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> Home > The Corewar Newsletters > Core Warrior > Issue #1

Issue 83                                                     24 September, 2002
_______________________________________________________________________________
Core Warrior is a newsletter promoting the game of corewar. Emphasis is placed
on the most active hills - currently the '94 no-pspace hill. Coverage will
follow wherever 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

Web pages are at:
  http://www.koth.org/                       ;KOTH
  http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~pizza/koth   ;Pizza
  http://para.inria.fr/~doligez/corewar      ;Planar
  http://www.ociw.edu/~birk/corewar          ;C.Birk

Newbies should check the above pages for the FAQs, language specification,
guides, and tutorials. Post questions to rec.games.corewar. All new players
are infinitely welcome!
_______________________________________________________________________________
Greetings...

Since last issue, Pihlaja has extended his self-organising maps to cover all
of the Koenigstuhl hills.  Analysis would be welcome in either the newsgroup
or in a future CW issue.  They are available from:

  http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/jpihlaja/cw/maps/

This issue we have the results from the third round of the tournament and
also, the code for Reepicheep...

-- John Metcalf
______________________________________________________________________________
Current Status of the KOTH.ORG '94 No Pspace Hill:

#  %W/ %L/ %T                      Name               Author    Score    Age
1  44/ 37/ 19                Vanquisher        Lukasz Grabun    150.2    384
2  37/ 23/ 40                Reepicheep       Grabun/Metcalf    149.7    113
3  30/ 11/ 60             Broader Clump         Ken Espiritu    148.5     10
4  34/ 21/ 44               Son of Vain      Oversby/Pihlaja    147.2    882
5  30/ 13/ 56                   SilKing    Christian Schmidt    146.6    115
6  35/ 23/ 42                     Candy        Lukasz Grabun    145.6    193
7  28/ 11/ 62                 Defensive    Christian Schmidt    145.1     90
8  44/ 44/ 12                     Blade                Fizmo    144.5    199
9  34/ 23/ 43          Pink Detonations         Ken Espiritu    143.6     65
10 42/ 41/ 17              Hard Failure         Ken Espiritu    143.0     28
11 35/ 28/ 36                 Glenstorm         John Metcalf    142.4     54
12 41/ 39/ 20       Hazy Lazy ... again        Steve Gunnell    142.3    328
13 34/ 27/ 39                 Uninvited         John Metcalf    141.5    975
14 40/ 40/ 19              oneshot test     Simon Wainwright    140.6    217
15 33/ 28/ 40                 Wallpaper    Christian Schmidt    137.4     31
16 38/ 40/ 22                Flashlight         John Metcalf    135.9     15
17 39/ 42/ 19      clock strikes twelve         John Metcalf    134.8     14
18 36/ 41/ 23                testshot 2         John Metcalf    131.2     40
19 36/ 45/ 18                  BlurVamp         Ken Espiritu    127.3      9
20 34/ 47/ 18                      test                   mj    121.5      1

145 challenges have passed since last issue causing the retirement of our
three most elderly warriors, all of which have been King of the Hill.  
nPaper is the oldest warrior ever to sit in the top rank, while at an impressive 
age of 925!  (2nd comes Son of Vain which was age 830, 3rd Quicksilver at 759.)

Most seen as KotH since last issue have been Reepicheep (37 times), closely
followed by pTest4 (36 times), Vanquisher (20), oneshot test (19) and
Hazy Lazy ... again (16).

Finally then, the complete list of aged warriors to perish:  nPaper II (age
1270), Behemot (1078), Olivia (886), Inky (736), G3-b (503), Purifier (277),
QSOS (126), pre75-z47a (120) and Terra (104).
_______________________________________________________________________________
The '94 No Pspace Hall of Fame:  * indicates the warrior is still active.

Pos Name                   Author             Age    Strategy
1  Blacken                Ian Oversby       1363    Q^2 -> Stone/imp
2  nPaper II              Paul-V Khuong     1270    MiniQ^3 -> Paper
3  Behemot                Michal Janeczek   1078    MiniQ^3 -> Bomber
4  Uninvited              John Metcalf       975 *  MiniQ^3 -> Stone/imp
5  Olivia                 Ben Ford           886    Q^4 -> Stone/imp
6  Son of Vain            Oversby/Pihlaja    882 *  Q^4 -> Stone/imp
7  Keyser Soze            Anton Marsden      823    Qscan -> Bomber/paper/imp
8  Quicksilver            Michal Janeczek    789    Q^4 -> Stone/imp
9  Eraser II              Ken Espiritu       781    Scanner
10 Inky                   Ian Oversby        736    Q^4 -> Paper/stone
11 Jinx                   Christian Schmidt  662    Scanner
12 Jade                   Ben Ford           600    Q^4 -> Stone/imp
13 G3-b                   David Moore        503    Twoshot
14 Revival Fire           P.Kline            468    Bomber
15 The Phantom Menace     Anton Marsden      465    Qscan -> Stone/imp
16 Boys are Back in Town  Philip Kendall     441    Scanner
=  Zooom...               John Metcalf       441    Scanner
18 Qtest                  Christian Schmidt  394    Q^3 -> Paper
19 Stalker                P.Kline            393    Scanner
20 Vanquisher             Lukasz Grabun      384 *  Bomber
21 Vain                   Ian Oversby        330    Q^2 -> Stone/imp
22 Hazy Lazy ... again    Steve Gunnell      328 *  Scanner
23 Omnibus                John Metcalf       327    Q^2 -> Stone/imp
24 Win!                   David Moore        322    Scanner
25 Recovery               Ian Oversby        280    MiniQ^2 -> Paper/stone

