Issue 13 January 22, 1996
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Core_Warrior_ is a weekly newsletter promoting the game of corewar. Emphasis
is placed on the most active hills--currently the '94 draft hill and the
beginner hill. Coverage will follow where ever the action is. If you have
no clue what I'm talking about then check out these five-star internet locals
for more information:
FAQs are available by anonymous FTP from rtfm.mit.edu as
pub/usenet/news.answers/games/corewar-faq.Z
FTP site is: ftp.csua.berkeley.edu /pub/corewar
Web pages are at:
http://www.stormking.com/~koth ;Stormking
http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~pizza/koth ;Pizza
http://pauillac.inria.fr/~doligez/corewar/ ;Planar
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Greetings.
Guessing from the lot of mail I got in last week end, Pizza's problem has
been solved, as Thos told us some time ago, good.
At Stormking Tuc is working on new hill scripts, with a lot of new features
like password and newredcode. Everybody is invited to help development
mailing to kothtest@stormking.com with ;help for menu, and submitting their
warrior to the -94x test hill.
It's good for beginners too, the rules are the same as those of 94 but the
coresize is bigger.
We are invited to try crashing the hill, yes we can do it, to see if there
is some bug hidden in the script, have fun.
Everybody is waiting the Corewar hall of fame, with gifs of last tournament
winners; Stefan asked for help, should someone have an .htm page good for
including names and faces, please mail it to <stst@idnsun.gpct.Vanderbilt.Edu>
I have been very busy at work this week and Myer too. So we invite everybody
to join the staff and make his own number of Corewarrior as did Maurizio
during Xmas holydays.
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Current Status of the Internet Pizza Server ICWS '94 Draft Hill:
Hill Specs:
coresize: 8000
max. processes: 8000
duration: after 80,000 cycles, a tie is declared.
max. entry length: 100
minimum distance: 100
rounds fought: 200
instruction set: ICWS '94 Draft
# %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age
1 37/ 29/ 34 Jack in the box Beppe Bezzi 145 811
2 35/ 25/ 40 La Bomba Beppe Bezzi 144 439
3 31/ 18/ 52 Impfinity v4g1 Planar 144 244
4 40/ 39/ 21 testnorm Maurizio Vittuari 142 27
5 32/ 23/ 46 juliet and paper M R Bremer, B. Bezzi 141 440
6 41/ 41/ 18 quiz Schitzo 140 444
7 24/ 8/ 68 Night Train Karl Lewin 140 331
8 22/ 6/ 71 Evol Cap 6.6 John Wilkinson 139 59
9 40/ 42/ 17 Frontwards v2 Steven Morrell 139 297
10 39/ 41/ 20 Wraith Kurt Franke 137 3
11 29/ 22/ 48 Hector 2 Kurt Franke 137 359
12 38/ 41/ 21 Boombastic Maurizio Vittuari 136 179
13 36/ 36/ 29 Thermite II Robert Macrae 135 45
14 35/ 34/ 31 Mason 2.0 Robert Macrae 135 180
15 33/ 31/ 36 Blue Funk 5 Steven Morrell 134 80
16 34/ 35/ 31 Tornado 2.3 a Beppe Bezzi 133 43
17 33/ 33/ 34 Torch t18 P.Kline 132 823
18 34/ 38/ 27 Time Lapse v0.1 David Boeren 131 15
19 37/ 45/ 18 Harmony P.Kline 130 8
20 34/ 39/ 27 jtest Kafka 129 1
21 26/ 23/ 51 Hazy Shade Of Winter John K W 129 34
22 36/ 44/ 19 Mirage 1.3 Anton Marsden 129 6
23 38/ 47/ 15 Provascan 3.0 Beppe Bezzi 128 194
24 35/ 44/ 20 Wraith Kurt Franke 126 5
25 34/ 42/ 24 Persistence Kurt Franke 126 2
One is always happy to write a report of such an hill :-)
The hill has aged 56 this week. Average scores jumped up to 135 (120 last
week and 128 the week before) 19 points separate number 1 from number 25.
The average age is 203 (182 last week).
