From: Lukasz Grabun <grabek@home.sweet.home>
Subject: Vanquisher & Executor
Date: Sat, 2 Mar 2002 23:31:08 +0000 (UTC)
Message-ID: <a5rnbs$1qv6$1@pingwin.acn.pl>

	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	<bSrc		, <bDest
cBoot	mov	<cSrc		, <cDest
	mov	<dSrc		, <bSpare
	djn	>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		, <bEvac
bEvac	jmz.b	bSpl		, bSpl
bSpare	jmp	dOff-5		, dAway-CURLINE

cTop	spl	1		, #-15		;decrement protection
cStart	spl	#-bDist+1	, #0
	mov	cBmb		, >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      ; E
	jmp   	qSlo		, >qTab
	sne   	qd+qf+17*qs	, qf+17*qs   ; D
	seq   	qf+16*qs	, <qTab-1    ; D-1
	jmp   	qSlo		, {qSlo
	seq   	qd+qf+11*qs	, qf+11*qs   ; E-2
	jmp   	qSlo		, <qTab
	seq   	qd+qf+15*qs	, qf+15*qs   ; D-2
	djn.b 	qSlo		, {qSlo
	sne   	qd+qf+12*qs	, qf+12*qs   ; E-1
	jmz   	bBoot		, qd+qf+12*qs-qi     ; Free Scan ;-)
qSlo  	mov.ba 	qTab		, qTab
qFas  	mul.ab 	qTab		, qKil
qSki  	sne   	qBmb-1		, @qKil
      	add   	#qd		, qKil
qLoo  	mov.i  	qBmb		, @qKil
qKil  	mov.i  	qBmb		, *qs
      	sub.ab 	#qi		, qKil
      	djn    	qLoo		, #qr
      	jmp    	bBoot		, <-bAway
     	dat   	5408		, 7217       ; A*qs =  8*qs ,D*qs = 17*qs
qTab  	dat   	4804		, 6613       ; B*qs =  4*qs ,E*qs = 13*qs
dSrc   	dat   	5810		, cStart+5   ; C*qs = 10*qs



-- 
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: oversby@hotmail.com (Ian Oversby)
Subject: Re: Vanquisher & Executor
Date: 3 Mar 2002 05:13:23 -0800
Message-ID: <21fc098d.0203030513.4fd65bb7@posting.google.com>

> 	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 <nc-zapfsa@netcologne.de>
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,		<ccb+1
	mov.i	*ccb+1,		<ccb+1
ccb	dat	-1,		-7
	dat	-4,		-7		; Incendiary Stone starten, Quellzeiger Bootstrapping
bloop	mov.i	>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 <koth@koth.org>
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 <koth@koth.org>
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 <koth@koth.org>
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 <koth@koth.org>
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 <grabek@home.sweet.home>
Subject: vampires
Date: Sun, 10 Mar 2002 12:32:12 +0000 (UTC)
Message-ID: <a6fjoc$1uvp$1@pingwin.acn.pl>

	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 <koth@koth.org>
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 <koth@koth.org>
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 <koth@koth.org>
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 <b       0       0


From: Koth <koth@koth.org>
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: <games/corewar-faq_1015842525@rtfm.mit.edu>
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 <anton@paradise.net.nz>
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 <program name>" and ";author <your name>"
     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, <L2
   L2  dat #0, #1

Under in-register evaluation, the L2 instruction is saved in a buffer before
the L2 memory location is decremented by evaluation of the B-operand of L1.
The saved DAT #0,#1 instruction is then written to L2, leaving it unchanged.

Under in-memory evaluation, the L2 instruction is not buffered and thus
decremented by evaluation of the B-operand. After execution of L1, L2
changes to DAT #0,#0.

[ToC]
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

18. What is P-space?

P-space is an area of memory which only your program's processes can access.
The contents of each memory location are preserved between rounds in a
multi-round match.

P-space is in many ways different from the core. First of all, each P-space
location can only store one number, not a whole instruction. Also, the
addressing in P-space is absolute, ie. the P-space address 1 is always 1
regardless of where in the core the instruction containing it is. And last
but not least, P-space can only be accessed by two special instructions, LDP
and STP.

