From: M Joonas Pihlaja <jpihlaja@cc.helsinki.fi>
Subject: Re: RedCoder sneek
Date: Tue, 1 Oct 2002 01:08:54 +0300
Message-ID: <Pine.OSF.4.30.0210010013400.10880-100000@sirppi.helsinki.fi>


On 30 Sep 2002, Will Varfar wrote:

> I know it can't do much, and it is very slow, but if you can
> help me identify the implementation bugs in my mars emulator
> I'd greatly apprieciate it.

There's a validate.red in the pmars distribution that you've
probably come across.  I've got a few other validation tests (for
p-space and PIN) at home I could send to you if you want.

a) Simulate N rounds between two warriors with the exact same
sequence of starting positions as pMARS for some -F number and
compare the results.  You'll need to rip out the random number
generator from pMARS and emulate its warrior positioning
algorithm.  Repeat for various combinations of warriors and
numbers of rounds / battle, especially tie-prone warriors that
generate lots of processes to really give your process queue code
a go.

b) If you find a discrepancy between pMARS and your MARS, hack up
the two MARSs to give cycle-by-cycle status reports on their
internal state, and do a diff to find out where they differ.
The status reports could be something like:

<cycle number> <warrior id> <pc> <opcode.mod> <a-operand> <b-operand>

where an operand could be

<effective address> <operand-a-field> <operand-b-field>

If you'd rather not mess with pMARS, I can send you a patched
exhaust that emits lines like this used for debugging.

Re: are operands of DATs evaluated?  Yes.  The order for
instruction execution is:  evalute A-operand, evalute B-operand,
evaluate opcode&modifier, so this means that pre-decrements and
post-increments happen before the process dies.


Best Regards,

Joonas



From: Randy Graham <ragmanx@spamex.com>
Subject: Re: RedCoder sneek
Message-ID: <iv0ipu01nusmvka31q7a9p7mp16qmepgmn@4ax.com>
Date: Tue, 01 Oct 2002 03:17:37 GMT

On 30 Sep 2002 13:06:53 -0700, I heard the following crap spew forth
from howard_harry@hotmail.com (Will Varfar):

>Hi folks,
>
>have put a sneek preview of my emulator/debugger at
>http://www.geocities.com/varfar/redcoder/index.html
>
>I know it can't do much, and it is very slow, but if you can help me
>identify the implementation bugs in my mars emulator I'd greatly
>apprieciate it.

I'd love for you to post updates here as you work on this.  If this
ever got ported to Linux, I'd use it for sure.

>Thanks,
>Will.

RagManX
http://www.gamingideas.com/ - an "I could make a better game" forum


From: metcalf@uboot.com
Subject: HELP NEEDED: Old KOTH challenge results
Date: 1 Oct 2002 18:24:19 -0400
Message-ID: <20021001133041.F0AD71FF42@Mail01.Uboot.com>

Hi,

I am trying to get hold of all of the challenge results from the '94nop
hill since it was created sometime around June '98.  I already have all
of those from 12 December 2000 (when Blacken was age 565) but I still
need anything prior to this.

Of the 650 challenges prior to this, I have the results sent by KOTH for
only 76.  Any old KOTH emails you have lurking around would be greatly
appreciated.

Thanks,

John
--
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_____________________________________________________________
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From: Lukasz Adamowski <adamow@inferno.mikrus.pw.edu.pl>
Subject: Look what I thought up during my vacation :]
Date: 1 Oct 2002 18:25:43 -0400
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.44.0209302050480.7147-100000@inferno.mikrus.pw.edu.pl>


	Hi Guys!

	Looks like many battles I must have missed. I was totally
off-line, "unplugged" one can say and didn't work much with my PC, but
there are few conceptions that has been born in my mind. I guess my ideas
are not very revolutionary (to be honest I'm afraid they aren't
revolutionary at all ;) but may be good for practising for newbies. So
let me introduce... The Mirrored One!

;redcode
;name Mirrored One
;author Lukasz Adamowski
;strategy  A toy once written :]
;assert 1

start	mov	#-7,	$7
	mov	>6,	{106
	jmn	$-1,	$5
	jmp	*104,	$0
	jmn	$-1,	$5
	mov	>6,	{106
	mov	#-7,	$7

	end	start

Should I say half of its boy looks like the second half but backwards? I
believe its easy to see. As written it is rather a toy than regular
warrior. It's silk/paper (sorry, I've forgot the difference between
them... well: it moves! ;) and the basic idea was to improve somehow my
earlier warrior (The Shortest Worm). I thought maybe it can be done to
make the warrior to change itself during copying and it the fact Mirrored
One can change to something different after making first copy, but it's
silly: there are many better ways to do it. So I gave up leaving Mirrored
One as something interesting, but useless. During testing M1 I found how
it can be improved asuming that it works ("fights" would be too much to
say ;) in empty core (only DATs $0, $0). That led me to... The Mirrored
Two!

;redcode
;name Mirrored Two
;author Lukasz Adamowski
;strategy  A toy once written :]
;strategy  This one is more funny than Mirrored One :]]]
;assert 1

start	mov	>5,	<115
	jmn	$-1,	$4
	jmp	@113,	$0
	jmn	$-1,	$4
	mov	>5,	<115
	dat	$0,	$-5

	end	start

As one can see this one is mirrored too :))) and shorter. It also means M2
works faster than M1. But that doesn't count in real battle because both
Mirrored are too weak to stand eye to eye with any modern warrior. They
are just toys. Maybe someone else will find any application for them.

	A little different case is with P-Switcher I've written. I tried
to make the booting part as short as it can be. After all tests I believe
the final frontier is 6 instructions executed in the worst case: 2 LDPs
for last result and last strategy, STP for storing actual strategy,
CMP/SEQ/SNE for comparing (I also tried JMN/JMZ but nothing better came
to light), 1 instruction for changing strategy (if needed) and JMP for
executing main part of warrior. I believe something like this has already
been written years ago, but here is what I've done:

;redcode
;name P-Switcher
;author Lukasz Adamowski
;assert 1

boot	ldp.b	#0,	$3
	ldp.a	#1,	$3
	seq	#1,	#0
	nop	{1,	$start2
	jmp	@0,	$start0
	dat	$0,	$start1
	dat	$0,	$start2

start0	stp	#0,	#1
	dat	$0,	$0

start1	stp	#1,	#1
	dat	$0,	$0

start2	stp	#2,	#1
	dat	$0,	$0

	end	boot

Of course after evert STP there should be adequate strategy. I know it
makes strategies less flexible (sometimes STP is to be in the middle of
executed warrior), but nothing better cames to my mind. I don't like NOP
also, but every other idea was worse.

Any comments?

	Lukasz



From: Koth <koth@koth.org>
Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status -  94 No Pspace 09/30/02
Date: 1 Oct 2002 18:33:18 -0400
Message-ID: <200209300409.AAA04290@gevjon.ttsg.com>

			Weekly Status on  09/30/02
 
-=- 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 Sep 29 21:50:41 EDT 2002
 
 #  %W/ %L/ %T                      Name               Author   Score     Age
 1  32/ 22/ 46                Reepicheep       Grabun/Metcalf     141     126
 2  30/ 22/ 47               Son of Vain      Oversby/Pihlaja     139     895
 3  26/ 16/ 58                   SilKing    Christian Schmidt     136     128
 4  32/ 28/ 40                 Glenstorm         John Metcalf     136      67
 5  38/ 41/ 21                Vanquisher        Lukasz Grabun     136     397
 6  24/ 13/ 63             Broader Clump         Ken Espiritu     134       8
 7  29/ 25/ 45           The Stormkeeper    Christian Schmidt     133       3
 8  28/ 23/ 49          Pink Detonations         Ken Espiritu     133       7
 9  39/ 46/ 15                     Blade                Fizmo     133     212
10  29/ 26/ 45                 Wallpaper    Christian Schmidt     132      44
11  27/ 23/ 50                     Candy        Lukasz Grabun     131     206
12  28/ 27/ 45                 Uninvited         John Metcalf     130     988
13  26/ 22/ 52            Positive Knife         Ken Espiritu     129       1
14  35/ 41/ 23              oneshot test     Simon Wainwright     129     230
15  22/ 14/ 64                 Defensive    Christian Schmidt     129     103
16  36/ 45/ 19              Hard Failure         Ken Espiritu     127      41
17  34/ 42/ 23                Flashlight         John Metcalf     126      28
18  33/ 43/ 23       Hazy Lazy ... again        Steve Gunnell     123     341
19  33/ 44/ 23      clock strikes twelve         John Metcalf     122      27
20  37/ 55/  7              Iron Curtain         Ken Espiritu     119       5

21   0/  0/  4            Positive Knife         Ken Espiritu       5       2


From: Koth <koth@koth.org>
Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - ICWS Experimental 94 09/30/02
Date: 1 Oct 2002 18:34:43 -0400
Message-ID: <200209300406.AAA04250@gevjon.ttsg.com>

			Weekly Status on  09/30/02
 
-=- 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 : Wed Sep 25 07:03:27 EDT 2002
 
 #  %W/ %L/ %T                      Name               Author   Score     Age
 1  50/ 38/ 12           Fire and Ice II          David Moore     163      39
 2  34/ 24/ 42                    KAT v5          Dave Hillis     144      71
 3  38/ 36/ 27               Black Moods          Ian Oversby     139     135
 4  23/  8/ 69                    Denial          David Moore     138      80
 5  25/ 13/ 62                       Kin         John Metcalf     138      47
 6  35/ 33/ 32              Trefoil F 13        Steve Gunnell     137      22
 7  22/  8/ 70              Evol Cap 4 X       John Wilkinson     136     208
 8  30/ 25/ 44                  Olivia X             Ben Ford     135      20
 9  28/ 22/ 50               Venom v0.2b    Christian Schmidt     135     161
10  34/ 34/ 31     Controlled Aggression          Ian Oversby     134     139
11  27/ 19/ 54                 Glenstorm         John Metcalf     134       1
12  35/ 37/ 28                      Ogre    Christian Schmidt     134      87
13  26/ 18/ 57                  Katafutr      Michal Janeczek     133      79
14  32/ 32/ 36              Big I.F.F.S.          Dave Hillis     133      68
15  30/ 29/ 42          Damage Inflicted        Robert Macrae     131      78
16  32/ 40/ 28                   Exsnail        Philip Thorne     124      34
17  16/  7/ 77            Black Box v1.1                  JKW     124     102
18  15/  7/ 77             Evolve X v4.0       John Wilkinson     124     156
19  28/ 40/ 31            Bugtown Rap 19        Steve Gunnell     116       4
20  33/ 50/ 17 Greetings From Asbury Par                  JKW     116      99

21  10/ 78/ 12             XCN Fast Scan           Xavi Canal      41       0


From: Koth <koth@koth.org>
Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - MultiWarrior 94 09/30/02
Date: 1 Oct 2002 18:36:10 -0400
Message-ID: <200209300403.AAA04197@gevjon.ttsg.com>

			Weekly Status on  09/30/02
 
-=- 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 Sep 26 10:51:39 EDT 2002
 
 #                      Name               Author   Score     Age
 1                    fclear         Brian Haskin      19      84
 2                  Tinyshot         John Metcalf      14      13
 3                  D-clearM         Ken Espiritu      13     100
 4                  Snurp II        Philip Thorne      13       7
 5      clock strikes twelve         John Metcalf      10      14
 6                     trial         John Metcalf       8       4
 7               Her Majesty              P.Kline       5     119
 8         Playing with Fire             Ben Ford       3      12
 9                Redemption         John Metcalf       2       5
10              XCN Scan 1.0           Xavi Canal       2       1

11                Dwarf v2.1           Xavi Canal       1       0


From: Koth <koth@koth.org>
Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - Standard 09/30/02
Date: 1 Oct 2002 18:37:34 -0400
Message-ID: <200209300400.AAA04137@gevjon.ttsg.com>

			Weekly Status on  09/30/02
 
-=- 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 : Sun Sep 29 21:15:27 EDT 2002
 
 #  %W/ %L/ %T                      Name               Author   Score     Age
 1  36/ 22/ 42             Freight Train          David Moore     151     164
 2  34/ 22/ 44                      Test Alexander (Sasha) Wa     147     103
 3  44/ 44/ 12               Foggy Swamp          Beppe Bezzi     145     160
 4  46/ 47/  8             Scan Test C 6        Steve Gunnell     144       2
 5  34/ 24/ 42                  Guardian          Ian Oversby     143     163
 6  43/ 44/ 13                  Blur '88        Anton Marsden     142     201
 7  39/ 35/ 26       Gymnosperm trickery          Dave Hillis     142      50
 8  42/ 42/ 16               '88 test IV         John Metcalf     142      57
 9  31/ 24/ 45              Shish-Ka-Bob             Ben Ford     137     119
10  28/ 19/ 53                  EV Paper     John K Wilkinson     137     177
11  29/ 22/ 49                    Test I          Ian Oversby     137     220
12  33/ 30/ 38          sIMPly.Red v0.95    Leonardo Humberto     136     121
13  38/ 43/ 19                    Stasis          David Moore     132     271
14  33/ 35/ 31                      vala         John Metcalf     131      86
15  36/ 41/ 23                    PacMan          David Moore     131     193
16  37/ 45/ 18       Beholder's Eye V1.7         W. Mintardjo     129     439
17  37/ 45/ 18               Oneshot '88         John Metcalf     129      85
18  38/ 47/ 16 rdrc: Conscionable Roomma          Dave Hillis     128      52
19  35/ 43/ 22               Tangle Trap          David Moore     127     237
20  32/ 42/ 26              testing crap               Gniarf     122       1

21  24/ 33/ 43 +2 Stormbringer Test C 11 Dan Nabutovsky, P. K     116       0


From: howard_harry@hotmail.com (Will Varfar)
Subject: Re: RedCoder sneek
Date: 2 Oct 2002 08:32:13 -0700
Message-ID: <5e314d3b.0210020732.3dd0230@posting.google.com>

M Joonas Pihlaja <jpihlaja@cc.helsinki.fi> wrote:

> I've just uploaded exhaust-1.9 (see the announcement) that
> contains p-space and PIN tests in the t/ directory.  If you
> compile the simulator with DEBUG=2 then for each executed
> instruction it will output lines of the form:
> 
> <#left> <pc> <disasmed insn> | <#procs> d <eaA>, <eaB> a <a-reg> b <b-reg>

Thankyou Joonas!

/Will


From: M Joonas Pihlaja <jpihlaja@cc.helsinki.fi>
Subject: exhaust 1.9
Date: Wed, 2 Oct 2002 10:16:31 +0300
Message-ID: <Pine.OSF.4.30.0210021012320.7178-100000@sirppi.helsinki.fi>


Get the latest release of exhaust, a small embeddable MARS,
from:

http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/~jpihlaja/exhaust/exhaust.html

New features include p-space support and the core files being
released into the public domain rather than GPL.

Joonas



From: M Joonas Pihlaja <jpihlaja@cc.helsinki.fi>
Subject: Re: RedCoder sneek
Date: Wed, 2 Oct 2002 10:34:37 +0300
Message-ID: <Pine.OSF.4.30.0210021016400.7178-100000@sirppi.helsinki.fi>

On 30 Sep 2002, Will Varfar wrote:

> M Joonas Pihlaja <jpihlaja@cc.helsinki.fi> wrote:
>
> > There's a validate.red in the pmars distribution that you've
> > probably come across.  I've got a few other validation tests (for
> > p-space and PIN) at home I could send to you if you want.
>
> yes please!  My usenet email address is a trash account; I shall email
> you from a better address

I've just uploaded exhaust-1.9 (see the announcement) that
contains p-space and PIN tests in the t/ directory.  If you
compile the simulator with DEBUG=2 then for each executed
instruction it will output lines of the form:

<#left> <pc> <disasmed insn> | <#procs> d <eaA>, <eaB> a <a-reg> b <b-reg>

where <eaA> and <eaB> are the effective addresses of the
instructions A-operand and B-operand, <a-reg> and <b-reg> are the
operand fields of the simulator A-operand register and B-operand
registers.  <#left> is the number of instructions to execute
before a tie is called.

