Core War Frequently Asked Questions (rec.games.corewar FAQ)
These are the Frequently Asked Questions (and answers) from the Usenet newsgroup rec.games.corewar. A plain text version of this document is posted every two weeks. The hypertext version is available as <URL:http://www.stormking.com/~koth/corewar-faq.html>

Table of Contents

  1. What is Core War
  2. Is it Core War or Core Wars?
  3. Where can I find more information about Core War?
  4. Core War has changed since Dewdney's articles. Where do I get a copy of the current instruction set?
  5. What is ICWS'94? Which simulators support ICWS'94?
  6. What is the ICWS?
  7. What is TCWN?
  8. How do I join?
  9. What is the EBS?
  10. Where are the Core War archives?
  11. Where can I find a Core War system for ...?
  12. I do not have FTP. How do I get all this great stuff?
  13. I do not have access to Usenet. How do I post and receive news?
  14. Are there any Core War related WWW sites?
  15. When is the next tournament?
  16. What is KotH? How do I enter?
  17. Is it DAT 0, 0 or DAT #0, #0? How do I compare to core?
  18. How does SLT (Skip if Less Than) work?
  19. What is the difference between in-register and in-memory evaluation?
  20. What does (expression or term of your choice) mean?
  21. Other questions?

What is Core War?

Core War is a game played by two or more programs (and vicariously by their authors) written in an assembly language called Redcode and run in a virtual computer called MARS (for Memory Array Redcode Simulator). The object of the game is to cause all processes of the opposing program to terminate, leaving your program in sole posession of the machine.

There are Core War systems available for most computer platforms. Redcode has been standardized by the ICWS, and is therefore transportable between all standard Core War systems.

[ToC]


Is it "Core War" or "Core Wars"?

Both terms are used. Early references were to Core War. Later references seem to use Core Wars. I prefer "Core War" to refer to the game in general, "core wars" to refer to more than one specific battle.

[ToC]


Where can I find more information about Core War?

Core War was first described in the Core War Guidelines of March, 1984 by D. G. Jones and A. K. Dewdney of the Department of Computer Science at The University of Western Ontario (Canada). Dewdney wrote several "Computer Recreations" articles in Scientific American which discussed Core War, starting with the May 1984 article. Those articles are contained in two anthologies:

Author: Dewdney, A. K.
Title: The Armchair Universe: An Exploration of Computer Worlds
Published: New York: W. H. Freeman (c) 1988
ISBN: 0-7167-1939-8
Library of Congress Call Number: QA76.6 .D517 1988

Author: Dewdney, A. K.
Title: The Magic Machine: A Handbook of Computer Sorcery
Published: New York: W. H. Freeman (c) 1990
ISBN: 0-7167-2125-2 (Hardcover), 0-7167-2144-9 (Paperback)
Library of Congress Call Number: QA76.6 .D5173 1990

A.K. Dewdney's articles are still the most readable introduction to Core War, even though the Redcode dialect described in there is no longer current.

[ToC]


Core War has changed since Dewdney's articles. Where do I get a copy of the current instruction set?

A draft of the official standard (ICWS'88) is available as <URL:http://ftp.csua.berkeley.edu/pub/corewar/documents/standards/redcode-icws-88> . This document is formatted awkwardly and contains ambiguous statements. For a more approachable intro to Redcode, take a look at Mark Durham's tutorial, <URL:http://ftp.csua.berkeley.edu/pub/corewar/documents/tutorial.1> and <URL:http://ftp.csua.berkeley.edu/pub/corewar/documents/tutorial.2>.

Steven Morrell (morrell@math.utah.edu) is preparing a more practically oriented Redcode tutorial that discusses different warrior classes with lots of example code. Mail him for a preliminary version. Michael Constant (mconst@csua.berkeley.edu) is reportedly working on a beginner's introduction.

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What is ICWS'94? Which simulators support ICWS'94?

There is an ongoing discussion about future enhancements to the Redcode language. A proposed new standard, dubbed ICWS'94, is currently being evaluated. A major change is the addition of "instruction modifiers" that allow instructions to modify A-field, B-field or both. Also new is a post-increment indirect addressing mode and unrestricted opcode and addressing mode combination ("no illegal instructions"). ICWS'94 is backwards compatible; i.e. ICWS'88 warriors will run correctly on an ICWS'94 system. Take a look at the ICWS'94 draft <URL:ftp://ftp.csua.berkeley.edu/pub/corewar/documents/icws94.0202.Z> for more information. You can try out the new standard by submitting warriors to the '94 hills of the KotH servers. Two corewar systems currently support ICWS'94, pMARS (many platforms) and Redcoder (Mac), both available at ftp.csua.berkeley.edu.

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What is the ICWS?

About one year after Core War first appeared in Sci-Am, the "International Core War Society" (ICWS) was established. Since that time, the ICWS has been responsible for the creation and maintenance of Core War standards and the running of Core War tournaments. There have been six annual tournaments and two standards (ICWS'86 and ICWS'88).

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What is TCWN?

Since March of 1987, "The Core War Newsletter" (TCWN) has been the official newsletter of the ICWS. It is published quarterly and recent issues are also available as Encapsulated PostScript files.

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How do I join?

For more information about joining the ICWS (which includes a subscription to TCWN), or to contribute an article, review, cartoon, letter, joke, rumor, etc. to TCWN, please contact:

   Jon Newman
   13824 NE 87th Street
   Redmond, WA 98052-1959
   email: jonn@microsoft.com  (Note: Microsoft has NO affiliation with
                                     Core War.  Jon Newman just happens
                                     to work there, and we want to keep
                                     it that way!)
Current annual dues are $15.00 in US currency.

[ToC]


What is the EBS?

The Electronic Branch Section (EBS) of the ICWS is a group of Core War enthusiasts with access to electronic mail. There are no fees associated with being a member of the EBS, and members do reap some of the benefits of full ICWS membership without the expense. For instance, the ten best warriors submitted to the EBS tournament are entered into the annual ICWS tournament. All EBS business is conducted in the rec.games.corewar newsgroup.

The current goal of the EBS is to be at the forefront of Core War by writing and implementing new standards and test suites.

[ToC]


Where are the Core War archives?

Many documents such as the guidelines and the ICWS standards along with previous tournament Redcode entries and complete Core War systems are available via anonymous ftp from <URL:ftp://ftp.csua.berkeley.edu/pub/corewar/systems> (128.32.149.19) in the /pub/corewar directories. Also, most of past rec.games.corewar postings (including Redcode source listings) are archived there. Jon Blow (blojo@csua.berkeley.edu) is the archive administrator. When uploading to /pub/corewar/incoming, ask Jon to move your upload to the appropriate directory and announce it on the net.

Much of what is available on soda is also available on the German archive at iraun1.ira.uka.de (129.13.10.90) in the /pub/x11/corewars directory.

The plain text version of this FAQ is automatically archived by news.answers.

[ToC]


Where can I find a Core War system for . . . ?

Core War systems are available via anonymous ftp from ftp.csua.berkeley.edu in the /pub/corewar/systems directory. Currently, there are UNIX, IBM PC-compatible, Macintosh, and Amiga Core War systems available there. It is a good idea to check <URL:ftp://ftp.csua.berkeley.edu/pub/corewar/incoming> for program updates first.

CAUTION! There are many, many Core War systems available which are NOT ICWS'88 (or even ICWS'86) compatible available at various archive sites other than ftp.csua.berkeley.edu. Generally, the older the program - the less likely it will be ICWS compatible.

Reviews of Core War systems would be greatly appreciated in the newsgroup and in the newsletter.

