Core War
Core War
(games)The programs are written using an instruction set called"Redcode" and run on a virtual machine called "MARS"(Memory Array Redcode Simulator).
Core War was devised by Victor Vyssotsky, Robert Morris Sr.,and Dennis Ritchie in the early 1960s (their original gamewas called "Darwin" and ran on a PDP-1 at Bell Labs).It was first described in the "Core War Guidelines" of March,1984 by D. G. Jones and A. K. Dewdney of the Department ofComputer Science at The University of Western Ontario(Canada).
Dewdney wrote several "Computer Recreations" articles in"Scientific American" which discussed Core War, starting withthe May 1984 article. Those articles are contained in the twoanthologies cited below. A.K. Dewdney's articles are stillthe most readable introduction to Core War, even though theRedcode dialect described in there is no longer current.
The International Core War Society (ICWS) creates andmaintains Core War standards and the runs Core Wartournaments. There have been six annual tournaments and twostandards (ICWS'86 and ICWS'88).
["The Armchair Universe: An Exploration of Computer Worlds",A. K. Dewdney, W. H. Freeman, New York, 1988, ISBN0-7167-1939-8, LCCN QA76.6 .D517 1988]
["The Magic Machine: A Handbook of Computer Sorcery",A. K. Dewdney, W. H. Freeman, New York, 1990, ISBN0-7167-2125-2 (Hardcover), 0-7167-2144-9 (Paperback), LCCNQA76.6 .D5173 1990].