CoreWars

CoreWars is probably the first strategy programming game. The concept is in essence identical to Robocode. These points are noteworthy of CoreWars and considering these, we have come a long way to get Robocode. :-)

Origin:

• This game was written by A.K. Dewdney and presented in the May, 1984 issue of Scientific American magazine. Since it is impossible to explain all its details here without infringing on Scientific American's copyrights, you'll have to get a copy and read the instructions for yourself.
• Bob Green converted Bjorke's work to MS-DOS V. 2.xx from Bjorke's original in CP/M and from Small-C V. 2.03 to Computer Innovations' C86 on June 7, 1984.

The Game:

• Core Wars pits one computer program against another in the dark and lonely corridors of your computer's main memory, "core," named after the memory cores or rings of late 1950s-early 1960s computers. Each player writes his or her program, enters it via prompts at the outset or by having it in a file which COREWARS reads. The programs then take turns executing instructions, first one, then the other. Once execution begins, the first program to render the other incapable of executing its next instruction wins.
• The programs COREWARS executes are written in a simple version of assembly code called RedCode. RedCode has only nine instructions.
• Here is one if the simplest programs which basically moves itself one step forward in an attempt to overwrite the opponent.

MOV 0 1

END

(( Uploaded COREWARS2.EXE and COREWARS.TXT to /taquin. How do I link to it. The syntax http: /robodocs/<filename> does not seem to work))

http:/robocode/uploads/taquin/corewars2.exe http:/robocode/uploads/taquin/corewars.txt

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I've also toyed with this nice game. Recommended for gaining notions on Assembly programming ... Revisions of RedCode introduced registers some time ago ... ;) -- Qetu

I don't know what corewars2 is but the official version for rec.games.corewars is pMARS. Check out http://www.koth.org/ -- Paul Ingemi

Yes, I've played around somw with Core Wars too, i even have a bunch of my old conceptual notes about warriors I'd like to code, but I never found the game rewarding enough to bother. Imagine having to consider that someone might overwrite *some* part of your bot with an endless loop or a new DeathEvent?() or something. -- Scarpia