Below is a not necessarily complete or up-to-date list of what's available at ftp.csua.berkeley.edu:

    MADgic41.lzh    - corewar for the Amiga, v4.1
    MAD4041.lzh     - older version?
    MAD50B.lha      - corewar for the Amiga, beta version 5.0
    Redcoder-21.hqx - corewar for the Mac, supports ICWS'88 and '94 (without
                      extensions)
    core-11.hqx     - corewar for the Mac
    core-wars-simulator.hqx - same as core-11.hqx?
    corewar_unix_x11.tar.Z - corewar for UNIX/X-windows, ICWS'86 but
                      not ICWS'88 compatible
    koth31.tar.Z    - corewar for UNIX/X-windows. This program ran the
                      former KotH server at intel.com
    koth.shar.Z     - older version
    kothpc.zip      - port of older version of KotH to the PC
    deluxe20c.tar.Z - corewar for UNIX (broken X-windows or curses) and PC
    mars.tar.Z      - corewar for UNIX, likely not ICWS'88 compatible
    icons.zip       - corewar icons for MS-Windows
    macrored.zip    - a redcode macro-preprocessor (PC)
    c88v49.zip      - PC corewar, textmode display
    mars88.zip      - PC corewar, graphics mode display
    corwp302.zip    - PC corewar, textmode display, slowish
    mercury2.zip    - PC corewar written in assembly, fast!
    mtourn11.zip    - tournament scheduler for mercury (req. 4DOS)
    pmars08s.zip    - portable system, ICWS'88 and '94, runs on UNIX,
                      PC, Mac, Amiga. C source archive
    pmars08s.tar.Z  - same as above
    pmars08.zip    - PC executables with graphics display, req 386+
    macpmars02.sit.hqx - pMARS executable for Mac (port of version 0.2)
                      buggy, no display
    MacpMARS1.99a.cpt.hqx - port of v0.8 for the Mac, with display and
                      debugger
    MacpMARS1.0s.cpt.hqx - C source (MPW, ThinkC) for Mac frontend
    ApMARS03.lha    - pMARS executable for Amiga (port of version 0.3.1)
    wincor11.zip    - MS-Windows system, shareware ($15)

[ToC]


I do not have FTP. How do I get all this great stuff?

There is an ftp email server at ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com. Send email with a subject and body text of "help" (without the quotes) for more information on its usage. If you don't have access to the net at all, send me a 3.5 '' diskette in a self-addressed disk mailer with postage and I will mail it back with an image of the Core War archives in PC format. My address is at the end of this post.

[ToC]


I do not have access to Usenet. How do I post and receive news?

To receive rec.games.corewar articles by email, join the COREWAR-L list run on the Stormking.Com list processor. To join, send the message
        SUB COREWAR-L FirstName LastName
to listproc@stormking.com. You can send mail to corewar-l@stormking.com to post even if you are not a member of the list. Responsible for the listserver is Scott J. Ellentuch (tuc@stormking.com).

Another server that allows you to post (but not receive) articles is available. Email your post to rec-games-corewar@cs.utexas.edu and it will be automatically posted for you.

[ToC]


Are there any Core War related WWW sites?

You bet. Each of the two KotH sites sport a world-wide web server. Stormking's Core War page is <URL:http://www.stormking.com/~koth>; pizza's is <URL:http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~pizza/koth> . A third WWW site is in Koeln, Germany: <URL:http://www.khm.uni-koeln.de/~wbi/Index/Smoking/CWBH>. Last but not least, Stephen Beitzel's "Unofficial Core War Page" is <URL:http://www2.eworld.com/aos/people/beitzel/core.html>.
All site are in varying stages of construction, so it would be futile to list here what they have to offer.

[ToC]


When is the next tournament?

The ICWS holds an annual tournament. Traditionally, the deadline for entering is the 15th of December. The EBS usually holds a preliminary tournament around the 15th of November and sends the top finishers on to the ICWS tournament.

Informal double-elimination and other types of tournaments are held frequently among readers of the newsgroup; watch there for announcements or contact me.

[ToC]


What is KotH? How do I enter?

King Of The Hill (KotH) is an ongoing Core War tournament available to anyone with email. You enter by submitting via email a Redcode program (warrior) with special comment lines. You will receive a reply indicating how well your program did against the current top programs "on the hill".

There are two styles of KotH tournaments, "classical" and "multi-warrior". The "classical" KotH is a one-on-one tournament, that is your warrior will play 100 battles against each of the 20 other programs currently on the Hill. You receive 3 points for each win and 1 point for each tie. (The existing programs do not replay each other, but their previous battles are recalled.) All scores are updated to reflect your battles and all 21 programs are ranked from high to low. If you are number 21 you are pushed off the Hill, if you are higher than 21 someone else is pushed off.

In "multi-warrior" KotH, all warriors on the hill fight each other at the same time. Score calculation is a bit more complex than for the one-on-one tournament. Briefly, points are awarded based on how many warriors survive until the end of a round. A warrior that survives by itself gets more points than a warrior that survives together with other warriors. Points are calculated from the formula (W*W-1)/S, where W is the total number of warriors and S the number of surviving warriors. The pMARS documentation has more information on multi-warrior scoring.

The idea for an email-based Core War server came from David Lee. The original KotH was developed and run by William Shubert at Intel starting in 1991, and discontinued after almost three years of service. Currently, KotHs based on Bill's UNIX scripts but offering a wider variety of hills are are running at two sites: "koth@stormking.com" is maintained by Scott J. Ellentuch (tuc@stormking.com) and "pizza@ecst.csuchico.edu" by Thomas H. Davies (sd@ecst.csuchico.edu). Up until May '95, the two sites provided overlapping services, i.e. the some of the hill types were offered by both "pizza" and "stormking". To conserve resources, the different hill types are now divided up among the sites. The way you submit warriors to both KotHs is pretty much the same. Therefore, the entry rules described below apply to both "pizza" and "stormking" unless otherwise noted.

Entry rules for King of the Hill Corewar:

1) Write a corewar program. KotH is fully ICWS '88 compatible, EXCEPT that a comma (",") is required between two arguments.

2) Put a line starting with ";redcode" (or ";redcode-94, etc., see below) at the top of your program. This MUST be the first line. Anything before it will be lost. If you wish to receive mail on every new entrant, use ";redcode verbose". Otherwise you will only receive mail if a challenger makes it onto the hill. Use ";redcode quiet" if you wish to receive mail only when you get shoved off the hill. (Also, see 5 below).

Additionally, adding ";name " and ";author " will be helpful in the performance reports. Do NOT have a line beginning with ";address" in your code; this will confuse the mail daemon and you won't get mail back.

In addition, it would be nice if you have lines beginning with ";strategy" that describe the algorithm you use.

There are currently seven separate hills you can select by starting your program with ;redcode-b, ;redcode-94, ;redcode-94x, ;redcode, ;redcode-icws, ;redcode-94m or ;redcode-94xm. The former three run at "pizza", the latter four at "stormking". More information on these hills is listed below.

3) Mail this file to koth@stormking.com or pizza@ecst.csuchico.edu. "Pizza" requires a subject of "koth" (use the -s flag on most mailers).

4) Within a few minutes you should get mail back telling you whether your program assembled correctly or not. If it did assemble correctly, sit back and wait; if not, make the change required and re-submit.

5) In an hour or so you should get more mail telling you how your program performed against the current top 20 (or 10) programs. If no news arrives during that time, don't worry; entries are put in a queue and run through the tournament one at a time. A backlog may develop. Be patient.

If your program makes it onto the hill, you will get mail every time a new program makes it onto the hill. If this is too much mail, you can use ";redcode[-??] quiet" when you first mail in your program; then you will only get mail when you make it on the top 20 list or when you are knocked off. Using ";redcode[-??] verbose" will give you even more mail; here you get mail every time a new challenger arrives, even if they don't make it onto the top 20 list.

Often programmers want to try out slight variations in their programs. If you already have a program named "foo V1.0" on the hill, adding the line ";kill foo" to a new program will automatically bump foo 1.0 off the hill. Just ";kill" will remove all of your programs when you submit the new one. The server kills programs by assigning an impossibly low score; it may therefore take another successful challenge before a killed program is actually removed from the hill.

SAMPLE ENTRY:
;redcode
;name Dwarf
;author A. K. Dewdney
;strategy Throw DAT bombs around memory, hitting every 4th memory cell.
;strategy This program was presented in the first Corewar article.
bomb  DAT   #0
dwarf ADD   #4,    bomb
      MOV   bomb, @bomb
      JMP   dwarf
      END   dwarf          ; Programs start at the first line unless
                           ; an "END start" pseudo-op appears to indicate
                           ; the first logical instruction.  Also, nothing
                           ; after the END instruction will be assembled.

Here are the Specs for the various hills:

ICWS'88 Standard Hill Specs: (Accessed with ";redcode", available at
"stormking")
         hillsize: 20 warriors
           rounds: 100
         coresize: 8000
   max. processes: 8000
         duration: after 80,000 cycles, a tie is declared.
max. entry length: 100
 minimum distance: 100
  instruction set: ICWS '88

ICWS Annual Tournament Hill Specs: (Accessed with ";redcode-icws",
available at "stormking")
         hillsize: 20 warriors
           rounds: 100
         coresize: 8192 instructions
   max. processes: 8000 per program
         duration: After 100,000 cycles, a tie is declared.
max. entry length: 300
 minimum distance: 300
  instruction set: ICWS '88

ICWS'94 Draft Hill Specs: (Accessed with ";redcode-94", available at
"pizza")
         hillsize: 20 warriors
           rounds: 100
         coresize: 8000
   max. processes: 8000
         duration: after 80,000 cycles, a tie is declared.
max. entry length: 100
 minimum distance: 100
  instruction set: extended ICWS '94 Draft

ICWS'94 Beginner's Hill Specs: (Accessed with ";redcode-b", available
at "pizza")
         hillsize: 20 warriors
           rounds: 100
         coresize: 8000
   max. processes: 8000
         duration: after 80,000 cycles, a tie is declared.
max. entry length: 100
 minimum distance: 100
  instruction set: extended ICWS '94 Draft
         max. age: after 100 successful challenges, warriors are retired.

ICWS'94 Experimental (Big) Hill Specs: (Accessed with ";redcode-94x",
available at "pizza")
         hillsize: 20 warriors
           rounds: 100
         coresize: 55440
   max. processes: 10000
         duration: after 500,000 cycles, a tie is declared.
max. entry length: 200
 minimum distance: 200
  instruction set: extended ICWS '94 Draft

ICWS'94 Draft Multi-Warrior Hill Specs: (Accessed with ";redcode-94m",
available at "stormking")
         hillsize: 10 warriors
           rounds: 200
         coresize: 8000
   max. processes: 8000
         duration: after 80,000 cycles, a tie is declared.
max. entry length: 100
 minimum distance: 100
  instruction set: extended ICWS '94 Draft

ICWS'94 Experimental (Big) Multi-Warrior Hill Specs:
(Accessed with ";redcode-94xm", available at "stormking")
         hillsize: 20 warriors
           rounds: 100
         coresize: 55440
   max. processes: 10000
         duration: after 500,000 cycles, a tie is declared.
max. entry length: 200
 minimum distance: 200
  instruction set: extended ICWS '94 Draft

If you just want to get a status report without actually challenging the hills, send email with ";status" as the message body (and don't forget "Subject: koth" for "pizza"). If you send mail to "pizza" with "Subject: koth help" you will receive instructions that may be more up to date than those contained in this document.

At stormking, a message body with ";help" will return brief instructions. If you submit code containing a ";test" line, your warrior will be assembled but not actually pitted against the warriors on the hill.

All hills run portable MARS (pMARS) version 0.8, a platform-independent corewar system available at ftp.csua.berkeley.edu.

The '94 and '94x hills allow three experimental opcodes and addressing modes currently not covered in the ICWS'94 draft document:

        SEQ - Skip if EQual (synonym for CMP)
        SNE - Skip if Not Equal
        NOP - (No OPeration)

        *   - indirect using A-field as pointer
        {   - predecrement indirect using A-field
        }   - postincrement indirect using A-field

[ToC]


Is it DAT 0, 0 or DAT #0, #0? How do I compare to core?

Core is initialized to DAT 0, 0. This is an "illegal" instruction under ICWS'88 rules and strictly compliant assemblers (such as KotH or pmars -8) will not let you write a DAT 0, 0 instruction - only DAT #0, #0. So this begs the question, how to compare something to see if it is empty core. The answer is, most likely the instruction before your first instruction and the instruction after your last instruction are both DAT 0, 0. You can use them, or any other likely unmodified instructions, for comparison. Note that under ICWS'94, DAT 0, 0 is a legal instruction.

[ToC]


How does SLT (Skip if Less Than) work?

SLT gives some people trouble because of the way modular arithmetic works. It is important to note that all negative numbers are converted to positive numbers before a battles begins. Example: (-1) becomes (M - 1) where M is the memory size.

Once you realize that all numbers are treated as positive, it is clear what is meant by "less than". It should also be clear that no number is less than zero.

[ToC]


What is the difference between in-register and in-memory evaluation?

These terms refer to the way instruction operands are evaluated. The '88 Redcode standard ICWS'88 is unclear about whether a simulator should "buffer" the result of A-operand evaluation before the B-operand is evaluated. Simulators that do buffer are said to use in-register evaluation, those that don't, in-memory evaluation. ICWS'94 clears this confusion by mandating in-register evaluation. Instructions that execute differently under these two forms of evaluation are MOV, ADD, SUB, MUL, DIV and MOD where the effective address of the A-operand is modified by evaluation of the B-operand. This is best illustrated by an example:
   L1  mov L2,<L2
   L2  dat #0,#1
Under in-register evaluation, the 'L2' instruction is saved in a buffer before the 'L2' memory location is decremented by evaluation of the B-operand of 'L1'. The saved 'dat #0,#1' instruction is then written to 'L2', leaving it unchanged.

Under in-memory evaluation, the 'L2' instruction is not buffered and thus decremented by evaluation of the B-operand. After execution of 'L1', 'L2' changes to "dat #0,#0".

[ToC]


What does (expression or term of your choice) mean?

Here is a selected glossary of terms. If you have a definition and/or term you wish to see here, please send it to me.

(References to an X-like program mean that the term X is derived from the specific program X and has become a generic term).

Binary launch
one of several means to start an imp-spiral running. The fastest launch technique, but requires the most code. See also JMP/ADD Launch and Vector Launch.

    impsize   equ 2667
    example   spl 4               ; extend by adding spl 8, spl 16, etc.
              spl 2
              jmp imp+(0*impsize) ; jmp's execute in order
              jmp imp+(1*impsize)
              spl 2
              jmp imp+(2*impsize)
              jmp imp+(3*impsize)
    imp       mov 0,impsize       ; in '94 use -> mov.i #0,impsize
Bootstrapping
Strategy of copying the active portion of the program away from the initial location, leaving a decoy behind and making the relocated program as small as possible.
B-Scanners
Scanners which only recognize non-zero B-fields.
    example   add #10,scan
    scan      jmz example,10
C
Measure of speed, equal to one location per cycle. Speed of light.
CMP-Scanner
A Scanner which uses a CMP instruction to look for opponents.
    example   add step,scan
    scan      cmp 10,30
              jmp attack
              jmp example
    step      dat #20,#20
Color
Property of bombs making them visible to scanners, causing them to attack useless locations, thus slowing them down.
    example   dat #100
Core-Clear
code that sequentially overwrites core with DAT instructions; usually the last part of a program.
Decoys
Bogus or unused instructions meant to slow down Scanners. Typically, DATs with non-zero B-fields.
DJN-Stream (also DJN-Train)
Using a DJN command to rapidly decrement core locations.
    example   ...
              ...
              djn example,<4000
Dwarf
the prototypical small bomber.
Gate-busting (also gate-crashing)
technique to "interweave" a decrement-resistant imp-spiral (e.g. MOV 0, 2668) with a standard one to overrun imp-gates.
Hybrids
warriors that combine two or more of the basic strategies, either in sequence (e.g. stone->paper) or in parallel (e.g. imp/stone).
Imp
Program which only uses the MOV instruction.
    example   MOV 0, 1
  or
    example   MOV 0, 2
              MOV 0, 2
Imp-Gate
A location in core which is bombed or decremented continuously so that an Imp can not pass. Also used to describe the program-code which maintains the gate.
    example   ...
              ...
              SPL 0, <example
              DAT <example, #0
Imp-Ring
A minimal Imp-Spiral.
    d         EQU (coresize+1)/3
    A         MOV 0,d   ; copy self to B
    B         MOV 0,d   ; copy self to C
    C         MOV 0,d   ; copy self to A+1
Imp-Spiral
An Imp-like program with two or more processes supporting each other. A three-point spiral, with six processes running in this sequence:
    d         EQU (coresize+1)/3
    A         MOV 0,d   ; copy self to B
    B         MOV 0,d   ; copy self to C
    C         MOV 0,d   ; copy self to A+1
    A+1       MOV 0,d   ; copy self to B+1
    B+1       MOV 0,d   ; copy self to C+1
    C+1       MOV 0,d   ; copy self to A+2
Incendiary Bomb
A type of Stun bomb which creates a SPL 0 carpet.
    example   SPL 0, 8
              MOV -1, <-1
JMP/ADD Launch
one of several means to start an imp-spiral running. The slowest launch technique, but requires the least code. See also Binary Launch and Vector Launch.
    impsize   equ 2667
    example   spl 1               ; extend by adding more spl 1's
              spl 1
              spl 2
              jmp @0,imp
              add #impsize,-1     ; bump address by impsize after each jmp
              dat #0,#0           ; excess processes must die!
    imp       mov 0,impsize       ; in '94 use -> mov.i #0,impsize
Mirror
see reflection.
On-axis/off-axis
On-axis scanners compare two locations M/2 apart, where M is the memory size. Off-axis scanners use some other separation.
Optimal Constants
(also optima-type constants) Bomb or scan increments chosen to cover core most effectively, i.e. leaving gaps of uniform size. Programs to calculate optimal constants and lists of optimal numbers are available at ftp.csua.berkeley.edu.
Paper
A Paper-like program. One which replicates itself many times. Part of the Scissors (beats) Paper (beats) Stone (beats Scissors) analogy.
Pit-Trapper
(also Slaver, Vampire). A program which enslaves another. Usually accomplished by bombing with JMPs to a SPL 0 pit with an optional core-clear routine.
Quick Scan
2c scan of a set group of core locations with bombing if anything is found. Both of the following codes snips scan 16 locations and check for a find. If anything is found, it is attacked, otherwise 16 more locations are scanned. Example:
     start
     s1 for 8    ;'88 scan
            cmp  start+100*s1, start+100*s1+4000  ;check two locations
            mov  #start+100*s1-found, found  ;they differ so set pointer
     rof
            jmn  attack,     found     ;if we have something, get it
     s2 for 8
            cmp  start+100*(s2+6), start+100*(s2+6)+4000
            mov  #start+100*(s2+6)-found, found
     rof
     found  jmz  moveme,  #0        ;skip attack if qscan found nothing
     attack cmp  @found,  start-1   ;does found points to empty space?
            add  #4000,   found     ;no, so point to correct location
            mov  start-1, @found    ;move a bomb
     moveme jmp  0,       0

