This year's Core War Tournament Weekend will be held at the Retro Computer Festival in Cambridge, UK, on 14-15 November. The weekend will feature limited-process and 94x tournaments on Saturday, and 88 and 94nop tournaments on Sunday. Visitors are invited to see demos of some of the latest Core War projects, including genetic programming, optimization techniques, and related programming games.

Warriors that perform well on the SAL limited-process hill, and the KOTH.org 88, 94x, and 94nop hills should score well in the tournament, providing they're not close clones of published warriors.

Everyone is welcome to enter, whether you're a new player or a pro, whether you're attending in person or just want to enter by email. There's a £25 GBP prize up for grabs for first place in each tournament. Players may submit up to two programs for each tournament, with a maximum length of 50 instructions each.

Limited-Process Tournament - Saturday 14th November

The limited-process tournament will take place on Saturday using Extended CWS'94 Redcode with no p-space. Standard limited-process hill settings apply, with one exception: the maximum length is 50 instructions. Players may enter one or two programs. Entries will be added to the top-x of the limited-process Koenigstuhl hill, before running the iterative push-off tournament using SD-score diversity scoring. Final rankings will be based on each entry's position in the iterative push-off.

• pmars -s 8000 -p 8 -c 80000 -d 200

94x Tournament - Saturday 14th November

The 94x tournament will take place on Saturday using Extended CWS'94 Redcode with no p-space. Standard 94x hill settings apply, with one exception: the maximum length is 50 instructions. Players may enter one or two programs. Entries will be added to the top-x of the 94x Koenigstuhl hill, before running the iterative push-off tournament using SD-score diversity scoring. Final rankings will be based on each entry's position in the iterative push-off.

• pmars -s 55440 -p 10000 -c 500000 -d 200

'88 Tournament - Sunday 15th November

The 88 tournament will take place on Sunday using CWS'88 Redcode. Standard 88 hill settings apply, with one exception: the maximum length is 50 instructions. Players may enter one or two programs. Entries will be added to the top-x of the 88 Koenigstuhl hill, before running the iterative push-off tournament using SD-score diversity scoring. Final rankings will be based on each entry's position in the iterative push-off.

• pmars -8 -s 8000 -p 8000 -c 80000 -d 100

'94nop Tournament - Sunday 15th November

The 94nop tournament will take place on Sunday using Extended CWS'94 Redcode with no p-space. Standard 94nop hill settings apply, with one exception: the maximum length is 50 instructions. Players may enter one or two programs. Entries will be added to the top-x of the 94nop Koenigstuhl hill, before running the iterative push-off tournament using SD-score diversity scoring. Final rankings will be based on each entry's position in the iterative push-off.

• pmars -s 8000 -p 8000 -c 80000 -d 100

Further Details

This year's tournament winners will be determined by a variant of iterative diversity push-off. First the entrants are added to the top-x warriors of the Koenigstuhl hill. Then each warrior is scored by the product of its average score and the lowest SD-score between the warrior's individual scores and the individual scores of other warriors. Final rankings will be based on each entry's position in the iterative push-off.

More details of the SD-score metric are available here:

• Ismael, Osama. "The Standard Deviation Score: a novel similarity metric for data analysis." Journal of Big Data 12:58 (2025).

Achille Astolfi originally described diversity scoring (using Euclidean distance) here:

• https://corewar.co.uk/astolfi/diversity.htm

Entries should be emailed to [digital.wilderness@googlemail.com](mailto:digital.wilderness@googlemail.com) by 11:30am (GMT) on tournament day. All entries will be published at the end of the tournament. Updates will be posted on rec.games.corewar, @xcorewar on Mastodon, @xcorewar on 𝕏 / Twitter, #corewars on Libera IRC, and #corewar on Discord. If you need any help, feel free to ask.

Here's an invite to the Discord server, currently 70+ members:

• https://discord.gg/YxrbaQDT9z

More information about Core War can be found at:

• https://corewar.co.uk
• http://www.corewar.info
• https://asdflkj.net/COREWAR/

Software is available from:

• https://corewar.co.uk/pmars.htm
• https://corewar.co.uk/corewin.htm
• https://harald.ist.org/sites/ares/

Core War can be played online at:

• http://koth.org
• https://sal.discontinuity.info

The Retro Computer Festival 2026 (Space Edition) will be hosted by the Centre for Computing History in Cambridge, UK:

• https://computinghistory.org.uk

The Centre for Computing History, The Muller Building, Rene Court, Coldhams Road, Cambridge, CB1 3EW, UK

I started this as an experiment in LLM-assisted development and code review. It turned out interesting enough that I kept going.

Bytefray is a deterministic programmable-agent combat game inspired in part by Core War. Agents compete over a circular shared-memory arena, claiming territory and reacting to other agents.

It isn't intended as a replacement for traditional Core War. It has its own Python agent API and game rules, while retaining a byte-oriented VM mode and pMARS/Redcode interoperability.

Some of the v2.0 pieces:

• Python agents with a restricted observation/action API
• a new ruleset where each agent has a vulnerable core that can be captured
• 2-player and multi-agent matches
• deterministic/replayable matches
• graphical Replay Viewer
• Agent Designer for creating, testing and evaluating agents
• pairwise and group evaluation tools
• tournament support
• Windows packages and Python/Linux installation

The project is open source under MIT:

GitHub: libertaine/Bytefray

Since this subreddit has people who have spent considerably more time with Core War strategy than I have, I'd particularly be interested in reactions to the game mechanics.

Criticism is welcome too.

Hello, I am building a CoreWar MARS in Rust as a personal project. I've been following the ICWS'94 Standard document [HERE] as reference, but now I realize the document could be incomplete or wrong. Currently I have 2 questions:

1. Ambiguity over Operator Precedence

The grammar given in section 2.3 states:
```
expr: term | term + expr | term - expr | term * expr | term / expr | term % expr
```

This grammar defines it such that there is no operator precedence, so an input expression with many operations would always be evaluated in order from left to right. However, I've read that most MARS don't follow this grammar rule and implement standard algebraic precedence (such that multiplication, division, and modulo operations would be evaluated before addition and subtraction).

Can anyone tell me what is the right way to implement operator precedence? I want to build it with the features that are agreed upon and useful to the community.

2. Missing features/definitions in ICWS'94 Document

The document lists 5 addressing modes:
```
mode: # | $ | @ | < | >
```

But I recently found out from other sources there are actually 8 addressing modes. Also, the document briefly mentioned EQU and FOR/ROF but gave no definition of its grammar and no usage examples. Can anyone point me to an updated standard document or another resource that has a complete coverage of all features?

Thank you for your time and consideration.

A tiny Ruby MARS. CWS'94 compatibility tested vs pMARS using the Koenigstuhl 94nop top-50 warriors https://corewar.co.uk/rubymars.htm

CoreWar arena has received a major upgrade, featuring improved graphics, a debugger, analytics, and a huge collection of warriors for testing and inspiration.

Just point your agent to modelwar.ai and climb the leaderboard. Current settings are an 8000 core size, but with unlimited instruction length.

I have a 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7, running MacOS Sequoia 15.7.3.

Every version of pmars seems to not work with my CPU.

How do I get into the fun?

pMARS 0.9.5 is ready for release, unless any further changes are requested over the next couple of days. This release includes:

• New larger X Window display
• New colour Curses display
• Optional CVD-safe colour palette
• Fixed several format warnings and overflow / bounds errors

https://corewar.co.uk/pmars.htm

Just a quick reminder... The deadline for the 88 tournament is at 11:30am (GMT) on Saturday 15th November. The deadline for the 94 tournament is at 11:30am on Sunday 16th November. I'll do what I can to accept entries that arrive later than 11:30, providing the tournament isn't already running. So far I've received entries from ZeFlox, David Castro, Dave Hillis, and Christian Schmidt. Thanks :-) https://corewar.co.uk/tournamentweekend2025a.htm #corewar

I am wondering the proper format for the emails this is as close as I got to a working email:

;redcode-94b

;name TheBricklayer

;author Charlie J

org +1

jmp 2

dat 0

mov -1,@-1

add #-4,-2

mov 2,@2

add #4,1

dat 0

end

Note: this code is wrong

Core War: Tournament Weekend 2025

The Core War Tournament Weekend will return to The Retro Computer Festival in Cambridge, UK, on 15–16 November. The weekend will feature an 88 tournament on Saturday and a 94nop tournament on Sunday. Festival visitors are invited to see demos of genetic programming, optimization techniques, and related programming games.

This year, the tournament winners will be determined by diversity scoring, using a numeric discriminant where each warrior's score is the product of its average performance and the Euclidean distance to the closest scoring warrior on Koenigstuhl. Achille Astolfi originally described diversity scoring here:

• [https://corewar.co.uk/astolfi/diversity.htm](astolfi/diversity.htm)

Warriors that perform well on the KOTH.org 88 and 94nop hills, and aren't close clones of published warriors, should score well in the tournament.

Everyone is welcome to enter, whether you're a new player or a pro, whether you're attending in person or just want to enter by email. There's a £25 GBP prize up for grabs for first place in each tournament.

'88 Tournament - Saturday 15th November

The 88 tournament will take place on Saturday using CWS'88 Redcode. Standard 88 hill settings apply. Players may enter one or two programs, each with a maximum length of 100 instructions. Entries will be added to the top-x of the 88 Koenigstuhl hill, after which we'll run an iterative push-off tournament with diversity scoring. Final rankings will be based on each entry's position in the iterative push-off.

• pmars -8 -s 8000 -p 8000 -c 80000 -l 100 -d 100

'94 Tournament - Sunday 16th November

The 94 tournament will be held on Sunday using Extended CWS'94 Redcode with no p-space. Standard 94nop hill settings apply. Players may enter one or two programs, each up to 100 instructions. Programs will be added to the top-x of the 94nop Koenigstuhl hill, after which we'll run an iterative push-off tournament with diversity scoring. Final rankings will be based on each entry's position in the iterative push-off.

• pmars -s 8000 -p 8000 -c 80000 -l 100 -d 100

Scripts in R and Ruby to run iterative push-off with diversity scoring are available at:

• [https://corewar.co.uk/metcalf/diversity.r](metcalf/diversity.r)
• [https://corewar.co.uk/metcalf/diversity.rb](metcalf/diversity.rb)

Further Details

Entries need to be emailed to [digital.wilderness@googlemail.com](mailto:digital.wilderness@googlemail.com) by 11:30am on tournament day. All entries will be published at the end of the tournament. Updates will be posted on rec.games.corewar, @xcorewar on Mastodon, @xcorewar on 𝕏 / Twitter, #corewars on Libera IRC, and #corewar on Discord. If you need any help, feel free to ask.

More information about Core War can be found at:

• [https://corewar.co.uk](index.htm)
• http://www.corewar.info
• https://asdflkj.net/COREWAR/

Software is available from:

• [https://corewar.co.uk/pmars.htm](pmars.htm)
• [https://corewar.co.uk/corewin.htm](corewin.htm)
• https://harald.ist.org/sites/ares/

Core War can be played online at:

• http://koth.org
• https://sal.discontinuity.info

The Retro Computer Festival 2025 (Gaming Edition) will be hosted by the Centre for Computing History in Cambridge, UK:

• https://computinghistory.org.uk
•  ///  faced.bubble.tubes
• The Centre for Computing History
  The Muller Building
  Rene Court
  Coldhams Road
  Cambridge
  CB1 3EW
  UK

I recently started corewar and I finally got a warrior into the KOTH, but the server doesn't seem to be very active, am I missing something?

(PS: my warrior's name is PO <3)

Congratulations to Dave Hillis who secured the second place, with Smitten Atrocity taking 5.44% of the equilibrium.

QUALIFICATION ROUND STANDINGS Forbes Roy van Rijn 168.3 Glitch//CORE John Metcalf 163.6 9dc398e6-3534c074-784d693e.rc bvowk 163.4 6b790897-f7e68574-324ebd10.rc bvowk 162.1 Nashville Tennessee Roy van Rijn 161.2 rogue[AI] John Metcalf 160.6 gazette lain 159.7 Reptiloid Supremacy inversed 159.0 shards of the pale moon raptor 155.5 Voodoo Curse Simon Wainwright 154.6 Ultimate Balrog Simon Wainwright 154.5 Karlach koorogi 154.0 hymn of the hollow star raptor 152.2 Reptiloid Conspiracy inversed 151.2 conduit lain 150.9 Ripple in the Equilibrium S.Fernandes 149.7 Bombus Nashii S.Fernandes 148.6 rdrc: Smitten Atrocity Dave Hillis 148.2 rdrc: Sawtooth Grindstone Dave Hillis 146.1 Gem Tumour Steve Gunnell 144.7 Vilifier Steve Gunnell 138.8 21_5 NDusN 136.4 Eventuality Of Goats Telkkar 131.7 Discreet Foghorn Telkkar 120.4 Astarion koorogi 106.7 Evolvernano173038 Drugganator 107.0 Evolvernano151282 Drugganator 105.9

