howell@bert.llnl.gov (Louis Howell) (07/12/90)
About a dozen people responded to my inquiry last week about core wars. Two people sent complete source code, and I received docs for a few more versions. One thing that struck me was that this appears to have been a rapidly dying fad. Both of the programs implement the game roughly as it was described in the original May 1984 Scientific American article, each with a few nonstandard extensions. Neither one even mentions the SPL instruction, which was given in the followup article only a year later. One of the docs for other programs mentions this instruction, but that program does not support the < character, which was part of the canonical version of the language by 1986. In his articles, Dewdney mentions "the all-important 'Core War Standards'" document as being the official source of information about the rules. When I did the original posting I was hoping to receive a recent version of this document, and perhaps get in touch with netters who were still actively playing the game. No such luck. Apparently, after the 1984 article a bunch of people wrote programs based only on the (nearly complete) description published in the magazine, then rapidly lost interest. I will forward source code by email to anyone that asks. I've also been told that there is a program available in the comp.sources.games archive, probably Volume 6. My own concern is more with the "official" definition of the language, which I would like to use in a program of my own. For that it appears I'll have to resort to (Gasp!) USnail. (Sure wish Dewdney had included an email address in his writeup.) In case anyone else is interested, the most recent contact address I have is from "The Armchair Universe" (1988): International Core War Society Mark Clarkson 8619 Wassall Street Wichita, Kansas 67210 Thanks to all who responded, Louis Howell #include <std.disclaimer>