reid@cpswh.cps.msu.edu (Dr Richard J. Reid) (03/02/90)
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. Perhaps you've seen the MIT (CE 280?) engineering design competitions shown on PBS the past few years. Corewars could be used similarly. Maybe you know of or have used alternatives. Thanks, Dick
hiebeler@cs.rpi.edu (Dave Hiebeler) (03/03/90)
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. I think it would be pretty fun for students just learning C, to write these C-bots and have a competition to see the different strategies they can come up with.. I think you can have up to 4 of these things competing at once. I have the address of the guy who wrote C-bots somewhere around here; if anyone is interested, I can go dig it out. (C-bots runs on IBM PCs/XTs/ATs/clones etc). -- Dave Hiebeler / Computer Science Dept. / Amos Eaton Bldg. / Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute / Troy, NY 12180-3590 USA Internet (preferred): hiebeler@turing.cs.rpi.edu Bitnet: userF3JL@rpitsmts "Off we go, into the wilds you ponder..."
hiebeler@cs.rpi.edu (Dave Hiebeler) (03/03/90)
I've already had requests for more info.. so here it is. The program is called "Crobots" (pronounced see-robots, I believe) and not "C-bots" as I thought. It is a shareware program, the author would like $20 for it, according to the docs I have. The program is copyright 1985. The author is: Tom Poindexter 2903 Winchester Drive Bloomington, Illinois 61701 Or at least it used to be.. may or may not still be valid. If someone writes and gets some more recent info, let me know! (Or post it). -- Dave Hiebeler / Computer Science Dept. / Amos Eaton Bldg. / Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute / Troy, NY 12180-3590 USA Internet (preferred): hiebeler@turing.cs.rpi.edu Bitnet: userF3JL@rpitsmts "Off we go, into the wilds you ponder..."
bdn@phobos.cis.ksu.edu (Bryan D. Nehl) (03/05/90)
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. Bryan. /* ========== kodiak%kodiakpc.uucp@phobos.cis.ksu.edu =============+ [ Big Bad Bear Beasties Inc. ][ Bryan Nehl ] [ kodiak@ksuvm.ksu.edu ][ bdn@phobos.cis.ksu.edu ] +___ ...!{rutgers|texbell}!ksuvax1!phobos.cis.ksu.edu!bdn _____ */
gray@toffee.it.udel.edu (Scott Gray) (03/06/90)
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 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- + SCOTT - gray@freezer.it.udel.edu | "I'm, BORED BORED BORED BORED!" + + or god@vax1.acs.udel.edu | - Vivian + -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-