A midweek review of Corewar
April 7, 1993
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I. The Standings:
# %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age
1 50/ 41/ 9 Agony 5.1 Stefan Strack 158 116
2 48/ 40/ 12 Dragon Spear c w blue 155 64
3 47/ 44/ 9 Medusa's v7 Mintardjo & Strack 150 255
4 46/ 43/ 11 Eclipse II P.Kline 148 232
5 45/ 43/ 12 Iron Gate Wayne Sheppard 148 918
6 45/ 44/ 12 Zipp c w blue 145 18
7 46/ 47/ 7 Juggernaut v1.4 Anders Ivner 144 14
8 36/ 28/ 36 Imprimis 6 P.Kline 144 362
9 44/ 43/ 13 Paratroops v2.1 W. Mintardjo 144 323
10 38/ 36/ 27 Nurgle c w blue 139 54
11 39/ 41/ 21 Leprechaun 1b Anders Ivner 137 874
12 32/ 28/ 40 Midnight Wayne Sheppard 137 6
13 32/ 26/ 42 It nandor sieben 137 1272
14 32/ 29/ 39 +0 Stormbringer Dan Nabutovsky 136 1392
15 32/ 29/ 39 Sphinx v2.8 W. Mintardjo 136 960
16 40/ 45/ 15 Emerald 4 P.Kline 134 21
17 39/ 46/ 15 Sucker 5 Stefan Strack 133 1256
18 38/ 43/ 19 Moonstone 1 Dan Nabutovsky 133 186
19 38/ 44/ 17 Herem II Anders Ivner 132 736
20 30/ 32/ 38 test Unknown 129 1
21 21/ 44/ 36 Demon2.2 Cormac Walsh 97 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:
Spring Break seems to mean something other than beaches and bars for
KotH competitors. The action has been furious! In the section below,
The Quick Look, submissions are listed which fell short, or made it on
the Hill in 19/20th position (or so). The number grows and grows, and
what is not shown is the number of _duplicate_ submissions - I attempt
to show only the highest score achieved. What a great game! A. K.
Dewdney - you're keeping teenagers off the streets! [course it has
been a while since SOME of us have seen teenage-hood :-)]
Agony and Dragon Spear have been taking turns in first place, both
scoring 50%+ wins at times. Did I say something about not seeing 50% wins
for a while? Check out this top five:
1 52/ 40/ 8 Agony 5.1 Stefan Strack 165 69
2 50/ 39/ 11 Dragon Spear c w blue 162 17
3 41/ 21/ 38 It nandor sieben 161 1225
4 50/ 39/ 11 Iron Gate Wayne Sheppard 160 871
5 50/ 42/ 8 Medusa's v7 Mintardjo & Strack 157 208
Of course there were a couple of under-100 scores at the other end of
the Hill :-) [How did It get up there with all those scanners?]
Sometime it would be interesting to hear where these fighter-names come
from. I finally figured out Agony and XTC - but it took me a while.
But 'Nurgle'? 'Herem'?
Not to be outdone in the Corewars emulator club, Albert Ma released a
new ms-dos version which, according to early reviews, is a screamer.
Thanks Ma - er, um, A.M.!
W. Sheppard didn't waste anytime getting re-connected. He's been busy
hammering away from his new residence:
21 32/ 57/ 11 I'm Back Wayne Sheppard 107
Unfortunately Wayne got back just in time to see his favorite, long-running
stone/imp-spiral program get knocked off:
21 29/ 29/ 42 Night Wayne Sheppard 128 989
Just short of a thousand too, what a shame :-)
D. Nabutovsky's been warming up some new fighters - maybe this had
something to do with it:
19 32/ 28/ 40 +0 Stormbringer Dan Nabutovsky 136 1388
20 38/ 42/ 20 Moonstone 1 Dan Nabutovsky 134 182
which came back from E.J. Andrews' 'Paper-warrior' submission. Yup,
paper warriors (replicators) definitely are hard on stones like Moonstone,
and imps can't beat them either - only tie.