For example, here are the first few cycles of Stefan Strack's
validate.red that comes with pMARS:

80000  0  spl.b $  8 , $  3 | 1, d  8, 3 a    2,   0 b    1,7997
79999  1  jmz.b < -1 , $  0 | 2, d  2, 1 a    0,  36 b 7999,   0
79998  8  spl.b $  2 , $  0 | 2, d 10, 8 a 7996,7997 b    2,   0
79997  2  djn.b $  0 , # 36 | 3, d  2, 2 a    0,  36 b    0,  36
79996  9  dat.f < -2 , < -2 | 3, d  9, 8 a 7998,7998 b    2,   0

[I've changed the spacing to make it fit in 70ish columns, but
you get the idea.]

There's also a perl program to compare the results of two
simulators when running Warrior1 vs. Warrior2 battles for every
possible loading distance of Warrior2.  If it finds a
discrepancy, then it'll complain about it.

Joonas



From: Lukasz Grabun <grabek@purgatory.abyss>
Subject: Re: HELP NEEDED: Old KOTH challenge results
Date: Wed, 2 Oct 2002 21:02:32 +0000 (UTC)
Message-ID: <slrnappc6h.3qk.grabek@purgatory.abyss>

On 1 Oct 2002 18:24:19 -0400, metcalf@uboot.com wrote:
> I am trying to get hold of all of the challenge results from the '94nop
> hill since it was created sometime around June '98.  I already have all
> of those from 12 December 2000 (when Blacken was age 565) but I still
> need anything prior to this.

Don't know whether you recieved my email. I found this information
might be of use for people on the Group.

groups.google.com helps a lot. Try searching for +koth +status +"no
pspace" +year_you_want_to_see_results_from in rec.games.corewar.

-- 
Lukasz Grabun 
(reply-to field is fake, use grabek (at) acn dot waw dot pl to reply)


From: metcalf@uboot.com
Subject: Re: HELP NEEDED: Old KOTH challenge results
Date: 4 Oct 2002 09:16:28 -0400
Message-ID: <20021003142943.74E02165B0@Mail01.Uboot.com>

Hi,

What I actually would like is the hill
results after every single successful
challenge :-)  That way I can calculate
several things I have been wondering
about.

I had a look at those posted by Koth
to the newsgroup.  Quite a few are the
results after unsuccessful challenges :-(

If anyone would like those I have collected
so far (including 1000 consecutive successful
challenges) I would be happy to forward them.
They are about 200K (archived).

Thanks,

John
--
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_____________________________________________________________
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From: "John Metcalf" <grumpy3039@hotmail.com>
Subject: Corewarrior #83 (2nd try to post)
Date: 4 Oct 2002 09:17:54 -0400
Message-ID: <F157tfAJ4I8sGvHAlLD00006807@hotmail.com>

    .xX$$x.
  .x$$$$$$$x.
  d$$$$$$$$$$$
,$$$$$$$P' `P'                             ,    .
$$$$$$P'   '                             .d      b
$$$$$P    b     ,$$x     ,$$x    ,$$x   ,$$b     $$.
Y$$$$'    `$.  $$$$$$.  $$$$$$  $$P~d$. d$$$b d d$$$
`$$$$     ,$$ $$$$$$$b $$$P `$ $$$b.$$b `Y$$$d$d$$$'   . . a  . a  a .aa  . 
a
`$$$    ,$$$,$$' `$$$ $$$'  ' $$P$XX$'  `$$$$$$$$$ .dP' `$'$ `$'$ , $''$ 
`$'$
  `Y$b ,d$$$P `$b,d$P' `$$.    `$$.  ,    `$$P $$$' Y $.  $    $   $ Y..P  $
   `$$$$$$$'    $$$P'   `$$b    `$$$P      `P  `$'  `Y'k. $.   $.  $. $$'  
$.

Issue 83                                                     24 September, 
2002
_______________________________________________________________________________
Core Warrior is a newsletter promoting the game of corewar. Emphasis is 
placed
on the most active hills - currently the '94 no-pspace hill. Coverage will
follow wherever the action is. If you haven't a clue what I'm talking about
then check out these five-star Internet locals for more information:

FAQs are available from:
  http://www.koth.org/corewar-faq.html
  http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/~anton/cw/corewar-faq.html

Web pages are at:
  http://www.koth.org/                       ;KOTH
  http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~pizza/koth   ;Pizza
  http://para.inria.fr/~doligez/corewar      ;Planar
  http://www.ociw.edu/~birk/corewar          ;C.Birk

Newbies should check the above pages for the FAQs, language specification,
guides, and tutorials. Post questions to rec.games.corewar. All new players
are infinitely welcome!
_______________________________________________________________________________
Greetings...

Since last issue, Pihlaja has extended his self-organising maps to cover all
of the Koenigstuhl hills.  Analysis would be welcome in either the newsgroup
or in a future CW issue.  They are available from:

  http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/jpihlaja/cw/maps/

This issue we have the results from the third round of the tournament and
also, the code for Reepicheep...

-- John Metcalf
______________________________________________________________________________
Current Status of the KOTH.ORG '94 No Pspace Hill:

#  %W/ %L/ %T                      Name               Author    Score    Age
1  44/ 37/ 19                Vanquisher        Lukasz Grabun    150.2    384
2  37/ 23/ 40                Reepicheep       Grabun/Metcalf    149.7    113
3  30/ 11/ 60             Broader Clump         Ken Espiritu    148.5     10
4  34/ 21/ 44               Son of Vain      Oversby/Pihlaja    147.2    882
5  30/ 13/ 56                   SilKing    Christian Schmidt    146.6    115
6  35/ 23/ 42                     Candy        Lukasz Grabun    145.6    193
7  28/ 11/ 62                 Defensive    Christian Schmidt    145.1     90
8  44/ 44/ 12                     Blade                Fizmo    144.5    199
9  34/ 23/ 43          Pink Detonations         Ken Espiritu    143.6     65
10  42/ 41/ 17              Hard Failure         Ken Espiritu    143.0     
28
11  35/ 28/ 36                 Glenstorm         John Metcalf    142.4     
54
12  41/ 39/ 20       Hazy Lazy ... again        Steve Gunnell    142.3    
328
13  34/ 27/ 39                 Uninvited         John Metcalf    141.5    
975
14  40/ 40/ 19              oneshot test     Simon Wainwright    140.6    
217
15  33/ 28/ 40                 Wallpaper    Christian Schmidt    137.4     
31
16  38/ 40/ 22                Flashlight         John Metcalf    135.9     
15
17  39/ 42/ 19      clock strikes twelve         John Metcalf    134.8     
14
18  36/ 41/ 23                testshot 2         John Metcalf    131.2     
40
19  36/ 45/ 18                  BlurVamp         Ken Espiritu    127.3      
9
20  34/ 47/ 18                      test                   mj    121.5      
1

145 challenges have passed since last issue causing the retirement of our
three most elderly warriors, all of which have been King of the Hill.  
nPaper
is the oldest warrior ever to sit in the top rank, while at an impressive 
age
of 925!  (2nd comes Son of Vain which was age 830, 3rd Quicksilver at 759.)

Most seen as KotH since last issue have been Reepicheep (37 times), closely
followed by pTest4 (36 times), Vanquisher (20), oneshot test (19) and
Hazy Lazy ... again (16).

Finally then, the complete list of aged warriors to perish:  nPaper II (age
1270), Behemot (1078), Olivia (886), Inky (736), G3-b (503), Purifier (277),
QSOS (126), pre75-z47a (120) and Terra (104).
_______________________________________________________________________________
The '94 No Pspace Hall of Fame:  * indicates the warrior is still active.

Pos Name                   Author             Age    Strategy
1  Blacken                Ian Oversby       1363    Q^2 -> Stone/imp
2  nPaper II              Paul-V Khuong     1270    MiniQ^3 -> Paper
3  Behemot                Michal Janeczek   1078    MiniQ^3 -> Bomber
4  Uninvited              John Metcalf       975 *  MiniQ^3 -> Stone/imp
5  Olivia                 Ben Ford           886    Q^4 -> Stone/imp
6  Son of Vain            Oversby/Pihlaja    882 *  Q^4 -> Stone/imp
7  Keyser Soze            Anton Marsden      823    Qscan -> 
Bomber/paper/imp
8  Quicksilver            Michal Janeczek    789    Q^4 -> Stone/imp
9  Eraser II              Ken Espiritu       781    Scanner
10  Inky                   Ian Oversby        736    Q^4 -> Paper/stone
11  Jinx                   Christian Schmidt  662    Scanner
12  Jade                   Ben Ford           600    Q^4 -> Stone/imp
13  G3-b                   David Moore        503    Twoshot
14  Revival Fire           P.Kline            468    Bomber
15  The Phantom Menace     Anton Marsden      465    Qscan -> Stone/imp
16  Boys are Back in Town  Philip Kendall     441    Scanner
=  Zooom...               John Metcalf       441    Scanner
18  Qtest                  Christian Schmidt  394    Q^3 -> Paper
19  Stalker                P.Kline            393    Scanner
20  Vanquisher             Lukasz Grabun      384 *  Bomber
21  Vain                   Ian Oversby        330    Q^2 -> Stone/imp
22  Hazy Lazy ... again    Steve Gunnell      328 *  Scanner
23  Omnibus                John Metcalf       327    Q^2 -> Stone/imp
24  Win!                   David Moore        322    Scanner
25  Recovery               Ian Oversby        280    MiniQ^2 -> Paper/stone

Vanquisher and the new version of Hazy Lazy enter the HoF.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Spring / Summer 2002 Corewar Tournament - Round 3 Results:

Once again there are 17 entries from 9 authors, this time competing using
'88 standard redcode, coresize 8000.  To reduce the advantage imp warriors
seem to enjoy in the '88 environment, the rules for round 3 differ in two
ways from the settings of the '88 standard hill at KotH.

In round 3 a tie is not declared until 800000 cycles have passed.  Also, a
win is worth 6 points instead of the more usual 3.  But will this be enough
to discorage tie-prone warriors?  Each pair of warriors battled for 4000
rounds.  14 hours, 51 minutes and 03 seconds later we have our answer...

Janeczek takes first place with Quicksilver '88 (qscan -> stone/imp) while
Wainwright's Return to the Citadel (qscan -> paper/imp) takes second place.

Once again Hillis evolves a formidable opponent to claim third.  Stone/imps
feature again in ranks 4 (Espiritu's) and 6 (Gunnell's).  Ford, Thorne and
Grabun are next, each with a dat bomber.  Finally, we have a .4c vampire
with airbag from Moore.

# %Won Lost Tied Name                      Author                 Score     
%
1 56.9 17.6 25.4 Quicksilver '88           Michal Janeczek       366.90 
100.0
2 49.3 19.5 31.2 Return to the Citadel     Simon Wainwright      327.08  
89.1
3 50.7 33.2 16.2 rdrc: Gymnosperm Trickery Dave Hillis           320.22  
87.3
4 47.0 18.2 34.8 Positive Knife '88        Ken Espiritu          316.76  
86.3
5 50.3 40.8  8.9 vm5                       Michal Janeczek       310.91  
84.7
6 44.1 18.3 37.6 +1 Stormbringer           Steve Gunnell         302.20  
82.4
7 43.6 42.8 13.5 Skewer '88                Ben Ford              275.41  
75.1
8 43.7 51.7  4.5 TrItE Fighter             Philip Thorne         266.89  
72.7
9 41.5 50.8  7.7 tombstone                 Simon Wainwright      256.68  
70.0
10 40.5 54.2  5.3 st2                       Lukasz Grabun         248.18  
67.6
11 40.0 53.3  6.7 Silver Talon '88          Ben Ford              246.43  
67.2
12 39.5 55.1  5.4 Brazen hussy              Steve Gunnell         242.30  
66.0
13 37.2 52.7 10.0 Tangle Trap 2             David Moore           233.39  
63.6
14 35.8 56.8  7.4 Mobility 8000             David Moore           222.32  
60.6
15 32.2 39.2 28.6 rdrc: Flam Downpour       Dave Hillis           221.62  
60.4
16 35.9 58.1  6.0 FilchD                    Philip Thorne         221.22  
60.3
17 32.7 58.3  9.0 st                        Lukasz Grabun         204.94  
55.9

There are five dat bombers (holding ranks 7, 8, 10, 16, 17) - three 
stone/imps
(1, 4, 6) - two each of evolved warriors (3, 15), bombers (9, 14) and 
scanners
(11, 12) - and just one paper/imp (2), oneshot (5) and vampire (13).

# Competitor              Tiny  BigLP  88Win  Total
1 Michal Janeczek         93.3  100.0  100.0  293.3
2 Dave Hillis             99.9   84.3   87.3  271.5
3 Steve Gunnell           91.0   85.0   82.4  258.4
4 Ben Ford               100.0   74.4   75.1  249.5
5 Simon Wainwright        79.1   71.5   89.1  239.7
6 Philip Thorne           75.5   68.0   72.7  216.2
7 Robert Macrae           89.7   61.0     .   150.7
8 Lukasz Grabun           81.3     .    67.6  148.9
9 Winston Featherly-Bean  72.9   47.3     .   120.2
10 David Moore               .    51.4   63.6  115.0
11 Martin Ankerl           88.2     .      .    88.2
12 Ken Espiritu              .      .    86.3   86.3
13 Leonardo H. Liporati    84.3     .      .    84.3
14 mushroommaker           71.3     .      .    71.3
15 Arek Paterek            66.0     .      .    66.0
16 Paul Drake              61.9     .      .    61.9
17 Compudemon              53.9     .      .    53.9
_______________________________________________________________________________
Extra Extra - Reepicheep by Lukasz Grabun / John Metcalf

It has been becoming increasingly rewarding of late to team up with fellow
redcoders and cooperate on a warrior project.  Reepicheep (named in honour
of the famed Narnia mouse) is the successful result of one such project,
being an aggressive stone/paper warrior.  One aim is to ensure each part
is only as large/complex as neccessary.

The stone is similar to the one used by Candy, <.5c and self-bombing to
become a clear.  A variety of other stone types were tested, including a
faster <.6c stone.  However, the Candylike stone performs similarly, so
better meets our criteria.

The paper is similar to Unrequited Love.  The attack comprises a single
bombing instruction which covers a strip of core with anti-3-point-imp dat
bombs.  Variants with additional bombing instructions (similar to Pulp)
also prove equally effective, though not meeting our requirements.  Note
the behaviour of the instruction marked pSilk2.

We hope to see a few more competitors scoring well on the hills with joint
creations.  Finally then, the code:

;redcode-94nop
;name Reepicheep
;author Grabun/Metcalf
;strategy Q^4 -> Stone/Paper
;assert CORESIZE==8000

org qGo

sOff    equ     3941
pHit0   equ     7599
pDst0   equ     535
pDst1   equ     3875
pDst2   equ     5160

pGo     spl     1       , }qC
qTab2   spl     1       , }qD
        spl     1       , }qE

pSilk0  spl     @0      , >pDst0
        mov     }pSilk0 , >pSilk0
pSilk1  spl     pDst1   , 0
        mov     >pSilk1 , }pSilk1
        mov     pBmb    , >pHit0
        mov     <pSilk1 , <pSilk2
pSilk2  djn.f   @0      , >pDst2
pBmb    dat     >5334   , >2667

        for     20
        dat     0       , 0
        rof

step    equ     2777
time    equ     1425
hop     equ     31
bOff    equ     5

sSpl    spl     #0      , #0
ptr     mov     bomb    , }-(step*time)+1
        mov     bomb    , @ptr
a       add     #step   , @-1
sLoo    djn.f   ptr     , {-1500

        for     5
        dat     0       , 0
        rof

bomb    dat     >hop    , >1

        dat     0       , 0

bBoot   mov     sSpl    , sOff-6-CURLINE
        mov     bomb    , sOff+5-CURLINE
        spl     2       , }qA
qTab1   spl     2       , }qB
sDst    spl     1       , sOff-CURLINE
        mov     <sSrc   , <sDst
        djn     @bBoot  , #5
sSrc    jmp     pGo     , sLoo+1

        for     23
        dat     0       , 0
        rof

        qX      equ     3080
        qA      equ     3532
        qB      equ     2051
        qC      equ     6177
        qD      equ     4696
        qE      equ     3215
        qF      equ     583

        qStep   equ     7
        qTime   equ     16
        qOff    equ     87

qBomb   dat     {qOff   , qF


qGo     sne     qPtr+qX*qE      , qPtr+qX*qE+qE
        seq     <qTab2+1        , qPtr+qX*(qE-1)+(qE-1)
        jmp     qDec            , }qDec+2
        sne     qPtr+qX*qF      , qPtr+qX*qF+qD
        seq     <qBomb          , qPtr+qX*(qF-1)+qD
        jmp     qDec            , }qDec
        sne     qPtr+qX*qA      , qPtr+qX*qA+qD
        seq     <qTab1-1        , qPtr+qX*(qA-1)+qD
        djn.a   qDec            , {qDec
        sne     qPtr+qX*qB      , qPtr+qX*qB+qD
        seq     <qTab1          , qPtr+qX*(qB-1)+qD
        djn.a   qDec            , *0
        sne     qPtr+qX*qC      , qPtr+qX*qC+qC
        seq     <qTab2-1        , qPtr+qX*(qC-1)+(qC-1)
        jmp     qDec            , {qDec+2
        sne     qPtr+qX*qD      , qPtr+qX*qD+qD
        jmz.f   bBoot           , <qTab2

qDec    mul.b   *2      , qPtr
qSkip   sne     <qTab1  , @qPtr
        add.b   qTab2   , qPtr
qLoop   mov     qBomb   , @qPtr
qPtr    mov     qBomb   , }qX
        sub     #qStep  , @qSkip
        djn     qLoop   , #qTime
        djn.f   bBoot   , #0

        end
_______________________________________________________________________________
Questions?  Concerns?  Comments?  Complaints?  Mail them to people who care.
Beppe Bezzi <giuseppe.bezzi@galactica.it>, Philip Kendall <pak21@cam.ac.uk>,
Anton Marsden <anton@paradise.net.nz>, John Metcalf <grumpy3039@hotmail.com>
and Christian Schmidt <DrSchmidt007@aol.com>


_________________________________________________________________
Join the world�s largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail. 
http://www.hotmail.com



From: Lukasz Grabun <grabek@purgatory.abyss>
Subject: Re: Corewarrior #83 (2nd try to post)
Date: Fri, 4 Oct 2002 17:27:12 +0000 (UTC)
Message-ID: <slrnapu8b1.l2r.grabek@purgatory.abyss>

On 4 Oct 2002 09:17:54 -0400, John Metcalf wrote:

> Finally then, the complete list of aged warriors to perish:  nPaper II (age
> 1270), 

  Ah, I hated it the most. It was a real pain in the a^Hneck.

> 4  Uninvited              John Metcalf       975 *  MiniQ^3 -> Stone/imp

  Uninvited will soon be in 4-digit age. Congrats, John.

> 20  Vanquisher             Lukasz Grabun      384 *  Bomber

  Hm, who would have thought.

> 17 32.7 58.3  9.0 st                        Lukasz Grabun         204.94  
> 55.9

  Ahaha, LOL. :)

> Extra Extra - Reepicheep by Lukasz Grabun / John Metcalf

  Well, here it comes.

  Not to be KotH any more :))) Prepare your o/s, guys.  

-- 
Lukasz Grabun 
(reply-to field is fake, use grabek (at) acn dot waw dot pl to reply)


From: Christoph Birk <birk@ociw.edu>
Subject: 94nop Koenigstuhl
Date: 4 Oct 2002 17:57:37 -0400
Message-ID: <200210042140.OAA11890@andromeda.ociw.edu>

Congratulations to Lukasz and John ('Grabun/Metcalf').
Their warrior 'Reepicreep' it the new KotH of the
94nop-Koenigstuhl.

Christoph


From: Lukasz Grabun <grabek@purgatory.abyss>
Subject: Re: 94nop Koenigstuhl
Date: Sat, 5 Oct 2002 11:22:17 +0000 (UTC)
Message-ID: <slrnaq07at.mr1.grabek@purgatory.abyss>

On 4 Oct 2002 17:57:37 -0400, Christoph Birk wrote:
> Congratulations to Lukasz and John ('Grabun/Metcalf').
> Their warrior 'Reepicreep' it the new KotH of the
> 94nop-Koenigstuhl.

  Oh my God! Yes! Yes!

  Well, John, we've made it. Thanks!  

> Christoph


-- 
Lukasz Grabun 
(reply-to field is fake, use grabek (at) acn dot waw dot pl to reply)


From: Lukasz Grabun <grabek@purgatory.abyss>
Subject: Re: HELP NEEDED: Old KOTH challenge results
Date: Sun, 6 Oct 2002 09:35:07 +0000 (UTC)
Message-ID: <slrnaq2le3.ddu.grabek@purgatory.abyss>

On 4 Oct 2002 09:16:28 -0400, metcalf@uboot.com wrote:
> What I actually would like is the hill
> results after every single successful
> challenge :-)  That way I can calculate
> several things I have been wondering
> about.
  
  Gosh, I don't think these things are possible to obtain. Maybe
somewhere on the KotH server, somewhere in the most dusty folder. This
JKW must be asked about.

> If anyone would like those I have collected
> so far (including 1000 consecutive successful
> challenges) I would be happy to forward them.
> They are about 200K (archived).

  Me, me! I'll be happy to take a look and watch how the hill changes.

-- 
Lukasz Grabun 
(reply-to field is fake, use grabek (at) acn dot waw dot pl to reply)


From: howard_harry@hotmail.com (Will Varfar)
Subject: Re: RedCoder sneek
Date: 6 Oct 2002 15:38:41 -0700
Message-ID: <5e314d3b.0210061438.62e1c934@posting.google.com>

M Joonas Pihlaja <jpihlaja@cc.helsinki.fi> wrote:
> <#left> <pc> <disasmed insn> | <#procs> d <eaA>, <eaB> a <a-reg> b <b-reg>

> For example, here are the first few cycles of Stefan Strack's
> validate.red that comes with pMARS:
> 
> 80000  0  spl.b $  8 , $  3 | 1, d  8, 3 a    2,   0 b    1,7997
> 79999  1  jmz.b < -1 , $  0 | 2, d  2, 1 a    0,  36 b 7999,   0
> 79998  8  spl.b $  2 , $  0 | 2, d 10, 8 a 7996,7997 b    2,   0
> 79997  2  djn.b $  0 , # 36 | 3, d  2, 2 a    0,  36 b    0,  36
> 79996  9  dat.f < -2 , < -2 | 3, d  9, 8 a 7998,7998 b    2,   0

great, absolutely making my work so much easier!

My redcoder now also outputs such data, and I have managed to get the
first few instructions of validate.rc absolutely spot-on.

An open appeal to anyone who can help me spot my mistake: after a
while, around instruction 78 there is a SEQ.I which should *not* jump
the next instruction, but does in my implementation.  Unfortunately I
can set a breakpoint on writing to the line 80 that should trigger the
jump, but not a breakpoint on not writing to it, if you see what I
mean.  Therefore I am foxed and backtracking.  There must have been
something somewhere that wrote to the instruction, despite the address
no showing as a referenced address in the above debug.  I am too tired
to work it out, I have been staring at it for hours and can't spot it
:-(

I have uploaded a new sneek that generates the file and lets you step
through it's execution.  It is a bit flickery because I've turned off
double buffering etc, but I am concerntrating on the engine at the
moment rather than the graphics jerkiness..

/Will


From: Ilmari Karonen <iltzu@sci.invalid>
Message-ID: <1033928351.16229@itz.pp.sci.fi>
Subject: Re: RedCoder sneek
Date: Sun, 06 Oct 2002 18:40:12 GMT

In article <5e314d3b.0209302242.5e1bcd92@posting.google.com>, Will Varfar wrote:
>
>yes, I found the ICWS'94 paper which I had overlooked and that is a
>great description.  Until yesterday I had been implementing based on
>the Redcode-94 doc that comes with pmars, and I thought this the least
>specific spec I'd found non-commercially!  The draft paper makes
>things clearer, although it does make me wonder about the new operands
>that aren't listed.  I'd like it to be much more clearly stated with
>further examples each and every combination, just to be sure.

One instruction that's hard to get just right is DJN with postincrement.
IIRC pMARS does implement exactly what the spec says, but what that in
fact implies may not be obvious at all.

Test program: The following should be an infinite loop.  You can verify
that in pMARS.  (And you should, since I haven't done so -- no MARS on
this computer, unfortunately.  I may have made some silly mistake.)

  DJN  0, >1
  DAT #0, #0

Another tricky case is P-space, since it's (to my knowledge) not really
fully documented anywhere at all.  For example, the exact behavior of
the p-space location 0 is easy to get wrong, as is what happens if you
try to use the .F and .X modifiers with STP or LDP.  The pMARS source is
probably the highest authority in this case.

-- 
Ilmari Karonen :: http://www.sci.fi/~iltzu/
     The Beginner's Guide to Redcode:
http://www.sci.fi/~iltzu/corewar/guide.html


From: Koth <koth@koth.org>
Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status -  94 No Pspace 10/07/02
Date: 7 Oct 2002 03:39:30 -0400
Message-ID: <200210070409.AAA29389@gevjon.ttsg.com>

			Weekly Status on  10/07/02
 
-=- 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 Oct 6 23:02:46 EDT 2002
 
 #  %W/ %L/ %T                      Name               Author   Score     Age
 1  42/ 40/ 18      Hazy Lazy ... reborn        Steve Gunnell     144       8
 2  33/ 21/ 46               Son of Vain      Oversby/Pihlaja     144     923
 3  33/ 22/ 45                Reepicheep       Grabun/Metcalf     144     154
 4  42/ 44/ 14                     Blade                Fizmo     140     240
 5  30/ 20/ 51            Positive Knife         Ken Espiritu     140       2
 6  31/ 22/ 48          Pink Detonations         Ken Espiritu     140       3
 7  39/ 39/ 21              oneshot test     Simon Wainwright     139     258
 8  27/ 15/ 58                   SilKing    Christian Schmidt     139     156
 9  39/ 40/ 21                Vanquisher        Lukasz Grabun     139     425
10  44/ 49/  7                    Willow         John Metcalf     138      22
11  32/ 25/ 43                 Uninvited         John Metcalf     138    1016
12  26/ 13/ 61                 Defensive    Christian Schmidt     138     131
13  31/ 24/ 45           The Stormkeeper    Christian Schmidt     137      31
14  25/ 14/ 61             Broader Clump         Ken Espiritu     136       4
15  29/ 22/ 49                     Candy        Lukasz Grabun     136     234
16  32/ 28/ 40                 Glenstorm         John Metcalf     135      95
17  37/ 40/ 23                  twinshot         John Metcalf     135      19
18  29/ 26/ 45                 Wallpaper    Christian Schmidt     133      72
19  37/ 43/ 20                test apx 3                   mj     131      21
20  24/ 19/ 57        Artificial Ringing         Ken Espiritu     130       1

21   0/ 95/  5                Loser Baby                  PBT       5       0


From: Koth <koth@koth.org>
Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - ICWS Experimental 94 10/07/02
Date: 7 Oct 2002 03:40:56 -0400
Message-ID: <200210070406.AAA29364@gevjon.ttsg.com>

			Weekly Status on  10/07/02
 
-=- 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 : Wed Sep 25 07:03:27 EDT 2002
 
 #  %W/ %L/ %T                      Name               Author   Score     Age
 1  50/ 38/ 12           Fire and Ice II          David Moore     163      39
 2  34/ 24/ 42                    KAT v5          Dave Hillis     144      71
 3  38/ 36/ 27               Black Moods          Ian Oversby     139     135
 4  23/  8/ 69                    Denial          David Moore     138      80
 5  25/ 13/ 62                       Kin         John Metcalf     138      47
 6  35/ 33/ 32              Trefoil F 13        Steve Gunnell     137      22
 7  22/  8/ 70              Evol Cap 4 X       John Wilkinson     136     208
 8  30/ 25/ 44                  Olivia X             Ben Ford     135      20
 9  28/ 22/ 50               Venom v0.2b    Christian Schmidt     135     161
10  34/ 34/ 31     Controlled Aggression          Ian Oversby     134     139
11  27/ 19/ 54                 Glenstorm         John Metcalf     134       1
12  35/ 37/ 28                      Ogre    Christian Schmidt     134      87
13  26/ 18/ 57                  Katafutr      Michal Janeczek     133      79
14  32/ 32/ 36              Big I.F.F.S.          Dave Hillis     133      68
15  30/ 29/ 42          Damage Inflicted        Robert Macrae     131      78
16  32/ 40/ 28                   Exsnail        Philip Thorne     124      34
17  16/  7/ 77            Black Box v1.1                  JKW     124     102
18  15/  7/ 77             Evolve X v4.0       John Wilkinson     124     156
19  28/ 40/ 31            Bugtown Rap 19        Steve Gunnell     116       4
20  33/ 50/ 17 Greetings From Asbury Par                  JKW     116      99

21  10/ 78/ 12             XCN Fast Scan           Xavi Canal      41       0


From: Koth <koth@koth.org>
Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - MultiWarrior 94 10/07/02
Date: 7 Oct 2002 03:42:21 -0400
Message-ID: <200210070403.AAA29289@gevjon.ttsg.com>

			Weekly Status on  10/07/02
 
-=- 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 : Sat Oct 5 15:58:13 EDT 2002
 
 #                      Name               Author   Score     Age
 1                Redemption         John Metcalf      40       6
 2                    fclear         Brian Haskin      26      85
 3                  D-clearM         Ken Espiritu      20     101
 4                  Snurp II        Philip Thorne      19       8
 5                  Tinyshot         John Metcalf      16      14
 6      clock strikes twelve         John Metcalf      16      15
 7                  twinshot         John Metcalf      14       1
 8                     trial         John Metcalf      13       5
 9               Her Majesty              P.Kline      11     120
10         Playing with Fire             Ben Ford       9      13

11             TrItE Fighter        Philip Thorne       8       0


From: Koth <koth@koth.org>
Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - Standard 10/07/02
Date: 7 Oct 2002 03:43:46 -0400
Message-ID: <200210070400.AAA29222@gevjon.ttsg.com>

			Weekly Status on  10/07/02
 
-=- 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 : Sun Oct 6 04:01:25 EDT 2002
 
 #  %W/ %L/ %T                      Name               Author   Score     Age
 1  39/ 22/ 38           Quicksilver '88      Michal Janeczek     156       3
 2  36/ 22/ 42             Freight Train          David Moore     150     168
 3  34/ 22/ 44                      Test Alexander (Sasha) Wa     147     107
 4  44/ 45/ 11                       vm5      Michal Janeczek     144       2
 5  34/ 24/ 42                  Guardian          Ian Oversby     144     167
 6  45/ 48/  7             Scan Test C 6        Steve Gunnell     141       6
 7  43/ 46/ 11               Foggy Swamp          Beppe Bezzi     140     164
 8  34/ 28/ 38          sIMPly.Red v0.95    Leonardo Humberto     139     125
 9  42/ 46/ 12                  Blur '88        Anton Marsden     139     205
10  41/ 44/ 16               '88 test IV         John Metcalf     137      61
11  28/ 20/ 52                  EV Paper     John K Wilkinson     136     181
12  36/ 37/ 27       Gymnosperm trickery          Dave Hillis     135      54
13  28/ 21/ 51                    Test I          Ian Oversby     135     224
14  38/ 41/ 22                    PacMan          David Moore     135     197
15  30/ 25/ 45              Shish-Ka-Bob             Ben Ford     134     123
16  34/ 35/ 31                      vala         John Metcalf     133      90
17  37/ 46/ 17                    Stasis          David Moore     128     275
18  37/ 46/ 17       Beholder's Eye V1.7         W. Mintardjo     127     443
19  35/ 50/ 14             Tangle Trap 2          David Moore     121       1
20  35/ 50/ 15 rdrc: Conscionable Roomma          Dave Hillis     120      56

21  26/ 37/ 37             Fat Expansion   Philip Thorne (RM)     115       0


From: pagaltzis@gmx.de (Aristoteles Pagaltzis)
Subject: Re: no constants corewars
Date: 7 Oct 2002 15:45:02 -0700
Message-ID: <872a85cc.0210071445.7938128f@posting.google.com>

Brett Greenfield <none@nowhere.com> wrote:
> as for bombers not working, i had envisiond GEN as ALWAYS
> making BIG numbers so self hitting would not happen.
> warriors that need to self hit, to say drop into a clear
> can use some other timer.

Only at a pretty high price in cycles, if at all. Or how is
that supposed to work?

-- 
Regards,
Aristotle


From: Christoph Birk <birk@ociw.edu>
Subject: 88 Koenigstuhl
Date: 7 Oct 2002 16:10:28 -0400
Message-ID: <200210071746.KAA26936@andromeda.ociw.edu>

Although there is not a new #1 (it's still 'Freight Train v0.2 by David Moore)
on the '88-Koenigstuhl there are 4 new entries in the top-25:

#2  : Quicksilver '88    (Michal Janeczek)
#3  : vm5                (Michal Janeczek)
#13 : Positive Knife '88 (Ken Espiritu)
#15 : Brazen hussy       (Steve Gunnell)

Christoph
http://www.ociw.edu/~birk/COREWAR/koenigstuhl.html


From: Lukasz Adamowski <adamow@inferno.mikrus.pw.edu.pl>
Subject: Re: IRC (and the rest)
Date: 8 Oct 2002 08:57:51 -0400
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.44.0210081356190.13759-100000@inferno.mikrus.pw.edu.pl>

	Why noone did get the log file? There are still only three in
the KOTH irc logs archive. I was off-line that time, but also want to
know what were you talking (typing ;) about, I believe it was something
interesting.
	BTW did you get my previous post with Mirrored warriors and my
P-switcher? There was no reply, so I'm curious if it's fault of the server
or rather my warriors are so... "uncommentable" ;)
Greetings
	Lukasz




From: Lukasz Grabun <grabek@purgatory.abyss>
Subject: Re: IRC (and the rest)
Date: Tue, 8 Oct 2002 20:18:48 +0000 (UTC)
Message-ID: <slrnaq93ta.bod.grabek@purgatory.abyss>

On 8 Oct 2002 08:57:51 -0400, Lukasz Adamowski wrote:
> 	Why noone did get the log file? There are still only three in
> the KOTH irc logs archive. I was off-line that time, but also want to
> know what were you talking (typing ;) about, I believe it was something
> interesting.

  Not many things to report. Not mentioning that koth.org is not being
maintaing as far as my opinion is concerned. The `freshest' CW issue
is 79th.

-- 
Lukasz Grabun 
(reply-to field is fake, use grabek (at) acn dot waw dot pl to reply)


From: Lukasz Grabun <grabek@purgatory.abyss>
Subject: Re: IRC (and the rest)
Date: Tue, 8 Oct 2002 20:47:10 +0000 (UTC)
Message-ID: <slrnaq95ig.bod.grabek@purgatory.abyss>

On Tue, 8 Oct 2002 20:18:48 +0000 (UTC), Lukasz Grabun wrote:
> maintaing as far as my opinion is concerned. The `freshest' CW issue

maintained. Time I went to the bed.

-- 
Lukasz Grabun 
(reply-to field is fake, use grabek (at) acn dot waw dot pl to reply)


From: dhillismail@netscape.net (Dave Hillis)
Subject: Re: IRC (and the rest)
Date: 9 Oct 2002 07:07:13 -0700
Message-ID: <5d6847b2.0210090607.1faec2dd@posting.google.com>

> 
>   Not many things to report. Not mentioning that koth.org is not being
> maintaing as far as my opinion is concerned. The `freshest' CW issue
> is 79th.

    No one is going to think you meant that to be such a sweeping
statement. But since you bring the subject up, over the 4 years I've
been playing Corewars I don't think the hills at KOTH have been down
for 4 days. It's a very well maintained web site.

Dave Hillis


From: Lukasz Adamowski <adamow@inferno.mikrus.pw.edu.pl>
Subject: Re: New corewar server
Date: 9 Oct 2002 17:01:59 -0400
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.44.0210092235530.31848-100000@inferno.mikrus.pw.edu.pl>

On Mon, 23 Sep 2002, Lukasz Grabun wrote:

>   maybe instead of the full-with-bells-and-whistles WWW server one can
> have some kind of "corewar via e-mail" service - just like it's on the
> KOTH. I don't know whether my Realtek could handle all the internet
> traffic (probably not, 128 kb is not enough I presume). So maybe all
> we need is some kind of "virtual" server: one can get all the results
> from the hill via sending email with header ;scores or something.

To be honest I thought about automatization my hill once and till now
nothing came out of this. So I thought also about informing players via
e-mail about how their pupils are doing on the hill. I guess I'll be doing
it by myself, but at the moment I've got a problem with aliasing. Oh, and
as for my machine: I play 55 duels (250 rounds each) and one big battle
with 5000 rounds using all 11 warriors (10 on the hill and 1 pretending).
It usually takes less than an hour on CeleronA 338MHz (overclocked 300
MHz;) 128MB RAM playing with pMARS 0.8.0. All that I need to do then is to
actualize my WWW (which means "ftping" 4 maybe 5 text files), so it
wouldn't be much more complicated to send one more file with scores to the
players. Any hill can work this way, but it is not the best way
(unfortunately): the hill works only when I (the owner) have time, not
necessary when the players do. :]
	Lukasz



From: Lukasz Grabun <grabek@purgatory.abyss>
Subject: Re: New corewar server
Date: Wed, 9 Oct 2002 21:28:21 +0000 (UTC)
Message-ID: <slrnaqbsbs.ee7.grabek@purgatory.abyss>

On 9 Oct 2002 17:01:59 -0400, Lukasz Adamowski wrote:
> actualize my WWW (which means "ftping" 4 maybe 5 text files), so it

  If one could `ftp' files by remote it would be no problem. I have an
amount of space on ISP's server; fetchmail can run as a deamon, check
my account - let's say - every 10 minutes, procmail+perl can take the
rest, while ftp script would upload text files with results.

-- 
Lukasz Grabun 
(reply-to field is fake, use grabek (at) acn dot waw dot pl to reply)


From: waknuk@yahoo.com (Philip Thorne)
Subject: Re: IRC (and the rest)
Date: 9 Oct 2002 22:11:17 -0700
Message-ID: <4ee41bd6.0210092111.a3269de@posting.google.com>

dhillismail@netscape.net (Dave Hillis) wrote in message news:<5d6847b2.0210090607.1faec2dd@posting.google.com>...
> > 
> >   Not many things to report. Not mentioning that koth.org is not being
> > maintaing as far as my opinion is concerned. The `freshest' CW issue
> > is 79th.
> 
>     No one is going to think you meant that to be such a sweeping
> statement. But since you bring the subject up, over the 4 years I've
> been playing Corewars I don't think the hills at KOTH have been down
> for 4 days. It's a very well maintained web site.
> 
> Dave Hillis

I don't think the links have been updated during the ~year I've been
around  but no great (any?) need during that time. More importantly
its remained functional almost non-stop [compare Pizza] and when it
was down not so long ago JKW acknowledged email and the hills came
back. More recently it survived the spam attack on the mailing list
with minimal disruption. Plus it looks good.

Re irc: I've noticed JKW around over the last few weeks - we've never
been present at the same time but ... I see tonight's topic is:

*** Topic for #corewars: welcome to koth.org central. please allow
10-16 hours
+for responses to your messages :

Lukasz, perhaps you could rouse him further by knocking Evol Cap off
the big hill :-)

Philb


From: waknuk@yahoo.com (Philip Thorne)
Subject: Re: New corewar server - WIKI
Date: 9 Oct 2002 23:39:10 -0700
Message-ID: <4ee41bd6.0210092239.2a690127@posting.google.com>

Lukasz Grabun <grabek@purgatory.abyss> wrote in message news:<slrnaqbsbs.ee7.grabek@purgatory.abyss>...
> On 9 Oct 2002 17:01:59 -0400, Lukasz Adamowski wrote:
> > actualize my WWW (which means "ftping" 4 maybe 5 text files), so it
> 
>   If one could `ftp' files by remote it would be no problem. I have an
> amount of space on ISP's server; fetchmail can run as a deamon, check
> my account - let's say - every 10 minutes, procmail+perl can take the
> rest, while ftp script would upload text files with results.

I'll second PK's response re your machine & internet load - I think
you'd be fine. Have you ever looked at the stats page for koth.org?
"Today, there have been a total of 9414 accesses by 303 unique
hosts...".

I'm less convinced that another server is necessary/good. What would
the benefits/response be? Another Phil setup a beginner hill not so
long ago but the yellow one gets more traffic.

Ok, a LP hill would be nice and maybe even popular but I expect Walter
Hoffman would add one to the c.s.n [yellow] site if people showed
interest plus Cristoph already has one albeit the code always gets
published.

Pros:
 - LP hill [good]
 - somewhere to turn if koth.org goes down 
      [... yellow & polish hills?] [*]
 - ability to put/maintain newer links/info
      [...many other sites, some new]
 - ability to host variations on instruction set
      [ maybe, but instructions > players; 
        backward compatibility; history etc.]
 - way to liven up the cw scene / shake off the 
   misleading '94 draft feeling.
 - way to show/learn/test web/design/dev skills
   
Cons:
 - dilutes the playing field further
 - unless it's a published hill a playing host may feel conflicted.
   [Think John Metcalf not being able to compete in his tournament]
 - deflect you from shaking up some other hills e.g. 94x 94m

I was thinking along the lines of putting up a server in the past [I
have broadband] but WH gave me a safe outlet by allowing me to dabble
on his site and the feeling passed. Still, perhaps I'll make a secret
PBT only hill one day so I too _can_ be king <g>.

[*] More recently I've been thinking about the problems of ownership
of hills and sites. e.g

Firstly, I consider the presence of Pizza more of a problem than the
creation of a new sever a blessing. Why? Because there are many links
to Pizza yet it's always down. Plus [unless you use lynx] the message
saying it's down is hard to spot and once spotted is misleading. I
wonder how many people over the last year have had Pizza as their
first and only experience of cw. Secondly there are many nice/useful
but unmaintained sites around.

Together this got me thinking of a Wiki system - a distributed corewar
site which no-one owns and that _anyone_ can maintain.

An extension of the idea is to share hill results/submissions. Not
much fun as all the hills would be the same but assuming the data was
shared [static html so static sites could use it as is] any number of
people could create their own hills/servers and display / package the
results in whatever form they liked best. Like the hills themselves
one would see competition over time e.g. if your implementation looked
best or responded most rapidly you would be a winner in terms of usage
... and if your site went down the warriors/results/ages would live
on.

Philb 

P.S. I know Pizza has had a long and glorious history - if 
     it recovers, great.
     
     http://www.wikipedia.org hasn't a corewar entry yet.


From: lgrabun@wp.pl (Lukasz Grabun)
Subject: Re: IRC (and the rest)
Date: 11 Oct 2002 10:53:39 -0700
Message-ID: <6bed82.0210110953.25472295@posting.google.com>

dhillismail@netscape.net (Dave Hillis) wrote in message news:<5d6847b2.0210090607.1faec2dd@posting.google.com>...


>     No one is going to think you meant that to be such a sweeping
> statement. But since you bring the subject up, over the 4 years I've
> been playing Corewars I don't think the hills at KOTH have been down
> for 4 days. It's a very well maintained web site.

Gee, I did not mean to offend anyone. I am aware of the fact KotH runs
smoothly and there hardly are any breaks. This is not what I meant.

Since http://www.koth.org is the only *working* site in English
(Lukasz's hills are in Polish so it *might* a little tricky for
English-speaking people to read the rules) one should give more care
to it. CoreWarrior issue are easily found in the google archives not
on the webpage. There's no info about John's current tournament.

I do *love* KotH, don't you know that. But it should be more
up-to-date, methinks.


From: lgrabun@wp.pl (Lukasz Grabun)
Subject: Re: IRC (and the rest)
Date: 11 Oct 2002 10:54:48 -0700
Message-ID: <6bed82.0210110954.d1e0ba0@posting.google.com>

waknuk@yahoo.com (Philip Thorne) wrote in message news:<4ee41bd6.0210092111.a3269de@posting.google.com>...

> Lukasz, perhaps you could rouse him further by knocking Evol Cap off
> the big hill :-)

:)

One would need nine/ten succesful submissions. The hill would look
kind of weird then, don't you think? :)


From: lgrabun@wp.pl (Lukasz Grabun)
Subject: Re: New corewar server - WIKI
Date: 11 Oct 2002 11:00:30 -0700
Message-ID: <6bed82.0210111000.37610d11@posting.google.com>

waknuk@yahoo.com (Philip Thorne) wrote in message news:<4ee41bd6.0210092239.2a690127@posting.google.com>...

> "Today, there have been a total of 9414 accesses by 303 unique
> hosts...".

Hm, I don't know whether this is a lot or not.

OTOH Polish common portal http://www.wp.pl has something about 6 mln
accesses per day. :)

I am doing my thinking. Admins from my school have not reply to my
post yet.

> Ok, a LP hill would be nice and maybe even popular but I expect Walter
> Hoffman would add one to the c.s.n [yellow] site if people showed
> interest plus Cristoph already has one albeit the code always gets
> published.

LP hill and small 94 p-space would be nice to have. These are things
to cover I suppose.


From: howard_harry@hotmail.com (Will Varfar)
Subject: Re: RedCoder sneek
Date: 12 Oct 2002 12:30:51 -0700
Message-ID: <5e314d3b.0210121130.7b54126a@posting.google.com>

Thanks Joonas for the exhaust with debug.

I have finally tracked down my bug (incorrect thread creation order,
only obvious after a wrap of the thread list) and can validate that my
o-pascal mars is now correct (except for pspace, mod and div, which
are coming!) for validate.red.  I'm now running it through the entire
planar archive, to be doublely-sure.

I've ported redcoder to linux (x86 only, sorry) and can hopefully
release something working (problem at the moment is, curiously, the
fonts; is it safe to assume that everyone has a font called 'courier'
or something fixed?) this week or the next.  My port is kind of
one-way, more of a migration, meaning so I'll have to port back to
win32 if there are any users who prefer windows?

/Will Varfar
http://www.geocities.com/varfar/redcoder/index.html


From: "Robert Macrae" <ff95@dial.pipex.com>
Subject: Re: Evolving Warriors
Date: 13 Oct 2002 13:33:51 -0400
Message-ID: <028601c272a2$9c3a9ab0$2200a8c0@Mesh1>

> I am planning to work at a meta level rather than a
> instruction-by-instruction level

Picking a suitable feature space in which to evolve should make a huge
difference. I'm not sure what kind of level you have in mind, but when I
last thought about this I sketched functional blocks like a parallel process
launcher and a small SPL-fed loop. Warning -- this never actually got to
implementation.

Robert




Message-ID: <games/corewar-faq_1034523049@rtfm.mit.edu>
From: anton@paradise.net.nz (Anton Marsden)
Subject: Core War Frequently Asked Questions (rec.games.corewar FAQ)
Date: 13 Oct 2002 15:34:17 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)

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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).

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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]
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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]
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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.

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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]
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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]
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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.

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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]
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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]
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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]
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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]
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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: waknuk@yahoo.com (Philip Thorne)
Subject: Re: IRC (and the rest)
Date: 13 Oct 2002 20:11:57 -0700
Message-ID: <4ee41bd6.0210131911.5104db53@posting.google.com>

lgrabun@wp.pl (Lukasz Grabun) wrote in message news:<6bed82.0210110954.d1e0ba0@posting.google.com>...
> waknuk@yahoo.com (Philip Thorne) wrote in message news:<4ee41bd6.0210092111.a3269de@posting.google.com>...
> 
> > Lukasz, perhaps you could rouse him further by knocking Evol Cap off
> > the big hill :-)
>  
> :)
> 
> One would need nine/ten succesful submissions. The hill would look
> kind of weird then, don't you think? :)

Maybe, but two additions like Glenstorm & Kin (are they?) would do
damage, especially if Bugtown fell. Easier/nicer way to provoke
attention would be to put anything on the hill as 3 of the bottom four
warriors are currently his.

Ah, when I said 'easier' I was forgetting my past failures :-/


From: waknuk@yahoo.com (Philip Thorne)
Subject: Re: IRC (and the rest)
Date: 13 Oct 2002 20:18:42 -0700
Message-ID: <4ee41bd6.0210131918.1912fad0@posting.google.com>

lgrabun@wp.pl (Lukasz Grabun) wrote in message news:<6bed82.0210110953.25472295@posting.google.com>...
> dhillismail@netscape.net (Dave Hillis) wrote in message news:<5d6847b2.0210090607.1faec2dd@posting.google.com>...
> 
> 
> >     No one is going to think you meant that to be such a sweeping
> > statement. But since you bring the subject up, over the 4 years I've
> > been playing Corewars I don't think the hills at KOTH have been down
> > for 4 days. It's a very well maintained web site.
> 
> Gee, I did not mean to offend anyone. I am aware of the fact KotH runs
> smoothly and there hardly are any breaks. This is not what I meant.
> 
> Since http://www.koth.org is the only *working* site in English

How about http://corewars.sourceforge.net ?


From: Steve Gunnell <steveg58@iinet.net.au>
Subject: Re: IRC (and the rest)
Date: 14 Oct 2002 11:16:37 -0400
Message-ID: <200210141901.54751.steveg58@iinet.net.au>

On Mon, 14 Oct 2002 12:38, Philip Thorne wrote:
> lgrabun@wp.pl (Lukasz Grabun) wrote in message
[snip]
> > Since http://www.koth.org is the only *working* site in English
>
> How about http://corewars.sourceforge.net ?

Unfortunately the sourceforge hill is such a pain to submit to. I queue all 
my koth submissions offline and all I need to do is type "koth 
<warrior-name>" and the script does the rest.

Nice site but too painful to use regularly.

Steve Gunnell


From: Koth <koth@koth.org>
Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status -  94 No Pspace 10/14/02
Date: 14 Oct 2002 11:24:08 -0400
Message-ID: <200210140409.AAA09826@gevjon.ttsg.com>

			Weekly Status on  10/14/02
 
-=- 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 Oct 13 16:57:50 EDT 2002
 
 #  %W/ %L/ %T                      Name               Author   Score     Age
 1  31/ 22/ 47                Reepicheep       Grabun/Metcalf     141     167
 2  30/ 23/ 47               Son of Vain      Oversby/Pihlaja     137     936
 3  42/ 50/  7                    Willow         John Metcalf     135      35
 4  42/ 50/  8                      test                   mj     133       4
 5  24/ 16/ 60                   SilKing    Christian Schmidt     133     169
 6  30/ 27/ 43                 Uninvited         John Metcalf     132    1029
 7  27/ 22/ 52          Pink Detonations         Ken Espiritu     132      16
 8  27/ 23/ 49        Alternative Action         Roy van Rijn     131      12
 9  30/ 29/ 41                 Glenstorm         John Metcalf     131     108
10  37/ 43/ 19          Flotation Vapors         Ken Espiritu     131       1
11  26/ 22/ 51            Positive Knife         Ken Espiritu     130      10
12  36/ 43/ 22                Vanquisher        Lukasz Grabun     129     438
13  35/ 41/ 24                  twinshot         John Metcalf     129      32
14  36/ 44/ 20      Hazy Lazy ... reborn        Steve Gunnell     129      21
15  27/ 26/ 47                 Wallpaper    Christian Schmidt     129      85
16  38/ 47/ 15                     Blade                Fizmo     128     253
17  22/ 16/ 62             Broader Clump         Ken Espiritu     128      17
18  26/ 24/ 50                     Candy        Lukasz Grabun     128     247
19  27/ 26/ 47           The Stormkeeper    Christian Schmidt     127      44
20  23/ 19/ 59              Velvet Glove                Fizmo     126       6

21  19/ 21/ 60             ppaper test 2         John Metcalf     118       0


From: Koth <koth@koth.org>
Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - ICWS Experimental 94 10/14/02
Date: 14 Oct 2002 11:25:33 -0400
Message-ID: <200210140406.AAA09751@gevjon.ttsg.com>

			Weekly Status on  10/14/02
 
-=- 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 : Wed Sep 25 07:03:27 EDT 2002
 
 #  %W/ %L/ %T                      Name               Author   Score     Age
 1  50/ 38/ 12           Fire and Ice II          David Moore     163      39
 2  34/ 24/ 42                    KAT v5          Dave Hillis     144      71
 3  38/ 36/ 27               Black Moods          Ian Oversby     139     135
 4  23/  8/ 69                    Denial          David Moore     138      80
 5  25/ 13/ 62                       Kin         John Metcalf     138      47
 6  35/ 33/ 32              Trefoil F 13        Steve Gunnell     137      22
 7  22/  8/ 70              Evol Cap 4 X       John Wilkinson     136     208
 8  30/ 25/ 44                  Olivia X             Ben Ford     135      20
 9  28/ 22/ 50               Venom v0.2b    Christian Schmidt     135     161
10  34/ 34/ 31     Controlled Aggression          Ian Oversby     134     139
11  27/ 19/ 54                 Glenstorm         John Metcalf     134       1
12  35/ 37/ 28                      Ogre    Christian Schmidt     134      87
13  26/ 18/ 57                  Katafutr      Michal Janeczek     133      79
14  32/ 32/ 36              Big I.F.F.S.          Dave Hillis     133      68
15  30/ 29/ 42          Damage Inflicted        Robert Macrae     131      78
16  32/ 40/ 28                   Exsnail        Philip Thorne     124      34
17  16/  7/ 77            Black Box v1.1                  JKW     124     102
18  15/  7/ 77             Evolve X v4.0       John Wilkinson     124     156
19  28/ 40/ 31            Bugtown Rap 19        Steve Gunnell     116       4
20  33/ 50/ 17 Greetings From Asbury Par                  JKW     116      99

21  10/ 78/ 12             XCN Fast Scan           Xavi Canal      41       0


From: Koth <koth@koth.org>
Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - MultiWarrior 94 10/14/02
Date: 14 Oct 2002 11:26:58 -0400
Message-ID: <200210140403.AAA09680@gevjon.ttsg.com>

			Weekly Status on  10/14/02
 
-=- 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 Oct 10 12:56:02 EDT 2002
 
 #                      Name               Author   Score     Age
 1               Her Majesty              P.Kline      19     120
 2                    fclear         Brian Haskin      18      85
 3      clock strikes twelve         John Metcalf      16      15
 4                  D-clearM         Ken Espiritu      14     101
 5                Redemption         John Metcalf      13       6
 6                  Tinyshot         John Metcalf      13      14
 7         Playing with Fire             Ben Ford      11      13
 8                     trial         John Metcalf      10       5
 9                  twinshot         John Metcalf       8       1
10                  Snurp II        Philip Thorne       5       8

11                      TM94                Kecol       2       0


From: Koth <koth@koth.org>
Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - Standard 10/14/02
Date: 14 Oct 2002 11:28:23 -0400
Message-ID: <200210140400.AAA09613@gevjon.ttsg.com>

			Weekly Status on  10/14/02
 
-=- 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 : Sat Oct 12 16:55:23 EDT 2002
 
 #  %W/ %L/ %T                      Name               Author   Score     Age
 1  39/ 22/ 40           Quicksilver '88      Michal Janeczek     156       3
 2  36/ 22/ 43             Freight Train          David Moore     150     168
 3  46/ 43/ 11                       vm5      Michal Janeczek     149       2
 4  34/ 22/ 44                      Test Alexander (Sasha) Wa     146     107
 5  46/ 47/  7             Scan Test C 6        Steve Gunnell     145       6
 6  44/ 45/ 11               Foggy Swamp          Beppe Bezzi     144     164
 7  44/ 44/ 11                  Blur '88        Anton Marsden     144     205
 8  33/ 23/ 43                  Guardian          Ian Oversby     143     167
 9  43/ 43/ 15               '88 test IV         John Metcalf     143      61
10  36/ 34/ 30                      vala         John Metcalf     139      90
11  33/ 28/ 39          sIMPly.Red v0.95    Leonardo Humberto     138     125
12  39/ 39/ 22                    PacMan          David Moore     138     197
13  31/ 25/ 45              Shish-Ka-Bob             Ben Ford     137     123
14  37/ 38/ 26       Gymnosperm trickery          Dave Hillis     136      54
15  28/ 21/ 51                    Test I          Ian Oversby     136     224
16  27/ 20/ 53                  EV Paper     John K Wilkinson     135     181
17  39/ 44/ 16                    Stasis          David Moore     134     275
18  39/ 45/ 16       Beholder's Eye V1.7         W. Mintardjo     134     443
19  38/ 48/ 13 rdrc: Conscionable Roomma          Dave Hillis     128      56
20  38/ 49/ 13             Tangle Trap 2          David Moore     127       1

21   8/ 58/ 34        Detonate Coffeepot          Dave Hillis      58       0


From: lgrabun@wp.pl (Lukasz Grabun)
Subject: Re: IRC (and the rest)
Date: 14 Oct 2002 13:39:17 -0700
Message-ID: <6bed82.0210141239.412f32d5@posting.google.com>

> Maybe, but two additions like Glenstorm & Kin (are they?) would do
> damage, especially if Bugtown fell. Easier/nicer way to provoke
> attention would be to put anything on the hill as 3 of the bottom four
> warriors are currently his.

Oh, you meant the bottom of the hill :) Well, yes, this *is* an idea.
In a free moment I'll try some p-switching techniques, I think - just
after I had all my components chosen/made/optimised/phew :)

Lukasz


From: Lukasz Adamowski <adamow@inferno.mikrus.pw.edu.pl>
Subject: Re: IRC (and the rest)
Date: 14 Oct 2002 21:09:04 -0400
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.44.0210142251230.3339-100000@inferno.mikrus.pw.edu.pl>

On Fri, 11 Oct 2002, Lukasz Grabun wrote:

> Since http://www.koth.org is the only *working* site in English

You mean _site_ or _hill_. If second, it's not true,
corewars.sourceforge.net is working just fine. I believe some others also.

> (Lukasz's hills are in Polish so it *might* a little tricky for
> English-speaking people to read the rules) [...]

Are You suggesting I should translate it. I thought about it many times,
but (to be honest) I wouldn't like to see how few of players from all the
world fill my hill with warriors which cannot be beaten by ordinary
Polish players. It was, it is and it will be Polish hill. Of course I will
accept any warrior, but please, don't do that to me, don't be the best! ;]
OTOH I can make another (English) hill, but it takes time and work and
health...

> I do *love* KotH, don't you know that. But it should be more
> up-to-date, methinks.

My love to KotH is still unsatisfied. ;] I've never got on any of its
hills and looks like I'll never do.

	Lukasz Adamowski



From: achap30@hotmail.com (J Cade)
Subject: Worm killing
Date: 15 Oct 2002 04:54:09 -0700
Message-ID: <ba7da929.0210150354.6022045d@posting.google.com>

Hello there, a newbie here :)

I would be very grateful if anyone could please help me with some code
to kill a worm.

I have slowed it down (spl 0) and tracked down the leading end of it,
but no amount of dat #0, #0's will kill it, has anyone got any ideas,
other than an imp gate, as that is not really feasable?

Thank you all in advance!
Jon Cade


From: "BALDWIN ONUIGBO" <baldwin_baldwin@maktoob.com>
Subject: URGENT ASSISTANCE
Date: 15 Oct 2002 08:37:56 -0400
Message-ID: <200210150252.g9F2qJG26118@valhalla.ttsg.com>

EXPEDIENT INTEREST


Dear Sir, 

I am Mr. Baldwin Onuigbo. Bank Manager of Diamond Bank of
Nigeria, Lagos Branch. I have urgent and very
confidential business proposition for you. On June 6,
1997, a Foriegn Oil consultant/contractor with the Nigerian government , Mr. Barry Kelly made a numbered time (Fixed) Deposit for twelve calendar months, valued at US$25,000,000.00 (Twenty-five Million Dollars) in my branch. Upon maturity, Isent a routine notification to his forwarding address but got no reply. After a month, we sent a reminder and finally we discovered from his contract employers,the Ministry of trade and commerce that Mr.Barry Kelly died from an automobile accident. On
further investigation, I found out that he died
without making a WILL, and all attempts to trace his
next of kin was fruitless. I therefore made further
investigation and discovered that Mr.Barry Kelly did
not declare any kin or relations in all his official
documents, including his Bank Deposit paperwork in my
Bank. This sum of US$25,000,000.00 is still sitting in
my Bank and the interest is being rolled over with the
principal sum at the end of each year. No one will
ever come forward to claim it. According to Nigerian
Law, at the expiration of 6 (six) years, the money
will revert to the ownership of the Nigerian
Government if nobody applies to claim the fund.

Consequently, my proposal is that I will like you as
an Foreigner to stand in as the next of kin to Mr.
Barry Kelly so that the fruits of this old man's labor
will not get into the hands of some corrupt government
officials. This is simple, I will like you to provide
immediately your full names and address so that the
Attorney will prepare the necessary documents and
affidavits, which will put you in place as the next of
kin. We shall employ the service of two Attorneys for
drafting and notarization of the WILL and to obtain
the necessary documents and letter of probate/ administration in your favor for the transfer.

A bank account in any part of the world, which you
will provide, will then facilitate the transfer of
this money to you as the beneficiary/next of kin. The
money will be paid into your account for us to share
in the ratio of 60% for me and 40% for you. There is
no risk at all as all the paperwork for this
transaction will be done by the Attorney and my
position as the Branch Manager guarantees the
successful execution of this transaction. If you are
interested, please reply immediately via the private
email address of this message. Upon your response, I shall then provide you with more details and relevant documents that will help you understand the transaction

Please observe utmost confidentiality, and rest assured that this transaction would be most profitable for both of us because I shall require your assistance to invest
my share in your country. Awaiting your urgent reply
via my email. 

Thanks and regards. 

Mr.Baldwin Onuigbo.




From: lgrabun@wp.pl (Lukasz Grabun)
Subject: Re: Worm killing
Date: 15 Oct 2002 13:52:33 -0700
Message-ID: <6bed82.0210151252.441edba2@posting.google.com>

achap30@hotmail.com (J Cade) wrote in message news:<ba7da929.0210150354.6022045d@posting.google.com>...
> Hello there, a newbie here :)

Welcome,

> I would be very grateful if anyone could please help me with some code
> to kill a worm.

A worm? What do you mean by a `worm'? Is it some kind of paper or an
imp?

> I have slowed it down (spl 0) and tracked down the leading end of it,
> but no amount of dat #0, #0's will kill it, has anyone got any ideas,
> other than an imp gate, as that is not really feasable?

Generally, if your warrior is a scanner one can observe two phases of
the game: first tracking the opponent + stunning him and the second
one: clearing the terrain down.

You should check d-clears and clears on Planar's page (you can easily
find the link on http://www.koth.org at the link bookmark). You can
also find educating a thread I started some time ago - I *think* you
can track it down in http://groups.google.com while looking for
subject "Simple scanner, hints welcome" or similar. Good luck!

LG


Message-ID: <3DAC2A6D.FDDEEEB@someoneelse.invalid>
From: HiEv <spam@someoneelse.invalid>
Subject: Re: URGENT ASSISTANCE
Date: Tue, 15 Oct 2002 14:46:23 GMT

BALDWIN ONUIGBO wrote:
> EXPEDIENT INTEREST
> 
> Dear Sir,
> 
> I am Mr. Baldwin Onuigbo. Bank Manager of Diamond Bank of
> Nigeria, Lagos Branch. I have urgent and very
> confidential business proposition for you.
[snip]

Wow.  That's the first Nigerian 419 scam letter I've seen on usenet. 
Neat.

If you haven't heard of this scam yet, see here:

http://www.crimes-of-persuasion.com/Crimes/Business/nigerian.htm

-- 
The difference between intelligence and stupidity is that intelligence
has its limits.


From: Lukasz Grabun <grabek@purgatory.abyss>
Subject: Re: IRC (and the rest)
Date: Tue, 15 Oct 2002 17:50:02 +0000 (UTC)
Message-ID: <slrnaqr9r8.v97.grabek@purgatory.abyss>

On 14 Oct 2002 21:09:04 -0400, Lukasz Adamowski wrote:

>> (Lukasz's hills are in Polish so it *might* a little tricky for
>> English-speaking people to read the rules) [...]
> 
> Are You suggesting I should translate it. I thought about it many times,
> but (to be honest) I wouldn't like to see how few of players from all the
> world fill my hill with warriors which cannot be beaten by ordinary
> Polish players. It was, it is and it will be Polish hill. Of course I will
> accept any warrior, but please, don't do that to me, don't be the best! ;]
> OTOH I can make another (English) hill, but it takes time and work and
> health...

  Corewar is very fair game - if you're the best redcoder around, you
win. But that's not the trick - the trick is there's no strategy that
gives the permanent victory in the long run; for every warrior there's
a co-warrior. Which means that everythings go round and round. And
there're still things that were not done/programmed. Many things to
discover (wait for the scanner(?) we've been working on with
Aristoteles). Anyway, I've never seen more democratic game. :)

> My love to KotH is still unsatisfied. ;] I've never got on any of its
> hills and looks like I'll never do.

  It takes some time but this can be done with no doubt ;)

-- 
Lukasz Grabun 
(reply-to field is fake, use grabek (at) acn dot waw dot pl to reply)


From: "Roy van Rijn" <roy_van_rijn@hotmail.com>
Subject: Team Projects
Date: Tue, 15 Oct 2002 17:50:23 +0200
Message-ID: <aohdj8$2ncd$1@news.kabelfoon.nl>

Hi, I justed wanted to say:

Team Projects in Corewar rule!

Yeah, look at the Hill now, first place...
Reepicheep, a warrior made by Grabun and Metcalf, very good warrior, its
gonna be hard to beat it.

But since a couple of hours on the second place:
Revenge of the Papers, another team project, I mailed Christian Schmidt
about a simple question, and 5 emails later our first team warrior was born!
It didn't look so good but what the heck, we can always try it on the hill.
And a schocking conclusion...it came in second :o

So after Grabun+Metcalf I too want to encourage team projects, it sooo much
fun.... and succesfull!!

Roy

(tnx Christian!!)




From: Jed Davis <jdev@panix.com>
Subject: Re: Worm killing
Date: 15 Oct 2002 17:54:03 -0400
Message-ID: <lcswuoj4bd0.fsf@panix5.panix.com>

lgrabun@wp.pl (Lukasz Grabun) writes:

> Generally, if your warrior is a scanner one can observe two phases of
> the game: first tracking the opponent + stunning him and the second
> one: clearing the terrain down.

And I must say that there's nothing quite so humbling as watching
one's paper-based warrior, which had previously done so well, get
consistently and completely slaughtered by a stun/clear.

--Jed   (GUIs definitely add a certain element of drama here)

-- 
<?xml version="1.0"?>  <?xml-stylesheet href="http://panix.com/~jdev/xs/txt.xsl"
type="text/xsl"?>   <sig name="Jed Davis">  <id dom="oberlin.edu" lp="sjld8197">
Student, 4th-Year</id><id dom="cs.oberlin.edu" lp="jldavis">CS Major and Student
SysAdmin</id><id dom="panix.com" lp="jdev">Panixer</id> <q href="bin.q"/> </sig>


From: Lukasz Grabun <grabek@purgatory.abyss>
Subject: Re: Team Projects
Date: Tue, 15 Oct 2002 20:58:51 +0000 (UTC)
Message-ID: <slrnaqrktb.1bs.grabek@purgatory.abyss>

On Tue, 15 Oct 2002 17:50:23 +0200, Roy van Rijn wrote:
> (tnx Christian!!)

  Fizmo, huh? :)

-- 
Lukasz Grabun 
(reply-to field is fake, use grabek (at) acn dot waw dot pl to reply)


From: fizmo_master@yahoo.com (Fizmo)
Subject: Re: Team Projects
Date: 16 Oct 2002 01:06:04 -0700
Message-ID: <9f53b5fb.0210160006.484d3d3c@posting.google.com>

;-)

Lukasz Grabun <grabek@purgatory.abyss> wrote in message news:<slrnaqrktb.1bs.grabek@purgatory.abyss>...
> On Tue, 15 Oct 2002 17:50:23 +0200, Roy van Rijn wrote:
> > (tnx Christian!!)
> 
>   Fizmo, huh? :)


From: fizmo_master@yahoo.com (Fizmo)
Subject: Velvet Glove
Date: 16 Oct 2002 03:17:45 -0700
Message-ID: <9f53b5fb.0210160217.2d7c2738@posting.google.com>

Hi all,
I would like to present Velvet Glove.
It uses a kind of paper, which includes a "bidirectional coreclear"
and imps.
If we look more close to the structure we find in the first four lines
of code the well known silk part:

s1      spl     @0,     <pStep1
        mov     }-1,    >-1
s2      spl     @0,     <pStep2
        mov     }-1,    >-1

More important are the next three lines.

        mov.i   #1,     <1
	spl     -2,     <pBomb
imp     mov.i   #iStep, *0

The mov instruction copy itself as a bomb, while the <1 in the b-field
decrement its pointer. This give us a kind of anti-imp backward clear.

The spl instruction splits back two instructions to the mov }-1, >-1,
which
continue to copy instructions behind the already copied paper. This
leads in a
kind of forward dat (or whatsoever) coreclear.

To get the imps alive we must start three copies of the paper with a
binary launcher, like in 'Savety in Numbers', 'Terkonit' etc. and
leave the rest to
fool a bit all those nasty scanner. It seems to me important to boot
away
the ccpapers and not to start it too close to the qscanning part. 

All together we have a qscan/paper which scores quite well against
most
stone/b-field imps, most of the scanner/oneshot and launching fast
enough to get a few more kills to some stone/papers. The offensive
power of silk/imps
are up to now quite limited, but with the mov #1, <1 instruction for
example
it should gain again some more longterm footholds on the hill.

But then stone/a-field imps will be successfull seen again on the hill
and the
mov #1, {1 instruction will be then back of interest ;-)

So, let the next round of the neverending battles begin.....

Chris 


;---------------------------------CUT
HERE------------------------------

;redcode-94nop
;name Velvet Glove
;author Fizmo
;strategy qscan, silk and imps
;assert CORESIZE==8000
;kill Velvet Glove

pStep1 EQU   310
pStep2 EQU   3044
pBomb  EQU   2335
bDist  EQU   1434
iStep  EQU   2667

s1      spl     @0,     <pStep1
        mov     }-1,    >-1
s2      spl     @0,     <pStep2
        mov     }-1,    >-1
        mov.i   #1,     <1
	spl     -2,     <pBomb
imp     mov.i   #iStep, *0

pStart  spl     1,      imp+1
pB1     spl     1,      imp+1
        mov     -1,     0

        mov     <pStart,<g1
        mov     <pB1,   <g2
        mov     <pB2,   <pG2

pB2     spl     g3,     imp+1
pG1     spl     g2,     <300
g1      jmp     @0,     imp+1+bDist
g2      jmp     @0,     imp+1+bDist+iStep 
g3      mov     <-300,  -304
pG2     jmp     @0,     imp+1+bDist+2*iStep

for 39
dat 0, 0
rof

org qGo

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
     	jmp   	qSki, {qd+qf+qs+qi+2
     	sne   	qd+qf+5*qs, qf+5*qs
     	seq   	qf+4*qs, {qTab
	jmp   	qFas, }qTab
     	sne   	qd+qf+8*qs, qf+8*qs
     	seq   	qf+7*qs, {qTab-1
     	jmp   	qFas, {qFas
	sne   	qd+qf+10*qs, qf+10*qs
     	seq   	qf+9*qs, {qTab+1
	jmp   	qFas, }qFas
	seq   	qd+qf+2*qs, qf+2*qs
	jmp   	qFas, {qTab
	seq   	qd+qf+6*qs, qf+6*qs
	djn.a 	qFas, {qFas
	seq   	qd+qf+3*qs, qf+3*qs
        jmp   	qFas, {qd+qf+3*qs+qi+2
	sne   	qd+qf+14*qs, qf+14*qs
	seq   	qf+13*qs, <qTab
	jmp   	qSlo, >qTab
	sne   	qd+qf+17*qs, qf+17*qs
	seq   	qf+16*qs, <qTab-1
	jmp   	qSlo, {qSlo
	seq   	qd+qf+11*qs, qf+11*qs
	jmp   	qSlo, <qTab
	seq   	qd+qf+15*qs, qf+15*qs
	djn.b 	qSlo, {qSlo
	sne   	qd+qf+12*qs, qf+12*qs
	jmz   	pStart, qd+qf+12*qs-qi
  
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    	pStart, <-4000
      dat   	5408, 7217
qTab  dat   	4804, 6613
dSrc  dat   	5810, qBmb-5 

end


From: fizmo_master@yahoo.com (Fizmo)
Subject: Re: Team Projects
Date: 16 Oct 2002 03:48:19 -0700
Message-ID: <9f53b5fb.0210160248.6dc4ab25@posting.google.com>

Yeah, it was really a big surprise to see our warrior in second, but it
was good starting material I got from Roy. It takes only some tweaking on
one of the two papers, adding a bootstrap and a quickcanner and
tatarataaaa Revenge of the papers was born.
Kudos also to Roy for this nice and succesfull project.

Chris

"Roy van Rijn" <roy_van_rijn@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:<aohdj8$2ncd$1@news.kabelfoon.nl>...
> Hi, I justed wanted to say:
> 
> Team Projects in Corewar rule!
> 
> Yeah, look at the Hill now, first place...
> Reepicheep, a warrior made by Grabun and Metcalf, very good warrior, its
> gonna be hard to beat it.
> 
> But since a couple of hours on the second place:
> Revenge of the Papers, another team project, I mailed Christian Schmidt
> about a simple question, and 5 emails later our first team warrior was born!
> It didn't look so good but what the heck, we can always try it on the hill.
> And a schocking conclusion...it came in second :o
> 
> So after Grabun+Metcalf I too want to encourage team projects, it sooo much
> fun.... and succesfull!!
> 
> Roy
> 
> (tnx Christian!!)


From: iapdk@admin.drake.edu (Paul Kline)
Subject: Re: Worm killing
Date: 16 Oct 2002 07:30:22 -0700
Message-ID: <9e6b1335.0210160630.584c06e@posting.google.com>

"Robert Macrae" <ff95@dial.pipex.com> wrote in message news:<aoj7sl$7j0...
[...]
> I've probably missed some, but those should keep you going for a while 8-)
> 

I think you'll find this paper kills a lot of 3-point imps:

pStart  spl    1        ,>1100
        mov    -1,0
        mov    -1,0
        spl    1        ,>4100
        mov    >b1      ,}b1
        spl    r1+4000  ,>c1
        djn.f  r1       ,<2100

b1      dat    p1+4000  ,p1
p1      spl    1        ,0
        mov    d1       ,>-1800
        mov    d1       ,>-1401
        mov    d1       ,>-1100
r1      mov    >p1      ,>c1
        mov    <c1      ,{c1
        djn    2        ,#6
c1      mov.x  #-4703    ,#2312
        jmz    *c1      ,*c1
d1      dat    <5334    ,<2667

        end   pStart


Paul Kline
iapdk@admin.drake.edu


From: "Robert Macrae" <ff95@dial.pipex.com>
Subject: Re: Worm killing
Date: Wed, 16 Oct 2002 08:27:02 +0000 (UTC)
Message-ID: <aoj7sl$7j0$1@venus.btinternet.com>

> I have slowed it down (spl 0) and tracked down the leading end of it,
> but no amount of dat #0, #0's will kill it, has anyone got any ideas,
> other than an imp gate, as that is not really feasable?

It sounds as if the self-repair property of an imp spiral is giving you
problems. An imp spiral executes instructions like
  MOV.i 0, 2667 or
  MOV.i #2667, *0
spaced evenly around core, so that the MOV copies itself into just the right
location to execute on the next cycle. If you overwrite an imp spiral with
SPL 0 you will eventually hit the tail of the worm -- the only MOV
instruction that is not protected by the spiral -- and start to stun it but
it is still not trivial to get rid of the thing and a simple DAT carpet may
allow it to repair itself and roll on.

[So far a summary of what you have found?]

Suggestions:

1) Gate. You have considered this; it accepts that imp spirals will survive
the carpet but, given enough time, kills them when they hit the gate. Tough
to orchestrate for Silks.

2) Spiral clear. If you clear with 2667 gap between successive DATs (or
SPLs) you will defeat the imp self-repair. A gap of 281 also works, and will
catch 7-point imps. (Why?)

3) Multiple linear clears. If you run 3 separate carpets spaced 2667 apart
you achieve a similar effect. Night Train was a paper that used this
approach to create imps but you could also use it to clear.

4) Fast scanner clear. He Scans Alone has a scanner-directed carpet that
nibbles away at the back of imps fast enough to kill them.

5) Fast linear clear. If you have stunned the imp, so there are almost 8000
processes executing your SPLs or in a pit, then after the MOVs execute you
have 8000 cycles in which to disrupt them before they can self repair. This
is easier with a vampire like 8-= because you can use the enemy processes to
double your clear rate. I don't think I've seen this with a carpet but it
may be possible.

6) Tuned carpet. Carpeting with something that will copy itself imperfectly
(for example MOV.i 0, <2667, MOV.i {1, 2667 or MOV.i 0, <1). NPaper used
this very effectively, though I don't think
you can make it work well against both forms of imp at the same time.

I've probably missed some, but those should keep you going for a while 8-)

Robert







From: howard_harry@hotmail.com (Will Varfar)
Subject: Re: Look what I thought up during my vacation :]
Date: 16 Oct 2002 09:32:27 -0700
Message-ID: <5e314d3b.0210160832.1a2fc7e6@posting.google.com>

Lukasz Adamowski <adamow@inferno.mikrus.pw.edu.pl> wrote in message news:<Pine.LNX.4.44.0209302050480.7147-100000@inferno.mikrus.pw.edu.pl>...
> ...
> Maybe someone else will find any application for them.
> ...
> Any comments?
> 
> 	Lukasz

they prove very effective at defeating my gene pattern parser :-)
working around them now..

/Will


From: achap30@hotmail.com (J Cade)
Subject: Re: Worm killing
Date: 16 Oct 2002 12:51:46 -0700
Message-ID: <ba7da929.0210161151.4bad5de2@posting.google.com>

JC again,
Thanks for all your help guys, and yes you are right it is a self repairing worm.

Whoo, whoo!
JC


From: Steve Gunnell <steveg58@iinet.net.au>
Subject: Re: Worm killing
Date: 16 Oct 2002 18:24:41 -0400
Message-ID: <200210160815.41593.steveg58@iinet.net.au>

Hi Jon,

If you are talking about an imp spiral there are several methods.
Try an imp killing bomb like 'dat  <imp_step, <imp_step *2' which is far 
more effective than a straight dat.
If your scanner is a fast multi pass engine try a pass of 'nop 0, 0' between 
the spl clear and the dat clear.
Try a spiral clear incrementing your bombing by the imp step ... spirals 
have to be killed from the trailing process. Attacking the leading process 
is an exercise in futility as you are finding.

Steve Gunnell

On Tue, 15 Oct 2002 20:36, J Cade wrote:
> Hello there, a newbie here :)
>
> I would be very grateful if anyone could please help me with some code
> to kill a worm.
>
> I have slowed it down (spl 0) and tracked down the leading end of it,
> but no amount of dat #0, #0's will kill it, has anyone got any ideas,
> other than an imp gate, as that is not really feasable?
>
> Thank you all in advance!
> Jon Cade


From: Paul-V Khuong <paul_virak_khuong@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: Worm killing
Date: 16 Oct 2002 18:26:06 -0400
Message-ID: <20021016154228.34425.qmail@web20710.mail.yahoo.com>

--- Robert Macrae <ff95@dial.pipex.com> wrote:
[snipdeedoo]
> 6) Tuned carpet. Carpeting with something that will
> copy itself imperfectly
> (for example MOV.i 0, <2667, MOV.i {1, 2667 or MOV.i
> 0, <1). NPaper used
> this very effectively, though I don't think
> you can make it work well against both forms of imp
> at the same time.
nPaper launched two copies at start, so it wouldn't be
hard to have one copy working against b-imps and the
other against a-imps. In fact, this was suggested a
few months ago here, on rgcw.

__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Faith Hill - Exclusive Performances, Videos & More
http://faith.yahoo.com


From: "Robert Macrae" <ff95@dial.pipex.com>
Subject: Re: URGENT ASSISTANCE
Date: Wed, 16 Oct 2002 20:25:58 +0000 (UTC)
Message-ID: <aoki0l$ov3$1@helle.btinternet.com>


"HiEv" <spam@someoneelse.invalid> wrote in message
news:3DAC2A6D.FDDEEEB@someoneelse.invalid...
> BALDWIN ONUIGBO wrote:
> > EXPEDIENT INTEREST
> >
> > Dear Sir,
> >
> > I am Mr. Baldwin Onuigbo. Bank Manager of Diamond Bank of
> > Nigeria, Lagos Branch. I have urgent and very
> > confidential business proposition for you.
> [snip]
>
> Wow.  That's the first Nigerian 419 scam letter I've seen on usenet.
> Neat.
>
> If you haven't heard of this scam yet, see here:
>
> http://www.crimes-of-persuasion.com/Crimes/Business/nigerian.htm

Remarkable.

"Please commit fraud. Please observe utmost confidentiality. Me? I'm posting
to Usenet."

Robert








From: "Robert Macrae" <ff95@dial.pipex.com>
Subject: Re: Worm killing
Date: Wed, 16 Oct 2002 20:27:13 +0000 (UTC)
Message-ID: <aoki30$bkh$1@knossos.btinternet.com>

Damn, forgot Paul's family of neat non-Silk replicators. I don't think I've
seen this one before, but the general principle is avoid scattering
processes all around core so that each replicator (or pair?) executes all
its processes before the next one starts. The key difference is using SPL 1
rather than SPL @0, XXXX to split. The advantage is that you can lay fast
linear carpets rather than just scattering DAT bombs through core. The
penalty is slightly slower replication.

Err... it occurs to me that Paul might be better placed to explain 8-)

Use of a DAT <2*2667 ,<2667 is in itself a technique worth thinking about;
when executed by an imp tail it disrupts the next two elements of the imp
and will be more effective than something like DAT 1, 1.

Robert




From: howard_harry@hotmail.com (Will Varfar)
Subject: Re: RedCoder sneek
Date: 17 Oct 2002 07:06:11 -0700
Message-ID: <5e314d3b.0210170606.71744a0c@posting.google.com>

Hi folks,

howard_harry@hotmail.com (Will Varfar) wrote in message news:<5e314d3b.0209301206.3591c5e9@posting.google.com>...
>
> have put a sneek preview of my emulator/debugger at
> http://www.geocities.com/varfar/redcoder/index.html
> 
> I know it can't do much, and it is very slow, but if you can help me
> identify the implementation bugs in my mars emulator I'd greatly
> apprieciate it.

a new version, feel free to check it out

Thanks,
Will.


From: trojan_warrior_uk@hotmail.com (trojan_warrior_uk)
Subject: http://www.livethelegend.lycos.co.uk - GR8 new online fighting game
Date: 18 Oct 2002 04:03:24 -0700
Message-ID: <5858dba3.0210180303.7ed7ff2b@posting.google.com>

GR8 new online fighting game. Deck your mates and complete strangers
from the comfort of your chair! Bring it on!

challenge me trojan_warrior_uk@hotmail.com


From: Aristoteles Pagaltzis <pagaltzis@gmx.de>
Subject: For crying out loud!
Date: 18 Oct 2002 22:46:17 -0400
Message-ID: <20021018225210.A13648@klangraum>

Can we please please have the mailing list reject
newspostings larger than 150kb?? Who runs the listserv?

-- 
Regards,
Aristotle


From: Steve Gunnell <steveg58@iinet.net.au>
Subject: Re: Worm killing
Date: 19 Oct 2002 08:14:03 -0400
Message-ID: <200210170646.44084.steveg58@iinet.net.au>

On Wed, 16 Oct 2002 17:34, Robert Macrae wrote:

> 3) Multiple linear clears. If you run 3 separate carpets spaced 2667
> apart you achieve a similar effect. Night Train was a paper that used
> this approach to create imps but you could also use it to clear.

A variation of this is to boot 3correctly spaced papers and let the papers 
copy be the clear. Have a look at the paper here:

;redcode-94 test
;name Spray paper
;author Steve Gunnell
;assert 1

STEP1   equ  6322
STEP2   equ  2094
STEP3   equ  4573

ptr   dat     0        ,6004
      dat.f   0        ,0
      dat.f   0        ,0
      dat.f   0        ,0
hclr  spl     #0       ,0
for 0
      spl     #0       ,0
rof
for 0
      spl     #0       ,>ptr
rof
trash mov.i   dbmb     ,>ptr
for 0
      mov.i   dbmb     ,>ptr
rof
      djn.f   trash    ,>ptr
dbmb  dat.f   >2667    ,dbmb-ptr+4

for 50
dat.f 0,0
rof

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;                  ;
;    paper         ;
;                  ;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

paper  spl    1,         <paper-297
       spl    1,         <paper-298
       spl    1,         <paper-299
       spl    hclr      ,<paper-300
       spl    tpap+5334-STEP1*3 ,tpap
       mov    >-1       ,}-1
       spl    tpap+2667-STEP1*1 ,tpap
       mov    >-1       ,}-1
tpap   spl    @0        ,STEP1
       mov    }-1,       >-1
       spl    @0        ,STEP2
       mov    }-1,       >-1
hpap   spl    @0        ,STEP3
       mov    }-1,       >-1
       mov.i  bpap      ,>2522
bpap   dat <2667, <5334

end paper



From: jkw@koth.org
Subject: Re: IRC (and the rest)
Date: 19 Oct 2002 08:15:29 -0400
Message-ID: <4.1.20021016220003.00a65310@pop-server>

Sorry if anything is missing from koth.org that should be there.  I'm afraid I can't always read all the corewar-l posts, so please email me about any deficiencies and I will try to fix them asap.  Also, in response to an irc conversation, koth.org should be putting up a plain -94 hill soon.

At 02:38 PM 10/11/02 -0400, you wrote:
>dhillismail@netscape.net (Dave Hillis) wrote in message 
>news:<5d6847b2.0210090607.1faec2dd@posting.google.com>...
>
>
>>     No one is going to think you meant that to be such a sweeping
>> statement. But since you bring the subject up, over the 4 years I've
>> been playing Corewars I don't think the hills at KOTH have been down
>> for 4 days. It's a very well maintained web site.
>
>Gee, I did not mean to offend anyone. I am aware of the fact KotH runs
>smoothly and there hardly are any breaks. This is not what I meant.
>
>Since http://www.koth.org is the only *working* site in English
>(Lukasz's hills are in Polish so it *might* a little tricky for
>English-speaking people to read the rules) one should give more care
>to it. CoreWarrior issue are easily found in the google archives not
>on the webpage. There's no info about John's current tournament.
>
>I do *love* KotH, don't you know that. But it should be more
>up-to-date, methinks.



From: Lukasz Grabun <grabek@purgatory.abyss>
Subject: Re: For crying out loud!
Date: Sat, 19 Oct 2002 08:51:58 +0000 (UTC)
Message-ID: <slrnar4rqs.8lg.grabek@purgatory.abyss>

On 18 Oct 2002 22:46:17 -0400, Aristoteles Pagaltzis wrote:
> Can we please please have the mailing list reject
> newspostings larger than 150kb?? Who runs the listserv?

  Elves. :)

-- 
Lukasz Grabun 
(reply-to field is fake, use grabek (at) acn dot waw dot pl to reply)


From: "John Metcalf" <grumpy3039@hotmail.com>
Subject: Misc
Date: 19 Oct 2002 10:55:03 -0400
Message-ID: <F88YrVORBtBrTT59Gu6000077f3@hotmail.com>

Hi,

I finally got an IRC program, but no-one's there :-(

Corewarrior finally did make it to the newsgroup (the
second of three attempts) but wasn't wrapped very well.
If anyone would like a nicely wrapped copy sending to
them, just let me know.

Regards,

John

_________________________________________________________________
Unlimited Internet access for only $21.95/month.� Try MSN! 
http://resourcecenter.msn.com/access/plans/2monthsfree.asp



From: "John Metcalf" <grumpy3039@hotmail.com>
Subject: Round 4 announcement
Date: 19 Oct 2002 10:56:27 -0400
Message-ID: <F88eRcBmDckMkPDCmba000077e6@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

ROUND 4:  RESTRICTED LENGTH (Deadline: 30th November 2002)

Round four will be fought using extended '94 rules, as used by both
Pizza's draft and beginner hills.  The maximum warrior length is
reduced to 50 to discourage complex p-spacers and qscans.

  pmars -l 50

A similar round was held in 1998 as part of the Redcode Maniacs
Tournament.  Check which warriors were successful then on Philip
Kendall's page:

  http://www.srcf.ucam.org/~pak21/corewar/maniacs/maniacs1.html

As usual, you can enter either one or two warriors.  However, there
will be one restriction.  You may only enter one warrior which uses
the LDP instruction.  PIN numbers are disallowed.

Good luck :-)

ROUND 5 PREVIEW: TRI-ATHELON

All the greatest quiz shows give the competitors the chance to play
for 'double the money' in one of the final rounds.  In the final
joust of the tournament you will be seeking vital extra points as
your warrior plays round-robin, multi-warrior and against a
bench-mark of recent warriors.


_________________________________________________________________
Protect your PC - get McAfee.com VirusScan Online 
http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963



From: Lukasz Grabun <grabek@purgatory.abyss>
Subject: Re: IRC (and the rest)
Date: Sat, 19 Oct 2002 13:37:08 +0000 (UTC)
Message-ID: <slrnar5chj.j5n.grabek@purgatory.abyss>

On 19 Oct 2002 08:15:29 -0400, jkw@koth.org wrote:
> Sorry if anything is missing from koth.org that should be there.  
>I'm afraid I can't always read all the corewar-l posts, so please 
>email me about any deficiencies and I will try to fix them asap.  

So The Master speaks. :) Hello, JKW.

I did not mean any harsh words - please, do not take any offence of my
words. KotH is great site; as far as missing CW issues and broken
links are mentioned - one can easily find disired information in
http://groups.google.com. Obviously, it *would* be nice to have them
(CW, I mean) gathered in one place.

>Also, in response to an irc conversation, koth.org should be putting 
>up a plain -94 hill soon.

Argh, ::worship:: ::worship:: ::worship::

Thanks!

-- 
Lukasz Grabun 
(reply-to field is fake, use grabek (at) acn dot waw dot pl to reply)


From: Koth <koth@koth.org>
Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - ICWS Experimental 94 10/21/02
Date: 21 Oct 2002 14:55:56 -0400
Message-ID: <200210210406.AAA04443@gevjon.ttsg.com>

			Weekly Status on  10/21/02
 
-=- 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 : Tue Oct 15 09:45:39 EDT 2002
 
 #  %W/ %L/ %T                      Name               Author   Score     Age
 1  51/ 37/ 13           Fire and Ice II          David Moore     164      39
 2  34/ 23/ 42                    KAT v5          Dave Hillis     145      71
 3  27/ 17/ 56                  Katafutr      Michal Janeczek     137      79
 4  34/ 33/ 32     Controlled Aggression          Ian Oversby     135     139
 5  33/ 32/ 35              Big I.F.F.S.          Dave Hillis     135      68
 6  34/ 33/ 33              Trefoil F 13        Steve Gunnell     135      22
 7  35/ 36/ 29                      Ogre    Christian Schmidt     134      87
 8  30/ 28/ 42          Damage Inflicted        Robert Macrae     132      78
 9  19/  8/ 73                    Denial          David Moore     130      80
10  33/ 36/ 31               Black Moods          Ian Oversby     130     135
11  19/  8/ 73              Evol Cap 4 X       John Wilkinson     130     208
12  21/ 13/ 67                       Kin         John Metcalf     129      47
13  27/ 25/ 48                  Olivia X             Ben Ford     129      20
14  25/ 22/ 54               Venom v0.2b    Christian Schmidt     128     161
15  33/ 38/ 29                   Exsnail        Philip Thorne     127      34
16  22/ 19/ 58                 Glenstorm         John Metcalf     125       1
17  13/  7/ 79            Black Box v1.1                  JKW     120     102
18  13/  7/ 80             Evolve X v4.0       John Wilkinson     119     156
19  29/ 40/ 31            Bugtown Rap 19        Steve Gunnell     118       4
20  33/ 49/ 18 Greetings From Asbury Par                  JKW     118      99

21   0/ 49/ 51         Super Imp v1.0exp           Xavi Canal      52       0


From: Koth <koth@koth.org>
Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status -  94 No Pspace 10/21/02
Date: 21 Oct 2002 14:57:20 -0400
Message-ID: <200210210409.AAA04492@gevjon.ttsg.com>

			Weekly Status on  10/21/02
 
-=- 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 Oct 20 16:50:32 EDT 2002
 
 #  %W/ %L/ %T                      Name               Author   Score     Age
 1  44/ 48/  8                    Willow         John Metcalf     139      67
 2  39/ 38/ 24               CrazyShot 2    Christian Schmidt     139       1
 3  43/ 50/  6                      Claw                Fizmo     137      20
 4  28/ 21/ 51                Reepicheep       Grabun/Metcalf     135     199
 5  37/ 43/ 20      Hazy Lazy ... reborn        Steve Gunnell     132      53
 6  27/ 24/ 49               Son of Vain      Oversby/Pihlaja     131     968
 7  25/ 18/ 57                 Firestorm         John Metcalf     131       4
 8  25/ 21/ 54     Revenge of the Papers            Fizmo/Roy     130       6
 9  38/ 47/ 15                     Blade                Fizmo     130     285
10  23/ 16/ 61                   SilKing    Christian Schmidt     129     201
11  26/ 24/ 49           The Stormkeeper    Christian Schmidt     129      76
12  26/ 24/ 51                 Wallpaper    Christian Schmidt     128     117
13  28/ 28/ 45                 Glenstorm         John Metcalf     128     140
14  36/ 45/ 19                 Versatile         John Metcalf     128       3
15  25/ 24/ 51            Positive Knife         Ken Espiritu     126      42
16  25/ 23/ 52        Alternative Action         Roy van Rijn     126      44
17  24/ 22/ 55          Pink Detonations         Ken Espiritu     126      48
18  27/ 28/ 46                 Uninvited         John Metcalf     126    1061
19  22/ 19/ 59                   Leaflet             Ben Ford     124       2
20  20/ 17/ 62              Velvet Glove                Fizmo     124      27

21  11/ 18/ 71        Mr Sheen Test D 41        Steve Gunnell     104       0


From: Koth <koth@koth.org>
Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - MultiWarrior 94 10/21/02
Date: 21 Oct 2002 14:58:45 -0400
Message-ID: <200210210403.AAA04361@gevjon.ttsg.com>

			Weekly Status on  10/21/02
 
-=- 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 : Sun Oct 20 13:45:04 EDT 2002
 
 #                      Name               Author   Score     Age
 1                Redemption         John Metcalf      34       7
 2                  D-clearM         Ken Espiritu      30     102
 3      clock strikes twelve         John Metcalf      24      16
 4                     trial         John Metcalf      23       6
 5                    fclear         Brian Haskin      21      86
 6                 Snurp III        Philip Thorne      21       1
 7         Playing with Fire             Ben Ford      19      14
 8                  twinshot         John Metcalf      19       2
 9               Her Majesty              P.Kline      16     121
10                  Tinyshot         John Metcalf      16      15

11                       _/_                  _/_       0       0


From: Koth <koth@koth.org>
Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - Standard 10/21/02
Date: 21 Oct 2002 15:00:10 -0400
Message-ID: <200210210400.AAA04311@gevjon.ttsg.com>

			Weekly Status on  10/21/02
 
-=- 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 : Sun Oct 20 22:07:50 EDT 2002
 
 #  %W/ %L/ %T                      Name               Author   Score     Age
 1  38/ 22/ 39           Quicksilver '88      Michal Janeczek     155       4
 2  35/ 22/ 42             Freight Train          David Moore     148     169
 3  34/ 22/ 44                      Test Alexander (Sasha) Wa     145     108
 4  33/ 24/ 43                  Guardian          Ian Oversby     143     168
 5  44/ 45/ 11                       vm5      Michal Janeczek     143       3
 6  44/ 48/  8             Scan Test C 6        Steve Gunnell     141       7
 7  43/ 46/ 12               Foggy Swamp          Beppe Bezzi     139     165
 8  42/ 46/ 12                  Blur '88        Anton Marsden     139     206
 9  33/ 28/ 38          sIMPly.Red v0.95    Leonardo Humberto     138     126
10  28/ 20/ 53                  EV Paper     John K Wilkinson     136     182
11  40/ 44/ 16               '88 test IV         John Metcalf     135      62
12  28/ 21/ 51                    Test I          Ian Oversby     135     225
13  38/ 41/ 22                    PacMan          David Moore     135     198
14  36/ 37/ 27       Gymnosperm trickery          Dave Hillis     134      55
15  30/ 25/ 45              Shish-Ka-Bob             Ben Ford     134     124
16  34/ 35/ 32                      vala         John Metcalf     132      91
17  37/ 46/ 18                    Stasis          David Moore     128     276
18  36/ 46/ 17       Beholder's Eye V1.7         W. Mintardjo     127     444
19  27/ 32/ 41         Fat Expansion (V) Philip Thorne (RM/JM     122       1
20  36/ 50/ 14             Tangle Trap 2          David Moore     121       2

21  35/ 50/ 15 rdrc: Conscionable Roomma          Dave Hillis     120      57


From: harryk6969@hotmail.com (Harry Kim)
Subject: Core wars on Windows XP?
Date: 22 Oct 2002 17:18:31 -0700
Message-ID: <a23ffb68.0210221618.38ef37d9@posting.google.com>

Will corewars work on winxp?  When I try to run it I get an error.
I do 
pmarsv imp
and it says 
Exiting due to signal SIGSEGV
General protection fault at.. and it goes on to show me a bunch of
registers...
What can I do? And is there a version I can download for linux?
Specifically slackware?


From: Christoph Birk <birk@ociw.edu>
Subject: Koenigstuhl news
Date: 23 Oct 2002 09:07:39 -0400
Message-ID: <200210222338.QAA22852@andromeda.ociw.edu>

Congratulations to Michal Janeczek: His program 'Quicksilver 88' is 
  not only #2 on the '88-Koenigstuhl, it is the hightest ranking (#82)
  '88-warrior on the OPEN hill (next is 'Freight Train v0.2' as #208)

Contratulations to Fizmo for his first program (Velvet Glove) in the 
  top-100 of the 94nop-hill (#69)

Christoph
http://www.ociw.edu/~birk/COREWAR/koenigstuhl.html



From: "John Metcalf" <grumpy3039@hotmail.com>
Subject: IRC Meeting Sun 27 Oct
Date: 23 Oct 2002 09:09:03 -0400
Message-ID: <F144odJJnw80VMu8FCD0000df48@hotmail.com>

Greetings...

After a hastily arranged IRC meeting on Sun 20th Oct, we agreed to
meet again the same time on Sun 27th Oct and give the whole group
opportunity to attend.

Most of us were there between 5pm and 11pm (GMT) with others dropping
in when convenient.  Seven redcoders attended and the log should be
available shortly on Koth.

If you can't hang out at IRC.KOTH.ORG for hours on end, just show up
for happy hour between 7 and 8pm (GMT).

See you there.



_________________________________________________________________
Broadband?�Dial-up? Get reliable MSN Internet Access. 
http://resourcecenter.msn.com/access/plans/default.asp


From: "Csaba Biro" <forspams@freemail.hu>
Subject: Re: Core wars on Windows XP?
Date: Wed, 23 Oct 2002 18:27:56 -0400
Message-ID: <ap77sm$8d1$1@news-int.gatech.edu>

I tried to use that one that is claimed to be compiled for DOS, and did the
same thing on Win2000. But one of those pmarsv's that were compiled for
Win95/98/NT (on http://www.koth.org/pmars) was working for me (I don't
remember which one), although it produced strange things, when I tried to
use Windows hot keys.

A suggested here to develope a new Windows GUI pmars a few months ago. I
still think that it is good idea.

Csaba

"Harry Kim" <harryk6969@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:a23ffb68.0210221618.38ef37d9@posting.google.com...
> Will corewars work on winxp?  When I try to run it I get an error.
> I do
> pmarsv imp
> and it says
> Exiting due to signal SIGSEGV
> General protection fault at.. and it goes on to show me a bunch of
> registers...
> What can I do? And is there a version I can download for linux?
> Specifically slackware?




From: Paul-V Khuong <paul_virak_khuong@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: Core wars on Windows XP?
Date: 24 Oct 2002 09:27:07 -0400
Message-ID: <20021023235312.90526.qmail@web20701.mail.yahoo.com>

The 286 version of pmarsv works under windows. You
could also try and run pmarsv under compatibility
mode(DOS).
--- Csaba Biro <forspams@freemail.hu> wrote:
> I tried to use that one that is claimed to be
> compiled for DOS, and did the
> same thing on Win2000. But one of those pmarsv's
> that were compiled for
> Win95/98/NT (on http://www.koth.org/pmars) was
> working for me (I don't
> remember which one), although it produced strange
> things, when I tried to
> use Windows hot keys.
> 
> A suggested here to develope a new Windows GUI pmars
> a few months ago. I
> still think that it is good idea.
> 
> Csaba
> 
> "Harry Kim" <harryk6969@hotmail.com> wrote in
> message
>
news:a23ffb68.0210221618.38ef37d9@posting.google.com...
> > Will corewars work on winxp?  When I try to run it
> I get an error.
> > I do
> > pmarsv imp
> > and it says
> > Exiting due to signal SIGSEGV
> > General protection fault at.. and it goes on to
> show me a bunch of
> > registers...
> > What can I do? And is there a version I can
> download for linux?
> > Specifically slackware?
> 
> 


__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Y! Web Hosting - Let the expert host your web site
http://webhosting.yahoo.com/


From: "Dominic Hull" <idontownthisaccount@hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: Core wars on Windows XP?
Date: Thu, 24 Oct 2002 13:37:17 +0100
Message-ID: <ap8pi2$shh1m$1@ID-34716.news.dfncis.de>

"Harry Kim" <harryk6969@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:a23ffb68.0210221618.38ef37d9@posting.google.com...
> Will corewars work on winxp?  When I try to run it I get an error.
> General protection fault at.. and it goes on to show me a bunch of
> registers...

Same thing happened to me. I then got the 286 version, and it worked fine.

Hope this helps!

Thanks,
Dominic




From: howard_harry@hotmail.com (Will Varfar)
Subject: RedCoder sneek
Date: 25 Oct 2002 15:52:03 -0700
Message-ID: <5e314d3b.0210251452.471837ed@posting.google.com>

another version is out, 0.4, with misc bug fixes.  I aren't saying
that it is bug-free mars-implementation-wise yet, but it is hopefully
quite useable already.

Big thanks to Joonas for patiently going through the mars with me!

http://www.geocities.com/varfar/redcoder/index.html

enjoy,
Will.


From: Koth <koth@koth.org>
Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status -  94 No Pspace 10/28/02
Date: 28 Oct 2002 08:51:32 -0500
Message-ID: <200210280509.AAA04959@gevjon.ttsg.com>

			Weekly Status on  10/28/02
 
-=- 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 Oct 27 18:15:42 EST 2002
 
 #  %W/ %L/ %T                      Name               Author   Score     Age
 1  36/ 23/ 41                Reepicheep       Grabun/Metcalf     148     227
 2  34/ 24/ 43               Son of Vain      Oversby/Pihlaja     143     996
 3  34/ 28/ 38            NoProblem v1.0         Roy van Rijn     140      24
 4  31/ 23/ 46            Positive Knife         Ken Espiritu     139      70
 5  33/ 28/ 39                 Uninvited         John Metcalf     138    1089
 6  33/ 27/ 41           The Stormkeeper    Christian Schmidt     138     104
 7  34/ 30/ 35                 Glenstorm         John Metcalf     138     168
 8  39/ 40/ 21            Dettol Test 18        Steve Gunnell     138      25
 9  30/ 25/ 45     Revenge of the Papers            Fizmo/Roy     136      34
10  39/ 43/ 18      Hazy Lazy ... reborn        Steve Gunnell     136      81
11  28/ 21/ 51                 Firestorm         John Metcalf     136      32
12  31/ 29/ 40                 Wallpaper    Christian Schmidt     134     145
13  43/ 52/  5                    stests         John Metcalf     133      19
14  42/ 52/  6                    Willow         John Metcalf     133      95
15  38/ 43/ 20               CrazyShot 2    Christian Schmidt     133      29
16  38/ 46/ 15                     QUILT                  PBT     131       6
17  24/ 19/ 57                   Blowrag      Metcalf/Schmidt     130      27
18  39/ 49/ 12                     Blade                Fizmo     129     313
19  41/ 54/  5                      Claw                Fizmo     128      48
20  38/ 50/ 12                   vamscb1         Ken Espiritu     125       1

21  24/ 23/ 53                      test         Roy van Rijn     124       2


From: Koth <koth@koth.org>
Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - ICWS Experimental 94 10/28/02
Date: 28 Oct 2002 08:52:57 -0500
Message-ID: <200210280506.AAA04911@gevjon.ttsg.com>

			Weekly Status on  10/28/02
 
-=- 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 : Tue Oct 15 09:45:39 EDT 2002
 
 #  %W/ %L/ %T                      Name               Author   Score     Age
 1  51/ 37/ 13           Fire and Ice II          David Moore     164      39
 2  34/ 23/ 42                    KAT v5          Dave Hillis     145      71
 3  27/ 17/ 56                  Katafutr      Michal Janeczek     137      79
 4  34/ 33/ 32     Controlled Aggression          Ian Oversby     135     139
 5  33/ 32/ 35              Big I.F.F.S.          Dave Hillis     135      68
 6  34/ 33/ 33              Trefoil F 13        Steve Gunnell     135      22
 7  35/ 36/ 29                      Ogre    Christian Schmidt     134      87
 8  30/ 28/ 42          Damage Inflicted        Robert Macrae     132      78
 9  19/  8/ 73                    Denial          David Moore     130      80
10  33/ 36/ 31               Black Moods          Ian Oversby     130     135
11  19/  8/ 73              Evol Cap 4 X       John Wilkinson     130     208
12  21/ 13/ 67                       Kin         John Metcalf     129      47
13  27/ 25/ 48                  Olivia X             Ben Ford     129      20
14  25/ 22/ 54               Venom v0.2b    Christian Schmidt     128     161
15  33/ 38/ 29                   Exsnail        Philip Thorne     127      34
16  22/ 19/ 58                 Glenstorm         John Metcalf     125       1
17  13/  7/ 79            Black Box v1.1                  JKW     120     102
18  13/  7/ 80             Evolve X v4.0       John Wilkinson     119     156
19  29/ 40/ 31            Bugtown Rap 19        Steve Gunnell     118       4
20  33/ 49/ 18 Greetings From Asbury Par                  JKW     118      99

21   0/ 49/ 51         Super Imp v1.0exp           Xavi Canal      52       0


From: Koth <koth@koth.org>
Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - MultiWarrior 94 10/28/02
Date: 28 Oct 2002 08:54:22 -0500
Message-ID: <200210280503.AAA04850@gevjon.ttsg.com>

			Weekly Status on  10/28/02
 
-=- 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 : Sun Oct 27 18:02:05 EST 2002
 
 #                      Name               Author   Score     Age
 1                  D-clearM         Ken Espiritu      24     105
 2                     trial         John Metcalf      15       9
 3                    fclear         Brian Haskin      13      89
 4               Her Majesty              P.Kline      11     124
 5                Redemption         John Metcalf      10      10
 6              Djinn Test 5        Steve Gunnell      10       2
 7                  twinshot         John Metcalf       9       5
 8         Playing with Fire             Ben Ford       8      17
 9                 Wet Snurp        Philip Thorne       8       1
10                  Tinyshot         John Metcalf       4      18

11             Blitz test 48        Steve Gunnell       0       0


From: Koth <koth@koth.org>
Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - Standard 10/28/02
Date: 28 Oct 2002 08:55:46 -0500
Message-ID: <200210280500.AAA04788@gevjon.ttsg.com>

			Weekly Status on  10/28/02
 
-=- 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 : Fri Oct 25 10:35:54 EDT 2002
 
 #  %W/ %L/ %T                      Name               Author   Score     Age
 1  38/ 23/ 39           Quicksilver '88      Michal Janeczek     152       5
 2  35/ 24/ 42             Freight Train          David Moore     146     170
 3  34/ 24/ 43                  Guardian          Ian Oversby     144     169
 4  33/ 23/ 43                      Test Alexander (Sasha) Wa     143     109
 5  41/ 40/ 18                My 1st try    Christian Schmidt     142       1
 6  34/ 27/ 39          sIMPly.Red v0.95    Leonardo Humberto     141     127
 7  43/ 46/ 12                       vm5      Michal Janeczek     140       4
 8  43/ 49/  8             Scan Test C 6        Steve Gunnell     137       8
 9  35/ 34/ 32                      vala         John Metcalf     135      92
10  41/ 47/ 12               Foggy Swamp          Beppe Bezzi     135     166
11  41/ 47/ 13                  Blur '88        Anton Marsden     135     207
12  28/ 21/ 51                    Test I          Ian Oversby     135     226
13  39/ 44/ 16               '88 test IV         John Metcalf     134      63
14  38/ 41/ 21                    PacMan          David Moore     134     199
15  27/ 20/ 53                  EV Paper     John K Wilkinson     133     183
16  30/ 26/ 45              Shish-Ka-Bob             Ben Ford     133     125
17  35/ 38/ 27       Gymnosperm trickery          Dave Hillis     133      56
18  37/ 45/ 17                    Stasis          David Moore     129     277
19  37/ 45/ 18       Beholder's Eye V1.7         W. Mintardjo     128     445
20  27/ 33/ 40         Fat Expansion (V) Philip Thorne (RM/JM     120       2

21  34/ 52/ 15             Tangle Trap 2          David Moore     116       3


Message-ID: <games/corewar-faq_1035804707@rtfm.mit.edu>
From: anton@paradise.net.nz (Anton Marsden)
Subject: Core War Frequently Asked Questions (rec.games.corewar FAQ)
Date: 28 Oct 2002 11:33:42 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]
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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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).

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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)

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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).

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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]
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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]
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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.

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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]
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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]
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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]
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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]
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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]
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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]
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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)

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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]
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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: Christoph Birk <birk@ociw.edu>
Subject: Koenigstuhl News
Date: 28 Oct 2002 18:34:50 -0500
Message-ID: <200210281830.KAA29875@andromeda.ociw.edu>

Congratulations to 'Grabun/Metcalf'. Their program 'Reepicheep' is the
highest ranking 94nop-program on the OPEN-Koenigstuhl.

Christoph
http://www.ociw.edu/~birk/COREWAR/koenigstuhl.html


From: iapdk@admin.drake.edu (Paul Kline)
Subject: Re: Koenigstuhl News
Date: 29 Oct 2002 07:19:52 -0800
Message-ID: <9e6b1335.0210290719.1e2bbcda@posting.google.com>

Christoph Birk <birk@ociw.edu> wrote in message news:<200210281830.KAA29875@andromeda.ociw.edu>...
> Congratulations to 'Grabun/Metcalf'. Their program 'Reepicheep' is the
> highest ranking 94nop-program on the OPEN-Koenigstuhl.

The sad thing is, when I joined this game years ago the top program on
the Hill then was a stone-paper "Flash Paper".  It took a very long
time by today's standards to knock him out of first place.

Great program!

Paul Kline
iapdk@admin.drake.edu