, but I doubt it quite a lot :-). Phil -- Philip Kendall http://www.srcf.ucam.org/~pak21/ From: acid__burn02@hotmail.com (Melphen) Subject: Re: How to compile this thing? Date: 22 Mar 2002 06:10:38 -0800 Message-ID: <2d0a4685.0203220610.1c07bfbc@posting.google.com> Ok, I think I'm getting this a little at a time. I just haven't had much time to just blow. Anyway. The one thing that is giving me the most trouble, and seems to be giving all the people I know that are trying to learn a great deal of trouble, is that post and pre increments. They are making no since to me right now. I have read them many time. Can anyone make this clearer to me? From: Lukasz Grabun Subject: Re: How to compile this thing? Date: Fri, 22 Mar 2002 15:44:02 +0000 (UTC) Message-ID: pi�, 22 mar 2002 o 14:10 GMT, Melphen: > trying to learn a great deal of trouble, is that post and pre > increments. They are making no since to me right now. I have read them > many time. Can anyone make this clearer to me? more exact: there's post-increment and pre-decrement; there's no such a thing as pre-increment. post-increment where_to equ 20 s_mov mov sth, >ptr <- this one is executed ... sth dat 0, 0 ptr dat 0, where_to it works the following way: [1]. take sth cell and mov it where_to cells away from ptr; [2]. increment B-field of ptr; so, after the s_mov line execution the code would look like s_mov mov sth, >ptr ... <- this one (whatever) is exec. sth dat 0, 0 ptr dat 0, where_to + 1 predecrement: s_mov mov sth, Subject: Re: DAT Date: 22 Mar 2002 20:35:35 -0500 Message-ID: On Wed, 20 Mar 2002, Nathan McKenzie wrote: > mike cramp wrote: > > > Guys, I don't understand what the DAT opcode does. Can anybody fill me in? > > > > Mike Cramp > > If a process runs it, the process "dies." When a program has no processes > running, it loses the round. > > Brandon McKenzie To be honest it also changes some values, if addressing mode used in DAT instruction is pre-decrement or post-increment. I.e.: DAT <1, }2 DAT $0, $0 DAT $0, $0 after execution of the first line will become: DAT <1, }2 DAT $0, $-1 DAT $1, $0 but this process of course dies. It can be useful sometimes, i.e. in small incendiary bombs. Lukasz From: Steve Gunnell Subject: Re: vampires Date: 22 Mar 2002 20:43:15 -0500 Message-ID: <02032114454801.25266@eldred> On Wed, 20 Mar 2002 18:33, Ian Oversby wrote: > Paul-V Khuong wrote in message > news:<20020320020454.31541.qmail@web11601.mail.yahoo.com>... > > --- Melphen wrote: [snip] > > A silk replicator doesn't really care about a fang > > unless it's dropped very early. Non-paper warriors > > aren't affected by a fang much more than by a single > > spl or dat bomb. > > This is a very misleading statement. A number of warrior > types are far more likely to be disabled with a fang than > a spl or dat. Consider > > spl 0 ; dat / spl hits here - big deal > mov bmb, >gate ; dat / spl hits here - big deal > mov bmb, >gate ; dat hits here -> clear 33% speed > djn.f -1, >gate ; dat hits here -> clear 50% speed > > If a fang hits any of those locations, the warrior is (or > at least should be) effectively disabled. > > Similarly for a carbonite style stone, two of the > instructions are fairly insignificant for dat bombing and > one for a spl. > > I would hazard a guess that if you write a decent myVamp > style warrior with a shortish mod-1 bombing run and a > Scanman core-clear you will beat up scanners badly, > imp/stones reasonably and have some chance against > papers without imps. Of course, the points against paper > will come from the core-clear as fangs aren't particularly > effective against modern silks. > > Regards, > > Ian One of my warriors which occasionally tips into the bottom of the hill is just such a beast. As well as the normal fang Bugtown Rap also bombs from the A-field of the fang for a 50% bombing speed. I also use the pit as a decoy against scanners and one-shots. I can recommend a bomb like 'jmp #1, 1' as being far more effective against papers than a simple dat. Perhaps CoreWarrior couls summarize or digest some of the tactical tips/discussions that have been coming out on the list in recent months. Cheers, Steve Gunnell From: Steve Gunnell Subject: Re: Deep Freeze X Date: 22 Mar 2002 20:44:49 -0500 Message-ID: <02032115131702.25266@eldred> On Wed, 20 Mar 2002 19:35, Ian Oversby wrote: > > Well, frankly, i don't really understand how you can > > even hope to compete with a paper given your bombing > > speed(1 Spl bomb/4 cycles). > > The Blur engine is exactly this: 0.25c bomb 0.5c scan > and can be very effective against paper. The issue > isn't the speed of the bombing, it is laying carpets > on enough copies of the paper to make a difference. > Hazy Lazy has shown just how effective 0.25c bombing > can be. One of The Machine's great strengths is that the loop is only one instruction longer when the scan does hit something. This is a tremendous advantage over all my scanners when dealing with dirty core. However it does mean that the warrior will eventually trash itself if it doesn't switch to another mode. In this case a d-clear. The new version of HL uses a mod-2 step with the second part of the seq at an off offset to cover all of core. > > Why don't you try something like a "real" scan > > directed clear? Against papers, a one-shot is better > > than a 25%c spl-clear. I think imp/stones prefer > > facing a scanner instead of a clear. Against scanners, > > however, you don't want to clear too fast. > > A Blur style scanner should be more effective against > paper than a one-shot due to targetting more real copies > in a smaller amount of time. The clear may perform better > against imp/stones as it is harder to hit (3 instructions > in the clearing stage only 1 of which is vulnerable). A Mirage style f-scanner can be good against imp/stones if the imp is from a continuous launcher. Kenshin's main woe is trying to be effective against d-clears as well as everything else. > > Ian Cheers, Steve Gunnell From: oversby@hotmail.com (Ian Oversby) Subject: Re: vampires Date: 23 Mar 2002 03:13:27 -0800 Message-ID: <21fc098d.0203230313.7ebbf64d@posting.google.com> > > I would hazard a guess that if you write a decent myVamp > > style warrior with a shortish mod-1 bombing run and a > > Scanman core-clear you will beat up scanners badly, > > imp/stones reasonably and have some chance against > > papers without imps. Of course, the points against paper > > will come from the core-clear as fangs aren't particularly > > effective against modern silks. > > > > Regards, > > > > Ian > > One of my warriors which occasionally tips into the bottom of the hill is > just such a beast. As well as the normal fang Bugtown Rap also bombs from > the A-field of the fang for a 50% bombing speed. I also use the pit as a > decoy against scanners and one-shots. I can recommend a bomb like > 'jmp #1, 1' as being far more effective against papers than a simple dat. myVamp is an add, mov, jmz vamp / scanner vamping at 0.33c and scanning at 0.33c. It sounds like your warrior does not do this. Also, are you sure you are using the Scanman clear? That uses a neat trick to do a spl/spl/dat clear and use a djn.f stream. Ian From: M Joonas Pihlaja Subject: Re: Koenigstuhl News Date: Sat, 23 Mar 2002 04:33:17 +0200 Message-ID: On 18 Mar 2002 birk@andromeda.ociw.edu wrote: > Congratulations to 'Oversby/Pihlaja'. Their warrior 'Son of > Vain' is the highest ranking (#2) 94nop warrior on the > OPEN-Koenigstuhl. Yeah, baby! From: metcalf@uboot.com (John Metcalf) Subject: Tournament Reminder Date: 23 Mar 2002 08:14:51 -0800 Message-ID: SPRING / SUMMER 2002 COREWAR TOURNAMENT ROUND 1 REMINDER: TINY CORE The deadline is one week from today. All entries to reach me at grumpy3039@hotmail.com by 11:59pm on 30th March 2002. Thank-you and good luck. From: metcalf@uboot.com Subject: IRC Date: 24 Mar 2002 13:01:56 -0500 Message-ID: <20020323165614.D300234AC@Mail02.uboot.com> Greetings... I don't think I've been to irc.koth.org and found anyone there :-( I'll be there for the rest of the afternoon while I'm searching the net anyway. Cheers, John _____________________________________________________________ new: now with cheeez! the foto community of uboot.com http://www.uboot.com - who r U? From: azngangxta666@yahoo.com (Vincent) Subject: I rock Date: 24 Mar 2002 13:58:17 -0800 Message-ID: i rock and i am betta than all of u suckas!! i know the base code for all of the games and can alter it to do things such as give u infinty life, infinity ammo, or will give u a map right through the whole game and i have it all on my website: www.geocities.com/azngangxta666/index.html u may have to surf around it to find the page HAHAHAHAHA From: grabek@acn.waw.pl (grabek) Subject: Re: IRC Date: Sun, 24 Mar 2002 21:51:22 GMT Message-ID: <3c9e4a1f.353026@news.astercity.net> On 24 Mar 2002 13:01:56 -0500, metcalf@uboot.com wrote: >Greetings... > >I don't think I've been to irc.koth.org >and found anyone there :-( > >I'll be there for the rest of the afternoon >while I'm searching the net anyway. so I am here and can't see you. as well as anyone... From: Koth Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - 94 No Pspace 03/25/02 Date: 25 Mar 2002 08:14:26 -0500 Message-ID: <200203250509.AAA01364@gevjon.ttsg.com> Weekly Status on 03/25/02 -=- irc.KOTH.org is up! Meetings held in #corewars -=- Tons of new features on www.KOTH.org/koth.html pages -=- *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 Mar 23 01:57:16 EST 2002 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 46/ 35/ 18 Hazy Lazy ... again Steve Gunnell 157 8 2 45/ 39/ 16 Vanquisher Lukasz Grabun 151 64 3 35/ 22/ 43 Purifier Lukasz Grabun 149 9 4 37/ 27/ 36 Inky Ian Oversby 146 452 5 34/ 23/ 43 Son of Vain Oversby/Pihlaja 145 562 6 34/ 22/ 44 nPaper II Paul-V Khuong 145 973 7 43/ 42/ 15 Behemot Michal Janeczek 144 796 8 43/ 42/ 15 Deep Freeze X Lukasz Grabun 143 162 9 35/ 28/ 37 Uninvited John Metcalf 142 655 10 36/ 31/ 34 Quicksilver Michal Janeczek 141 735 11 33/ 26/ 41 Hopper Phooey 140 99 12 36/ 34/ 31 Blacken Ian Oversby 137 1220 13 36/ 34/ 30 Keyser Soze Anton Marsden 137 674 14 34/ 30/ 36 Revival Fire P.Kline 137 441 15 41/ 46/ 13 Test C Phooey 136 100 16 32/ 30/ 38 Olivia Ben Ford 135 701 17 41/ 48/ 11 G3-b David Moore 134 243 18 36/ 51/ 13 Dettol Test 10 Steve Gunnell 121 12 19 36/ 54/ 9 Spray Test A 27 Steve Gunnell 118 3 20 34/ 57/ 8 Hazy Test A 21 Steve Gunnell 111 1 21 2/ 2/ 0 Hazy Test A 22 Steve Gunnell 7 2 From: Koth Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - ICWS Experimental 94 03/25/02 Date: 25 Mar 2002 08:16:05 -0500 Message-ID: <200203250506.AAA01303@gevjon.ttsg.com> Weekly Status on 03/25/02 -=- irc.KOTH.org is up! Meetings held in #corewars -=- Tons of new features on www.KOTH.org/koth.html pages -=- *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 : Sat Mar 23 15:46:01 EST 2002 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 53/ 34/ 13 Fire and Ice II David Moore 171 3 2 31/ 21/ 48 KAT v5 Dave Hillis 142 35 3 38/ 35/ 26 Black Moods Ian Oversby 141 99 4 35/ 32/ 33 Controlled Aggression Ian Oversby 139 103 5 26/ 17/ 58 Katafutr Michal Janeczek 134 43 6 29/ 25/ 46 Damage Inflicted Robert Macrae 133 42 7 23/ 14/ 63 Kin John Metcalf 133 11 8 20/ 8/ 73 Evol Cap 4 X John Wilkinson 132 172 9 19/ 8/ 73 Denial David Moore 131 44 10 37/ 45/ 18 Greetings From Asbury Par JKW 130 63 11 32/ 37/ 31 Ogre Christian Schmidt 128 51 12 17/ 7/ 76 Evolve X v4.0 John Wilkinson 127 120 13 17/ 7/ 76 Black Box v1.1 JKW 127 66 14 29/ 33/ 38 Big I.F.F.S. Dave Hillis 125 32 15 22/ 20/ 57 Venom v0.2b Christian Schmidt 124 125 16 30/ 45/ 25 Pagan John K W 116 157 17 21/ 28/ 51 Disaster Area 2.8 Stefan Foerster 115 30 18 19/ 23/ 58 Purple v0.1 Christian Schmidt 115 124 19 26/ 39/ 35 La Vibra 19 Lukasz Grabun 112 1 20 24/ 36/ 40 test CS 112 60 21 11/ 42/ 47 38968-2968-eve2 bvowk 80 0 From: Koth Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - MultiWarrior 94 03/25/02 Date: 25 Mar 2002 08:17:45 -0500 Message-ID: <200203250503.AAA01235@gevjon.ttsg.com> Weekly Status on 03/25/02 -=- irc.KOTH.org is up! Meetings held in #corewars -=- Tons of new features on www.KOTH.org/koth.html pages -=- *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 Mar 8 21:49:35 EST 2002 # Name Author Score Age 1 fclear Brian Haskin 63 72 2 D-clearM Ken Espiritu 62 88 3 test John Metcalf 56 16 4 Her Majesty P.Kline 44 107 5 Tinyshot John Metcalf 31 1 6 Xord Monominer XOSC:01 Gino Oblena 30 27 7 8thTest Gino Oblena 28 19 8 clock strikes twelve John Metcalf 27 2 9 QuiVa John Metcalf 25 181 10 Pitbull Christian Schmidt 20 44 11 Glorious October Revoluti Beable van Polasm Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - Standard 03/25/02 Date: 25 Mar 2002 08:19:16 -0500 Message-ID: <200203250500.AAA01156@gevjon.ttsg.com> Weekly Status on 03/25/02 -=- irc.KOTH.org is up! Meetings held in #corewars -=- Tons of new features on www.KOTH.org/koth.html pages -=- *FAQ* page located at: www.KOTH.org/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the KOTH.ORG Standard KotH CoreWar Hill : Last battle concluded at : Tue Feb 26 04:22:56 EST 2002 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 44/ 37/ 18 Oneshot '88 John Metcalf 152 1 2 34/ 21/ 45 Freight Train David Moore 148 80 3 33/ 21/ 47 Test Alexander (Sasha) Wa 145 19 4 42/ 43/ 15 Foggy Swamp Beppe Bezzi 142 76 5 31/ 22/ 46 Guardian Ian Oversby 140 79 6 42/ 43/ 15 Blur '88 Anton Marsden 140 117 7 32/ 23/ 45 sIMPly.Red v0.95 Leonardo Humberto 140 37 8 33/ 30/ 37 vala John Metcalf 137 2 9 37/ 37/ 26 PacMan David Moore 136 109 10 36/ 38/ 26 Tangle Trap David Moore 134 153 11 37/ 41/ 23 Stasis David Moore 133 187 12 24/ 17/ 59 EV Paper John K Wilkinson 132 93 13 26/ 20/ 54 Jinglo John Metcalf 131 4 14 27/ 23/ 50 Shish-Ka-Bob Ben Ford 131 35 15 25/ 20/ 54 Test I Ian Oversby 131 136 16 31/ 32/ 37 Frog Sticker P.Kline 131 29 17 26/ 22/ 52 Evoltmp 88 John K W 130 130 18 35/ 42/ 23 Beholder's Eye V1.7 W. Mintardjo 128 355 19 37/ 47/ 16 Iron Gate Wayne Sheppard 128 405 20 37/ 48/ 15 ig Wayne Sheppard 126 7 21 0/ 44/ 56 Test Test 56 0 From: Lukasz Grabun Subject: Quicksilver is having hard time on nop hill Date: Mon, 25 Mar 2002 16:06:31 +0000 (UTC) Message-ID: I've never seen it so low in the table: | 16| Quicksilver | Michal Janeczek | 30| 28| 41| 132.11| 739| -- Lukasz Grabun (reply-to field is scrambled, remove NOSPAM) GM d+ s: a-- C++ UL P L++ E---- W-- N++ o? K- w-- O@ M@ V- PS+ PE+ Y PGP t-@ 5@ X++(+++) R tv-() b+++ DI+ D- G++ e++ h! r++ y+ Message-ID: From: anton@paradise.net.nz (Anton Marsden) Subject: Core War Frequently Asked Questions (rec.games.corewar FAQ) Date: 26 Mar 2002 13:37:46 GMT Archive-name: games/corewar-faq Last-Modified: September 4, 1999 Version: 4.2 URL: http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/~anton/cw/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 posted every two weeks. The latest hypertext version is available at http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/~anton/cw/corewar-faq.html and the latest plain text version is available at http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/~anton/cw/corewar-faq.txt. This document is currently being maintained by Anton Marsden (anton@paradise.net.nz). Last modified: Sat Sep 4 00:22:22 NZST 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 * Changed primary location of FAQ (again!) * Changed Philip Kendall's home page address. * Updated list server information * Changed primary location of FAQ * 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Table of Contents 1. What is Core War 2. Is it "Core War" or "Core Wars"? 3. Where can I find more information about Core War? 4. Core War has changed since Dewdney's articles. Where do I get a copy of the current instruction set? 5. What is ICWS'94? Which simulators support ICWS'94? 