The syntax of these two instructions is a bit unusual. STP, for example, has
an ordinary value in the core as its source, which is put into the P-space
field pointed to by the destination. So the P-space location isn't
determined by the destination address, but by its value, ie. the value that
would be overwritten if this were a MOV. So STP.AB #Q, #R would put the
value Q into the P-space field R mod PSPACESIZE. Similarly,

        stp.b  2, 3
        dat    0, 0
        dat    0, 9
        dat    0, 7

would put the value 9 into the P-space field 7. LDP works the same way,
except that now the source is a P-space field and the destination a core
instruction. The P-space location 0 is a special location. It is initialised
to a special value before each round. This value is:

   * -1 (or CORESIZE-1) at the beginning of the first round
   * 0 if the program died in the previous round
   * The number of surviving programs if the program did not die in the
     previous round

This means that for one-on-one matches, loss=0, win=1 and tie=2.

The default size of P-space is 1/16 of the core size. This size is the value
of the predefined variable PSPACESIZE. The addresses in the P-space wrap
around just like in the core, ie. you can store a value from 0 to CORESIZE-1
in each P-space location. All P-space values (except for location 0) are 0
initially.

[ToC]
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

19. What does "Missing ;assert .." in my message from KotH mean?

This means you have omitted an ";assert" line in your submission. ";assert"
is used to specify which environments your code will work under or was
designed for. For example, if your warrior was written for the '94 draft
hill then you can put:

;assert CORESIZE==8000

in your code, meaning that an error will occur if you attempt you compile
the code for a different core size. If you don't want to use the features of
";assert" and you want to get rid of the annoying warning just put:

;assert 1

in your code, which means it will compile unconditionally.

[ToC]
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

20. How should I format my code?

The way you format your code is really your own choice in the end. If you
are new to the game then use the style you feel most comfortable with.
However, using a common format helps others to understand your code quicker.
Most players tend to use the following conventions when writing code:

   * use lower case for location names and opcode names
   * don't add opcode modifiers if you don't need to, eg. add.ab #1, #2 is
     the same as add #1, #2
   * use whitespace after every comma
   * use tabs to align the opcodes, the instruction field(s) and any
     comments
   * do not use $ (direct addressing mode) or : (suffix of some labels)

[ToC]
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

21. Are there any other Core War related resources I should know about?

Using genetic algorithms to generate warriors has been attempted by a number
of people. There are a number of resources available for people who are
interested in doing some experimentation:

   * There is a Core War genetic algorithms mailing list at
     corewar-ga-request@sunsite.auc.dk. The FTP site for this list is at
     ftp://sunsite.auc.dk/pub/local/corewar/. The administrator is Martin
     Pedersen (martin.pedersen@person.dk).
   * Jason's Core War project page
     (http://www.avalon.net/~jboer/projects/corewar/corewar.html) contains a
     C program which can evolve warriors, along with some previously
     generated warriors.
   * Core Wars Genetics: The Evolution of Predation by John Perry can be
     found at http://www.koth.org/evolving_warriors.html.
   * The most recent paper on Core War evolution is by Ryan Coleman and can
     be found at
     http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Launchpad/6898/paper.html.

[ToC]
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

22. What does (expression or term of your choice) mean?

Here is a selected glossary of terms. If you have a definition and/or term
you wish to see here, please send it to me.

(References to an X-like program mean that the term X is derived from the
specific program X and has become a generic term).

Binary launch
     One of several means to start an imp-spiral running. The fastest launch
     technique, but requires the most code. See also JMP/ADD Launch and
     Vector Launch.

         impsize   equ 2667
         example   spl 4               ; extend by adding spl 8, spl 16, etc.
                   spl 2
                   jmp imp+(0*impsize) ; jmp's execute in order
                   jmp imp+(1*impsize)
                   spl 2
                   jmp imp+(2*impsize)
                   jmp imp+(3*impsize)
         imp       mov 0, impsize      ; in '94 use -> 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, <example
                   dat <example, #0

Imp-Ring
     A minimal Imp-Spiral.

