COREWAR
                                by
                         Edwin J. Herrell
                                and
                          Brad J. Hlista



Corewar exposes the innards of a simulated core, a computer battlezone,
along with the programs, the soldiers, that reside and execute there.
Most games of this sort allow a user to write programs that resemble
assembly language.  A simplified version of an assembly language
has been used in this implementation of Corewar.  Programs of a maximum
line length of 128 can be made from a list of 15 commands.  These programs
are then read by the Corewar shell and placed into the simulated computer
memory.  There, they attempt to 'live' longer than any of the other players.

As this is a computer game, the execution of a program, hereafter called an
organism, can be witnessed by the programmer.  A total of 15 organisms can
be loaded by Corewar.  The interactive environment easily allows one to add
and subtract organisms, step through the exection one command at a time,
pause, restart and to quit the game.

Beginning

Hardware Requirements

   IBM-PC compatible
   EGA/VGA graphics (640x350x16 minimum capability)
   A reasonable amount of memory

A COREWAR.CFG file can be created to set the Corewar environment without
having to set the associated parameters on the command line.  An example of
a  CFG file has been included.

The parameters of the command line are explained by typing :

   C> corewar -?

The names of several organisms can also be placed on the command line.
The default pathname for an organism is set to be...\COREWAR\ORGANISM.  This
can be changed in the CFG file or set on the command line.  Other defaults
are EGA 640 x 350, Keypad for the interactive environment and memory Grid
set to 50.  The organism must be saved as <name>.PRG .

The best way of explaining how to become a corewar programmer is by example:

   C> corewar bug dwarf

is a command line that will use the defaults or the COREWAR.CFG to load two
programs named bug.prg and dwarf.prg.

   C> corewar -v -m -g100 bug dwarf

sets vga 640 x 480, the mouse, a Grid of 100 x 100 and loads the two programs
bug and dwarf.

A COREWAR.CFG can be represented by:

   MOUSE
   VGA
   ORGPATH C:\GAMES\COREWAR\ORGANISM
   GRID 150

The Corewar first sets the defaults then looks for a COREWAR.CFG file and
then overides all settings as determined by the command line.

Examples of several organisms have been included.  The list of program
commands can be found in COREWAR.CMD .

To get started type CW.BAT for an example game of 15 players.

Feel free to distribute this program and associated files unaltered.

Any questions or comments can be directed to :

	aragorn@titan.tsd.arlut.utexas.edu
or
	 elrond@titan.tsd.arlut.utexas.edu    128.83.171.81

Also, if you create any interesting organisms, please send them to us; we'll
pick a grand winner from all the entries.