6. What is the ICWS? 7. What is 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 virtual computer called MARS (for Memory Array Redcode Simulator). The object of the game is to cause all processes of the opposing program to terminate, leaving your program in sole posession of the machine. There are Core War systems available for most computer platforms. Redcode has been 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. 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 = (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 is 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 the 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. 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 �0-7167-1939-8 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 �0-7167-2144-9 .D5173 1990 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 and 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'94 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 only 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 94 Warrior, Core Warrior is a newsletter about strategies and current standings 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.kendalls.demon.co.uk/pak21/corewar/warrior.html 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.answers (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 (koth.org 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 body 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 Koth.Org list processor. To join, send the message SUB COREWAR-L FirstName LastName to listproc@koth.org. You can send mail to corewar-l@koth.org to post even if you are not a member of the list. Responsible for the listserver is Scott J. Ellentuch (ttsg@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 koth.org. [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 points than a warrior that survives together with other warriors. Points are calculated from the formula (W*W-1)/S, where W is the total number of warriors and S the number of surviving warriors. The pMARS documentation has more information on multi-warrior scoring. The idea for an email-based Core War server came from David Lee. The original KotH was developed and run by William Shubert at Intel starting in 1991, and discontinued after almost three years of service. Currently, KotHs based on Bill's UNIX scripts but offering a wider variety of hills are are running at two sites: koth@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 overlapping services, i.e. the some of the hill types were offered by both "pizza" and "stormking". To conserve resources, the different hill types are now divided up among the sites. The way you submit warriors to both KotHs is pretty much the same. Therefore, the entry rules described below apply to both "pizza" and "stormking" unless otherwise noted. Entry Rules for King of the Hill Corewar * Write a corewar program. KotH is fully ICWS '88 compatible, EXCEPT that 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 Instr. Size Size Processes Distance Fought Set Tie Length Pizza's ICWS '94 Draft Hill Extended (Accessed with 25 8000 8000 80000 100 100 200 ICWS '94 ";redcode-94") Draft Pizza's Beginner's Extended Hill (Accessed 25 8000 8000 80000 100 100 200 ICWS '94 with ";redcode-b") Draft Pizza's Experimental Extended (Small) Hill 25 800 800 8000 20 20 200 ICWS '94 (Accessed with Draft ";redcode-x") Pizza's Limited Process (LP) Hill Extended (Accessed with 25 8000 8 80000 200 200 200 ICWS '94 ";redcode-lp") Draft Stormking's ICWS '88 Standard Hill (Accessed with 20 8000 8000 80000 100 100 250 ICWS '88 ";redcode") Stormking's ICWS '94 No Pspace Hill (Accessed with 20 8000 8000 80000 100 100 250 ICWS '94 ";redcode-94nop") Stormking's ICWS '94 Experimental Extended (Big) Hill 20 55440 55440 500000 200 200 250 ICWS '94 (Accessed with Draft ";redcode-94x") Stormking's ICWS '94 Multi-Warrior Extended Hill (Accessed 10 8000 8000 80000 100 100 200 ICWS '94 with Draft ";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 assembled 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 Core 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 or 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, for 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 than 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 memory size. Off-axis scanners use some other separation. Optimal Constants (also optima-type constants) Bomb or scan increments chosen to cover core most effectively, i.e. leaving gaps of uniform size. Programs to calculate optimal constants and lists of optimal numbers are available at www.koth.org. Paper A Paper-like program is one which replicates itself many times. Part of 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 pointer rof jmn attack, found ;if we have something, get it s2 for 8 cmp start+100*(s2+6), start+100*(s2+6)+4000 mov #start+100*(s2+6)-found, found rof found jmz moveme, #0 ;skip attack if qscan found nothing attack cmp @found, start-1 ;does found points to empty space? add #4000, found ;no, so point to correct location mov start-1, @found ;move a bomb moveme jmp 0, 0 In ICWS'94, the quick scan code is more compact because of