         D         EQU (CORESIZE+1)/3
         a         mov 0, D   ; copy self to b
         b         mov 0, D   ; copy self to c
         c         mov 0, D   ; copy self to a+1

Imp-Spiral
     An Imp-like program with two or more processes supporting each other. A
     three-point spiral, with six processes running in this sequence:

         D         EQU (CORESIZE+1)/3
         a         mov 0, D   ; copy self to b
         b         mov 0, D   ; copy self to c
         c         mov 0, D   ; copy self to a+1
         a+1       mov 0, D   ; copy self to b+1
         b+1       mov 0, D   ; copy self to c+1
         c+1       mov 0, D   ; copy self to a+2

Incendiary Bomb
     A type of Stun bomb which creates a SPL 0 carpet.

         example   spl 0, 8
                   mov -1, <-1

JMP/ADD Launch
     one of several means to start an imp-spiral running. The slowest launch
     technique, but requires the least code. See also Binary Launch and
     Vector Launch.

         IMPSIZE   EQU 2667
         example   spl 1               ; extend by adding more spl 1's
                   spl 1
                   spl 2
                   jmp @0, imp
                   add #IMPSIZE, -1    ; bump address by impsize after each jmp
                   dat #0, #0          ; excess processes must die!
         imp       mov 0, IMPSIZE      ; in '94 use -> 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: <pan.2002.03.13.18.59.23.510144.616@zlip-nospam.com>
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: <pan.2002.03.13.21.01.15.747551.1951@zlip-nospam.com>
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: <pan.2002.03.13.21.09.37.540568.1951@zlip-nospam.com>
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 <grabek@home.sweet.home>
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: <a6vfmh$2f4d$1@pingwin.acn.pl>

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 <grabek@home.sweet.home>
Subject: Deep Freeze X
Date: Sun, 17 Mar 2002 13:19:41 +0000 (UTC)
Message-ID: <a7255c$2ge4$1@pingwin.acn.pl>

	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
	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		, <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



-- 
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 <paul_virak_khuong@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: Deep Freeze X
Date: 17 Mar 2002 21:02:47 -0500
Message-ID: <20020317170238.79862.qmail@web11604.mail.yahoo.com>

--- Lukasz Grabun <grabek@home.sweet.home> 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		, <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		, <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.

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From: "John Metcalf" <grumpy3039@hotmail.com>
Subject: Tournament
Date: 17 Mar 2002 21:10:15 -0500
Message-ID: <LAW2-F5UAwuUUvTbem300013ba5@hotmail.com>

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

_________________________________________________________________
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From: Paul-V Khuong <paul_virak_khuong@yahoo.com>
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 <jn1@hawaii.rr.com> 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


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From: Koth <koth@koth.org>
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 <koth@koth.org>
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 <koth@koth.org>
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 <b       0       0


From: Koth <koth@koth.org>
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 <grabek@home.sweet.home>
Subject: Re: Deep Freeze X
Date: Tue, 19 Mar 2002 09:04:36 +0000 (UTC)
Message-ID: <a76uv4$1apv$1@pingwin.acn.pl>

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 <grabek@home.sweet.home> wrote in message news:<a6fjoc$1uvp$1@pingwin.acn.pl>...
> 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 <grabek@home.sweet.home>
Subject: Re: How to compile this thing?
Date: Tue, 19 Mar 2002 20:49:18 +0000 (UTC)
Message-ID: <a7888e$2sle$1@pingwin.acn.pl>

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 <paul_virak_khuong@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: vampires
Date: 19 Mar 2002 21:18:02 -0500
Message-ID: <20020320020454.31541.qmail@web11601.mail.yahoo.com>

--- Melphen <acid__burn02@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Lukasz Grabun <grabek@home.sweet.home> wrote in
> message news:<a6fjoc$1uvp$1@pingwin.acn.pl>...
> > 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.

