Ala Qumsieh wrote:
--- Jasper <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:So do I, so do I. In fact, as nostalgia settles in, I've found myself toying more and more these days with a type of competition that would both encompass the Hermetic arts of golfing and allow for vicious interaction between players. What I came up with is a Perl variation on the old venerable Corewar game that, I think, might be great fun. For some demented definition of fun, it goes without saying.
Nice. Perhaps it'll prompt a new compo soon :)
Ahhh .. how I long for the good old days.
In all cases, I have attached to this post a draft of the rules of the game. I hope to have the game engine (plus a web / email interface) ready by mid-April. So if anyone's curiosity is piqued by the thing, I might try to organize a public tournament then...
Joy, `/anick PS: Wonderful article, /-\ !
NAME
Games::PerlWar - A Perl variant of the classic Corewar game
DESCRIPTION
This is a sparring program, similar to the programmed reality of
the Matrix.
It has the same basic rules, rules like gravity. What you must
learn is that
these rules are no different than the rules of a computer system.
Some of
them can be bent, others can be broken. - Morpheus
PerlWar is inspired by the classic <http://www.corewar.info/|Corewar>
game. In this game, players pit snippets of Perl code against each other
in order to gain control of the vicious virtual battlefield known as...
the Array.
GAME'S PARAMETERS
* Size of the Array
* The maximal length, in characters, of a snippet. If a snippet is
larger than this limit, it automatically segfaults upon execution.
* The maximal number of rounds that can be played before a game is
declared over.
DESCRIPTION OF A TURN
A turn of the game is made up of the following steps:
Introduction of New Snippets
Each player has the opportunity to submit a new snippet to be entered
into the Array. Insertions are treated in order of submission time. The
cell into which an entrant snippet lands is picked randomly amongst the
empty positions of the Array.
If there are no empty positions left, an entrant snippet replaces one of
the already-present snippets owned by the player, chosen randomly. If
the player does not own any snippet on the Array, well, guess who the
fat lady just sang for?
Running the Array
Each cell of the Array is visited sequentially. If a cell contains a
snippet, it is executed (snippets exceeding the permitted length
segfault on initialization).
Variables Accessibles to Snippets
$_ the code of the snippet.
@_ the whole Array, positioned relatively to the current snippet. (i.e.,
$_[0] == $_ )
$W, $R, $r the game's parameters $W (max snippet's length) and $R (max #
of rounds), plus the current round $r.
Outcomes
If the snippet segfaults, it is erased and the cell ownership is
cleared.
If a snippet executes without segfault'ing, the changes made to $_ (that
is, on the snippet itself) are brought to the Array. E.g., the snippet
$turn = 13; s/\d+/$&+1/e;
once executed, will become
$turn = 14; s/\d+/$&+1/e;
In addition, if the return value of the snippet matches a valid
instruction (see below), it will be acted upon. If not, it is treated as
a no-op.
Snippet Return Instructions
A snippet can return one instruction of the following set:
$x:$y Copy the code of cell $x of @_ (as defined after execution of the
snippet) into position $y of the Array (relative to the position of the
current snippet). $x and $y must be positive integers between 0 and $#_.
If either $x or $y are not explicitly given, they default to the
position 0. If the destination position is already occupied by a snippet
belonging to a different player, the copy fails. E.g.:
# crawler - copy itself to the next position
return ":1"
!$x Nuke the snippet presents in position $x of the Array (relative to
the position of the current snippet), which returns to its empty and
unowned state. If $x is not given, defaults to 0. E.g.:
# berserker
return '!'.1+int(rand(@_))
~$x Update the snippet in position $x of the Array by its counterpart in
@_. If $x is not explicitly given, defaults to 0. Ownership of the
modified snippet isn't modified. E.g.:
# drive neighbor to suicide
$_[1] =~ s//return "!"/;
return "~1";
^$x Claim ownership of the snippet in position $x of the Array. If there
is no snippet at that position, nothing happens. E.g.:
# crawling borg
$pos = 1;
$s/\d+/$&+1/e;
return "^$pos";
END OF GAME
The game ends once the final round is played, or until all but one
player have been eliminated. The winner of the game is the player with
the most snippets still alive in the Array.