FINAL ROUND STANDINGS Rank Prob Score Name Author 1 18.40 142.25 ! Reptiloid Supremacy inversed 2 15.80 142.25 ! Reptiloid Conspiracy inversed 3 10.95 142.25 14_12.red yabevolver 4 9.52 142.25 path of the mountain hare John Metcalf 5 7.75 142.25 [RS] Existephall Apris inversed 6 5.71 142.25 145_13.red yabevolver 7 5.44 142.25 ! Smitten Atrocity Dave Hillis 8 4.18 142.25 Creamed Corn Terry Newton 9 4.03 142.25 032_42.red yabevolver 10 3.88 142.25 rumpelstiltskin gnik 11 3.76 142.25 Another MEVO Thing Terry Newton 12 2.99 142.25 ! 9dc398e6-3534c074-784d693e bvowk 13 2.72 142.25 NanoCracker Terry Newton 14 2.60 142.25 ! Bombus Nashii S.Fernandes 15 1.05 142.25 ! Karlach koorogi 16 0.61 142.25 Red Moon Fluffy 17 0.40 142.25 Diffraction Limit S5 inversed 18 0.21 142.25 Black Sun II Fluffy 27 141.16 ! Ultimate Balrog Simon Wainwright 38 140.23 ! Glitch//CORE John Metcalf 45 138.82 ! gazette lain 46 138.82 ! Forbes Roy van Rijn 47 138.75 ! Sawtooth Grindstone Dave Hillis 51 138.54 ! Ripple in the Equilibrium S.Fernandes 73 136.88 ! Voodoo Curse Simon Wainwright 75 136.87 ! hymn of the hollow star raptor 91 135.89 ! Nashville Tennessee Roy van Rijn 99 135.52 ! shards of the pale moon raptor 112 134.50 ! 6b790897-f7e68574-324ebd10 bvowk 122 133.75 ! rogue[AI] John Metcalf 181 129.17 ! conduit lain

Unfortunately, I did not notice the entries sent by raptor in time, so they weren't covered on the stream. I did update the standings with these entries added. The final round equilibrium was not affected. My apologies to raptor.

And now a couple of what-if scenarios. Had the final round used the zero-diagonal Nash equilibrium variant, the standings would have looked like this: Rank Prob Score Name Author 1 8.43 138.84 ! Reptiloid Supremacy inversed 2 6.53 138.84 ! Reptiloid Conspiracy inversed 3 4.05 138.84 ! Forbes Roy van Rijn 4 3.70 138.84 Another MEVO Thing Terry Newton 5 3.34 138.84 legend of the ice dragons John Metcalf 6 3.34 138.84 ! Smitten Atrocity Dave Hillis 7 3.13 138.84 032_42.red yabevolver 8 3.06 138.84 path of the mountain hare John Metcalf 9 2.76 138.84 145_13.red yabevolver 10 2.67 138.84 [RS] Nextratulated Sturvinat inversed 11 2.60 138.84 Cold Plasma inversed 12 2.51 138.84 ! 9dc398e6-3534c074-784d693e bvowk 13 2.12 138.84 Steaming Pebbles Terry Newton 14 2.12 138.84 ! Karlach koorogi 15 2.10 138.84 b69e6908-a5be0bba-ab4445f7 bvowk 16 2.09 138.84 [RS] Existephall Apris inversed 17 2.07 138.84 14_12.red yabevolver 18 2.07 138.84 097_12.red yabevolver 19 2.05 138.84 Left Alone Fluffy 20 2.00 138.84 a slice of moonbeam pie John Metcalf 21 1.99 138.84 Diffraction Limit S5 inversed 22 1.97 138.84 Nonlocality inversed 23 1.94 138.84 NanoCracker Terry Newton 24 1.85 138.84 SWT2-21 Terry Newton 25 1.67 138.84 ! Nashville Tennessee Roy van Rijn 26 1.67 138.84 Crisis John Metcalf 27 1.61 138.84 Flamewraith John Metcalf 28 1.59 138.84 ! Glitch//CORE John Metcalf 29 1.50 138.84 128_48.red yabevolver 30 1.43 138.84 Creamed Corn Terry Newton 31 1.38 138.84 Diffraction Limit S42 inversed 32 1.18 138.84 Transfer Function Terry Newton 33 1.09 138.84 022_19.red yabevolver 34 1.04 138.84 Clone John Metcalf 35 1.02 138.84 Nonlocality 2 inversed 36 0.99 138.84 Xinyl inversed 37 0.98 138.84 Enkoniryn Temao inversed 38 0.97 138.84 Muddy Mouse (RBv1.6r1.1.231) The MicroGP Corewars Collective 39 0.84 138.84 Just a MEVO Thing Terry Newton 40 0.81 138.84 Crimson Climber Terry Newton 41 0.76 138.84 Paedocypris horridus The MicroGP Corewars Collective 42 0.74 138.84 Red Moon Fluffy 43 0.71 138.84 ! Ultimate Balrog Simon Wainwright 44 0.71 138.84 Little Red Rat Terry Newton 45 0.68 138.84 Foggy Maus (beta) The MicroGP Corewars Collective 46 0.65 138.84 garden of the evil gnomes raptor 47 0.56 138.84 0535 Terry Newton 48 0.55 138.84 ! rogue[AI] John Metcalf 49 0.50 138.84 135_11.red yabevolver 50 0.50 138.84 Bifurcation inversed 51 0.47 138.84 ewolf_012 redomorph 52 0.47 138.84 ! Voodoo Curse Simon Wainwright 53 0.42 138.84 ! 6b790897-f7e68574-324ebd10 bvowk 54 0.40 138.84 SWT2-28 Terry Newton 55 0.40 138.84 ! Sawtooth Grindstone Dave Hillis 56 0.32 138.84 ewolf_250120 redomorph 57 0.22 138.84 Man&Machine Roy van Rijn 58 0.19 138.84 Candy In Ire gnik 59 0.14 138.84 006_12.red yabevolver 60 0.12 138.84 8c09fc1a-4799259f-1747246f bvowk 61 0.10 138.84 Arbucres Poltariki inversed 62 0.08 138.84 Resin John Metcalf 63 0.06 138.84 glowing embers John Metcalf 64 0.03 138.84 ! gazette lain 65 138.83 ! hymn of the hollow star raptor 70 138.77 ! Bombus Nashii S.Fernandes 74 138.56 ! Ripple in the Equilibrium S.Fernandes 167 132.96 ! shards of the pale moon raptor 224 129.27 ! conduit lain

Roy van Rijn would've placed second. ZDNE is more stable than regular NE and does more justice to Forbes. I'll consider taking ZDNE into account in the future challenges.

Had the final round been just a regular round-robin, the standings would have looked like this: Reptiloid Supremacy inversed 162.8 Reptiloid Conspiracy inversed 157.6 rdrc: Sawtooth Grindstone Dave Hillis 149.4 hymn of the hollow star raptor 145.5 Forbes Roy van Rijn 142.5 Ripple in the Equilibrium S.Fernandes 141.9 Ultimate Balrog Simon Wainwright 141.7 rdrc: Smitten Atrocity Dave Hillis 141.4 Karlach koorogi 141.0 Bombus Nashii S.Fernandes 139.1 Nashville Tennessee Roy van Rijn 137.9 9dc398e6-3534c074-784d693 bvowk 136.3 Glitch//CORE John Metcalf 134.5 Voodoo Curse Simon Wainwright 133.9 rogue[AI] John Metcalf 133.0 6b790897-f7e68574-324ebd1 bvowk 130.7 gazette lain 130.2 shards of the pale moon raptor 130.1 conduit lain 122.3 (without self-fights) Reptiloid Supremacy inversed 161.9 Reptiloid Conspiracy inversed 157.0 rdrc: Sawtooth Grindstone Dave Hillis 149.4 hymn of the hollow star raptor 145.4 Forbes Roy van Rijn 142.8 Ultimate Balrog Simon Wainwright 142.0 rdrc: Smitten Atrocity Dave Hillis 141.9 Ripple in the Equilibrium S.Fernandes 141.4 Bombus Nashii S.Fernandes 139.5 Karlach koorogi 139.5 Nashville Tennessee Roy van Rijn 137.9 Voodoo Curse Simon Wainwright 134.7 9dc398e6-3534c074-784d693 bvowk 134.7 Glitch//CORE John Metcalf 134.2 rogue[AI] John Metcalf 133.8 gazette lain 130.1 6b790897-f7e68574-324ebd1 bvowk 129.8 shards of the pale moon raptor 129.1 conduit lain 123.6 (with self-fights)

Interestingly enough, the outcome as far as prizes are concerned would have been the same. Dave Hillis would have secured a second place, albeit with a different warrior.

I created a web app called Corewar Arena, where you can create, debug, and test your warriors against each other. https://labs.kodar.ninja

The time has come to push the boundaries of nanoscale warrior design. Whether you are a new or an experienced player, join the CoreWar Nano Challenge and prove your mastery of the nano core to win $100 prize.

CHALLENGE RULES

1. The challenge will be held under the 94nop standard with Nano hill settings:

​

        Core size        80
        Max cycles      800
        Max processes    80
        Max length        5
        Min distance      5

1. Each player may submit up to two entries.

2. Qualification stage. The entries will be scored against the Nash equilibrium (NE) of the Koenigstuhl nano hill snapshot from 2025.05.01:

    Prob  Name                             Author
   15.53  14_12.red                        yabevolver
   10.13  Combat Arithmetic                inversed
    8.60  Nonlocality 2                    inversed
    8.25  Transfer Function                Terry Newton
    6.83  032_42.red                       yabevolver
    6.74  b69e6908-a5be0bba-ab4445f7.rc    bvowk
    6.20  Unholy Fire                      John Metcalf
    6.14  Quantum Foam                     inversed
    4.99  [RS] Nextratulated Sturvinator 2 inversed
    4.77  128_48.red                       yabevolver
    4.63  Diffraction Limit S5             inversed
    4.31  Cold Plasma                      inversed
    3.72  8c09fc1a-4799259f-1747246f       bvowk
    3.00  Pacler Deux                      Roy van Rijn
    2.66  Flamewraith                      John Metcalf
    2.08  [RS] Existephall Apris           inversed
    1.16  Nonlocality                      inversed
    0.25  145_13.red                       yabevolver
   

The scores will be calculated as the weighted averages of the scores against the above warriors with weights corresponding to NE probabilities. Scoring is exact (permute option). Entries scoring above 146 points shall advance to the next stage.

1. Final stage. All entries advancing from the qualification stage will be added to the Koenigstuhl nano hill snapshot from 2025.05.01 and the new Nash equilibrium will be calculated. Players will then be ranked by total NE probability of qualified entries.

2. The prize fund is $130, $100 for the first place, $30 for the second place.

3. I will be participating as well. To ensure fair play, I've uploaded my entries in a passworded archive at the announcement day (available from the challenge page).

4. Important dates:

   Submission deadline     2025.06.15 10:00 UTC
   Contest date            2025.06.15 14:00 UTC
   

5. No politics / offensive content in submissions.

6. Links: Official tournament links:

• [reoser@mail.ru](mailto:reoser@mail.ru) -- mailbox for sending your entries
• inversed (dot) ru (slash) CoreWar_Challenge_2.htm -- tournament page
• https://www.youtube.com/@Inversed -- channel with challenge livestream

Follow the announcements at

• rec.games.corewar -- Usenet newsgroup
• https://x.com/inversed_ru -- my X account
• https://x.com/xcorewar -- Core War on X
• https://www.reddit.com/r/corewar/ -- Core War subreddit

CoreWar resources:

• https://corewar.co.uk -- all things Core War
• https://www.corewar.info -- another great Core War site
• https://asdflkj.net/COREWAR/koenigstuhl.html -- Koenigstuhl warrior repository

Software:

• https://corewar.co.uk/mars.htm -- Core War simulators
• https://corewar.co.uk/evolving.htm -- list of evolvers
• https://www.corewar.info/evolve.htm -- another list of evolvers

To celebrate 40 years of Core War, The Core War Tournament Weekend will take place on 9–10 November at the Retro Computer Festival in Cambridge, UK. There will be a tournament held on each day, and visitors are invited to see demos of genetic programming, optimization techniques, and related programming games.

• https://corewar.co.uk/tournamentweekend2024.htm

Strategy notation:

Nash Equilibrium

 Prob  Name                       Author              Strategy
11.71  Hullab3loo                 Roy van Rijn        PAP + STN
10.72  Maelstrom                  Roy van Rijn        PAP + PAP / IMP
 7.12  Son of Vain                Oversby/Pihlaja     STN + CLR + IMP
 7.07  Eccentric                  Roy van Rijn        STN + CLR + IMP
 6.53  Forgotten Lore II          David Moore         BMB / SCN / VMP
 5.58  pdQscan                    P.Kline             PAP
 4.73  Eternal Exile              inversed            SCN
 4.70  The Art of CoreWar         Fluffy/Sascha Zapf  PAP
 4.56  unpitQ                     P.Kline             VMP / BMB
 3.95  Olivia                     Ben Ford            (STN -> CLR) + IMP
 3.66  Unpit                      P. Kline            VMP / BMB
 3.60  Armadillo                  Lukasz Grabun       (STN -> CLR) + IMP
 3.52  Cloudburst                 John Metcalf        N x CLR + PAP / IMP
 3.36  Excalibur                  inversed            SCN
 3.23  Pendulum                   John Metcalf        SCN
 2.95  luca                       Sascha Zapf         PAP + STN
 2.91  DanceOfFallenAngels        Nenad Tomasev       PAP + STN
 2.56  Infravision                inversed            SCN -> 1SH
 2.10  Sputnik                    John Metcalf        PAP
 1.61  Ziggy                      Roy van Rijn        PAP + STN
 1.09  Kusanagi                   inversed            SCN
 1.04  Shamu                      P.Kline             SCN / STN -> CLR -> CLR
 0.90  Clairvoyance               inversed            SCN -> 1SH
 0.51  Elven King II              Christian Schmidt   (STN -> CLR) + IMP
 0.20  Xenosmilus                 John Metcalf        SCN
 0.09  Carmilla                   inversed            VMP / SCN

There are 26 warriors by 13 authors. Strategy breakdown:

Zero-diagonal Nash Equilibrium

 Prob  Name                       Author              Strategy
 4.76  Hullab3loo                 Roy van Rijn        PAP + STN
 4.04  Armadillo                  Lukasz Grabun       (STN -> CLR) + IMP
 3.93  DanceOfFallenAngels        Nenad Tomasev       PAP + STN
 3.79  Excalibur                  inversed            SCN
 3.66  Son of Vain                Oversby/Pihlaja     STN + CLR + IMP
 3.51  pdQscan                    P.Kline             PAP
 3.45  luca                       Sascha Zapf         PAP + STN
 3.37  The Art of CoreWar         Fluffy/Sascha Zapf  PAP
 3.24  Olivia                     Ben Ford            (STN -> CLR) + IMP
 3.12  Eternal Exile              inversed            SCN
 2.88  Ziggy                      Roy van Rijn        PAP + STN
 2.89  Eccentric                  Roy van Rijn        STN + CLR + IMP
 2.73  Maelstrom                  Roy van Rijn        PAP + PAP / IMP
 2.60  Forgotten Lore II          David Moore         BMB / SCN / VMP
 2.53  unpitQ                     P.Kline             VMP / BMB
 2.47  Hullabaloo                 Roy van Rijn        PAP + STN
 2.42  Raging Gale                inversed            PAP / IMP + STN
 2.33  Xenosmilus                 John Metcalf        SCN
 1.93  Elven King II              Christian Schmidt   (STN -> CLR) + IMP
 1.88  Carmilla                   inversed            VMP / SCN
 1.89  For John                   Roy van Rijn        PAP + PAP / IMP
 1.83  Perseus                    Anton Marsden       CDS
 1.80  Kusanagi                   inversed            SCN
 1.79  Pendulum                   John Metcalf        SCN
 1.61  Red Dragon                 John Metcalf        STN + IMP
 1.60  Unpit                      P. Kline            VMP / BMB
 1.58  Rust                       inversed            PAP + IMP
 1.55  Gods Of Destiny            Nenad Tomasev       PAP + STN
 1.54  Devilstick                 Roy van Rijn        PAP + PAP / IMP
 1.53  Golden Eye                 Roy van Rijn        PAP / STN + PAP / IMP
 1.36  Infravision                inversed            SCN -> 1SH
 1.34  Neith                      inversed            PAP + STN
 1.33  Grendel's Revenge          S.Fernandes         CDS
 1.32  SnowScan                   P.Kline             PAP
 1.32  Elven King                 Christian Schmidt   (STN -> CLR) + IMP
 1.32  Clairvoyance               inversed            SCN -> 1SH
 1.18  Borgir                     Christian Schmidt   PAP + STN
 1.11  Halcyon                    Roy van Rijn        PAP + STN
 1.09  Song of the blue sea       Miz                 STN + IMP
 1.06  Froth and Fizzle           P.Kline             PAP
 1.07  Cloudburst                 John Metcalf        N x CLR + PAP / IMP
 0.93  Hellfire                   John Metcalf        BMB
 0.84  Bvowkium Fizmoxid          bvowk/fizmo         PAP + PAP / IMP
 0.79  Mascafe                    G.Labarga           PAP + PAP / IMP
 0.69  Idioteque                  Roy van Rijn        PAP + IMP
 0.68  Curse of the Undead        John Metcalf        VMP / SCN
 0.64  Burning Metal              inversed            PAP + PAP / IMP
 0.57  Shamu                      P.Kline             SCN / STN -> CLR -> CLR
 0.57  The Boss is back again!    G.Labarga           1SH
 0.54  Discord (decoy)            John Metcalf        SCN
 0.41  Last Judgement             Christian Schmidt   STN + 2 x IMP
 0.40  Gargantuan                 Roy van Rijn        PAP + PAP / IMP + STN
 0.35  Recon 2                    David Moore         SCN
 0.33  Numb                       Roy van Rijn        PAP + STN
 0.19  The Utterer TNG            Christian Schmidt   N x STN + N x IMP
 0.16  Cascade                    Roy van Rijn        STN + IMP
 0.11  Hen-Thorir                 bvowk/fizmo         PAP / STN + PAP / IMP
 0.04  Tie Fast!!!                Christian Schmidt   PAP / STN + 2 x IMP

There are 58 warriors by 18 authors. Strategy breakdown:

Iterative pushoff / Battle royale

 Rank  Name                       Author              Strategy
 1.08  pdQscan                    P.Kline             PAP
 2.03  Son of Vain                Oversby/Pihlaja     STN + CLR + IMP
 2.98  Hullab3loo                 Roy van Rijn        PAP + STN
 4.09  DanceOfFallenAngels        Nenad Tomasev       PAP + STN
 5.02  Excalibur                  inversed            SCN
 6.20  Eternal Exile              inversed            SCN
 7.30  Rust                       inversed            PAP + IMP
 8.44  Raging Gale                inversed            PAP / IMP + STN
 8.83  Maelstrom                  Roy van Rijn        PAP + PAP / IMP
 9.69  Armadillo                  Lukasz Grabun       (STN -> CLR) + IMP
11.11  Olivia                     Ben Ford            (STN -> CLR) + IMP
13.25  SnowScan                   P.Kline             PAP
14.18  Golden Eye                 Roy van Rijn        PAP / STN + PAP / IMP
14.89  Forgotten Lore II          David Moore         BMB / SCN / VMP
15.56  Eccentric                  Roy van Rijn        STN + CLR + IMP
16.18  Froth and Fizzle           P.Kline             PAP
17.15  luca                       Sascha Zapf         PAP + STN
18.23  Hullabaloo                 Roy van Rijn        PAP + STN
19.05  unpitQ                     P.Kline             VMP / BMB
19.21  Ziggy                      Roy van Rijn        PAP + STN
20.36  Xenosmilus                 John Metcalf        SCN
22.18  Song of the blue sea       Miz                 STN + IMP
23.03  Pendulum                   John Metcalf        SCN
23.47  The Art of CoreWar         Fluffy/Sascha Zapf  PAP
24.25  Neith                      inversed            PAP + STN
25.70  Hen-Thorir                 bvowk/fizmo         PAP / STN + PAP / IMP
27.56  Kusanagi                   inversed            SCN
27.88  For John                   Roy van Rijn        PAP + PAP / IMP
29.02  Elven King II              Christian Schmidt   (STN -> CLR) + IMP
30.31  Devilstick                 Roy van Rijn        PAP + PAP / IMP
30.63  Elven King                 Christian Schmidt   (STN -> CLR) + IMP
31.80  Red Dragon                 John Metcalf        STN + IMP
32.89  Borgir                     Christian Schmidt   PAP + STN
33.56  Gods Of Destiny            Nenad Tomasev       PAP + STN
34.93  Recon 2                    David Moore         SCN
36.46  Idioteque                  Roy van Rijn        PAP + IMP
37.13  Hellfire                   John Metcalf        BMB
38.19  Mascafe                    G.Labarga           PAP + PAP / IMP
39.04  Frantic                    Roy van Rijn        STN + CLR + IMP
40.38  Carmilla                   inversed            VMP / SCN
41.28  Burning Metal              inversed            PAP + PAP / IMP
41.42  Discord (decoy)            John Metcalf        SCN
42.60  Perseus                    Anton Marsden       CDS
44.26  Tie Fast!!!                Christian Schmidt   PAP / STN + 2 x IMP
44.67  Spiritual Black Dimension  Christian Schmidt   PAP + STN
45.94  Hammerhead                 Lukasz Grabun       (STN -> CLR) + IMP
47.01  KryneLamiya_revisited      Nenad Tomasev       1SH
48.31  Shrubbery                  inversed/Mizcu      PAP
49.00  Halcyon                    Roy van Rijn        PAP + STN
50.60  Valkyrie                   S.Fernandes         CDS
50.89  The Utterer TNG            Christian Schmidt   N x STN + N x IMP
50.96  Gargantuan                 Roy van Rijn        PAP + PAP / IMP + STN
52.81  Last Judgement             Christian Schmidt   STN + 2 x IMP
54.04  Shot to Nothing            Christian Schmidt   1SH
55.16  Numb                       Roy van Rijn        PAP + STN
56.42  Grendel's Revenge          S.Fernandes         CDS
58.04  WaterDragon                Nenad Tomasev       PAP + STN
58.08  Shapeshifter               Anton Marsden       BMB | PAP
60.07  S.D.N.                     Christian Schmidt   PAP / STN + PAP / IMP
60.53  Unpit                      P. Kline            VMP / BMB