the SNE opcode: start ;'94 scan s1 for 4 sne start+400*s1, start+400*s1+100 ;check two locations seq start+400*s1+200, start+400*s1+300 ;check two locations mov #start+400*s1-found, found ;they differ so set pointer rof jmn which, found ;if we have something, get it s2 for 4 sne start+400*(s2+4), start+400*(s2+4)+100 seq start+400*(s2+4)+200, start+400*(s2+4)+300 mov #start+400*(s2+4)-found-100, found rof found jmz moveme, #0 ;skip attack if qscan found nothing add #100, -1 ;increment pointer till we get the which jmn -1, @found ;right place mov start-1, @found ;move a bomb moveme jmp 0, 0 Reflection Copy of a program or program part, positioned to make the active program invisible to a CMP-scanner. Replicator Generic for Paper. A program which makes many copies of itself, each copy also making copies. Self-Splitting Strategy of amplifying the number of processes executing a piece of code. example spl 0 loop add #10, example mov example, @example jmp loop Scanner A program which searches through core for an opponent rather than bombing blindly. Scissors A program designed to beat replicators, usually a (B-field scanning) vampire. Part of the Paper-Scissors-Stone analogy. Self-Repair Ability of a program to fix it's own code after attack. Silk A replicator which splits off a process to each new copy before actually copying the code. This allows it to replicate extremely quickly. This technique is only possible under the '94 draft, because it requires post-increment indirect addressing. Example: spl 1 mov -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 copy 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. 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) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Copyright � 1999 Anton Marsden. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium, provided this notice is preserved. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: Lukasz Grabun Subject: Vanquisher, from the nop hill Date: Tue, 26 Mar 2002 14:29:31 +0000 (UTC) Message-ID: code I published some time ago differs somehow from the version from the hill; well, here's full code the way as it is on the hill The only difference is that the warrior is now even more suicidial. I simply changed bSpare line into jmz.b ... , ... as to prevent processes from jumping into wounded core clear (probably covered with a spl carpet). This seems to change 2% of ties into wins. ;redcode-94nop verbose ;author Lukasz Grabun ;name Vanquisher II ;I name it so for Christopher's sake ;strategy q^4 -> suicidial stone + two independent dclears ;strategy slightly different from published version ;assert 1 org qGo bOff equ 19 bDist equ 15 bStep equ 159 bAway equ 4000 cOff equ -15 cGate equ (cTop-4) cAway equ (bAway+cOff) bSpl equ (cOff+bMov) dOff equ cOff-4301 dAway equ (bAway+dOff) bBoot mov bIncen , bOff+bAway-4-CURLINE mov bSpare , bAway-CURLINE bSrc spl 2 , bStart+5 bDest spl 2 , bAway-CURLINE cSrc spl 1 , cStart+4 mov bDest , #5 cDest jmp bAway-CURLINE-4 , cAway-CURLINE bStart add #bStep , bPtr bMov mov bOff , @bPtr bPtr mov >bEvac , @2-bDist jmz.b bStart , cGate djn.f -1 , >cGate cBmb dat >5335 , 2-cGate for 5 dat 0 , 0 rof bIncen mov bDist , }bDist for 31 dat 0 , 0 rof qf equ qKil qs equ 200 qd equ 4000 qi equ 7 qr equ 8 qBmb dat {qi*qr-10 , {1 qGo seq qd+qf+qs , qf+qs ; 1 jmp qSki , {qd+qf+qs+qi+2 sne qd+qf+5*qs , qf+5*qs ; B+1 seq qf+4*qs , {qTab ; B jmp qFas , }qTab sne qd+qf+8*qs , qf+8*qs ; A seq qf+7*qs , {qTab-1 ; A-1 jmp qFas , {qFas sne qd+qf+10*qs , qf+10*qs ; C seq qf+9*qs , {qTab+1 ; C-1 jmp qFas , }qFas seq qd+qf+2*qs , qf+2*qs ; B-2 jmp qFas , {qTab seq qd+qf+6*qs , qf+6*qs ; A-2 djn.a qFas , {qFas seq qd+qf+3*qs , qf+3*qs ; B-1 jmp qFas , {qd+qf+3*qs+qi+2 sne qd+qf+14*qs , qf+14*qs ; E+1 seq qf+13*qs , qTab sne qd+qf+17*qs , qf+17*qs ; D seq qf+16*qs , core war is just a tradition of th USA in which every first son of every family makes a party. The people have to choose to which party go, and when they are in it they play bottle but instead of kissing they gotta have sex. This tradition is celebrated on June 22nd. From: Lukasz Grabun Subject: Re: Vanquisher, from the nop hill Date: Wed, 27 Mar 2002 13:44:40 +0000 (UTC) Message-ID: wto, 26 mar 2002 o 14:29 GMT, Lukasz Grabun: > ;I name it so for Christopher's sake "Christoph's", of course. sorry for the mistake. -- Lukasz Grabun (reply-to field is scrambled, remove NOSPAM) GM d+ s: a-- C++ UL P L++ E---- W-- N++ o? K- w-- O@ M@ V- PS+ PE+ Y PGP t-@ 5@ X++(+++) R tv-() b+++ DI+ D- G++ e++ h! r++ y+ From: funstuff@goink.com (funstuff) Subject: Quick legal money, $10,000 the third week 42,000 the fourth week Date: 29 Mar 2002 09:28:35 -0800 Message-ID: <70ee16e6.0203290928.51c9c105@posting.google.com> A little while back, I was browsing through newsgroups, just like you are now, and came across an article similar to this that said you could make thousands of dollars within weeks with only an initial investment of $6.00! So I thought, "Yeah right, this must be a scam", but like most of us, I was curious, so I kept reading. Anyway, the newsgroup post said that all you need to send was $1.00 to each of the 6 names and address stated in the article. You then place your own name and address in the bottom of the list at #6, and post the article in at least 200 newsgroups. (There are millions) No catch, that was it. So after thinking it over, and talking to a few people first, I thought about trying it. I figured: "what have I got to lose except 6 stamps and $6.00, right? "Then I invested the measly $6.00. Well GUESS WHAT!! Within 7 days, I started getting money in the mail! I was shocked! I figured it would end soon, but the money just kept coming in. In my first week, I made about $25.00. By the end of the second week I had made a total of over $1,000.00! In the third week I had over $10,000.00 and it's still growing. This is now my fourth week and I have made just over $42,000.00 and it's still coming in rapidly. It's certainly worth $6.00, and 6 stamps, I have spent more than that on the lottery!! Let me tell you how this works and most importantly, why it works.... Also, make sure you print a copy of this article NOW, so you can get the information off of it as you need it. I promise you that if you follow the directions exactly, that you will start making more money than you thought possible by doing something so easy! Suggestion: Read this entire message carefully! (Print it out or download it.) Follow the simple directions and watch the money pore in! It's easy. It's legal. And, your investment is only $6.00 (Plus postage) IMPORTANT: This is not a rip-off; it is not indecent; it is not illegal; and it is virtually no risk - it really works!!!! If all of the following instructions are adhered to, you will receive extraordinary dividends. PLEASE NOTE: Please follow these directions EXACTLY, and $50,000 or more can be yours in 20 to 60 days. This program remains successful because of the honesty and integrity of the participants. Please continue it's success by carefully adhering to the instructions. You will now become part of the Mail Order business. In this business your product is not solid and tangible. It's a service; you are in the business of developing Mailing Lists. Many large corporations are happy to pay big bucks for quality lists. However, the money made from the mailing lists is secondary to the income that is made from people like you and me asking to be included in that list. Here are the 4 easy steps to success: STEP 1: Get 6 separate pieces of paper and write the following on each piece of paper "PLEASE PUT ME ON YOUR MAILING LIST." Now get 6 US $1.00 bills and place ONE inside EACH of the 6 pieces of paper so the bill will not be seen through the envelope (to prevent thievery). Next, place one paper in each of the 6 envelopes and seal them. You should now have 6 sealed envelopes, each with a piece of paper stating the phrase "PLEASE PUT ME ON YOUR MAILING LIST.? your name and address, and a $1.00 bill. What you are doing is creating a service. THIS IS ABSOLUTELY LEGAL! You are requesting a legitimate service and you are paying for it! Like most of us I was a little skeptical and a little worried about the legal aspects of it all. So I checked it out with the U.S. Post Office (1-800-725-2161) and they confirmed that it is indeed legal! Mail the 6 envelopes to the following addresses: #1) D. Gaudet: 26 Magnus Avenue: Somerville, MA 02143 #2) E.Rose: 13515 Essence Rd: San Diego, CA 92128 #3) N.Costello: 477 Oxley Rd: Franklin, IL 62638 #4) Shawna Myers: 516 Foothill Dr: Ontario, Or 97914 #5) Cindee Colter: 5238 Candlelight Dr: Davenport, IA 52806 #6) P. White: 2733 Rambling Brook: Memphis, TN 38133 STEP 2: Now take the #1 name off the list that you see above, move the other names up (6 becomes 5, 5 becomes 4, etc.) and add YOUR Name as number 6 on the list. STEP 3: Change anything you need to, but try to keep this article as close to original as possible. Now, post your amended article to at least 200 newsgroups. (I think there are close to 2.4million groups) All you need is 200, but remember, the more you post, the more money you make! This is perfectly legal! If you have any doubts, refer to Title 18 Sec. 1302 & 1341 of the Postal lottery laws. Keep a copy of these steps for yourself and, whenever you need money, you can use it again, and again. PLEASE REMEMBER that this program remains successful because of the honesty and integrity of the participants and by their carefully adhering to the directions. Look at it this way. If you are of integrity, the program will continue and the money that so many others have received will come your way. NOTE: You may want to retain every name and address sent to you, either on a computer or hard copy and keep the notes people send you. This VERIFIES that you are truly providing a service. (Also, it might be a good idea to wrap the $1 bill in dark paper to reduce the risk of mail theft.) Remember: Close adherences to the directions are required to maintain legality for your program. So, as each post is downloaded and the directions carefully followed, six members will be reimbursed for their participation as a List Developer with one dollar each. Your name will move up the list geometrically so that when your name reaches the #1 position you will be receiving thousands of dollars in CASH!!! What an opportunity for only $6.00 ($1.00 for each of the first six people listed above) Send it now, and add your own