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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 <paul_virak_khuong@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:<20020320020454.31541.qmail@web11601.mail.yahoo.com>...
> --- Melphen <acid__burn02@hotmail.com> wrote:
> > Lukasz Grabun <grabek@home.sweet.home> wrote in
> > message news:<a6fjoc$1uvp$1@pingwin.acn.pl>...
> > > 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 <mikecc@mikecc.zemos.net>
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 <grabek@home.sweet.home> wrote in message news:<a7888e$2sle$1@pingwin.acn.pl>...
> 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 <grabek@home.sweet.home>
Subject: Re: How to compile this thing?
Date: Wed, 20 Mar 2002 20:06:47 +0000 (UTC)
Message-ID: <a7aq4n$20a9$1@pingwin.acn.pl>

�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 <internut@epix.net>
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 <grabek@home.sweet.home> wrote in message news:<a7aq4n$20a9$1@pingwin.acn.pl>...
> �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: <a7cuh9$e3d$1@kern.srcf.societies.cam.ac.uk>

In article <2d0a4685.0203210624.31c11d3d@posting.google.com>,
Melphen <acid__burn02@hotmail.com> 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 <pak21@srcf.ucam.org>
  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 <grabek@home.sweet.home>
Subject: Re: How to compile this thing?
Date: Fri, 22 Mar 2002 15:44:02 +0000 (UTC)
Message-ID: <a7fjg2$2m2c$1@pingwin.acn.pl>

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, <ptr			<-
	...
sth	dat 0, 0
ptr	dat 0, where_to

	[1]. take B-field of ptr line, decrement it and move sth
where_to - 1 cells away from ptr;

	after that the code would look like this.

s_mov	mov sth, <ptr
	...				<-
sth	dat 0, 0
ptr	dat 0, where_to-1

-- 
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 Adamowski <adamow@inferno.mikrus.pw.edu.pl>
Subject: Re: DAT
Date: 22 Mar 2002 20:35:35 -0500
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.21.0203221034040.28672-100000@inferno.mikrus.pw.edu.pl>

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 <steveg58@iinet.net.au>
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 <paul_virak_khuong@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:<20020320020454.31541.qmail@web11601.mail.yahoo.com>...
> > --- Melphen <acid__burn02@hotmail.com> 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 <steveg58@iinet.net.au>
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 <jpihlaja@cc.helsinki.fi>
Subject: Re: Koenigstuhl News
Date: Sat, 23 Mar 2002 04:33:17 +0200
Message-ID: <Pine.OSF.4.30.0203230424280.5240-100000@vesuri.Helsinki.FI>


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: <a65480ee.0203230814.25f6840c@posting.google.com>

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: <d14e20ac.0203241358.6b5756e5@posting.google.com>

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 <koth@koth.org>
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 <koth@koth.org>
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 <koth@koth.org>
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 <b       0       0


From: Koth <koth@koth.org>
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 <grabek@home.sweet.home>
Subject: Quicksilver is having hard time on nop hill
Date: Mon, 25 Mar 2002 16:06:31 +0000 (UTC)
Message-ID: <a7nhu7$ecp$1@pingwin.acn.pl>

	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: <games/corewar-faq_1017149794@rtfm.mit.edu>
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 <anton@paradise.net.nz>
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 <program name>" and ";author <your name>"
     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, <L2
   L2  dat #0, #1

Under in-register evaluation, the L2 instruction is saved in a buffer before
the L2 memory location is decremented by evaluation of the B-operand of L1.
The saved DAT #0,#1 instruction is then written to L2, leaving it unchanged.

Under in-memory evaluation, the L2 instruction is not buffered and thus
decremented by evaluation of the B-operand. After execution of L1, L2
changes to DAT #0,#0.

[ToC]
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

18. What is P-space?

P-space is an area of memory which only your program's processes can access.
The contents of each memory location are preserved between rounds in a
multi-round match.

P-space is in many ways different from the core. First of all, each P-space
location can only store one number, not a whole instruction. Also, the
addressing in P-space is absolute, ie. the P-space address 1 is always 1
regardless of where in the core the instruction containing it is. And last
but not least, P-space can only be accessed by two special instructions, LDP
and STP.

The syntax of these two instructions is a bit unusual. STP, for example, has
an ordinary value in the core as its source, which is put into the P-space
field pointed to by the destination. So the P-space location isn't
determined by the destination address, but by its value, ie. the value that
would be overwritten if this were a MOV. So STP.AB #Q, #R would put the
value Q into the P-space field R mod PSPACESIZE. Similarly,

        stp.b  2, 3
        dat    0, 0
        dat    0, 9
        dat    0, 7

would put the value 9 into the P-space field 7. LDP works the same way,
except that now the source is a P-space field and the destination a core
instruction. The P-space location 0 is a special location. It is initialised
to a special value before each round. This value is:

   * -1 (or CORESIZE-1) at the beginning of the first round
   * 0 if the program died in the previous round
   * The number of surviving programs if the program did not die in the
     previous round

This means that for one-on-one matches, loss=0, win=1 and tie=2.

