From: kaukasius@yahoo.de (el kauka) Subject: Re: RFT21 REMINDER Date: 4 Dec 2004 04:15:14 -0800 Message-ID: one day left! last chance for your entries... el kauka From: neogryzormail@mixmail.com (Neogryzor) Subject: Re: RFT21 REMINDER Date: 5 Dec 2004 04:24:44 -0800 Message-ID: <242debe4.0412050424.67a109a6@posting.google.com> kaukasius@yahoo.de (el kauka) wrote in message news:... > one day left! last chance for your entries... > > el kauka What's the matter, redcoders? come on! -Interview with the Carpatian Vampires coach: From: Koth Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - 94 No Pspace 12/06/04 Date: 6 Dec 2004 09:53:56 -0500 Message-ID: <200412060509.iB65916C008641@gevjon.ttsg.com> Weekly Status on 12/06/04 -=- 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 Dec 5 13:36:47 EST 2004 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 34/ 28/ 38 Hullabaloo Roy van Rijn 141 120 2 42/ 46/ 12 Arrow Christian Schmidt 138 323 3 33/ 29/ 38 Borgir Christian Schmidt 137 155 4 32/ 28/ 41 The Humanizer bvowk/fiz 136 8 5 24/ 13/ 63 Chainlock v02a G.Labarga 135 3 6 39/ 44/ 17 Riccia Zul Nadzri 133 12 7 23/ 15/ 62 Maelstrom Roy van Rijn 132 264 8 39/ 45/ 16 HazyLazy C 11 CS SG 132 332 9 24/ 17/ 59 S.D.N. Christian Schmidt 131 45 10 29/ 27/ 44 Gargantuan Roy van Rijn 131 141 11 28/ 25/ 47 New-T Roy van Rijn 130 54 12 37/ 44/ 19 Spiker Roy van Rijn 130 57 13 24/ 19/ 56 Black Knight Christian Schmidt 129 145 14 37/ 44/ 19 thoughts of fire John Metcalf 129 20 15 35/ 41/ 25 digital wilderness John Metcalf 129 2 16 29/ 30/ 41 Cyborgs Rule bvowk/Roy 128 33 17 26/ 24/ 50 paper(paper(paper(clear)) Sascha Zapf 127 224 18 35/ 43/ 22 CrazyShot III Christian Schmidt 127 1 19 26/ 26/ 47 again Lukasz Grabun 127 13 20 29/ 32/ 39 Hydra II ( Test ) Sascha Zapf 127 53 21 29/ 33/ 38 Surfing on the net Fizmo&Neo 124 5 From: Koth Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - Standard 12/06/04 Date: 6 Dec 2004 09:54:07 -0500 Message-ID: <200412060500.iB6501qm008440@gevjon.ttsg.com> Weekly Status on 12/06/04 -=- 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 : Fri Dec 3 11:42:40 EST 2004 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 43/ 40/ 17 Scan the Can Christian Schmidt 147 12 2 37/ 29/ 34 The Next Step '88 David Houston 145 32 3 40/ 40/ 19 Tangle Trap 3 David Moore 140 45 4 32/ 25/ 43 The Hurricaner G.Labarga 139 3 5 43/ 48/ 9 Scan Test C 6 Steve Gunnell 139 55 6 40/ 42/ 18 Stasis David Moore 138 324 7 39/ 41/ 19 My 1st try Christian Schmidt 137 48 8 32/ 27/ 41 test Christian Schmidt 136 1 9 31/ 26/ 43 Test Alexander (Sasha) Wa 135 156 10 42/ 49/ 9 Speeed 88mph Christian Schmidt 135 16 11 30/ 27/ 43 Freight Train David Moore 134 217 12 38/ 43/ 19 Moonwipe Christian Schmidt 134 13 13 40/ 47/ 13 Cold as November Rain... John Metcalf 133 30 14 36/ 40/ 24 PacMan David Moore 132 246 15 30/ 28/ 42 Guardian Ian Oversby 132 216 16 32/ 33/ 35 The Seed Roy van Rijn 131 34 17 21/ 11/ 68 IMParable G.Labarga 130 4 18 36/ 42/ 23 '88 test IV John Metcalf 129 110 19 29/ 30/ 41 A.I.P. Christian Schmidt 129 24 20 31/ 34/ 36 vala John Metcalf 127 139 21 25/ 26/ 50 88 octanes test G.Labarga 123 0 From: Koth Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - ICWS Experimental 94 12/06/04 Date: 6 Dec 2004 09:54:02 -0500 Message-ID: <200412060506.iB65614d008562@gevjon.ttsg.com> Weekly Status on 12/06/04 -=- 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 : Tue Nov 16 12:03:38 EST 2004 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 45/ 35/ 20 Fatamorgana X Zul Nadzri 154 2 2 43/ 35/ 22 The X Machine Zul Nadzri 150 26 3 41/ 39/ 20 Eliminator X Zul Nadzri 143 27 4 43/ 44/ 13 Fire and Ice II David Moore 142 115 5 40/ 39/ 21 Black Moods Ian Oversby 141 211 6 30/ 20/ 50 xd100 test David Houston 140 12 7 29/ 23/ 48 Glenstorm John Metcalf 136 77 8 31/ 26/ 43 Venom v0.2b Christian Schmidt 135 237 9 39/ 43/ 19 Giant Hazy Test 13 Steve Gunnell 135 42 10 37/ 40/ 22 Ogre Christian Schmidt 135 163 11 36/ 37/ 28 Trefoil F 13 Steve Gunnell 134 98 12 21/ 9/ 70 Evol Cap 4 X John Wilkinson 133 284 13 30/ 27/ 43 KAT v5 Dave Hillis 133 147 14 23/ 12/ 65 Denial David Moore 133 156 15 30/ 28/ 42 Olivia X Ben Ford 133 96 16 36/ 41/ 23 Simply Intelligent Zul Nadzri 131 8 17 18/ 7/ 75 Evolve X v4.0 John Wilkinson 130 232 18 34/ 39/ 27 Controlled Aggression Ian Oversby 129 215 19 24/ 19/ 57 Kin John Metcalf 129 123 20 34/ 48/ 19 digital wilderness John Metcalf 120 1 21 22/ 64/ 13 sanguinarian John Metcalf 80 0 From: Koth Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - MultiWarrior 94 12/06/04 Date: 6 Dec 2004 10:04:17 -0500 Message-ID: <200412060503.iB6531qr008504@gevjon.ttsg.com> Weekly Status on 12/06/04 -=- 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 Dec 5 10:19:28 EST 2004 # Name Author Score Age 1 not king of the hill FatalC 45 242 2 sanguinarian John Metcalf 40 5 3 searching for pins John Metcalf 35 12 4 all you can eat John Metcalf 32 21 5 dancing under the bridge John Metcalf 28 11 6 bloodlust simon wainwright 26 6 7 fear of the light simon wainwright 23 7 8 moville simon wainwright 19 3 9 I don't die sheep 16 1 10 feverish John Metcalf 0 9 11 0 0 0 0 From: kaukasius@yahoo.de (el kauka) Subject: rft21 - qualification results Date: 6 Dec 2004 10:50:13 -0800 Message-ID: i'm sorry - i've got no time to run the challenge today. you may have to wait until tomorow evening. but i offer the results of the qualification (maybe this gives us a hit who will win). name of the team author point vs. eisern_union -------------------------|----------------------------|------------------------ 1. FSV Mainz 05 Christian Schmidt 400 (100%) Hooligans and Thugs Chip Wendell 400 (100%) NTW Amateur Football Club Lukasz Adamowski 400 (100%) Borussia Dortmund Christian Schmidt 400 (100%) Carpatian Vampires FC G.Labarga 396 (99%) Sayembara FC Zul Nadzri 396 (99%) Sayembara United Zul Nadzri 396 (99%) Unreal Madrid G.Labarga 396 (99%) Boston United John Metcalf 392 (98%) X-Men United Lukasz Adamowski 352 (88%) cheaters Christopher Hubert (failed to compile - revised version will be tested later el kauka From: "sayembara" Subject: Re: rft21 - qualification results Date: 7 Dec 2004 02:28:31 -0800 Message-ID: <1102415311.672126.48970@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com> 10 teams in the league... super league :) p/s: 4 pts to eisern_union as consolation goal. We'll come back hard tomorrow "Gung Ho"! el kauka wrote: > i'm sorry - i've got no time to run the challenge today. you may have > to wait until tomorow evening. but i offer the results of the > qualification (maybe this gives us a hit who will win). > > name of the team author point vs. eisern_union > -------------------------|----------------------------|------------------------ > > 1. FSV Mainz 05 Christian Schmidt 400 (100%) > > Hooligans and Thugs Chip Wendell 400 (100%) > > NTW Amateur Football Club Lukasz Adamowski 400 (100%) > > Borussia Dortmund Christian Schmidt 400 (100%) > > Carpatian Vampires FC G.Labarga 396 (99%) > > Sayembara FC Zul Nadzri 396 (99%) > > Sayembara United Zul Nadzri 396 (99%) > > Unreal Madrid G.Labarga 396 (99%) > > Boston United John Metcalf 392 (98%) > > X-Men United Lukasz Adamowski 352 (88%) > > cheaters Christopher Hubert (failed to compile - revised version > will be tested later > > > el kauka From: "CH" Subject: Re: rft21 - qualification results Date: 7 Dec 2004 09:17:43 -0800 Message-ID: <1102439863.313998.149780@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com> Wow! How did you find out my name. It says CH on all my programs. From: kaukasius@yahoo.de (el kauka) Subject: RFT21 - RESULTS Date: 7 Dec 2004 10:12:02 -0800 Message-ID: .................................................................. . _____ _ _ . | __ \ | | | | . | |__) |___ __| | ___ ___ __| | ___ _ __ ___ . | _ // _ \/ _` |/ __/ _ \ / _` |/ _ \ '__/ __| . | | \ \ __/ (_| | (_| (_) | (_| | __/ | \__ \ . |_| \_\___|\__,_|\___\___/ \__,_|\___|_| |___/ . . ______ . | ____| . | |__ _ __ ___ _ __ _____ _ . | __| '__/ _ \ '_ \|_ / | | | . | | | | | __/ | | |/ /| |_| | . |_| |_| \___|_| |_/___|\__, | . __/ | . |___/ . .................................................................. The ongoing corewar tournament ___ ___ _ / \___/ \ _ / | REDCODER | \ / | ____ __ | \ \\ | |__ \ / | | // \/| ) |_ | |\/ | / / | | | | / /_ | | | | |_____||___|| |_____________| |_____________| ........................... . . . The "Football" Round . . . ........................... *********** * Results * *********** In this run, 11 warriors written by 7 authors take part the round. Congratulations to G.Labarga who made the first ans second place! Great! (_v_) _|_ | | |-----+-----| ___________ .-=========-. | {{1}} | '._==_==_=_.' \'-=======-'/ | \=/ | .-\: /-. _| .=. |_ '---------' | (|:.{3} |) | ((| {{2}} |)) \ / '-|:. |-' \| /|\ |/ '. .' \::. / \__ '`' __/ | | '::. .' _`) (`_ .' '. ) ( _/_______\_ _|___|_ _.' '._ /___________\ [_______] [_______] 2nd place Winner 3rd place ___________ ___________ ____________ / \ / \ / \ | G.Labarga | | G.Labarga | | Zul Nadzri | \___________/ \___________/ \____________/ Team name Author Score (pts) Score (%) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unreal Madrid G.Labarga 8612 100.00 Carpatian Vampires FC G.Labarga 8204 95.26 Sayembara United Zul Nadzri 7168 83.23 Sayembara FC Zul Nadzri 5204 64.42 Borussia Dortmund Christian Schmidt 5172 60.05 Hooligans and Thugs Chip Wendell 5048 58.61 1. FSV Mainz 05 Christian Schmidt 4764 55.31 Boston United John Metcalf 2228 25.87 NTW Amateur Football Club Lukasz Adamowski 2220 25.77 X-Men United Lukasz Adamowski 1864 21.64 Cheaters Christopher Hubert 228 00.02 here is the matrix of the round. if you wonder that the score of an entry plus the score of the entry it has fight against don't makes 1000 points (250*4), i might remember you of the fact the a round where one of the enemies (or the ball) dies, no points were given to the players... 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 1. FSV Mainz 05 0 472 340 120 28 304 584 112 968 836 1000 Hooligans and Thugs 524 0 600 520 88 312 100 28 996 884 996 NTW Amateur Football Club 416 20 0 416 44 24 60 0 436 248 556 Borussia Dortmund 824 472 280 0 44 284 476 24 972 816 980 Carpatian Vampires FC 924 884 848 916 0 920 656 340 940 848 928 Sayembara FC 288 664 876 300 80 0 120 36 996 972 872 Sayembara United 416 900 940 524 336 880 0 204 976 992 1000 Unreal Madrid 848 968 696 948 484 936 772 0 996 976 988 Boston United 32 4 560 28 48 4 24 0 0 536 992 X-Men United 128 16 300 136 136 4 8 8 372 0 756 Cheaters 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 228 0 After all the football round was a lot of fun. maybe trac will rebuild p mars again for the rugby round someday. one point for killing your enmie - tree points for touchdown... Thanks to all authors for your participation. el kauka From: "CH" Subject: Re: rft21 - qualification results Date: 7 Dec 2004 19:26:02 -0800 Message-ID: <1102476362.140771.102680@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com> I just noticed two differences between the version I submitted and the real version... 1. wait djn.a #0, #clr should be wait djn.a #0, @clr 2. scanv seq.x bomb3, >ptr should be scanv seq.x bomb3, >ptr3 That would explain the strange scores in my programs self fights. From: "Chip" Subject: Re: RFT21 - RESULTS Date: 7 Dec 2004 21:06:40 -0800 Message-ID: <1102482400.660409.292350@c13g2000cwb.googlegroups.com> Congratulations, Neo! Your teams were clearly the finest on the field. Beers all around! From: "sayembara" Subject: Re: RFT21 - RESULTS Date: 9 Dec 2004 03:39:01 -0800 Message-ID: <1102592341.402410.133290@c13g2000cwb.googlegroups.com> Chip wrote: > Congratulations, Neo! Your teams were clearly the finest on the field. > Beers all around! Congratulations. I thought my attacking team could win but you have proven your teams were better. Just wait for UEFA ! :) From: =?ISO-8859-2?Q?=A3ukasz_Adamowski?= Subject: Odp: RFT21 - RESULTS Date: 9 Dec 2004 11:55:44 -0500 Message-ID: <41b8626ad93a3@wp.pl> Will sources of all participating teams be published? I'm really interested what ideas did you have and how my warriors did fail. To be honest I've never let them play on real green field, I haven't even downloaded modified pMARS. ;] Thanks to all coaches and el kauka & trac football federation! ;] Lukasz -= "War is a problem, never a solution" =- -= "Wojna jest problemem, a nie rozwiazaniem" =- ---------------------------------------------------- Wiele prezent�w, niskich cen, oryginalnych pomys��w - - wygodnie i w sam raz na gwiazdk� ...bo ju� czas na: http://klik.wp.pl/?adr=www.zakupy.wp.pl%2Fswieta.html&sid=276 Message-ID: From: anton@paradise.net.nz (Anton Marsden) Subject: Core War Frequently Asked Questions (rec.games.corewar FAQ) Date: 10 Dec 2004 05:17:34 GMT Archive-name: games/corewar-faq Last-Modified: September 4, 1999 Version: 4.2 URL: http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/~anton/cw/corewar-faq.html Copyright: (c) 1999 Anton Marsden Maintainer: Anton Marsden Posting-Frequency: once every 2 weeks Core War Frequently Asked Questions (rec.games.corewar FAQ) These are the Frequently Asked Questions (and answers) from the Usenet newsgroup rec.games.corewar. A plain text version of this document is posted every two weeks. The latest hypertext version is available at http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/~anton/cw/corewar-faq.html and the latest plain text version is available at http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/~anton/cw/corewar-faq.txt. This document is currently being maintained by Anton Marsden (anton@paradise.net.nz). Last modified: Sat Sep 4 00:22:22 NZST 1999 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ To Do * Add the new No-PSpace '94 hill location * Add online location of Dewdney's articles * Make question 17 easier to understand. Add a state diagram? * Add info about infinite hills, related games (C-Robots, Tierra?, ...) * New question: How do I know if my warrior is any good? Refer to beginners' benchmarks, etc. * Add a Who's Who list? * Would very much like someone to compile a collection of the "revolutionary" warriors so that beginners can see how the game has developed over the years. Mail me if interested. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ What's New * Changed primary location of FAQ (again!) * Changed Philip Kendall's home page address. * Updated list server information * Changed primary location of FAQ * Vector-launching code was fixed thanks to Ting Hsu. * Changed the location of Ryan Coleman's paper (LaunchPad -> Launchpad) * Changed pauillac.inria.fr to para.inria.fr ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Table of Contents 1. What is Core War 2. Is it "Core War" or "Core Wars"? 3. Where can I find more information about Core War? 4. Core War has changed since Dewdney's articles. Where do I get a copy of the current instruction set? 5. What is ICWS'94? Which simulators support ICWS'94? 6. What is the ICWS? 7. What is Core Warrior? 8. Where are the Core War archives? 9. Where can I find a Core War system for ...? 10. Where can I find warrior code? 11. I do not have FTP. How do I get all this great stuff? 12. I do not have access to Usenet. How do I post and receive news? 13. Are there any Core War related WWW sites? 14. What is KotH? How do I enter? 15. Is it DAT 0, 0 or DAT #0, #0? How do I compare to core? 16. How does SLT (Skip if Less Than) work? 17. What is the difference between in-register and in-memory evaluation? 18. What is P-space? 19. What does "Missing ;assert .." in my message from KotH mean? 20. How should I format my code? 21. Are there any other Core War related resources I should know about? 22. What does (expression or term of your choice) mean? 23. Other questions? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. What is Core War? Core War is a game played by two or more programs (and vicariously by their authors) written in an assembly language called Redcode and run in a virtual computer called MARS (for Memory Array Redcode Simulator). The object of the game is to cause all processes of the opposing program to terminate, leaving your program in sole posession of the machine. There are Core War systems available for most computer platforms. Redcode has been standardised by the ICWS, and is therefore transportable between all standard Core War systems. The system in which the programs run is quite simple. The core (the memory of the simulated computer) is a continuous array of instructions, empty except for the competing programs. The core wraps around, so that after the last instruction comes the first one again. There are no absolute addresses in Core War. That is, the address 0 doesn't mean the first instruction in the memory, but the instruction that contains the address 0. The next instruction is 1, and the previous one obviously -1. However, all numbers are treated as positive, and are in the range 0 to CORESIZE-1 where CORESIZE is the amount of memory locations in the core - this means that -1 would be treated as CORESIZE-1 in any arithmetic operations, eg. 3218 + 7856 = (3218 + 7856) mod CORESIZE. Many people get confused by this, and it is particularly important when using the SLT instruction. Note that the source code of a program can still contain negative numbers, but if you start using instructions like DIV #-2, #5 it is important to know what effect they will have when executed. The basic unit of memory in Core War is one instruction. Each Redcode instruction contains three parts: * the opcode * the source address (a.k.a. the A-field) * the destination address (a.k.a. the B-field) The execution of the programs is equally simple. The MARS executes one instruction at a time, and then proceeds to the next one in the memory, unless the instruction explicitly tells it to jump to another address. If there is more than one program running, (as is usual) the programs execute alternately, one instruction at a time. The execution of each instruction takes the same time, one cycle, whether it is MOV, DIV or even DAT (which kills the process). Each program may have several processes running. These processes are stored in a task queue. When it is the program's turn to execute an instruction it dequeues a process and executes the corresponding instruction. Processes that are not killed during the execution of the instruction are put back into the task queue. Processes created by a SPL instruction are added to the task queue after the creating process is put back into the task queue. [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2. Is it "Core War" or "Core Wars"? Both terms are used. Early references were to Core War. Later references seem to use Core Wars. I prefer "Core War" to refer to the game in general, "core wars" to refer to more than one specific battle. [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 3. Where can I find more information about Core War? Core War was first described in the Core War Guidelines of March, 1984 by D. G. Jones and A. K. Dewdney of the Department of Computer Science at The University of Western Ontario (Canada). Dewdney wrote several "Computer Recreations" articles in Scientific American which discussed Core War, starting with the May 1984 article. Those articles are contained in two anthologies: Library of Author Title Published ISBN Congress Call Number The Armchair Dewdney, Universe: An New York: W. QA76.6 .D517 A. K. Exploration of H. Freeman �0-7167-1939-8 1988 Computer Worlds 1988 The Magic 0-7167-2125-2 Dewdney, Machine: A New York: W.(Hardcover), QA76.6 A. K. Handbook of H. Freeman �0-7167-2144-9 .D5173 1990 Computer Sorcery 1990 (Paperback) A.K. Dewdney's articles are still the most readable introduction to Core War, even though the Redcode dialect described in there is no longer current. For those who are interested, Dewdney has a home page at http://www.csd.uwo.ca/faculty/akd/. [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4. Core War has changed since Dewdney's articles. Where do I get a copy of the current instruction set? A draft of the official standard (ICWS'88) is available as ftp://www.koth.org/corewar/documents/standards/redcode-icws-88.Z. This document is formatted awkwardly and contains ambiguous statements. For a more approachable intro to Redcode, take a look at Mark Durham's tutorials, ftp://www.koth.org/corewar/documents/tutorial.1.Z and ftp://www.koth.org/corewar/documents/tutorial.2.Z. Steven Morrell has prepared a more practically oriented Redcode tutorial that discusses different warrior classes with lots of example code. This and various other tutorials can be found at http://www.koth.org/papers.html. Even though ICWS'88 is still the "official" standard, you will find that most people are playing by ICWS'94 draft rules and extensions. [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 5. What is ICWS'94? Which simulators support ICWS'94? There is an ongoing discussion about future enhancements to the Redcode language. A proposed new standard, dubbed ICWS'94, is currently being evaluated. A major change is the addition of "instruction modifiers" that allow instructions to modify A-field, B-field or both. Also new is a new addressing modes and unrestricted opcode and addressing mode combination ("no illegal instructions"). ICWS'94 is backwards compatible; i.e. ICWS'88 warriors will run correctly on an ICWS'94 system. Take a look at the ICWS'94 draft at ftp://www.koth.org/corewar/documents/icws94.0202.Z for more information. There is a HTML version of this document available at http://www.koth.org/info/icws94.html. You can try out the new standard by submitting warriors to the '94 hills of the KotH servers. Two corewar systems currently support ICWS'94, pMARS (many platforms) and Redcoder (Mac), both available at ftp://www.koth.org/corewar. Note that Redcoder only supports a subset of ICWS'94. [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 6. What is the ICWS? About one year after Core War first appeared in Scientific American, the "International Core War Society" (ICWS) was established. Since that time, the ICWS has been responsible for the creation and maintenance of Core War standards and the running of Core War tournaments. There have been six annual tournaments and two standards (ICWS'86 and ICWS'88). The ICWS is no longer active. [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 7. What is Core Warrior? Following in the tradition of the Core War News Letter, Push Off, and The 94 Warrior, Core Warrior is a newsletter about strategies and current standings in Core War. Started in October 1995, back issues of Core Warrior (and the other newsletters) are available at http://para.inria.fr/~doligez/corewar/. There is also a Core Warrior index page at http://www.kendalls.demon.co.uk/pak21/corewar/warrior.html which has a summary of the contents of each issue of Core Warrior. Many of the earlier issues contain useful information for beginners. [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 8. Where are the Core War archives? Many documents such as the guidelines and the ICWS standards along with previous tournament Redcode entries and complete Core War systems are available via anonymous ftp from ftp://ftp.csua.berkeley.edu/pub/corewar. Also, most of past rec.games.corewar postings (including Redcode source listings) are archived there. Jon Blow (blojo@csua.berkeley.edu) is the archive administrator. When uploading to /pub/corewar/incoming, ask Jon to move your upload to the appropriate directory and announce it on the net. This site is mirrored at: * http://www.koth.org/corewar/ * ftp://www.koth.org/corewar/ * ftp://ftp.inria.fr/INRIA/Projects/para/doligez/cw/mirror The plain text version of this FAQ is automatically archived by news.answers (but this version is probably out-of-date). [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 9. Where can I find a Core War system for . . . ? Core War systems are available via anonymous FTP from www.koth.org in the corewar/systems directory. Currently, there are UNIX, IBM PC-compatible, Macintosh, and Amiga Core War systems available there. It is a good idea to check ftp://www.koth.org/corewar/incoming for program updates first. CAUTION! There are many, many Core War systems available which are NOT ICWS'88 (or even ICWS'86) compatible available at various archive sites other than www.koth.org. Generally, the older the program - the less likely it will be ICWS compatible. If you are looking for an ICWS'94 simulator, get pMARS, which is available for many platforms and can be downloaded from: * ftp://ftp.csua.berkeley.edu/pub/corewar (original site) * ftp://www.koth.org/corewar (koth.org mirror) * ftp://ftp.inria.fr/INRIA/Projects/para/doligez/cw/mirror (Planar mirror) * http://www.nc5.infi.net/~wtnewton/corewar/ (Terry Newton) * ftp://members.aol.com/ofechner/corewar (Fechter) Notes: * If you have trouble running pMARS with a graphical display under Win95 then check out http://www.koth.org/pmars.html which should have a pointer to the latest compilation of pMARS for this environment. * RPMs for the Alpha, PowerPC, Sparc and i386 can be found at ftp://ftp.inria.fr/INRIA/Projects/para/doligez/cw/pmars-rpm/ Reviews of Core War systems would be greatly appreciated in the newsgroup and in the newsletter. Below is a not necessarily complete or up-to-date list of what's available at www.koth.org: MADgic41.lzh corewar for the Amiga, v4.1 MAD4041.lzh older version? MAD50B.lha corewar for the Amiga, beta version 5.0 Redcoder-21.hqx corewar for the Mac, supports ICWS'88 and '94 (without extensions) core-11.hqx corewar for the Mac core-wars-simulator.hqx same as core-11.hqx? corewar_unix_x11.tar.Z corewar for UNIX/X-windows, ICWS'86 but not ICWS'88 compatible koth31.tar.Z corewar for UNIX/X-windows. This program ran the former KotH server at intel.com koth.shar.Z older version kothpc.zip port of older version of KotH to the PC deluxe20c.tar.Z corewar for UNIX (broken X-windows or curses) and PC mars.tar.Z corewar for UNIX, likely not ICWS'88 compatible icons.zip corewar icons for MS-Windows macrored.zip a redcode macro-preprocessor (PC) c88v49.zip PC corewar, textmode display mars88.zip PC corewar, graphics mode display corwp302.zip PC corewar, textmode display, slowish mercury2.zip PC corewar written in assembly, fast! mtourn11.zip tournament scheduler for mercury (req. 4DOS) pmars08s.zip portable system, ICWS'88 and '94, runs on UNIX, PC, Mac, Amiga. C source archive pmars08s.tar.Z same as above pmars08.zip PC executables with graphics display, req 386+ macpmars02.sit.hqx pMARS executable for Mac (port of version 0.2) buggy, no display MacpMARS1.99a.cpt.hqx port of v0.8 for the Mac, with display and debugger MacpMARS1.0s.cpt.hqx C source (MPW, ThinkC) for Mac frontend pvms08.zip pMARS v0.8 for VMS build files/help (req. pmars08s.zip) ApMARS03.lha pMARS executable for Amiga (port of version 0.3.1) wincor11.zip MS-Windows system, shareware ($15) [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 10. Where can I find warrior code? To learn the game, it is a good idea to study previously posted warrior code. The FTP archives have code in the ftp://www.koth.org/corewar/redcode directory. A clearly organized on-line warrior collection is available at the Core War web sites (see below). [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 11. I do not have FTP. How do I get all this great stuff? There is an FTP email server at bitftp@pucc.princeton.edu. This address may no longer exist. I haven't tested it yet. Send email with a subject and body text of "help" (without the quotes) for more information on its usage. Note that many FTP email gateways are shutting down due to abuse. To get a current list of FTP email servers, look at the Accessing the Internet by E-mail FAQ posted to news.answers. If you don't have access to Usenet, you can retrieve this FAQ one of the following ways: * Send mail to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with the body containing "send usenet/news.answers/internet-services/access-via-email". * Send mail to mailbase@mailbase.ac.uk with the body containing "send lis-iis e-access-inet.txt". [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 12. I do not have access to Usenet. How do I post and receive news? To receive rec.games.corewar articles by email, join the COREWAR-L list run on the Koth.Org list processor. To join, send the message SUB COREWAR-L FirstName LastName to listproc@koth.org. You can send mail to corewar-l@koth.org to post even if you are not a member of the list. Responsible for the listserver is Scott J. Ellentuch (ttsg@ttsg.com). Servers that allow you to post (but not receive) articles are available. Refer to the Accessing the Internet by E-Mail FAQ for more information. [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 13. Are there any Core War related WWW sites? You bet. Each of the two KotH sites sport a world-wide web server. Stormking's Core War page is http://www.koth.org; pizza's is http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~pizza/koth . Damien Doligez (a.k.a. Planar) has a web page that features convenient access to regular newsletters (Push Off, The '94 Warrior, Core Warrior) and a well organized library of warriors: http://para.inria.fr/~doligez/corewar/. Convenient for U.S. users, this site is also mirrored at koth.org. [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 14. What is KotH? How do I enter? King Of The Hill (KotH) is an ongoing Core War tournament available to anyone with email. You enter by submitting via email a Redcode program (warrior) with special comment lines. You will receive a reply indicating how well your program did against the current top programs "on the hill". There are two styles of KotH tournaments, "classical" and "multi-warrior". The "classical" KotH is a one-on-one tournament, that is your warrior will play 100 battles against each of the 20 other programs currently on the Hill. You receive 3 points for each win and 1 point for each tie. (The existing programs do not replay each other, but their previous battles are recalled.) All scores are updated to reflect your battles and all 21 programs are ranked from high to low. If you are number 21 you are pushed off the Hill, if you are higher than 21 someone else is pushed off. In "multi-warrior" KotH, all warriors on the hill fight each other at the same time. Score calculation is a bit more complex than for the one-on-one tournament. Briefly, points are awarded based on how many warriors survive until the end of a round. A warrior that survives by itself gets more points than a warrior that survives together with other warriors. Points are calculated from the formula (W*W-1)/S, where W is the total number of warriors and S the number of surviving warriors. The pMARS documentation has more information on multi-warrior scoring. The idea for an email-based Core War server came from David Lee. The original KotH was developed and run by William Shubert at Intel starting in 1991, and discontinued after almost three years of service. Currently, KotHs based on Bill's UNIX scripts but offering a wider variety of hills are are running at two sites: koth@koth.org is maintained by Scott J. Ellentuch (tuc@ttsg.com) and pizza@ecst.csuchico.edu by Thomas H. Davies (sd@ecst.csuchico.edu). Up until May '95, the two sites provided overlapping services, i.e. the some of the hill types were offered by both "pizza" and "stormking". To conserve resources, the different hill types are now divided up among the sites. The way you submit warriors to both KotHs is pretty much the same. Therefore, the entry rules described below apply to both "pizza" and "stormking" unless otherwise noted. Entry Rules for King of the Hill Corewar * Write a corewar program. KotH is fully ICWS '88 compatible, EXCEPT that a comma (",") is required between two arguments. * Put a line starting with ";redcode" (or ";redcode-94", etc., see below) at the top of your program. This MUST be the first line. Anything before it will be lost. If you wish to receive mail on every new entrant, use ";redcode verbose". Otherwise you will only receive mail if a challenger makes it onto the hill. Use ";redcode quiet" if you wish to receive mail only when you get shoved off the hill. Additionally, adding ";name " and ";author " will be helpful in the performance reports. Do NOT have a line beginning with ";address" in your code; this will confuse the mail daemon and you won't get mail back. Using ";name" is mandatory on the Pizza hills. In addition, it would be nice if you have lines beginning with ";strategy" that describe the algorithm you use. There are currently seven separate hills you can select by starting your program with ;redcode-94, ;redcode-b, ;redcode-lp, ;redcode-x, ;redcode, ;redcode-94x or ;redcode-94m. The former four run at "pizza", the latter three at "stormking". More information on these hills is listed below. * Mail this file to koth@koth.org or pizza@ecst.csuchico.edu. "Pizza" requires a subject of "koth" (use the -s flag on most mailers). * Within a few minutes you should get mail back telling you whether your program assembled correctly or not. If it did assemble correctly, sit back and wait; if not, make the change required and re-submit. * In an hour or so you should get more mail telling you how your program performed against the current top 20 (or 10) programs. If no news arrives during that time, don't worry; entries are put in a queue and run through the tournament one at a time. A backlog may develop. Be patient. If your program makes it onto the hill, you will get mail every time a new program makes it onto the hill. If this is too much mail, you can use ";redcode[-??] quiet" when you first mail in your program; then you will only get mail when you make it on the top 25 list or when you are knocked off. Using ";redcode[-??] verbose" will give you even more mail; here you get mail every time a new challenger arrives, even if they don't make it onto the top 25 list. Often programmers want to try out slight variations in their programs. If you already have a program named "foo V1.0" on the hill, adding the line ";kill foo" to a new program will automatically bump foo 1.0 off the hill. Just ";kill" will remove all of your programs when you submit the new one. The server kills programs by assigning an impossibly low score; it may therefore take another successful challenge before a killed program is actually removed from the hill. Sample Entry ;redcode ;name Dwarf ;author A. K. Dewdney ;strategy Throw DAT bombs around memory, hitting every 4th memory cell. ;strategy This program was presented in the first Corewar article. bomb DAT #0 dwarf ADD #4, bomb MOV bomb, @bomb JMP dwarf END dwarf ; Programs start at the first line unless ; an "END start" pseudo-op appears to indicate ; the first logical instruction. Also, nothing ; after the END instruction will be assembled. Duration Max. Hill Name Hill Core Max. Before Entry Min. Rounds Instr. Size Size Processes Distance Fought Set Tie Length Pizza's ICWS '94 Draft Hill Extended (Accessed with 25 8000 8000 80000 100 100 200 ICWS '94 ";redcode-94") Draft Pizza's Beginner's Extended Hill (Accessed 25 8000 8000 80000 100 100 200 ICWS '94 with ";redcode-b") Draft Pizza's Experimental Extended (Small) Hill 25 800 800 8000 20 20 200 ICWS '94 (Accessed with Draft ";redcode-x") Pizza's Limited Process (LP) Hill Extended (Accessed with 25 8000 8 80000 200 200 200 ICWS '94 ";redcode-lp") Draft Stormking's ICWS '88 Standard Hill (Accessed with 20 8000 8000 80000 100 100 250 ICWS '88 ";redcode") Stormking's ICWS '94 No Pspace Hill (Accessed with 20 8000 8000 80000 100 100 250 ICWS '94 ";redcode-94nop") Stormking's ICWS '94 Experimental Extended (Big) Hill 20 55440 55440 500000 200 200 250 ICWS '94 (Accessed with Draft ";redcode-94x") Stormking's ICWS '94 Multi-Warrior Extended Hill (Accessed 10 8000 8000 80000 100 100 200 ICWS '94 with Draft ";redcode-94m") Note: Warriors on the beginner's hill are retired at age 100. If you just want to get a status report without actually challenging the hills, send email with ";status" as the message body (and don't forget "Subject: koth" for "pizza"). If you send mail to "pizza" with "Subject: koth help" you will receive instructions that may be more up to date than those contained in this document. At "stormking", a message body with ";help" will return brief instructions. If you submit code containing a ";test" line, your warrior will be assembled but not actually pitted against the warriors on the hill. At "pizza", you can use ";redcode[-??] test" to do a test challenge of the Hill without affecting the status of the Hill. These challenges can be used to see how well your warrior does against the current Hill warriors. All hills run portable MARS (pMARS) version 0.8, a platform-independent Core War system available at www.koth.org. The '94 and '94x hills allow five experimental opcodes and three experimental addressing modes currently not covered in the ICWS'94 draft document: * LDP - Load P-Space * STP - Store P-Space * SEQ - Skip if EQual (synonym for CMP) * SNE - Skip if Not Equal * NOP - (No OPeration) * * - indirect using A-field as pointer * { - predecrement indirect using A-field * } - postincrement indirect using A-field [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 15. Is it DAT 0, 0 or DAT #0, #0? How do I compare to core? Core is initialized to DAT 0, 0. This is an illegal instruction (in source code) under ICWS'88 rules and strictly compliant assemblers (such as KotH or pmars -8) will not let you have a DAT 0, 0 instruction in your source code - only DAT #0, #0. So this begs the question, how to compare something to see if it is empty core. The answer is, most likely the instruction before your first instruction and the instruction after your last instruction are both DAT 0, 0. You can use them, or any other likely unmodified instructions, for comparison. Note that under ICWS'94, DAT 0, 0 is a legal instruction. [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 16. How does SLT (Skip if Less Than) work? SLT gives some people trouble because of the way modular arithmetic works. It is important to note that all negative numbers are converted to positive numbers before a battles begins. Example: -1 becomes M-1 where M is the memory size (core size). Once you realize that all numbers are treated as positive, it is clear what is meant by "less than". It should also be clear that no number is less than zero. [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 17. What is the difference between in-register and in-memory evaluation? These terms refer to the way instruction operands are evaluated. The '88 Redcode standard ICWS'88 is unclear about whether a simulator should "buffer" the result of A-operand evaluation before the B-operand is evaluated. Simulators that do buffer are said to use in-register evaluation, those that don't, in-memory evaluation. ICWS'94 clears this confusion by mandating in-register evaluation. Instructions that execute differently under these two forms of evaluation are MOV, ADD, SUB, MUL, DIV and MOD where the effective address of the A-operand is modified by evaluation of the B-operand. This is best illustrated by an example: L1 mov L2, mov.i #0, impsize Bootstrapping Strategy of copying the active portion of the program away from the initial location, leaving a decoy behind and making the relocated program as small as possible. B-Scanners Scanners which only recognize non-zero B-fields. example add #10, scan scan jmz example, 10 c Measure of speed, equal to one location per cycle. Speed of light. CMP-Scanner A Scanner which uses a CMP instruction to look for opponents. example add step, scan scan cmp 10, 30 jmp attack jmp example step dat #20, #20 Colour Property of bombs making them visible to scanners, causing them to attack useless locations, thus slowing them down. example dat #100 Core-Clear Code that sequentially overwrites core with DAT instructions; usually the last part of a program. Decoys Bogus or unused instructions meant to slow down scanners. Typically, DATs with non-zero B-fields. Decrement Resistant Property of warriors making them functional (or at least partially functional) when overrun by a DJN-stream. DJN-Stream (also DJN-Train) Using a DJN command to rapidly decrement core locations. example ... ... djn example, <4000 Dwarf The prototypical small bomber. Gate-busting (also gate-crashing) technique to "interweave" a decrement-resistant imp-spiral (e.g. MOV 0, 2668) with a standard one to overrun imp-gates. Hybrids warriors that combine two or more of the basic strategies, either in sequence (e.g. stone->paper) or in parallel (e.g. imp/stone). Imp Program which only uses the MOV instruction. example mov 0, 1 or example mov 0, 2 mov 0, 2 Imp-Gate A location in core which is bombed or decremented continuously so that an Imp can not pass. Also used to describe the program-code which maintains the gate. example ... ... spl 0, mov.i #0,IMPSIZE Mirror see reflection. On-axis/off-axis On-axis scanners compare two locations M/2 apart, where M is the memory size. Off-axis scanners use some other separation. Optimal Constants (also optima-type constants) Bomb or scan increments chosen to cover core most effectively, i.e. leaving gaps of uniform size. Programs to calculate optimal constants and lists of optimal numbers are available at www.koth.org. Paper A Paper-like program is one which replicates itself many times. Part of the Scissors (beats) Paper (beats) Stone (beats Scissors) analogy. P-Warrior A warrior which uses the results of previous round(s) in order to determine which strategy it will use. Pit-Trapper (also Slaver, Vampire). A program which enslaves another. Usually accomplished by bombing with JMPs to a SPL 0 pit with an optional core-clear routine. Q^2 Scan A modern version of the Quick Scan where anything found is attacked almost immediately. Quick Scan 2c scan of a set group of core locations with bombing if anything is found. Both of the following codes snips scan 16 locations and check for a find. If anything is found, it is attacked, otherwise 16 more locations are scanned. Example: start s1 for 8 ;'88 scan cmp start+100*s1, start+100*s1+4000 ;check two locations mov #start+100*s1-found, found ;they differ so set pointer rof jmn attack, found ;if we have something, get it s2 for 8 cmp start+100*(s2+6), start+100*(s2+6)+4000 mov #start+100*(s2+6)-found, found rof found jmz moveme, #0 ;skip attack if qscan found nothing attack cmp @found, start-1 ;does found points to empty space? add #4000, found ;no, so point to correct location mov start-1, @found ;move a bomb moveme jmp 0, 0 In ICWS'94, the quick scan code is more compact because of the SNE opcode: start ;'94 scan s1 for 4 sne start+400*s1, start+400*s1+100 ;check two locations seq start+400*s1+200, start+400*s1+300 ;check two locations mov #start+400*s1-found, found ;they differ so set pointer rof jmn which, found ;if we have something, get it s2 for 4 sne start+400*(s2+4), start+400*(s2+4)+100 seq start+400*(s2+4)+200, start+400*(s2+4)+300 mov #start+400*(s2+4)-found-100, found rof found jmz moveme, #0 ;skip attack if qscan found nothing add #100, -1 ;increment pointer till we get the which jmn -1, @found ;right place mov start-1, @found ;move a bomb moveme jmp 0, 0 Reflection Copy of a program or program part, positioned to make the active program invisible to a CMP-scanner. Replicator Generic for Paper. A program which makes many copies of itself, each copy also making copies. Self-Splitting Strategy of amplifying the number of processes executing a piece of code. example spl 0 loop add #10, example mov example, @example jmp loop Scanner A program which searches through core for an opponent rather than bombing blindly. Scissors A program designed to beat replicators, usually a (B-field scanning) vampire. Part of the Paper-Scissors-Stone analogy. Self-Repair Ability of a program to fix it's own code after attack. Silk A replicator which splits off a process to each new copy before actually copying the code. This allows it to replicate extremely quickly. This technique is only possible under the '94 draft, because it requires post-increment indirect addressing. Example: spl 1 mov -1, 0 spl 1 ;generate 6 consecutive processes silk spl 3620, #0 ;split to new copy mov >-1, }-1 ;copy self to new location mov bomb, >2000 ;linear bombing mov bomb, }2042 ;A-indirect bombing for anti-vamp jmp silk, {silk ;reset source pointer, make new copy bomb dat >2667, >5334 ;anti-imp bomb Slaver see Pit-Trapper. Stealth Property of programs, or program parts, which are invisible to scanners, accomplished by using zero B-fields and reflections. Stone A Stone-like program designed to be a small bomber. Part of the Paper-Scissors-Stone analogy. Stun A type of bomb which makes the opponent multiply useless processes, thus slowing it down. Example is referred to as a SPL-JMP bomb. example spl 0 jmp -1 Two-Pass Core-Clear (also SPL/DAT Core-Clear) core clear that fills core first with SPL instructions, then with DATs. This is very effective in killing paper and certain imp-spiral variations. Vampire see Pit-Trapper. Vector Launch one of several means to start an imp-spiral running. As fast as Binary Launch, but requiring much less code. See also JMP/ADD Launch and Binary Launch. This example is one form of a Vector Launch: sz EQU 2667 spl 1 spl 1 jmp @vt, }0 vt dat #0, imp+0*sz ; start of vector table dat #0, imp+1*sz dat #0, imp+2*sz dat #0, imp+3*sz ; end of vector table imp mov.i #0, sz [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 23. Other questions? Just ask in the rec.games.corewar newsgroup or contact me. If you are shy, check out the Core War archives first to see if your question has been answered before. [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Credits Additions, corrections, etc. to this document are solicited. Thanks in particular to the following people who have contributed major portions of this document: * Mark Durham (wrote the original version of the FAQ) * Paul Kline * Randy Graham * Stefan Strack (maintained a recent version of the FAQ) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Copyright � 1999 Anton Marsden. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium, provided this notice is preserved. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: neogryzormail@mixmail.com (Neogryzor) Subject: RF21 results Date: 10 Dec 2004 07:25:26 -0800 Message-ID: <242debe4.0412100725.2d6c09bb@posting.google.com> Thanks guys. I did not expect such a success. Now we can give some competition to Chip for the top rank. Also thanks to elkauka and trac for such a funny round. By the way, round's final result depends on entries or authors? I mean, shouldn't Zul take the second spot? Are there any ideas for a RF22? :) G.Labarga From: =?ISO-8859-2?Q?=A3ukasz_Adamowski?= Subject: Odp: RF21 results Date: 10 Dec 2004 14:48:14 -0500 Message-ID: <41b9d1fc7dc21@wp.pl> Dnia 10-12-2004 o godz. 16:31 neogryzormail@mixmail.com (Neogryzor) napisal: > By the way, round's final result depends on entries or > authors? I mean, shouldn't Zul take the second spot? I agree. We always had cups for players, not warriors. It's strange to see the same name in top three twice. > Are there any ideas for a RF22? :) Yes! Fight in garbage-core!!! I mean in core initialized with random instructions... But I'm not the one to organize it, sorry. ;] Lukasz -= "War is a problem, never a solution" =- -= "Wojna jest problemem, a nie rozwiazaniem" =- ---------------------------------------------------- Wiele prezent�w, niskich cen, oryginalnych pomys��w - - wygodnie i w sam raz na gwiazdk� ...bo ju� czas na: http://klik.wp.pl/?adr=www.zakupy.wp.pl%2Fswieta.html&sid=276 From: "CH" Subject: Re: Odp: RFT21 - RESULTS Date: 11 Dec 2004 10:22:03 -0800 Message-ID: <1102789323.319300.303960@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com> Here is the version I submitted (It doesn=B4t work): ;redcode ;name cheaters ;author CH ;strategy hyper-obese scanner probably ;stratedy destined for last place ;strategy but who cares? :-) goal equ value ball equ value step equ 4293 lenth equ 24 org scan for 21 jmp #0, #ball rof for 55 dat 0, 0 rof wait djn.a #0, #clr inc add #step, @scan scan jmz.f inc, @ptr slt #0-lenth, ptr mov.f @scan, dir spl wait, }dir jmn clr, ptr sub.f #1, clr spl #0, #0 clr mov bomb, >dir jmn.a clr, @clr bomb3 dat goal, 0 bomb2 jmp 0, ptr bomb jmp #0, #0 dir spl #0, #0 scanv seq.x bomb3, >ptr jmp scanv mov.b ptr2, ptr3 kick mov bomb3, dir jmn.a clr, @-1 dat goal, 0 jmp 0, ptr bomb jmp #0, #0 dir spl #0, #0 seq.x -4, >4 jmp -1 mov.b 2, 3 mov -7, <2 jmp -1, 5 jmp -6, -24 jmp -1 ptr dat 14, step end From: kaukasius@yahoo.de (el kauka) Subject: rft21 results Date: 12 Dec 2004 04:24:13 -0800 Message-ID: the code of the warriors will be online monday evening. el kauka From: Koth Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - MultiWarrior 94 12/13/04 Date: 13 Dec 2004 00:30:56 -0500 Message-ID: <200412130503.iBD531Jv005216@gevjon.ttsg.com> Weekly Status on 12/13/04 -=- 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 Dec 11 14:29:25 EST 2004 # Name Author Score Age 1 not king of the hill FatalC 31 243 2 sanguinarian John Metcalf 28 6 3 searching for pins John Metcalf 22 13 4 dancing under the bridge John Metcalf 22 12 5 bloodlust simon wainwright 22 7 6 fear of the light simon wainwright 21 8 7 all you can eat John Metcalf 17 22 8 moville simon wainwright 17 4 9 I don't die sheep 16 2 10 behind door number 11 Simon Wainwright 5 1 11 feverish John Metcalf 0 10 From: Koth Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - Standard 12/13/04 Date: 13 Dec 2004 00:30:58 -0500 Message-ID: <200412130500.iBD5016l005142@gevjon.ttsg.com> Weekly Status on 12/13/04 -=- 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 : Fri Dec 3 11:42:40 EST 2004 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 43/ 40/ 17 Scan the Can Christian Schmidt 147 12 2 37/ 29/ 34 The Next Step '88 David Houston 145 32 3 40/ 40/ 19 Tangle Trap 3 David Moore 140 45 4 32/ 25/ 43 The Hurricaner G.Labarga 139 3 5 43/ 48/ 9 Scan Test C 6 Steve Gunnell 139 55 6 40/ 42/ 18 Stasis David Moore 138 324 7 39/ 41/ 19 My 1st try Christian Schmidt 137 48 8 32/ 27/ 41 test Christian Schmidt 136 1 9 31/ 26/ 43 Test Alexander (Sasha) Wa 135 156 10 42/ 49/ 9 Speeed 88mph Christian Schmidt 135 16 11 30/ 27/ 43 Freight Train David Moore 134 217 12 38/ 43/ 19 Moonwipe Christian Schmidt 134 13 13 40/ 47/ 13 Cold as November Rain... John Metcalf 133 30 14 36/ 40/ 24 PacMan David Moore 132 246 15 30/ 28/ 42 Guardian Ian Oversby 132 216 16 32/ 33/ 35 The Seed Roy van Rijn 131 34 17 21/ 11/ 68 IMParable G.Labarga 130 4 18 36/ 42/ 23 '88 test IV John Metcalf 129 110 19 29/ 30/ 41 A.I.P. Christian Schmidt 129 24 20 31/ 34/ 36 vala John Metcalf 127 139 21 25/ 26/ 50 88 octanes test G.Labarga 123 0 From: Koth Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - ICWS Experimental 94 12/13/04 Date: 13 Dec 2004 00:30:53 -0500 Message-ID: <200412130506.iBD561uG005252@gevjon.ttsg.com> Weekly Status on 12/13/04 -=- 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 : Sat Dec 11 14:52:04 EST 2004 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 45/ 34/ 20 Fatamorgana X Zul Nadzri 156 2 2 42/ 36/ 22 The X Machine Zul Nadzri 149 26 3 43/ 43/ 13 Fire and Ice II David Moore 143 115 4 41/ 39/ 20 Eliminator X Zul Nadzri 143 27 5 40/ 39/ 21 Black Moods Ian Oversby 142 211 6 32/ 26/ 42 KAT v5 Dave Hillis 139 147 7 39/ 39/ 22 Ogre Christian Schmidt 138 163 8 40/ 42/ 19 Giant Hazy Test 13 Steve Gunnell 138 42 9 28/ 21/ 51 xd100 test David Houston 136 12 10 37/ 40/ 23 Simply Intelligent Zul Nadzri 135 8 11 35/ 37/ 28 Trefoil F 13 Steve Gunnell 134 98 12 21/ 8/ 71 Evol Cap 4 X John Wilkinson 134 284 13 29/ 26/ 45 Venom v0.2b Christian Schmidt 133 237 14 20/ 7/ 73 Evolve X v4.0 John Wilkinson 133 232 15 35/ 38/ 27 Controlled Aggression Ian Oversby 132 215 16 27/ 23/ 50 Glenstorm John Metcalf 131 77 17 21/ 12/ 67 Denial David Moore 130 156 18 28/ 28/ 44 Olivia X Ben Ford 128 96 19 22/ 19/ 59 Kin John Metcalf 126 123 20 34/ 47/ 19 digital wilderness John Metcalf 122 1 21 13/ 61/ 25 behind door number 11 Simon Wainwright 65 0 From: Koth Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - 94 No Pspace 12/13/04 Date: 13 Dec 2004 00:30:50 -0500 Message-ID: <200412130509.iBD591ev005325@gevjon.ttsg.com> Weekly Status on 12/13/04 -=- 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 : Sat Dec 11 14:33:09 EST 2004 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 36/ 27/ 37 Hullabaloo Roy van Rijn 146 120 2 44/ 44/ 12 Arrow Christian Schmidt 143 323 3 34/ 26/ 40 The Humanizer bvowk/fiz 142 8 4 35/ 28/ 37 Borgir Christian Schmidt 142 155 5 41/ 42/ 17 Riccia Zul Nadzri 139 12 6 40/ 44/ 16 HazyLazy C 11 CS SG 137 332 7 25/ 14/ 60 Maelstrom Roy van Rijn 137 264 8 31/ 26/ 43 Gargantuan Roy van Rijn 136 141 9 24/ 12/ 64 Chainlock v02a G.Labarga 136 3 10 39/ 43/ 18 thoughts of fire John Metcalf 135 20 11 38/ 43/ 19 Spiker Roy van Rijn 133 57 12 28/ 23/ 49 paper(paper(paper(clear)) Sascha Zapf 133 224 13 36/ 40/ 24 digital wilderness John Metcalf 132 2 14 24/ 16/ 59 S.D.N. Christian Schmidt 132 45 15 25/ 19/ 57 Black Knight Christian Schmidt 131 145 16 31/ 31/ 38 Hydra II ( Test ) Sascha Zapf 131 53 17 30/ 29/ 41 Cyborgs Rule bvowk/Roy 131 33 18 36/ 42/ 21 CrazyShot III Christian Schmidt 130 1 19 28/ 26/ 47 New-T Roy van Rijn 129 54 20 26/ 27/ 47 again Lukasz Grabun 126 13 21 13/ 62/ 26 behind door number 11 Simon Wainwright 64 0 From: John David Galt Subject: Re: Stupid Americans! -- Stupid... Stupid... STUPID!!! _____________ Date: Mon, 13 Dec 2004 17:26:31 -0800 Message-ID: This junk message, which has been flood-posted into many newsgroups, comes from a program called NewsAgent which was designed for that criminal purpose. If you want to help rid Usenet of such trash, search for "NewsAgent" in your favorite search engine -- and report any sites which offer the program for download to the hosting (or upstream) ISPs, so they can delete them. From: neogryzormail@mixmail.com (Neogryzor) Subject: RF21 and RF22? Date: 14 Dec 2004 03:59:07 -0800 Message-ID: <242debe4.0412140359.cedffcb@posting.google.com> Lukasz wrote: > Are there any ideas for a RF22? :) Yes! Fight in garbage-core!!! I mean in core initialized with random instructions... But I'm not the one to organize it, sorry. ;] Sounds interesting. It would be impossible for scanners so papers would be kings surely. Also core could be initialized with mov instructions and drop a few processes randomly through the core when warriors are loaded. It would be a kind of "acid core" :) G.labarga From: grumpy3039@hotmail.com Subject: Corewar Info Request Date: 14 Dec 2004 09:00:18 -0800 Message-ID: <1103043618.682804.140670@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com> Hi all, Please can someone help me with the following? :-) 1) Does anyone know the ages of Winter Werewolf 3 and Imprimis 7 when they left the hill? (sometime in 1994?) 2) Does anyone have a copy of Five Musketeers? (self-repair program) 3) Does anyone have copies of the warriors from ICWST 1991/1992? Thanks, John From: grumpy3039@hotmail.com Subject: Re: Blake's Corewar Tournament Date: 14 Dec 2004 09:17:20 -0800 Message-ID: <1103044640.255828.192770@c13g2000cwb.googlegroups.com> Hi, I'm working on my BCT1 entry now RF21 is over. Unfortunately, I was away and didn't have time to make a second entry for RF21. My entry was a simple linear scanner. Regards, John From: =?ISO-8859-2?Q?=A3ukasz_Adamowski?= Subject: Odp: RF21 and RF22? Date: 14 Dec 2004 23:33:57 -0500 Message-ID: <41bf0a537e086@wp.pl> Dnia 14-12-2004 o godz. 13:31 neogryzormail@mixmail.com (Neogryzor) napisal: > Lukasz wrote: > > > Are there any ideas for a RF22? :) > > Yes! Fight in garbage-core!!! I mean in core initialized > > with random instructions... > Sounds interesting. It would be impossible for scanners so > papers would be kings surely. OK, OK... Let's assume -p 8. Happy now? ;] Or do you prefer simple -8??? :]]] Lukasz -= "War is a problem, never a solution" =- -= "Wojna jest problemem, a nie rozwiazaniem" =- ---------------------------------------------------- Jak dzwoni� do 52 kraj�w z ca�ego �wiata i Polski, a p�aci� tylko 35 groszy za minut� rozmow�? Odpowied�: http://klik.wp.pl/?adr=www.Telefon.wp.pl&sid=286 From: will Subject: RE: RF21 and RF22? Date: 15 Dec 2004 00:04:13 -0500 Message-ID: <20041214143226.71175.qmail@web25007.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> Maybe not random core, but a known pattern. There might be some elements of symmetry in this pattern. Some might make special scanners. Others actually use chunks of this known core (if they could locate them..) ___________________________________________________________ ALL-NEW Yahoo! Messenger - all new features - even more fun! http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com From: Doug Irwin Subject: RE: RF21 and RF22? Date: 15 Dec 2004 01:04:35 -0500 Message-ID: How about an algorithmic pattern? You might even base it on a very complex recursive pattern (simmilar to mandelbrot patterns, tho perhaps simplified). -doug > -----Original Message----- > From: will [mailto:varfar@yahoo.co.uk] > Sent: Wednesday, 15 December 2004 15:34 PM > To: Multiple recipients of list COREWAR-L > Subject: RE: RF21 and RF22? > Importance: Low > > > Maybe not random core, but a known pattern. > > There might be some elements of symmetry in this > pattern. > > Some might make special scanners. > > Others actually use chunks of this known core (if they > could locate them..) From: =?ISO-8859-2?Q?=A3ukasz_Adamowski?= Subject: Odp: RE: RF21 and RF22? Date: 15 Dec 2004 18:35:42 -0500 Message-ID: <41c0bee07f83a@wp.pl> Dnia 15-12-2004 o godz. 22:59 Sascha Zapf napisal: > Will wrote: > > Maybe not random core, but a known pattern. [...] > Yeah, known Pattern and a multi-mod Core like 8192 needs very tricky scanners. [...] Hey, hey, hold on! You guys try to make rules more complicated. More complicated rules need more explanations and make more problems in implementation. I was thinking about simple but hard rules, which would make this round so interesting to play. And by the way: I was thinking about another useful option in pMARS - preloading core from external file. I think it can be useful in debugging. I had many times to put some instructions into the core before fight when I wanted to test my scanner without loading any dummy-warrior opponent. Why not to store predefined core in a file you have to load instead of typing so many times the same pattern into the same place in the core? What do you think? Lukasz -= "War is a problem, never a solution" =- -= "Wojna jest problemem, a nie rozwiazaniem" =- ---------------------------------------------------- Opowie�ci z ciemnej strony na DVD i Wideo "CZTERY OPOWIE�CI, KT�RE UKA�� WAM PRAWDZIWE OBLICZE CIEMNO�CI" http://klik.wp.pl/?adr=www.film.wp.pl%2Fp%2Ffilm.html%3Fid%3D13856&sid=287 From: Sascha Zapf Subject: RE: RF21 and RF22? Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 22:52:44 +0100 Message-ID: will wrote: > Maybe not random core, but a known pattern. > > There might be some elements of symmetry in this > pattern. > > Some might make special scanners. > > Others actually use chunks of this known core (if they > could locate them..) > Yeah, known Pattern and a multi-mod Core like 8192 needs very tricky scanners. If the well organized rubbish is builded from spl's paper will have a disadvantage too. Perfekt Stone Round - or can we do something against Stones. All categories are massive Handicaped by the rules... Sascha -- From: "sayembara" Subject: Re: Odp: RE: RF21 and RF22? Date: 16 Dec 2004 01:57:38 -0800 Message-ID: <1103191058.901445.49660@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com> Lukasz Adamowski wrote: > without loading any dummy-warrior opponent. Why not to store > predefined core in a file you have to load instead of typing so > many times the same pattern into the same place in the core? What > do you think? Cool. Now the warriors have to adapt to the alien surrounding. It is like going to Mars and we expect the robot can assist us buiding a colony. I probably send a space-silk to dominate the planet. How about adding immortal alien(s) as additional warriors so that the winner of the two contesting opponents is the one that not-die-first. Immortal alien can be scanner that can make silks crumble. /Zul From: will Subject: Re: Odp: RE: RF21 and RF22? Date: 16 Dec 2004 15:32:24 -0500 Message-ID: <20041216101101.44239.qmail@web25010.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> Nice idea for the pmars load core Lukasz! Otherwise, I think the idea of a 'core coloured to known noise' quite simple. If this core is repeatitive, comparitive scanners would be an option. I think a good strategy would be trying to work out how to use fragments of the instructions in your code so as either a) appear invisible to comparitive scanners b) gain extra instructions c) find safe-havens. Best regards, Will. ___________________________________________________________ ALL-NEW Yahoo! Messenger - all new features - even more fun! http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com From: zendo_joystick_ankh_hero@yahoo.com.br (Bruno Beam) Subject: Playing Corewar is a SIN ! ! ! ! ! ! Date: 18 Dec 2004 23:14:52 -0800 Message-ID: <9f63c9ae.0412182314.b6ffb5a@posting.google.com> Jesus Christ doesn't want you to play such a PAGAN game or you won't go to heaven ! Give it up or go to HELL !!! From: "CH" Subject: Re: Playing Corewar is a SIN ! ! ! ! ! ! Date: 20 Dec 2004 07:02:02 -0800 Message-ID: <1103554922.655212.146580@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com> Why is it a pagan game? From: grumpy3039@hotmail.com Subject: Re: Playing Corewar is a SIN ! ! ! ! ! ! Date: 20 Dec 2004 09:51:19 -0800 Message-ID: <1103565079.931475.79390@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com> CH wrote: > Why is it a pagan game? Don't take any notice, this seems to have been posted to rec.games.* I'm compiling a book of Corewar records. Any suggestions for anything you would like including? Regards, John From: Koth Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - ICWS Experimental 94 12/20/04 Date: 20 Dec 2004 12:00:09 -0500 Message-ID: <200412200506.iBK561wh015029@gevjon.ttsg.com> Weekly Status on 12/20/04 -=- 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 : Sat Dec 11 14:52:04 EST 2004 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 45/ 34/ 20 Fatamorgana X Zul Nadzri 156 2 2 42/ 36/ 22 The X Machine Zul Nadzri 149 26 3 43/ 43/ 13 Fire and Ice II David Moore 143 115 4 41/ 39/ 20 Eliminator X Zul Nadzri 143 27 5 40/ 39/ 21 Black Moods Ian Oversby 142 211 6 32/ 26/ 42 KAT v5 Dave Hillis 139 147 7 39/ 39/ 22 Ogre Christian Schmidt 138 163 8 40/ 42/ 19 Giant Hazy Test 13 Steve Gunnell 138 42 9 28/ 21/ 51 xd100 test David Houston 136 12 10 37/ 40/ 23 Simply Intelligent Zul Nadzri 135 8 11 35/ 37/ 28 Trefoil F 13 Steve Gunnell 134 98 12 21/ 8/ 71 Evol Cap 4 X John Wilkinson 134 284 13 29/ 26/ 45 Venom v0.2b Christian Schmidt 133 237 14 20/ 7/ 73 Evolve X v4.0 John Wilkinson 133 232 15 35/ 38/ 27 Controlled Aggression Ian Oversby 132 215 16 27/ 23/ 50 Glenstorm John Metcalf 131 77 17 21/ 12/ 67 Denial David Moore 130 156 18 28/ 28/ 44 Olivia X Ben Ford 128 96 19 22/ 19/ 59 Kin John Metcalf 126 123 20 34/ 47/ 19 digital wilderness John Metcalf 122 1 21 13/ 61/ 25 behind door number 11 Simon Wainwright 65 0 From: Koth Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - MultiWarrior 94 12/20/04 Date: 20 Dec 2004 12:00:12 -0500 Message-ID: <200412200503.iBK5308n014966@gevjon.ttsg.com> Weekly Status on 12/20/04 -=- 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 Dec 19 14:28:19 EST 2004 # Name Author Score Age 1 SSD-clear Neo 36 3 2 searching for pins John Metcalf 32 18 3 not king of the hill FatalC 30 248 4 I don't die sheep 27 7 5 sauron's eye v1.01 (mini el kauka 26 2 6 moville simon wainwright 19 9 7 sanguinarian John Metcalf 19 11 8 bloodlust simon wainwright 17 12 9 door number nineteen simon wainwright 17 1 10 dancing under the bridge John Metcalf 13 17 11 imp someone else 0 0 From: Koth Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - Standard 12/20/04 Date: 20 Dec 2004 12:00:15 -0500 Message-ID: <200412200500.iBK500Bv014909@gevjon.ttsg.com> Weekly Status on 12/20/04 -=- 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 : Fri Dec 3 11:42:40 EST 2004 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 43/ 40/ 17 Scan the Can Christian Schmidt 147 12 2 37/ 29/ 34 The Next Step '88 David Houston 145 32 3 40/ 40/ 19 Tangle Trap 3 David Moore 140 45 4 32/ 25/ 43 The Hurricaner G.Labarga 139 3 5 43/ 48/ 9 Scan Test C 6 Steve Gunnell 139 55 6 40/ 42/ 18 Stasis David Moore 138 324 7 39/ 41/ 19 My 1st try Christian Schmidt 137 48 8 32/ 27/ 41 test Christian Schmidt 136 1 9 31/ 26/ 43 Test Alexander (Sasha) Wa 135 156 10 42/ 49/ 9 Speeed 88mph Christian Schmidt 135 16 11 30/ 27/ 43 Freight Train David Moore 134 217 12 38/ 43/ 19 Moonwipe Christian Schmidt 134 13 13 40/ 47/ 13 Cold as November Rain... John Metcalf 133 30 14 36/ 40/ 24 PacMan David Moore 132 246 15 30/ 28/ 42 Guardian Ian Oversby 132 216 16 32/ 33/ 35 The Seed Roy van Rijn 131 34 17 21/ 11/ 68 IMParable G.Labarga 130 4 18 36/ 42/ 23 '88 test IV John Metcalf 129 110 19 29/ 30/ 41 A.I.P. Christian Schmidt 129 24 20 31/ 34/ 36 vala John Metcalf 127 139 21 25/ 26/ 50 88 octanes test G.Labarga 123 0 From: Koth Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - 94 No Pspace 12/20/04 Date: 20 Dec 2004 12:00:06 -0500 Message-ID: <200412200509.iBK591j1015094@gevjon.ttsg.com> Weekly Status on 12/20/04 -=- 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 : Thu Dec 16 11:53:28 EST 2004 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 35/ 27/ 38 Hullabaloo Roy van Rijn 143 120 2 43/ 45/ 12 Arrow Christian Schmidt 140 323 3 33/ 27/ 40 The Humanizer bvowk/fiz 138 8 4 40/ 43/ 17 Riccia Zul Nadzri 137 12 5 39/ 42/ 18 Spiker Roy van Rijn 136 57 6 24/ 12/ 63 Chainlock v02a G.Labarga 136 3 7 33/ 30/ 38 Borgir Christian Schmidt 135 155 8 26/ 18/ 56 Black Knight Christian Schmidt 133 145 9 38/ 43/ 18 thoughts of fire John Metcalf 133 20 10 24/ 14/ 62 Maelstrom Roy van Rijn 133 264 11 39/ 45/ 16 HazyLazy C 11 CS SG 133 332 12 30/ 29/ 41 Cyborgs Rule bvowk/Roy 131 33 13 36/ 40/ 24 digital wilderness John Metcalf 131 2 14 24/ 17/ 60 S.D.N. Christian Schmidt 130 45 15 36/ 43/ 21 CrazyShot III Christian Schmidt 130 1 16 29/ 28/ 43 Gargantuan Roy van Rijn 129 141 17 27/ 26/ 46 New-T Roy van Rijn 128 54 18 27/ 26/ 46 again Lukasz Grabun 128 13 19 26/ 25/ 49 paper(paper(paper(clear)) Sascha Zapf 128 224 20 30/ 33/ 38 Hydra II ( Test ) Sascha Zapf 127 53 21 26/ 48/ 27 Sand-Crawler John Metcalf 103 0 From: Sascha Zapf Subject: X-Mas and so Date: Wed, 22 Dec 2004 22:49:49 +0100 Message-ID: Go, Nenad Tomasev go ;-) I wish all CW'ler a wonderful X-Mas and a Happy new year. Sascha -- From: =?ISO-8859-2?Q?=A3ukasz_Adamowski?