Issue 52 9 December, 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
Beppe Bezzi web page - http://www.aspide.it/freeweb/Bezzi
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Greetings.
There were a lot of significant losses to the '94 hill since last issue. The
hill is now much younger.
A reminder: Pizza's '94x hill now has the following specs:
coresize: 800
max. processes: 800
duration: after 8000 cycles, a tie is declared.
max. entry length: 20
minimum distance: 20
rounds fought: 200
instruction set: ICWS '94 Draft
--Anton Marsden
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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 36.5/ 24.2/ 39.3 unrequited love kafka 148.8 244
2 31.2/ 16.3/ 52.5 Return Of The Jedimp John K W 146.2 146
3 32.3/ 19.4/ 48.2 Trident^2 John K W 145.3 76
4 42.4/ 40.0/ 17.6 Oblivion Ian Sutton 144.9 11
5 36.1/ 28.4/ 35.5 Gigolo Core Warrior staff 143.9 200
6 41.3/ 40.0/ 18.7 The Machine Anton Marsden 142.6 52
7 41.5/ 41.8/ 16.7 Blur 2 Anton Marsden 141.2 323
8 40.1/ 40.1/ 19.8 Silver Talon 1.2 Edgar 140.2 33
9 36.4/ 32.6/ 31.0 Nine Seven Six M R Bremer 140.2 10
10 43.1/ 46.1/ 10.9 Memories Beppe 140.1 60
11 43.6/ 47.3/ 9.1 Tim Tack P.Kline 140.0 2
12 40.5/ 42.5/ 17.0 Probe Anton Marsden 138.5 324
13 38.2/ 40.9/ 20.9 Damage Incorporated Anton Marsden 135.5 187
14 35.6/ 37.5/ 26.9 Tiberius 3.1 Franz 133.8 63
15 33.8/ 33.8/ 32.4 Fast Fast Fast Franz 133.7 3
16 34.8/ 36.1/ 29.0 Test ft Ian Oversby 133.5 7
17 35.8/ 39.0/ 25.2 CC Paper 2 Franz 132.6 35
18 27.8/ 23.3/ 48.9 Impish v0.2 Ian Oversby 132.3 185
19 33.8/ 35.6/ 30.6 No Vice Ian Oversby 132.0 13
20 37.2/ 42.8/ 20.1 vamp 0.2b bjoern guenzel 131.5 23
21 38.4/ 45.5/ 16.2 AK-47 Franz 131.2 38
22 35.5/ 41.3/ 23.2 Scanitator 2.4 Christian Schmidt 129.6 17
23 32.3/ 35.6/ 32.1 Falcon v0.3 Ian Oversby 129.0 229
24 36.7/ 45.1/ 18.2 Frontwards v2 Steven Morrell 128.4 6
25 31.8/ 38.0/ 30.2 scTest P.Kline 125.6 1
Weekly age: 22 this week ( 11 last issue, 5 the issue before )
New warriors: 9 Turnover/age rate 41%
Average age: 91 ( 145 last issue, 146 the issue before )
Average score: 137 ( 137 last issue, 143 the issue before )
The top 25 warriors are represented by 14 independent authors: Franz, Marsden
and Oversby with 4; JKW and Kline with 2; everyone else with one.
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94 - What's New ( or this week: the uplook )
# %W / %L / %T Name Author Score Age
11 36.9/ 37.1/ 26.0 Scanitator 2.4 Christian Schmidt 136.6 1
22 32.8/ 36.7/ 30.4 No Vice Ian Oversby 128.9 1
2 44.7/ 38.7/ 16.7 Oblivion Ian Sutton 150.6 1
7 36.2/ 31.1/ 32.7 Nine Seven Six M R Bremer 141.3 1
20 32.3/ 36.4/ 31.2 Test ft Ian Oversby 128.3 1
14 38.5/ 43.6/ 17.9 Frontwards v2 Steven Morrell 133.4 1
16 34.3/ 33.9/ 31.7 Fast Fast Fast Franz 134.8 1
9 43.9/ 47.4/ 8.7 Tim Tack P.Kline 140.5 1
25 31.8/ 38.0/ 30.2 scTest P.Kline 125.6 1
Ian Sutton makes it onto the hill in style - 2nd place for his new warrior
Oblivion. Kline is back in business with Tim Tack.
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94 - What's No More ( or this week: the outlook )
# %W / %L / %T Name Author Score Age
26 36.2/ 45.8/ 18.0 Goldfinch P.Kline 126.6 244
26 36.6/ 46.0/ 17.4 Dr. Gate Q Franz 127.2 9
26 38.0/ 48.3/ 13.6 Flamberge 13.4 Matt Lewinski 127.7 6
26 36.9/ 47.5/ 15.6 Goothmonger v1.3 Ian Sutton 126.3 2
26 33.7/ 54.1/ 12.2 Hologram Philip Kendall 113.2 2
26 36.4/ 50.2/ 13.4 Golden Gate v4 Franz 122.6 5
26 16.8/ 17.0/ 66.2 U-lat II Zul Nadzri 116.7 2
26 37.2/ 46.5/ 16.4 Goothmonger v1.4 Ian Sutton 127.8 4
26 39.0/ 51.2/ 9.8 Q^2 Miro Anders Ivner 126.8 366
26 36.0/ 49.2/ 14.8 Scankiller 0.1 Christian Schmidt 122.9 2
26 28.8/ 31.0/ 40.1 delay 0.02b 50 bjoern guenzel 126.6 22
26 27.6/ 27.4/ 45.0 Rosebud Beppe 127.7 993
26 38.1/ 47.8/ 14.1 Mostly Harmless v1.1 Justin Kao 128.5 18
26 35.3/ 44.0/ 20.7 Instant Wolf 3.4 Edgar 126.7 205
Rosebud finally kicks the bucket, much to Beppe's dismay. Other significant
losses were Goldfinch, Q^2 Miro and Instant Wolf.
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94 - What's Old ( or this week: the grey look )
# %W / %L / %T Name Author Score Age
12 40.5/ 42.5/ 17.0 Probe Anton Marsden 138.5 324
7 41.5/ 41.8/ 16.7 Blur 2 Anton Marsden 141.2 323
1 36.5/ 24.2/ 39.3 unrequited love kafka 148.8 244
23 32.3/ 35.6/ 32.1 Falcon v0.3 Ian Oversby 129.0 229
5 36.1/ 28.4/ 35.5 Gigolo Core Warrior staff 143.9 200
A lot of old warriors disappeared this week. Gigolo is a new entry.
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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 Rosebud Beppe Bezzi 993 Stone/ imp
15 Iron Gate 1.5 Wayne Sheppard 926 CMP scanner
16 T.N.T. pro Maurizio Vittuari 925 Bomber
17 Agony II Stefan Strack 912 CMP scanner
18 Barrage Anton Marsden 876 Qscan -> replicator
19 Blue Funk Steven Morrell 869 Stone/ imp
20 Flurry Anton Marsden 835 Qscan -> pwarrior
21 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 stops getting older and now there are no active warriors in the HOF.
Probe and Blur 2 will be the next warriors to enter the HOF, assuming they
survive long enough.
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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 50.9/ 33.9/ 15.2 Silver Talon 1.1 Edgar 167.9 73
2 50.8/ 40.0/ 9.3 Goothmonger v1.2 Ian Sutton 161.6 17
3 47.2/ 38.2/ 14.5 Pentagram J.A.Denny 156.3 1
4 48.1/ 42.7/ 9.2 Scankiller 0.1 Christian Schmidt 153.5 4
5 46.5/ 40.9/ 12.6 Flamberge 13.4 Matt Lewinski 152.2 42
6 41.8/ 33.8/ 24.3 Scanitator 2.4 Christian Schmidt 149.8 16
7 47.1/ 44.6/ 8.3 The Stainless Steel Rat Christian Schmidt 149.5 15
8 43.8/ 39.7/ 16.5 Microsoft Office '96 Justin Kao 147.9 69
9 44.2/ 44.2/ 11.6 Mostly Harmless v1.1 Justin Kao 144.2 23
10 39.6/ 36.4/ 24.0 Versatility 1.7 Ross Morgan-Linial 142.8 20
11 42.6/ 43.1/ 14.3 Cruise Missile Philip Kendall 142.2 38
12 40.9/ 42.8/ 16.3 HAL 9000 Justin Kao 139.0 85
13 29.4/ 20.0/ 50.6 DemonSpawn J.A.Denny 138.9 2
14 39.9/ 41.4/ 18.7 Vivid Radiation 2.0 Matt Lewinski 138.4 41
15 42.4/ 46.8/ 10.8 Hologram Philip Kendall 138.1 13
16 40.6/ 43.2/ 16.2 Bash the Rat V1.4 Ian Sutton 138.0 34
17 35.6/ 34.3/ 30.1 Dust 0.7.5 Justin Kao 137.0 19
18 35.0/ 33.9/ 31.0 Hammermill 4.0 Matt Lewinski 136.1 79
19 39.3/ 43.0/ 17.7 MI6 Philip Kendall 135.7 66
20 38.0/ 40.9/ 21.0 Sandstorm Q/0.6c Ilmari Karonen 135.1 64
21 34.7/ 35.8/ 29.5 Apocalypse Matt Lewinski 133.7 50
22 32.5/ 34.3/ 33.2 Escargot 0.5 Justin Kao 130.8 39
23 33.6/ 38.8/ 27.7 Fusion 0.5 Justin Kao 128.3 11
24 28.6/ 30.7/ 40.8 Paper V D. D. Randel 126.4 3
25 33.5/ 43.1/ 23.4 Daemon of Zteentch Christian Schmidt 124.0 97
Top 25 Averages:
40.3/ 38.7/ 21.1 141.9 36
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The Hint
Dclears by Paul Kline
Last issue Myer revealed the bomber form he is using in his Nine Seven Six
fighter, which is quite interesting. In order to make other use of
the SPL's b-operand he is using the DJN line for the bombing increment.
