From: Tuc T-B-O-H Subject: Update Date: Thu, 2 Jun 2005 15:35:26 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <200506021930.j52JUHXs041052@himinbjorg.tucs-beachin-obx-house.com> Hi, Just to let you all know the move was done about 2-3 days ago, and things should be stable by now. We ran into alot of problems with "SED", which I think is finally fixed. The FTP site is moved, its now at ftp.koth.org . I've updated a few of the pages, took out references to TTSG or the Bug Report/New Function pages (They were being used for spam) Last weeks KOTH statuses didn't go out, they will next week. Is there anything anyone needs to ask/say/etc? People seem to have been pretty quiet about it. Thanks, Tuc From: bvowk@math.ualberta.ca Subject: Re: Update Date: 2 Jun 2005 19:48:17 -0700 Message-ID: <1117766897.772046.222750@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com> Woo Hoo! I think that sums it up for me :) Thanks Tuc, this is going to be great. Tuc T-B-O-H wrote: > Is there anything anyone needs to ask/say/etc? People seem to have > been pretty quiet about it. > > Thanks, Tuc From: Tuc T-B-O-H Subject: COREWAR Archives (possibly) online Date: Sat, 4 Jun 2005 20:03:57 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <200506042357.j54NvsuD036007@himinbjorg.tucs-beachin-obx-house.com> Hi, I think all the archives should be online. You can send the command "index corewar-l" to listproc@listproc.t-b-o-h.net and then if you want the file, send "get corewar-l XXXXX" to the same email address. If there are any issues, please let me know. Tuc From: bescritt@gmail.com Subject: I need help setting up species to evolve nano-size warriors Date: 5 Jun 2005 03:47:31 -0700 Message-ID: <1117968451.811481.36810@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com> The koen.operands file doesn't work for a nano-sized core. If anyone has a koen.operands file for nano or can tell me how to format the operands field so that I don't need a koen.operands file, that would be great. From: KOTH Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - 94 No Pspace 06/06/05 Date: Mon, 6 Jun 2005 00:22:47 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <200506060409.j56491M2076671@asgard.t-b-o-h.net> Weekly Status on 06/06/05 -=- 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 Jun 5 14:12:35 EDT 2005 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 36/ 29/ 35 Hullabaloo Roy van Rijn 142 225 2 42/ 42/ 16 Beat this Sascha Zapf 141 73 3 28/ 15/ 57 Maelstrom Roy van Rijn 141 368 4 36/ 31/ 33 Borgir Christian Schmidt 140 260 5 43/ 47/ 9 Arrow Christian Schmidt 139 428 6 34/ 30/ 37 The Humanizer bvowk/fiz 138 113 7 34/ 30/ 36 DifferentialOperatorWS Nenad Tomasev 138 54 8 35/ 32/ 33 107 kHz Sascha Zapf 138 18 9 31/ 25/ 43 New-T Roy van Rijn 138 159 10 33/ 32/ 35 UnderConstruction Roy van Rijn 135 11 11 32/ 29/ 39 false illusion John Metcalf 134 33 12 27/ 20/ 53 Black Knight Christian Schmidt 133 250 13 31/ 29/ 41 Kaiten Nenad Tomasev 133 1 14 38/ 44/ 18 Sharky Christian Schmidt 133 34 15 25/ 17/ 58 S.D.N. Christian Schmidt 133 37 16 37/ 42/ 21 KryneLamiya Nenad Tomasev 133 14 17 28/ 25/ 47 Sinus Tree Christian Schmidt 131 39 18 39/ 48/ 13 Subzero Christian Schmidt 130 2 19 39/ 48/ 13 Subzero Christian Schmidt 129 3 20 37/ 47/ 16 Chimera Nenad Tomasev 127 8 21 35/ 47/ 18 test John Metcalf 123 0 From: KOTH Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - ICWS Experimental 94 06/06/05 Date: Mon, 6 Jun 2005 00:24:49 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <200506060406.j5646159076524@asgard.t-b-o-h.net> Weekly Status on 06/06/05 -=- 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 : Thu May 12 10:11:47 EDT 2005 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 43/ 36/ 21 Fatamorgana X Zul Nadzri 150 4 2 40/ 38/ 22 The X Machine Zul Nadzri 142 28 3 28/ 19/ 53 xd100 test David Houston 138 14 4 23/ 8/ 69 Evol Cap 4 X John Wilkinson 137 286 5 38/ 41/ 21 Eliminator X Zul Nadzri 136 29 6 41/ 46/ 13 Fire and Ice II David Moore 135 117 7 38/ 42/ 19 Giant Hazy Test 13 Steve Gunnell 134 44 8 22/ 11/ 67 Denial David Moore 133 158 9 29/ 26/ 45 KAT v5 Dave Hillis 132 149 10 29/ 27/ 44 Olivia X Ben Ford 132 98 11 34/ 37/ 29 Trefoil F 13 Steve Gunnell 131 100 12 36/ 41/ 23 Ogre Christian Schmidt 131 165 13 34/ 38/ 28 Trefoil Test F 14 Steve Gunnell 131 1 14 28/ 26/ 46 Venom v0.2b Christian Schmidt 131 239 15 36/ 42/ 22 Black Moods Ian Oversby 130 213 16 27/ 24/ 49 Glenstorm John Metcalf 130 79 17 34/ 39/ 27 Controlled Aggression Ian Oversby 129 217 18 17/ 7/ 76 Evolve X v4.0 John Wilkinson 128 234 19 34/ 41/ 24 Simply Intelligent Zul Nadzri 127 10 20 22/ 20/ 58 Kin John Metcalf 125 125 21 28/ 45/ 27 Bugtown Rap 18 Steve Gunnell 111 0 From: KOTH Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - MultiWarrior 94 06/06/05 Date: Mon, 6 Jun 2005 00:26:57 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <200506060403.j56431qa076455@asgard.t-b-o-h.net> Weekly Status on 06/06/05 -=- irc.KOTH.org is up! Meetings held in #corewars -=- Tons of new features on www.KOTH.org/koth.html pages -=- *FAQ* page located at: www.KOTH.org/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the KOTH.ORG Multiwarrior 94 CoreWar Hill: Last battle concluded at : Fri May 27 18:57:11 EDT 2005 # Name Author Score Age 1 BattleShield Nenad Tomasev 25 19 2 careless scanning Simon Wainwright 24 12 3 French Kiss LAchi 23 4 4 desolate Simon Wainwright 21 13 5 kingdom of the grasshoppe simon wainwright 17 43 6 glow worm John Metcalf 14 1 7 Hiperblast G.Labarga 14 53 8 Purpurea 2nd Miz 13 10 9 CLP-shot 2 G.Labarga 9 5 10 NSos13 Nenad Tomasev 3 3 11 Parasite Jon_Hartford(Gopher2 0 0 From: KOTH Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - Standard 06/06/05 Date: Mon, 6 Jun 2005 00:29:05 