Vanquisher and the new version of Hazy Lazy enter the HoF.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Spring / Summer 2002 Corewar Tournament - Round 3 Results:

Once again there are 17 entries from 9 authors, this time competing using
'88 standard redcode, coresize 8000.  To reduce the advantage imp warriors
seem to enjoy in the '88 environment, the rules for round 3 differ in two
ways from the settings of the '88 standard hill at KotH.

In round 3 a tie is not declared until 800000 cycles have passed.  Also, a
win is worth 6 points instead of the more usual 3.  But will this be enough
to discorage tie-prone warriors?  Each pair of warriors battled for 4000
rounds.  14 hours, 51 minutes and 03 seconds later we have our answer...

Janeczek takes first place with Quicksilver '88 (qscan -> stone/imp) while
Wainwright's Return to the Citadel (qscan -> paper/imp) takes second place.

Once again Hillis evolves a formidable opponent to claim third.  Stone/imps
feature again in ranks 4 (Espiritu's) and 6 (Gunnell's).  Ford, Thorne and
Grabun are next, each with a dat bomber.  Finally, we have a .4c vampire
with airbag from Moore.

# %Won Lost Tied Name                      Author                 Score     
%
1  56.9 17.6 25.4 Quicksilver '88           Michal Janeczek       366.90 100.0
2  49.3 19.5 31.2 Return to the Citadel     Simon Wainwright      327.08  89.1
3  50.7 33.2 16.2 rdrc: Gymnosperm Trickery Dave Hillis           320.22  87.3
4  47.0 18.2 34.8 Positive Knife '88        Ken Espiritu          316.76  86.3
5  50.3 40.8  8.9 vm5                       Michal Janeczek       310.91  84.7
6  44.1 18.3 37.6 +1 Stormbringer           Steve Gunnell         302.20  82.4
7  43.6 42.8 13.5 Skewer '88                Ben Ford              275.41  75.1
8  43.7 51.7  4.5 TrItE Fighter             Philip Thorne         266.89  72.7
9  41.5 50.8  7.7 tombstone                 Simon Wainwright      256.68  70.0
10 40.5 54.2  5.3 st2                       Lukasz Grabun         248.18  67.6
11 40.0 53.3  6.7 Silver Talon '88          Ben Ford              246.43  67.2
12 39.5 55.1  5.4 Brazen hussy              Steve Gunnell         242.30  66.0
13 37.2 52.7 10.0 Tangle Trap 2             David Moore           233.39  63.6
14 35.8 56.8  7.4 Mobility 8000             David Moore           222.32  60.6
15 32.2 39.2 28.6 rdrc: Flam Downpour       Dave Hillis           221.62  60.4
16 35.9 58.1  6.0 FilchD                    Philip Thorne         221.22  60.3
17 32.7 58.3  9.0 st                        Lukasz Grabun         204.94  55.9

There are five dat bombers (holding ranks 7, 8, 10, 16, 17) - three stone/imps
(1, 4, 6) - two each of evolved warriors (3, 15), bombers (9, 14) and scanners
(11, 12) - and just one paper/imp (2), oneshot (5) and vampire (13).

# Competitor              Tiny  BigLP  88Win  Total
1  Michal Janeczek         93.3  100.0  100.0  293.3
2  Dave Hillis             99.9   84.3   87.3  271.5
3  Steve Gunnell           91.0   85.0   82.4  258.4
4  Ben Ford               100.0   74.4   75.1  249.5
5  Simon Wainwright        79.1   71.5   89.1  239.7
6  Philip Thorne           75.5   68.0   72.7  216.2
7  Robert Macrae           89.7   61.0     .   150.7
8  Lukasz Grabun           81.3     .    67.6  148.9
9  Winston Featherly-Bean  72.9   47.3     .   120.2
10 David Moore               .    51.4   63.6  115.0
11 Martin Ankerl           88.2     .      .    88.2
12 Ken Espiritu              .      .    86.3   86.3
13 Leonardo H. Liporati    84.3     .      .    84.3
14 mushroommaker           71.3     .      .    71.3
15 Arek Paterek            66.0     .      .    66.0
16 Paul Drake              61.9     .      .    61.9
17 Compudemon              53.9     .      .    53.9
_______________________________________________________________________________
Extra Extra - Reepicheep by Lukasz Grabun / John Metcalf

It has been becoming increasingly rewarding of late to team up with fellow
redcoders and cooperate on a warrior project.  Reepicheep (named in honour
of the famed Narnia mouse) is the successful result of one such project,
being an aggressive stone/paper warrior.  One aim is to ensure each part
is only as large/complex as neccessary.

