Information / Tutorials

The Core War Frequently Asked Questions from rec.games.corewar
The Core War Glossary defines many of the terms used in Core War.
View A. K. Dewdney's Scientific American articles that started it all!
- Original JPG scans of Sci Am.
- Much more convenient HTML version.
There are several infrequent Core War newsletters including:

Modern Core Wars by Greg Lindahl, is a brief summary of how the game works.
The Beginner's Guide To Corewar by Ilmari Karonen comes highly recommended. (mirror)
Issues of Steve's Guide for Beginners: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13.
Corewars For Dummies by J. K. Lewis is another good beginner's guide.
Intro To Art In '88 by Mintardjo Wangsaw is a great tutorial.
Introduction To Redcode, by Mark A. Durham:
- Tutorial 1
- Tutorial 2
My First CoreWar Book, by Steven Morrell:
- Chapter 1
- Chapter 2
Redcode '94 - Outline of the textual rules for writing a warrior file...
The Corewar Bibliography - an index of Core War documents by subject.
The Wilkies Benchmark Page tries to help beginners rate their warriors.
The WilMoo Benchmark Page another attempt to help beginners create better warriors.
The current ICWS '94 Draft states the rules to create a CoreWars simulator.

The Corewar Global Masters was streamed on Twitch in 2022.
The Easter Core War Tournament was a multiwarrior battle held in 2016.
The Valentine Core War Tournament was held in 2015.
The Halloween Core War Tournament pit vampire vs. non-vampire in 2014.
The Spring 2014 Tournament was held at The Centre for Computing History in Cambridge, UK.
The 2nd International Corewar Programming Contest was held in 2011.
The 1st International Corewar Programming Contest a single round tournament from 2010.
The Down The Core And More Tournament was held in 2006.
Core War Spring Tournament, a classic double elimination tournament in 2006.
Corewar Single Elimination Championship from 2005.
The Spring / Summer Corewar Tournament in 2002 was played over five rounds.
KoFaCoTo, the KotH.org Fall Corewars Tournament in 2000, first prize $500.
The Oversby Autumn 1998 Tournament.
Corewar Maniacs Tournament. (January to April 1998)
Nandor and Stefan's Fall Core War Tournament. (October to December 1995)
Warriors submitted to the 1990 ICWS Tourney.
Warriors submitted to the 1989 ICWS Tourney.

The Math of Corewar Step Sizes by Steven Morell is a mind-blowing document, not for the faint of heart!
The VENUS and Tierra artificial life programs are inspired by Core War.
Core Wars Genetics: The Evolution of Predation by John Perry.
Newton's Corewars Evolution Webpage has lots of genetic algorithm information.
corelife.zip and c-lifej1.zip are a two-dimensional programming game which resembles Core War.