In ICWS'94, the quick scan code is more compact because of the SNE opcode:

     start       ;'94 scan
     s1 for 4
            sne  start+400*s1, start+400*s1+100  ;check two locations
            seq  start+400*s1+200, start+400*s1+300  ;check two locations
            mov  #start+400*s1-found, found  ;they differ so set pointer
     rof
            jmn  which,   found     ;if we have something, get it
     s2 for 4
            sne  start+400*(s2+4), start+400*(s2+4)+100
            seq  start+400*(s2+4)+200, start+400*(s2+4)+300
            mov  #start+400*(s2+4)-found-100, found
     rof
     found  jmz  moveme,  #0        ;skip attack if qscan found nothing
            add  #100,    -1        ;increment pointer till we get the
     which  jmn  -1,      @found    ;right place
            mov  start-1, @found    ;move a bomb
     moveme jmp  0,       0
Reflection
Copy of a program or program part, positioned to make the active program invisible to a CMP-scanner.
Replicator
Generic for Paper. A program which makes many copies of itself, each copy also making copies.
Self-Splitting
Strategy of amplifying the number of processes executing a piece of code.
    example    SPL 0
    loop       ADD #10, example
               MOV example, @example
               JMP loop
Scanner
A program which searches through core for an opponent rather than bombing blindly.
Scissors
A program designed to beat replicators, usually a (B-field scanning) vampire. Part of the Paper-Scissors-Stone analogy.
Self-Repair
Ability of a program to fix it's own code after attack.
Silk
A replicator which splits off a process to each new copy before actually copying the code. This allows it to replicate extremely quickly. This technique is only possible under the '94 draft, because it requires post-increment indirect addressing. Example:
           	spl	1
           	mov.i	-1,	0
           	spl	1		;generate 6 consecutive processes
    silk	spl	3620,	#0	;split to new copy
           	mov.i	>-1,	}-1	;copy self to new location
           	mov.i	bomb,	>2000	;linear bombing
           	mov.i	bomb,	}2042	;A-indirect bombing for anti-vamp
           	jmp	silk,	{silk	;reset source pointer, make new copy
    bomb	dat.f	>2667,	>5334	;anti-imp bomb
Slaver
see Pit-Trapper.
Stealth
Property of programs, or program parts, which are invisible to scanners, accomplished by using zero B-fields and reflections.
Stone
A Stone-like program designed to be a small bomber. Part of the Paper-Scissors-Stone analogy.
Stun
A type of bomb which makes the opponent multiply useless processes, thus slowing it down. Example is referred to as a spl-jmp bomb.
    example    spl 0
               jmp -1
Two-Pass Core-Clear (also spl/dat Core-Clear)
core clear that fills core first with SPL instructions, then with DATs. This is very effective in killing paper and certain imp-spiral variations.
Vampire
see Pit-Trapper.
Vector Launch
one of several means to start an imp-spiral running. As fast as Binary Launch, but requiring much less code. See also JMP/ADD Launch and Binary Launch. This example is one form of a Vector Launch:
    impsize   equ 2667
    example   spl 1                       ; extend by adding more spl 1's
              spl 1
              djn.a   @imp,#0             ; jmp @ a series of pointers
              dat     #0,imp+(3*impsize)
              dat     #0,imp+(2*impsize)
              dat     #0,imp+(1*impsize)
              dat     #0,imp+(0*impsize)
    imp       mov.i   #0,impsize

[ToC]


Other questions?

Just ask in the rec.games.corewar newsgroup or contact me (address below). If you are shy, check out the Core War archives first to see if your question has been answered before.

[ToC]


Credits

Additions, corrections, etc. to this document are solicited. Thanks in particular to the following people who have contributed major portions of this document: Paul Kline, Randy Graham.
Mark Durham wrote the first version of the FAQ.

The rec.games.corewar FAQ is Copyright 1995 and maintained by:

Stefan Strack, PhD                          stst@vuse.vanderbilt.edu
Dept. Molecular Physiol. and Biophysics     stst@idnsun.gpct.vanderbilt.edu
Rm. 762, MRB-1                              stracks@vuctrvax.bitnet
Vanderbilt Univ. Medical Center             Voice: +615-322-4389
Nashville, TN 37232-6600, USA               FAX:   +615-322-7236

$Id: corewar-faq.html,v 3.6 1995/10/12 22:44:37 stst Exp stst $