A midweek review of Corewar
March 31, 1993
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I. The Standings:
# %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age
1 50/ 40/ 9 Agony 5.1 Stefan Strack 161 67
2 48/ 41/ 11 Dragon Spear c w blue 155 15
3 37/ 22/ 40 It nandor sieben 152 1223
4 47/ 42/ 11 Iron Gate Wayne Sheppard 152 869
5 48/ 44/ 8 Medusa's v7 Mintardjo & Strack 152 206
6 42/ 34/ 24 Nurgle c w blue 149 5
7 36/ 27/ 37 Imprimis 6 P.Kline 146 313
8 35/ 26/ 39 +0 Stormbringer Dan Nabutovsky 143 1343
9 35/ 26/ 39 Night Wayne Sheppard 143 952
10 35/ 27/ 39 Sphinx v2.8 W. Mintardjo 143 911
11 42/ 44/ 14 Paratroops v2.1 W. Mintardjo 141 274
12 40/ 41/ 18 Leprechaun 1b Anders Ivner 140 825
13 43/ 46/ 11 Eclipse II P.Kline 139 183
14 40/ 41/ 19 Moonstone 1 Dan Nabutovsky 139 137
15 40/ 43/ 17 New Shears W. Mintardjo 137 105
16 40/ 45/ 14 Sucker 5 Stefan Strack 135 1207
17 36/ 43/ 21 Meteor v3.0 W. Mintardjo 130 26
18 35/ 44/ 21 Grimm's Vampyre c w blue 127 22
19 36/ 47/ 17 Herem II Anders Ivner 124 687
20 30/ 44/ 26 Harm c w blue 116 1
21 30/ 57/ 13 Blofeld Fredrik \hrstr|m 103 0
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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:
Nandor Sieben and Scott Adkin share the headlines this week for releasing
new versions of their Corewars simulators, Mars88 and Corewars Deluxe.
These are the guys that make it possible for many of us to play CoreWars
in the privacy of our own homes, and deserve abundant appreciation
and thank-yous. Okay, JN, how about that long-promised release
of Core! 2.0 for the Macintosh! :-)
Two classic programs made attempts on the Hill this week, Mice and IMP:
21 19/ 47/ 34 Mice -- the classic progr not Jack Twilley 91
20 1/ 44/ 56 IMP A. K. Dewdney 57
Mice could not find enough stationary bombers to chew up, and
got eaten up by scanners and vamps. IMP never could WIN games, only tie,
and is handicapped by the scoring system which only gives one point for
ties (three for wins). The Hill is also inoculated against imps with
many programs incorporating imp-gates and other strategies. A. Pierce
tried a variation on the basic IMP with a bit more success, but also
failed to make it on KotH:
21 32/ 40/ 28 Imps! Andy Pierce 124
S.Strack finally got his stars in the right alignment with a new version
of Agony:
1 56/ 36/ 8 Agony 5.1 Stefan Strack 175
It's been a long time since we saw 50% wins, and Agony 5.1 has had
several such reports already - congrats! Also note, 'Dragon Spear' by
CW Blue is not far behind. Blue's 'Nurgle' fighter (a bomber?) is also
in the top 10 this week - kudos!
The imp-spirals took a break this week as competitors focused on honing
their existing programs. Looks like W. Sheppard's 'Night' is about to
break the magic 1000-challenge barrier. Night weathered some serious
attacks in earlier weeks, but is having easy sailing now.
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IV. The Outlook:
3 48/ 41/ 10 sub-type-cmp c w blue 155 1
1 50/ 40/ 10 Dragon Spear c w blue 160 1
6 39/ 31/ 30 Stoned Again c w blue 146 1
4 42/ 33/ 25 Nurgle c w blue 151 1
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V. The Quick Look:
21 27/ 52/ 21 D j.layland 102 0
20 26/ 60/ 14 tm j.layland 92 1
19 35/ 42/ 22 v5 j.layland 129 1
21 2/ 67/ 31 vc j.layland 37 0
20 1/ 44/ 56 IMP A. K. Dewdney 57 1
11 42/ 43/ 15 dp2 Stefan Strack 141 1
20 37/ 47/ 16 dp3 Stefan Strack 126 1
21 26/ 71/ 3 Burp Jack Twilley 81 0
20 33/ 42/ 26 Harm c w blue 123 1
21 29/ 61/ 10 ice2 Ziad 97 0
21 21/ 64/ 15 mite Cormac Walsh 78 0
21 19/ 64/ 17 mite Cormac Walsh 74 0
20 35/ 45/ 20 test nandor 126 1
20 25/ 46/ 30 test j.layland 104 1
