A midweek review of Corewar
June 8, 1993
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I. The Standings:
# %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age
1 44/ 36/ 20 Distance v6.3 Brant D. Thomsen 151 121
2 46/ 45/ 9 Cleaver Wayne Sheppard 147 4
3 34/ 22/ 44 Night Crawler Wayne Sheppard 146 627
4 33/ 22/ 45 Imprimis 6 P.Kline 145 1027
5 37/ 31/ 32 FlyPaper 3.0 J.Layland 144 51
6 43/ 43/ 13 Arghhhh Fredrik Ohrstrom 143 122
7 45/ 46/ 9 Backstabber Anders Ivner 143 178
8 44/ 46/ 10 Dragon Spear c w blue 141 729
9 32/ 23/ 46 Incrimination v1.0 Brant D. Thomsen 141 31
10 40/ 39/ 21 Emerald 5.1011 P.Kline 140 5
11 33/ 26/ 41 Sphinx v2.8 W. Mintardjo 139 1625
12 30/ 23/ 46 Snake Wayne Sheppard 137 387
13 33/ 29/ 38 ImpsAreMyFriend 1.1 J.Layland 136 116
14 42/ 48/ 10 Fire Storm v1.1 W. Mintardjo 136 266
15 30/ 26/ 44 ttt nandor sieben 135 88
16 40/ 46/ 14 Iron Gate 1.01 Wayne Sheppard 134 455
17 28/ 23/ 49 ttest nandor sieben 133 503
18 41/ 50/ 9 Eclipse II P.Kline 132 1
19 40/ 52/ 8 Agony 5.2 Stefan Strack 129 254
20 34/ 57/ 9 Unknown Unknown 112 2
21 2/ 2/ 0 Early Bird c w blue 7 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:
King of the Hill enthusiasts were successful in knocking off two more
long-standing warriors, Leprechaun 1b by A. Ivner, and Sucker 5 by
S. Strack. Leprechaun 1b's age of 1453 has been succeeded only by
+0 Stormbringer and Sphinx v2.8. His strategy was to dat-bomb
and b-scan at the same time, using a spl-jmp stunner to catch replicators.
A few weeks ago Sucker 4 was knocked off and now Sucker 5. Is Sucker
really dead, or can Strack pull off a Bram Stroker and resurrect this
classic vampire?
Some drop off, and some rise like good cream to the top. This week
Imprimis 6 passed the 1000-challenge barrier. Kudos to - well - me!
Speaking of successful imps, W. Mintardjo is faced with this dilemma:
1 40/ 21/ 39 Sphinx v4.9 W. Mintardjo 158 1
8 32/ 26/ 42 Sphinx v2.8 W. Mintardjo 138 1610
So does he kill off Sphinx v2.8 just as it is approaching +0 Stormbringer's
record 1778, or does he keep v4.9 under wraps until v2.8 gets pushed off?
(which might be a long, long time :-)
Strack's summer tournament rolls on with Mintardjo and Sheppard beating
Ivner and Kline out of the loser bracket. Yeeesh. NOW I have a version
that beats Snake :-( These two will play off later today and the winner
will face Nabutovsky for the championship. Good luck!
Sorry folks, there was no _Push Off_ last week. I was too busy trying
to convince Wayne to NOT use Snake in our tournament match, making him
think I was working on a sure-fire anti-vamp routine, and also to
make him think I was going to use a replicator so he would use a scanner
that Emerald could beat. But he stuck with Snake and won. Hope you
enjoyed the hijinks, anyway :-)
Now for a bit of nostalgia. Here was the current hill on July 16, 1992:
Title Author Score Age
----- ------ ----- ---
No Mucking About Cambel Fraser 164 36
Charon v7.0 J. Cisek & S.Strack 162 51
B-scanners live in vain Matt Hastings 161 18
Crimp 2 Andy Pierce 157 360
Flash Paper3.7 Matt Hastings 156 88
Sucker 4 Stefan Strack 150 289
Note Paper Scott Nelson 148 687
Falling Leaf 1.21 Matt Hastings 144 174
Smooth Noodle Map Matt Hastings 144 294
Dynamic Duo 4.01 Stefan Strack 141 39
PitTrap v4.0 J. Cisek 140 193
Quebec Eric Prestemon 139 22
RoadRunner I S. Halvorsen 139 267
Trinity Matt Hastings 138 293
Nikita 1.4 Jarkko Lindblad 136 1
Kobold Stefan Strack 133 148
Miny v.3 Paul S. Kilroy 131 2
Relentless J. Cisek 131 9
RotLD 2 nandor sieben 131 3
teszt nandor sieben 128 16
The scanners were tough last summer! And Flash Paper became the fave target
of many challengers, only succumbing in the Fall with the onslaught of imps.
And Sucker 4 nearly was the first to go over 1000 challenges before being
pushed off for the same reason.
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IV. The Outlook:
4 29/ 18/ 53 Incrimination v1.0 Brant D. Thomsen 141 1
6 41/ 38/ 20 Emerald 5.1011 P.Kline 144 1
6 32/ 22/ 46 Oak Stake III c w blue 141 1
9 27/ 21/ 52 Oak Stake II c w blue 132 1
3 35/ 25/ 39 FlyPaper 3.0 J.Layland 145 1
3 38/ 29/ 33 FlyPaper 4.0 J.Layland 148 1
5 40/ 39/ 21 sub-type-v2 c w blue 141 1
4 35/ 26/ 39 Passport 7 P.Kline 143 1
9 40/ 41/ 20 Herem IV Anders Ivner 138 1
3 47/ 42/ 11 Cleaver Wayne Sheppard 153 1
5 32/ 25/ 44 ttt nandor sieben 139 1
9 29/ 22/ 49 Snake7 Wayne Sheppard 136 1
9 39/ 41/ 20 Emerald 5 P.Kline 138 1
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V. The Quick Look:
21 1/ 84/ 14 RG KE Lewin 18 0
21 10/ 43/ 48 ick KE Lewin 77 0
19 35/ 43/ 22 wwf J.Layland 127 1
21 27/ 59/ 14 Bomb Michael Constant 95 0
20 25/ 68/ 7 Geek Aaron Helleman 82 1
16 36/ 41/ 22 TWW2 W. Mintardjo 132 1
21 23/ 36/ 41 test P.Kline 110 0
21 30/ 53/ 17 test J.Layland 106 0
12 39/ 38/ 23 Twill Andy Pierce 139 1
21 14/ 85/ 1 XPDNC Michael Constant 44 0
21 28/ 71/ 1 A-bomb Michael Constant 85 0
21 25/ 72/ 3 Icebox Fredrik Ohrstrom 78 0
21 24/ 47/ 29 Invest Andre van Dalen 102 0
21 17/ 71/ 12 fester c w blue 62 0
18 29/ 34/ 37 ptest1 Fredrik Ohrstrom 124 1
21 3/ 88/ 9 spil63 Andre van Dalen 19 0
21 24/ 35/ 41 test 2 P.Kline 114 0
20 36/ 53/ 11 CraMPon c w blue 119 1
20 1/ 76/ 22 Unknown KE Lewin 27 1
21 25/ 68/ 7 Icebox 2 Fredrik Ohrstrom 82 0
21 8/ 54/ 38 Impact 2 Jay Han 63 0
19 25/ 31/ 44 Passport P.Kline 119 1
21 19/ 40/ 40 Pipin IV cArno Martin Fuhlend 99 0
19 35/ 47/ 18 Wimp 6.1 Brant D. Thomsen 123 1
20 37/ 52/ 11 a-test-a nandor sieben 122 1
21 3/ 74/ 23 Eight 1.0 Devin Kilminster 32 0
13 40/ 45/ 15 Emerald 4 P.Kline 135 1
21 23/ 74/ 2 Noise 1.0 Devin Kilminster 72 0
21 27/ 72/ 1 Simplex 1 Scriv 81 0
21 16/ 71/ 12 Thrice 10 Steve Gunnell 61 0
20 34/ 43/ 24 Early Bird c w blue 125 1
20 36/ 52/ 13 Eclipse II P.Kline 120 1
21 16/ 78/ 7 Expediency Michael Constant 54 0
18 40/ 51/ 9 Iron Sword Wayne Sheppard 128 1
14 42/ 51/ 8 Irony v1.0 Brant D. Thomsen 133 1
21 19/ 70/ 11 Thrice 10a Steve Gunnell 67 0
20 37/ 50/ 14 newscanner c w blue 124 1
20 35/ 53/ 13 sub-type-c c w blue 117 1
19 25/ 62/ 13 Spare Parts Fredrik Ohrstrom 88 1
21 23/ 67/ 10 Sparrowhawk Michael Constant 79 0
19 28/ 35/ 37 Stoned Ratz c w blue 120 1
21 1/ 88/ 11 Vampire 4PK Wayne Sheppard 14 0
21 22/ 43/ 35 sub-type-av c w blue 102 0
19 35/ 45/ 19 sub-type-bs c w blue 126 1
10 42/ 45/ 13 sub-type-gv c w blue 138 1
11 29/ 22/ 48 sub-type-os c w blue 137 1
21 17/ 61/ 21 Duplicator 1 Bruno Degiovanni 73 0
21 23/ 55/ 22 Just testing c w blue 92 0
21 10/ 83/ 7 Snake Hunter J.Layland 36 0
21 20/ 69/ 11 StunGun v1.3 Han-Wen Nienhuys 71 0
20 27/ 56/ 17 sub-type-aix c w blue 98 1
21 16/ 83/ 0 Ring of Death Michael Constant 49 0
19 33/ 45/ 21 Spare Parts 1 Fredrik Ohrstrom 122 1
20 28/ 37/ 35 Anti-Imp Paper c w blue 118 1
10 28/ 19/ 52 Flash Paper3.7 Matt Hastings 138 1
(W.Sheppard)
21 9/ 46/ 45 Noisey Imp 1.0 Devin Kilminster 73 0
20 27/ 57/ 17 Precision v1.0 Brant D. Thomsen 96 1
21 16/ 81/ 3 Snake Hunter 2 J.Layland 50 0
19 37/ 49/ 14 Glass House 3.0 J.Layland 125 1
21 19/ 52/ 29 Paper Noise 1.0 Devin Kilminster 87 0
19 20/ 24/ 56 Simplicity v3.0 Brant D. Thomsen 117 1
12 37/ 40/ 23 Winter Werewolf W. Mintardjo 135 1
(J.layland)
21 19/ 76/ 5 CheckYourFlyPaper J.Layland 63 0
21 32/ 57/ 11 RoadRunner K (26) S. Halvorsen 107 0
21 18/ 36/ 46 Spare Parts test2 Fredrik Ohrstrom 100 0
20 21/ 39/ 40 Construction Paper c w blue 102 1
17 30/ 31/ 39 Spare Parts (test) Fredrik Ohrstrom 129 1
19 29/ 32/ 39 anti-vampire paper c w blue 125 1
20 31/ 41/ 29 testing Leprechaun Anders Ivner 121 1
13 32/ 30/ 38 ImpsAreMyFriend 1.1 J.Layland 133 1
21 33/ 51/ 15 RoadRunner K (21.1) S. Halvorsen 115 0
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VI. The Hint:
To boot or not to boot, that is the question.
Bootstrapping means to copy some part of your program away from your
initial code and start it running there. It is a useful technique
that offers several advantages to your fighters.
One use of booting is to have your fighter running with the smallest
profile possible, combined with a large 'decoy' of non-running code
to distract scanners. This is most effective against one-shot scanners
like Plasma, Paratroops, Eclipse, Cleaver, FlyPaper, etc. that scan
until they find something, bomb or stun it, then start some different
process like core-clear or replicators. They will usually target the
decoy and go into their second phase very quickly, so you can use
a strategy against that phase without worrying about the initial scan
part. One variation of this is to leave gaps in your program like
Sucker 5 and Agony 5.1 do, which would not be possible without booting.
Another use is to do some kind of setup work before starting the main
program. This could be to create reflections, do calculations, create
multiple processes, etc. This allows you to abandon the setup code
and avoid the fallout when it is attacked by a scanner. So for example,
in Emerald 5.xxxx, I create multiple processes and jump them all into
the bomber, anti-vamp, and core-clear parts which were booted out into
core. By having ten or more processes running at each spl-zero, I don't
outrun an imp when it overruns my code and don't self-destruct.
(Thanks to WM for sharing the multiple-process start code - it was new to me!)
The disadvantage of booting is the delay in starting your fighter. If
you are up against a fast-starting bomber or scanner, you will sometimes
be caught before you are ready. As more and more successful fighters use
booting however, this effect diminishes and the advantages become
more pronounced.
One caution - do NOT leave pointers to your bootstrapped code behind
in your decoy :-) Eclipse will eat you alive!
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VII. The End:
Paul Kline
pk6811s@acad.drake.edu