= Subject: Right... Date: 23 Dec 2004 15:08:58 -0500 Message-ID: <41cae9cad98ff@wp.pl> I wish a wonderful Christmas to all of you, coreplayers, and a really happy New Year. May Core War be the only war in the world! With best wishes Lukasz Adamowski -= Even now in Heaven there are angels carrying savage weapons =- -= Nawet w Niebie aniolowie nosza miecze =- ---------------------------------------------------- Czy wys�a�e� ju� �wi�teczne �yczenia? Do wyboru masz 25 gotowych tre�ci sms'�w: http://klik.wp.pl/?adr=www.logodzwonki.wp.pl%2Fbramka.html&sid=290 Message-ID: From: anton@paradise.net.nz (Anton Marsden) Subject: Core War Frequently Asked Questions (rec.games.corewar FAQ) Date: 24 Dec 2004 05:19:08 GMT Archive-name: games/corewar-faq Last-Modified: September 4, 1999 Version: 4.2 URL: http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/~anton/cw/corewar-faq.html Copyright: (c) 1999 Anton Marsden Maintainer: Anton Marsden Posting-Frequency: once every 2 weeks Core War Frequently Asked Questions (rec.games.corewar FAQ) These are the Frequently Asked Questions (and answers) from the Usenet newsgroup rec.games.corewar. A plain text version of this document is posted every two weeks. The latest hypertext version is available at http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/~anton/cw/corewar-faq.html and the latest plain text version is available at http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/~anton/cw/corewar-faq.txt. This document is currently being maintained by Anton Marsden (anton@paradise.net.nz). Last modified: Sat Sep 4 00:22:22 NZST 1999 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ To Do * Add the new No-PSpace '94 hill location * Add online location of Dewdney's articles * Make question 17 easier to understand. Add a state diagram? * Add info about infinite hills, related games (C-Robots, Tierra?, ...) * New question: How do I know if my warrior is any good? Refer to beginners' benchmarks, etc. * Add a Who's Who list? * Would very much like someone to compile a collection of the "revolutionary" warriors so that beginners can see how the game has developed over the years. Mail me if interested. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ What's New * Changed primary location of FAQ (again!) * Changed Philip Kendall's home page address. * Updated list server information * Changed primary location of FAQ * Vector-launching code was fixed thanks to Ting Hsu. * Changed the location of Ryan Coleman's paper (LaunchPad -> Launchpad) * Changed pauillac.inria.fr to para.inria.fr ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Table of Contents 1. What is Core War 2. Is it "Core War" or "Core Wars"? 3. Where can I find more information about Core War? 4. Core War has changed since Dewdney's articles. Where do I get a copy of the current instruction set? 5. What is ICWS'94? Which simulators support ICWS'94? 6. What is the ICWS? 7. What is Core Warrior? 8. Where are the Core War archives? 9. Where can I find a Core War system for ...? 10. Where can I find warrior code? 11. I do not have FTP. How do I get all this great stuff? 12. I do not have access to Usenet. How do I post and receive news? 13. Are there any Core War related WWW sites? 14. What is KotH? How do I enter? 15. Is it DAT 0, 0 or DAT #0, #0? How do I compare to core? 16. How does SLT (Skip if Less Than) work? 17. What is the difference between in-register and in-memory evaluation? 18. What is P-space? 19. What does "Missing ;assert .." in my message from KotH mean? 20. How should I format my code? 21. Are there any other Core War related resources I should know about? 22. What does (expression or term of your choice) mean? 23. Other questions? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. What is Core War? Core War is a game played by two or more programs (and vicariously by their authors) written in an assembly language called Redcode and run in a virtual computer called MARS (for Memory Array Redcode Simulator). The object of the game is to cause all processes of the opposing program to terminate, leaving your program in sole posession of the machine. There are Core War systems available for most computer platforms. Redcode has been standardised by the ICWS, and is therefore transportable between all standard Core War systems. The system in which the programs run is quite simple. The core (the memory of the simulated computer) is a continuous array of instructions, empty except for the competing programs. The core wraps around, so that after the last instruction comes the first one again. There are no absolute addresses in Core War. That is, the address 0 doesn't mean the first instruction in the memory, but the instruction that contains the address 0. The next instruction is 1, and the previous one obviously -1. However, all numbers are treated as positive, and are in the range 0 to CORESIZE-1 where CORESIZE is the amount of memory locations in the core - this means that -1 would be treated as CORESIZE-1 in any arithmetic operations, eg. 3218 + 7856 = (3218 + 7856) mod CORESIZE. Many people get confused by this, and it is particularly important when using the SLT instruction. Note that the source code of a program can still contain negative numbers, but if you start using instructions like DIV #-2, #5 it is important to know what effect they will have when executed. The basic unit of memory in Core War is one instruction. Each Redcode instruction contains three parts: * the opcode * the source address (a.k.a. the A-field) * the destination address (a.k.a. the B-field) The execution of the programs is equally simple. The MARS executes one instruction at a time, and then proceeds to the next one in the memory, unless the instruction explicitly tells it to jump to another address. If there is more than one program running, (as is usual) the programs execute alternately, one instruction at a time. The execution of each instruction takes the same time, one cycle, whether it is MOV, DIV or even DAT (which kills the process). Each program may have several processes running. These processes are stored in a task queue. When it is the program's turn to execute an instruction it dequeues a process and executes the corresponding instruction. Processes that are not killed during the execution of the instruction are put back into the task queue. Processes created by a SPL instruction are added to the task queue after the creating process is put back into the task queue. [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2. Is it "Core War" or "Core Wars"? Both terms are used. Early references were to Core War. Later references seem to use Core Wars. I prefer "Core War" to refer to the game in general, "core wars" to refer to more than one specific battle. [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 3. Where can I find more information about Core War? Core War was first described in the Core War Guidelines of March, 1984 by D. G. Jones and A. K. Dewdney of the Department of Computer Science at The University of Western Ontario (Canada). Dewdney wrote several "Computer Recreations" articles in Scientific American which discussed Core War, starting with the May 1984 article. Those articles are contained in two anthologies: Library of Author Title Published ISBN Congress Call Number The Armchair Dewdney, Universe: An New York: W. QA76.6 .D517 A. K. Exploration of H. Freeman �0-7167-1939-8 1988 Computer Worlds 1988 The Magic 0-7167-2125-2 Dewdney, Machine: A New York: W.(Hardcover), QA76.6 A. K. Handbook of H. Freeman �0-7167-2144-9 .D5173 1990 Computer Sorcery 1990 (Paperback) A.K. Dewdney's articles are still the most readable introduction to Core War, even though the Redcode dialect described in there is no longer current. For those who are interested, Dewdney has a home page at http://www.csd.uwo.ca/faculty/akd/. [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4. Core War has changed since Dewdney's articles. Where do I get a copy of the current instruction set? A draft of the official standard (ICWS'88) is available as ftp://www.koth.org/corewar/documents/standards/redcode-icws-88.Z. This document is formatted awkwardly and contains ambiguous statements. For a more approachable intro to Redcode, take a look at Mark Durham's tutorials, ftp://www.koth.org/corewar/documents/tutorial.1.Z and ftp://www.koth.org/corewar/documents/tutorial.2.Z. Steven Morrell has prepared a more practically oriented Redcode tutorial that discusses different warrior classes with lots of example code. This and various other tutorials can be found at http://www.koth.org/papers.html. Even though ICWS'88 is still the "official" standard, you will find that most people are playing by ICWS'94 draft rules and extensions. [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 5. What is ICWS'94? Which simulators support ICWS'94? There is an ongoing discussion about future enhancements to the Redcode language. A proposed new standard, dubbed ICWS'94, is currently being evaluated. A major change is the addition of "instruction modifiers" that allow instructions to modify A-field, B-field or both. Also new is a new addressing modes and unrestricted opcode and addressing mode combination ("no illegal instructions"). ICWS'94 is backwards compatible; i.e. ICWS'88 warriors will run correctly on an ICWS'94 system. Take a look at the ICWS'94 draft at ftp://www.koth.org/corewar/documents/icws94.0202.Z for more information. There is a HTML version of this document available at http://www.koth.org/info/icws94.html. You can try out the new standard by submitting warriors to the '94 hills of the KotH servers. Two corewar systems currently support ICWS'94, pMARS (many platforms) and Redcoder (Mac), both available at ftp://www.koth.org/corewar. Note that Redcoder only supports a subset of ICWS'94. [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 6. What is the ICWS? About one year after Core War first appeared in Scientific American, the "International Core War Society" (ICWS) was established. Since that time, the ICWS has been responsible for the creation and maintenance of Core War standards and the running of Core War tournaments. There have been six annual tournaments and two standards (ICWS'86 and ICWS'88). The ICWS is no longer active. [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 7. What is Core Warrior? Following in the tradition of the Core War News Letter, Push Off, and The 94 Warrior, Core Warrior is a newsletter about strategies and current standings in Core War. Started in October 1995, back issues of Core Warrior (and the other newsletters) are available at http://para.inria.fr/~doligez/corewar/. There is also a Core Warrior index page at http://www.kendalls.demon.co.uk/pak21/corewar/warrior.html which has a summary of the contents of each issue of Core Warrior. Many of the earlier issues contain useful information for beginners. [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 8. Where are the Core War archives? Many documents such as the guidelines and the ICWS standards along with previous tournament Redcode entries and complete Core War systems are available via anonymous ftp from ftp://ftp.csua.berkeley.edu/pub/corewar. Also, most of past rec.games.corewar postings (including Redcode source listings) are archived there. Jon Blow (blojo@csua.berkeley.edu) is the archive administrator. When uploading to /pub/corewar/incoming, ask Jon to move your upload to the appropriate directory and announce it on the net. This site is mirrored at: * http://www.koth.org/corewar/ * ftp://www.koth.org/corewar/ * ftp://ftp.inria.fr/INRIA/Projects/para/doligez/cw/mirror The plain text version of this FAQ is automatically archived by news.answers (but this version is probably out-of-date). [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 9. Where can I find a Core War system for . . . ? Core War systems are available via anonymous FTP from www.koth.org in the corewar/systems directory. Currently, there are UNIX, IBM PC-compatible, Macintosh, and Amiga Core War systems available there. It is a good idea to check ftp://www.koth.org/corewar/incoming for program updates first. CAUTION! There are many, many Core War systems available which are NOT ICWS'88 (or even ICWS'86) compatible available at various archive sites other than www.koth.org. Generally, the older the program - the less likely it will be ICWS compatible. If you are looking for an ICWS'94 simulator, get pMARS, which is available for many platforms and can be downloaded from: * ftp://ftp.csua.berkeley.edu/pub/corewar (original site) * ftp://www.koth.org/corewar (koth.org mirror) * ftp://ftp.inria.fr/INRIA/Projects/para/doligez/cw/mirror (Planar mirror) * http://www.nc5.infi.net/~wtnewton/corewar/ (Terry Newton) * ftp://members.aol.com/ofechner/corewar (Fechter) Notes: * If you have trouble running pMARS with a graphical display under Win95 then check out http://www.koth.org/pmars.html which should have a pointer to the latest compilation of pMARS for this environment. * RPMs for the Alpha, PowerPC, Sparc and i386 can be found at ftp://ftp.inria.fr/INRIA/Projects/para/doligez/cw/pmars-rpm/ Reviews of Core War systems would be greatly appreciated in the newsgroup and in the newsletter. Below is a not necessarily complete or up-to-date list of what's available at www.koth.org: MADgic41.lzh corewar for the Amiga, v4.1 MAD4041.lzh older version? MAD50B.lha corewar for the Amiga, beta version 5.0 Redcoder-21.hqx corewar for the Mac, supports ICWS'88 and '94 (without extensions) core-11.hqx corewar for the Mac core-wars-simulator.hqx same as core-11.hqx? corewar_unix_x11.tar.Z corewar for UNIX/X-windows, ICWS'86 but not ICWS'88 compatible