Issue 45 September 30, 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: (Please note new Stormking's address)
http://www.koth.org/ ;Stormking
http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~pizza/koth ;Pizza
http://pauillac.inria.fr/~doligez/corewar/ ;Planar
Newbies should check the stormking page for the FAQ, language specification,
guides, and tutorials. Post questions to rec.games.corewar. All new players
are infinitely welcome!
If ftp.csua.berkeley.edu is unreachable, you can download pMARS at:
Terry's web page--http://www.infi.net/~wtnewton/corewar/
Planar ftp site--ftp://ftp.inria.fr/INRIA/Projects/para/doligez/cw/pmars
Fechter ftp site--ftp://members.aol.com/ofechner/corewar
A collection of Bezzi's hints in the first issues is available at:
ftp://ftp.volftp.vol.it/pub/pc/msdos/games/solutions/bbhints.zip
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Greetings.
A good week for corewar. There were over a 100 challenges for the the '94
draft hill, testing and otherwise. Looks like weekly ages of under 20 are
going to be pretty standard. It's going to be monumentally difficult to
enter the hall of fame. Bezzi mentioned last issue that Steven Morrell was
offering to recalculate the HOF by eliminating artificial aging, but we need
to specify exactly how to do this. Since I haven't seen much discussion on
this in the newsgroup, maybe Morrell should use his best judgement and
present us with the 'new' hall of fame. There will probably be lots of
discussion as soon as one of us sees our warrior drop ten places! Speak now
or forever hold your peace (piece?).
--M R Bremer
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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
The current ICWS '94 Draft hill:
# %W / %L / %T Name Author Score Age
1 37.4/ 19.4/ 43.2 Gigolo Core Warrior staff 155.5 14
2 42.6/ 34.1/ 23.2 Damage Incorporated Anton Marsden 151.1 1
3 35.5/ 21.1/ 43.4 unrequited love kafka 149.8 58
4 40.5/ 31.8/ 27.6 CC Paper 2 Franz 149.2 13
5 42.1/ 39.6/ 18.3 Blur 2 Anton Marsden 144.6 137
6 31.4/ 18.6/ 50.0 Rosebud Beppe 144.1 811
7 40.3/ 38.6/ 21.1 Probe Anton Marsden 142.1 138
8 40.4/ 39.6/ 20.0 Goldfinch P.Kline 141.2 79
9 36.9/ 33.2/ 29.9 Frogz Franz 140.5 18
10 26.7/ 14.5/ 58.8 Return Of The Jedimp John K W 138.8 126
11 25.7/ 12.9/ 61.3 ompega Steven Morrell 138.5 253
12 41.7/ 45.8/ 12.5 Q^2 Miro Anders Ivner 137.7 188
13 29.2/ 20.7/ 50.2 Impish v0.1 Ian Oversby 137.7 15
14 32.7/ 28.1/ 39.2 Simple v0.4b Ian Oversby 137.4 89
15 37.6/ 38.5/ 23.9 Test Anton Marsden 136.7 48
16 25.0/ 13.4/ 61.7 Implication v0.3 Ian Oversby 136.6 6
17 32.1/ 29.1/ 38.8 Falcon v0.3 Ian Oversby 135.0 43
18 39.6/ 44.9/ 15.5 Taking Names P.Kline 134.4 3
19 36.7/ 39.8/ 23.6 mrb-test m r bremer 133.6 44
20 36.2/ 38.9/ 24.9 Inferno 2.4 Philip Kendall 133.5 16
21 36.5/ 39.7/ 23.8 Instant Wolf 3.4 Edgar 133.2 21
22 34.7/ 36.7/ 28.6 T.N.T. pro Maurizio Vittuari 132.7 856
23 38.0/ 43.4/ 18.5 myVamp5.5 Paulsson 132.6 28
24 31.7/ 31.6/ 36.7 Jack in the box II Beppe Bezzi 131.9 495
25 26.8/ 24.1/ 49.1 Papyrus 13 Justin Kao 129.6 2
Weekly age: 13 ( 15 last issue, 9 the month before ) more than 100 tests
New warriors: 8 Turnover/age rate 53%
Average age: 140 ( 146 last issue, 174 the week before )
Average score: 140 ( 142 last issue, 136 the week before )
The top 25 warriors are represented by 16 authors: Marsden and Oversby
with 4; Franz and Bezzi with 2; singles for everyone else.
Testing, testing, testing . . . over 100 tests this week. Unfortunately for
some authors (the gigolos), a test warrior can score a lot higher than the
real warrior. You have been warned. Franz was probably the biggest tester
this week, followed by JKW and Marsden.
Q^2 scans to bomber/imps seem to be the play of the day, but CC Paper 2 is
bucking the trend. 40% wins is pretty good for a replicator. The power of
the qscan is amazing.
Kline was testing some new warriors on the hill this week: Harmony III and
a table based switcher--Yogi's replacement most likely. Neither have climbed
too far up the hill by Paul has a way of chipping at a problem.
Damage Incorporated makes a strong showing, debuting in the second spot. The
secret to its success? Qscan -> bomber. Try it; You'll like it.
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94 - What's New
# %W / %L / %T Name Author Score Age
2 42.1/ 31.4/ 26.5 CC Paper 2 Franz 152.8 1
14 20.5/ 12.2/ 67.3 Implication v0.3 Ian Oversby 128.9 1
24 37.0/ 48.3/ 14.7 Taking Names P.Kline 125.8 1
24 25.2/ 24.5/ 50.4 Papyrus 13 Justin Kao 125.9 1
2 42.6/ 34.1/ 23.2 Damage Incorporated Anton Marsden 151.1 1
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94 - What's No More
# %W / %L / %T Name Author Score Age
26 1.7/ 1.9/ 0.4 CC Paper Franz 5.6 5
26 35.6/ 45.0/ 19.4 BackFromVacation Edgar 126.3 19
26 0.3/ 0.3/ 3.4 Flimsy v0.5c Ian Oversby 4.3 14
26 31.4/ 40.6/ 28.0 Yogi Bear P.Kline 122.3 341
26 35.8/ 47.7/ 16.4 Earthquake v0.2 Bjoern & Ian 123.9 95
With the loss of Yogi Bear this week, and Twister and Armory last week,
average age of the hill is heading down and will probably never recover as
old pre-test warrior are pushed off.
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94 - What's Old
# %W / %L / %T Name Author Score Age
21 36.1/ 39.0/ 24.9 T.N.T. pro Maurizio Vittuari 133.2 856
9 31.5/ 19.7/ 48.8 Rosebud Beppe 143.2 811
17 33.8/ 30.3/ 35.9 Jack in the box II Beppe Bezzi 137.2 495
16 25.1/ 12.6/ 62.3 ompega Steven Morrell 137.6 253
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HALL OF FAME
* means the warrior is still active.
Pos Name Author Age Strategy
1 Thermite II Robert Macrae 2262 Qscan -> bomber
2 Impfinity v4g1 Planar 1993 Stone/ imp
3 Jack in the box Beppe Bezzi 1620 P-warrior
4 Tornado 3.0 Beppe Bezzi 1567 Bomber
5 Torch t18 P.Kline 1539 Bomber
6 Chameleon Myer R Bremer 1437 P-warrior
7 Frontwards v2 Steven Morrell 1420 One shot scanner
8 Evol Cap 6.6 John Wilkinson 1299 Imp / stone
9 quiz Schitzo 1262 Scanner/ bomber
10 T.N.T. Maurizio Vittuari 1204 Bomber
11 Grilled Octopus v0.5 David Boeren 1154 P-warrior
12 Hazy Shade II John Wilkinson 1102 P-warrior
13 Stepping Stone Kurt Franke 1049 Qscan -> Vampire
14 Iron Gate 1.5 Wayne Sheppard 926 CMP scanner
15 Agony II Stefan Strack 912 CMP scanner
16 Barrage Anton Marsden 876 Qscan -> replicator
17 Blue Funk Steven Morrell 869 Stone/ imp
18 T.N.T. pro Maurizio Vittuari 856 * Bomber
19 Flurry Anton Marsden 835 Qscan -> pwarrior
21 Rosebud Beppe Bezzi 811 * Stone/ imp
20 Thermite 1.0 Robert Macrae 802 Qscan -> bomber
22 Blue Funk 3 Steven Morrell 766 Stone/ imp
23 Night Train Karl Lewin 755 Replicator
24 Mirage 1.5 Anton Marsden 736 Scanner/ bomber
25 Blizzard Anton Marsden 713 Qscan -> replicator
Rosebud climbs one rank.
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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
The current Beginner hill:
# %W / %L / %T Name Author Score Age
1 51.2/ 36.5/ 12.3 nSplit Lite v1.2 shar 165.8 30
2 50.1/ 38.3/ 11.6 Throw Rug J E Long 161.9 66
3 41.1/ 25.8/ 33.1 Sapphire Philip Kendall 156.5 1
4 45.8/ 37.8/ 16.4 Velveeta Shift-I shar 153.8 42
5 46.9/ 40.7/ 12.4 Violent Micro v0.4d basehead 153.0 80
6 39.3/ 26.7/ 34.0 Gravel 11 Justin Kao 151.9 3
7 41.5/ 33.5/ 25.0 Versatility 1.6 Ross 149.4 78
8 43.5/ 38.5/ 18.0 Heretic 1.0 Philip Kendall 148.5 91
9 43.8/ 39.2/ 17.0 Flamberge 9.0 Matt Lewinski 148.4 2
10 41.6/ 35.2/ 23.2 Black v0.1 Justin Kao 147.9 81
11 43.6/ 39.6/ 16.8 BloodSucker 1.0 Philip Kendall 147.7 90
12 36.9/ 26.7/ 36.4 Papyrus 13 Justin Kao 147.1 4
13 38.8/ 30.8/ 30.4 FastScan 1.0 Philip Kendall 146.8 22
14 45.4/ 45.0/ 9.6 Hawk 1.0 Philip Kendall 145.8 63
15 42.9/ 40.8/ 16.3 Eagle.b1 Philip Kendall 144.9 7
16 36.7/ 28.5/ 34.8 Papyrus 6 Justin Kao 144.9 97
17 44.0/ 43.6/ 12.4 Neverending Brutality 7 Franz 144.3 57
18 43.3/ 44.4/ 12.3 Conquest II Zul Nadzri 142.1 23
19 39.0/ 37.4/ 23.7 Inferno 2.3 Philip Kendall 140.6 67
20 37.1/ 38.4/ 24.5 murder.p harleyQ2 135.9 24
21 35.1/ 34.5/ 30.4 Hammermill v2.4 Matt Lewinski 135.8 38
22 35.0/ 34.4/ 30.6 Frog Franz 135.5 44
23 35.6/ 38.5/ 25.8 RSB harleyQ2 132.7 51
24 37.5/ 42.3/ 20.2 Vampirism 1.4 Philip Kendall 132.6 84
25 37.6/ 55.7/ 6.7 Rex II Franz 119.4 6
Top scores plunge from the 170+ the top three warriors had last week. With
the loss of the successful Tsunami, you would think some warriors would get
big boosts to their scores. But new programs by Kendall, Kao, and Lewinski
have only made the hill more competitive.
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The Hint
Qscan bombing engines
by M R Bremer
Q^2 scans are optimized to detect the opposing warrior's footprint as quickly
as possible. But a quick detect and decode does little if your bombing
methodology is flawed. I made that mistake with mrb-test (which will never
have a real name because it doesn't deserve one). Once the qscan finds the
location, I subtract 100 and bomb through the scan to location+100. Pretty
dumb, huh? The highest probability of enemy code should lie close to the
originally scanned location. So here are some thoughts on bombing engines
that should be much more successful.
Bomb forward from target-CONSTANT and target:
qbomb dat 1, -CONSTANT
...
loop mov.i qbomb, @1
mov.i qbomb, @target <-- detected location
add.ab #x, -1
djn.b loop, #10
Everything following the target gets bombed quickly. However, code
immediately above will be hit much more slowly. If your qscan flows forward
through core in small increments, then this will be less of a problem.
Becuase a smaller increment qscan scanning forward in core should find the
'top' of the enemy's code.
Bomb forward and backwards from target:
qbomb dat -step, step
found dat x, x+step
;this one bombs x and x+step then x-step and x+2*step ...
...
loop mov qbomb, @found
mov qbomb, *found
add.f qbomb, found
djn.b loop, #10
This code is slower to start up because of the extra add statement needed to
set up the operands of 'found' instruction.
Going faster is possible using a tornado engine, but we'll lose symmetry.
Which may not be too bad since instructions above the target are arguably
worth 'less' than instructions below it. This code snippet bombs down in
core at .4c and up at .2c. We could even modify this code for incendiary
bombing forward in core.
bomb dat x, step
incr dat -step, 2*step
start mov bomb, @ptr
mov bomb, *ptr
ptr mov -step, @step
add incr, -1
djn -5, #10
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Questions? Concerns? Comments? Complaints? Mail them to people who care.
authors: Beppe Bezzi <bezzi@nemo.it> or Myer Bremer <bremermr@ecn.purdue.edu>
or Anton Marsden <amarsden@comp.vuw.ac.nz>
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