Torch had very bad times this week, going to just one step from being pushed
off; Jack in the box is having a second jouth, performing better than ever
against the new wave of warriors, and climbing to the top of the hill.
After many weeks quiz loses the hilltop, it has already happened in past
weeks but never on monday :-)
Many warriors alternated in King position this week: Thermite II, Harmony,
Evol cap 6.6, SETI, Jack in the box, juliet and paper, Impfinity and
testnorm. Near to incredible SETI's performance, entering at king position
to be pushed off at age 37, a real comet; the cause of this behaviour is,
with most chances, that it toke most of its points from warrior that have
been pushed off shortly after.
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94 - What's New
2 41/ 39/ 20 testnorm Maurizio Vittuari 143 1
9 40/ 40/ 20 Wraith Kurt Franke 139 1
4 31/ 33/ 36 Thermite II Robert Macrae 129 1
10 29/ 32/ 38 Tornado 2.3 a Beppe Bezzi 126 1
14 35/ 37/ 28 Time Lapse v0.1 David Boeren 133 1
19 27/ 27/ 46 Hazy Shade Of Winter John K W 128 1
22 36/ 43/ 21 Mirage 1.3 Anton Marsden 129 1
18 37/ 43/ 19 Harmony P.Kline 131 1
7 39/ 40/ 22 odysseus Kafka 137 1
6 39/ 40/ 21 Wraith Kurt Franke 139 1
25 34/ 42/ 24 Persistence Kurt Franke 126 1
Some interesting new entries this week caused another revolution with eleven
new entries and standings changed a lot. Worth mention testnorm, Wraith,
Thermite II, odysseus, and new Tornado, all them entering in the top ten.
______________________________________________________________________________
94 - What's No More.
26 16/ 11/ 73 DoorMat v0.1 K Lewin 121 257
26 21/ 18/ 61 Cheap Hack M R Bremer 125 126
26 34/ 42/ 24 Koolaid II: WoGG v2.2 David Boeren 126 51
26 1/ 2/ 1 Test Robert Macrae 4 40
26 1/ 2/ 0 testnorm Maurizio Vittuari 5 37
26 1/ 2/ 1 Harmony P.Kline 5 36
26 16/ 10/ 74 .2 Evolve VIII John Wilkinson 122 31
26 0/ 0/ 4 Evol Cap VII .3 John Wilkinson 4 30
26 2/ 0/ 6 Evol Cap 6.2a John Wilkinson 11 26
26 29/ 40/ 31 paris Kafka 119 11
26 8/ 0/ 92 Evolve VIII John Wilkinson 115 2
Main losses are DoorMat at 257 age and Cheap Hack. Nothing else over 100 age
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What's Old
17 33/ 33/ 34 Torch t18 P.Kline 132 823
1 37/ 29/ 34 Jack in the box Beppe Bezzi 145 811
6 41/ 41/ 18 quiz Schitzo 140 444
5 32/ 23/ 46 juliet and paper M R Bremer, B. Bezzi 141 440
2 35/ 25/ 40 La Bomba Beppe Bezzi 144 439
11 29/ 22/ 48 Hector 2 Kurt Franke 137 359
7 24/ 8/ 68 Night Train Karl Lewin 140 331
9 40/ 42/ 17 Frontwards v2 Steven Morrell 139 297
3 31/ 18/ 52 Impfinity v4g1 Planar 144 244
A new entry in the over 200 club, Planar's Impfinity, and one loss, Lewin's
DoorMat v01
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HALL OF FAME
* means the warrior is still running.
Pos Name Author Age Strategy
1 Iron Gate 1.5 Wayne Sheppard 926 CMP scanner
2 Agony II Stefan Strack 912 CMP scanner
3 Blue Funk Steven Morrell 869 Stone/ imp
4 Torch t18 P.Kline 823 * Bomber
5 Jack in the box Beppe Bezzi 811 * P-warrior
6 Thermite 1.0 Robert Macrae 802 Qscan -> bomber
7 Blue Funk 3 Steven Morrell 766 Stone/ imp
8 HeremScimitar A.Ivner,P.Kline 666 Bomber
9 myVamp v3.7 Paulsson 643 Vampire
10 Armory - A5 Wilkinson 609 P-warrior
11 Phq Maurizio Vittuari 589 Qscan -> replicator
12 B-Panama X Steven Morrell 518 Stone/ replicator
13 quiz Schitzo 444 * scanner/ bomber
14 juliet and paper Bremer & Bezzi 440 * P-warrior
15 La Bomba Beppe Bezzi 439 * Qscan -> replicator
16 NC 94 Wayne Sheppard 387 Stone/ imp
17 Cannonade P.Kline 382 Stone/ imp
18 Torch t17 P.Kline 378 Bomber
19 Hector 2 Kurt Franke 359 * Qscan -> replicator
20 Lucky 3 Stefan Strack 355 Stone/ imp
21 Derision M R Bremer 351 Scanner
22 Request v2.0 Brant D. Thomsen 347 Qvamp -> vampire
23 Dragon Spear c w blue 346 CMP scanner
24 Leprechaun on speed Anders Ivner 344 Qscan -> scanner/bomber
The hall of fame will be expanded to 25 slots with next entry.
The 'twins', Torch and Jack in the box, passed 800 milestone and Thermite;
now they are near Blue Funk and the all time podium positions.
The other trio is quickly climbing the standings while Hector makes its
entry in 19th position.
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Current Status of the Internet Pizza Server Beginner's Hill:
Hill Specs:
coresize: 8000
max. processes: 8000
duration: after 80,000 cycles, a tie is declared.
max. entry length: 100
minimum distance: 100
maximum age: At age 100, warriors are retired.
rounds fought: 200
instruction set: ICWS '94 Draft
# %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age
1 52/ 32/ 17 Koolaid II: The Wrath of David Boeren 171 67
2 36/ 8/ 57 RingWorm_v2.5 Calvin Loh 164 56
3 47/ 34/ 18 Mirage 1.0 Anton Marsden 160 17
4 35/ 14/ 51 Papery Ian Oversby 156 25
5 28/ 9/ 64 RingWorm_v2.6 Calvin Loh 147 26
6 42/ 38/ 20 Our Vamp v3 R Bartolome & JS Pul 145 1
7 33/ 22/ 45 Spacehead 1.3 Warpi & Philemon 144 23
8 38/ 31/ 31 Qwiksand Wayne Sheppard 144 11
9 42/ 41/ 18 Mary Janes J. E. Long 142 12
10 40/ 39/ 21 Assassin XII Andy Nevermind 142 49
11 28/ 17/ 55 Thunder V 1.0 Andy Nevermind 140 63
12 37/ 41/ 22 Monitor M R Bremer 134 45
13 37/ 42/ 21 White Rose v0.14 Tomasz Radon 132 15
14 35/ 47/ 18 Equalizer Matthias Wollnik 124 20
15 32/ 41/ 27 RedPixel.2 John Lewis 124 64
16 20/ 20/ 59 Spiral Again Calvin Loh 121 55
17 18/ 16/ 66 SpiralTest2 Calvin Loh 120 66
18 20/ 20/ 60 Spiral Again Calvin Loh 120 57
19 31/ 43/ 27 Three Core Monty Andrew Fabbro 119 9
20 12/ 5/ 82 Evol Cap 6.1 John Wilkinson 119 46
21 23/ 29/ 49 live 0.2 Philemon 117 24
22 24/ 40/ 36 Inherit v0.9 Philemon 108 14
23 28/ 48/ 24 Test Stone #1 David Boeren 107 83
24 21/ 40/ 39 Veeble Jr. T. H. Davies 103 2
25 23/ 43/ 34 EveryoneMustGetStoned 2.5 Nathan Summers 102 74
Koolaid hold top position, followed by RingWorm and Mirage 01. None of those
warriors is in the 94 hill, even if Boeren and Marsden have others.
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The Hint
Spiral and Stargate
It's not Science Fiction, it's still corewar; Spiral is an imp spiral and
Stargate is my nickname for the clear:
gate dat stun, 100
...
stun spl #kill-gate, 100
clr mov *gate, >gate
djn clr, {nnn
kill dat kill-gate, 100
this come from the instuction mov *gate,>gate; being 'asterisk' too long, I
like to call it 'star'
This clear is simple and very good against silk, with his djn.f stream; I
always considered it good against imps too, but I had to change my mind.
Forward running clears are usually good against spirals because, when an imp
instryction overwrites gate it transfers the attack to the next process, it
works with imp instructions like Blue Funk's one
mov.i #3044, 2667
but if we use an instruction of the form:
mov.i #-5, 2667 ;any small negative value is good
the clear will copy an imp instruction over the next imp instruction, and
this is not the best way to kill a spiral.:-)
To be effective we have to use this other clear I used in my last Tornado.
gate1
...
gate dat -25, last-gate1+3
bombs spl #-step, step
...
jump spl #nn, #nn
clr mov @djmp, >gate1
djmp djn.b clr, {bombs
last
Being sure to have some space beetween gate1 and our code. In this way we
are sure to move a dat instruction over the next process and avoid the
spiral crashing our gate.
The increase in performances is real, against Impfinity for example:
Tornado 2.0 h1 wins: 25 ;uses Stargate clear
Impfinity v4g1 wins: 91
Ties: 84
Tornado 2.3 wins: 75 ;uses new clear
Impfinity v4g1 wins: 61
Ties: 64
It right to say that the clear used by Tornado 2.3 is the same used by
Torch, another code snippet I have stolen from Paul, and that the
improvement against Impfinity is not all thanks the clear, new code is
stronger, more decrement resistant, and one line shorter; I'll post it but
not today. ;-)
The drawback, there is always a drawback, is that the djn.b is less
effective against silk and, if we use djn.f instead we'll end jumping to our
spl, and this will reduce the anti imp effectiveness having some delays
beetween executions of the mov that the imp can use to slip through.
Again the last hint is: test this one and the other one against some
published warrior, looking when one is better and when the other one.
Stepping while the imp is overwriting the clear is a good exercise, you can
use sk 500 till the spiral is near, then use sk 1 to position in the leading
process of the spiral and ctrl-t to advance the spiral step by step.
As usual, if you have problems, mail me <bezzi@iol.it>
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Planar's Corner
These are the solutions to exercise 6 from part 2 of the tutorial.
I'm short of time, so this is all untested code. The problem was:
>6. [hard] The inner loop fails to stop if the self-bombing doesn't
> occur on the SPL. How do you make it work in all cases ?
The first solution is to stop Fahrenheit each time it is about to bomb
some core location, and check whether this location is within
Fahrenheit itself. Borrowing from Jurgen's code, I get the following:
tilt=@ca c=999~!!m prep~m inn~@m next~!8
prep=@ca c=c+1,d=0~@ed1~mov.i<100,<c~@t1,2~@ca x=0
inn=!!~@ca d=d+1~@s~if1==pc~m _inn1~if2==pc~m _inn2~if0==x~!
_inn1=@1~@+b~@+b-1~if.<5~@ca x=1
_inn2=@2~@+b~@+a~if.<5~@ca x=1
When we stop at the first MOV, check the location before the location
pointed by the b-field of the location pointed by the b-field of
the first MOV. When we stop at the second MOV, etc.
The second solution uses Stefan's "check" macro. We'll run the
program with "check" and, if it has changed, look at the last
instruction executed to see if it's the ADD. This one will stop when
the DJN stream overruns Fahrenheit, the previous one didn't.
tilt=@ca c=999~@ca x=0,y=4~!!m prep~m inn~@m next~!8
prep=@ca c=c+1,d=0~@ed1~mov.i<100,<c
inn=!!~@ca d=d+1~@m check~@ps~@$~@ps of~if .==4~!
Unfortunately, I had to use the "pspace" command, that I have not
explained yet. And I just noticed that the "d" counter is not updated
properly. Hmmm. Maybe it would work with a hacked version of
"check".
-- Planar
______________________________________________________________________________
Questions? Concerns? Comments? Complaints? Mail them to people who care:
Beppe Bezzi <bezzi@iol.it>, Myer R Bremer <bremermr@ecn.purdue.edu> or
Maurizio Vittuari <pan0178@iperbole.bologna.it>
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