***********************************************
* NSFCWT - Rules for round 6                  *
***********************************************

This is a tough one, and we thought to give you some extra time by posting
this early.

It's game time. In this round we are going to play the PAPER- SCISSORS-
STONE game. Wait, you're saying, I play this every time I send my P-space
warriors to the hill. Well, this is different: instead of starting up a
paper-, scissors-, or stone-type warrior, you simply show your hand
(symbolically at least) the way you did when you played this game as a
kid.
  This round is an exercise in  P-space programming and calls for a
sophisticated switching algorithm that anticipates and beats an opponent's
switching algorithm.  We supply a skeleton warrior as well as white
warriors.  The skeleton warrior takes care of the bookkeeping. Your job is
to write a switching mechanism. In every round your warrior chooses a
strategy (paper, scissors or stone) and then loads a number representing
this choice into a special location in core (my_hand). After both warriors
in core made their choices, the bookkeeping part of your skeleton warrior
decides who won and commits suicide or waits until the end of the round
depending on this comparison. This decision is based on the well known
fact that SCISSORS beats PAPER (cut), STONE beats SCISSORS (damage), PAPER
beats STONE (wrap). To simplify bookkeeping the warriors are loaded
symmetrically in core at locations 0 and 4000. So you we are going to use
the

    pmars -d 4000 -c 1000 -r 1000

command line. Notice that the number of cycles is limited to 1000 and so 
the warriors have a sufficient but finite time to make a decision.  This 
small cycle number allows us to run 1000 rounds per game.  Length limit is 
the maximum length that pMARS supports (500 instructions). The round 
consists of a round robin between the 10 white warriors and the competing
warriors (white warriors hopefully in the last spots  :-) This means you
have to beat the white warriors and your opponents as well.

The 10 white warriors (uuencoded zip archive below) are very simple; they
are either completely predictable (don't learn from previous results) or
use a very simplistic adaptation routine.

A hint: it is possible to write a warrior that beats all white warriors
9 times out of 10. On the other hand it is also possible to create a
switching mechanism that kills this warrior 9 times out of 10...

Please send your warrior to

    sieben@imap1.asu.edu

by Friday, Nov. 17, 20:00, MST.

Good luck,
    Nandor and Stefan

Skeleton warrior:

--------------8<----------------------------------------------------
;redcode-94
;name ???
;author ???
;Warrior that plays the game of Paper-Scissors-Stone in NSFCWT round 5
;Needs to be paired with one opponent exactly half the coresize apart (-d 4000)
;assert WARRIORS==1 || (WARRIORS == 2 && MINDISTANCE == CORESIZE/2)
;assert VERSION >= 80

;my/your_hand are used to communicate between players
your_hand   equ (my_hand+CORESIZE/2)
PAPER       equ #1              ;some useful constants
SCISSORS    equ #2
STONE       equ #3

org         start
my_hand     dat 0,0
;
;           Variable part starts here. This is were I decide what hand to
;           use next. I can use the value of the RESULTS cell (0 if lost,
;           1 if won, 2 if tied last round) and any other values I chose
;           to store in pspace. The hand I decide to show is stored in the
;           B-field of instruction 'my_hand'.
;---BEGIN-VARIABLE-PART-----------------------------------------------------

Don't change any code outside this area.  See the white warriors below for
examples what could go in here.  Do not bomb your opponent or peak at
your_hand before making your move or do anything else unfair, we're
watching your code with eagle's eyes :-).

;---END-VARIABLE PART-------------------------------------------------------
;           End of variable part. I wait for the other player to show his hand.
;           I then analyze the outcome of the game.
;
wait        jmz.b wait,your_hand
work        mov.b your_hand,#work
            sub.b my_hand,work          ;your_hand minus my_hand, loss=1,-2
            add #2,work                 ;loss=3,0
            mod #3,work                 ;loss=0
live        jmn live,work               ;die if lost, live if won or tied

            end