name to the list and you're in business! ---DIRECTIONS ----- FOR HOW TO POST TO NEWSGROUPS------------ Step 1) You do not need to re-type this entire letter to do your own posting. Simply put your cursor at the beginning of this letter and drag your cursor to the bottom of this document, and select 'copy' from the edit menu. This will copy the entire letter into the computer's memory. Step 2) Open a blank 'notepad' file and place your cursor at the top of the blank page. From the 'edit' menu select 'paste'. This will paste a copy of the letter into notepad so that you can add your name to the list. Step 3) Save your new notepad file as a .txt file. If you want to do your postings in different settings, you'll always have this file to go back to. Step 4) Use Netscape or Internet explorer and try searching for various newsgroups (on-line forums, message boards, chat sites, discussions.) Step 5) Visit these message boards and post this article as a new message by highlighting the text of this letter and selecting paste from the edit menu. Fill in the Subject, this will be the header that everyone sees as they scroll through the list of postings in a particular group, click the post message button. You're done with your first one! Congratulations...THAT'S IT! All you have to do is jump to different newsgroups and post away, after you get the hang of it, it will take about 30 seconds for each newsgroup! **REMEMBER, THE MORE NEWSGROUPS YOU POST IN, THE MORE MONEY YOU WILL MAKE!! BUT YOU HAVE TO POST A MINIMUM OF 200** That's it! You will begin receiving money from around the world within days! You may eventually want to rent a P.O. Box due to the large amount of mail you will receive. If you wish to stay anonymous, you can invent a name to use, as long as the postman will deliver it. **JUST MAKE SURE ALL THE ADDRESSES ARE CORRECT. ** Now the WHY part: Out of 200 postings, say I receive only 5 replies (a very low example). So then I made $5.00 with my name at #6 on the letter. Now, each of the 5 persons who just sent me $1.00 make the MINIMUM 200 postings, each with my name at #5 and only 5 persons respond to each of the original 5, that is another $25.00 for me, now those 25 each make 200 MINIMUM posts with my name at #4 and only 5 replies each, I will bring in an additional $125.00! Now, those 125 persons turn around and post the MINIMUM 200 with my name at #3 and only receive 5 replies each, I will make an additional $626.00! OK, now here is the fun part, each of those 625 persons post a MINIMUM 200 letters with my name at #2 and they each only receive 5 replies, that just made me $3,125.00!!! Those 3,125 persons will all deliver this message to 200 newsgroups with my name at #1 and if still ONLY 5 persons per 200 newsgroups react I will receive $15,625,00! With an original investment of only $6.00! AMAZING! When your name is no longer on the list, you just take the latest posting in the newsgroups, and send out another $6.00 to names on the list, putting your name at number 6 again. And start posting again. The thing to remember is: do you realize that thousands of people all over the world are joining the Internet and reading these articles everyday? Just like you are now!! So, can you afford $6.00 and see if it really works?? I think so... People have said, "what if the plan is played out and no one sends you the money? So what! What the chances of that happening when there are tons of new honest users and new honest people who are joining the internet and newsgroups everyday and are willing to give it a try? Estimates are at 20,000 to 50,000 new users, every day, with thousands of those joining the actual Internet. Think about it, It's only $6.00 bucks! If it doesn?t work, what have you really lost? A few bucks that you probably would have spent on a lottery ticket that has even harder odds to win at! Anyway many other people try stuffing envelopes to make big money. All you will be doing is opening envelopes with a nice present in side. Remember, play FAIRLY and HONESTLY and this will really work. From: oversby@hotmail.com (Ian Oversby) Subject: A corewar timeline Date: 30 Mar 2002 10:15:58 -0800 Message-ID: <21fc098d.0203301015.9ba5069@posting.google.com> I'm interested in putting together a timeline of the significant advances in corewar state of the art and who discovered them for possible inclusion in the FAQ. I'm sure I have made a number of mistakes in the attributions so I would appreciate any corrections. Can anyone else think of other significant advances? Regards, Ian * Bomber A. K. Dewdney * CMP-Scanner * B-Scanner * Paper * PMARS Stefan Strack et al. * Vampire Eugene P. Lilitko * Bomber with optimal step * Core-clear * Two-pass coreclear Mintardjo * Imp Rings Anders Ivner * Gate-busting imps Paul Kline * One-shot scanner Randy Graham * QScan Paul Kline * Incendiary bomber Paul Kline * Timescape Juha Pohjalainen * Tornado bomber Beppe Bezzi * Imp-paper Paul Kline * Optimised QScan Anders Ivner / Anton Marsden * Mirage Scanner Anton Marsden * Blur Scanner Anton Marsden * DClear Bjoern Guenzel * He Scans Alone Paul Kline From: oversby@hotmail.com (Ian Oversby) Subject: Re: A corewar timeline Date: 30 Mar 2002 15:48:57 -0800 Message-ID: <21fc098d.0203301548.5f4fd792@posting.google.com> Lukasz Grabun wrote in message news:... > sob, 30 mar 2002 o 18:15 GMT, Ian Oversby: > > > in the FAQ. I'm sure I have made a number of mistakes in the attributions > > so I would appreciate any corrections. Can anyone else think of other > > significant advances? > > impfinity and its continous imp launcher. A very good point, thank you. Continuous Paul Kline Imp Rings ... Continuous Planar Imp Spirals ... Airbag Magnus Paulsson From: Winston Bean Subject: Re: A corewar timeline Date: Sat, 30 Mar 2002 18:26:05 -0300 Message-ID: <3CA62D6D.8ED7A1E@hotmail.com> How 'bout Moore's wipe of the hill? -Winston From: Winston Bean Subject: Re: Tournament Announcement Date: Sat, 30 Mar 2002 18:29:32 -0300 Message-ID: <3CA62E3C.39F6221D@hotmail.com> > S P R I N G / S U M M E R 2 0 0 2 C O R E W A R T O U R N A M E N T > > Prizes are to be awarded in a variety of categories which will include > best newcomer *cough cough* GRABUN *cough* -Winston From: Lukasz Grabun Subject: Re: A corewar timeline Date: Sat, 30 Mar 2002 18:41:14 +0000 (UTC) Message-ID: sob, 30 mar 2002 o 18:15 GMT, Ian Oversby: > in the FAQ. I'm sure I have made a number of mistakes in the attributions > so I would appreciate any corrections. Can anyone else think of other > significant advances? impfinity and its continous imp launcher. -- Lukasz Grabun (reply-to field is scrambled, remove NOSPAM) GM d+ s: a-- C++ UL P L++ E---- W-- N++ o? K- w-- O@ M@ V- PS+ PE+ Y PGP t-@ 5@ X++(+++) R tv-() b+++ DI+ D- G++ e++ h! r++ y+ From: pagaltzis@gmx.de (Aristoteles Pagaltzis) Subject: Re: A corewar timeline Date: 30 Mar 2002 19:50:24 -0800 Message-ID: <872a85cc.0203301950.38adf30@posting.google.com> oversby@hotmail.com (Ian Oversby) wrote > Can anyone else think of other significant advances? I looked several times to make sure and maybe I'm still blind, but I believe you're missing Silk-style papers on that list? Probably the most important contemporary form of replicator.. From: Randy Graham Subject: Re: A corewar timeline Message-ID: Date: Sat, 30 Mar 2002 20:19:47 GMT On 30 Mar 2002 10:15:58 -0800, oversby@hotmail.com (Ian Oversby) wrote: >I'm interested in putting together a timeline of the significant advances >in corewar state of the art and who discovered them for possible inclusion >in the FAQ. I'm sure I have made a number of mistakes in the attributions >so I would appreciate any corrections. Can anyone else think of other >significant advances? > >Regards, > >Ian >* One-shot scanner Randy Graham Paul Kline came up with this (well, sorta - there is evidence of another preceeding his, but none that was a good warrior prior to his). I just released an improved version a few days later. RagManX http://www.gamingideas.com/ - an "I could make a better game" forum. From: Anton Marsden Subject: Re: A corewar timeline Date: 30 Mar 2002 21:58:06 -0500 Message-ID: A few other interesting discoveries: - spiral clears - fast P-switchers - handshaking - bomb dodger Cheers, Anton. On Sat, 30 Mar 2002, Ian Oversby wrote: > I'm interested in putting together a timeline of the significant advances > in corewar state of the art and who discovered them for possible inclusion > in the FAQ. I'm sure I have made a number of mistakes in the attributions > so I would appreciate any corrections. Can anyone else think of other > significant advances? > > Regards, > > Ian From: oversby@hotmail.com (Ian Oversby) Subject: Re: A corewar timeline Date: 31 Mar 2002 03:53:18 -0800 Message-ID: <21fc098d.0203310353.49831deb@posting.google.com> pagaltzis@gmx.de (Aristoteles Pagaltzis) wrote in message news:<872a85cc.0203301950.38adf30@posting.google.com>... > oversby@hotmail.com (Ian Oversby) wrote > > Can anyone else think of other significant advances? > > I looked several times to make sure and maybe I'm still blind, but I > believe you're missing Silk-style papers on that list? Probably the > most important contemporary form of replicator.. This is true, but I have included Timescape which I think may have been the first really good implementation of a Silk paper. I wasn't following corewar at the time so I may be mistaken. Ian From: oversby@hotmail.com (Ian Oversby) Subject: Re: A corewar timeline Date: 31 Mar 2002 03:56:08 -0800 Message-ID: <21fc098d.0203310356.5de7e24@posting.google.com> Winston Bean wrote in message news:<3CA62D6D.8ED7A1E@hotmail.com>... > How 'bout Moore's wipe of the hill? > > -Winston I'm not sure how I would include it in this list of discoveries except maybe as handshaking. It certainly was a significant event though, I will agree. Ian From: "John Metcalf" Subject: Tournament Reminder Date: 31 Mar 2002 10:07:34 -0500 Message-ID: Hi, If your name isn't on this list, then I haven't received your round 1 entry yet. If you sent me an entry, but your name isn't here, please resend it as soon as possible. Regards, John Arek Paterek (1) Ben Ford (2) Compudemon (2) Dave Hillis (2) Leonardo H. Liporati (1) Lukasz Grabun (2) Martin Ankerl (1) Michal Janeczek (2) Robert Macrae (2) Simon Wainwright (2) Steve Gunnell (2) _________________________________________________________________ MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos: http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx