From: Christoph Birk <birk@ociw.edu>
Subject: Koenigstuhl News
Date: 1 Oct 2004 17:31:54 -0400
Message-ID: <200410011821.LAA29813@andromeda.ociw.edu>

Congratulations to Roy Van Rijn!
His program 'Hullabaloo' is the new KotH of the 94nop-Koenigstuhl.

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



From: Sascha Zapf <nc-zapfsa@netcologne.de>
Subject: paper(paper(paper(clear)))
Date: Fri, 01 Oct 2004 23:48:41 +0200
Message-ID: <cjkjbc$533$1@newsreader2.netcologne.de>

Hi,

here is my first successful Warrior for the 94nop-Hill. 
Paper(Paper(Paper(Clear))) (ppc) was based on Fizmo and Roy's
Revenge of the Paper's. But with some improvements which makes 
him score much better.

First i have changed the Qscan to 4.5, and optimized the positions
of the bootstrapping and the papers body.

New while booting is, that the second instance is not taken from the
initial loaded warrior. It's taken from the core, where the first part
of the bootloader has copied it. So if opponents Quickscanner is bombing the
loaded Warrior, the second instance has more chance to be not wounded 
because it's taken from the core.

The second improvement is the change from

djn.f ..., <- ....

to

djn.b ..., #dist

at the end of the Paper,
which speeds up the coreclear of each paperinstance.

After these Changes pppc was over 12 hour's in 
optiMAX's hands.

O.K, that's all - here is the Warrior



;redcode-94nop
;name paper(paper(paper(clear)))
;author Sascha Zapf
;strategy Q4.5 -> Coreclearing Paper's
;assert 1

;optimax 1234
;optimax work ppp
;optimax suite fsh94nop0.2
;optimax rounds 1 200 200 200

;optimax phase2 fsh94nop0.2/pwi/unheard.red
;optimax phase2 110
;optimax phase2 0%

;optimax phase3 138
;optimax phase3 0%
;optimax phase3 top15
;optimax phase3 phase3.lst

;optimax phase4 100%
;optimax phase4 top15

zero    equ     qbomb
qtab3   equ     qbomb

qbomb   dat     >qoff,          >qc2

;constants for the coreclear paper
nstep1 equ 1469;1319
cstep1 equ 2861;1871
tstep1 equ 1835;1471

cstep2 equ 539;1871


; decoys
adec EQU 8;8
bdec EQU 13;8

pAw1   equ 2237;6000
pAw2   equ 6305;2000



pgo   spl    1,    <qb1
qtab2 spl    1,    <qb2
      spl    1,    <qb3

      mov    {cp,    {pBo1
pBo1  spl    pEnd+pAw1,{2093

      mov    }pBo1,    >pBo2    ;pBo1
pBo2  jmp    pEnd+pAw2,pEnd+pAw2

	for adec
    dat 0,0
    rof

cp    spl    @pEnd,  <tstep1
      mov.i  }cp,    >cp
nothA spl    @nothA, <cstep1
      mov.i  }nothA, >nothA
nothB spl    @nothB, <nstep1
      mov.i  }nothB, >nothB
bomb  mov.i  #1,     <1
cc    djn.b    -2,   #cstep2

pEnd  dat    0,      0

	for bdec
    dat 0,0
    rof

        dat     zero - 1,       qa1
qtab1   dat     zero - 1,       qa2

for 46-adec-bdec
dat 0,0
rof

qc2 equ ((1 + (qtab3-qptr)*qy) % CORESIZE)
qb1 equ ((1 + (qtab2-1-qptr)*qy) % CORESIZE)
qb2 equ ((1 + (qtab2-qptr)*qy) % CORESIZE)
qb3 equ ((1 + (qtab2+1-qptr)*qy) % CORESIZE)
qa1 equ ((1 + (qtab1-1-qptr)*qy) % CORESIZE)
qa2 equ ((1 + (qtab1-qptr)*qy) % CORESIZE)
qz equ 2108
qy equ 243
qgo sne qptr + qz*qc2, qptr + qz*qc2 + qb2
 seq <qtab3, qptr + qz*(qc2-1) + qb2
 jmp q0, }q0
 sne qptr + qz*qa2, qptr + qz*qa2 + qb2
 seq <qtab1, qptr + qz*(qa2-1) + qb2
 jmp q0, {q0
sne qptr + qz*qa1, qptr + qz*qa1 + qb2
 seq <(qtab1-1), qptr + qz*(qa1-1) + qb2
 djn.a q0, {q0
 sne qptr + qz*qb3, qptr + qz*qb3 + qb3
 seq <(qtab2+1), qptr + qz*(qb3-1) + (qb3-1)
 jmp q0, }q1
sne qptr + qz*qb1, qptr + qz*qb1 + qb1
 seq <(qtab2-1), qptr + qz*(qb1-1) + (qb1-1)
 jmp q0, {q1
 sne qptr + qz*qb2, qptr + qz*qb2 + qb2
 seq <qtab2, qptr + qz*(qb2-1) + (qb2-1)
 jmp q0
 seq >qptr, qptr + qz + (qb2-1)
 jmp q2, <qptr
seq qptr+(qz+1)*(qc2-1),qptr+(qz+1)*(qc2-1)+(qb2-1)
 jmp q0, }q0
seq qptr+(qz+1)*(qa2-1),qptr+(qz+1)*(qa2-1)+(qb2-1)
 jmp q0, {q0
seq qptr+(qz+1)*(qa1-1),qptr+(qz+1)*(qa1-1)+(qb2-1)
 djn.a q0, {q0
 jmz.f pgo, qptr + (qz+1)*(qb2-1) + (qb2-1)
qoff equ -87
qstep equ -6;7
qtime equ 19;14
q0 mul.b *2, qptr
q2 sne {qtab1, @qptr
q1 add.b qtab2, qptr
 mov qtab3, @qptr
qptr mov qbomb, }qz
 sub #qstep, qptr
 djn -3, #qtime
 jmp pgo
end qgo

-- 


From: Koth <koth@koth.org>
Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - Standard 10/04/04
Date: 4 Oct 2004 02:40:36 -0400
Message-ID: <200410040400.i94401YH026274@gevjon.ttsg.com>

			Weekly Status on  10/04/04
 
-=- 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 5 12:46:44 EDT 2004
 
 #  %W/ %L/ %T                      Name               Author   Score     Age
 1  42/ 26/ 33         The Next Step '88        David Houston     158      15
 2  43/ 37/ 21             Tangle Trap 3          David Moore     149      28
 3  47/ 45/  8             Scan Test C 6        Steve Gunnell     149      38
 4  43/ 38/ 19                My 1st try    Christian Schmidt     149      31
 5  36/ 25/ 39                    A.I.P.    Christian Schmidt     148       7
 6  36/ 26/ 38             Freight Train          David Moore     147     200
 7  36/ 26/ 39                      Test Alexander (Sasha) Wa     146     139
 8  42/ 39/ 19                    Stasis          David Moore     146     307
 9  45/ 44/ 11              Speeed 88mph    Christian Schmidt     145       5
10  43/ 42/ 14  Cold as November Rain...         John Metcalf     145      13
11  35/ 27/ 38                  Guardian          Ian Oversby     144     199
12  39/ 37/ 23                    PacMan          David Moore     141     229
13  37/ 32/ 31                  The Seed         Roy van Rijn     141      17
14  43/ 44/ 13             Blurstone '88        M. J. Pihlaja     141       2
15  36/ 33/ 31                      vala         John Metcalf     139     122
16  38/ 39/ 22               '88 test IV         John Metcalf     137      93
17  34/ 31/ 36                  Pixie 88        Lukasz Grabun     137      29
18  27/ 17/ 56            unheard-of '88    Christian Schmidt     136       6
19  39/ 45/ 16                  Blur '88        Anton Marsden     134     237
20  20/ 13/ 68 the temple of the machine         John Metcalf     127       1

21   2/ 98/  0              hometime :-)         John Metcalf       7       0



From: Koth <koth@koth.org>
Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - MultiWarrior 94 10/04/04
Date: 4 Oct 2004 02:40:34 -0400
Message-ID: <200410040403.i94431AA026326@gevjon.ttsg.com>

			Weekly Status on  10/04/04
 
-=- 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 2 23:39:11 EDT 2004
 
 #                      Name               Author   Score     Age
 1               Her Majesty              P.Kline       7     497
 2               Dodge Viper    Christian Schmidt       6      62
 3     defense test file tg3     simon wainwright       3      16
 4      not king of the hill               FatalC       2     223
 5    temple of the machines         John Metcalf       2       5
 6              The Survivor       Philip Kendall       1     108
 7           all you can eat         John Metcalf       1       2
 8  Attacker in the Darkness    Christian Schmidt       1      17
 9     grasshoppers' prelude     Simon Wainwright       0       4
10         another empty box         John Metcalf       0       1

11           Blitz test D 40        Steve Gunnell       0       0



From: Koth <koth@koth.org>
Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - ICWS Experimental 94 10/04/04
Date: 4 Oct 2004 02:40:11 -0400
Message-ID: <200410040406.i94461mr026399@gevjon.ttsg.com>

			Weekly Status on  10/04/04
 
-=- irc.KOTH.org is up! Meetings held in #corewars
-=- Tons of new features on www.KOTH.org/koth.html pages
-=- *FAQ* page located at: www.KOTH.org/corewar-faq.html
 


Current Status of the KOTH.ORG ICWS Experimental 94 CoreWar Hill:

Last battle concluded at : Fri Sep 3 13:20:21 EDT 2004
 
 #  %W/ %L/ %T                      Name               Author   Score     Age
 1  44/ 35/ 22             Fatamorgana X           Zul Nadzri     153       1
 2  41/ 36/ 23             The X Machine           Zul Nadzri     147      25
 3  44/ 43/ 13           Fire and Ice II          David Moore     144     114
 4  41/ 38/ 21              Eliminator X           Zul Nadzri     144      26
 5  36/ 34/ 31              Trefoil F 13        Steve Gunnell     138      97
 6  37/ 39/ 24                      Ogre    Christian Schmidt     135     162
 7  30/ 26/ 44                    KAT v5          Dave Hillis     134     146
 8  37/ 39/ 24        Simply Intelligent           Zul Nadzri     134       7
 9  36/ 39/ 26               Black Moods          Ian Oversby     133     210
10  25/ 18/ 57                xd100 test        David Houston     133      11
11  28/ 24/ 48                  Olivia X             Ben Ford     132      95
12  37/ 42/ 21        Giant Hazy Test 13        Steve Gunnell     132      41
13  19/  8/ 73              Evol Cap 4 X       John Wilkinson     131     283
14  27/ 24/ 49               Venom v0.2b    Christian Schmidt     130     236
15  20/ 11/ 70                    Denial          David Moore     129     155
16  33/ 38/ 30     Controlled Aggression          Ian Oversby     127     214
17  24/ 21/ 56                 Glenstorm         John Metcalf     127      76
18  15/  7/ 78             Evolve X v4.0       John Wilkinson     123     231
19  20/ 16/ 64                       Kin         John Metcalf     123     122
20  17/ 14/ 69                 Blotter X       J. Pohjalainen     121      16

21   2/ 51/ 47                   charmed         John Metcalf      53       0



From: Koth <koth@koth.org>
Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status -  94 No Pspace 10/04/04
Date: 4 Oct 2004 02:40:08 -0400
Message-ID: <200410040409.i94491T0026453@gevjon.ttsg.com>

			Weekly Status on  10/04/04
 
-=- 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 3 14:30:05 EDT 2004
 
 #  %W/ %L/ %T                      Name               Author   Score     Age
 1  32/ 19/ 49           slime test 1.00        David Houston     145     395
 2  35/ 25/ 40                Hullabaloo         Roy van Rijn     145      65
 3  28/ 14/ 58        Machines Will Rule                bvowk     143       5
 4  34/ 26/ 41                    Borgir    Christian Schmidt     142     100
 5  41/ 40/ 19                    Spiker         Roy van Rijn     141       2
 6  29/ 18/ 52 paper(paper(paper(clear))          Sascha Zapf     141     169
 7  27/ 13/ 60                 Maelstrom         Roy van Rijn     140     209
 8  42/ 45/ 12                     Arrow    Christian Schmidt     139     268
 9  31/ 24/ 45                Gargantuan         Roy van Rijn     138      86
10  31/ 27/ 42                       elf    Christian Schmidt     136     130
11  27/ 18/ 56             unheard-of II    Christian Schmidt     136      82
12  29/ 22/ 49                  Mooncake    Christian Schmidt     136       1
13  27/ 18/ 56              Black Knight    Christian Schmidt     135      90
14  38/ 41/ 21      the eyes of tomorrow         John Metcalf     135       3
15  23/ 12/ 64             Chainlock v01            G.Labarga     134       6
16  29/ 26/ 45                   Gremlin      van Rijn/Grabun     132     299
17  29/ 27/ 44 Savage Flowing Battleworn       Pascal Hofstee     130      84
18  38/ 47/ 14                    Speeed    Christian Schmidt     130      10
19  38/ 46/ 16             HazyLazy C 11                CS SG     129     277
20  35/ 42/ 23         Tyger of Pan Tang    Christian Schmidt     129       4

21   2/ 98/  0                         0                    0       7       0



From: will <varfar@yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: Re: Evolver rules the 94nop!!!
Date: 4 Oct 2004 07:37:23 -0400
Message-ID: <20041004071714.46467.qmail@web25009.mail.ukl.yahoo.com>

> Congratulation bvowk!!!!

oj oj oj!!!!!  wow!!!!! fantastic!!!

this is fantastic news; is this the first *purely
evolved* entrant onto that hill?

Yours enviously,

Will.


	
	
		
___________________________________________________________ALL-NEW Yahoo! Messenger - all new features - even more fun!  http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com



From: chipw@mdli.com (Chip Wendell)
Subject: Re: Evolver rules the 94nop!!!
Date: 4 Oct 2004 07:41:53 -0700
Message-ID: <cc22acdc.0410040641.6c397c21@posting.google.com>

> Congratulation bvowk!!!!
> 
> His purely evolved warrior Machines Will Rule enters the 94nop hill on 
> 2nd place. That is absolute impressive!!!!

Yes, indeed! That represents a lot of hard work and dedication.
Congratulations!

> When do we see the first purely evolved koth?

Very soon, I feel sure. This first one is close already, so it won't
be long. If you could just get those Opterons to spit out a scanner...

From: Barkley Vowk <bvowk@math.ualberta.ca>
Subject: Re: Evolver rules the 94nop!!!
Date: Mon, 04 Oct 2004 09:46:28 -0600
Message-ID: <cjrrb7$73v$1@tabloid.srv.ualberta.ca>

Fizmo wrote:
> Congratulation bvowk!!!!

Thanks Fizmo :) I'm pretty impressed, but I was hoping for #1 spot. Roy 
keeps holding the poor machines down :) My hope is that it sticks on the 
hill long enough to make it into the Hall of Fame, at which point I'll 
retire from corewars and bore my future grandchildren with stories about 
it.

> His purely evolved warrior Machines Will Rule enters the 94nop hill on 
> 2nd place. That is absolute impressive!!!!
> 
> When do we see the first purely evolved koth?

If anybody is interested in looking at the code, you can find it now at 
http://www.math.ualberta.ca/~bvowk/corewar.html

Those interested might also want to look at CoreWarrior 90 for an 
article about evolving for the LP hill on SAL.


From: Sascha Zapf <nc-zapfsa@netcologne.de>
Subject: RF20 Score - correction
Date: Tue, 05 Oct 2004 19:44:43 +0200
Message-ID: <cjumhv$8pc$1@newsreader2.netcologne.de>

O.K,

after some comments from differnet Player i have recalculated the 
scores and found an error in Roy's "Polyethylene"

Hi scores 159 at all so his normalized score will grow up to 83.24 %.  
But there is no change in the Ranking.

And, last but not least


sorry Roy,

here

is

your

price

                                        ___________
                                       '._==_==_=_.'
                                       .-\:      /-.
                                      | (|:.{3}  |) |
                                       '-|:.     |-'
                                         \::.    /
                                          '::. .'
                                            ) (
                                          _.' '._
                                         [_______]

                                         3rd place

                                     ****************
                                     * Chip Wendell *
                                     ****************











Sascha

-- 


From: Sascha Zapf <nc-zapfsa@netcologne.de>
Subject: RF20 - correction
Date: Tue, 05 Oct 2004 20:52:54 +0200
Message-ID: <cjuqhp$euo$2@newsreader2.netcologne.de>

O.K,

after some comments from differnet Player i have recalculated the 
scores and found an error in Roy's "Polyethylene"

Hi scores 159 at all so his normalized score will grow up to 83.24 %.  
But there is no change in the Ranking.

And, last but not least


sorry Roy,

here

is

your

price

                                        ___________
                                       '._==_==_=_.'
                                       .-\:      /-.
                                      | (|:.{3}  |) |
                                       '-|:.     |-'
                                         \::.    /
                                          '::. .'
                                            ) (
                                          _.' '._
                                         [_______]

                                         3rd place

                                     ****************
                                     * Roy van Rijn *
                                     ****************











Sascha

-- 


From: "localghost" <nzrqrr@nzrqrr.or>
Subject: Is P.D.Smith still following this newsgroup?
Date: 07 Oct 2004 13:09:06 GMT
Message-ID: <41653ff1$0$78772$e4fe514c@news.xs4all.nl>

I have tried to contact P.D.Smith, the author of Pcrobots, but all
attempts have failed so far.
I tried pcrobots(at)pscs.co.uk, and even the addresses in readme.1st:
psmithb(at)cix.compulink.co.uk; paul(at)wolf.demon.co.uk and
100023.25(at)compuserve.com
All emails have bounced.

In readme.1st, he also writes:

<quote>
On USENET, the best area is probably rec.games.corewar, as this
seems to be where programming type games are discussed. This
newsgroup will usually be read every day or two (as will mail to
paul@wolf.demon.co.uk).
</quote>

This newsgroup is my last resort.

I wanted to contact P.D.Smith to ask him permission to set up a site on
SourceForge about pcrobots. Because I wasn't able to contact him, I
already went ahead (http://pcrobots.sourceforge.net) but so far I have
only added general information and documentation. I don't want to
publish any of his source code unless he gives me permission, I think
this is the polite thing to do.

Any help in contacting P.D.Smith is very much appreciated!

-- 
localghost is addicted to XanaNews 1.16.4.6
If it has an "X" in the name, it must be Linux?
DISCLAIMER: Dit is mijn persoonlijke mening. Het is absoluut *niet*
mijn bedoeling hiermee een discussie of polemiek te starten. Ik wil mij
bij voorbaat verontschuldigen bij wie zich benadeeld voelt.


Message-ID: <games/corewar-faq_1097209449@rtfm.mit.edu>
From: anton@paradise.net.nz (Anton Marsden)
Subject: Core War Frequently Asked Questions (rec.games.corewar FAQ)
Date: 08 Oct 2004 04:24:37 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.

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

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.

[ToC]
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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)

[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: "Robert Macrae" <ff95@dial.pipex.com>
Subject: Re: Is P.D.Smith still following this newsgroup?
Date: Sun, 10 Oct 2004 00:05:12 +0100
Message-ID: <41687048$0$29936$cc9e4d1f@news.dial.pipex.com>

> I have tried to contact P.D.Smith, the author of Pcrobots, but all
> attempts have failed so far.

PCRobots is pretty old, dating from well before the days of viruses.  I did
play, but forget how long ago -- possibly about 10 years.  Your best chance
of contacting people is via a web search, though the only site I used,
http://www.informatik.uni-frankfurt.de/~hbecker/pcrob.html
doesn't seem to have anything...

Eureka!

http://www.pscs.co.uk/pcrobots/

Good luck.  It was quite a fun game, though balance was poor (every
competitive robot used largely the same design) and there were some needless
frustrations.  It also has no security and I would be very wary of executing
un-known .exe files these days...

Robert

PS if you meet a robot called Buddy say hi!




From: Koth <koth@koth.org>
Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - MultiWarrior 94 10/11/04
Date: 11 Oct 2004 01:21:29 -0400
Message-ID: <200410110403.i9B430vu021975@gevjon.ttsg.com>

			Weekly Status on  10/11/04
 
-=- irc.KOTH.org is up! Meetings held in #corewars
-=- Tons of new features on www.KOTH.org/koth.html pages
-=- *FAQ* page located at: www.KOTH.org/corewar-faq.html
 


Current Status of the KOTH.ORG Multiwarrior 94 CoreWar Hill:

Last battle concluded at : Fri Oct 8 11:31:39 EDT 2004
 
 #                      Name               Author   Score     Age
 1               Her Majesty              P.Kline       7     498
 2              The Survivor       Philip Kendall       3     109
 3      not king of the hill               FatalC       2     224
 4    temple of the machines         John Metcalf       2       6
 5               Dodge Viper    Christian Schmidt       2      63
 6     defense test file tg3     simon wainwright       1      17
 7  Attacker in the Darkness    Christian Schmidt       1      18
 8           all you can eat         John Metcalf       1       3
 9                 steerpike         John Metcalf       1       1
10     grasshoppers' prelude     Simon Wainwright       0       5

11 Blood's taste is so sweet            G.Labarga       0       0



From: Koth <koth@koth.org>
Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - ICWS Experimental 94 10/11/04
Date: 11 Oct 2004 01:21:26 -0400
Message-ID: <200410110406.i9B460OE022028@gevjon.ttsg.com>

			Weekly Status on  10/11/04
 
-=- 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 Oct 6 15:26:33 EDT 2004
 
 #  %W/ %L/ %T                      Name               Author   Score     Age
 1  44/ 36/ 21             Fatamorgana X           Zul Nadzri     152       1
 2  40/ 37/ 22             The X Machine           Zul Nadzri     144      25
 3  42/ 44/ 13           Fire and Ice II          David Moore     141     114
 4  39/ 40/ 21              Eliminator X           Zul Nadzri     138      26
 5  36/ 39/ 25               Black Moods          Ian Oversby     133     210
 6  35/ 39/ 26                      Ogre    Christian Schmidt     131     162
 7  27/ 24/ 49                  Olivia X             Ben Ford     131      95
 8  24/ 18/ 58                xd100 test        David Houston     130      11
 9  19/  8/ 73              Evol Cap 4 X       John Wilkinson     130     283
10  33/ 35/ 32              Trefoil F 13        Steve Gunnell     130      97
11  26/ 24/ 50               Venom v0.2b    Christian Schmidt     129     236
12  27/ 27/ 46                    KAT v5          Dave Hillis     127     146
13  24/ 21/ 54                 Glenstorm         John Metcalf     127      76
14  34/ 41/ 25        Simply Intelligent           Zul Nadzri     126       7
15  34/ 44/ 22        Giant Hazy Test 13        Steve Gunnell     125      41
16  18/ 11/ 71                    Denial          David Moore     125     155
17  31/ 39/ 30     Controlled Aggression          Ian Oversby     124     214
18  15/  7/ 78             Evolve X v4.0       John Wilkinson     123     231
19  20/ 16/ 64                       Kin         John Metcalf     123     122
20  17/ 14/ 69                 Blotter X       J. Pohjalainen     121      16

21  15/ 30/ 55                 Fragility         John Metcalf     101       0



From: Koth <koth@koth.org>
Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status -  94 No Pspace 10/11/04
Date: 11 Oct 2004 01:21:20 -0400
Message-ID: <200410110409.i9B490Hv022086@gevjon.ttsg.com>

			Weekly Status on  10/11/04
 
-=- 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 10 22:36:46 EDT 2004
 
 #  %W/ %L/ %T                      Name               Author   Score     Age
 1  32/ 28/ 40                Hullabaloo         Roy van Rijn     137      78
 2  41/ 45/ 14                     Arrow    Christian Schmidt     136     281
 3  32/ 28/ 40                    Borgir    Christian Schmidt     136     113
 4  37/ 40/ 23             Machine Lover    Christian Schmidt     134       8
 5  24/ 16/ 60                    S.D.N.    Christian Schmidt     133       3
 6  28/ 23/ 49                     New-T         Roy van Rijn     132      12
 7  23/ 16/ 61                 Maelstrom         Roy van Rijn     131     222
 8  28/ 26/ 46                Gargantuan         Roy van Rijn     131      99
 9  25/ 19/ 57              Black Knight    Christian Schmidt     130     103
10  38/ 45/ 17             HazyLazy C 11                CS SG     130     290
11  25/ 22/ 53           slime test 1.00        David Houston     129     408
12  28/ 28/ 44                       JSS         Roy van Rijn     129       2
13  29/ 30/ 41         Hydra II ( Test )          Sascha Zapf     128      11
14  35/ 43/ 22                      Myth    Christian Schmidt     128       7
15  25/ 21/ 54 paper(paper(paper(clear))          Sascha Zapf     128     182
16  36/ 44/ 20                    Spiker         Roy van Rijn     128      15
17  39/ 52/  9           Aoshi Test E 39        Steve Gunnell     126       1
18  35/ 44/ 21      the eyes of tomorrow         John Metcalf     125      16
19  20/ 17/ 63        Machines Will Rule                bvowk     124      18
20  25/ 26/ 50       Under a burning sky            G.Labarga     123      13

21  19/ 14/ 67             Chainlock v01            G.Labarga     123      19



From: "localghost" <nzrqrr@nzrqrr.or>
Subject: Re: Is P.D.Smith still following this newsgroup?
Date: 11 Oct 2004 08:52:16 GMT
Message-ID: <416a49bf$0$78749$e4fe514c@news.xs4all.nl>

Robert Macrae shared this with us in rec.games.corewar:

> Your best chance of contacting people is via a web search, though the
> only site I used,
> http://www.informatik.uni-frankfurt.de/~hbecker/pcrob.html
> doesn't seem to have anything...

I know about that page.

> Eureka!
> 
> http://www.pscs.co.uk/pcrobots/

I know. I used the email address on that page, but it bounced.

> Good luck.  It was quite a fun game, though balance was poor (every
> competitive robot used largely the same design) and there were some
> needless frustrations.  It also has no security and I would be very
> wary of executing un-known .exe files these days...

I like the fact that it's language-independant. All other programming
games I found so far, use (a subset or special version of) one specific
language. But being language-independant means having compiled code
with all its benefits and risks.

I think that the Microsoft .NET platform might give new opportunities
for a language-independant programming game that might be more secure,
but so far I haven't found any that exist already. And I don't consider
myself such a seasoned programmer that I would write a new programming
game from scratch.
And I don't know enough about programming on Linux either. :(

> PS if you meet a robot called Buddy say hi!

I'll do that!

-- 
localghost is addicted to XanaNews 1.16.4.6
If it has an "X" in the name, it must be Linux?
DISCLAIMER: Dit is mijn persoonlijke mening. Het is absoluut *niet*
mijn bedoeling hiermee een discussie of polemiek te starten. Ik wil mij
bij voorbaat verontschuldigen bij wie zich benadeeld voelt.


From: "localghost" <nzrqrr@nzrqrr.or>
Subject: Re: Is P.D.Smith still following this newsgroup?
Date: 13 Oct 2004 06:13:44 GMT
Message-ID: <416cc798$0$42417$e4fe514c@news.xs4all.nl>

Will Berry shared this with us in rec.games.corewar:

> localghost wrote:
> > 
> > I like the fact that it's language-independant. All other
> > programming games I found so far, use (a subset or special version
> > of) one specific language. But being language-independant means
> > having compiled code with all its benefits and risks.
> > 
> > I think that the Microsoft .NET platform might give new
> > opportunities for a language-independant programming game that
> > might be more secure, but so far I haven't found any that exist
> > already. And I don't consider myself such a seasoned programmer
> > that I would write a new programming game from scratch.
> > And I don't know enough about programming on Linux either. :(
> 
> If it's that big a deal, then it should be possible for the arena to
> be a server that accepts XML SAX input from the competitors.  So the
> competitors wouldn't have to be on the same server/network even, as
> long as there is an open channel.

Sounds like an excellent idea that I do not understand at all ;-)
But one is never too old to learn.

Now I think about it: using XML SAX, it would even be possible to
recompile old robots with minimal code changes. Only the special
function would have to be rewritten. Hey thank you for this excellent
suggestion, I'll give you full credit if I ever decide to do anything
with it.

-- 
localghost is addicted to XanaNews 1.16.4.6
If it has an "X" in the name, it must be Linux?
DISCLAIMER: Dit is mijn persoonlijke mening. Het is absoluut *niet*
mijn bedoeling hiermee een discussie of polemiek te starten. Ik wil mij
bij voorbaat verontschuldigen bij wie zich benadeeld voelt.


From: fizmo_master@yahoo.com (Fizmo)
Subject: New fsh benchmark released for optiMAX
Date: 13 Oct 2004 07:06:43 -0700
Message-ID: <9f53b5fb.0410130606.585dde39@posting.google.com>

Hi all,

I've released a brand new fsh benchmark for the 88 hill. You'll find it
in the download section of the optiMAX homepage at:

http://www.corewar.info/optimax/

Please keep in mind that optiMAX can't check if your code is valid under 88
rules. Before optimizing you have to check the code manually with pmars using
the -8 command or with CoreWin choosing ICWS 88 as standard.

Just check the 88 hill at koth.org to see how well the fsh88 benchmark is
working ;-)

Christian


From: kaukasius@yahoo.de (el kauka)
Subject: REDCODERS FRENZY TOURNAMENT 21 - THE "FOOTBALL" ROUND
Date: 14 Oct 2004 10:29:07 -0700
Message-ID: <f889e2e6.0410140929.7cc918c2@posting.google.com>

..................................................................
                                                                 .
           _____          _               _                      .
          |  __ \        | |             | |                     .
          | |__) |___  __| | ___ ___   __| | ___ _ __ ___        .
          |  _  // _ \/ _` |/ __/ _ \ / _` |/ _ \ '__/ __|       .
          | | \ \  __/ (_| | (_| (_) | (_| |  __/ |  \__ \       .
          |_|  \_\___|\__,_|\___\___/ \__,_|\___|_|  |___/       .
                                                                 .
                   ______                                        .
                  |  ____|                                       .
                  | |__ _ __ ___ _ __  _____   _                 .
                  |  __| '__/ _ \ '_ \|_  / | | |                .
                  | |  | | |  __/ | | |/ /| |_| |                .
                  |_|  |_|  \___|_| |_/___|\__, |                .
                                            __/ |                .
                                           |___/                 .
..................................................................

                     The ongoing corewar tournament

                            
                               ___     ___
                            _ /   \___/   \ _
                           / |   REDCODER  | \
                          /  |  ____   __  |  \
                          \\ | |__  \ /  | | //
                           \/|    )  |_  | |\/
                             |   /  /  | | |
                             |  /  /_  | | |
                             | |_____||___||
                             |_____________|
                             |_____________|	

                       ...........................
                       .                         .
                       .  The "Football" Round   .
                       .                         .
                       ...........................


This is the 21th round of the ongoing corewar tournament. Further
information are available on Fizmo's Corewar Info Page:

http://www.corewar.info/tournament/cwt.htm

The "Frankenstein" Round homepage is:

http://www.corewar.info/tournament/21.htm

..................................................................
                                   _                             .
                          _ _ _  _| |___ ___                     .
                         | '_| || | / -_|_-<                     .
                         |_|  \_,_|_\___/__/                     .
                                                                 .
..................................................................

Hill spec:

Coresize   : 8000
Maxprocess : 11
Cycles     : 85000
Lenght     : 100
Distance   : 100
Rounds     : 250 Round Robin
pSpace     : no pSpace

Two entry's for each participant.


For all those who are not really familliar with "football" here a
little overview of the "real" football rules:
There are two teams of about 11 players, one ball and two goals. The
only aim is to get the ball inside the enemys goal. another important
fact: you are not allowed to kill other players ;-)



To play football with p mars you will have to get a special p mars
version written by trac. you can get the source code, a
windows-compiled version and a linux-compiled version here:

http://rft21.la-things.de

this is the latest version of p mars with a fixed evaluator! you can
use it as a normal version of p mars. To run the football round you'll
have to use the parameter -T
  
command line:                        |
pmars -r 250 -s 8000 -p 11 -c 85000 -l 100 -d 100 -T player1.red
player2.red goal1.red goal2.red ball.red

the players will be the entries. the ball looks like this:


;redcode
;name THE BALL

	jmp	#0	,#xxx


the two goals look the same way, but each with other values inside
its b-field. the players have to include the following lines inside:

goal equ value
ball equ value

(the value can be everything between 3000-4000)

so each player only knows the enemys goal. 

the difficultie of the challenge is, that the players can only read
the goals, but only the ball's process got write access to them. the
players have to find the ball, turn it into something else to make him
"kill" the enemys goal. thats the only way to get points. if the ball,
or one of players dies the round will be stopped and no points are
given to the players. only if one of the goals dies points will be
given to the players!


here is a little example player. he is very slow and each entrie that
should take part in the challenge should be able to beat him by a
minimum of 60% wins.


;redcode
;name eisern_union

goal equ value
ball equ value

;find the goal
a	sne.ab	#goal,	-1
	jmp	b
	jmp	a,	<a

;find the ball
b	sne.ab	#ball,	-4
	jmp	shot
	jmp	b,	<b

;calculate the distance and
shot	mov.b	a,	sw
	sub.b	b,	sw
	sub	#3,	sw
	mov	sw,	@b	

	jmp	0 ;do nothing after the shot
                  ;just watch the ball flying... 		

sw	mov.i -1, 0
	
end


-----------------------------------------------------------------
some hints:

- the values of the ball or the goals can be everything between
  3000-4000. all values inside your player that are between that
  should be placed in the a-field to avoid "accidents". be aware
  of counters!

- you dont have to find the goal and than the ball, calculate
  the distance and than shoot the ball by making him execute a
  special mov-instruction like the basic player did. you can 
  turn the ball into everything you want. maybe the ball can
  search the goal himself....

- its not forbidden to drop fake balls/goals 

- be aware of fake balls/goals ;-)

- calling your entries after your local football team wont make
  you win, but it will increase the fun! 
 

..................................................................
                    _             _ _ _                          .
                 __| |___ __ _ __| | (_)_ _  ___                 .
                / _` / -_) _` / _` | | | ' \/ -_)                .
                \__,_\___\__,_\__,_|_|_|_||_\___|                .
                                                                 .
..................................................................

                          november 13, 2004

  
  You have to send your entries to Johannes Kersten (alias el kauka)
                           (kaukasius@yahoo.de)
  

again thanks to trac for writting that "special" p mars version !!!


Good luck
and "Sport frei"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


From: sayembara@yahoo.com (Zul Nadzri)
Subject: Re: REDCODERS FRENZY TOURNAMENT 21 - THE "FOOTBALL" ROUND
Date: 15 Oct 2004 07:55:03 -0700
Message-ID: <b28eac54.0410150655.4f26e5e1@posting.google.com>

Sascha Zapf <nc-zapfsa@netcologne.de> wrote in message news:<cko5kq$i16$1@newsreader2.netcologne.de>...
> ___     ___
>                              _ /   \___/   \ _
>                             / |   REDCODER  | \
>                            /  |  ____   __  |  \
>                            \\ | |__  \ /  | | //
>                             \/|    )  |_  | |\/
>                               |   /  /  | | |
>                               |  /  /_  | | |
>                               | |_____||___||
>                               |_____________|
>                               |_____________|
>  
> 
> Wow, must read the rules two times. I vote for a deadline extension...   ;-)
> 
> Let's play football !
> 
> Sascha
> 
> --

I also vote for deadline extension. Sadly, I have to read the rules again!

/mzmn


From: sayembara@yahoo.com (Zul Nadzri)
Subject: Re: REDCODERS FRENZY TOURNAMENT 21 - THE "FOOTBALL" ROUND
Date: 15 Oct 2004 07:58:48 -0700
Message-ID: <b28eac54.0410150658.9779b22@posting.google.com>

One more thing.... can the "trac pmars" program (especially window
version) be placed at another site? I have trouble reaching the
primary site.


From: Sascha Zapf <nc-zapfsa@netcologne.de>
Subject: Re: REDCODERS FRENZY TOURNAMENT 21 - THE "FOOTBALL" ROUND
Date: Fri, 15 Oct 2004 11:35:24 +0200
Message-ID: <cko5kq$i16$1@newsreader2.netcologne.de>

                             
                                ___     ___
                             _ /   \___/   \ _
                            / |   REDCODER  | \
                           /  |  ____   __  |  \
                           \\ | |__  \ /  | | //
                            \/|    )  |_  | |\/
                              |   /  /  | | |
                              |  /  /_  | | |
                              | |_____||___||
                              |_____________|
                              |_____________|
 

Wow, must read the rules two times. I vote for a deadline extension...   ;-)

Let's play football !

Sascha

-- 


From: kaukasius@yahoo.de (el kauka)
Subject: Re: REDCODERS FRENZY TOURNAMENT 21 - THE "FOOTBALL" ROUND
Date: 15 Oct 2004 11:53:03 -0700
Message-ID: <f889e2e6.0410151053.7e7e20e1@posting.google.com>

the link is wrong! the package can be found here:

http://home.t-online.de/home/familie.kersten/johannes/rftpmars.zip

hm, lets say the new deadline is first saturday in september?

el kauka


From: sayembara@yahoo.com (Zul Nadzri)
Subject: Re: REDCODERS FRENZY TOURNAMENT 21 - THE "FOOTBALL" ROUND
Date: 15 Oct 2004 19:51:01 -0700
Message-ID: <b28eac54.0410151851.cc7cee0@posting.google.com>

Sascha Zapf <nc-zapfsa@netcologne.de> wrote in message news:<ckpibs$1in$1@newsreader2.netcologne.de>...
> el kauka wrote:
> 
> > the link is wrong! the package can be found here:
> > 
> > http://home.t-online.de/home/familie.kersten/johannes/rftpmars.zip
> > 
> > hm, lets say the new deadline is first saturday in september?
> > 
> > el kauka
> 
> First Saturday in September....Two questions
> 
> 1) which year
> 
> 2) if ( year == 2004 ) {
> 
>    ask( " Who was the winner?\n" );
> 
>    }
> 
> Sascha
> 
> --

Most probably fisrt week December 2004. 

One more question, if I sent a warrior, or a team in this round, with
"dat 0,0", both the opponent and this team will score nothing, right?
i.e. the program makes both warriors 'lose' in that round.


From: Sascha Zapf <nc-zapfsa@netcologne.de>
Subject: Re: REDCODERS FRENZY TOURNAMENT 21 - THE "FOOTBALL" ROUND
Date: Sat, 16 Oct 2004 00:18:39 +0200
Message-ID: <ckpibs$1in$1@newsreader2.netcologne.de>

el kauka wrote:

> the link is wrong! the package can be found here:
> 
> http://home.t-online.de/home/familie.kersten/johannes/rftpmars.zip
> 
> hm, lets say the new deadline is first saturday in september?
> 
> el kauka

First Saturday in September....Two questions

1) which year

2) if ( year == 2004 ) {

   ask( " Who was the winner?\n" );

   }

Sascha

-- 


From: kaukasius@yahoo.de (el kauka)
Subject: Re: REDCODERS FRENZY TOURNAMENT 21 - THE "FOOTBALL" ROUND
Date: 16 Oct 2004 03:50:40 -0700
Message-ID: <f889e2e6.0410160250.32ae7f85@posting.google.com>

> Most probably fisrt week December 2004. 

that's ok.


> One more question, if I sent a warrior, or a team in this round, with
> "dat 0,0", both the opponent and this team will score nothing, right?
> i.e. the program makes both warriors 'lose' in that round.

i have not thought anybody would do this, but your right. would this
be any advance for you?

el kauka


From: sayembara@yahoo.com (Zul Nadzri)
Subject: Re: REDCODERS FRENZY TOURNAMENT 21 - THE "FOOTBALL" ROUND
Date: 16 Oct 2004 07:19:35 -0700
Message-ID: <b28eac54.0410160619.7dc619c@posting.google.com>

kaukasius@yahoo.de (el kauka) wrote in message news:<f889e2e6.0410160250.32ae7f85@posting.google.com>...
> > Most probably fisrt week December 2004. 
> 
> that's ok.
> 
> 
> > One more question, if I sent a warrior, or a team in this round, with
> > "dat 0,0", both the opponent and this team will score nothing, right?
> > i.e. the program makes both warriors 'lose' in that round.
> 
> i have not thought anybody would do this, but your right. would this
> be any advance for you?
> 
> el kauka

If the bottomline result shows a draw, then it is only good when I
can't recruit the 11 players (aka can't make it on time) :)
Assuming some warriors will lose to the better ones, they will surely
go below the 50% ranking. This dat 0,0 will sit at the 50% line... an
extremely big return for an empty soccer team :) I always seek for the
lazy solutions.

Anyway, I will get my team ready, a good one of course, complete with
a goalkeeper, not to mention the reserves. See you all on the pitch
for the kickoff.

"Ole......ole, ole ole. Ole....ole...."

/Zul Nadzri


From: cchh1990@Yahoo.co.uk (CH)
Subject: Re: REDCODERS FRENZY TOURNAMENT 21 - THE "FOOTBALL" ROUND
Date: 16 Oct 2004 18:45:32 -0700
Message-ID: <b8a0c9e9.0410161745.89d6cc0@posting.google.com>

kaukasius@yahoo.de (el kauka) wrote in message news:<f889e2e6.0410140929.7cc918c2@posting.google.com>...
> the difficultie of the challenge is, that the players can only read
> the goals, but only the ball's process got write access to them. the
> players have to find the ball, turn it into something else to make him
> "kill" the enemys goal. thats the only way to get points. if the ball,
> or one of players dies the round will be stopped and no points are
> given to the players. only if one of the goals dies points will be
> given to the players!

You should probably include that any player that tries to write to one
of the goals dies.

CH


From: =?ISO-8859-2?Q?=A3ukasz_Adamowski?= <corewars@wp.pl>
Subject: Odp: REDCODERS FRENZY TOURNAMENT 21 - THE "FOOTBALL" ROUND
Date: 16 Oct 2004 23:17:10 -0400
Message-ID: <417186ba46c9d@wp.pl>

> ;redcode
> ;name THE BALL
> 
> 	jmp	#0	,#xxx
> 
> 
> the two goals look the same way, but each with other values inside
> its b-field. the players have to include the following lines
inside:
> 
> goal equ value
> ball equ value
> 
> (the value can be everything between 3000-4000)
> 
> so each player only knows the enemys goal. 

I've read rules several times and the more I read, the more I got
confused.
There is one thing I want to be sure: I have to include lines
with _my_ ball and goal values, right? So if I use these values
in my warrior's code, I will be able to search for _my_ ball and
goal. What's the use? I should know my enemy's goal value. Are
you going to put them into my code before each fight instead my
value? That's what I can figure out of your sample warrior. It
searches for the ball and for _my_ goal and makes the first to
kill the second. On the other hand the warriors don't have to
know enemy's goal value, it is obvious that not my goal is my
enemy's goal, so if my warrior finds unrecognized goal (not my
goal and not the ball) it must be enemy's  (or a part of enemy's
code ;)
And if I can choose my ball value and my enemy can do it also how
the hell will you put _two_ ball values (mine and enemy's) into
_one_ ball's code?!? I don't get it. :( I think The Ball should
have predefined and published code, including it's identification
number. There is no harm in it.
Can you please explain it once again? Thanks
Lukasz Adamowski

-= "War is a problem, never a solution" =-
-= "Wojna jest problemem, a nie rozwiazaniem" =-

----------------------------------------------------
Niezwyk�y re�yser, niezwyk�y pakiet 3 film�w! 
Dzie�a Jima Jarmuscha ju� w sklepach! 
http://klik.wp.pl/?adr=http%3A%2F%2Ffilm.wp.pl%2Fp%2Fwiadomosc.html%3Fid%3D58696&sid=254




From: kaukasius@yahoo.de (el kauka)
Subject: Re: Odp: REDCODERS FRENZY TOURNAMENT 21 - THE "FOOTBALL" ROUND
Date: 17 Oct 2004 03:34:15 -0700
Message-ID: <f889e2e6.0410170234.45d8a910@posting.google.com>

hm, lets have a little example:

there are 5 warriors inside the core:

1)the ball

jmp #0,#3500

2)goal1

jmp #0, #3000

3)goal2 

jmp #0,#4000


and there will be the two palyers:

player1
ball equ 3500
goal equ 4000

player2
ball equ 3500
gaol equ 3000


there is only one ball! and the palyers do not know their own goal.
they only know the enemys goal (the one the ball should kill to make
you win)


the values inside the ball/goals will be choose by random, but they
will be between 3000 and 4000

i hope that was a better explanation...

el kauka


From: kaukasius@yahoo.de (el kauka)
Subject: Re: REDCODERS FRENZY TOURNAMENT 21 - THE "FOOTBALL" ROUND
Date: 17 Oct 2004 03:48:21 -0700
Message-ID: <f889e2e6.0410170248.8517651@posting.google.com>

> You should probably include that any player that tries to write to one
> of the goals dies.
> 
> CH


hm, actually that should behave like the nop instruction. they do not
die after they try to write on the goal.


From: cchh1990@Yahoo.co.uk (CH)
Subject: Re: REDCODERS FRENZY TOURNAMENT 21 - THE "FOOTBALL" ROUND
Date: 17 Oct 2004 13:03:46 -0700
Message-ID: <b8a0c9e9.0410171203.5911493f@posting.google.com>

kaukasius@yahoo.de (el kauka) wrote in message news:<f889e2e6.0410170248.8517651@posting.google.com>...
> > You should probably include that any player that tries to write to one
> > of the goals dies.
> > 
> > CH
> 
> 
> hm, actually that should behave like the nop instruction. they do not
> die after they try to write on the goal.

Could you please recheck that, all the tests I did consistently showed
that when a (none ball) proccess moved an instruction over the goal it
died instantly, the result:
End of round nnn
mov.i ($<>{}@#*)nnn, ($<>{}@*)nnn

CH


From: kaukasius@yahoo.de (el kauka)
Subject: Re: REDCODERS FRENZY TOURNAMENT 21 - THE "FOOTBALL" ROUND
Date: 18 Oct 2004 05:05:04 -0700
Message-ID: <f889e2e6.0410180405.9ddaf39@posting.google.com>

oh, you are right. today i spoke with trac and agrreed to that. i was
surprised aswell bcause when we first created the rules the non ball
processes should be treated as nop if they try to write on the goals.
but trac decided that this would'nt be funny enough. a real football
player how tries to damage the enemys goal would get the red card as
well ;-)

therefore: be aware, your processes will get killed if they hit the
goal!

el kauka


From: Koth <koth@koth.org>
Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - ICWS Experimental 94 10/18/04
Date: 18 Oct 2004 07:59:51 -0400
Message-ID: <200410180406.i9I460F2026009@gevjon.ttsg.com>

			Weekly Status on  10/18/04
 
-=- 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 : Mon Oct 11 15:57:25 EDT 2004
 
 #  %W/ %L/ %T                      Name               Author   Score     Age
 1  44/ 35/ 21             Fatamorgana X           Zul Nadzri     152       1
 2  41/ 37/ 23             The X Machine           Zul Nadzri     145      25
 3  43/ 44/ 13           Fire and Ice II          David Moore     142     114
 4  40/ 39/ 21              Eliminator X           Zul Nadzri     140      26
 5  24/ 17/ 58                xd100 test        David Houston     131      11
 6  19/  8/ 74              Evol Cap 4 X       John Wilkinson     129     283
 7  34/ 40/ 26               Black Moods          Ian Oversby     129     210
 8  26/ 24/ 50                  Olivia X             Ben Ford     127      95
 9  31/ 35/ 34              Trefoil F 13        Steve Gunnell     127      97
10  24/ 21/ 56                 Glenstorm         John Metcalf     127      76
11  25/ 24/ 51               Venom v0.2b    Christian Schmidt     127     236
12  26/ 26/ 47                    KAT v5          Dave Hillis     126     146
13  18/ 11/ 72                    Denial          David Moore     125     155
14  32/ 40/ 28                      Ogre    Christian Schmidt     125     162
15  32/ 40/ 28        Simply Intelligent           Zul Nadzri     124       7
16  15/  7/ 78             Evolve X v4.0       John Wilkinson     123     231
17  20/ 16/ 64                       Kin         John Metcalf     123     122
18  33/ 44/ 23        Giant Hazy Test 13        Steve Gunnell     122      41
19  17/ 14/ 69                 Blotter X       J. Pohjalainen     121      16
20  29/ 38/ 32     Controlled Aggression          Ian Oversby     120     214

21  12/ 15/ 73     silence of the desert         John Metcalf     110       0



From: Koth <koth@koth.org>
Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status -  94 No Pspace 10/18/04
Date: 18 Oct 2004 07:59:47 -0400
Message-ID: <200410180409.i9I490Mm026067@gevjon.ttsg.com>

			Weekly Status on  10/18/04
 
-=- 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 17 12:13:11 EDT 2004
 
 #  %W/ %L/ %T                      Name               Author   Score     Age
 1  44/ 45/ 11                     Arrow    Christian Schmidt     144     286
 2  35/ 27/ 38                Hullabaloo         Roy van Rijn     142      83
 3  42/ 42/ 16   7.62N Full Metal Jacket          Sascha Zapf     142       3
 4  41/ 41/ 19             Machine Lover    Christian Schmidt     140      13
 5  42/ 44/ 14             HazyLazy C 11                CS SG     139     295
 6  31/ 24/ 45                     New-T         Roy van Rijn     139      17
 7  34/ 29/ 37                    Borgir    Christian Schmidt     139     118
 8  32/ 25/ 43                Gargantuan         Roy van Rijn     139     104
 9  40/ 43/ 17                    Spiker         Roy van Rijn     137      20
10  27/ 17/ 57                    S.D.N.    Christian Schmidt     136       8
11  41/ 49/ 10                     h2so4          Sascha Zapf     133       4
12  27/ 20/ 53              Black Knight    Christian Schmidt     133     108
13  24/ 16/ 60                 Maelstrom         Roy van Rijn     133     227
14  31/ 31/ 37         Hydra II ( Test )          Sascha Zapf     132      16
15  38/ 44/ 18      the eyes of tomorrow         John Metcalf     132      21
16  41/ 51/  8           Aoshi Test E 39        Steve Gunnell     130       6
17  29/ 29/ 42                       JSS         Roy van Rijn     130       7
18  26/ 24/ 50 paper(paper(paper(clear))          Sascha Zapf     128     187
19  26/ 26/ 48           slime test 1.00        David Houston     126     413
20  27/ 30/ 43             devilish 2.02        David Houston     123       1

21  14/ 35/ 51   856-7287-xt430-4-eve178                bvowk      94       0



From: Koth <koth@koth.org>
Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - Standard 10/18/04
Date: 18 Oct 2004 07:59:56 -0400
Message-ID: <200410180400.i9I400iT025877@gevjon.ttsg.com>

			Weekly Status on  10/18/04
 
-=- 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 : Wed Oct 13 15:38:44 EDT 2004
 
 #  %W/ %L/ %T                      Name               Author   Score     Age
 1  46/ 37/ 16              Scan the Can    Christian Schmidt     155       2
 2  41/ 29/ 30         The Next Step '88        David Houston     152      20
 3  42/ 40/ 18             Tangle Trap 3          David Moore     144      33
 4  35/ 28/ 36                      Test Alexander (Sasha) Wa     143     144
 5  36/ 29/ 35             Freight Train          David Moore     142     205
 6  41/ 41/ 17                My 1st try    Christian Schmidt     142      36
 7  44/ 49/  7             Scan Test C 6        Steve Gunnell     139      43
 8  44/ 48/  8              Speeed 88mph    Christian Schmidt     139       4
 9  34/ 29/ 36                  Guardian          Ian Oversby     139     204
10  34/ 28/ 38                    A.I.P.    Christian Schmidt     139      12
11  40/ 42/ 17                    Stasis          David Moore     138     312
12  40/ 42/ 18                  Moonwipe    Christian Schmidt     138       1
13  39/ 41/ 21                    PacMan          David Moore     136     234
14  41/ 46/ 13  Cold as November Rain...         John Metcalf     136      18
15  35/ 36/ 29                  The Seed         Roy van Rijn     135      22
16  33/ 33/ 34                  Pixie 88        Lukasz Grabun     134      34
17  40/ 49/ 11             Blurstone '88        M. J. Pihlaja     131       7
18  34/ 36/ 30                      vala         John Metcalf     131     127
19  24/ 19/ 56            unheard-of '88    Christian Schmidt     129      11
20  36/ 45/ 19               '88 test IV         John Metcalf     127      98

21  37/ 48/ 15                  Blur '88        Anton Marsden     127     242



From: Koth <koth@koth.org>
Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - MultiWarrior 94 10/18/04
Date: 18 Oct 2004 07:59:53 -0400
Message-ID: <200410180403.i9I430cu025938@gevjon.ttsg.com>

			Weekly Status on  10/18/04
 
-=- 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 17 10:57:39 EDT 2004
 
 #                      Name               Author   Score     Age
 1      not king of the hill               FatalC       7     225
 2           all you can eat         John Metcalf       7       4
 3               Dodge Viper    Christian Schmidt       6      64
 4               Her Majesty              P.Kline       4     499
 5    temple of the machines         John Metcalf       3       7
 6              The Survivor       Philip Kendall       3     110
 7     defense test file tg3     simon wainwright       2      18
 8     grasshoppers' prelude     Simon Wainwright       2       6
 9           pineapple juice     Simon Wainwright       2       1
10                 steerpike         John Metcalf       1       2

11  Attacker in the Darkness    Christian Schmidt       0      19



From: sayembara@yahoo.com (Zul Nadzri)
Subject: Re: Odp: REDCODERS FRENZY TOURNAMENT 21 - THE "FOOTBALL" ROUND
Date: 18 Oct 2004 08:02:33 -0700
Message-ID: <b28eac54.0410180702.777640df@posting.google.com>

kaukasius@yahoo.de (el kauka) wrote in message news:<f889e2e6.0410170234.45d8a910@posting.google.com>...
> hm, lets have a little example:
> 
> there are 5 warriors inside the core:
> 
> 1)the ball
> 
> jmp #0,#3500
> 
> 2)goal1
> 
> jmp #0, #3000
> 
> 3)goal2 
> 
> jmp #0,#4000
> 
> 
> and there will be the two palyers:
> 
> player1
> ball equ 3500
> goal equ 4000
> 
> player2
> ball equ 3500
> gaol equ 3000
> 
> 
> there is only one ball! and the palyers do not know their own goal.
> they only know the enemys goal (the one the ball should kill to make
> you win)
> 
> 
> the values inside the ball/goals will be choose by random, but they
> will be between 3000 and 4000
> 
> i hope that was a better explanation...
> 
> el kauka

Good explanations.

However, I think I am in trouble because I am more familiar with
pmarsv. I need that graphical interphase to accelerate analysis. With
pmars, I will have to assume a lot of things. (This is not an excuse
for not doing well, especially the main goal is to stop Chip Wendell's
winning streak! :)

/Zul Nadzri


From: "Robert Macrae" <ff95@dial.pipex.com>
Subject: Re: Is P.D.Smith still following this newsgroup?
Date: Mon, 18 Oct 2004 12:59:53 +0100
Message-ID: <4173b0cf$0$15888$cc9e4d1f@news.dial.pipex.com>

> > http://www.pscs.co.uk/pcrobots/
>
> I know. I used the email address on that page, but it bounced.

There is a clue in the website name.  You might also try

 enquiries@pscs.co.uk

(lifted from www.pscs.co.uk, which also has address/phone)

Robert




From: sayembara@yahoo.com (Zul Nadzri)
Subject: Re: REDCODERS FRENZY TOURNAMENT 21 - THE "FOOTBALL" ROUND
Date: 19 Oct 2004 06:42:52 -0700
Message-ID: <b28eac54.0410190542.14f42d51@posting.google.com>

kaukasius@yahoo.de (el kauka) wrote in message news:<f889e2e6.0410180405.9ddaf39@posting.google.com>...
> oh, you are right. today i spoke with trac and agrreed to that. i was
> surprised aswell bcause when we first created the rules the non ball
> processes should be treated as nop if they try to write on the goals.
> but trac decided that this would'nt be funny enough. a real football
> player how tries to damage the enemys goal would get the red card as
> well ;-)
> 
> therefore: be aware, your processes will get killed if they hit the
> goal!
> 
> el kauka

Let's make a summary (and please correct any inaccuracies):

1. Any process try to write on any of the goals will be killed. (i.e.
If the warrior have other processes running, the remaining process
will not be affected. Only the fouling process got redcarded)

2. Process try to write on opponent warrior will follow the rule
mentioned above (pls confirm). In this case, if the ball now have
'mutated' the goal into a paper, any attempt to kill any of the goal's
processes will follow rule #1. This one will get messy, so please
confirm.
Example, goal now becomes:
nop 0,0  <-- current goal executed process
nop 0,0
nop 0,0  <-- what if a warrior bombed here? Will the warrior be
penalised?
jmp -3
In the above example, the warrior will not kill the goal directly, but
indirectly. I think the process will be killed if it attempted to
write on "active" cell i.e. it will be terminated if trying to write
on line #1 instead of line #3 as shown above. In the example, the
results will be no winner?

3. It is allowed to utilise the ball to write on opponent warrior.
(pls confirm)

4. It is allowed to utilise the ball to write on either goals. Of
course the ultimate satisfaction is to kill the opponent's goal.

5. It is allowed to multiply the ball process for whatever reasons. 

6. It is allowed to spl to the ball's process for whatever reasons.

7. It is allowed to move and duplicate the ball, and indirectly (via
the ball) move the goal.

Please add more clarifications so that we can have a fair play
football game :)


From: kaukasius@yahoo.de (el kauka)
Subject: Re: REDCODERS FRENZY TOURNAMENT 21 - THE "FOOTBALL" ROUND
Date: 19 Oct 2004 12:46:20 -0700
Message-ID: <f889e2e6.0410191146.3cc34d1f@posting.google.com>

> Let's make a summary (and please correct any inaccuracies):
> 
> 1. Any process try to write on any of the goals will be killed. (i.e.
> If the warrior have other processes running, the remaining process
> will not be affected. Only the fouling process got redcarded)

thats right


> 2. Process try to write on opponent warrior will follow the rule
> mentioned above (pls confirm).
not really. only if the opponent die the round will be stoppt. the
warriors can write on the opponent until he dies...


> In this case, if the ball now have
> 'mutated' the goal into a paper, any attempt to kill any of the goal's
> processes will follow rule #1. This one will get messy, so please
> confirm.

actually only the one instrction in the core where the goal first is,
is writeprotected. if the goals processes moving out of this "place"
it can get killed be the goals directly



> Example, goal now becomes:
> nop 0,0  <-- current goal executed process
> nop 0,0
> nop 0,0  <-- what if a warrior bombed here? Will the warrior be
> penalised?

no

> jmp -3
> In the above example, the warrior will not kill the goal directly, but
> indirectly. I think the process will be killed if it attempted to
> write on "active" cell i.e. it will be terminated if trying to write
> on line #1 instead of line #3 as shown above. In the example, the
> results will be no winner?
> 
no, there will be a winner. the one which goal wasnt that above will
win

> 3. It is allowed to utilise the ball to write on opponent warrior.
> (pls confirm)
yes, but like mentioned above, you can write directly on the opponent


> 
> 4. It is allowed to utilise the ball to write on either goals. Of
> course the ultimate satisfaction is to kill the opponent's goal.

yes. it is still possible to find your own goal indirectly. you can
try to defence it by make the ball turning your own goal into
something...

> 5. It is allowed to multiply the ball process for whatever reasons. 

yes. up to maximum of 11 processes

> 6. It is allowed to spl to the ball's process for whatever reasons.

you mean to spl your own processes to the code of the ball? than yes.
you could capture the balls process like a vampire to make him execute
your code.


 
> 7. It is allowed to move and duplicate the ball, and indirectly (via
> the ball) move the goal.

yes, like in 4. or you can move the enemys goal aswell. but according
to the aim of the round that makes no sence


> Please add more clarifications so that we can have a fair play
> football game :)


there is one little other thing i should make clear:
 when you run p mars

...-T player1 player2 goal1 goal2 ball....

player1 have to kill goal 2. therefore player1 should include the
goal-value of goal 2! (and player 2 that of goal1)

example:

player1: ball equ 3004, goal equ 4000
player2: ball equ 3004, goal equ 3000

ball: (value) 3004

goal 1 : (value) 3000
goal 2 : (value) 4000


if you mix up the the order in the comando line p mars will give you
false results. therefore be aware of the order!

el kauka

ps: seems the rules are more complicated than i expected. im going to
write a faq soon...


From: Christoph Birk <birk@ociw.edu>
Subject: Re: REDCODERS FRENZY TOURNAMENT 21 - THE "FOOTBALL" ROUND
Date: 19 Oct 2004 18:05:41 -0400
Message-ID: <200410191841.LAA05345@andromeda.ociw.edu>


> In this case, if the ball now have
> 'mutated' the goal into a paper, any attempt to kill any of the goal's
> processes will follow rule #1. This one will get messy, so please
> confirm.
> Example, goal now becomes:
> nop 0,0  <-- current goal executed process
> nop 0,0
> nop 0,0  <-- what if a warrior bombed here? Will the warrior be
> penalised?

Why would the ball "mutate the goal into a paper" ?
The object is to kill the goal, which is a single process executing
on a single instruction. 
As soon as you know the goal's position, just let the ball write a 'dat' 
to it -> you win. Nothing fancy necessary.

Christoph
 



From: sayembara@yahoo.com (Zul Nadzri)
Subject: Re: REDCODERS FRENZY TOURNAMENT 21 - THE "FOOTBALL" ROUND
Date: 20 Oct 2004 03:20:36 -0700
Message-ID: <b28eac54.0410200220.3acd5c43@posting.google.com>

Christoph Birk <birk@ociw.edu> wrote in message news:<200410191841.LAA05345@andromeda.ociw.edu>...
> > In this case, if the ball now have
> > 'mutated' the goal into a paper, any attempt to kill any of the goal's
> > processes will follow rule #1. This one will get messy, so please
> > confirm.
> > Example, goal now becomes:
> > nop 0,0  <-- current goal executed process
> > nop 0,0
> > nop 0,0  <-- what if a warrior bombed here? Will the warrior be
> > penalised?
> 
> Why would the ball "mutate the goal into a paper" ?
> The object is to kill the goal, which is a single process executing
> on a single instruction. 
> As soon as you know the goal's position, just let the ball write a 'dat' 
> to it -> you win. Nothing fancy necessary.
> 
> Christoph

If you happen to know with some assumptions that you have located your
own goal, you want to turn it into a mice, imp etc so that it will
stay alive on any single-core impact.


From: Christoph Birk <birk@ociw.edu>
Subject: Koenigstuhl News
Date: 21 Oct 2004 11:58:14 -0400
Message-ID: <200410201745.KAA16998@andromeda.ociw.edu>

Congratulations to Roy van Rijn!

His program 'Shutting Down Evolver Now..' is KotH on the 
new Nano-Koenigstuhl.

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



From: Christoph Birk <birk@ociw.edu>
Subject: Koenigstuhl News
Date: 22 Oct 2004 19:04:53 -0400
Message-ID: <200410221607.JAA02924@andromeda.ociw.edu>

Congratulations to bvowk!

His program 'Machines Will Rule' is the first program on 
the TOP50-Koenigstuhl (rank 10)

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



From: netspider4@lycos.com (Karl-Hugo Weesberg)
Subject: This is a George W.Bush fangroup now ! ! !
Date: 25 Oct 2004 22:49:32 -0700
Message-ID: <7666ed5f.0410252149.234c50d6@posting.google.com>

Bush rulz !

Kerry suckz!


From: kaukasius@yahoo.de (el kauka)
Subject: forum
Date: 26 Oct 2004 07:10:24 -0700
Message-ID: <f889e2e6.0410260610.692db367@posting.google.com>

is anybody intrested to use a forum instead of (or maybe next to)
r.g.c?

if you like to do so, please have a look at this forum:

http://www.forumromanum.de/member/forum/forum.php?action=index&entryid=&USER=user_220774


if you like to have additional subforums etc. feel free to ask ;-)

el kauka


From: =?ISO-8859-2?Q?=A3ukasz_Adamowski?= <corewars@wp.pl>
Subject: Another Round Idea
Date: 26 Oct 2004 11:48:09 -0400
Message-ID: <417e6b7e92802@wp.pl>


I know we haven't finished 21th round (actually there is a lot 
more time to deadline than I expected), but a new idea has just 
come to my mind. Does anyone tried to fight in core full 
of "garbage"? I mean everytime we fight the core is cleaned up 
with DATs. Why not to try to fill it with some random code? It 
would look like a real jungle to our soldiers... :]
Greetings
Lukasz

-= "War is a problem, never a solution" =-
-= "Wojna jest problemem, a nie rozwiazaniem" =-

----------------------------------------------------
"Ptaki", "Psychoza" i inne filmy Hitchcocka w kolekcji - ju� na DVD!
Filmy Mistrza Suspensu za wyj�tkowo nisk� cen� -
wydane pojedynczo albo w dw�ch kolekcjonerskich zestawach.
http://klik.wp.pl/?adr=http%3A%2F%2Ffilm.wp.pl%2Fp%2Fwiadomosc.html%3Fid%3D58890&sid=263




Message-ID: <games/corewar-faq_1098851023@rtfm.mit.edu>
From: anton@paradise.net.nz (Anton Marsden)
Subject: Core War Frequently Asked Questions (rec.games.corewar FAQ)
Date: 27 Oct 2004 04:24:45 GMT

Archive-name: games/corewar-faq
Last-Modified: September 4, 1999
Version: 4.2
URL: http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/~anton/cw/corewar-faq.html
Copyright: (c) 1999 Anton Marsden
Maintainer: Anton Marsden <anton@paradise.net.nz>
Posting-Frequency: once every 2 weeks

Core War Frequently Asked Questions

(rec.games.corewar FAQ)

These are the Frequently Asked Questions (and answers) from the Usenet
newsgroup rec.games.corewar. A plain text version of this document is posted
every two weeks. The latest hypertext version is available at
http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/~anton/cw/corewar-faq.html and the latest
plain text version is available at
http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/~anton/cw/corewar-faq.txt.

This document is currently being maintained by Anton Marsden
(anton@paradise.net.nz).

Last modified: Sat Sep 4 00:22:22 NZST 1999
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

To Do

   * Add the new No-PSpace '94 hill location
   * Add online location of Dewdney's articles
   * Make question 17 easier to understand. Add a state diagram?
   * Add info about infinite hills, related games (C-Robots, Tierra?, ...)
   * New question: How do I know if my warrior is any good? Refer to
     beginners' benchmarks, etc.
   * Add a Who's Who list?
   * Would very much like someone to compile a collection of the
     "revolutionary" warriors so that beginners can see how the game has
     developed over the years. Mail me if interested.

  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

What's New

   * Changed primary location of FAQ (again!)
   * Changed Philip Kendall's home page address.
   * Updated list server information
   * Changed primary location of FAQ
   * Vector-launching code was fixed thanks to Ting Hsu.
   * Changed the location of Ryan Coleman's paper (LaunchPad -> Launchpad)
   * Changed pauillac.inria.fr to para.inria.fr

  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Table of Contents

  1. What is Core War
  2. Is it "Core War" or "Core Wars"?
  3. Where can I find more information about Core War?
  4. Core War has changed since Dewdney's articles. Where do I get a copy of
     the current instruction set?
  5. What is ICWS'94? Which simulators support ICWS'94?
  6. What is the ICWS?
  7. What is Core Warrior?
  8. Where are the Core War archives?
  9. Where can I find a Core War system for ...?
 10. Where can I find warrior code?
 11. I do not have FTP. How do I get all this great stuff?
 12. I do not have access to Usenet. How do I post and receive news?
 13. Are there any Core War related WWW sites?
 14. What is KotH? How do I enter?
 15. Is it DAT 0, 0 or DAT #0, #0? How do I compare to core?
 16. How does SLT (Skip if Less Than) work?
 17. What is the difference between in-register and in-memory evaluation?
 18. What is P-space?
 19. What does "Missing ;assert .." in my message from KotH mean?
 20. How should I format my code?
 21. Are there any other Core War related resources I should know about?
 22. What does (expression or term of your choice) mean?
 23. Other questions?

  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

1. What is Core War?

Core War is a game played by two or more programs (and vicariously by their
authors) written in an assembly language called Redcode and run in a virtual
computer called MARS (for Memory Array Redcode Simulator). The object of the
game is to cause all processes of the opposing program to terminate, leaving
your program in sole posession of the machine.

There are Core War systems available for most computer platforms. Redcode
has been standardised by the ICWS, and is therefore transportable between
all standard Core War systems.

The system in which the programs run is quite simple. The core (the memory
of the simulated computer) is a continuous array of instructions, empty
except for the competing programs. The core wraps around, so that after the
last instruction comes the first one again.

There are no absolute addresses in Core War. That is, the address 0 doesn't
mean the first instruction in the memory, but the instruction that contains
the address 0. The next instruction is 1, and the previous one obviously -1.
However, all numbers are treated as positive, and are in the range 0 to
CORESIZE-1 where CORESIZE is the amount of memory locations in the core -
this means that -1 would be treated as CORESIZE-1 in any arithmetic
operations, eg. 3218 + 7856 = (3218 + 7856) mod CORESIZE. Many people get
confused by this, and it is particularly important when using the SLT
instruction. Note that the source code of a program can still contain
negative numbers, but if you start using instructions like DIV #-2, #5 it is
important to know what effect they will have when executed.

The basic unit of memory in Core War is one instruction. Each Redcode
instruction contains three parts:

   * the opcode
   * the source address (a.k.a. the A-field)
   * the destination address (a.k.a. the B-field)

The execution of the programs is equally simple. The MARS executes one
instruction at a time, and then proceeds to the next one in the memory,
unless the instruction explicitly tells it to jump to another address. If
there is more than one program running, (as is usual) the programs execute
alternately, one instruction at a time. The execution of each instruction
takes the same time, one cycle, whether it is MOV, DIV or even DAT (which
kills the process).

Each program may have several processes running. These processes are stored
in a task queue. When it is the program's turn to execute an instruction it
dequeues a process and executes the corresponding instruction. Processes
that are not killed during the execution of the instruction are put back
into the task queue. Processes created by a SPL instruction are added to the
task queue after the creating process is put back into the task queue.

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

2. Is it "Core War" or "Core Wars"?

Both terms are used. Early references were to Core War. Later references
seem to use Core Wars. I prefer "Core War" to refer to the game in general,
"core wars" to refer to more than one specific battle.

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

3. Where can I find more information about Core War?

Core War was first described in the Core War Guidelines of March, 1984 by D.
G. Jones and A. K. Dewdney of the Department of Computer Science at The
University of Western Ontario (Canada). Dewdney wrote several "Computer
Recreations" articles in Scientific American which discussed Core War,
starting with the May 1984 article. Those articles are contained in two
anthologies:

                                                                Library of
  Author         Title         Published          ISBN           Congress
                                                                Call Number
           The Armchair
 Dewdney,  Universe: An       New York: W.                     QA76.6 .D517
 A. K.     Exploration of     H. Freeman �0-7167-1939-8        1988
           Computer Worlds    1988
           The Magic                      0-7167-2125-2
 Dewdney,  Machine: A         New York: W.(Hardcover),         QA76.6
 A. K.     Handbook of        H. Freeman �0-7167-2144-9        .D5173 1990
           Computer Sorcery   1990        (Paperback)

A.K. Dewdney's articles are still the most readable introduction to Core
War, even though the Redcode dialect described in there is no longer
current. For those who are interested, Dewdney has a home page at
http://www.csd.uwo.ca/faculty/akd/.

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

4. Core War has changed since Dewdney's articles. Where do I get a copy of
the current instruction set?

A draft of the official standard (ICWS'88) is available as
ftp://www.koth.org/corewar/documents/standards/redcode-icws-88.Z. This
document is formatted awkwardly and contains ambiguous statements. For a
more approachable intro to Redcode, take a look at Mark Durham's tutorials,
ftp://www.koth.org/corewar/documents/tutorial.1.Z and
ftp://www.koth.org/corewar/documents/tutorial.2.Z.

Steven Morrell has prepared a more practically oriented Redcode tutorial
that discusses different warrior classes with lots of example code. This and
various other tutorials can be found at http://www.koth.org/papers.html.

Even though ICWS'88 is still the "official" standard, you will find that
most people are playing by ICWS'94 draft rules and extensions.

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

5. What is ICWS'94? Which simulators support ICWS'94?

There is an ongoing discussion about future enhancements to the Redcode
language. A proposed new standard, dubbed ICWS'94, is currently being
evaluated. A major change is the addition of "instruction modifiers" that
allow instructions to modify A-field, B-field or both. Also new is a new
addressing modes and unrestricted opcode and addressing mode combination
("no illegal instructions"). ICWS'94 is backwards compatible; i.e. ICWS'88
warriors will run correctly on an ICWS'94 system. Take a look at the ICWS'94
draft at ftp://www.koth.org/corewar/documents/icws94.0202.Z for more
information. There is a HTML version of this document available at
http://www.koth.org/info/icws94.html. You can try out the new standard by
submitting warriors to the '94 hills of the KotH servers. Two corewar
systems currently support ICWS'94, pMARS (many platforms) and Redcoder
(Mac), both available at ftp://www.koth.org/corewar. Note that Redcoder only
supports a subset of ICWS'94.

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

6. What is the ICWS?

About one year after Core War first appeared in Scientific American, the
"International Core War Society" (ICWS) was established. Since that time,
the ICWS has been responsible for the creation and maintenance of Core War
standards and the running of Core War tournaments. There have been six
annual tournaments and two standards (ICWS'86 and ICWS'88). The ICWS is no
longer active.

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

7. What is Core Warrior?

Following in the tradition of the Core War News Letter, Push Off, and The 94
Warrior, Core Warrior is a newsletter about strategies and current standings
in Core War. Started in October 1995, back issues of Core Warrior (and the
other newsletters) are available at http://para.inria.fr/~doligez/corewar/.
There is also a Core Warrior index page at
http://www.kendalls.demon.co.uk/pak21/corewar/warrior.html which has a
summary of the contents of each issue of Core Warrior. Many of the earlier
issues contain useful information for beginners.

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

8. Where are the Core War archives?

Many documents such as the guidelines and the ICWS standards along with
previous tournament Redcode entries and complete Core War systems are
available via anonymous ftp from ftp://ftp.csua.berkeley.edu/pub/corewar.
Also, most of past rec.games.corewar postings (including Redcode source
listings) are archived there. Jon Blow (blojo@csua.berkeley.edu) is the
archive administrator. When uploading to /pub/corewar/incoming, ask Jon to
move your upload to the appropriate directory and announce it on the net.

This site is mirrored at:

   * http://www.koth.org/corewar/
   * ftp://www.koth.org/corewar/
   * ftp://ftp.inria.fr/INRIA/Projects/para/doligez/cw/mirror

The plain text version of this FAQ is automatically archived by news.answers
(but this version is probably out-of-date).

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

9. Where can I find a Core War system for . . . ?

Core War systems are available via anonymous FTP from www.koth.org in the
corewar/systems directory. Currently, there are UNIX, IBM PC-compatible,
Macintosh, and Amiga Core War systems available there. It is a good idea to
check ftp://www.koth.org/corewar/incoming for program updates first.

CAUTION! There are many, many Core War systems available which are NOT
ICWS'88 (or even ICWS'86) compatible available at various archive sites
other than www.koth.org. Generally, the older the program - the less likely
it will be ICWS compatible.

If you are looking for an ICWS'94 simulator, get pMARS, which is available
for many platforms and can be downloaded from:

   * ftp://ftp.csua.berkeley.edu/pub/corewar (original site)
   * ftp://www.koth.org/corewar (koth.org mirror)
   * ftp://ftp.inria.fr/INRIA/Projects/para/doligez/cw/mirror (Planar
     mirror)
   * http://www.nc5.infi.net/~wtnewton/corewar/ (Terry Newton)
   * ftp://members.aol.com/ofechner/corewar (Fechter)

Notes:

   * If you have trouble running pMARS with a graphical display under Win95
     then check out http://www.koth.org/pmars.html which should have a
     pointer to the latest compilation of pMARS for this environment.
   * RPMs for the Alpha, PowerPC, Sparc and i386 can be found at
     ftp://ftp.inria.fr/INRIA/Projects/para/doligez/cw/pmars-rpm/

Reviews of Core War systems would be greatly appreciated in the newsgroup
and in the newsletter.

Below is a not necessarily complete or up-to-date list of what's available
at www.koth.org:
MADgic41.lzh            corewar for the Amiga, v4.1
MAD4041.lzh             older version?
MAD50B.lha              corewar for the Amiga, beta version 5.0

Redcoder-21.hqx         corewar for the Mac, supports ICWS'88 and '94
                        (without extensions)
core-11.hqx             corewar for the Mac
core-wars-simulator.hqx same as core-11.hqx?

corewar_unix_x11.tar.Z  corewar for UNIX/X-windows, ICWS'86 but not ICWS'88
                        compatible

koth31.tar.Z            corewar for UNIX/X-windows. This program ran the
                        former KotH server at intel.com
koth.shar.Z             older version
kothpc.zip              port of older version of KotH to the PC

deluxe20c.tar.Z         corewar for UNIX (broken X-windows or curses) and
                        PC
mars.tar.Z              corewar for UNIX, likely not ICWS'88 compatible
icons.zip               corewar icons for MS-Windows
macrored.zip            a redcode macro-preprocessor (PC)
c88v49.zip              PC corewar, textmode display
mars88.zip              PC corewar, graphics mode display
corwp302.zip            PC corewar, textmode display, slowish
mercury2.zip            PC corewar written in assembly, fast!
mtourn11.zip            tournament scheduler for mercury (req. 4DOS)

pmars08s.zip            portable system, ICWS'88 and '94, runs on UNIX, PC,
                        Mac, Amiga. C source archive
pmars08s.tar.Z          same as above
pmars08.zip             PC executables with graphics display, req 386+

macpmars02.sit.hqx      pMARS executable for Mac (port of version 0.2)
                        buggy, no display
MacpMARS1.99a.cpt.hqx   port of v0.8 for the Mac, with display and debugger
MacpMARS1.0s.cpt.hqx    C source (MPW, ThinkC) for Mac frontend

pvms08.zip              pMARS v0.8 for VMS build files/help (req.
                        pmars08s.zip)
ApMARS03.lha            pMARS executable for Amiga (port of version 0.3.1)
wincor11.zip            MS-Windows system, shareware ($15)

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

10. Where can I find warrior code?

To learn the game, it is a good idea to study previously posted warrior
code. The FTP archives have code in the ftp://www.koth.org/corewar/redcode
directory. A clearly organized on-line warrior collection is available at
the Core War web sites (see below).

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

11. I do not have FTP. How do I get all this great stuff?

There is an FTP email server at bitftp@pucc.princeton.edu. This address may
no longer exist. I haven't tested it yet. Send email with a subject and body
text of "help" (without the quotes) for more information on its usage. Note
that many FTP email gateways are shutting down due to abuse. To get a
current list of FTP email servers, look at the Accessing the Internet by
E-mail FAQ posted to news.answers. If you don't have access to Usenet, you
can retrieve this FAQ one of the following ways:

   * Send mail to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with the body containing "send
     usenet/news.answers/internet-services/access-via-email".
   * Send mail to mailbase@mailbase.ac.uk with the body containing "send
     lis-iis e-access-inet.txt".

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

12. I do not have access to Usenet. How do I post and receive news?

To receive rec.games.corewar articles by email, join the COREWAR-L list run
on the Koth.Org list processor. To join, send the message

     SUB COREWAR-L FirstName LastName

to listproc@koth.org. You can send mail to corewar-l@koth.org to post even
if you are not a member of the list. Responsible for the listserver is Scott
J. Ellentuch (ttsg@ttsg.com).

Servers that allow you to post (but not receive) articles are available.
Refer to the Accessing the Internet by E-Mail FAQ for more information.

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

13. Are there any Core War related WWW sites?

You bet. Each of the two KotH sites sport a world-wide web server.
Stormking's Core War page is http://www.koth.org; pizza's is
http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~pizza/koth . Damien Doligez (a.k.a. Planar)
has a web page that features convenient access to regular newsletters (Push
Off, The '94 Warrior, Core Warrior) and a well organized library of
warriors: http://para.inria.fr/~doligez/corewar/. Convenient for U.S. users,
this site is also mirrored at koth.org.

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

14. What is KotH? How do I enter?

King Of The Hill (KotH) is an ongoing Core War tournament available to
anyone with email. You enter by submitting via email a Redcode program
(warrior) with special comment lines. You will receive a reply indicating
how well your program did against the current top programs "on the hill".

There are two styles of KotH tournaments, "classical" and "multi-warrior".
The "classical" KotH is a one-on-one tournament, that is your warrior will
play 100 battles against each of the 20 other programs currently on the
Hill. You receive 3 points for each win and 1 point for each tie. (The
existing programs do not replay each other, but their previous battles are
recalled.) All scores are updated to reflect your battles and all 21
programs are ranked from high to low. If you are number 21 you are pushed
off the Hill, if you are higher than 21 someone else is pushed off.

In "multi-warrior" KotH, all warriors on the hill fight each other at the
same time. Score calculation is a bit more complex than for the one-on-one
tournament. Briefly, points are awarded based on how many warriors survive
until the end of a round. A warrior that survives by itself gets more points
than a warrior that survives together with other warriors. Points are
calculated from the formula (W*W-1)/S, where W is the total number of
warriors and S the number of surviving warriors. The pMARS documentation has
more information on multi-warrior scoring.

The idea for an email-based Core War server came from David Lee. The
original KotH was developed and run by William Shubert at Intel starting in
1991, and discontinued after almost three years of service. Currently, KotHs
based on Bill's UNIX scripts but offering a wider variety of hills are are
running at two sites: koth@koth.org is maintained by Scott J. Ellentuch
(tuc@ttsg.com) and pizza@ecst.csuchico.edu by Thomas H. Davies
(sd@ecst.csuchico.edu). Up until May '95, the two sites provided overlapping
services, i.e. the some of the hill types were offered by both "pizza" and
"stormking". To conserve resources, the different hill types are now divided
up among the sites. The way you submit warriors to both KotHs is pretty much
the same. Therefore, the entry rules described below apply to both "pizza"
and "stormking" unless otherwise noted.

Entry Rules for King of the Hill Corewar

   * Write a corewar program. KotH is fully ICWS '88 compatible, EXCEPT that
     a comma (",") is required between two arguments.

   * Put a line starting with ";redcode" (or ";redcode-94", etc., see below)
     at the top of your program. This MUST be the first line. Anything
     before it will be lost. If you wish to receive mail on every new
     entrant, use ";redcode verbose". Otherwise you will only receive mail
     if a challenger makes it onto the hill. Use ";redcode quiet" if you
     wish to receive mail only when you get shoved off the hill.

     Additionally, adding ";name <program name>" and ";author <your name>"
     will be helpful in the performance reports. Do NOT have a line
     beginning with ";address" in your code; this will confuse the mail
     daemon and you won't get mail back. Using ";name" is mandatory on the
     Pizza hills.

     In addition, it would be nice if you have lines beginning with
     ";strategy" that describe the algorithm you use.

     There are currently seven separate hills you can select by starting
     your program with ;redcode-94, ;redcode-b, ;redcode-lp, ;redcode-x,
     ;redcode, ;redcode-94x or ;redcode-94m. The former four run at "pizza",
     the latter three at "stormking". More information on these hills is
     listed below.

   * Mail this file to koth@koth.org or pizza@ecst.csuchico.edu. "Pizza"
     requires a subject of "koth" (use the -s flag on most mailers).

   * Within a few minutes you should get mail back telling you whether your
     program assembled correctly or not. If it did assemble correctly, sit
     back and wait; if not, make the change required and re-submit.

   * In an hour or so you should get more mail telling you how your program
     performed against the current top 20 (or 10) programs. If no news
     arrives during that time, don't worry; entries are put in a queue and
     run through the tournament one at a time. A backlog may develop. Be
     patient.

If your program makes it onto the hill, you will get mail every time a new
program makes it onto the hill. If this is too much mail, you can use
";redcode[-??] quiet" when you first mail in your program; then you will
only get mail when you make it on the top 25 list or when you are knocked
off. Using ";redcode[-??] verbose" will give you even more mail; here you
get mail every time a new challenger arrives, even if they don't make it
onto the top 25 list.

Often programmers want to try out slight variations in their programs. If
you already have a program named "foo V1.0" on the hill, adding the line
";kill foo" to a new program will automatically bump foo 1.0 off the hill.
Just ";kill" will remove all of your programs when you submit the new one.
The server kills programs by assigning an impossibly low score; it may
therefore take another successful challenge before a killed program is
actually removed from the hill.

Sample Entry

;redcode
;name Dwarf
;author A. K. Dewdney
;strategy Throw DAT bombs around memory, hitting every 4th memory cell.
;strategy This program was presented in the first Corewar article.
bomb  DAT   #0
dwarf ADD   #4,    bomb
      MOV   bomb, @bomb
      JMP   dwarf
      END   dwarf          ; Programs start at the first line unless
                           ; an "END start" pseudo-op appears to indicate
                           ; the first logical instruction.  Also, nothing
                           ; after the END instruction will be assembled.

                                          Duration  Max.
     Hill Name      Hill  Core    Max.     Before  Entry     Min.   Rounds   Instr.
                    Size  Size Processes                   Distance Fought    Set
                                            Tie    Length
 Pizza's ICWS '94
 Draft Hill                                                                 Extended
 (Accessed with       25  8000       8000    80000    100       100     200 ICWS '94
 ";redcode-94")                                                             Draft
 Pizza's Beginner's                                                         Extended
 Hill (Accessed       25  8000       8000    80000    100       100     200 ICWS '94
 with ";redcode-b")                                                         Draft
 Pizza's
 Experimental                                                               Extended
 (Small) Hill         25   800        800     8000     20        20     200 ICWS '94
 (Accessed with                                                             Draft
 ";redcode-x")
 Pizza's Limited
 Process (LP) Hill                                                          Extended
 (Accessed with       25  8000          8    80000    200       200     200 ICWS '94
 ";redcode-lp")                                                             Draft
 Stormking's ICWS
 '88 Standard Hill
 (Accessed with       20  8000       8000    80000    100       100     250 ICWS '88
 ";redcode")
 Stormking's ICWS
 '94 No Pspace Hill
 (Accessed with       20  8000       8000    80000    100       100     250 ICWS '94
 ";redcode-94nop")
 Stormking's ICWS
 '94 Experimental                                                           Extended
 (Big) Hill           20 55440      55440   500000    200       200     250 ICWS '94
 (Accessed with                                                             Draft
 ";redcode-94x")
 Stormking's ICWS
 '94 Multi-Warrior                                                          Extended
 Hill (Accessed       10  8000       8000    80000    100       100     200 ICWS '94
 with                                                                       Draft
 ";redcode-94m")

Note: Warriors on the beginner's hill are retired at age 100.

If you just want to get a status report without actually challenging the
hills, send email with ";status" as the message body (and don't forget
"Subject: koth" for "pizza"). If you send mail to "pizza" with "Subject:
koth help" you will receive instructions that may be more up to date than
those contained in this document.

At "stormking", a message body with ";help" will return brief instructions.
If you submit code containing a ";test" line, your warrior will be assembled
but not actually pitted against the warriors on the hill.

At "pizza", you can use ";redcode[-??] test" to do a test challenge of the
Hill without affecting the status of the Hill. These challenges can be used
to see how well your warrior does against the current Hill warriors.

All hills run portable MARS (pMARS) version 0.8, a platform-independent Core
War system available at www.koth.org.

The '94 and '94x hills allow five experimental opcodes and three
experimental addressing modes currently not covered in the ICWS'94 draft
document:

   * LDP - Load P-Space
   * STP - Store P-Space
   * SEQ - Skip if EQual (synonym for CMP)
   * SNE - Skip if Not Equal
   * NOP - (No OPeration)

   * * - indirect using A-field as pointer
   * { - predecrement indirect using A-field
   * } - postincrement indirect using A-field

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

15. Is it DAT 0, 0 or DAT #0, #0? How do I compare to core?

Core is initialized to DAT 0, 0. This is an illegal instruction (in source
code) under ICWS'88 rules and strictly compliant assemblers (such as KotH or
pmars -8) will not let you have a DAT 0, 0 instruction in your source code -
only DAT #0, #0. So this begs the question, how to compare something to see
if it is empty core. The answer is, most likely the instruction before your
first instruction and the instruction after your last instruction are both
DAT 0, 0. You can use them, or any other likely unmodified instructions, for
comparison. Note that under ICWS'94, DAT 0, 0 is a legal instruction.

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

16. How does SLT (Skip if Less Than) work?

SLT gives some people trouble because of the way modular arithmetic works.
It is important to note that all negative numbers are converted to positive
numbers before a battles begins. Example: -1 becomes M-1 where M is the
memory size (core size).

Once you realize that all numbers are treated as positive, it is clear what
is meant by "less than". It should also be clear that no number is less than
zero.

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

17. What is the difference between in-register and in-memory evaluation?

These terms refer to the way instruction operands are evaluated. The '88
Redcode standard ICWS'88 is unclear about whether a simulator should
"buffer" the result of A-operand evaluation before the B-operand is
evaluated. Simulators that do buffer are said to use in-register evaluation,
those that don't, in-memory evaluation. ICWS'94 clears this confusion by
mandating in-register evaluation. Instructions that execute differently
under these two forms of evaluation are MOV, ADD, SUB, MUL, DIV and MOD
where the effective address of the A-operand is modified by evaluation of
the B-operand. This is best illustrated by an example:

   L1  mov L2, <L2
   L2  dat #0, #1

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

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

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

18. What is P-space?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

;assert CORESIZE==8000

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

;assert 1

in your code, which means it will compile unconditionally.

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

20. How should I format my code?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bootstrapping
     Strategy of copying the active portion of the program away from the
     initial location, leaving a decoy behind and making the relocated
     program as small as possible.

B-Scanners
     Scanners which only recognize non-zero B-fields.

         example   add #10, scan
         scan      jmz example, 10

c
     Measure of speed, equal to one location per cycle. Speed of light.

CMP-Scanner
     A Scanner which uses a CMP instruction to look for opponents.

         example   add step, scan
         scan      cmp 10, 30
                   jmp attack
                   jmp example
         step      dat #20, #20

Colour
     Property of bombs making them visible to scanners, causing them to
     attack useless locations, thus slowing them down.

         example   dat #100

Core-Clear
     Code that sequentially overwrites core with DAT instructions; usually
     the last part of a program.

Decoys
     Bogus or unused instructions meant to slow down scanners. Typically,
     DATs with non-zero B-fields.

Decrement Resistant
     Property of warriors making them functional (or at least partially
     functional) when overrun by a DJN-stream.

DJN-Stream (also DJN-Train)
     Using a DJN command to rapidly decrement core locations.

         example   ...
                   ...
                   djn example, <4000

Dwarf
     The prototypical small bomber.

Gate-busting (also gate-crashing)
     technique to "interweave" a decrement-resistant imp-spiral (e.g. MOV 0,
     2668) with a standard one to overrun imp-gates.

Hybrids
     warriors that combine two or more of the basic strategies, either in
     sequence (e.g. stone->paper) or in parallel (e.g. imp/stone).

Imp
     Program which only uses the MOV instruction.

         example   mov 0, 1

     or

         example   mov 0, 2
                   mov 0, 2

Imp-Gate
     A location in core which is bombed or decremented continuously so that
     an Imp can not pass. Also used to describe the program-code which
     maintains the gate.

         example   ...
                   ...
                   spl 0, <example
                   dat <example, #0

Imp-Ring
     A minimal Imp-Spiral.

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

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

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

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

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

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

         IMPSIZE   EQU 2667
         example   spl 1               ; extend by adding more spl 1's
                   spl 1
                   spl 2
                   jmp @0, imp
                   add #IMPSIZE, -1    ; bump address by impsize after each jmp
                   dat #0, #0          ; excess processes must die!
         imp       mov 0, IMPSIZE      ; in '94 use -> mov.i #0,IMPSIZE

Mirror
     see reflection.

On-axis/off-axis
     On-axis scanners compare two locations M/2 apart, where M is the memory
     size. Off-axis scanners use some other separation.

Optimal Constants
     (also optima-type constants) Bomb or scan increments chosen to cover
     core most effectively, i.e. leaving gaps of uniform size. Programs to
     calculate optimal constants and lists of optimal numbers are available
     at www.koth.org.

Paper
     A Paper-like program is one which replicates itself many times. Part of
     the Scissors (beats) Paper (beats) Stone (beats Scissors) analogy.

P-Warrior
     A warrior which uses the results of previous round(s) in order to
     determine which strategy it will use.

Pit-Trapper
     (also Slaver, Vampire). A program which enslaves another. Usually
     accomplished by bombing with JMPs to a SPL 0 pit with an optional
     core-clear routine.

Q^2 Scan
     A modern version of the Quick Scan where anything found is attacked
     almost immediately.

Quick Scan
     2c scan of a set group of core locations with bombing if anything is
     found. Both of the following codes snips scan 16 locations and check
     for a find. If anything is found, it is attacked, otherwise 16 more
     locations are scanned.

     Example:

          start
          s1 for 8    ;'88 scan
                 cmp  start+100*s1, start+100*s1+4000 ;check two locations
                 mov  #start+100*s1-found, found      ;they differ so set pointer
          rof
                 jmn  attack,   found    ;if we have something, get it
          s2 for 8
                 cmp  start+100*(s2+6), start+100*(s2+6)+4000
                 mov  #start+100*(s2+6)-found, found
          rof
          found  jmz  moveme,  #0        ;skip attack if qscan found nothing
          attack cmp  @found,  start-1   ;does found points to empty space?
                 add  #4000,   found     ;no, so point to correct location
                 mov  start-1, @found    ;move a bomb
          moveme jmp  0,       0

     In ICWS'94, the quick scan code is more compact because of the SNE
     opcode:

          start       ;'94 scan
          s1 for 4
                 sne  start+400*s1, start+400*s1+100     ;check two locations
                 seq  start+400*s1+200, start+400*s1+300 ;check two locations
                 mov  #start+400*s1-found, found       ;they differ so set pointer
          rof
                 jmn  which,   found     ;if we have something, get it
          s2 for 4
                 sne  start+400*(s2+4), start+400*(s2+4)+100
                 seq  start+400*(s2+4)+200, start+400*(s2+4)+300
                 mov  #start+400*(s2+4)-found-100, found
          rof
          found  jmz  moveme,  #0        ;skip attack if qscan found nothing
                 add  #100,    -1        ;increment pointer till we get the
          which  jmn  -1,      @found    ;right place
                 mov  start-1, @found    ;move a bomb
          moveme jmp  0,       0

Reflection
     Copy of a program or program part, positioned to make the active
     program invisible to a CMP-scanner.

Replicator
     Generic for Paper. A program which makes many copies of itself, each
     copy also making copies.

Self-Splitting
     Strategy of amplifying the number of processes executing a piece of
     code.

         example    spl 0
         loop       add #10, example
                    mov example, @example
                    jmp loop

Scanner
     A program which searches through core for an opponent rather than
     bombing blindly.

Scissors
     A program designed to beat replicators, usually a (B-field scanning)
     vampire. Part of the Paper-Scissors-Stone analogy.

Self-Repair
     Ability of a program to fix it's own code after attack.

Silk
     A replicator which splits off a process to each new copy before
     actually copying the code. This allows it to replicate extremely
     quickly. This technique is only possible under the '94 draft, because
     it requires post-increment indirect addressing. Example:

                 spl   1
                 mov   -1, 0
                 spl   1                ;generate 6 consecutive processes
         silk    spl   3620,   #0       ;split to new copy
                 mov   >-1, }-1      ;copy self to new location
                 mov   bomb,   >2000 ;linear bombing
                 mov   bomb,   }2042    ;A-indirect bombing for anti-vamp
                 jmp   silk,   {silk    ;reset source pointer, make new copy
         bomb    dat   >2667,  >5334  ;anti-imp bomb

Slaver
     see Pit-Trapper.

Stealth
     Property of programs, or program parts, which are invisible to
     scanners, accomplished by using zero B-fields and reflections.

Stone
     A Stone-like program designed to be a small bomber. Part of the
     Paper-Scissors-Stone analogy.

Stun
     A type of bomb which makes the opponent multiply useless processes,
     thus slowing it down. Example is referred to as a SPL-JMP bomb.

         example    spl   0
                    jmp   -1

Two-Pass Core-Clear (also SPL/DAT Core-Clear)
     core clear that fills core first with SPL instructions, then with DATs.
     This is very effective in killing paper and certain imp-spiral
     variations.

Vampire
     see Pit-Trapper.

Vector Launch
     one of several means to start an imp-spiral running. As fast as Binary
     Launch, but requiring much less code. See also JMP/ADD Launch and
     Binary Launch. This example is one form of a Vector Launch:

         sz      EQU   2667

                 spl   1
                 spl   1
                 jmp   @vt, }0
         vt      dat   #0, imp+0*sz ; start of vector table
                 dat   #0, imp+1*sz
                 dat   #0, imp+2*sz
                 dat   #0, imp+3*sz ; end of vector table
         imp     mov.i #0, sz

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

23. Other questions?

Just ask in the rec.games.corewar newsgroup or contact me. If you are shy,
check out the Core War archives first to see if your question has been
answered before.

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

Credits

Additions, corrections, etc. to this document are solicited. Thanks in
particular to the following people who have contributed major portions of
this document:

   * Mark Durham (wrote the original version of the FAQ)
   * Paul Kline
   * Randy Graham
   * Stefan Strack (maintained a recent version of the FAQ)

  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Copyright � 1999 Anton Marsden.

Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any
medium, provided this notice is preserved.
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------


From: Christoph Birk <birk@ociw.edu>
Subject: Re: forum
Date: 27 Oct 2004 12:05:04 -0400
Message-ID: <Pine.GSO.3.96.1041027074752.14460D-100000@andromeda>

No thanks. 
A second list/forum will just make it more difficult to communicate
as one has to check two places. 

Christoph


On Tue, 26 Oct 2004, el kauka wrote:

> is anybody intrested to use a forum instead of (or maybe next to)
> r.g.c?
> 
> if you like to do so, please have a look at this forum:
> 
> http://www.forumromanum.de/member/forum/forum.php?action=index&entryid=&USER=user_220774
> 
> 
> if you like to have additional subforums etc. feel free to ask ;-)
> 
> el kauka
> 



From: =?ISO-8859-2?Q?=A3ukasz_Adamowski?= <corewars@wp.pl>
Subject: Re: forum
Date: 29 Oct 2004 08:31:51 -0400
Message-ID: <41822c59802eb@wp.pl>

Dnia 27-10-2004 o godz. 18:04 Christoph Birk napisal:
> No thanks. 
> A second list/forum will just make it more difficult to
> communicate as one has to check two places. 
> 
> Christoph

Actually I have the same problem with IRC channel. I'm chatting 
seldom and occasionally and I am not able to see every news that 
are declared on #corewars. Reading logs also take too much time 
for me. The only way I get news about corewar is newsgroup, so 
please do ask every question about rules of current round or 
announce any another important things on r.g.cw.
Thanks
Lukasz Adamowski

-= "War is a problem, never a solution" =-
-= "Wojna jest problemem, a nie rozwiazaniem" =-


----------------------------------------------------
"Ptaki", "Psychoza" i inne filmy Hitchcocka w kolekcji - ju� na DVD!
Filmy Mistrza Suspensu za wyj�tkowo nisk� cen� -
wydane pojedynczo albo w dw�ch kolekcjonerskich zestawach.
http://klik.wp.pl/?adr=http%3A%2F%2Ffilm.wp.pl%2Fp%2Fwiadomosc.html%3Fid%3D58890&sid=263




From: kwb@dls.net (Keith Berkhout)
Subject: newbie questions on KOTH for Core War Veterans
Date: 29 Oct 2004 10:26:41 -0700
Message-ID: <ecddac50.0410290926.382243b5@posting.google.com>

In the past week and a half I've sent 2 different warriors to KOTH,
following the submission instructions. I sent them to the standard '88
hill and used ;redcode verbose so I could get info back to my account.
I have not received any error messages that the emails couldn't be
sent, but also I have not received any feedback back from KOTH that
the warriors were received with problems or otherwise. When I got on
KOTH today I see a battle took place this morning. I emailed KOTH
twice in the past few days for feedback and have not received a
response. I am new to Core War and these are my first 2 submissions.
Maybe this is normal, especially if alot of email and warriors are
being sent to the site. Could I get some insight from KOTH Veterans on
how this all works? See you on the hills! - Keith


From: sayembara@yahoo.com (Zul Nadzri)
Subject: Re: forum
Date: 30 Oct 2004 00:21:42 -0700
Message-ID: <b28eac54.0410292321.68825236@posting.google.com>

?ukasz Adamowski <corewars@wp.pl> wrote in message news:<41822c59802eb@wp.pl>...
> Actually I have the same problem with IRC channel. I'm chatting 
> seldom and occasionally and I am not able to see every news that 
> are declared on #corewars. Reading logs also take too much time 
> for me. The only way I get news about corewar is newsgroup, so 
> please do ask every question about rules of current round or 
> announce any another important things on r.g.cw.
> Thanks
> Lukasz Adamowski

I will refer to r.g.cw. The new web can be useful for purposes which
require quick server response... only time will tell :)

/Zul Nadzri


From: sayembara@yahoo.com (Zul Nadzri)
Subject: Re: REDCODERS FRENZY TOURNAMENT 21 - THE "FOOTBALL" ROUND
Date: 30 Oct 2004 00:53:49 -0700
Message-ID: <b28eac54.0410292353.48e6ca81@posting.google.com>

Hi,

So silent...are you guys busy training or what? Or still negotiating
the player transfer? :)

Now my team is ready for friendly matches (closed of course!) but
still looking forward to get the latest 'promised' rules (a.k.a.
FAQs).

Be prepared for hard tackles from my players. I'm thinking of playing
with a sweeper. A rough one, no mercy. But always able to escape the
red card!

-Sayembara Football Club-


From: =?ISO-8859-2?Q?=A3ukasz_Adamowski?= <corewars@wp.pl>
Subject: Odp: newbie questions on KOTH for Core War Veterans
Date: 30 Oct 2004 23:29:49 -0400
Message-ID: <4183c58ebd7ce@wp.pl>

Dnia 29-10-2004 o godz. 19:32 kwb@dls.net (Keith Berkhout) napisal:
> In the past week and a half I've sent 2 different warriors to KOTH,
> [...] Could I get some insight from KOTH Veterans on
> how this all works? See you on the hills! - Keith

Well... I never had any problems with e-mail response from KOTH.
Maybe your e-mail  client program has a fake anti-spam reply-to
address, so KOTH's server doesn't know where to send reply. (?)
Lukasz Adamowski
P.S. And welcome to our international corewar community! :]

-= "War is a problem, never a solution" =-
-= "Wojna jest problemem, a nie rozwiazaniem" =-




From: sayembara@yahoo.com (Zul Nadzri)
Subject: Re: Odp: newbie questions on KOTH for Core War Veterans
Date: 31 Oct 2004 21:42:50 -0800
Message-ID: <b28eac54.0410312142.17337ee5@posting.google.com>

?ukasz Adamowski <corewars@wp.pl> wrote in message news:<4183c58ebd7ce@wp.pl>...

> Well... I never had any problems with e-mail response from KOTH.

I second that :)