The stone is similar to the one used by Candy, <.5c and self-bombing to
become a clear.  A variety of other stone types were tested, including a
faster <.6c stone.  However, the Candylike stone performs similarly, so
better meets our criteria.

The paper is similar to Unrequited Love.  The attack comprises a single
bombing instruction which covers a strip of core with anti-3-point-imp dat
bombs.  Variants with additional bombing instructions (similar to Pulp)
also prove equally effective, though not meeting our requirements.  Note
the behaviour of the instruction marked pSilk2.

We hope to see a few more competitors scoring well on the hills with joint
creations.  Finally then, the code:

;redcode-94nop
;name Reepicheep
;author Grabun/Metcalf
;strategy Q^4 -> Stone/Paper
;assert CORESIZE==8000

org qGo

sOff    equ     3941
pHit0   equ     7599
pDst0   equ     535
pDst1   equ     3875
pDst2   equ     5160

pGo     spl     1       , }qC
qTab2   spl     1       , }qD
        spl     1       , }qE

pSilk0  spl     @0      , >pDst0
        mov     }pSilk0 , >pSilk0
pSilk1  spl     pDst1   , 0
        mov     >pSilk1 , }pSilk1
        mov     pBmb    , >pHit0
        mov     <pSilk1 , <pSilk2
pSilk2  djn.f   @0      , >pDst2
pBmb    dat     >5334   , >2667

        for     20
        dat     0       , 0
        rof

step    equ     2777
time    equ     1425
hop     equ     31
bOff    equ     5

sSpl    spl     #0      , #0
ptr     mov     bomb    , }-(step*time)+1
        mov     bomb    , @ptr
a       add     #step   , @-1
sLoo    djn.f   ptr     , {-1500

        for     5
        dat     0       , 0
        rof

bomb    dat     >hop    , >1

        dat     0       , 0

bBoot   mov     sSpl    , sOff-6-CURLINE
        mov     bomb    , sOff+5-CURLINE
        spl     2       , }qA
qTab1   spl     2       , }qB
sDst    spl     1       , sOff-CURLINE
        mov     <sSrc   , <sDst
        djn     @bBoot  , #5
sSrc    jmp     pGo     , sLoo+1

        for     23
        dat     0       , 0
        rof

        qX      equ     3080
        qA      equ     3532
        qB      equ     2051
        qC      equ     6177
        qD      equ     4696
        qE      equ     3215
        qF      equ     583

        qStep   equ     7
        qTime   equ     16
        qOff    equ     87

qBomb   dat     {qOff   , qF


qGo     sne     qPtr+qX*qE      , qPtr+qX*qE+qE
        seq     <qTab2+1        , qPtr+qX*(qE-1)+(qE-1)
        jmp     qDec            , }qDec+2
        sne     qPtr+qX*qF      , qPtr+qX*qF+qD
        seq     <qBomb          , qPtr+qX*(qF-1)+qD
        jmp     qDec            , }qDec
        sne     qPtr+qX*qA      , qPtr+qX*qA+qD
        seq     <qTab1-1        , qPtr+qX*(qA-1)+qD
        djn.a   qDec            , {qDec
        sne     qPtr+qX*qB      , qPtr+qX*qB+qD
        seq     <qTab1          , qPtr+qX*(qB-1)+qD
        djn.a   qDec            , *0
        sne     qPtr+qX*qC      , qPtr+qX*qC+qC
        seq     <qTab2-1        , qPtr+qX*(qC-1)+(qC-1)
        jmp     qDec            , {qDec+2
        sne     qPtr+qX*qD      , qPtr+qX*qD+qD
        jmz.f   bBoot           , <qTab2

qDec    mul.b   *2      , qPtr
qSkip   sne     <qTab1  , @qPtr
        add.b   qTab2   , qPtr
qLoop   mov     qBomb   , @qPtr
qPtr    mov     qBomb   , }qX
        sub     #qStep  , @qSkip
        djn     qLoop   , #qTime
        djn.f   bBoot   , #0

        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 <DrSchmidt007@aol.com>
© 2002-2005 corewar.info. Logo © C. Schmidt