Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!tank!mimsy!haven!udel!toffee!gray
From: gray@toffee.it.udel.edu (Scott Gray)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: Class Use of Corewars
Message-ID: <12948@nigel.udel.EDU>
Date: 5 Mar 90 19:37:10 GMT
References: <6709@cps3xx.UUCP> <6{+#C1+@rpi.edu> <25F16C01.B50@deimos.cis.ksu.edu>
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Reply-To: gray@freezer.it.udel.edu (Scott Gray)
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 bdn@phobos.cis.ksu.edu (Bryan D. Nehl) writes
>In article <6{+#C1+@rpi.edu> hiebeler@cs.rpi.edu (Dave Hiebeler) writes:
>>In article <6709@cps3xx.UUCP> reid@cpswh.cps.msu.edu (Dr Richard J. Reid) writes:
>>> Have you used Corewars (Scientific American thread) or
>>> anything like it in your classes?  That is, a competition
>>> among the students where their programs compete one-on-one.
>>  There was another program called "C-bots" where you write C programs
>>that control little "robots" moving around in 2 dimensions (so you can
>>watch them on the screen).  (By "robots" I don't mean physical robots,
>>just simulated robots).  You write your program to control movement of
>>these robots, and monitor their sensors; the objective is to have your
>>robot "kill" (by shooting at) other robots moving around.

>>Dave Hiebeler / Computer Science Dept. / Amos Eaton Bldg. /
>>Internet (preferred): hiebeler@turing.cs.rpi.edu   Bitnet: userF3JL@rpitsmts

>Now my question is: "How would one go about writing such a program?"
>Would you have to write each one as a tsr?  Then they could possibly
>interact through the registers...saving positions of robots and "bullets"
>in the registers?  If anyone has source please let me know, or if it is
>small enough post it.

There are two such programs that do just such a thing in public domain.
COREWAR simulates multiple assembly laguage programs in and 8000 byte memory
space using an assembly interpreter.  The robots idea is also released under
the name of CROBOTS for C Robots.

To implement a robot you write a pseudo C code program to control the 
individual robots.  You are given commands to scan the screen for the nearest
robot, detect the speed of the robot and the direction of movement, and
similar commands for controlling your own robot.  Your robot has real
acceleration, in otherwords you have to accelerate and decelerate instead
of instantanious stop and go.  So your program has to take into account
all of these actions with the other robots AND must be efficient because
speed counts too.  Strategy algorithms aren't that easy to write.

As for how you go about implementing this, what CROBOTS does is compile
each of the programs for the seperate robots (up to 5) into its own
executable code, then acts as the schedular for all of the robot's programs,
keeping a seperate program pointer for each robot and executing each line
of code in lockstep.

If you are interested in any of these programs, I think they are both available
through, of course, simtel.

Scott Gray

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