A. K. Dewdney introduced Core War in the Computer Recreations column of Scientific American in 1984. Core War is a game played between two or more programs which aim to eliminate all other programs in the memory of the MARS virtual computer.

To celebrate 40 years of Core War, The Core War Tournament Weekend will take place on 9–10 November at the Retro Computer Festival in Cambridge, UK. There will be a tournament held on each day, and visitors are invited to see demos of genetic programming, optimization techniques, and related programming games.

Everyone is welcome to enter, whether you're a new player or a pro, whether you're attending in person or just want to enter by email.

'88 Tournament - Saturday 9th November

The first tournament of the weekend will take place on Saturday using the CWS'88 Redcode standard. Players may enter one or two programs, each with a maximum length of 25 instructions. Programs will compete in a one-on-one round-robin, with no self-fights. The program with the lowest score will be eliminated and the remaining programs will face each other in a new round-robin, repeating until only one program remains.

'94 Tournament - Sunday 10th November

The second tournament will be held on Sunday using Extended CWS'94 Redcode with no p-space. Players may enter one or two programs, each up to 25 instructions. Programs face each other in a one-on-one round-robin, with no self-fights. The lowest scoring program will be eliminated and the remaining programs face each other in a new round-robin, repeating until only one program remains.

Further Details

Entries need to be emailed to by 11:30am on tournament day. All entries will be published at the end of the tournament. Updates will be posted on rec.games.corewar, @xcorewar on 𝕏 / Twitter, #corewars on Libera IRC, and #corewar on Discord. If you need any help, feel free to ask.

More information about Core War can be found at:

Software is available from:

Core War can be played online at:

The Retro Computer Festival will be hosted by the Centre for Computing History in Cambridge UK: