Issue 79 19 February, 2001
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Core Warrior is a newsletter promoting the game of corewar. Emphasis is placed
on the most active hills - currently the '94 draft hill, the beginner hill and
the '94 no-pspace hill. Coverage will follow where ever the action is. If you
haven't a clue what I'm talking about then check out these five-star Internet
locals for more information:
FAQs are available from:
http://www.koth.org/corewar-faq.html
http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/~anton/cw/corewar-faq.html
The ftp site and it's mirrors are at:
ftp://ftp.csua.berkeley.edu/pub/corewar
ftp://ftp.inria.fr/INRIA/Projects/para/doligez/cw/mirror
ftp://www.koth.org/corewar
pMARS itself is also available from:
http://www.koth.org/pmars ;pMARS home page
ftp://members.aol.com/ofechner/corewar ;Fechner ftp site
Web pages are at:
http://www.koth.org/ ;KOTH
http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~pizza/koth ;Pizza
http://para.inria.fr/~doligez/corewar ;Planar
Newbies should check the above pages for the FAQ, language specification,
guides, and tutorials. Post questions to rec.games.corewar. All new players
are infinitely welcome!
_______________________________________________________________________________
Greetings...
The three months since last issue have been an interesting time, showing
Corewar is very much alive and well. I hope you enjoy this issue, which
contains code for Certain Abuse and Enough is Enough...
-- John Metcalf
_______________________________________________________________________________
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 33.8/ 21.7/ 44.5 Olivia Ben Ford 146.0 8
2 32.8/ 23.4/ 43.9 Uninvited John Metcalf 142.2 42
3 32.6/ 23.5/ 43.8 Quicksilver Michal Janeczek 141.7 24
4 30.7/ 19.9/ 49.4 nPaper II Paul-V Khuong 141.6 76
5 26.6/ 13.0/ 60.4 Mini Return Of The Jedimp John K W 140.1 19
6 43.7/ 47.6/ 8.7 Razor Michal Janeczek 139.9 6
7 38.1/ 37.4/ 24.5 Wizard 13 John Metcalf 138.9 7
8 24.7/ 10.7/ 64.6 The PhantIMP Menance Ben Ford 138.8 9
9 38.9/ 39.3/ 21.7 Behemot Michal Janeczek 138.5 5
10 28.4/ 19.0/ 52.6 KafuFFLe John Metcalf 137.9 24
11 28.1/ 19.4/ 52.5 Tie Factory Christian Schmidt 136.8 45
12 26.6/ 17.1/ 56.2 Cinammon John Metcalf 136.1 44
13 28.6/ 21.6/ 49.8 Fifth Third Ben Ford 135.7 11
14 31.7/ 28.4/ 39.9 Vilex Ken Espiritu 135.0 71
15 36.6/ 38.9/ 24.5 Combatra David Moore 134.3 31
16 25.3/ 16.3/ 58.3 Return of the Fugitive David Moore 134.3 100
17 36.9/ 39.5/ 23.6 test Paulsson 134.3 3
18 25.7/ 19.5/ 54.8 The Dark One Christian Schmidt 131.9 28
19 32.2/ 33.0/ 34.8 Keyser Soze Anton Marsden 131.3 4
20 28.3/ 25.5/ 46.2 Brigadeer M Joonas Pihlaja 131.1 15
21 31.8/ 33.5/ 34.7 Recount P.Kline 130.1 1
22 34.4/ 38.7/ 26.9 Ultima Christian Schmidt 130.1 38
23 25.2/ 20.7/ 54.1 test JKW 129.8 17
24 39.3/ 48.9/ 11.8 Shapeshifter Michal Janeczek 129.7 30
25 31.8/ 36.6/ 31.7 Carme Zul Nadzri 127.0 2
Age since last issue: 26 ( 18 last issue, 12 the issue before )
Days since last issue: 104 ( 209 last issue, 121 the issue before )
Average age: 26 ( 34 last issue, 34 the issue before )
Average score: 136 ( 138 last issue, 137 the issue before )
Average movement: -2.2 ( -6.0 last issue, -1.5 the issue before )
Warriors surviving: 10 ( 14 last issue, 18 the issue before )
The top 25 warriors are represented by 13 independent authors - a number
unmatched since CW66: 4 each for Metcalf and Janeczek, 3 each for Ford and
Schmidt, and 2 each for Wilkinson and Moore. Each of the remaining 7 authors
has just 1 warrior. ( 9 authors last issue, 10 the issue before )
Olivia has held the top of the hill since it appeared; the p-spacers have lost
their grasp.
_______________________________________________________________________________
94 - What's New (Sorted by rank and score)
# %W / %L / %T Name Author Score Age
1 61.1/ 35.7/ 3.2 Certain Abuse v02 Dave Hillis 186.5 0
1 50.8/ 46.0/ 3.2 Is this a game of chance? Dave Hillis 155.6 1
1 47.3/ 45.7/ 7.0 Not the way I play it. No Dave Hillis 148.9 1
1 27.4/ 10.6/ 62.0 Mini Return Of The Jedimp John K W 144.2 1
1 31.2/ 19.2/ 49.6 Olivia Ben Ford 143.2 1
1 28.7/ 19.0/ 52.3 Fifth Third Ben Ford 138.5 1
1 23.9/ 9.7/ 66.4 The PhantIMP Menance Ben Ford 138.1 0
2 37.5/ 36.6/ 25.8 Wizard 13 John Metcalf 138.4 1
4 33.7/ 21.4/ 44.9 Quicksilver Michal Janeczek 146.1 0
4 36.9/ 40.2/ 22.9 Behemot Michal Janeczek 133.6 1
4 41.6/ 51.3/ 7.1 Razor Michal Janeczek 131.8 1
5 34.7/ 32.6/ 32.7 2 Crazy Christian Schmidt 136.7 1
6 25.8/ 18.3/ 55.9 H-Bomb JKW 133.3 0
11 24.3/ 16.6/ 59.1 test JKW 132.1 1
12 25.3/ 19.6/ 55.2 KafuFFLe John Metcalf 130.9 1
12 36.6/ 42.8/ 20.6 one shot M Joonas Pihlaja 130.5 1
13 34.8/ 40.1/ 25.1 test Paulsson 129.6 1
14 30.2/ 32.4/ 37.4 Keyser Soze Anton Marsden 128.0 1
15 30.5/ 30.5/ 39.1 High Times v1.3 JKW 130.5 0
16 25.4/ 22.7/ 51.9 All In 2 Robert Macrae 128.1 1
18 25.4/ 25.3/ 49.3 Brigadeer M Joonas Pihlaja 125.6 1
22 21.0/ 18.9/ 60.1 test JKW 123.1 1
22 30.1/ 37.3/ 32.6 Carme Zul Nadzri 122.9 1
22 29.2/ 35.5/ 35.3 Recount P.Kline 122.9 1
24 29.1/ 34.5/ 36.4 The Magician Christian Schmidt 123.8 1
24 31.4/ 41.2/ 27.4 The IMPerial Destroyer Christian Schmidt 121.6 1
25 17.1/ 9.7/ 73.3 Black Box JKW 124.5 1
Players entering hill since last issue: 12 ( 5 last issue, 5 the issue before )
Average rank of new entries: 10 ( 11 last issue, 17 the issue before )
Hillis debuts on the '94 hill with the highest score we've seen in a long
time. Schmidt hasn't failed to have a warrior under What's New since CW60,
quite an achievement. Despite Pizza being down (twice), it's been pretty
busy since last issue.
_______________________________________________________________________________
94 - What's No More (Sorted by age)
# %W / %L / %T Name Author Score Age
26 29.0/ 39.8/ 31.2 Recycled Bits David Moore 118.2 164
26 29.4/ 39.7/ 30.9 Self-Modifying Code Ben Ford 119.1 108
26 23.4/ 23.9/ 52.7 Jade Ben Ford 122.9 75
26 23.7/ 25.7/ 50.6 EvoP 3 Ken Espiritu 121.6 71
26 30.7/ 38.5/ 30.8 Trefoil the original Steve Gunnell 123.0 56
26 24.0/ 25.7/ 50.3 Exor Ken Espiritu 122.3 52
26 0.5/ 0.1/ 3.4 Cinammon John Metcalf 4.9 45
26 31.8/ 41.8/ 26.4 Origami Harquebus mjp 121.9 44
26 23.8/ 21.4/ 54.8 Stylized Euphoria Ken Espiritu 126.3 43
26 24.1/ 30.3/ 45.6 Wintermute John Metcalf 117.8 35
26 29.9/ 41.8/ 28.3 G2 David Moore 118.1 24
26 26.6/ 33.0/ 40.3 High Times v1.3 JKW 120.2 21
26 38.2/ 54.4/ 7.4 Razor Michal Janeczek 121.9 19
26 26.1/ 35.3/ 38.6 2 Crazy Christian Schmidt 116.8 18
26 34.6/ 44.7/ 20.7 Pitbull Christian Schmidt 124.5 16
26 22.1/ 24.7/ 53.2 Mini Digitalis Christian Schmidt 119.6 16
26 34.1/ 44.5/ 21.5 CrazyShot Christian Schmidt 123.7 12
26 37.7/ 55.2/ 7.1 Not the way I play it. No Dave Hillis 120.2 9
26 21.5/ 24.2/ 54.4 All In 2 Robert Macrae 118.7 9
26 33.2/ 45.6/ 21.1 one shot M Joonas Pihlaja 120.9 8
26 21.9/ 26.5/ 51.6 H-Bomb JKW 117.3 8
26 36.6/ 56.6/ 6.8 Certain Abuse v02 Dave Hillis 116.6 7
26 18.7/ 19.9/ 61.4 test JKW 117.5 4
26 36.6/ 51.6/ 11.7 Win! David Moore 121.7 3
26 30.1/ 43.0/ 26.9 The IMPerial Destroyer Christian Schmidt 117.2 3
26 13.9/ 12.0/ 74.1 Black Box JKW 115.9 3
26 28.3/ 35.3/ 36.4 The Magician Christian Schmidt 121.3 2
Dave Hillis beats Schmidt's record - his Certain Abuse which entered the hill
as KotH falls off the hill completely in just 7 challenges, easily topping
Toki's 12. Not satisfied with this he then breaks his own record, setting a
new record of 5.
Recycled Bits and Self-Modifying Code are finally knocked from the hill,
leaving their mark in the Hall of Fame.
_______________________________________________________________________________
94 - What's Old
# %W / %L / %T Name Author Score Age
16 25.3/ 16.3/ 58.3 Return of the Fugitive David Moore 134.3 100
4 30.7/ 19.9/ 49.4 nPaper II Paul-V Khuong 141.6 76
14 31.7/ 28.4/ 39.9 Vilex Ken Espiritu 135.0 71
11 28.1/ 19.4/ 52.5 Tie Factory Christian Schmidt 136.8 45
Even with the loss of RotF, Moore is still the author of the oldest warrior, a
title he has either held, or joinly held, since CW72. nPaper II appears to be
effective even without a-driven imps to take advantage of :-)
_______________________________________________________________________________
The Extended New Hall of Fame: * indicates the warrior is still active.
Pos Name Author Age Strategy
1 Probe Anton Marsden 403 Q^2 -> Bomber
2 Blur 2 Anton Marsden 396 Scanner
3 Damage Incorporated Anton Marsden 373 Q^2 -> Bomber
4 Return Of The Jedimp John K W 357 Q^2 -> Stone/imp
5 unrequited love kafka 346 Q^2 -> Paper
6 Impish v0.2 Ian Oversby 345 Stone/imp
7 Gigolo Core Warrior staff 332 Q^2 -> Stone/imp
8 Falcon v0.3 Ian Oversby 275 P-warrior
9 Nine Seven Six M R Bremer 232 Q^2 -> Stone/imp
10 Rosebud Beppe 218 Stone/imp
11 Newt Ian Oversby 216 Q^2 -> Stone/imp
12 Q^2 Miro Anders Ivner 214 Q^2 -> Scanner/bomber
13 Instant Wolf 3.4 Edgar 205 P-warrior
14 Goldfinch P.Kline 201 P-warrior
15 Simple v0.4b Ian Oversby 197 QScan -> Stone/imp
16 Trident^2 John K W 195 Q^2 -> Stone/imp
17 ompega Steven Morrell 189 Stone/imp
18 Frogz Franz 172 Q^2 -> Paper
19 The Machine Anton Marsden 164 Scanner
= Recycled Bits David Moore 164 P-warrior
21 Memories Beppe 152 Scanner
22 Vain Ian Oversby 147 Q^2 -> Stone/imp
23 Head or Tail Christian Schmidt 142 Q^2 -> Paper
= The Stormbringer Christian Schmidt 142 Q^2 -> Stone/imp
25 Electric Head Anton Marsden 140 P-warrior
26 Vigor Ken Espiritu 138 Q^2 -> Paper
27 Fixed Ken Espiritu 135 Q^2 -> Paper
28 Tiberius 3.1 Franz 130 Q^2 -> Paper
29 Ultraviolet-B Ken Espiritu 120 Q^2 -> Paper
30 obvious to those who k Robert Macrae 117 Q^2 -> Paper
31 Solomon v0.8 Ian Oversby 116 Stone and scanner
32 Self-Modifying Code Ben Ford 108 P-warrior
33 CC Paper 3.3 Franz 107 Q^2 -> Paper
34 mrb-test M R Bremer 106 *Unknown*
35 T.N.T. pro Maurizio Vittuari 105 Bomber
= Pulp v0.5 Ian Oversby 105 Q^2 -> Paper
37 Fugitive David Moore 102 Q^2 -> Paper/imp
38 Vengeance Robert Hale 101 Q^2 -> Stone/imp
39 Return of the Fugitive David Moore 100 * Q^4 -> Paper/imp
= Jack in the box II Beppe Bezzi 100 P-warrior
= Fire and Ice David Moore 100 P-warrior
42 Oblivion Ian Sutton 99 P-warrior
43 Silver Talon 1.2 Edgar 93 Scanner
44 death by redcode Simon Wainwright 91 Q^2 -> Bomber
45 Bodge 1 Robert Macrae 85 Q^2 -> Scanner
46 Inferno 2.4 Philip Kendall 84 Qscan -> Bomber
47 Test Anton Marsden 83 *Unknown*
= NCC-1701-A Philip Kendall 83 P-warrior
49 RetroQ Paul Kline 82 Q^2 -> Paper
50 Tornado 4 Beppe Bezzi 78 Bomber
= Stonewashed Christian Schmidt 78 Q^3 -> Paper/stone
Recycled Bits and Self-Modifying Code reach their final resting place, leaving
Return of the Fugitive as the only active warrior in the ENHoF.
_______________________________________________________________________________
The ??? Hall of Fame: * indicates the warrior is still active.
1 Recycled Bits David Moore 164 P-warrior
2 The Stormbringer Christian Schmidt 142 Q^2 -> Stone/imp
3 Self-Modifying Code Ben Ford 108 P-warrior
4 Return of the Fugitive David Moore 100 * Q^4 -> Paper/imp
5 death by redcode Simon Wainwright 91 Q^2 -> Bomber
6 Stonewashed Christian Schmidt 78 Q^3 -> Paper/stone
7 nPaper II Paul-V Khuong 76 * MiniQ^3 -> Paper
8 Jade Ben Ford 75 Q^4 -> Stone/imp
9 Stranger John Metcalf 73 Q^3 -> Bomber
10 Vilex Ken Espiritu 71 * P-Warrior
= EvoP 3 Ken Espiritu 71 Q^3 -> Paper/imp
12 The Fugitive David Moore 70 MiniQ^2 -> Paper/imp
13 One Step Beyond John Metcalf 67 MiniQ^3 -> Stone/imp
14 Snowman John Metcalf 64 P-warrior
15 Draken Fire Ben Ford 63 Q^3 -> Bomber
16 Trefoil the original Steve Gunnell 56 P-warrior
17 Fixed Ken Espiritu 54 Qscan -> Paper
18 Pattel's Virus Ben Ford 52 P-warrior
= Exor Ken Espiritu 52 Q^3 -> Paper
20 The Outsider Simon Wainwright 51 QScan -> Stone/imp
= Galatea Ben Ford 51 Q^2 -> P-warrior
22 Icen Ben Ford 50 Q^3 -> Paper
= Silver Talon 1.2 Edgar 50 Scanner
24 No More Innocuous Leonardo Liporati 49 Q^4 -> Paper
= trefoil 23 226 Steve Gunnell 49 P-warrior
= Puddleglum John Metcalf 49 Q^3 -> Paper/stone
27 Circle of Fire John Metcalf 48 P-warrior
28 Tie Factory Christian Schmidt 45 * Q^3 -> Paper
= Shadow Christian Schmidt 45 Q^2 -> Paper/stone
30 Cinammon John Metcalf 44 * MiniQ^3 -> Paper/imp/wimp
= Twin Christian Schmidt 44 P-warrior
= Origami Harquebus mjp 44 P-warrior
33 Stylized Euphoria Ken Espiritu 43 Q^4 -> Paper/imp
34 Uninvited John Metcalf 42 * MiniQ^3 -> Stone/imp
= Slippery Eels Ben Ford 42 Q^3 -> Paper
= Even Less Innocuous TeamQ3 42 Q^3 -> Paper
= Spooky Wench John Metcalf 42 Q^3 -> Stone/imp
38 myBlur2 Paulsson 41 Scanner
= WingShot Ben Ford 41 Oneshot
40 Digitalis 5 Christian Schmidt 40 Q^3 -> Clear/imp
= Alive and K(qu)icking Leonardo Liporati 40 MiniQ^3 -> Paper
= Freight Train v0.2 David Moore 40 '88 Q^2 -> Stone/imp
43 Ultima Christian Schmidt 38 * P-warrior
44 Vain Ian Oversby 36 Q^2 -> Stone/imp
= Jaguar Christian Schmidt 36 Q^3 -> Stone/imp
46 Wintermute John Metcalf 35 MiniQ^3 -> Stone/imp
47 Qshot Christian Schmidt 34 Q^2 -> Oneshot
48 SnooPy P.Kline 33 P-warrior
= chained to the system Simon Wainwright 33 *Unknown*
50 Glass Ben Ford 32 Q^4 -> Paper
Many of you have suggested the HoF be replaced. 2 years have passed since the
'94 hill was completely wiped. Perhaps now would be a suitable time to create
a HoF based on the hill since that time (CW71).
What should we call this new HoF? Suggestions please.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Current Status of the Internet Pizza Server Beginner 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 50.5/ 21.4/ 28.0 MorphinMerlin Jeremy K 179.7 35
2 54.6/ 30.6/ 14.7 Grand Mal 1.1 Ransom Smith 178.6 37
3 55.5/ 35.8/ 8.7 Kenshin d Steve Gunnell 175.2 94
4 48.6/ 30.4/ 21.0 Seek&Destroy Ayan Chakrabarti 166.9 14
5 46.5/ 34.0/ 19.5 Even More Advanced (read: Josef Jahn 159.0 41
6 44.9/ 31.5/ 23.6 Advanced Spooner Josef Jahn 158.4 39
7 42.9/ 28.8/ 28.4 the boy's a time bomb aCM 157.0 99
8 45.0/ 36.1/ 18.9 Heatseeker John Morahan 153.9 58
9 33.6/ 15.4/ 51.0 Hyper Advanced (read: sux Josef Jahn 151.8 26
10 40.9/ 30.9/ 28.1 Chaos John Morahan 150.9 49
11 29.7/ 8.7/ 61.6 PimpKing 1.0 Simon Duff 150.7 90
12 41.5/ 36.5/ 22.0 Remorseless Ayan Chakrabarti 146.4 15
13 28.0/ 10.5/ 61.5 Watcher John Metcalf 145.5 7
14 27.9/ 17.4/ 54.7 Simpleton Ayan Chakrabarti 138.3 18
15 34.4/ 30.7/ 34.9 Mob Boyz Simon Duff 138.0 91
16 27.7/ 18.3/ 54.0 Arkenstone John Morahan 137.2 60
17 23.6/ 14.9/ 61.5 Fangorn John Morahan 132.4 64
18 30.2/ 29.0/ 40.8 VelvetFist Ayan Chakrabarti 131.3 16
19 28.8/ 29.3/ 41.9 Toofan Ayan Chakrabarti 128.2 19
20 34.3/ 57.0/ 8.7 Mini John Metcalf 111.6 59
21 29.4/ 48.4/ 22.2 h1_1.red Dave Hillis 110.5 38
22 18.4/ 27.0/ 54.6 Jolly Jumper 10 Stefan Foerster 109.8 2
23 18.7/ 33.2/ 48.1 KGB 4 Stefan Foerster 104.2 1
24 18.2/ 55.5/ 26.3 Crazy Lukasz Anforowicz 80.9 4
25 14.0/ 56.4/ 29.6 Pinky And The Brain Simon Glanville 71.6 8
10 successful challenges since issue 78 brings about retirement for 5
warriors: Golden Gun, Gomjabbar V, DiHydrogen Monoxide and jollyblu.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Current Status of the KOTH.ORG '94 No Pspace 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: 250
instruction set: ICWS '94 Draft, excluding ldp and stp
# %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age
1 37/ 23/ 40 Olivia Ben Ford 152.4 84
2 38/ 26/ 37 Quicksilver Michal Janeczek 149.6 118
3 37/ 24/ 39 Uninvited John Metcalf 149.4 38
4 44/ 39/ 18 Behemot Michal Janeczek 148.8 179
5 34/ 20/ 47 The Dark One Christian Schmidt 147.7 149
6 34/ 20/ 47 nPaper II Paul-V Khuong 147.5 356
7 40/ 34/ 26 Recount P.Kline 146.8 41
8 44/ 41/ 15 Eraser II Ken Espiritu 146.0 313
9 37/ 30/ 33 Blacken Ian Oversby 145.0 603
10 44/ 43/ 14 G2-b David Moore 144.6 142
11 46/ 47/ 7 He Scans Alone P.Kline 144.0 40
12 34/ 24/ 42 Jade Ben Ford 143.6 425
13 43/ 43/ 14 Stalker P.Kline 143.2 341
14 42/ 42/ 15 Jinx Christian Schmidt 142.2 319
15 25/ 11/ 64 The Phantom Menace Anton Marsden 139.3 56
16 29/ 20/ 51 KafuFFLe John Metcalf 139.2 39
17 35/ 34/ 30 Keyser Soze Anton Marsden 136.0 57
18 38/ 42/ 20 myBlur Paulsson 134.3 21
19 22/ 24/ 54 jam test 3 John Metcalf 120.7 22
20 36/ 52/ 12 Hyperclear 4+ Steve Gunnell 119.6 1
146 successful challenges brings an end to the hill career of 12 warriors,
including 10 with three figures ages: Zooom (441), Omnibus (327), Jaguar
(269), Uninvited (249), vamp/scan test b1 (214), Experimental (196), Kenshin
(166), Pitbull (134), CrazyShot (127) and Tie Factory (127).
The hilltop is held exclusively by stones - similarly to Pizza's '94 hill.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Current Status of the Koenigstuhl Recursive ICWS '94 Draft Hill:
Koenigstuhl is a collection of infinite hills found on Christoph C. Birk's
Core War page. Several other hills are there also, including the recently
constructed limited process, tiny and huge hills:
http://andromeda.ociw.edu/COREWAR/
Below we show the top 20 of a total 1133 warriors:
rank name author score (style)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
1 Quicksilver Michal Janeczek 174.01 (94)
2 Silver Talon 1.2 Edgar 170.81 (94)
3 The Machine Anton Marsden 170.31 (94)
4 Zooom... John Metcalf 169.09 (94)
5 G2 David Moore 168.73 (94)
6 Boys are Back in Town 1.1 Philip Kendall 168.35 (94)
7 Newt Ian Oversby 167.73 (94)
8 Phantasm 50 Robert Macrae 166.51 (94)
9 Jade Ben Ford 166.39 (94)
10 Scan Man David van Dam 166.17 (94)
11 Fixed Ken Espiritu 165.85 (94)
12 Forty Anton Marsden 165.55 (94)
13 Recovery Ian Oversby 165.51 (94)
14 The Bloodhound Ian Sutton 165.36 (94)
15 The Stormbringer Christian Schmidt 165.31 (94)
16 nPaper II Paul-V Khuong 165.22 (94)
17 Digitalis 4 Christian Schmidt 164.99 (94)
18 The Question David Moore 164.97 (94)
19 Baseline Plus Ken Espiritu 164.75 (94)
20 myVamp5.4 Paulsson 164.19 (94)
Quicksilver storms into 1st place - the first non-scanner to hold the
position.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Final standings of Kofacoto:
Kofacoto is over. Congratulations to all who participated, and thanks to JKW
and TTSG Internet Services, without whom this would never have happened.
Round 5: ('94)
Battle 1: Macrae beats Kline Battle 3: Janeczek beats Ford
Battle 2: Moore beats Paulsson Battle 4: Schmidt beats Liporati
Round 6: ('94x large)
Battle 1: Janeczek beats Schmidt Battle 2: Macrae beats Moore
Round 7: ('88)
Janeczek played ']enigma[', Macrae played 'LaterAtNight'. Macrae's
Quick Scan + Nightfall Paper suceeds against Janeczek's Paper + Imps:
14 wins, 1 loss and 985 draws.
1st: $500 won by Robert Macrae
2nd: $250 won by Michal Janeczek
3rd: $100 won by David Moore
For full details of each round, and some great comments by Robert Macrae,
check out the tournament's home page at:
http://www.koth.org/kofacoto
KOFACOTO was sponsored by TTSG Internet Services
_______________________________________________________________________________
Extra Extra - Certain Abuse by Dave Hillis
The idea for the abusive warriors came from my work using genetic algorithms
to evolve core warriors, but not in the way you might guess. When I modified
the corewars evolver program, RedRace, to work in a warming simulation I was
surprised at how odd bugs and flaws in the simulation program seemed to jump
out at me. My favorite was when the weak defending forces evolved to exploit
a quirk in the rules that let them win, if they all died very quickly.
The Easter Egg Hypothesis: complex software system are likely to contain
flaws or vulnerabilities which are hidden from plain sight. They can avoid
detection for a long time because they fall within psychological blind spots.
They only seem obvious in hindsight. Co-evolutionary simulation can help
find these problems by leading one to focus on important aspects of the
system that common sense says should be ignored.
The gimmick behind the abusive warriors is the fact that the hills at KOTH
and PIZZA use -F numbers and so the "random" warrior locations are easily
predicted. Certain Abuse, below, was designed to be strong as a challenger
but helpless as a defender: the "expiration date" effect.
Later warriors in the series were equally strong challenging or defending,
but didn't last much longer because they only worked well against certain
kinds of warriors.
Pizza's -F number was calculated by sending a number of probe warriors to the
hill. An exhaustive search was then used to find an -F number whose results
against published warriors were identical to those returned by Pizza. Later,
I discovered Nathan Green describes a hand-shaking method for calculating the
-F number in Core Warrior #30.
After Certain Abuse's outing on the hills, a patch was created for pMars to
prevent future exploitation of -F numbers.
