POPX@vax.oxford.ac.uk (Jocelyn Paine) (02/07/91)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Games for programmed players
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Reply-To: popx@vax.ox.ac.uk (Jocelyn Paine)
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Distribution: comp.ai, comp.simulation
Organization: Experimental Psychology, Oxford University, UK.
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The AI magazine published, in Autumn 1983, an article called "Knowledge
Programming in Loops", by Mark Stefik, Daniel Bobrow, Sanjay Mittal and
Lynn Conway. This described an experimental course at Xerox Parc about
building expert systems in Loops.
The course was centered round a game called "Truckin'" in which the
players drove lorries round a board populated with shops. To win, you
had to get to the end of the board, having bought and sold from the
shops in such a way as to make more profit then any other player. Or to
be exact: your _player_ had to do this. _Your_ job was to program your
player, using expert system techniques, so as to make it win.
Things were made more interesting by features designed to cause goal
conflicts. For example, if your lorry drove quickly over a bumpy road,
it might damage its load; but if the load was perishable, it would go
off if not delivered quickly. There were highwaymen, robbing from
lorries that passed too slowly; and weighing stations, fining lorries
which went too fast or were too heavy.
Ineptly programmed lorries would reveal themselves in various ways:
"A player may be racing to Alice's Restaurant [the final stop]. One
move before the game ends it is unable to resist a business
'opportunity' and doesn't make it to Alice's.
A player may go to the closest place to sell goods, even if that's
the City Dump, which unfortunately pays a 'negative price'.
A player may become focussed on a tight producer/consumer loop,
making money faster than any other player on the board. If it is
programmed to only buy fuel from stations along its route, but there
is no petrol station in the tight loop, the team will watch
anxiously as the fuel gauge drops lower and lower.
A player may try to park next to Alice's Restaurant near the end of
the game, even if it happens to be the Union hall, which confiscates
all goods and cash."
All this comes from the original paper, and I've described it in case
anyone wants to take up the idea for teaching.
I would like to ask whether anyone else has designed such games, or if
anyone knows references to them. I'll summarise replies to the net.
Somebody mentioned a game called "Robot Wars" (_not_ Core Wars, which is
the one in which machine code programs fight it out) but I've been
unable to trace it.
I'd also like to ask for the E-mail address of the authors, so that I
can ask for more details about the rules of Truckin'.
Jocelyn Paine ( POPX @ UK.AC.OX.VAX )davel@cbnewsl.att.com (David Loewenstern) (02/09/91)
In article <9102062219.AA18294@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> POPX@vax.oxford.ac.uk (Jocelyn Paine) writes: >I would like to ask whether anyone else has designed such games, or if >anyone knows references to them. I'll summarise replies to the net. >Somebody mentioned a game called "Robot Wars" (_not_ Core Wars, which is >the one in which machine code programs fight it out) but I've been >unable to trace it. There is a public domain program called "Crobots" for the IBM-PC, for which I have the binary. Players program killer robots using a subset of C, and the robots then slug it out in an arena. These opinions are shareware. If you like the product, please send your $0.02 to David Loewenstern {backbone!}att!whutt!davel which is davel@whutt.att.com
bdp@ely.cl.cam.ac.uk (Barney Pell) (02/09/91)
>I would like to ask whether anyone else has designed such games, or if >anyone knows references to them. I'll summarise replies to the net. >Somebody mentioned a game called "Robot Wars" (_not_ Core Wars, which is >the one in which machine code programs fight it out) but I've been >unable to trace it. Robot Wars is a game for PC's. I used to love playing it on my Apple II+ about 8 years ago. I can't remember the publisher of the game, maybe something like MUSE SOFTWARE, but I have no idea anymore. Anyway, in the game you design robots, who have active sensors (radar), can orient themselves and move in different directions, and can fire shots at enemies. You program your robot in a game-specific language, and then send them out on the battlefield to compete. One of my favorite robot designs use to run very fast circles around the walls of the arena, shooting (without looking) into the center. It was fast and hard to hit, and inflicted lots of damage on its enemies. Another game you should know about is CHIPWITS, where you program a cute robot to navigate an environment, trying to find food (by smelling), energy packs, etc. It could also zap hostile critters. This ran on the Mac about 5 years ago, and I think it is still around. ================================================== Barney Pell Computer Laboratory University of Cambridge phone: (0223) 334622 e-mail: bdp@cl.cam.ac.uk ==================================================