koth31.tar.Z corewar for UNIX/X-windows. This program ran the former KotH server at intel.com koth.shar.Z older version kothpc.zip port of older version of KotH to the PC deluxe20c.tar.Z corewar for UNIX (broken X-windows or curses) and PC mars.tar.Z corewar for UNIX, likely not ICWS'88 compatible icons.zip corewar icons for MS-Windows macrored.zip a redcode macro-preprocessor (PC) c88v49.zip PC corewar, textmode display mars88.zip PC corewar, graphics mode display corwp302.zip PC corewar, textmode display, slowish mercury2.zip PC corewar written in assembly, fast! mtourn11.zip tournament scheduler for mercury (req. 4DOS) pmars08s.zip portable system, ICWS'88 and '94, runs on UNIX, PC, Mac, Amiga. C source archive pmars08s.tar.Z same as above pmars08.zip PC executables with graphics display, req 386+ macpmars02.sit.hqx pMARS executable for Mac (port of version 0.2) buggy, no display MacpMARS1.99a.cpt.hqx port of v0.8 for the Mac, with display and debugger MacpMARS1.0s.cpt.hqx C source (MPW, ThinkC) for Mac frontend pvms08.zip pMARS v0.8 for VMS build files/help (req. pmars08s.zip) ApMARS03.lha pMARS executable for Amiga (port of version 0.3.1) wincor11.zip MS-Windows system, shareware ($15) [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 10. Where can I find warrior code? To learn the game, it is a good idea to study previously posted warrior code. The FTP archives have code in the ftp://www.koth.org/corewar/redcode directory. A clearly organized on-line warrior collection is available at the Core War web sites (see below). [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 11. I do not have FTP. How do I get all this great stuff? There is an FTP email server at bitftp@pucc.princeton.edu. This address may no longer exist. I haven't tested it yet. Send email with a subject and body text of "help" (without the quotes) for more information on its usage. Note that many FTP email gateways are shutting down due to abuse. To get a current list of FTP email servers, look at the Accessing the Internet by E-mail FAQ posted to news.answers. If you don't have access to Usenet, you can retrieve this FAQ one of the following ways: * Send mail to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with the body containing "send usenet/news.answers/internet-services/access-via-email". * Send mail to mailbase@mailbase.ac.uk with the body containing "send lis-iis e-access-inet.txt". [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 12. I do not have access to Usenet. How do I post and receive news? To receive rec.games.corewar articles by email, join the COREWAR-L list run on the Koth.Org list processor. To join, send the message SUB COREWAR-L FirstName LastName to listproc@koth.org. You can send mail to corewar-l@koth.org to post even if you are not a member of the list. Responsible for the listserver is Scott J. Ellentuch (ttsg@ttsg.com). Servers that allow you to post (but not receive) articles are available. Refer to the Accessing the Internet by E-Mail FAQ for more information. [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 13. Are there any Core War related WWW sites? You bet. Each of the two KotH sites sport a world-wide web server. Stormking's Core War page is http://www.koth.org; pizza's is http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~pizza/koth . Damien Doligez (a.k.a. Planar) has a web page that features convenient access to regular newsletters (Push Off, The '94 Warrior, Core Warrior) and a well organized library of warriors: http://para.inria.fr/~doligez/corewar/. Convenient for U.S. users, this site is also mirrored at koth.org. [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 14. What is KotH? How do I enter? King Of The Hill (KotH) is an ongoing Core War tournament available to anyone with email. You enter by submitting via email a Redcode program (warrior) with special comment lines. You will receive a reply indicating how well your program did against the current top programs "on the hill". There are two styles of KotH tournaments, "classical" and "multi-warrior". The "classical" KotH is a one-on-one tournament, that is your warrior will play 100 battles against each of the 20 other programs currently on the Hill. You receive 3 points for each win and 1 point for each tie. (The existing programs do not replay each other, but their previous battles are recalled.) All scores are updated to reflect your battles and all 21 programs are ranked from high to low. If you are number 21 you are pushed off the Hill, if you are higher than 21 someone else is pushed off. In "multi-warrior" KotH, all warriors on the hill fight each other at the same time. Score calculation is a bit more complex than for the one-on-one tournament. Briefly, points are awarded based on how many warriors survive until the end of a round. A warrior that survives by itself gets more points than a warrior that survives together with other warriors. Points are calculated from the formula (W*W-1)/S, where W is the total number of warriors and S the number of surviving warriors. The pMARS documentation has more information on multi-warrior scoring. The idea for an email-based Core War server came from David Lee. The original KotH was developed and run by William Shubert at Intel starting in 1991, and discontinued after almost three years of service. Currently, KotHs based on Bill's UNIX scripts but offering a wider variety of hills are are running at two sites: koth@koth.org is maintained by Scott J. Ellentuch (tuc@ttsg.com) and pizza@ecst.csuchico.edu by Thomas H. Davies (sd@ecst.csuchico.edu). Up until May '95, the two sites provided overlapping services, i.e. the some of the hill types were offered by both "pizza" and "stormking". To conserve resources, the different hill types are now divided up among the sites. The way you submit warriors to both KotHs is pretty much the same. Therefore, the entry rules described below apply to both "pizza" and "stormking" unless otherwise noted. Entry Rules for King of the Hill Corewar * Write a corewar program. KotH is fully ICWS '88 compatible, EXCEPT that a comma (",") is required between two arguments. * Put a line starting with ";redcode" (or ";redcode-94", etc., see below) at the top of your program. This MUST be the first line. Anything before it will be lost. If you wish to receive mail on every new entrant, use ";redcode verbose". Otherwise you will only receive mail if a challenger makes it onto the hill. Use ";redcode quiet" if you wish to receive mail only when you get shoved off the hill. Additionally, adding ";name " and ";author " will be helpful in the performance reports. Do NOT have a line beginning with ";address" in your code; this will confuse the mail daemon and you won't get mail back. Using ";name" is mandatory on the Pizza hills. In addition, it would be nice if you have lines beginning with ";strategy" that describe the algorithm you use. There are currently seven separate hills you can select by starting your program with ;redcode-94, ;redcode-b, ;redcode-lp, ;redcode-x, ;redcode, ;redcode-94x or ;redcode-94m. The former four run at "pizza", the latter three at "stormking". More information on these hills is listed below. * Mail this file to koth@koth.org or pizza@ecst.csuchico.edu. "Pizza" requires a subject of "koth" (use the -s flag on most mailers). * Within a few minutes you should get mail back telling you whether your program assembled correctly or not. If it did assemble correctly, sit back and wait; if not, make the change required and re-submit. * In an hour or so you should get more mail telling you how your program performed against the current top 20 (or 10) programs. If no news arrives during that time, don't worry; entries are put in a queue and run through the tournament one at a time. A backlog may develop. Be patient. If your program makes it onto the hill, you will get mail every time a new program makes it onto the hill. If this is too much mail, you can use ";redcode[-??] quiet" when you first mail in your program; then you will only get mail when you make it on the top 25 list or when you are knocked off. Using ";redcode[-??] verbose" will give you even more mail; here you get mail every time a new challenger arrives, even if they don't make it onto the top 25 list. Often programmers want to try out slight variations in their programs. If you already have a program named "foo V1.0" on the hill, adding the line ";kill foo" to a new program will automatically bump foo 1.0 off the hill. Just ";kill" will remove all of your programs when you submit the new one. The server kills programs by assigning an impossibly low score; it may therefore take another successful challenge before a killed program is actually removed from the hill. Sample Entry ;redcode ;name Dwarf ;author A. K. Dewdney ;strategy Throw DAT bombs around memory, hitting every 4th memory cell. ;strategy This program was presented in the first Corewar article. bomb DAT #0 dwarf ADD #4, bomb MOV bomb, @bomb JMP dwarf END dwarf ; Programs start at the first line unless ; an "END start" pseudo-op appears to indicate ; the first logical instruction. Also, nothing ; after the END instruction will be assembled. Duration Max. Hill Name Hill Core Max. Before Entry Min. Rounds Instr. Size Size Processes Distance Fought Set Tie Length Pizza's ICWS '94 Draft Hill Extended (Accessed with 25 8000 8000 80000 100 100 200 ICWS '94 ";redcode-94") Draft Pizza's Beginner's Extended Hill (Accessed 25 8000 8000 80000 100 100 200 ICWS '94 with ";redcode-b") Draft Pizza's Experimental Extended (Small) Hill 25 800 800 8000 20 20 200 ICWS '94 (Accessed with Draft ";redcode-x") Pizza's Limited Process (LP) Hill Extended (Accessed with 25 8000 8 80000 200 200 200 ICWS '94 ";redcode-lp") Draft Stormking's ICWS '88 Standard Hill (Accessed with 20 8000 8000 80000 100 100 250 ICWS '88 ";redcode") Stormking's ICWS '94 No Pspace Hill (Accessed with 20 8000 8000 80000 100 100 250 ICWS '94 ";redcode-94nop") Stormking's ICWS '94 Experimental Extended (Big) Hill 20 55440 55440 500000 200 200 250 ICWS '94 (Accessed with Draft ";redcode-94x") Stormking's ICWS '94 Multi-Warrior Extended Hill (Accessed 10 8000 8000 80000 100 100 200 ICWS '94 with Draft ";redcode-94m") Note: Warriors on the beginner's hill are retired at age 100. If you just want to get a status report without actually challenging the hills, send email with ";status" as the message body (and don't forget "Subject: koth" for "pizza"). If you send mail to "pizza" with "Subject: koth help" you will receive instructions that may be more up to date than those contained in this document. At "stormking", a message body with ";help" will return brief instructions. If you submit code containing a ";test" line, your warrior will be assembled but not actually pitted against the warriors on the hill. At "pizza", you can use ";redcode[-??] test" to do a test challenge of the Hill without affecting the status of the Hill. These challenges can be used to see how well your warrior does against the current Hill warriors. All hills run portable MARS (pMARS) version 0.8, a platform-independent Core War system available at www.koth.org. The '94 and '94x hills allow five experimental opcodes and three experimental addressing modes currently not covered in the ICWS'94 draft document: * LDP - Load P-Space * STP - Store P-Space * SEQ - Skip if EQual (synonym for CMP) * SNE - Skip if Not Equal * NOP - (No OPeration) * * - indirect using A-field as pointer * { - predecrement indirect using A-field * } - postincrement indirect using A-field [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 15. Is it DAT 0, 0 or DAT #0, #0? How do I compare to core? Core is initialized to DAT 0, 0. This is an illegal instruction (in source code) under ICWS'88 rules and strictly compliant assemblers (such as KotH or pmars -8) will not let you have a DAT 0, 0 instruction in your source code - only DAT #0, #0. So this begs the question, how to compare something to see if it is empty core. The answer is, most likely the instruction before your first instruction and the instruction after your last instruction are both DAT 0, 0. You can use them, or any other likely unmodified instructions, for comparison. Note that under ICWS'94, DAT 0, 0 is a legal instruction. [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 16. How does SLT (Skip if Less Than) work? SLT gives some people trouble because of the way modular arithmetic works. It is important to note that all negative numbers are converted to positive numbers before a battles begins. Example: -1 becomes M-1 where M is the memory size (core size). Once you realize that all numbers are treated as positive, it is clear what is meant by "less than". It should also be clear that no number is less than zero. [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 17. What is the difference between in-register and in-memory evaluation? These terms refer to the way instruction operands are evaluated. The '88 Redcode standard ICWS'88 is unclear about whether a simulator should "buffer" the result of A-operand evaluation before the B-operand is evaluated. Simulators that do buffer are said to use in-register evaluation, those that don't, in-memory evaluation. ICWS'94 clears this confusion by mandating in-register evaluation. Instructions that execute differently under these two forms of evaluation are MOV, ADD, SUB, MUL, DIV and MOD where the effective address of the A-operand is modified by