The default size of P-space is 1/16 of the core size. This size is the value
of the predefined variable PSPACESIZE. The addresses in the P-space wrap
around just like in the core, ie. you can store a value from 0 to CORESIZE-1
in each P-space location. All P-space values (except for location 0) are 0
initially.

[ToC]
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

19. What does "Missing ;assert .." in my message from KotH mean?

This means you have omitted an ";assert" line in your submission. ";assert"
is used to specify which environments your code will work under or was
designed for. For example, if your warrior was written for the '94 draft
hill then you can put:

;assert CORESIZE==8000

in your code, meaning that an error will occur if you attempt you compile
the code for a different core size. If you don't want to use the features of
";assert" and you want to get rid of the annoying warning just put:

;assert 1

in your code, which means it will compile unconditionally.

[ToC]
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

20. How should I format my code?

The way you format your code is really your own choice in the end. If you
are new to the game then use the style you feel most comfortable with.
However, using a common format helps others to understand your code quicker.
Most players tend to use the following conventions when writing code:

   * use lower case for location names and opcode names
   * don't add opcode modifiers if you don't need to, eg. add.ab #1, #2 is
     the same as add #1, #2
   * use whitespace after every comma
   * use tabs to align the opcodes, the instruction field(s) and any
     comments
   * do not use $ (direct addressing mode) or : (suffix of some labels)

[ToC]
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

21. Are there any other Core War related resources I should know about?

Using genetic algorithms to generate warriors has been attempted by a number
of people. There are a number of resources available for people who are
interested in doing some experimentation:

   * There is a Core War genetic algorithms mailing list at
     corewar-ga-request@sunsite.auc.dk. The FTP site for this list is at
     ftp://sunsite.auc.dk/pub/local/corewar/. The administrator is Martin
     Pedersen (martin.pedersen@person.dk).
   * Jason's Core War project page
     (http://www.avalon.net/~jboer/projects/corewar/corewar.html) contains a
     C program which can evolve warriors, along with some previously
     generated warriors.
   * Core Wars Genetics: The Evolution of Predation by John Perry can be
     found at http://www.koth.org/evolving_warriors.html.
   * The most recent paper on Core War evolution is by Ryan Coleman and can
     be found at
     http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Launchpad/6898/paper.html.

[ToC]
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

22. What does (expression or term of your choice) mean?

Here is a selected glossary of terms. If you have a definition and/or term
you wish to see here, please send it to me.

(References to an X-like program mean that the term X is derived from the
specific program X and has become a generic term).

Binary launch
     One of several means to start an imp-spiral running. The fastest launch
     technique, but requires the most code. See also JMP/ADD Launch and
     Vector Launch.

         impsize   equ 2667
         example   spl 4               ; extend by adding spl 8, spl 16, etc.
                   spl 2
                   jmp imp+(0*impsize) ; jmp's execute in order
                   jmp imp+(1*impsize)
                   spl 2
                   jmp imp+(2*impsize)
                   jmp imp+(3*impsize)
         imp       mov 0, impsize      ; in '94 use -> 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, <example
                   dat <example, #0

Imp-Ring
     A minimal Imp-Spiral.

         D         EQU (CORESIZE+1)/3
         a         mov 0, D   ; copy self to b
         b         mov 0, D   ; copy self to c
         c         mov 0, D   ; copy self to a+1

Imp-Spiral
     An Imp-like program with two or more processes supporting each other. A
     three-point spiral, with six processes running in this sequence:

         D         EQU (CORESIZE+1)/3
         a         mov 0, D   ; copy self to b
         b         mov 0, D   ; copy self to c
         c         mov 0, D   ; copy self to a+1
         a+1       mov 0, D   ; copy self to b+1
         b+1       mov 0, D   ; copy self to c+1
         c+1       mov 0, D   ; copy self to a+2

Incendiary Bomb
     A type of Stun bomb which creates a SPL 0 carpet.

         example   spl 0, 8
                   mov -1, <-1

JMP/ADD Launch
     one of several means to start an imp-spiral running. The slowest launch
     technique, but requires the least code. See also Binary Launch and
     Vector Launch.