And yours truly woke up and found a bug in Emerald 3, which made a _major_
difference in its performance. Turns out that this is NOT a gate:
spl 0,<-5
dat <-7,#0
Now all you friendly Corewars-types had a chance to run Emerald 3, how come
you didn't point this out to me? Along with this fix, I arranged things so
instead of bombing the anti-vamp component with a dat #0, it is bombed with
a 'jmp -1' which makes a faster core-clear. Emerald 4 has stayed up a week
so far - hopefully some more bombers can make it up, then maybe we can get
back to my favorite warrior form - replicators [I've given up on self-
repairing fighters :-(]
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IV. The Outlook:
2 39/ 20/ 41 G Paper /T W. Mintardjo 159 1
9 36/ 24/ 40 test 8b@s Unknown 148 1
6 45/ 43/ 13 Zipp c w blue 147 1
10 31/ 26/ 43 G Paper /T2 W. Mintardjo 137 1
6 43/ 45/ 12 Iron Gate 1.1 Wayne Sheppard 142 1
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V. The Quick Look:
21 27/ 49/ 24 j j.layland 104 0
21 20/ 71/ 9 r j.layland 69 0
20 30/ 50/ 20 v5 j.layland 109 1
21 5/ 82/ 13 Get Andre van Dalen 28 0
20 16/ 47/ 37 TS3 W. Mintardjo 85 1
21 9/ 85/ 6 Try Andre van Dalen 33 0
21 15/ 71/ 14 Coin Mestern 60 0
21 12/ 77/ 12 Get4 Andre van Dalen 46 0
20 33/ 48/ 20 Harm c w blue 117 1
21 24/ 75/ 1 Orff Fredrik 73 0
21 7/ 39/ 54 Zipp c w blue 75 0
21 20/ 77/ 3 bitz Paul Bobby 62 0
19 26/ 52/ 22 rock j.layland 101 1
20 31/ 31/ 38 test Unknown 130 1
21 4/ 64/ 32 test Anders Ivner 44 0
21 32/ 59/ 8 seek1 Sasha Wait 105 0
21 26/ 42/ 32 stone Sasha Wait 111 0
20 16/ 56/ 28 venio Sasha Wait 75 1
21 11/ 77/ 12 Dwarfs Andre van Dalen 45 0
21 13/ 80/ 7 Test 4 Sami Tammilehto 46 0
19 36/ 46/ 18 Zoiks! C. Parrinello 125 1
21 25/ 59/ 15 seek1b Sasha Wait 92 0
21 12/ 86/ 2 seek1d Sasha Wait 38 0
21 2/ 59/ 38 BACKIMP Paul Bobby 45 0
21 28/ 70/ 2 Blofeld Fredrik 86 0
21 36/ 53/ 11 Cleaver Wayne Sheppard 120 0
21 7/ 53/ 40 CraMPon c w blue 61 0
21 18/ 62/ 20 DemonII Cormac Walsh 74 0
21 2/ 72/ 27 GTZ 1.0 James Jesensky 31 0
20 2/ 35/ 62 No Hope Jeff Peters 69 1
21 11/ 81/ 8 Stapper Andre van Dalen 41 0
21 17/ 66/ 17 Sweeper E. J. Andrews 67 0
21 17/ 69/ 14 splits1 Sasha Wait 65 0
21 25/ 61/ 14 veniont Sasha Wait 88 0
21 28/ 50/ 23 Buzzbomb Paul Bobby 106 0
21 22/ 43/ 35 Demon2.2 Cormac Walsh 102 0
20 28/ 49/ 23 Orff 2.0 Fredrik 107 1
21 19/ 42/ 39 Rabbit 1 Mestern 97 0
20 26/ 69/ 5 Roadkill Jeff Peters 83 1
21 8/ 74/ 17 fire 1.0 James Jesensky 42 0
21 13/ 60/ 27 splits1b Sasha Wait 66 0
21 30/ 49/ 21 stone2dd Sasha Wait 111 0
21 18/ 82/ 0 Blah v1.0 Paul Bobby 54 0
21 12/ 58/ 31 Brimstone Sami Tammilehto 66 0
21 33/ 49/ 18 Discovery David Johnson 116 0
21 27/ 52/ 21 Simplex-9 Sami Tammilehto 102 0
21 1/ 47/ 52 pepper1.1 Hank Turowski 54 0
21 1/ 44/ 55 No Hope v2 Jeff Peters 58 0
21 25/ 42/ 34 Oculomotor Fredrik 108 0
20 31/ 62/ 7 Orff 1.1.1 Fredrik 101 1
21 11/ 81/ 8 Pepper 1.5 Hank Turowski 40 0
21 14/ 80/ 6 sub-type-c c w blue 47 0
11 32/ 25/ 43 test 87b@s Unknown 140 1
21 38/ 53/ 9 Light Speed Wayne Sheppard 123 0
19 35/ 46/ 19 Meteor v4.0 W. Mintardjo 125 1
21 1/ 68/ 30 ImpBreed-1.1 Jonathan Roy 34 0
21 12/ 67/ 21 Parasite v 4 Roderick Easton 58 0
21 9/ 46/ 45 Pirates v1.1 Brant D. Thomsen 71 0
19 41/ 54/ 5 Stoned Again c w blue 128 1
21 6/ 71/ 23 SuperImp 1.0 Jonathan Roy 41 0
19 39/ 49/ 12 sub-type-cmp c w blue 130 1
20 7/ 60/ 33 Brimstone 1.2 Sami Tammilehto 55 1
21 0/ 50/ 49 ImpLance2-1.0 Jonathan Roy 50 0
21 0/ 76/ 24 ImpLance3-1.0 Jonathan Roy 24 0
21 0/ 81/ 19 ImpLance4-1.0 Jonathan Roy 20 0
21 0/ 84/ 16 ImpLance5-1.0 Jonathan Roy 16 0
21 30/ 60/ 10 Simple-Bomber E. J. Andrews 101 0
21 30/ 58/ 12 BscannerBomber Wayne Sheppard 102 0
21 10/ 61/ 28 side-pipes 1.0 James Jesensky 59 0
21 4/ 54/ 43 superdwarf 1.0 Cliff Fitzmorris 54 0
21 1/ 69/ 29 DeathLance2-1.0 Jonathan Roy 33 0
21 1/ 92/ 7 ImpLance2-1.0-t Jonathan Roy 9 0
21 39/ 59/ 2 No Ties Allowed Wayne Sheppard 120 0
20 1/ 64/ 35 Self splitting imp W. Mintardjo 38 1
20 29/ 68/ 3 Thundering Buttucks Jordan Horwich 91 1
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VI. The Hint:
The ADD instruction is used by many of the top programs to maintain their
slim figures (size). This is because it adds both the A- and B-operands of the
two designated locations. Thus with one ADD, a cmp-scanner can modify both
locations of its comparison, a bomber can set up one location for decrement
and one for bomb, and a vampire can create the appropriate jmp instruction for
its target location. What other instructions act on both the A- and B-
operands?
Another slimming strategy is to use unrequired B-operands for storing
pointers or other data. What instructions do not use their B-operand?
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VII. The End:
Paul Kline
pk6811s@acad.drake.edu