A midweek review of Corewar
March 24, 1993
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I. The Standings:
# %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age
1 50/ 39/ 11 Agony 5.0 Stefan Strack 161 4
2 49/ 40/ 10 Medusa's v7 Mintardjo & Strack 158 123
3 39/ 20/ 42 It nandor sieben 157 1140
4 48/ 40/ 13 Iron Gate Wayne Sheppard 155 786
5 46/ 39/ 15 Eclipse II P.Kline 154 100
6 38/ 25/ 37 Imprimis 6 P.Kline 151 230
7 43/ 38/ 19 Grimm's Vampyre c w blue 148 38
8 35/ 23/ 42 +0 Stormbringer Dan Nabutovsky 147 1260
9 42/ 38/ 20 New Shears W. Mintardjo 146 22
10 35/ 25/ 40 Sphinx v2.8 W. Mintardjo 146 828
11 35/ 24/ 41 Night Wayne Sheppard 146 869
12 43/ 42/ 15 Sucker 5 Stefan Strack 145 1124
13 35/ 28/ 37 Pippin V 1.1 Arno Fuhlendorf 142 11
14 43/ 44/ 13 Paratroops v2.1 W. Mintardjo 142 191
15 42/ 44/ 15 sub-type-cmp c w blue 140 2
16 40/ 41/ 18 Moonstone 1 Dan Nabutovsky 140 54
17 40/ 40/ 20 Leprechaun 1b Anders Ivner 139 742
18 39/ 43/ 18 Herem II Anders Ivner 136 604
19 39/ 44/ 17 sub-type-ps c w blue 134 37
20 6/ 40/ 54 v5 j.layland 73 1
21 11/ 84/ 5 hungry hippo Greg Stark 37 3
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II. The Basics:
-Core War Archives are available via anonymous FTP at
soda.berkeley.edu in pub/corewar...
-FAQ for this newsgroup is available via anonymous FTP at
rtfm.mit.edu as pub/usenet/news.answers/games/corewar-faq.z
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III. The Scoop:
The great mixing bowl we call 'King of the Hill' was whipped furiously this
week, and one long-time competitor was slopped out (hey, you try coming
up with the metaphors!):
21 38/ 51/ 11 Charon v8.1 Cisek,Strack,Kline 124 629
Charon has had a long and successful run, was killed by imps, then
reprogrammed back to the top, but has been on the skids the last couple
of weeks. It is a prime example of teamwork, as Stefan and I took a turn
at beefing up JC's original concept. We would add a fourth author,
but there aren't any more consonants in CiSeK! :-) What's next for Charon?
Maybe a decoy (ignore those groans from SS). Maybe a gate? Or maybe just
a new constant. Maybe someone could figure out how to eliminate the
jmp instruction I added to get the extended scan time. I waited a few days
and resubmitted Charon, but it only lasted seven challenges, so the current
version is dead dead dead.
Charon's demise is due in part to the hard work on the part of many
to create a successful stone fighter. Stones are always hard on scanners
and there have been quite a few tried on the Hill recently. Then along
comes Dan Nabutovsky to show how it's done. His 'Moonstone' program (source
just published - everyone send him a thank-you) is riding high on the Hill, and
looks like it has staying power. Moonstone is not as small as earlier
bombers, and also differs in its amazingly small bomb-step size, and
simplified gate. It has a very interesting, compact, phase-switching mechanism
which is worth studying. (Uh-Oh, latest standings show Moonstone dropping,
anyone going to 'fess up and tell us why?)
