Issue 86 01 April, 2003
_______________________________________________________________________________
Core Warrior is a newsletter promoting the game of Corewar. Emphasis is
placed on the most active hills - currently the '94 no-pspace and '94 draft
hills. 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 (down)
http://para.inria.fr/~doligez/corewar ;Planar
http://www.ociw.edu/~birk/corewar ;C.Birk
http://de.geocities.com/fizmo_master ;Fizmo
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...
The 10 weeks which have passed since last issue have been an eventful time.
In rec.games.corewar, Planar announced his retirement from Corewar. Planar
is the father of the warrior archive (still an invaluable tool), and an
early contributor to Core Warrior. We wish him all the best for the future.
Rounds 6, 7 and 8 of the ongoing tournament have taken place, and the
winners are:
6) Multi Maniac 7) Smart Switching 8) Random Rage
Simon Duff German Labarga Christian Schmidt
Michal Janeczek is still at the head of the pack in the tournament rankings,
with 393.9 out of a possible 400 points. Ben Ford is in 2nd place, closely
followed by Roy van Rijn.
A recent development is the speed Redcoding challenge held every Sunday in
the #COREWARS IRC channel on irc.koth.org. Competitors have just 30 minutes
after the rules are announced to create their warriors. The winners:
1) Nano Core 2) Tiny, no -1,1 3) Standard, only -1,0,1
Christian Schmidt Roy van Rijn Phil Thorne
4) Exact Location 5) Tiny, no < { } >
Thorne & Kozisek Jakub Kozisek
Check Fizmo's Ultimate Corewar page for details of the above, and further
developments.
-- John Metcalf
______________________________________________________________________________
Current Status of the KOTH.ORG '94 No Pspace Hill:
# %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age
1 50/ 43/ 7 Recon 2 David Moore 156.6 5
2 46/ 38/ 16 Toxic Spirit Philip Thorne 153.4 236
3 38/ 25/ 36 Reepicheep Grabun/Metcalf 151.9 782
4 47/ 45/ 7 Solo Roy van Rijn 148.8 6
5 45/ 41/ 14 Hazy Test 63 Steve Gunnell 148.7 326
6 44/ 40/ 15 run to the hills Simon Wainwright 148.4 16
7 38/ 28/ 34 Thunderstrike Lukasz Grabun 146.8 156
8 43/ 39/ 18 Return of Vanquisher Lukasz Grabun 146.5 313
9 35/ 26/ 39 Son of Vain Oversby/Pihlaja 144.8 1551
10 42/ 42/ 15 Harmony Snoot Lukasz Grabun 141.7 126
11 41/ 40/ 19 Driftwood John Metcalf 141.5 235
12 45/ 49/ 5 Claw Fizmo 141.0 519
13 32/ 24/ 43 Revenge of the Papers Fizmo/Roy 140.3 589
14 30/ 20/ 50 Dawn Roy van Rijn 140.0 167
15 28/ 17/ 55 PolyPap II Jakub/Roy 139.5 31
16 32/ 26/ 42 Fast Action III Christian Schmidt 139.1 25
17 34/ 29/ 36 Pixie Lukasz Grabun 138.7 199
18 36/ 34/ 30 My First Paper Michal Janeczek 137.9 150
19 30/ 24/ 46 Firestorm John Metcalf 135.6 587
20 30/ 36/ 34 Bestia-X test Neogryzor 122.6 1
181 successful challenges have passed since last issue. Driftwood becomes
the 100th warrior to reach the age of 100. Of those 100 centenarians, 28
were written by Schmidt, 14 by Metcalf, 7 by Oversby and 6 each by Espiritu,
Grabun and Moore.
The warriors which are no longer with us include Positive Knife (age 449),
Decoy Signal (378), Return of the Pendragon (318), Herbal Avenger (276),
The Three-Handed Knight (221) and Digitalis 2002a (131).
Koth report: Most often seen in the top spot has been Toxic Spirit, king
of the hill after 82 successful challenges. Also performing well were
Reepicheep (65 times king) and Claw (10 times).
_______________________________________________________________________________
The '94 No Pspace Hall of Fame: * indicates the warrior is still active.
Pos Name Author Age Strategy
1 Son of Vain Oversby/Pihlaja 1551 * Q^4 -> Stone/imp
2 Blacken Ian Oversby 1363 Q^2 -> Stone/imp
3 nPaper II Paul-V Khuong 1270 MiniQ^3 -> Paper
4 Uninvited John Metcalf 1130 MiniQ^3 -> Stone/imp
5 Behemot Michal Janeczek 1078 MiniQ^3 -> Bomber
6 Olivia Ben Ford 886 Q^4 -> Stone/imp
7 Keyser Soze Anton Marsden 823 Qscan -> Bomber/paper/imp
8 Quicksilver Michal Janeczek 789 Q^4 -> Stone/imp
9 Reepicheep Grabun/Metcalf 782 * Q^4 -> Paper/stone
10 Eraser II Ken Espiritu 781 Scanner
11 Inky Ian Oversby 736 Q^4 -> Paper/stone
12 Jinx Christian Schmidt 662 Q^3 -> Scanner
13 Blade Fizmo 643 Qscan -> Scanner
14 Jade Ben Ford 600 Q^4 -> Stone/imp
15 Revenge of the Papers Fizmo+Roy 589 * Q^4 -> Paper
16 Firestorm John Metcalf 587 * MiniQ^3 -> Paper/imp
17 Claw Fizmo 519 * Qscan -> Scanner
18 G3-b David Moore 503 Twoshot
19 Vanquisher Lukasz Grabun 469 Q^4 -> Bomber
20 Revival Fire P.Kline 468 Bomber
21 The Phantom Menace Anton Marsden 465 Qscan -> Paper/imp
22 The Stormkeeper Christian Schmidt 460 Q^3 -> Stone/imp
23 Positive Knife Ken Espiritu 449 Q^4 -> Stone/imp
24 Boys are Back in Town Philip Kendall 441 Scanner
= Zooom... John Metcalf 441 Scanner
Christian Schmidt's Claw is our only new HoF entry this issue.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Current Status of the KOTH.ORG '94 Draft Hill:
# %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age
1 44/ 34/ 22 Mantrap Arcade Dave Hillis 154.3 58
2 46/ 39/ 15 Bustling Spirit Christian Schmidt 153.9 101
3 44/ 38/ 18 Return of Vanquisher PsP Lukasz Grabun 150.1 71
4 37/ 25/ 38 Reepicheep Grabun/Metcalf 148.9 260
5 36/ 23/ 41 Son of Vain Oversby/Pihlaja 147.9 231
6 42/ 40/ 18 my new tiny warrior John Metcalf 144.5 15
7 42/ 39/ 19 Microvenator Michal Janeczek 144.2 64
8 43/ 41/ 16 Herbal Avenger Michal Janeczek 143.7 143
9 42/ 40/ 19 CrazyShot 2 Christian Schmidt 143.2 243
10 45/ 48/ 7 Recon 2 David Moore 142.9 12
11 34/ 26/ 40 PolyPap Jakub Kozisek 142.2 19
12 32/ 23/ 45 V Christian Schmidt 142.0 18
13 42/ 43/ 15 Woozily Higgle Christian Schmidt 141.3 46
14 34/ 28/ 38 Bitter Sweet Lukasz Grabun 141.0 53
15 32/ 22/ 46 Dawn Roy van Rijn 140.8 38
16 41/ 43/ 16 Tilt!!! Christian Schmidt 140.3 3
17 42/ 44/ 15 run to the hills Simon Wainwright 139.9 16
18 31/ 23/ 45 Incredible! John Metcalf 138.8 126
19 28/ 18/ 54 Blowrag Metcalf/Schmidt 137.0 187
20 35/ 39/ 26 J/R test Roy 131.0 1
Revenge of the Papers perishes, age 204. Also leaving the hill this issue
are Combatra (131), Cyanide Excuse (117) and Dark Lowlands (98).
Koth report: Since last issue the hill has aged by just 41. Mantrap Arcade
has been on top of the hill most often, after just 12 successful challenges.
Reepicheep was also seen in the number 1 spot, 10 time altogether.
_______________________________________________________________________________
The '94 Draft Hall of Fame: * indicates the warrior is still active.
Pos Name Author Age Strategy
1 Reepicheep Grabun/Metcalf 260 * Q^4 -> Paper/stone
2 CrazyShot 2 Christian Schmidt 243 * Q^4 -> Oneshot
3 Son of Vain Oversby/Pihlaja 231 * Q^4 -> Stone/imp
4 Revenge of the Papers Fizmo/Roy 204 Q^4 -> Paper
5 Uninvited John Metcalf 194 MiniQ^3 -> Stone/imp
6 Blowrag Metcalf/Schmidt 187 * Q^4 -> Paper/imp
7 Wallpaper Christian Schmidt 175 Q^4 -> Paper/stone
8 Herbal Avenger Michal Janeczek 143 * Scanner
= Joyful Maw Dave Hillis 143 P-warrior
10 Paperazor Christian Schmidt 141 Paper
11 Self-Modifying Code Ben Ford 132 P-warrior
12 Combatra David Moore 131 Boot distance calculator
13 Incredible! John Metcalf 126 * Paper/imp
14 Mad Christian Schmidt 123 P-warrior
15 Cyanide Excuse Dave Hillis 117 P-warrior
16 Shapeshifter Michal Janeczek 107 P-warrior
17 Bustling Spirit Christian Schmidt 101 * P-warrior
18 Help...I'm Scared Roy van Rijn 98 Oneshot
= Dark Lowlands Roy van Rijn 98 *Unknown*
20 Dry Ice Ben Ford 92 P-warrior
21 Digitalis 2002 Christian Schmidt 89 Q^4 -> Clear/imp
= WingShot++ Ben Ford 89 Oneshot
23 Origami Harquebus mjp 88 P-warrior
24 Firestorm John Metcalf 80 MiniQ^3 -> Paper/imp
25 Pattel's Virus Ben Ford 73 P-warrior
Just one new entry in the Draft HoF this issue - Bustling Spirit from
Christian Schmidt.