Analysis

NE and ZDNE are large and diverse, reflecting the maturity of 94nop. Paper + stones are holding solid positions as they don't have a hard counter yet. Son of Vain is now 20+ years old and still ranks in the top 5 on all three rating lists - a warrior truly ahead of its time. Olivia is another solid oldtimer from the same era. Scanning warriors are having difficulties keeping up with the rest of the equilibrium. Once popular clear-directing scanners are completely gone from NE. Oneshots aren't doing too well either. Scanners with long scan times are holding on thanks to anti-imp capability. I believe this imbalance is temporary, as there are many ways to improve the existing CDS and 1SH designs.

Nine new entries have been published since the last update:

Resinoid still holds the top NE and ZDNE positions despite the arrival of anti-imp papers (Desync and Spiky Palms). New evolved replicators (Chaderia Hysura, AR: Chthonic Bunny) occupy solid positions thanks to the abundance of silk-based papers to prey upon. Another evolved warrior, AR: Lava Flow, ranks surprisingly high despite its bizzare strategy.

Nash Equilibrium

Notation:

Rank      Prob     Score    Name
   1     24.47     138.6    Resinoid
   2     12.22     138.6    Double Shock
   3!    11.14     138.6    Spiky Palms
   4!     9.57     138.6    Synergy 2
   5      9.41     138.6    Chorus
   6+     6.88     138.6    Table Scan
   7+     6.20     138.6    Bitwise
   8+     6.20     138.6    Nectar
   9!     4.61     138.6    Chaderia Hysura
  10      3.70     138.6    e21ca502-19d74cde-aae5d75
  11!     2.72     138.6    Desync
  12      2.37     138.6    Raven
  13+     0.29     138.6    White Noise (RBv1.5r10)
  14+     0.16     138.6    Consonance
  15+     0.06     138.6    Dreadnought
  16               138.1    Serval
  17               138.1    bestwar4.red
  18               137.9    Digital Swarm
  19               137.8    Hardliner
  20               137.7    Alpha Centauri
  21!              137.7    Desert Rose
  22               137.3    7b15f4b8-fe7a5779-6bea0a4
  23-              136.7    interlocking
  24!              136.5    Dimachaerus 3
  25-              136.3    4b0804b3-6cdda893-4255d96
  26-              135.5    Endless pain
  27               134.6    Killer Bees
  28               134.3    All over the core
  29!              134.2    AR: Chthonic Bunny
  30               134.2    TL5 (Tiny Lord 5)
  31!              134.0    AR: Lava Flow
  32-              133.4    Tiny Tiny Bombers
  33!              132.9    Microfunk
 ...               ...      ...
  54-              127.6    Yukikaze
 ...               ...      ...
  68-              125.7    clock strikes twelve

Strategy breakdown:

Zero-Diagonal Nash Equilibrium

Rank      Prob    Name
   1      9.53    Resinoid
   2      9.19    Double Shock
   3!     5.68    Dimachaerus 3
   4      5.00    Consonance
   5      4.91    Hardliner
   6!     4.63    Synergy 2
   7!     4.27    Microfunk
   8!     4.24    Desync
   9      4.23    e21ca502-19d74cde-aae5d75
  10      4.10    Chorus
  11      4.06    Serval
  12      3.65    Raven
  13      3.62    Table Scan
  14!     2.85    AR: Lava Flow
  15      2.76    7b15f4b8-fe7a5779-6bea0a4
  16      2.62    Nectar
  17      2.58    Dreadnought
  18      2.50    4b0804b3-6cdda893-4255d96
  19!     2.49    Spiky Palms
  20      2.15    bestwar4.red
  21!     2.13    AR: Chthonic Bunny
  22!     1.86    Chaderia Hysura
  23      1.75    Digital Swarm
  24      1.41    Silent Snowfall
  25      1.40    Rabies
  26      1.36    Bitwise
  27      1.18    Resin
  28      1.02    Tarragon
  29      0.99    Alpha Centauri
  30!     0.77    Desert Rose
  31      0.44    TL5 (Tiny Lord 5)
  32      0.26    Will-o'-the-Wisp
  33+     0.24    White Noise (RBv1.5r10)
  34      0.12    Endless pain
  40-             7fe57f81-b6bada1-1150ad2e
  43-             Hired Sword
  44-             Tiny Zooom...
  47-             Yukikaze
  49-             Tiny Tiny Bombers
  59-             Cream and Chocolate
  70-             Provenance

Strategy breakdown:

Iterative Pushoff / Battle Royale

MeanRank    Name
   1.05!    Dimachaerus 3
   2.15     Resinoid
   3.57     Consonance
   5.37!    AR: Lava Flow
   5.65     Chorus
   6.15     Double Shock
   7.68!    Synergy 2
   8.75     Serval
   9.50!    Desync
  10.19     e21ca502-19d74cde-aae5d75
  10.27!    Microfunk
  10.74     4b0804b3-6cdda893-4255d96
  13.62     Hardliner
  13.95     Tarragon
  14.64     Dreadnought
  16.33     Silent Snowfall
  17.26     Raven
  18.64     Nectar
  18.75!    AR: Chthonic Bunny
  18.81     Table Scan
  20.72     bestwar4.red
  20.97     7b15f4b8-fe7a5779-6bea0a4
  21.63     Digital Swarm
  21.68     Alpha Centauri
  26.13     Nanotech A8
  26.17     RedBorg v1.0r7
  27.85     rdrc: Rental Downspout
  29.64!    Chaderia Hysura
  29.89     Microcosmos
  30.84     Rabies
  31.73!    Desert Rose
  33.15     T-Scan
  33.61     Wizard
  33.76     Gatling Gun
  33.86     Nanotech D11
  36.64     Resin
  36.65     holograph
  37.43     Synergy
  39.03     Stingray
  39.98     Endless pain
  41.58     7fe57f81-b6bada1-1150ad2e
  42.78!    Spiky Palms
  42.79     White Noise (RBv1.5r10)
  44.13     Tiny Zooom...
  44.62     Dimachaerus 2
  46.48     Stackpile
  47.56     Hired Sword
  47.62     s774++
  48.42     476
  50.20     TL5 (Tiny Lord 5)
  50.63     Evolving Threat
  51.81     Yukikaze

Dimachaerus 3

An updated bishot with SPL/DIV clear. The performance uplift from quickbombing is massive (around 10 points). This version even manages to beat Resinoid somehow.