'+0 Stormbringer', current endurance champ, took a near-fall
along with former high-riding 'Sphinx v2.8' and sometime leader 'Night',
but, once again the imps out-tough the challengers. (Too late to
name it Methuselah now, DN)
14 42/ 47/ 11 Glass House j.layland 136 17
15 32/ 29/ 39 Night Wayne Sheppard 135 806
16 39/ 44/ 18 Herem II Anders Ivner 134 541
17 39/ 44/ 17 Grimm's Vampyre c w blue 134 8
18 31/ 29/ 39 Sphinx v2.8 W. Mintardjo 133 765
19 30/ 29/ 41 +0 Stormbringer Dan Nabutovsky 131 1197
20 28/ 34/ 38 Pippin V 1.1 Arno Fuhlendorf 123 23
Speaking of rankings, here's an interesting Top Ten, proving that both
old and new programs are enjoying their successes (longevity on the right):
1 47/ 44/ 9 Medusa's v7 Mintardjo & Strack 150 82
2 47/ 45/ 8 prototype Stefan Strack 149 1
3 44/ 40/ 16 Moonstone 1 Dan Nabutovsky 148 13
4 39/ 29/ 32 Imprimis 6 P.Kline 148 189
5 46/ 46/ 8 Agony 4.1 Stefan Strack 146 153
6 36/ 27/ 37 It nandor sieben 146 1099
7 45/ 44/ 11 Iron Gate Wayne Sheppard 146 745
8 43/ 42/ 14 Sucker 5 Stefan Strack 144 1083
9 44/ 47/ 9 Paratroops v2.1 W. Mintardjo 142 150
10 35/ 28/ 37 +0 Stormbringer Dan Nabutovsky 142 1219
Best pun of the week (non-native English-speakers please bear with):
A challenger has arrived on the hill! Vital statistics:
Program "Consumption" (length 100) by "Arno Fuhlendorf"
(contact address "fuhlendo@rho.uleth.ca"):
;strategy consumption be done about all these imps
S. Strack is proving that the NAME is everything in CoreWars. His
'prototype' program consistently scores higher than the same code
put up as 'Agony'. Just part of the fun, right Stefan? (Uh-Oh again,
latest standings put Agony 5.0 solidly on the top!)
A. Pierce put in an appearance this week. Giving 'Twill' a try, Andy?
Got to make it imp-proof :-)
U. Koistinen! Do not give up so easy!
Program "Impkiller 0.2" (length 8) by "Urban Koistinen"
(contact address "md85-epi@nada.kth.se"):
;strategy 1. Bomb with spl -1
;strategy 2. Bomb with dat
;strategy 3. coreclear
;strategy 4. kill self
Hey, Albert Ma, leave the removing to the competition!
Program "testimp" (length 45) by "Albert Ma (stone by P.Kline)"
(contact address "ama@Athena.MIT.EDU"):
;strategy just testing the viability of imps on hill
;strategy imp launch is my own (reverse engineered)
;strategy stone is from Imprimis 6
;strategy if this actually makes it on the hill
;strategy I will remove it.
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IV. The Outlook:
2 48/ 44/ 8 Medusa's v7 Mintardjo & Strack 152 1
3 44/ 38/ 17 sub-type-v2 c w blue 150 1
7 41/ 38/ 21 Grimm's Vampyre c w blue 143 1
8 43/ 40/ 17 sub-type-ps c w blue 146 1
3 47/ 44/ 9 Medusa's v6 Mintardjo & Strack 150 1
4 47/ 42/ 12 Eclipse II P.Kline 151 1
5 46/ 45/ 9 Juggernaut v1.3 Anders Ivner 146 1
5 45/ 45/ 10 Agony 4.2 Stefan Strack 146 1
7 43/ 41/ 16 Moonstone 1 Dan Nabutovsky 146 1
1 47/ 43/ 10 prototype Stefan Strack 152 1
10 36/ 29/ 34 Pippin V 1.1 Arno Fuhlendorf 143 1
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V. The Quick Look:
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VI. The Hint:
Optimal-shmoptimal. Dan Nabutovsky is using 7 as a bombing increment
step with great success in Moonstone. There really is a lot to be explored
out there.
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VII. The End:
Paul Kline
pk6811s@acad.drake.edu