A midweek review of Corewar
August 25, 1993
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I. The Standings:
# %W/ %L/ %T Name Author Score Age
1 40/ 40/ 20 Grimm's Vampyre c w blue 141 135
2 42/ 45/ 13 Iron Gate 1.01 Wayne Sheppard 139 95
3 31/ 25/ 43 FlyPaper 3.0 J.Layland 137 376
4 37/ 38/ 25 Winter Werewolf 3 W. Mintardjo 136 270
5 42/ 49/ 9 Agony 6.0 Stefan Strack 136 206
6 29/ 23/ 48 ttt nandor sieben 136 176
7 29/ 22/ 49 Impact v1.0 Anders Ivner 136 89
8 41/ 46/ 13 Impurge Fredrik Ohrstrom 135 276
9 27/ 18/ 55 pMARS pMARS project 135 1
10 40/ 47/ 13 Dragon Spear c w blue 134 1054
11 28/ 22/ 50 Night Crawler Wayne Sheppard 134 952
12 27/ 22/ 51 Sphinx v2.8 W. Mintardjo 133 1950
13 27/ 23/ 50 Imprimis 7 P.Kline 132 192
14 34/ 36/ 30 Herem VI Anders Ivner 132 124
15 27/ 23/ 50 Incrimination v1.0 Brant D. Thomsen 132 356
16 36/ 42/ 22 Distance v6.4 Brant D. Thomsen 129 31
17 34/ 41/ 25 Leprechaun 1b Anders Ivner 128 20
18 26/ 25/ 49 Hydra Stephen Linhart 127 21
19 38/ 49/ 13 Fire Storm v1.1 W. Mintardjo 127 591
20 18/ 13/ 69 Imps! Imps! Imps! Steven Morrell 123 2
21 25/ 30/ 46 Passport 2 P.Kline 119 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:
Just got back from two weeks of backpacking with the Boy Scouts in
the mountains of New Mexico. Sorry, there was no Internet access
anywhere (no email, phonemail or US mail:-). Was glad to see you
all took it easy while I was gone and Imprimis is still on the Hill.
I see that Hydra and IMPS! IMPS! IMPS! have been published (yes! new redcode!).
IMPS! IMPS! IMPS! is _such_ a simple program. Good work on the part of
authors S. Linhart and S. Morrell.
Portable Mars is now available from soda.berkeley.edu in rec.games.corewar.
My C compiler arrived while I was gone (crazy Purchasing department
lost the paperwork for a month and I missed the free trip to Honolulu),
and I am looking forward to playing with pmars. (can anyone tell me
how to unzip files on the Mac? I have UnZip5.xx but it doesn't work)
Today's standings show less than 20 points separating the top and
bottom players on KotH. Needs some stirring up :-)
Sorry, rschuler, mercy is not the word many players use to describe KotH:
;strategy a CMP scanning vampire. AntiVamp does not work on it
;strategy because B field of the fang contains untraceable garbage.
;strategy May the hill show mercy, for this is my first Vampire.
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IV. The Outlook:
5 32/ 27/ 41 flytest J.Layland 137 1
10 23/ 12/ 65 sub-type-aix c w blue 134 1
10 30/ 28/ 42 Passport 2 P.Kline 133 1
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V. The Quick Look:
17 38/ 41/ 21 Herem II Anders Ivner 134 1
18 27/ 26/ 47 Hydra Stephen Linhart 129 1
19 34/ 42/ 24 lil' shears P.Kline 125 1
19 36/ 38/ 26 Leprechaun 1b Anders Ivner 134 1
20 19/ 14/ 67 Imps! Imps! Imps! Steven Morrell 124 1
20 21/ 38/ 41 toilet paper v1.0 Steven Morrell 105 1
20 22/ 28/ 50 Test-IS,S +13.1 G. Ritter 115 1
20 24/ 27/ 49 Test-IS,S +13 G. Ritter 121 1
20 28/ 47/ 24 test P.Kline 109 1
20 31/ 43/ 27 clown V1.2 P.E.M et E.C 118 1
20 32/ 41/ 27 Clown V1.3 E.C et P.E.M 124 1
20 39/ 50/ 10 Cleaver Wayne Sheppard 128 1
21 0/ 49/ 51 Test C Stig Hemmer (stig@pv 51 0
21 0/ 66/ 34 ImpFun G. Ritter 34 0
21 0/ 83/ 17 front242v6 Mike Feier 18 0
21 0/ 88/ 12 Drekspam Mike Feier 12 0
21 0/ 89/ 11 Test A Stig Hemmer (stig@pv 12 0
21 0/ 89/ 11 Test B Stig Hemmer (stig@pv 11 0
21 0/ 91/ 9 Decker V0.00(The short fo Mike Feier 9 0
21 0/ 93/ 7 Splitting-Image_V1.1 Remy Wetzels 8 0
21 0/ 94/ 6 Seek&Destroy-V1.0 Remy Wetzels 6 0
21 0/ 94/ 6 Pink Nightmare V1.5 Mike Feier 7 0
21 1/ 38/ 60 Deadfall v1.5 Remy Wetzels 65 0
21 1/ 45/ 54 boooof V1.0 J.Hynes 56 0
21 1/ 48/ 51 Double Ghoster 1.0 John Morrow 54 0
21 1/ 57/ 42 Buffy 1.0 (Next Generatio John Morrow 45 0
21 1/ 67/ 31 Splat v1.0 Remy Wetzels 35 0
21 1/ 83/ 16 front242v6.5 Mike Feier 18 0
21 1/ 89/ 11 Cobra-short Mike Feier 13 0
21 1/ 91/ 8 Dwarfstrap v1.0 Remy Wetzels 10 0
21 1/ 92/ 7 Decker V0.01 Mike Feier 9 0
21 2/ 44/ 54 X-Bomb^2 v1.6 Remy Wetzels 60 0
21 2/ 49/ 49 X-Bomb^2 v1.6y Remy Wetzels 55 0
21 3/ 75/ 22 Cobra Mike Feier 32 0
21 3/ 81/ 16 TratDwarf 1.2 Jason Northrup 26 0
21 4/ 74/ 22 The Chain Massimo Manghi 33 0
21 4/ 81/ 15 pitcherII.rc J Kyle Kelso 26 0
21 5/ 60/ 35 multiply John Currie 49 0
21 5/ 83/ 12 The Chain v1.1.4 Massimo Manghi 27 0
21 5/ 90/ 6 Immaculate 0a Rodney Schuler 20 0
21 5/ 93/ 2 Troll-D Mike Feier 18 0
21 6/ 50/ 44 Vladimir2cca James Ojaste 63 0
21 6/ 52/ 42 mass multiply John Currie 60 0
21 6/ 53/ 41 mass multiply V1.1 John Currie 59 0
21 6/ 62/ 32 Scan V1.0 John Currie 51 0
21 7/ 50/ 43 Hyper Cat V2.1 E.C et P.E.M 64 0
21 7/ 51/ 42 Stinger Rodney Schuler 64 0
21 7/ 72/ 22 PitcherII J Kyle Kelso 41 0
21 8/ 49/ 43 Surge G. Ritter 67 0
21 8/ 49/ 43 Vampy 5a James Ojaste 68 0
21 8/ 69/ 23 PitcherIIa J Kyle Kelso 48 0
21 9/ 80/ 11 mass move John Currie 39 0
21 10/ 83/ 6 MegaWimp James Ojaste 37 0
21 10/ 86/ 4 Mirror 1.0 Devin Kilminster 34 0
21 11/ 54/ 35 FedUp.3 James Ojaste 69 0
21 11/ 59/ 30 rude Unknown 63 0
21 13/ 46/ 41 ALL IMP V1.0 E.C et P.E.M 80 0
21 13/ 56/ 31 Twist2a! James Ojaste 70 0
21 13/ 72/ 15 MegaWimp.3 James Ojaste 53 0
21 13/ 81/ 6 copy John Currie 44 0
21 13/ 83/ 4 D2.2ac James Ojaste 43 0
21 13/ 83/ 4 Thrill James Ojaste 43 0
21 14/ 68/ 18 Choink James Ojaste 60 0
21 14/ 81/ 5 Hornets Nest V0.1 Mike Feier 46 0
21 15/ 60/ 25 Vamp3 James Ojaste 69 0
21 15/ 62/ 23 Smart Bomb 1.00 Devin Kilminster 68 0
21 15/ 74/ 11 Quandry G. Ritter 56 0
21 15/ 74/ 11 Pasta 2.0 Devin Kilminster 57 0
21 16/ 56/ 28 Surge +1 G. Ritter 77 0
21 16/ 75/ 9 Blaze James Ojaste 57 0
21 16/ 82/ 2 Well Hard John Currie 51 0
21 18/ 69/ 13 Choink.2 James Ojaste 68 0
21 18/ 71/ 12 bangle 3 Steve Gunnell 65 0
21 19/ 63/ 18 test Devin Kilminster 75 0
21 19/ 65/ 17 Vamp3d James Ojaste 73 0
21 19/ 78/ 3 KSC 1.0 Devin Kilminster 61 0
21 19/ 78/ 4 small bomber V0.1 P.E. Moreau 60 0
21 20/ 65/ 16 Teddy Stephen Linhart 75 0
21 20/ 66/ 14 FedUp James Ojaste 74 0
21 22/ 68/ 11 Choink.2b James Ojaste 75 0
21 23/ 20/ 57 gen654430835 c/o I.R.Woollard 126 0
21 23/ 41/ 36 Quartz Stephen Linhart 104 0
21 23/ 63/ 14 Whatever.3 James Ojaste 82 0
21 23/ 71/ 7 Skip Vampire 3.0 Devin Kilminster 74 0
21 24/ 29/ 47 Gladiator +2 G. Ritter 119 0
21 24/ 31/ 45 Hydral Stephen Linhart 118 0
21 24/ 40/ 36 nugget 7.6 nick bourner 107 0
21 24/ 64/ 12 vertigo Steven Morrell 83 0
21 25/ 62/ 13 test J.Layland 87 0
21 26/ 46/ 27 clown V1.01 P.E. Moreau 107 0
21 26/ 48/ 26 Opal Stephen Linhart 105 0
21 26/ 61/ 12 Vamp2b James Ojaste 91 0
21 27/ 53/ 20 nugget v7 Nick Bourner 101 0
21 27/ 60/ 13 lawnmower 0.1 Steven Morrell 94 0
21 27/ 62/ 11 Spiral Stephen Linhart 92 0
21 29/ 51/ 20 Vampy 2cbd James Ojaste 107 0
21 29/ 51/ 20 Vladimir2c James Ojaste 107 0
21 29/ 53/ 17 Vampy 5.01 James Ojaste 105 0
21 29/ 53/ 18 Vampy 4 (== 2cbd :-) James Ojaste 105 0
21 30/ 44/ 26 sprite Cormac Walsh 116 0
21 30/ 51/ 19 Vampy 5 James Ojaste 109 0
21 31/ 55/ 13 :( v1.1 Steven Morrell 107 0
21 31/ 57/ 12 Vladimir2cb James Ojaste 105 0
21 32/ 55/ 13 Bing! v1.2 James Ojaste 108 0
21 35/ 60/ 5 Bing! James Ojaste 110 0
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VI. The Hint:
What is the perfect anti-imp bomb? I recall some discussion last winter
about which DAT bomb had the most impact on an imp-spiral, and got to
thinking about it again. Here is a sample bombing scheme:
....
add #step,ptr
ptr mov bmb,<xxx
...
bmb dat <2667,<5334
...
A nine-process three-point imp-spiral (mov 0,2667) looks something like this:
1. 4. 7.
2. 5. 8
3. 6. 9
where location 1 mov's to 2 etc., and 147, 258, 369 are all consecutive
locations in core. Dotted locations 1-7 have 'mov 0,2667' instructions
under them, but locations 8 and 9 must wait for the imp to recycle from 1
because they are sitting on 'dat 0,0' instructions.
To kill a process in an imp-spiral you have to hit it immediately before
it executes, otherwise anything you put on it will be 'healed' by the
spiral. Now, if my ptr is pointing at 7 I will decrement 7 and drop
the bomb on 5:
1. 4. 7.<
2. 5.x 8
3. 6. 9
assuming it is 5's turn to execute, he will die and decrement 6 and 7:
1. 4. 7.<<
2. 8
3. 6.< 9
then 6 will execute a mov 0,2666 which effectively decrements 4, 7 will
execute a mov 0,2665 which lands on 2:
1. 4.< 7.<<
2.<< 8
3. 6.< 9
then 8 and 9 will die since they were not set up from 7:
1. 4.< 7.<<
2.<<
3. 6.<
now the spiral advances:
1.< 4.<< 7
2.x
3.< 6
1 is executing a mov 0,2666, so 2 dies. 3 also executes a mov 0,2666
and 4 a mov 0,2665 so 6 and 7 die, leaving 1 3 and 4 which don't
form a complete ring and also die.
So it is possible to kill a nine-process (or smaller) spiral with a single
dat-bomb. Anyone care to take up a 12-process case? A seven-point spiral?
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VII. The End:
Paul Kline
pk6811s@acad.drake.edu