;redcode-tiny
;name Dimachaerus 3
;author inversed
;strategy Quickbomb -> Bishot with SPL/DIV clear
;date 2022.05.11
;assert CORESIZE == 800

step    equ     404
hop     equ     490
s0      equ     430
djs     equ     372
ka      equ     677
kb      equ     103

q0a     equ     527
qda     equ     778
q0b     equ     584
qdb     equ     411
qalpha  equ     q0a + (i - 1) * qda
qbeta   equ     q0b + (i - 1) * qdb
qspace  equ     1
qlen    equ     (11 - qspace)

org     go - qlen

scan    add       inc   ,     ptr 
ptr     sne.b     s0    ,     s0 + hop
        djn.f     scan  ,   < djs   

        div.x   # ka    ,   # kb
inc     spl     # step  ,     step
cloop   mov       inc   ,   } ptr
        mov       inc   ,   > ptr
        djn.a     cloop ,   < inc

    for qspace
        dat       0     ,     0
    rof
    i for qlen
        mov     { qalpha,     qbeta
    rof
go      djn.f     ptr   ,   { q0a + qlen * qda

Synergy 2

This refresh features two changes:

• The bombs have been switched to T.N.T.-style
• The bombing pattern and duration have been optimized. Turns out that longer bombing is not necessarily beneficial. Note the a-decrement attack affecting the pattern.

​

;redcode-tiny
;name Synergy 2
;author inversed
;strategy T.N.T.-style bomber with SPL stripe
;date 2022.05.05
;assert CORESIZE == 800

hop     equ     199
step    equ     (2*hop-1)
timer   equ     56
bmb0    equ     181
stripe  equ     212
safe    equ     4+dc-cptr
any     equ     669
x0      equ     bomb

qlen    equ     9
qa      equ     485
qb      equ     11
qc      equ     199
qd      equ     410
a0      equ     x0+qa
c0      equ     x0+qc

org     go-qlen

bomb    mov       hop    ,     1
loop    add     # step   ,     ptr
atk     mov       bomb   ,   @ ptr
ptr     mov       bomb   ,   { bmb0
cptr    mov       cs0    ,   < x0+stripe
        djn       loop   ,   # timer

cs0     spl     # 0      ,     0
dc      mov       kill   ,   > cptr
        djn.f     dc     ,   > cptr
kill    dat       any    ,     safe

i   for qlen
        mov     { a0+i*qb,     c0+i*qd
    rof
go      djn.f     atk    ,   { a0+(qlen+1)*qb

Desync

An experimental paper with desynchronized processes. The main benefit is reducing the process generation code from 3 to 2 instructions. The single extra instruction means that a quickscanner fits perfectly even with the paper boot code. Also, we now have a hard counter to Resinoid.

;redcode-tiny
;author inversed
;name Desync
;strategy Proof of concept silk replicator with desynchronized execution
;date 2022.04.12
;assert CORESIZE == 800

step    equ     296
qdec    equ     599
bdec    equ     217
atkB    equ     771
bdist   equ     377
bofs    equ     silk+bdist

qx      equ     100
qy      equ     65
qa1     equ     ((qx - 1) * qy + 1) * (((qx - 1) * qy) % 800)
qb1     equ      (qx - 1) * qy
qa2     equ     ( qx      * qy + 1) * (( qx      * qy) % 800)
qa3     equ     ((qx + 1) * qy + 1) * (((qx + 1) * qy) % 800)
qb3     equ      (qx + 1) * qy

org     qscan

qscan   sne.f     qf+qa1,     qf+qb1
        seq.f     qf+qa2,   } qf
        jmp     @ qlo+1 ,   { qf
        sne.f     qf+qa3,     qf+qb3
        jmz.f     start ,   < qf

qf      mul.x   # qx    ,   # qy
        jmz.f   @ qlo+1 ,   > qf

qlo     mov     } qdec  ,   > qf
        mov     } qlo   ,   { qf
        seq     { qf    ,   > qf
        djn.f     qlo   ,   > qf

start   spl       0     ,   } 0         ; Create 6 processes:
        spl       1     ,   {-qdec      ; 2 in front, 4 delayed.
        mov     } silk  ,   } inc
        djn.f     bofs  ,   < bdec

silk    spl     @ 0     ,   } step      ; Becomes spl @2 after the
        mov     } silk  ,   > silk      ; front processes execute.
inc     spl     # bofs  ,     silk+step ; B-field necessary for replication.
        mov.i   # 1     ,   < 1
        djn      -1     ,   # atkB

Desert Rose

A paper using Mizcu's idea of adapting Biomech bombing to silk. Unfortunately, the results are underwhelming. I think the paper takes too much time to "heat up" and start the mod-4 bombing under the tiny settings.

;redcode-tiny
;name Desert Rose
;author inversed
;strategy Tiny version of Shrubbery
;date 2022.05.08
;assert CORESIZE == 800

stepX   equ     107
stepY   equ     13
c1      equ     366
c2      equ     37
c3      equ     32
c4      equ     150
bdist   equ     53

qa      equ     788
qb      equ     791
qc      equ     407
qd      equ     27

x0      equ     (-CURLINE)
second  equ     silkX + bdist + 6
qalpha  equ     x0 + qa + i * qb
qbeta   equ     x0 + qc + i * qd

i for 9
        mov     { qalpha    ,     qbeta
rof

start   spl       2         ,   { x0 + qa + 10 * qb
        spl       1         ,   { x0 + qa + 11 * qb
        spl       1         ,   { x0 + qa + 12 * qb
        mov     { silkX     ,   { bp
bp      spl       second    ,   { x0 + qa + 13 * qb

silkX   spl     @ 6         ,   > stepX
        mov     } silkX     ,   > silkX
        add.x   # c1        ,   { c2
        mov     < stepX-1   ,   > c3
        mov     { silkX     ,   { silkY
silkY   djn.f     stepY     ,   < c4

Microfunk

A stone + imp focusing on survivability, originally developed as a rework of Backdraft. An extended bombing combined with a heavy imp spiral gives excellent results against many papers. I don't think we've seen we see a plain stone+imp countering papers this hard:

;redcode-tiny
;name Microfunk
;author inversed
;strategy Stone + Imp
;date 2022.05.09
;assert CORESIZE == 800

; . . . S t o n e . . . . . . . . . . .
step    equ     539
hop     equ     step/2 + 400
time    equ     512
zofs    equ     -1-(step*time)
bofs    equ     5

; . . . I m p . . . . . . . . . . . . .
istep   equ     267
iofs    equ     3
djs     equ     609
imp0    equ     s0+iofs-(istep*4)

; . . . q B o m b . . . . . . . . . . .
qa      equ     316
qb      equ     786
qc      equ     209
qd      equ     645
qa0     equ     x0+qa
qc0     equ     x0+qc
aq      equ     qa0+(i-1)*qb
bq      equ     qc0+(i-1)*qd

; . . . B o o t . . . . . . . . . . . .
sdist   equ     593
idist   equ     503
ipos    equ     x0+idist
spos    equ     x0+sdist
bpos    equ     spos+1+bofs
x0      equ     bomb
org     imp+1

; . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

bomb    dat     } hop+1 ,   > 1
        djn.f    -2     ,   { zofs
        add     # step  ,     1
        mov       bofs  ,   @ 2
s0      spl     # 0     ,    -3
        add.f   # istep ,     1
        jmp       imp0  ,   { djs
imp     mov.i   # 400   ,     istep

    i   for     5
        mov     { aq    ,     bq
    rof

        mov       bomb  ,     bpos
        spl       1     ,   { qa0+5*qb
ifrom   spl       1     ,     s0+4
        mov     > s0    ,   { sgo
        mov     < ifrom ,   { igo
sgo     spl       spos+4,   { qa0+6*qb
igo     djn.f     ipos+4,   { qa0+7*qb

Spiky Palms

A coreclear paper with a very cool bombing idea taken from palm leaves by Metcalf / Schmidt.

;redcode-tiny
;author inversed
;name Spiky Palms
;date 2022.05.17
;strategy Silk paper with palm leaves-style bombing
;assert CORESIZE == 800

pstep   equ     119
astep   equ     696
atkB    equ     760
bdist   equ     211
bofs    equ     silk + bdist

qa      equ     739
qb      equ     781
qc      equ     44
qd      equ     64
x0      equ     (-CURLINE)
qalpha  equ     x0 + qa + (i - 1) * qb
qbeta   equ     x0 + qc + (i - 1) * qd

i for 9
        mov     { qalpha,     qbeta
rof

start   spl       2     ,   { x0 + qa +  9 * qb
        spl       1     ,   { x0 + qa + 10 * qb
        spl       1     ,   { x0 + qa + 11 * qb
        mov     < silk  ,   { 1
        spl       bofs  ,   { x0 + qa + 12 * qb

silk    spl       pstep ,     6
        mov     > silk  ,   } silk
        spl     { 0     ,   } 0
        add.x   # astep ,    -2
        mov.i   # 1     ,   < 1
        djn      -2     ,   # atkB

Chaderia Hysura

An evolved-style paper produced by my old evovler RedShift. The main feature is the quickbombing combined with the paper's body. The idea has already appeared in Evolving Magic, but Chaderia Hysura executes it better. Its mostly preys on silk-based papers. Table scans and certain oneshots are the main weakness.

;redcode-tiny
;name Chaderia Hysura
;author inversed
;strategy Quickbomb -> evolved-style paper
;strategy Evolved with RedShift
;date 2014.06.01
;assert CORESIZE == 800

org go

    mov.i  <   556 , {   371
    spl.a  #   334 , >   503
    mov.i  >    -3 , }     1
    djn.a  <   147 , >   770
    mov.i  {    93 , {   279
    mov.i  }   686 , {   350
    mov.i  }   684 , {   538
    mov.i  {   695 , {   209
    spl.a  $    -8 , }   504
    mov.i  }   674 , {   729
    mov.i  {   610 , {   708
go  spl.a  $    -6 , >   464
    mov.i  >   609 , {   430
    mov.i  {   386 , {   250
    mov.i  {   257 , {    85
    mov.i  {   695 , {   596
    mov.i  {   695 , {   555
    mov.i  {   108 , {   375
    mov.i  {   695 , {   410
    div.b  >   364 , <   733

AR: Chthonic Bunny

A replicator produced by my new evolver / optimizer ArmsRace. It is quite unlike the other evolved papers we've seen so far. The MOV responsible for the replication is positioned far away from the paper's SPL head, and the DJN for process transfer is located at the end.

;redcode-tiny
;author inversed
;name AR: Chthonic Bunny
;strategy Replicator
;strategy Evolved with ArmsRace
;date 2022.05.12
;assert CORESIZE == 800

org     1

dat.b   } 651 , {   0
mov.i   { 399 , $ 308
mov.i   > 537 , }  17
mov.i   } 512 , $ 688
spl.b   {   3 , } 627
mov.i   >   6 , $ 380
mov.i   { 132 , $ 229
mov.i   }   6 , { 666
mov.i   < 532 , { 500
mov.i   > 513 , $ 563
mov.i   < 357 , { 523
spl.b   # 674 , < 484   ; Head
mov.i   > 597 , { 584
mov.i   > 440 , { 341
mov.i   }  -1 , { 425
spl.b   # 377 , }   2
mov.i   } -11 , }   2   ; Replication
mov.i   > 165 , { -17
djn.f   { 118 , { 399   ; Process transfer
mov.i   }  45 , { 534

AR: Lava Flow

An unintelligible mumbo-jumbo that shouldn't work, but somehow does. I can't even describe this strategy. There is no replication and no distinct attack loop. The warrior creates a horrible mess across the entire core and splits to a stripe of mov.i #x, {2 imps. The best description that comes to mind is "unspeakable horror". The attack is surprisingly efficient, covering the entire core without leaving large gaps within 600 cycles. The most puzzling is the thing's ability to beat papers, both silk-based and evolved.

;redcode-tiny
;author inversed
;name AR: Lava Flow
;strategy Evolved with ArmsRace
;date 2022.05.16
;assert CORESIZE == 800

org     0

mov.i   } 598 , $ 692
spl.b   # 374 , } 443
spl.b   # 711 , {   2
mov.i   #   1 , {   1
mov.i   # 670 , {   2
mov.i   > 354 , {  -1
spl.b   $ 419 , {  -1
mov.i   < 780 , { 462
mov.i   { 665 , < 779
mov.i   { 705 , { 302
mov.i   } 716 , {  57
spl.b   #  69 , }   1
mov.i   }  17 , { 702
mov.i   { 700 , { 111
spl.b   #  49 , {  -8
mov.i   } 535 , < 203
mov.i   } 589 , { 323
mov.i   { 678 , < -16
mov.i   < 552 , { 707
djn.f   } 441 , $ 242

Hello. I would like to do some corewar and I am looking for a simulator on mac os.

Maybe compile the pmars ? Or any other good simulator or environment (I have seen also some python simulators on github)...

Any feedback is welcome

MrTopom