16 39/ 44/ 17 test nandor sieben 134 1
20 19/ 55/ 27 Demon Cormac Walsh 83 1
20 18/ 74/ 8 Sloth Hank Turowski 62 1
21 22/ 51/ 28 test2 j.layland 93 0
21 19/ 55/ 26 test3 j.layland 83 0
19 36/ 43/ 21 Zoiks! C. Parrinello 129 1
15 42/ 47/ 11 cproba nandor sieben 137 1
21 1/ 47/ 52 pepper Hank Turowski 55 0
21 30/ 57/ 13 Blofeld Fredrik \hrstr|m 103 0
21 11/ 78/ 10 Bomb422 James Jesensky 44 0
21 9/ 63/ 28 Bomb516 James Jesensky 54 0
14 41/ 42/ 17 Inferno c w blue 141 1
21 27/ 51/ 22 stone2d Sasha Wait 104 0
21 13/ 77/ 10 Scan 1.1 Mestern 49 0
21 29/ 51/ 19 stone2dd Sasha Wait 107 0
21 21/ 76/ 3 tiny-tim gss 65 0
20 35/ 58/ 7 Agony 2.1 Stefan Strack 113 1
21 23/ 53/ 24 Alternate Sami Tammilehto 93 0
21 20/ 70/ 9 Fast v2.2 Matthew K. Gray 70 0
21 5/ 46/ 49 Gala V3.0 Chris Parrinello 64 0
21 1/ 72/ 26 HERB v1.0 Brian Cavalier 30 0
21 17/ 57/ 26 Simplex-2 Sami Tammilehto 76 0
21 8/ 45/ 48 Simplex-3 Sami Tammilehto 71 0
21 9/ 77/ 14 Simplex-I Sami Tammilehto 41 0
21 10/ 45/ 46 strangler Cormac Walsh 75 0
21 36/ 45/ 19 Bilbo v1.0 Arno Fuhlendorf 126 0
14 36/ 28/ 36 Ghost Ship c w blue 144 1
21 15/ 66/ 19 Scoop v1.1 Matthew K. Gray 64 0
15 42/ 48/ 9 sub-type-s c w blue 137 1
21 2/ 90/ 8 CMP SCANNER Paul Bobby 14 0
20 37/ 44/ 19 Meteor v1.0 W. Mintardjo 131 1
17 35/ 39/ 25 Meteor v2.0 W. Mintardjo 131 1
16 37/ 40/ 23 Meteor v3.0 W. Mintardjo 134 1
21 2/ 42/ 57 paratrooper Vincent Li 61 0
21 35/ 52/ 13 sub-type-jj c w blue 119 0
16 38/ 41/ 21 sub-type-ps c w blue 135 1
21 9/ 54/ 37 CARNAGE v1.2 Brian Cavalier 65 0
21 29/ 70/ 1 Puppy v0.6.4 Greg S. Stark and Ma 87 0
21 13/ 77/ 9 Puppy v0.6.5 Greg S. Stark and Ma 49 0
21 39/ 56/ 5 Stoned Again c w blue 122 0
21 2/ 76/ 22 Trapper V1.0 Jack Twilley 28 0
21 1/ 66/ 33 Trapper V2.0 Jack Twilley 36 0
21 1/ 71/ 27 Trapper v1.2 Jack Twilley 32 0
21 0/ 95/ 5 hungry hippo Greg Stark 5 0
21 19/ 50/ 31 sub-type-b+r c w blue 89 0
13 42/ 46/ 12 sub-type-cmp c w blue 138 1
15 40/ 44/ 16 sub-type-vmp c w blue 136 1
21 24/ 73/ 3 Appleseed V42 Jack Twilley 76 0
21 18/ 80/ 2 Cerberus v2.0 Matthew K. Gray 57 0
21 3/ 86/ 10 Cerberus v2.1 Matthew K. Gray 21 0
21 18/ 80/ 3 Cerberus v3.0 Matthew K. Gray 56 0
21 4/ 70/ 25 Cerberus v3.1 Matthew K. Gray 38 0
14 40/ 40/ 20 Moonstone 1.1 Dan Nabutovsky 139 1
20 30/ 35/ 35 Pippin V 1.1a Arno Fuhlendorf 124 1
21 18/ 64/ 18 Fast Bomb V77+ Jack Twilley 73 0
21 4/ 53/ 43 Signal-gun 1.1 James Jesensky 56 0
19 38/ 45/ 17 Belladonna v1.0 Arno Fuhlendorf 132 1
13 40/ 44/ 15 Grimm's Vampyre c w blue 136 1
19 41/ 51/ 7 Juggernaut v1.3 Anders Ivner 131 1
21 22/ 77/ 1 Appleseed Five++ Jack Twilley 67 0
21 21/ 41/ 39 Experimental 1.1 Sami Tammilehto 101 0
21 19/ 78/ 3 Lapsilta Kielletty Juha Kivijarvi 60 0
21 32/ 61/ 7 Thundering buttocks Jordan Horwich 104 0
21 10/ 88/ 2 Lapsilta Kielletympi Juha Kivijarvi 31 0
21 1/ 66/ 33 Stabb In The Back v4 James Burke 37 0
21 2/ 69/ 29 Stabb In The Back v3.0 James Burke 35 0
19 38/ 43/ 19 Drugs Sex and Rock Roll c w blue 132 1
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VI. The Hint:
To get on the Hill and stay, you have to have a strategy, or combination
of strategies, that is effective against more than one kind of opponent.
There just are not enough of any one kind of opponent to give a single-
focus warrior the number of wins needed to stay up. Sometimes,
if you are winning big against one variety, say scanners, you can add/change
code that turns losses into ties against another variety, say replicators,
that gives you a boost.
Change losses into ties, and ties into wins.
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VII. The End:
Paul Kline
pk6811s@acad.drake.edu