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Extra Extra - Tangle Trap 3 by David Moore - Effective '88 Vamp with Airbag
Feelin' retro? Tangle Trap 3 is an '88 vampire...
with a taste for garlic.
Other vampires typically deliver their "fangs" like this:
mov fang, @fang
Somewhere out in core, the JMP bomb looks like this:
jmp trap - x, x
The problem with that attack is that each bomb yields
a big clue about where the vampire is. Why is this a problem?
;redcode
;name garlic
;kill garlic
;author Stefan Strack
;strategy vampires are afraid of it
;strategy Submitted: @date@
scan jmz scan,<ptr
sub @ptr,<ptr
add #10,@ptr
ptr mov 2,<-100
jmp ptr
That's why!
Tangle Trap 3 avoids broadcasting its address. It uses a different
kind of delivery mechanism that also includes a self-test.
As soon as things go wrong, a core clear is activated.
;redcode
;assert CORESIZE==8000
;name Tangle Trap 3
;author David Moore
;strategy .4c pit trapper with error-checking.
;strategy If damaged, then deploy "airbag"
;-------------------------------------------------------------------
; Here's the main code after boot:
;
; A add B, check
; B sub #-step, 2
; C mov <check, @D
; D mov <check, @C - step * time
; E jmz A, check
; jmp clear, 0 ; go to core clear
;
; ...
;
; jmp skip + step, skip
; check jmp trap, 0
;
; There are 7 processes in the loop. They execute in this order:
;
; CADBECA DBECADB ECADBEC ADBECAD BECADBE ...
;
; Look at that again:
;
; CADBE CADBE CADBE CADBE CADBE CADBE CADBE ...
;
; Note that there are constant additions (+2) and subtractions (-1)
; to "check". The sum of these changes is zero as long as
; things work properly. When the loop is damaged, the count
; is thrown off, causing line E to read a non-zero value.
; This allows the warrior to leave the crippled code and go
; quickly to the second phase: a core clear.
;-------------------------------------------------------------------
; The pit trap after boot:
;
; X spl 0, <2 ; <-- JMP bombs are aimed here
; Y spl -1, 0
; Z jmn -1, #MAXPROCESSES
; dat 0, 0
;
; Every new process in the pit lands on X once and only once.
; Line Z is a counter for how many processes remain outside
; of the pit. As soon as the count reaches 0, you can be sure
; that all processes are at Y and Z. Next, they will all go
; to Z and the DAT, with no chance to return to the pit. Checkmate!
;-------------------------------------------------------------------
; vamp numbers
step equ (-49)
skip equ (-18)
time equ 976
; boot distances
dist equ 5098 ; distance to vamp_A from boot
distCh equ 45 ; distance to check from vamp_A
distT equ 217 ; distance to trap from vamp_A
distCl equ (-41) ; distance to clear from vamp_A
boot2 mov clBomb, @pCl
mov fang2, @pF
mov fang1, <pF
pW mov wimp, boot+dist+(vamp_C-vamp_A)+skip+step
pT spl pC, boot+dist+distT+3
pF spl boot+dist+2, boot+dist+distCh
pV spl @0, boot+dist+6
mov <pV, pF ; hide boot pointers
dat <pT, <pW
pC spl boot+dist+3, boot+dist+distCl+3
pV2 spl @0, boot+dist+1
mov <pV2, pC ; hide boot pointers
dat <pV2, <boot+dist+3858
boot spl boot2, <boot+dist+3466
spl 2, <boot+dist+1555
spl 1, <boot+dist+2290
mov <source, <pV
mov <source, <pV
mov <source, <pC
mov <source, <pT
djn @pV2, #3
pCl djn @pV, #boot+dist+distCl-4
wimp jmp 0, <0
clBomb dat <-8, #-10
fang1 jmp skip + step, skip
fang2 jmp distT-(vamp_C-vamp_A)+(step*time)-skip-step, 2
spl 0, <2
source spl -1, vamp_A + 6
jmn -1, #MAXPROCESSES
spl 0, <-7
mov -5, <-5
djn -1, <3984
check equ (vamp_A + distCh)
clear equ (vamp_A + distCl)
vamp_A add vamp_B, check
vamp_B sub #-step, 2
vamp_C mov <check, @vamp_D
vamp_D mov <check, @vamp_C - step * time
vamp_E jmz vamp_A, check
jmp clear, 0
end boot
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Extra Extra - Lethal Frog by Christian Schmidt - A Small Anti-Scanner Hopper
One way to get ideas for new warriors is for me going through the
results of Mt. Olymp. One point of interest this time was how the
warriors in the archive score against He Scans Alone. Beside some
stones and coreclears, one can find also programs like 'Return of the
Living Dead TNG' and others which win about 70% and more. But only
Test 1 887 aroused my interest, because it is under the top 10 best
scoring programs but has only rank 1009.
As you can see below it is a 3-line hopper, which doesn't use the modern
silk-style replication (split before copy). The first 3 lines of code
generates 3 parallel processes. The mov-instruction of the hopper is
executed first, which copies the code, while the jmp points to the mov
of the copy. The dat in front of it contains the pointer.
;redcode-b
;name Test 1 887
;author Steve Bailey
;assert 1
OFFSET equ 887
start spl exec
spl exec
jmp exec
const dat #const, #const+OFFSET
exec mov.i }const, >const
jmp.f exec+OFFSET
end start
But what makes this code so deadly against some scanners? Well, the
reason is the dat line of the code. If the program jumps through the
core it always copies beginning with the dat instruction, which contains
the pointer. If the hopper jumps onto the opponents code, the chance is
high that the opponents loop is broken and he will finally die by
executing the dat line of the hopper.
I optimized the jump distance by generating 50 random constants and
benchmark them against the scanner from the table below. In a second
step I repeated the same procedure with the decrementing constant I've
added to the jump-instruction. Below is the final code I received after
the optimization:
;redcode-94
;name Lethal Frog
;author Christian Schmidt
;assert 1
;strategy
pStep EQU 4499
pBomb EQU 1536
front dat #0, #pStep
mov.i }-1, >-1
jmp pStep-1, <pBomb
for 5
dat 0, 0
rof
start spl 2
spl 1
jmp front+1
end start
Now let's see how the scanners are scoring against the hoppers:
Test 1 887 Lethal Frog
______________________________________
Willow 16 84 1 9 91 1
Zooom... 29 60 11 11 88 2
Claw 21 76 3 20 77 4
Win! 33 67 1 20 80 1
Herbal Avenger 54 45 2 31 67 3
Jinx 52 47 2 42 55 4
Stalker 63 35 2 49 51 1
Hazy Lazy ... 73 24 4 47 52 2
myBlur2 79 19 2 55 43 3
G2 77 6 17 67 26 8
Geist v0.1 88 5 8 82 15 4
CrazyShot 2 93 3 5 79 9 13
Well, that doesn't look too bad. Lethal Frog scores extremely well
against Willow, Zooom, Claw and Win, while it scores okay against most
others. Against oneshots it will lose heavily, because the hoppers
seems to have problems defeating core-clears as found in oneshots and
blur-style scanners. Nevertheless it could be an interesting component
for p-warriors.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Extra Extra - Origin of Storms by John Metcalf - A New Form of Scanner, Maybe?
After reading someone claim yet again "there's nothing new to be discovered
in Corewar" I didn't have far to look to find this counter-example! Call it
a variation on a theme if you wish - it is a scanner afterall, and someone
discovered those way back in the Dark Ages (before play by e-mail Corewar!).
To be more precise, OoS is a scan with variable length spl carpet, followed
by a d-clear end-game. Just a minute, haven't I seen a warrior which does
exactly this somewhere before (several perhaps)? Investigating...
Tim Tack Scan by Kline is one example which fits our description perfectly.
Unfortunately, TTS is faster at both scanning and carpeting than OoS. Not a
great deal faster you understand, only there isn't a slower example warrior
available! What's .1c between friends anyway?
So, all things considered, what makes OoS of interest? Hmmm... Well...
Swiftly moving on, here's the code:
;redcode-94x
;name Origin of Storms
;author John Metcalf
;strategy unusual scanner variation
;strategy .4c scan with .25c variable length spl carpet -> d-clear
;assert CORESIZE==8000 || CORESIZE==800
for CORESIZE==8000
step equ 17
first equ 240
dist equ 3022
time equ 285
rof
for CORESIZE==800
step equ 13
first equ 40
dist equ 204
time equ 43
rof
ptr: sne first, first+dist
add db, ptr
p: mov bomb, }ptr
mov bomb, >ptr
djn @p, #time
bomb: spl #1, 1
mov db, >ptr
djn.f -1, >ptr
db: dat step-1, step-1
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 <fizmo_master@yahoo.com>
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