         IMPSIZE   EQU 2667
         example   spl 1               ; extend by adding more spl 1's
                   spl 1
                   spl 2
                   jmp @0, imp
                   add #IMPSIZE, -1    ; bump address by impsize after each jmp
                   dat #0, #0          ; excess processes must die!
         imp       mov 0, IMPSIZE      ; in '94 use -> 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 <grabek@home.sweet.home>
Subject: Vanquisher, from the nop hill
Date: Tue, 26 Mar 2002 14:29:31 +0000 (UTC)
Message-ID: <a7q0kb$2dp8$2@pingwin.acn.pl>

	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	<bSrc		, <bDest
cBoot	mov	<cSrc		, <cDest
	mov	<dSrc		, <dDest
	djn	>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		, <bEvac
bEvac	jmz.b	bSpl		, bSpl
;only difference is here
bSpare	jmz.b	dOff-5		, dOff-5

cTop	spl	1		, #-15
cStart	spl	#-bDist+1	, #0
	mov	cBmb		, >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      ; E
	jmp   	qSlo		, >qTab
	sne   	qd+qf+17*qs	, qf+17*qs   ; D
	seq   	qf+16*qs	, <qTab-1    ; D-1
	jmp   	qSlo		, {qSlo
	seq   	qd+qf+11*qs	, qf+11*qs   ; E-2
	jmp   	qSlo		, <qTab
	seq   	qd+qf+15*qs	, qf+15*qs   ; D-2
	djn.b 	qSlo		, {qSlo
	sne   	qd+qf+12*qs	, qf+12*qs   ; E-1
	jmz   	bBoot		, qd+qf+12*qs-qi     ; Free Scan ;-)
qSlo  	mov.ba 	qTab		, qTab
qFas  	mul.ab 	qTab		, qKil
qSki  	sne   	qBmb-1		, @qKil
      	add   	#qd		, qKil
qLoo  	mov.i  	qBmb		, @qKil
qKil  	mov.i  	qBmb		, *qs
      	sub.ab 	#qi		, qKil
      	djn    	qLoo		, #qr
dDest  	jmp    	bBoot		, dAway-CURLINE
     	dat   	5408		, 7217       ; A*qs =  8*qs ,D*qs = 17*qs
qTab  	dat   	4804		, 6613       ; B*qs =  4*qs ,E*qs = 13*qs
dSrc   	dat   	5810		, cStart+5   ; C*qs = 10*qs ,F unused

-- 
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: letorol@aol.com (Letorol)
Date: 27 Mar 2002 02:18:20 GMT
Subject: Re: Core War Frequently Asked Questions (rec.games.corewar FAQ)
Message-ID: <20020326211820.08650.00000371@mb-cp.aol.com>

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 <grabek@home.sweet.home>
Subject: Re: Vanquisher, from the nop hill
Date: Wed, 27 Mar 2002 13:44:40 +0000 (UTC)
Message-ID: <a7sic8$1j52$1@pingwin.acn.pl>

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>

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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 <grabek@home.sweet.home> wrote in message news:<a850sa$2ncj$1@pingwin.acn.pl>...
> 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 <winstonfb@hotmail.com>
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 <winstonfb@hotmail.com>
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 <grabek@home.sweet.home>
Subject: Re: A corewar timeline
Date: Sat, 30 Mar 2002 18:41:14 +0000 (UTC)
Message-ID: <a850sa$2ncj$1@pingwin.acn.pl>

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 <ragmanx@mailandnews.com>
Subject: Re: A corewar timeline
Message-ID: <ma7caugl4tt9u75edtsapp9rmul4lqg10m@4ax.com>
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 <anton@paradise.net.nz>
Subject: Re: A corewar timeline
Date: 30 Mar 2002 21:58:06 -0500
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.21.0204010244060.5548-100000@utopia>

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 <winstonfb@hotmail.com> 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" <grumpy3039@hotmail.com>
Subject: Tournament Reminder
Date: 31 Mar 2002 10:07:34 -0500
Message-ID: <LAW2-F96YQUgbU76j1K0000fb0e@hotmail.com>

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)


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