This alternative can be used in a scanner or other bombers as well.
Actually any line in the source can be used as the increment, and
leads to the possibility of changing the increment on the fly.
Planar's Impfinity uses the ADD line itself:
add.f #istep+1, ptr&i
Myer created a 'perfect dclear gate' something like this:
spl #0 ,>gate
mov wipe ,>gate
djn.f -1 ,>gate
wipe dat <2667 ,2-gate
This will certainly stop an imp which tries to overrun the gate, but
does suffer from an occasional self-destruct. If either the
MOV or the DJN changes gate to zero and the SPL executes next
then it will self-wipe. This will happen rarely but can be
prevented by using this form:
spl #0
mov wipe ,>gate
djn.f -1 ,>gate
wipe dat <2667 ,2-gate
This second form suffers somewhat in that an imp can pass if it
tries when the SPL is executed. But if the gate is far enough
back then it should be wiped anyway before it can reach the
SPL. If the gate is near, this may be a problem. So there is
one way to tell which form to use - if the gate can be positioned
well back use form #2, else use form #1. However if you have other
uses for the SPL operands then that may determine your form.
Now for the exciting part!
A while back I serendipitously discovered that <5335 is MUCH
better than <2667 against paper-based or continuously-launched
imps, and just got around to trying some more variations.
I created two versions of Die Hard using these imp forms:
mov.i #2667,*0
mov.i #100 ,2667
and ran against a dclear continuous wiper with combinations of predec/
postinc using imp and near-imp numbers. Here are the resulting win/loss/tie
results:
wiper 2667 ,*0 #100,2667
------ -------- --------
<2667 00/25/75 00/21/79
>2667 00/28/72 00/22/78
{2667 00/22/78 00/21/79
}2667 00/21/79 00/22/78
<2668 00/24/76 00/26/74
>2668 00/26/74 00/27/73
{2668 00/23/77 00/24/76
}2668 00/27/73 00/25/75
<5334 00/21/79 00/22/78
>5334 00/21/79 00/28/72
{5334 00/17/83 00/19/81
}5334 00/18/82 00/20/80
<5335 36/20/44 57/18/25
>5335 55/20/25 52/21/27
{5335 54/19/27 00/19/81
}5335 55/18/27 00/19/81
<5336 00/19/81 00/19/81
>5336 00/18/82 00/22/78
{5336 00/18/82 00/18/82
}5336 00/18/82 00/19/81
<1 00/16/84 00/18/82
>1 00/19/81 00/21/79
{1 00/18/82 00/19/81
}1 00/21/79 00/20/80
Most of them have that moribund loser look, but wow! those 5335 numbers
are very interesting. From this I recommend using this Dclear form:
spl #0
mov wipe ,>gate
djn.f -1 ,>gate
wipe dat >5335 ,2-gate
Paul Kline
pk6811s@acad.drake.edu
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Extra Extra
Blur '88 by Anton Marsden
I wanted to see how "advanced" the '88 warriors were so I wrote Blur '88 to
test a modern technique against them. As it turns out, Blur '88 did quite
well.
This warrior is somewhat resistant to DAT ?a,?0 bombs - if some of the code is
hit, the jmn line will fall through if the lines 'scan' or 'a' are hit.
The one thing I was frustrated with was the coreclear. I can't seem to improve
it much. Any ideas?
;redcode
;name Blur '88
;author Anton Marsden
;strategy Carpet goes backwards
;assert CORESIZE==8000
step EQU 70
top: mov bomb,<ptr
a: add inc,scan
scan: cmp -3*step+5,-3*step
mov scan,@-3
jmn top,@-3
bomb: spl 0,<1-step
mov inc,<bomb-2
djn -1,@-1-step
inc: dat <-step,<-step
ptr: dat #0,#-2*step
END scan
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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@etherspace.gen.nz>
|