Here's the code you've been waiting for:
;redcode-94
;name Certain Abuse
;author Dave Hillis
;strategy - Takes advantage of the fact that the 94 hill and the
;strategy - Beginners hill both used -F 4000. It uses a P-space
;strategy - round counter and a look-up table to tell where the
;strategy - second warrior will be loaded into core. This version
;strategy - is only effective when challenging the hill. To fight
;strategy - as a defender, you have to use the negatives of the
;strategy - table values. The program is optimized to kill the
;strategy - published warriors that were on the 94 hill.
;assert CORESIZE==8000
org START
counter equ #-109
off equ 100
wrap equ 87
target1 equ target2-1
target2 equ thecnt
START
thecnt ldp counter, #0 ; increment a round counter
add #1, thecnt
stp.b thecnt, counter
add.ba thecnt, bomber
slt.ab #wrap, thecnt
jmp bomber
add.a #-wrap, bomber
mov.x *bomber, *bomber
bomber mov.i b-1, target1
add.f target1, target2
; target2 and target1 hold the start and end points of the other warrior.
; Attack it by shuffling lines from both ends working towards the middle
attack mov.i }target2, {target1
mov.i {target1, }target2
djn.b attack, #121
b
spl.i #4000+off,<4994+off ; The abuse table. The A
mov.i #3398+off,<4539+off ; fields hold the address
mov.i #1376+off,<7816+off ; where the second warrior
mov.i #5987+off,<2824+off ; will be loaded for the
mov.i #5790+off,<2940+off ; first 87 rounds. The B
mov.i #3395+off,<2733+off ; fields hold the next 87
mov.i #5616+off,<1379+off ; rounds. Too bad there
mov.i # 814+off,<7391+off ; isn't more space.
mov.i #7121+off,<2951+off
mov.i #5830+off,< 931+off ; If he's still alive, I'm
mov.i #3869+off,<7713+off ; in big trouble. The table
mov.i #3471+off,<1780+off ; also serves as a weak
mov.i #7762+off,<7881+off ; secondary attack.
mov.i #2070+off,<2024+off
mov.i #6979+off,<2084+off ; After the 174 addresses
mov.i #2079+off,<1846+off ; in the table have been
mov.i #4453+off,<5856+off ; attacked, Certain Abuse
mov.i # 550+off,<6438+off ; over-runs the table and
mov.i #1679+off,<1828+off ; becomes suicidal for the
mov.i #2659+off,< 824+off ; remaining 26 rounds.
mov.i #4787+off,<3687+off
mov.i #7122+off,< 975+off ; If I'm brainwashed, I'm
mov.i # 883+off,<7598+off ; dead :-(
mov.i #7790+off,<1584+off
mov.i #3545+off,<6654+off ; 1. Can you find a small
mov.i #3796+off,<5890+off ; tweak which makes CA no
mov.i #2095+off,<4361+off ; longer suicidal?
mov.i # 641+off,<6573+off
mov.i #3683+off,<1985+off ; 2. Can you rewrite CA in
mov.i #6044+off,<5245+off ; less instructions? This
mov.i #5408+off,<2925+off ; would leave extra space
mov.i #6589+off,<4831+off ; to store addresses.
mov.i #4857+off,<6367+off
mov.i #1223+off,< 197+off ; The best answers received
mov.i #4383+off,<1682+off ; will appear in the next
mov.i #6986+off,<4269+off ; issue of Core Warrior.
mov.i #5201+off,<6114+off
mov.i #2305+off,<3660+off
mov.i #3504+off,<2859+off
mov.i #7537+off,<2207+off
mov.i #5916+off,<7442+off
mov.i #5407+off,<6033+off
mov.i #6594+off,< 763+off
mov.i #1368+off,<3047+off
mov.i #6857+off,<6168+off
mov.i #4688+off,<6931+off
mov.i #7356+off,<1920+off
mov.i #3598+off,< 936+off
mov.i #5554+off,<4051+off
mov.i #3339+off,<4276+off
mov.i #6573+off,<5107+off
mov.i #4775+off,<2222+off
mov.i #4278+off,<1909+off
mov.i #6361+off,<5736+off
mov.i #7292+off,<1549+off
mov.i # 725+off,< 885+off
mov.i #3918+off,<2196+off
mov.i #4530+off,<3107+off
mov.i #5390+off,<4534+off
mov.i # 938+off,<5850+off
mov.i #1410+off,<2977+off
mov.i #1401+off,<5795+off
mov.i #4866+off,<7546+off
mov.i #4106+off,<5453+off
mov.i # 738+off,<4532+off
mov.i #1270+off,<1729+off
mov.i #6140+off,<5937+off
mov.i #6405+off,<2776+off
mov.i #6037+off,<1089+off
mov.i #4151+off,<5250+off
mov.i # 852+off,<4742+off
mov.i #5383+off,<5278+off
spl.i #3697+off,<2274+off
mov.i # 634+off,<6877+off
mov.i #7482+off,<6348+off
mov.i #7415+off,<4642+off
mov.i #1340+off,< 915+off
mov.i #1324+off,<3501+off
mov.i #2170+off,<6361+off
mov.i #4755+off,<6072+off
mov.i #2057+off,<5768+off
mov.i #4292+off,<5303+off
mov.i #1737+off,<6608+off
mov.i #7174+off,<1307+off
mov.i #6066+off,<6804+off
spl.i #1563+off,<1276+off
mov.i #6238+off,<1774+off
end
_______________________________________________________________________________
Extra Extra Extra - Enough is Enough! by John Metcalf
P-spacers seem to be having a hard time at the moment, while the hill is
packed with defensive warriors. Enough is Enough is a p-spacer, which hopes
to score well against either a defensive or agressive hill.
A tried and tested, age old formula is uses by EiE: switch between a paper
and scanner. Other successful warriors using this technique include Fire and
Ice, and Origami Harquebus.
The paper uses a similar principle to nPaper, but is aimed against stone/imps
with b-driven imps such as Quicksilver, Uninvited etc. This is not a general
purpose paper, and was never designed to perform well against scanners.
The scanner combines Zooom's speed up trick with a scanner somewhat alike to
the one found in Recycled Bits. A step of 903 is chosen to hopefully perform
well against either 3 or 7 point imps in silk/imps.
The switcher is a P^3 multi-boot. The stp instruction is left as late as
possible so the warrior is less prone to accidental brainwashing, by a
q-scanner for example. The scanner is played if the paper loses often. If
the paper ties regularly, the scanner is given a 1 round trial to decide
whether it should be played or not.
The paper component scores 35% wins, 60% ties against Quicksilver. The
scanner scores 21% wins and 8% ties. Enough is Enough scores 34% wins and 49%
ties. In this case, the switcher is effective 9 times out of 10.
The paper component scores 2% wins and 94% ties against Safety in Numbers.
The scanner scores 41% wins and 31% ties. Enough is enough scores 31% wins
and 48% ties. The switcher is effective 8 times out of 10.
So here it is:
;redcode-94
;name Enough is enough!
;author John Metcalf
;strategy had enough of tweaking the scanner and switcher :-(
;strategy p-switcher, switch between scan and paper
;assert (CORESIZE==8000)
org pThink
; -=> Switcher <=-
paper equ (silk-silk)
scan equ (silk-sAtk)
wSize equ 9
pThink: ldp.a {pBoot-323, #1
ldp.a <pBoot-322, pVect ; pKey equ -1
add.a pThink, pMod
pMod: mod.a #5, pVect
sub.x *pVect, @pBoot-wSize+2
for wSize
mov <pBoot, {pBoot
rof
pBoot: spl }wSize, #silk+wSize
stp.a pBoot, #1
; State Lose5 Win6 Tie7
pVect: dat #paper, <-104 -210*3 ; (0) 4 2 6
dat #paper, #-50 -210*11 ; (1) 0 2 1
dat #paper, #-176 -210*29 ; (2) 1 2 1
dat #scan, #-185 -210*12 ; (3) 0 5 3
dat #scan, #-53 -210*23 ; (4) 3 5 4
dat #scan, #-89 -210*21 ; (5) 4 5 5
dat #scan, #-167 -210*17 ; (6) 2 5 6
; -=> Scanner <=-
sStp equ 903
sAtk: mul.x {sJmp-1, }sAlt
sPtr: slt.ba #9, #0
mov.b @3, sAtk
sAdj: mov sSpl, >sAtk
sAdd: add #sStp, sPtr
sJmp: jmz.f sAdd, @sPtr
sAlt: jmn sAtk, sPtr
jmp sAdj, }sAdj
sSpl: spl #0, {0
; -=> Paper <=-
pStep1 equ 2852
pStep2 equ 5213
x equ 6580
y equ 2951
silk: spl *0, >1803
spl 1, >3109
spl 1, {2506
pap1: spl @0, >pStep1
mov.i }pap1, >pap1
mov.i #y, <1
mov -1, {x
mov.i {pap1, <pap2
pap2: djn.f @0, >pStep2
end
_______________________________________________________________________________
Questions? Concerns? Comments? Complaints? Mail them to people who care.
Beppe Bezzi <giuseppe.bezzi@galactica.it>, Philip Kendall <pak21@cam.ac.uk>,
Anton Marsden <anton@paradise.net.nz>, John Metcalf <grumpy3039@hotmail.com>
and Christian Schmidt <schmidt@mail.uni-mainz.de>
|