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <200506060400.j56401gR076212@asgard.t-b-o-h.net> Weekly Status on 06/06/05 -=- irc.KOTH.org is up! Meetings held in #corewars -=- Tons of new features on www.KOTH.org/koth.html pages -=- *FAQ* page located at: www.KOTH.org/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the KOTH.ORG Standard KotH CoreWar Hill : Last battle concluded at : Sun Apr 24 05:17:38 EDT 2005 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 39/ 28/ 33 The Next Step '88 David Houston 149 34 2 34/ 24/ 42 The Hurricaner G.Labarga 144 5 3 41/ 41/ 18 Scan the Can Christian Schmidt 141 14 4 40/ 39/ 21 Tangle Trap 3 David Moore 140 47 5 32/ 25/ 43 Test Alexander (Sasha) Wa 139 158 6 35/ 32/ 32 The Seed Roy van Rijn 138 36 7 32/ 26/ 42 Freight Train David Moore 138 219 8 39/ 40/ 21 My 1st try Christian Schmidt 138 50 9 32/ 27/ 40 A.I.P. Christian Schmidt 137 26 10 37/ 38/ 25 PacMan David Moore 136 248 11 31/ 26/ 42 Guardian Ian Oversby 136 218 12 24/ 11/ 65 IMParable G.Labarga 136 6 13 30/ 26/ 44 test G.Labarga 135 1 14 24/ 15/ 62 Utterer '88 Christian Schmidt 133 2 15 38/ 43/ 20 Stasis David Moore 132 326 16 37/ 43/ 20 Moonwipe Christian Schmidt 132 15 17 40/ 49/ 10 Scan Test C 6 Steve Gunnell 131 57 18 40/ 49/ 10 Speeed 88mph Christian Schmidt 131 18 19 37/ 48/ 15 Cold as November Rain... John Metcalf 127 32 20 34/ 42/ 24 '88 test IV John Metcalf 126 112 21 25/ 50/ 26 Twill Andy Pierce 100 0 From: Cim Martens Subject: beginner: can't get to 'pizza' Message-ID: Date: 06 Jun 2005 14:18:44 GMT After sending a ;status to the pizza server (as described in the FAQ) I get the message quoted below. Is this a permanent problem or can I just wait to be able to use ;redcode-b ? Thanks. Here's the message: > ----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors ----- > > (reason: 550 5.0.0 ... User mailbox is over quota) From: Christoph Birk Subject: Koenigstuhl News Date: Mon, 6 Jun 2005 14:41:57 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <200506061823.LAA23067@andromeda.ociw.edu> no news ... just checking if I can still post. Christoph http://www.ociw.edu/~birk/COREWAR/koenigstuhl.html From: Jens Gutzeit Subject: Re: beginner: can't get to 'pizza' Date: Mon, 06 Jun 2005 16:41:25 +0200 Message-ID: Hi, I think, that the Pizza-server has been down for quite a long time now. Try http://sal.math.ualberta.ca/ :-) - Jens Gutzeit From: "Chip" Subject: Re: Redcoder's Frenzy 23: The Powers of Ten Round - *** Deadline Update *** Date: 7 Jun 2005 13:35:49 -0700 Message-ID: <1118176549.242960.310330@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com> > > It seems that a few people need some more time to prepare entries, so I > am extending the deadline for submission. > > New deadline: June 8, 2005, 23:59 GMT. > Time is running out, and no one has sent any further entries. Here is what I have so far: Fizmo: 1 entry Lukasz A: 1 entry Nenad: 2 entries Roy: 2 entries Anybody else? You have one more day! And you're guaranteed at least a 5th place finish! - Chip From: Philip Thorne Subject: Re: Redcoder's Frenzy 23: The Powers of Ten Round - *** Deadline Update *** Date: Wed, 8 Jun 2005 09:12:14 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <20050608100908.21815.qmail@web60824.mail.yahoo.com> It's a pity there aren't more entries. I was motivated/interested when I saw the rules for this round but am pressed for time/sleep (and wouldn't even if extended another week or so). I thought I'd read that RM had entered some warriors but his name isn't on your list. May the best warrior win. Oh wait it will ;) Phil __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com From: =?ISO-8859-2?Q?=A3ukasz_Adamowski?= Subject: Odp: beginner: can't get to 'pizza' Date: Wed, 8 Jun 2005 11:28:57 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <42a70cdbd0bd5@wp.pl> Dnia 6-06-2005 o godz. 16:52 Cim Martens napisal(a): > After sending a ;status to the pizza server (as described in the > FAQ) I get the message quoted below. Is this a permanent problem or > can I just wait to be able to use ;redcode-b ? Thanks. > Here's the message: > > ----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors ----- > > > > (reason: 550 5.0.0 ... User mailbox > > is over quota) I remember I had problems with KOTH entries when not finished with 'END' instruction. It's because some commercials were added at the end of my mail and KOTH compiler treated it as an error in redcode. This problem may be similiar, but this message about quota makes me believe it is not. Greetings Lukasz Adamowski -= "War is a problem, never a solution" =- -= "Wojna jest problemem, a nie rozwiazaniem" =- ---------------------------------------------------- NOWE fajne gry na Twoja kom�rk�, a w�r�d nich promocje, konkursy i dema za free! Zobacz je - http://klik.wp.pl/?adr=http%3A%2F%2Fgryjava.wp.pl&sid=397 From: "Chip" Subject: Re: Redcoder's Frenzy 23: The Powers of Ten Round - *** Deadline Update *** Date: 9 Jun 2005 10:48:40 -0700 Message-ID: <1118339320.483341.117410@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com> OK, I got a few more entries (thanks John and Neo), so I now have 11 entries from six authors. I'll run the tournament tonight, and post the results tomorrow. Judging by my preliminary tests, it should be close. From: fizmo_master@yahoo.com Subject: LP Hill Warrior: Lord of the Core Date: 9 Jun 2005 13:04:44 -0700 Message-ID: <1118347484.257311.192280@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com> Just to push the interest back to the LP hill, here is another LP hill p-warrior. It should score better than my previous tries ;-) Fizmo ;redcode-lp ;name Lord of the Core ;author Christian Schmidt ;strategy p-switching: ;strategy - The 8 Kings *light* ;strategy - Viper's Bugloss ;strategy - Muffineer ;strategy - Eve 15 ;assert 1 ;######################## 17 instr. STEP equ 5266 INIT equ (sbmb+STEP) sdat equ (sptr-1) sAwa equ 3290 sptr jmp #STEP, #INIT sadd add.ab {0, }0 scanx jmz.f sadd, @sptr sbmb mov @0, @sptr schk jmz.a sadd, sbmb spl #0, 0 mov sdat, sgat for 6 mov }sgat, >sgat rof spl scanx+sAwa jmp scanx ;######################## 7 instr. iAwa equ 4174 train equ 7903 pGo mov.i imp, *2 spl imp spl iAwa djn.a #0, 7279 ;######################## 12 instr. dAwa1 equ 5896 dAwa2 equ 7075 dAwa3 equ 4047 dStep equ 2081 dOff equ 2550 dDist equ 2812 dGo spl 1, 0 mov.i {0, #0 mov Subject: Koenigstuhl News Date: Thu, 9 Jun 2005 17:42:14 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <200506092131.OAA01203@andromeda.ociw.edu> Contratulations to Christian Schmidt! His Program 'Lord on the Core' is the new KotH of the LP-Koenigstuhl. Christoph http://www.ociw.edu/~birk/COREWAR/koenigstuhl.html From: "Chip" Subject: Re: Redcoder's Frenzy 23: The Powers of Ten Round - *** Deadline Update *** Date: 10 Jun 2005 07:56:30 -0700 Message-ID: <1118415390.792664.254170@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com> I'm afraid the results will be a bit delayed. I ran the tournament last night, but came in this morning to find that the computer had shut down. I've restarted the rounds, but it will be late tonight (US time) before I can post the results. - Chip From: =?ISO-8859-2?Q?=A3ukasz_Adamowski?= Subject: Re: Redcoder's Frenzy 23: The Powers of Ten Round - *** Deadline Update *** Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2005 20:47:44 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <42a9d9eed832f@wp.pl> Dnia 10-06-2005 o godz. 17:49 Chip napisal: > I'm afraid the results will be a bit delayed. I ran the tournament > last night, but came in this morning to find that the computer had > shut down. I've restarted the rounds, but it will be late tonight > (US time) before I can post the results. I wonder what caused this shutdown... Probably hacker's assault of someone who is affraid to be the last one. Come on, guys, show up! Who did it? ;] Just kidding... :]]] Lukasz Adamowski -= "War is a problem, never a solution" =- -= "Wojna jest problemem, a nie rozwiazaniem" =- ---------------------------------------------------- "�ywe srebro" - Monumentalna powie��, w kt�rej splataj� si� historia, przygoda, nauka, mi�o��, ob��d, �mier� i alchemia. W ksi�garniach od 10 czerwca. http://klik.wp.pl/?adr=http%3A%2F%2Fksiazki.wp.pl%2Fkatalog%2Fksiazki%2Fksiazka.html%3Fkw%3D32283&sid=403 From: "Chip" Subject: Redcoder's Frenzy 23: The Powers of Ten Round - *** RESULTS *** Date: 11 Jun 2005 10:23:48 -0700 Message-ID: <1118510628.252961.124700@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com> .=2E...........................=AD..................................... ********************* * Redcoder's Frenzy * ********************* The ongoing corewar tournament /^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^\ | The Powers of Ten Round | \_________________________________/ This was the 23rd round of the ongoing corewar tournament. Detailed information about the tournament is available on Fizmo's Corewar Info Page: http://www.corewar.info/tournament/cwt.htm *********** * Results * *********** Altogether, 7 authors entered a total of 12 warriors. (_v_) _|_ | | |-----+-----| ___________ .-=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D-. | {{1}} | '._=3D=3D= _=3D=3D_=3D_.' \'-=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D-'/ | \=3D/ | .-\: /= -=2E _| .=3D. |_ '---------' | (|:.{3} |) | ((| {{2}} |)) \ / '-|:. |-' \| /|\ |/ '. .' \::. / \__ '`' __/ | | '::. .' _`) (`_ .' '. ) ( _/_______\_ _|___|_ _.' '._ /___________\ [_______] [_______] 2nd place Winner 3rd place ********************* ******************** ****************** * Christian Schmidt * * Roy van Rijn * * German Labarga * ********************* ******************** ****************** In a very close result, Roy van Rijn squeaks out a narrow victory over Christian Schmidt and German Labarga, on the strength of his clever non-PIN handshake. Nenad Tomasev finishes a very strong fourth. ------------------------------=AD------------------------------=AD----- # %W %L %T Name Author Score % ------------------------------=AD------------------------------=AD----- 1 46.1 9.7 44.2 R1_Win Roy van Rijn 182.5 100.0 2 47.4 13.7 38.9 Dementor Christian Schmidt 181.0 99.2 3 47.9 18.1 34.0 IR-Flashlight G.Labarga 177.7 97.4 4 40.9 11.5 47.5 e4 Nenad Tomasev 170.3 93.3 5 43.5 18.5 38.0 e1 Nenad Tomasev 168.6 92.4 6 43.7 19.0 37.3 UV-Scorch G.Labarga 168.5 92.3 7 36.4 19.2 44.5 R2_Loser Roy van Rijn 153.5 84.1 8 32.5 38.6 28.9 don't know if.. John Metcalf 126.3 69.2 9 22.9 39.5 37.6 Cloe XL John K. Lewis 106.4 58.3 10 0.3 38.3 61.5 Tie&Knot NTW Lukasz Adamowski 62.3 34.1 11 5.9 67.0 27.1 castle of mirrors John Metcalf 44.8 24.5 12 4.3 78.6 17.1 Dead Planet.. Lukasz Adamowski 29.9 16.4 =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=AD=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=AD=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D More detailed information and all entries will be available soon on the The Powers of Ten Round webpage: http://www.corewar.info/tournament/23.htm Congratulations to everyone who took part in this very difficult round. The next round is still looking for an organizer. Who would like to volunteer? From: Ilmari Karonen Subject: Re: Frenzy Question Message-ID: Date: Sat, 11 Jun 2005 10:57:42 +0300 Sascha Zapf kirjoitti 31.05.2005: > Enrico Kochon wrote: >> >> Is redcode Turingcomplete? > > Hmm, that sounds like a question for our Profs. > > I don't know - Redcode it self provides anything you need for > Turingcompleteness. But in core, where all numbers are MOD(CORESIZE) i > think there is no Completeness. But that should have no matter on this > round, eh ? Right. A Turing machine consists of a finite state machine and a semi-infinite tape for I/O. A MARS core is a finite state machine, and conversely it seems obvious that any finite state machine can be encoded as a Redcode program running in a (sufficiently large) core. So if we were to provide Redcode with some way to access a (conceptually) semi-infinite I/O tape -- via modified P-space, perhaps? -- then the resulting system would match the definition of a Turing machine, and would therefore clearly be Turing-complete. I also think that a Redcode program running in an infinite core, but with finite R/W limits, using the rest of the core as I/O space, could probably emulate any Turing machine. Programming one would be made somewhat tricky by the fact that the program would have to copy itself over its own input in order to access distant parts of the tape (read: core), but I'm fairly sure that could be handled with a bit of clever redcoding. -- Ilmari Karonen To reply by e-mail, please replace ".invalid" with ".net" in address. From: "Nenad Tomasev" Subject: Re: Redcoder's Frenzy 23: The Powers of Ten Round - *** RESULTS *** Date: 11 Jun 2005 11:13:05 -0700 Message-ID: <1118513585.582775.197590@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com> Heh. the results... finally... Congratulations Roy! (the handshaking trick won this round...) ... it was a very interesting round. It would be even more interesting if more people took part in the tournament. Oh, well. There is always the next time. I'm quite satisfied with the performance of my warriors. They could've probably made a better score if I had more time to spend on making a better pswitch. :) It will be nice to see the detailed results soon. When will the next rf round take place? I would also like to use this opportunity to invite the beginners to enroll in future tournaments. Frenzy tournaments are usually organized with "weird" rules, where fresh ideas are more important than experience in usual enviroments (coresize==8000 800 80). You should try your luck next time. You might not win, but you'll sure have fun. :) __________________________________________________________________ Nenad From: "CH" Subject: Re: Redcoder's Frenzy 23: The Powers of Ten Round - *** RESULTS *** Date: 12 Jun 2005 11:31:39 -0700 Message-ID: <1118601099.660190.232350@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com> Chip wrote: > ------------------------------=AD------------------------------=AD----- > # %W %L %T Name Author Score % > ------------------------------=AD------------------------------=AD----- > 1 46.1 9.7 44.2 R1_Win Roy van Rijn 182.5 100.0 > 2 47.4 13.7 38.9 Dementor Christian Schmidt 181.0 99.2 > 3 47.9 18.1 34.0 IR-Flashlight G.Labarga 177.7 97.4 > 4 40.9 11.5 47.5 e4 Nenad Tomasev 170.3 93.3 > 5 43.5 18.5 38.0 e1 Nenad Tomasev 168.6 92.4 > 6 43.7 19.0 37.3 UV-Scorch G.Labarga 168.5 92.3 > 7 36.4 19.2 44.5 R2_Loser Roy van Rijn 153.5 84.1 > 8 32.5 38.6 28.9 don't know if.. John Metcalf 126.3 69.2 > 9 22.9 39.5 37.6 Cloe XL John K. Lewis 106.4 58.3 > 10 0.3 38.3 61.5 Tie&Knot NTW Lukasz Adamowski 62.3 34.1 > 11 5.9 67.0 27.1 castle of mirrors John Metcalf 44.8 24.5 > 12 4.3 78.6 17.1 Dead Planet.. Lukasz Adamowski 29.9 16.4 > =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=AD=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=AD=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D A large point spread,I wish I had submitted my probe 4 (It would have got 10'th place) From: KOTH Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - ICWS Experimental 94 06/13/05 Date: Tue, 14 Jun 2005 15:32:55 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <200506130406.j5D460GL035308@asgard.t-b-o-h.net> Weekly Status on 06/13/05 -=- 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 : Thu May 12 10:11:47 EDT 2005 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 43/ 36/ 21 Fatamorgana X Zul Nadzri 150 4 2 40/ 38/ 22 The X Machine Zul Nadzri 142 28 3 28/ 19/ 53 xd100 test David Houston 138 14 4 23/ 8/ 69 Evol Cap 4 X John Wilkinson 137 286 5 38/ 41/ 21 Eliminator X Zul Nadzri 136 29 6 41/ 46/ 13 Fire and Ice II David Moore 135 117 7 38/ 42/ 19 Giant Hazy Test 13 Steve Gunnell 134 44 8 22/ 11/ 67 Denial David Moore 133 158 9 29/ 26/ 45 KAT v5 Dave Hillis 132 149 10 29/ 27/ 44 Olivia X Ben Ford 132 98 11 34/ 37/ 29 Trefoil F 13 Steve Gunnell 131 100 12 36/ 41/ 23 Ogre Christian Schmidt 131 165 13 34/ 38/ 28 Trefoil Test F 14 Steve Gunnell 131 1 14 28/ 26/ 46 Venom v0.2b Christian Schmidt 131 239 15 36/ 42/ 22 Black Moods Ian Oversby 130 213 16 27/ 24/ 49 Glenstorm John Metcalf 130 79 17 34/ 39/ 27 Controlled Aggression Ian Oversby 129 217 18 17/ 7/ 76 Evolve X v4.0 John Wilkinson 128 234 19 34/ 41/ 24 Simply Intelligent Zul Nadzri 127 10 20 22/ 20/ 58 Kin John Metcalf 125 125 21 28/ 45/ 27 Bugtown Rap 18 Steve Gunnell 111 0 From: KOTH Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - MultiWarrior 94 06/13/05 Date: Tue, 14 Jun 2005 15:32:56 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <200506130403.j5D430X3035240@asgard.t-b-o-h.net> Weekly Status on 06/13/05 -=- irc.KOTH.org is up! Meetings held in #corewars -=- Tons of new features on www.KOTH.org/koth.html pages -=- *FAQ* page located at: www.KOTH.org/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the KOTH.ORG Multiwarrior 94 CoreWar Hill: Last battle concluded at : Fri Jun 10 18:37:03 EDT 2005 # Name Author Score Age 1 BattleShield Nenad Tomasev 30 19 2 careless scanning Simon Wainwright 22 12 3 French Kiss LAchi 19 4 4 desolate Simon Wainwright 19 13 5 Hiperblast G.Labarga 18 53 6 kingdom of the grasshoppe simon wainwright 14 43 7 glow worm John Metcalf 13 1 8 Purpurea 2nd Miz 10 10 9 CLP-shot 2 G.Labarga 8 5 10 NSos13 Nenad Tomasev 3 3 11 Parasite Jon_Hartford(Gopher2 0 0 From: =?ISO-8859-2?Q?=A3ukasz_Adamowski?= Subject: Re: Redcoder's Frenzy 23: The Powers of Ten Round - *** RESULTS *** Date: Tue, 14 Jun 2005 15:32:53 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <42ad5422873fb@wp.pl> Dnia 12-06-2005 o godz. 20:48 CH napisal: > Chip wrote: > > ------------------------------�------------------------------�----- > > # %W %L %T Name Author Score % > > ------------------------------�------------------------------�----- > > 1 46.1 9.7 44.2 R1_Win Roy van Rijn 182.5 100.0 > > 2 47.4 13.7 38.9 Dementor Christian Schmidt 181.0 99.2 > > 3 47.9 18.1 34.0 IR-Flashlight G.Labarga 177.7 97.4 > > 4 40.9 11.5 47.5 e4 Nenad Tomasev 170.3 93.3 > > 5 43.5 18.5 38.0 e1 Nenad Tomasev 168.6 92.4 > > 6 43.7 19.0 37.3 UV-Scorch G.Labarga 168.5 92.3 > > 7 36.4 19.2 44.5 R2_Loser Roy van Rijn 153.5 84.1 > > 8 32.5 38.6 28.9 don't know if.. John Metcalf 126.3 69.2 > > 9 22.9 39.5 37.6 Cloe XL John K. Lewis 106.4 58.3 > > 10 0.3 38.3 61.5 Tie&Knot NTW Lukasz Adamowski 62.3 34.1 > > 11 5.9 67.0 27.1 castle of mirrors John Metcalf 44.8 24.5 > > 12 4.3 78.6 17.1 Dead Planet.. Lukasz Adamowski 29.9 16.4 > > ==============================�==============================�===== > > A large point spread,I wish I had submitted my > probe 4 (It would have got 10'th place) Yeah... I'm not suprised. I've entered with an imp and a scanner with one-process paper finishind as stone. The thing that suprises me is that imp scored better. :] I think I've missed that the second entry may be suicidal. What a pity! ;] Congratulations to Roy, Christian and German and thanks for all who participated! Lukasz -= "War is a problem, never a solution" =- -= "Wojna jest problemem, a nie rozwiazaniem" =- ---------------------------------------------------- Podr� do krainy szcz�cia z Johnnym Deppem i Kate Winslet w filmie "Marzyciel". Magiczna opowie�� ju� na DVD i VHS. http://klik.wp.pl/?adr=http%3A%2F%2Ffilm.wp.pl%2Fp%2Ffilm.html%3Fid%3D19965&sid=402 From: KOTH Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - Standard 06/13/05 Date: Tue, 14 Jun 2005 15:32:57 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <200506130400.j5D400td035026@asgard.t-b-o-h.net> Weekly Status on 06/13/05 -=- irc.KOTH.org is up! Meetings held in #corewars -=- Tons of new features on www.KOTH.org/koth.html pages -=- *FAQ* page located at: www.KOTH.org/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the KOTH.ORG Standard KotH CoreWar Hill : Last battle concluded at : Sun Apr 24 05:17:38 EDT 2005 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 39/ 28/ 33 The Next Step '88 David Houston 149 34 2 34/ 24/ 42 The Hurricaner G.Labarga 144 5 3 41/ 41/ 18 Scan the Can Christian Schmidt 141 14 4 40/ 39/ 21 Tangle Trap 3 David Moore 140 47 5 32/ 25/ 43 Test Alexander (Sasha) Wa 139 158 6 35/ 32/ 32 The Seed Roy van Rijn 138 36 7 32/ 26/ 42 Freight Train David Moore 138 219 8 39/ 40/ 21 My 1st try Christian Schmidt 138 50 9 32/ 27/ 40 A.I.P. Christian Schmidt 137 26 10 37/ 38/ 25 PacMan David Moore 136 248 11 31/ 26/ 42 Guardian Ian Oversby 136 218 12 24/ 11/ 65 IMParable G.Labarga 136 6 13 30/ 26/ 44 test G.Labarga 135 1 14 24/ 15/ 62 Utterer '88 Christian Schmidt 133 2 15 38/ 43/ 20 Stasis David Moore 132 326 16 37/ 43/ 20 Moonwipe Christian Schmidt 132 15 17 40/ 49/ 10 Scan Test C 6 Steve Gunnell 131 57 18 40/ 49/ 10 Speeed 88mph Christian Schmidt 131 18 19 37/ 48/ 15 Cold as November Rain... John Metcalf 127 32 20 34/ 42/ 24 '88 test IV John Metcalf 126 112 21 25/ 50/ 26 Twill Andy Pierce 100 0 From: KOTH Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - 94 No Pspace 06/13/05 Date: Tue, 14 Jun 2005 15:32:54 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <200506130409.j5D490P9035391@asgard.t-b-o-h.net> Weekly Status on 06/13/05 -=- 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 Jun 12 14:33:08 EDT 2005 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 44/ 47/ 9 Arrow Christian Schmidt 140 435 2 41/ 43/ 16 Beat this Sascha Zapf 139 80 3 34/ 29/ 36 Borgir Christian Schmidt 139 267 4 33/ 29/ 38 Hullabaloo Roy van Rijn 138 232 5 33/ 29/ 38 The Humanizer bvowk/fiz 137 120 6 25/ 14/ 61 Maelstrom Roy van Rijn 135 375 7 38/ 42/ 20 SOSM2 Nenad Tomasev 134 1 8 32/ 30/ 38 DifferentialOperatorWS Nenad Tomasev 133 61 9 28/ 24/ 48 New-T Roy van Rijn 133 166 10 32/ 31/ 37 107 kHz Sascha Zapf 132 25 11 38/ 44/ 18 Sharky Christian Schmidt 132 41 12 25/ 18/ 57 Black Knight Christian Schmidt 131 257 13 31/ 30/ 39 UnderConstruction Roy van Rijn 131 18 14 39/ 48/ 13 Subzero Christian Schmidt 130 9 15 28/ 27/ 45 Kaiten_ Nenad Tomasev 130 3 16 36/ 43/ 21 KryneLamiya Nenad Tomasev 129 21 17 29/ 29/ 42 false illusion John Metcalf 129 40 18 23/ 17/ 60 S.D.N. Christian Schmidt 129 44 19 34/ 40/ 25 NSos14 Nenad Tomasev 128 2 20 26/ 25/ 49 Sinus Tree Christian Schmidt 127 46 21 25/ 24/ 51 The Missing Bottle of Mil Jens Gutzeit 126 4 From: KOTH Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - Standard 06/20/05 Date: Mon, 20 Jun 2005 01:20:28 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <200506200400.j5K4009I059061@asgard.t-b-o-h.net> Weekly Status on 06/20/05 -=- irc.KOTH.org is up! Meetings held in #corewars -=- Tons of new features on www.KOTH.org/koth.html pages -=- *FAQ* page located at: www.KOTH.org/corewar-faq.html Current Status of the KOTH.ORG Standard KotH CoreWar Hill : Last battle concluded at : Sun Apr 24 05:17:38 EDT 2005 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 39/ 28/ 33 The Next Step '88 David Houston 149 34 2 34/ 24/ 42 The Hurricaner G.Labarga 144 5 3 41/ 41/ 18 Scan the Can Christian Schmidt 141 14 4 40/ 39/ 21 Tangle Trap 3 David Moore 140 47 5 32/ 25/ 43 Test Alexander (Sasha) Wa 139 158 6 35/ 32/ 32 The Seed Roy van Rijn 138 36 7 32/ 26/ 42 Freight Train David Moore 138 219 8 39/ 40/ 21 My 1st try Christian Schmidt 138 50 9 32/ 27/ 40 A.I.P. Christian Schmidt 137 26 10 37/ 38/ 25 PacMan David Moore 136 248 11 31/ 26/ 42 Guardian Ian Oversby 136 218 12 24/ 11/ 65 IMParable G.Labarga 136 6 13 30/ 26/ 44 test G.Labarga 135 1 14 24/ 15/ 62 Utterer '88 Christian Schmidt 133 2 15 38/ 43/ 20 Stasis David Moore 132 326 16 37/ 43/ 20 Moonwipe Christian Schmidt 132 15 17 40/ 49/ 10 Scan Test C 6 Steve Gunnell 131 57 18 40/ 49/ 10 Speeed 88mph Christian Schmidt 131 18 19 37/ 48/ 15 Cold as November Rain... John Metcalf 127 32 20 34/ 42/ 24 '88 test IV John Metcalf 126 112 21 25/ 50/ 26 Twill Andy Pierce 100 0 From: KOTH Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - MultiWarrior 94 06/20/05 Date: Mon, 20 Jun 2005 01:20:26 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <200506200403.j5K430GI059235@asgard.t-b-o-h.net> Weekly Status on 06/20/05 -=- 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 : Tue Jun 14 06:56:20 EDT 2005 # Name Author Score Age 1 careless scanning Simon Wainwright 35 12 2 BattleShield Nenad Tomasev 28 19 3 desolate Simon Wainwright 23 13 4 French Kiss LAchi 21 4 5 glow worm John Metcalf 21 1 6 kingdom of the grasshoppe simon wainwright 15 43 7 CLP-shot 2 G.Labarga 13 5 8 Hiperblast G.Labarga 12 53 9 Purpurea 2nd Miz 11 10 10 NSos13 Nenad Tomasev 7 3 11 stealth sniper el kauka 3 0 From: KOTH Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - 94 No Pspace 06/20/05 Date: Mon, 20 Jun 2005 01:20:24 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <200506200409.j5K490Qa059460@asgard.t-b-o-h.net> Weekly Status on 06/20/05 -=- 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 Jun 19 15:11:45 EDT 2005 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 45/ 46/ 9 Arrow Christian Schmidt 143 435 2 42/ 42/ 16 Beat this Sascha Zapf 143 80 3 35/ 29/ 35 Hullabaloo Roy van Rijn 141 232 4 36/ 30/ 34 Borgir Christian Schmidt 141 267 5 34/ 31/ 35 The Humanizer bvowk/fiz 138 120 6 27/ 16/ 58 Maelstrom Roy van Rijn 138 375 7 34/ 32/ 34 107 kHz Sascha Zapf 136 25 8 30/ 25/ 45 New-T Roy van Rijn 135 166 9 32/ 28/ 40 false illusion John Metcalf 135 40 10 33/ 31/ 36 UnderConstruction Roy van Rijn 135 18 11 38/ 42/ 19 SOSM2 Nenad Tomasev 135 1 12 33/ 31/ 36 DifferentialOperatorWS Nenad Tomasev 135 61 13 27/ 20/ 54 Black Knight Christian Schmidt 134 257 14 31/ 28/ 41 Kaiten_ Nenad Tomasev 133 3 15 25/ 17/ 58 S.D.N. Christian Schmidt 133 44 16 40/ 47/ 13 Subzero Christian Schmidt 133 9 17 38/ 44/ 18 Sharky Christian Schmidt 132 41 18 37/ 43/ 20 KryneLamiya Nenad Tomasev 131 21 19 35/ 41/ 24 NSos14 Nenad Tomasev 129 2 20 27/ 27/ 46 Sinus Tree Christian Schmidt 127 46 21 37/ 56/ 6 Qutrum_v0.6 bl 119 0 From: KOTH Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - ICWS Experimental 94 06/20/05 Date: Mon, 20 Jun 2005 01:20:26 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <200506200406.j5K460Zp059343@asgard.t-b-o-h.net> Weekly Status on 06/20/05 -=- 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 : Thu May 12 10:11:47 EDT 2005 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 43/ 36/ 21 Fatamorgana X Zul Nadzri 150 4 2 40/ 38/ 22 The X Machine Zul Nadzri 142 28 3 28/ 19/ 53 xd100 test David Houston 138 14 4 23/ 8/ 69 Evol Cap 4 X John Wilkinson 137 286 5 38/ 41/ 21 Eliminator X Zul Nadzri 136 29 6 41/ 46/ 13 Fire and Ice II David Moore 135 117 7 38/ 42/ 19 Giant Hazy Test 13 Steve Gunnell 134 44 8 22/ 11/ 67 Denial David Moore 133 158 9 29/ 26/ 45 KAT v5 Dave Hillis 132 149 10 29/ 27/ 44 Olivia X Ben Ford 132 98 11 34/ 37/ 29 Trefoil F 13 Steve Gunnell 131 100 12 36/ 41/ 23 Ogre Christian Schmidt 131 165 13 34/ 38/ 28 Trefoil Test F 14 Steve Gunnell 131 1 14 28/ 26/ 46 Venom v0.2b Christian Schmidt 131 239 15 36/ 42/ 22 Black Moods Ian Oversby 130 213 16 27/ 24/ 49 Glenstorm John Metcalf 130 79 17 34/ 39/ 27 Controlled Aggression Ian Oversby 129 217 18 17/ 7/ 76 Evolve X v4.0 John Wilkinson 128 234 19 34/ 41/ 24 Simply Intelligent Zul Nadzri 127 10 20 22/ 20/ 58 Kin John Metcalf 125 125 21 28/ 45/ 27 Bugtown Rap 18 Steve Gunnell 111 0 Message-ID: From: anton@paradise.net.nz (Anton Marsden) Subject: Core War Frequently Asked Questions (rec.games.corewar FAQ) Date: 21 Jun 2005 04:17:43 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: "sayembara" Subject: Re: LP Hill Warrior: Lord of the Core Date: 23 Jun 2005 17:15:49 -0700 Message-ID: <1119572149.512510.32970@g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com> ' From: "sayembara" Subject: Re: LP Hill Warrior: Lord of the Core Date: 23 Jun 2005 17:16:28 -0700 Message-ID: <1119572188.585146.36080@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com> Good info. Once I can isolate the followers, I can topple the 'King' :) From: Ilmari Karonen Subject: JIT compiling Redcode Message-ID: Date: Fri, 24 Jun 2005 03:02:22 +0300 Here's an idea I had recently. There are about 8000 different opcode/modifier/addrmode combinations in redcode '94. A standard hill battle can involve at most 201 of them, usually much less. The most commonly executed opcodes (MOV, SPL, DAT, JMP) are all rather simple. (In particular, none of these top 4 instructions use their B-instruction registers at all.) If we knew which subset of opcodes will be used, we could make the simulator loop much simpler. It would also be useful to include separate, simplified execution paths, with fewer branches, for the common, simple instructions. So why not build a custom simulator for each battle? Of course, this wouldn't be trivial, and would require either reliance on an external compiler (high overhead) or direct assembly coding (non-portable). But what about writing the simulator in an interpreted language, such as Java bytecode? This wouldn't be as fast as real assembly code, but it would be portable. And there are already JIT compilers that could turn the generated bytecode into native code, possibly giving speeds comparable to conventional simulators written in C. Generating JVM bytecode directly could in itself give a speed boost over conventional simulators written in Java, since the bytecode produced by current Java compilers isn't very well optimized. So, the question now is: is there actually any demand for a fast Java-based MARS? If not, then there's no point in going much further in this direction. It should be noted that much (though perhaps not all, depending on implementation) of the speed gain is wasted if the code needs to keep updating a graphical display all the time. Or, for that matter, would someone actually want a MARS that needs to call a C compiler before each battle? -- Ilmari Karonen To reply by e-mail, please replace ".invalid" with ".net" in address. From: Ilmari Karonen Subject: MARS implementation: absolute vs. relative addresses Message-ID: Date: Fri, 24 Jun 2005 03:35:16 +0300 Here's another crazy idea: Most (all?) current MARS implementations store the A and B fields of instructions "as is". This means that every time such a field must be turned into an effective address into the core, an addition modulo coresize is required. This could be avoided by using absolute addresses instead, i.e. adding (modulo coresize) the address of each instruction to its A and B fields. Of course, this means that every instruction that needs the actual values of these fields must convert them back to relative form. Advantages: * Direct addressing would be slightly faster. * Indirect addressing would be significantly faster. * Jumps (and SPL) would be slightly faster. Disadvantages: * MOV would be slightly slower. * ADD, SUB, SEQ, SNE and SLT would be slower. * MUL, DIV, MOD, LDP and STP would be much slower. The need for MOV to do relocation is the kicker. My guess is that something like "MOV.I a, @b" is probably near the break-even point: MOV with no indirect addressing would probably get slower overall, while MOV with two indirect addressing modes might actually speed up. On the other hand, I'd expect SPL, DAT, JMP and maybe even DJN to get faster overall, and those are also common instructions. Not quite as common as MOV, but still. So, would it be worth it? I don't know. I suppose the only way to find out would be to try. Alas, I'm leaving for a vacation tomorrow, so I won't be able to try this until next month, if then. But it certainly *could* work. -- Ilmari Karonen To reply by e-mail, please replace ".invalid" with ".net" in address. From: dhillismail@netscape.net Subject: Re: alternative simulated environments? Date: 26 Jun 2005 20:50:04 -0700 Message-ID: <1119844204.291937.200920@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com> Hi Paul, For your presentation, check out the mars corewin: it has useful speed control and other nice qualities. Tierra and Venus are projects you might want to cite. You mentioned gridwars-it's worth a look. And I encourage you to play. There are beginner hills and tutorials and friendly, helpful players on this list. Dave Hillis Subject: alternative simulated environments? From: "Paul G" Date: Sun, 26 Jun 2005 21:54:00 GMT Message-ID: <42bf2201$1_2@spool9-west.superfeed.net> Greetings all, New to corewars, but my father read me the SciAm article in 1984 when I was 4. and I've been interested in it ever since. I actually finally got around to getting involved because I'm doing a report for my computer security class about Core Wars and how it relates to the history of computer viruses. I was wondering if anyone could help me out. Can anyone tell me more about other, similar simulated environments, basically anything that has a defense/offense aspect to it. I've heard buzzings about gridwars and the early articles mention Darwin. I know also that in the realworld there are often hacking/cracking contests, which I may mention in my presentation. Just any keywords anyone can give me to further my research would be appreciated. Also, a quick quesiton about running pmarsv. I intend to run some core wars during my presentation, but for some of the simpler warriors, the turns cycle a bit too quickly. I may have just missed it in the documentation, but is there a way I can slow the simulation down, other than putting it on a crummier computer, or setting the -v option to 7? Any dos/winxp or linux alternative program that could do this would be fine too. Your input on this, or any other suggestions for my presentation would be greatly appreciated, Paul G. ----== Posted via Newsfeeds.Com - Unlimited-Uncensored-Secure Usenet News==---- http://www.newsfeeds.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! 120,000+ Newsgroups ----= East and West-Coast Server Farms - Total Privacy via Encryption =---- From: "sayembara" Subject: Re: alternative simulated environments? Date: 27 Jun 2005 04:41:19 -0700 Message-ID: <1119872479.957501.41360@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com> My suggestion: To show the audience on the graphical movements of the warriors, you can slow the graphics (pmarsv) by adding a series of 'jmp 0' just to let the simulator cycles thru these instruction while it display the main warrior e.g imp-ring. You have to mention this as a demo. Then you announce the audience that now you are going to run the real thing. Switch back to the original warrior and run pmarsv at slowest speed. /Zul Nadzri dhillismail@netscape.net wrote: > Hi Paul, > For your presentation, check out the mars corewin: it has useful > speed control and other nice qualities. Tierra and Venus are projects > you might want to cite. You mentioned gridwars-it's worth a look. > And I encourage you to play. There are beginner hills and tutorials > and friendly, helpful players on this list. > > Dave Hillis From: KOTH Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - 94 No Pspace 06/27/05 Date: Mon, 27 Jun 2005 08:23:16 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <200506270409.j5R490Jn023228@asgard.t-b-o-h.net> Weekly Status on 06/27/05 -=- 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 Jun 23 21:10:58 EDT 2005 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 35/ 28/ 36 Hullabaloo Roy van Rijn 142 235 2 36/ 30/ 35 Borgir Christian Schmidt 141 270 3 42/ 43/ 16 Beat this Sascha Zapf 140 83 4 43/ 47/ 9 Arrow Christian Schmidt 140 438 5 34/ 30/ 36 The Humanizer bvowk/fiz 138 123 6 26/ 16/ 58 Maelstrom Roy van Rijn 137 378 7 30/ 24/ 45 New-T Roy van Rijn 136 169 8 33/ 31/ 37 UnderConstruction Roy van Rijn 135 21 9 33/ 30/ 37 DifferentialOperatorWS Nenad Tomasev 135 64 10 33/ 32/ 34 107 kHz Sascha Zapf 135 28 11 31/ 28/ 40 false illusion John Metcalf 134 43 12 26/ 18/ 56 S.D.N. Christian Schmidt 134 47 13 38/ 42/ 20 SOSM2 Nenad Tomasev 134 4 14 40/ 47/ 13 Subzero Christian Schmidt 133 12 15 27/ 20/ 53 Black Knight Christian Schmidt 133 260 16 30/ 28/ 42 Kaiten_ Nenad Tomasev 132 6 17 37/ 44/ 19 Sharky Christian Schmidt 131 44 18 36/ 42/ 21 KryneLamiya Nenad Tomasev 130 24 19 27/ 26/ 46 Sinus Tree Christian Schmidt 128 49 20 31/ 37/ 32 PerfectTimev3.1 Nenad Tomasev 124 1 21 38/ 53/ 9 Qutrum_v0.7 Peter Minus 123 0 From: KOTH Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - Standard 06/27/05 Date: Mon, 27 Jun 2005 08:23:19 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <200506270400.j5R400lb022861@asgard.t-b-o-h.net> Weekly Status on 06/27/05 -=- 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 Jun 24 11:41:43 EDT 2005 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 37/ 28/ 35 The Next Step '88 David Houston 145 37 2 33/ 26/ 42 Test Alexander (Sasha) Wa 140 161 3 32/ 25/ 44 The Hurricaner G.Labarga 139 8 4 26/ 14/ 60 Utterer '88 Christian Schmidt 138 1 5 40/ 41/ 19 Scan the Can Christian Schmidt 138 2 6 32/ 27/ 41 Freight Train David Moore 137 222 7 38/ 40/ 22 My 1st try Christian Schmidt 137 53 8 31/ 26/ 44 Guardian Ian Oversby 136 221 9 37/ 39/ 24 Tangle Trap 3 David Moore 135 50 10 36/ 37/ 27 PacMan David Moore 134 251 11 24/ 15/ 61 Utterer '88 Christian Schmidt 133 5 12 30/ 28/ 42 A.I.P. Christian Schmidt 133 29 13 37/ 41/ 22 Stasis David Moore 133 329 14 33/ 33/ 34 The Seed Roy van Rijn 132 39 15 29/ 27/ 44 test G.Labarga 132 4 16 21/ 12/ 66 IMParable G.Labarga 130 9 17 39/ 49/ 12 Scan Test C 6 Steve Gunnell 129 60 18 39/ 49/ 12 Speeed 88mph Christian Schmidt 129 21 19 36/ 43/ 22 Moonwipe Christian Schmidt 129 18 20 36/ 48/ 16 Cold as November Rain... John Metcalf 124 35 21 34/ 51/ 15 somewhere in the snow John Metcalf 116 0 From: KOTH Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - MultiWarrior 94 06/27/05 Date: Mon, 27 Jun 2005 08:23:18 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <200506270403.j5R430qd022938@asgard.t-b-o-h.net> Weekly Status on 06/27/05 -=- 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 Jun 25 06:17:19 EDT 2005 # Name Author Score Age 1 BattleShield Nenad Tomasev 22 20 2 desolate Simon Wainwright 22 14 3 kingdom of the grasshoppe simon wainwright 20 44 4 careless scanning Simon Wainwright 17 13 5 French Kiss LAchi 15 5 6 glow worm John Metcalf 13 2 7 The Missing Bottle of Mil Jens Gutzeit 8 1 8 Hiperblast G.Labarga 6 54 9 Purpurea 2nd Miz 4 11 10 NSos13 Nenad Tomasev 4 4 11 CLP-shot 2 G.Labarga 3 6 From: KOTH Subject: KOTH.ORG: Status - ICWS Experimental 94 06/27/05 Date: Mon, 27 Jun 2005 08:23:17 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <200506270406.j5R460Kl023024@asgard.t-b-o-h.net> Weekly Status on 06/27/05 -=- 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 Jun 21 12:58:25 EDT 2005 # %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age 1 45/ 35/ 20 Fatamorgana X Zul Nadzri 154 4 2 41/ 37/ 22 The X Machine Zul Nadzri 145 28 3 31/ 18/ 51 xd100 test David Houston 143 14 4 37/ 35/ 28 Trefoil F 13 Steve Gunnell 140 100 5 37/ 35/ 27 Trefoil Test F 14 Steve Gunnell 139 1 6 39/ 39/ 22 Eliminator X Zul Nadzri 139 29 7 23/ 8/ 69 Evol Cap 4 X John Wilkinson 139 286 8 39/ 40/ 22 Black Moods Ian Oversby 138 213 9 31/ 25/ 44 Olivia X Ben Ford 137 98 10 30/ 22/ 48 Glenstorm John Metcalf 137 79 11 41/ 46/ 13 Fire and Ice II David Moore 137 117 12 38/ 39/ 23 Ogre Christian Schmidt 136 165 13 39/ 42/ 20 Giant Hazy Test 13 Steve Gunnell 136 44 14 30/ 26/ 44 Venom v0.2b Christian Schmidt 135 239 15 22/ 11/ 67 Denial David Moore 134 158 16 30/ 26/ 44 KAT v5 Dave Hillis 133 149 17 20/ 7/ 73 Evolve X v4.0 John Wilkinson 133 234 18 25/ 18/ 57 Kin John Metcalf 132 125 19 36/ 40/ 24 Simply Intelligent Zul Nadzri 132 10 20 34/ 39/ 27 Controlled Aggression Ian Oversby 130 217 21 7/ 77/ 16 Dwarfy Anonymous 37 0 From: pak21@cam.ac.uk (Philip Kendall) Subject: Re: JIT compiling Redcode Date: 28 Jun 2005 14:15:12 +0100 Message-ID: In article , Ilmari Karonen wrote: [ ... ] >So, the question now is: is there actually any demand for a fast >Java-based MARS? OOI, has anyone every done any serious profiling of pMARS? I've just got as far as discovering that it spends all its time in simulator1(), which isn't a) surprising or b) very interesting really. Cheers, Phil -- Philip Kendall http://www.srcf.ucam.org/~pak21/ From: Sascha Zapf Subject: 94nopspace Date: Tue, 28 Jun 2005 21:27:24 +0000 Message-ID: yeahh, Hill aging..go on boys.... Sascha -- Parlez vous Redcode ?