evaluation of the B-operand. This is best illustrated by an example: L1 mov L2, mov.i #0, impsize Bootstrapping Strategy of copying the active portion of the program away from the initial location, leaving a decoy behind and making the relocated program as small as possible. B-Scanners Scanners which only recognize non-zero B-fields. example add #10, scan scan jmz example, 10 c Measure of speed, equal to one location per cycle. Speed of light. CMP-Scanner A Scanner which uses a CMP instruction to look for opponents. example add step, scan scan cmp 10, 30 jmp attack jmp example step dat #20, #20 Colour Property of bombs making them visible to scanners, causing them to attack useless locations, thus slowing them down. example dat #100 Core-Clear Code that sequentially overwrites core with DAT instructions; usually the last part of a program. Decoys Bogus or unused instructions meant to slow down scanners. Typically, DATs with non-zero B-fields. Decrement Resistant Property of warriors making them functional (or at least partially functional) when overrun by a DJN-stream. DJN-Stream (also DJN-Train) Using a DJN command to rapidly decrement core locations. example ... ... djn example, <4000 Dwarf The prototypical small bomber. Gate-busting (also gate-crashing) technique to "interweave" a decrement-resistant imp-spiral (e.g. MOV 0, 2668) with a standard one to overrun imp-gates. Hybrids warriors that combine two or more of the basic strategies, either in sequence (e.g. stone->paper) or in parallel (e.g. imp/stone). Imp Program which only uses the MOV instruction. example mov 0, 1 or example mov 0, 2 mov 0, 2 Imp-Gate A location in core which is bombed or decremented continuously so that an Imp can not pass. Also used to describe the program-code which maintains the gate. example ... ... spl 0, mov.i #0,IMPSIZE Mirror see reflection. On-axis/off-axis On-axis scanners compare two locations M/2 apart, where M is the memory size. Off-axis scanners use some other separation. Optimal Constants (also optima-type constants) Bomb or scan increments chosen to cover core most effectively, i.e. leaving gaps of uniform size. Programs to calculate optimal constants and lists of optimal numbers are available at www.koth.org. Paper A Paper-like program is one which replicates itself many times. Part of the Scissors (beats) Paper (beats) Stone (beats Scissors) analogy. P-Warrior A warrior which uses the results of previous round(s) in order to determine which strategy it will use. Pit-Trapper (also Slaver, Vampire). A program which enslaves another. Usually accomplished by bombing with JMPs to a SPL 0 pit with an optional core-clear routine. Q^2 Scan A modern version of the Quick Scan where anything found is attacked almost immediately. Quick Scan 2c scan of a set group of core locations with bombing if anything is found. Both of the following codes snips scan 16 locations and check for a find. If anything is found, it is attacked, otherwise 16 more locations are scanned. Example: start s1 for 8 ;'88 scan cmp start+100*s1, start+100*s1+4000 ;check two locations mov #start+100*s1-found, found ;they differ so set pointer rof jmn attack, found ;if we have something, get it s2 for 8 cmp start+100*(s2+6), start+100*(s2+6)+4000 mov #start+100*(s2+6)-found, found rof found jmz moveme, #0 ;skip attack if qscan found nothing attack cmp @found, start-1 ;does found points to empty space? add #4000, found ;no, so point to correct location mov start-1, @found ;move a bomb moveme jmp 0, 0 In ICWS'94, the quick scan code is more compact because of the SNE opcode: start ;'94 scan s1 for 4 sne start+400*s1, start+400*s1+100 ;check two locations seq start+400*s1+200, start+400*s1+300 ;check two locations mov #start+400*s1-found, found ;they differ so set pointer rof jmn which, found ;if we have something, get it s2 for 4 sne start+400*(s2+4), start+400*(s2+4)+100 seq start+400*(s2+4)+200, start+400*(s2+4)+300 mov #start+400*(s2+4)-found-100, found rof found jmz moveme, #0 ;skip attack if qscan found nothing add #100, -1 ;increment pointer till we get the which jmn -1, @found ;right place mov start-1, @found ;move a bomb moveme jmp 0, 0 Reflection Copy of a program or program part, positioned to make the active program invisible to a CMP-scanner. Replicator Generic for Paper. A program which makes many copies of itself, each copy also making copies. Self-Splitting Strategy of amplifying the number of processes executing a piece of code. example spl 0 loop add #10, example mov example, @example jmp loop Scanner A program which searches through core for an opponent rather than bombing blindly. Scissors A program designed to beat replicators, usually a (B-field scanning) vampire. Part of the Paper-Scissors-Stone analogy. Self-Repair Ability of a program to fix it's own code after attack. Silk A replicator which splits off a process to each new copy before actually copying the code. This allows it to replicate extremely quickly. This technique is only possible under the '94 draft, because it requires post-increment indirect addressing. Example: spl 1 mov -1, 0 spl 1 ;generate 6 consecutive processes silk spl 3620, #0 ;split to new copy mov >-1, }-1 ;copy self to new location mov bomb, >2000 ;linear bombing mov bomb, }2042 ;A-indirect bombing for anti-vamp jmp silk, {silk ;reset source pointer, make new copy bomb dat >2667, >5334 ;anti-imp bomb Slaver see Pit-Trapper. Stealth Property of programs, or program parts, which are invisible to scanners, accomplished by using zero B-fields and reflections. Stone A Stone-like program designed to be a small bomber. Part of the Paper-Scissors-Stone analogy. Stun A type of bomb which makes the opponent multiply useless processes, thus slowing it down. Example is referred to as a SPL-JMP bomb. example spl 0 jmp -1 Two-Pass Core-Clear (also SPL/DAT Core-Clear) core clear that fills core first with SPL instructions, then with DATs. This is very effective in killing paper and certain imp-spiral variations. Vampire see Pit-Trapper. Vector Launch one of several means to start an imp-spiral running. As fast as Binary Launch, but requiring much less code. See also JMP/ADD Launch and Binary Launch. This example is one form of a Vector Launch: sz EQU 2667 spl 1 spl 1 jmp @vt, }0 vt dat #0, imp+0*sz ; start of vector table dat #0, imp+1*sz dat #0, imp+2*sz dat #0, imp+3*sz ; end of vector table imp mov.i #0, sz [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 23. Other questions? Just ask in the rec.games.corewar newsgroup or contact me. If you are shy, check out the Core War archives first to see if your question has been answered before. [ToC] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Credits Additions, corrections, etc. to this document are solicited. Thanks in particular to the following people who have contributed major portions of this document: * Mark Durham (wrote the original version of the FAQ) * Paul Kline * Randy Graham * Stefan Strack (maintained a recent version of the FAQ) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Copyright � 1999 Anton Marsden. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium, provided this notice is preserved. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: Steve Gunnell Subject: Merry Christmas Date: 24 Dec 2004 20:15:53 -0500 Message-ID: <1103934392.28132.2.camel@eldred.local> Or at the very least least Happy Summer / Winter festival of your choice. Cheers, Steve Gunnell From: Koth Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - ICWS Experimental 94 12/27/04 Date: 27 Dec 2004 17:10:11 -0500 Message-ID: <200412270506.iBR5606r028357@gevjon.ttsg.com> Weekly Status on 12/27/04 -=- 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 : Sat Dec 11 14:52:04 EST 2004 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 45/ 34/ 20 Fatamorgana X Zul Nadzri 156 2 2 42/ 36/ 22 The X Machine Zul Nadzri 149 26 3 43/ 43/ 13 Fire and Ice II David Moore 143 115 4 41/ 39/ 20 Eliminator X Zul Nadzri 143 27 5 40/ 39/ 21 Black Moods Ian Oversby 142 211 6 32/ 26/ 42 KAT v5 Dave Hillis 139 147 7 39/ 39/ 22 Ogre Christian Schmidt 138 163 8 40/ 42/ 19 Giant Hazy Test 13 Steve Gunnell 138 42 9 28/ 21/ 51 xd100 test David Houston 136 12 10 37/ 40/ 23 Simply Intelligent Zul Nadzri 135 8 11 35/ 37/ 28 Trefoil F 13 Steve Gunnell 134 98 12 21/ 8/ 71 Evol Cap 4 X John Wilkinson 134 284 13 29/ 26/ 45 Venom v0.2b Christian Schmidt 133 237 14 20/ 7/ 73 Evolve X v4.0 John Wilkinson 133 232 15 35/ 38/ 27 Controlled Aggression Ian Oversby 132 215 16 27/ 23/ 50 Glenstorm John Metcalf 131 77 17 21/ 12/ 67 Denial David Moore 130 156 18 28/ 28/ 44 Olivia X Ben Ford 128 96 19 22/ 19/ 59 Kin John Metcalf 126 123 20 34/ 47/ 19 digital wilderness John Metcalf 122 1 21 13/ 61/ 25 behind door number 11 Simon Wainwright 65 0 From: Koth Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - 94 No Pspace 12/27/04 Date: 27 Dec 2004 17:10:06 -0500 Message-ID: <200412270509.iBR590Ug028416@gevjon.ttsg.com> Weekly Status on 12/27/04 -=- 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 Dec 26 12:59:44 EST 2004 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 38/ 26/ 37 Hullabaloo Roy van Rijn 150 124 2 37/ 25/ 38 The Humanizer bvowk/fiz 148 12 3 36/ 28/ 36 Borgir Christian Schmidt 145 159 4 43/ 44/ 12 Arrow Christian Schmidt 142 327 5 34/ 27/ 39 Cyborgs Rule bvowk/Roy 141 37 6 33/ 26/ 41 Gargantuan Roy van Rijn 140 145 7 28/ 16/ 55 S.D.N. Christian Schmidt 140 49 8 27/ 14/ 59 Chainlock v02a G.Labarga 140 7 9 27/ 15/ 58 Maelstrom Roy van Rijn 139 268 10 41/ 43/ 16 Origin of Storms II Metcalf/Schmidt 139 1 11 30/ 23/ 47 paper(paper(paper(clear)) Sascha Zapf 138 228 12 31/ 25/ 43 New-T Roy van Rijn 138 58 13 40/ 43/ 17 Riccia Zul Nadzri 138 16 14 28/ 19/ 53 Black Knight Christian Schmidt 137 149 15 40/ 42/ 18 thoughts of fire John Metcalf 137 24 16 31/ 24/ 45 again Lukasz Grabun 137 17 17 33/ 31/ 36 Hydra II ( Test ) Sascha Zapf 136 57 18 40/ 44/ 16 HazyLazy C 11 CS SG 136 336 19 39/ 43/ 18 Spiker Roy van Rijn 134 61 20 36/ 39/ 25 digital wilderness John Metcalf 133 6 21 2/ 98/ 0 0 0 7 0 From: Koth Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - Standard 12/27/04 Date: 27 Dec 2004 17:10:20 -0500 Message-ID: <200412270500.iBR500mD028266@gevjon.ttsg.com> Weekly Status on 12/27/04 -=- 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 : Fri Dec 3 11:42:40 EST 2004 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 43/ 40/ 17 Scan the Can Christian Schmidt 147 12 2 37/ 29/ 34 The Next Step '88 David Houston 145 32 3 40/ 40/ 19 Tangle Trap 3 David Moore 140 45 4 32/ 25/ 43 The Hurricaner G.Labarga 139 3 5 43/ 48/ 9 Scan Test C 6 Steve Gunnell 139 55 6 40/ 42/ 18 Stasis David Moore 138 324 7 39/ 41/ 19 My 1st try Christian Schmidt 137 48 8 32/ 27/ 41 test Christian Schmidt 136 1 9 31/ 26/ 43 Test Alexander (Sasha) Wa 135 156 10 42/ 49/ 9 Speeed 88mph Christian Schmidt 135 16 11 30/ 27/ 43 Freight Train David Moore 134 217 12 38/ 43/ 19 Moonwipe Christian Schmidt 134 13 13 40/ 47/ 13 Cold as November Rain... John Metcalf 133 30 14 36/ 40/ 24 PacMan David Moore 132 246 15 30/ 28/ 42 Guardian Ian Oversby 132 216 16 32/ 33/ 35 The Seed Roy van Rijn 131 34 17 21/ 11/ 68 IMParable G.Labarga 130 4 18 36/ 42/ 23 '88 test IV John Metcalf 129 110 19 29/ 30/ 41 A.I.P. Christian Schmidt 129 24 20 31/ 34/ 36 vala John Metcalf 127 139 21 25/ 26/ 50 88 octanes test G.Labarga 123 0 From: Koth Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - MultiWarrior 94 12/27/04 Date: 27 Dec 2004 17:10:15 -0500 Message-ID: <200412270503.iBR530lL028307@gevjon.ttsg.com> Weekly Status on 12/27/04 -=- 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 Dec 26 12:54:32 EST 2004 # Name Author Score Age 1 not king of the hill FatalC 46 248 2 dancing under the bridge John Metcalf 35 17 3 searching for pins John Metcalf 32 18 4 SSD-clear Neo 30 3 5 sauron's eye v1.01 (mini el kauka 29 2 6 I don't die sheep 28 7 7 sanguinarian John Metcalf 27 11 8 bloodlust simon wainwright 26 12 9 door number nineteen simon wainwright 21 1 10 moville simon wainwright 17 9 11 Origin of Storms II Metcalf/Schmidt 17 0 From: aol12131@yahoo.com Subject: =?iso-8859-1?B?e6m/qX0gtyBBIExvdmUgR2lmdCBGb3IgWW91ISC3?= Date: 27 Dec 2004 18:56:08 -0800 Message-ID: <1104202568.638738.113600@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com> e6m/qX0gd3d3LmdpZnQuYm94a2UubmV0IDw8Cg== From: Steve Gunnell Subject: Hazy Lazy C 11 Date: 27 Dec 2004 19:45:44 -0500 Message-ID: <1104194044.8454.5.camel@eldred.local> This is the version of Hazy Lazy currently on the hill that Christian Schmidt added the qscan to. Cheers, Steve Gunnell ;redcode-94nop ;name HazyLazy C 11 ;author CS SG ;strategy Mod 10 cmp scanner shifting to D-Clear ;strategy Q4(?) scan an constants by Christian ;password joint ;assert 1 ;kill sctest step equ 7170 gate equ top pBoot equ 1820 zero equ qbomb qtab3 equ qbomb qbomb dat >qoff, >qc2 dat 0, 0 bPtr dat clr+1, }qb1 qtab2 dat clr+pBoot+1, }qb2 pGo spl 1, }qb3 for 5 mov.i {bPtr, {qtab2 rof djn scan+pBoot, #1 mov.i bomb, bomb+pBoot for 9 dat 0, 0 rof dat zero - 1, qa1 qtab1 dat zero - 1, qa2 ptr mov.i inc+1, >step top mov.i bomb, >ptr scan seq.i 2*step, 2*step+8 mov.ab scan, @top a sub.f inc, scan jmn.b top, @top inc spl.i #-step, >-step mov.i clr, >gate btm djn.f -1, >gate clr dat.f <2667, clr-gate+2 for 3 dat 0, 0 rof bomb spl #1, #1 for 28 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 ; qy * (qz-1) = 1 ;q0 mutation qgo sne qptr + qz*qc2, qptr + qz*qc2 + qb2 seq qptr, qptr + qz + (qb2-1) jmp q2,