- Comments on JKW's Beginner's Benchmark -
;name Marcia Trionfale 1.3 ;author Beppe Bezzi ;strategy attemping a more aggressive behaviour
That's the version of Marcia Trionfale I used in last winter tournament, together with Tornado, but using more processes, it's half Jack in the Box. Marcia Trionfale is a very aggressive silk replicator, very good against stone imps like Blue Funk and Juliet storm, but vulnerable to scanners.
;name nobody special ;author Mike Nonemacher ;strategy Paper like TimeScape, but with lots more ;strategy core-trashing, anti-imping, etc.
nobody special is another silk replicator, relative of Timescape. It's less aggressive than Marcia Trionfale, but more than Timescape. Interesting how the add instruction, together with the bombing mov in the other body, creates a non-carpet bombing.
;name Paperone ;author Beppe Bezzi ;strategy Silk replicator
Paperone is my first warrior to make 94 hill, it's nothing more than Jippo's Silk Warrior with different constants.
;name TimeScape (1.0)
;author J. Pohjalainen
;assert CORESIZE==8000
;strategy I'm stuck with replicators! Here is _The Latest_ one!
;strategy \---------------------------\ ----------------------
;strategy / ts1 spl @ts1, }STEP1 / Phoenix/Cell warrior
;strategy \ mov.i }ts1, >ts1 \ body, 6+ processes to
;strategy / ts2 spl @ts2, }STEP2 / keep That Thing alive,
;strategy \ mov.i }ts2, >ts2 \ two of them working
;strategy / mov.i {ts2, <ts3 / together with proper
;strategy \ ts3 jmp @ts3, }STEP3 \ constants and you have
;strategy /___________________________/ found >>--> TimeScape!
;strategy \T I M E T O E S C A P E\ ----------------------
;strategy v1.0: added more havoc in above code (or I hope so!)
Timescape is the father of modern replicators. With very few exceptions, all use its structure. For a better discussion on silk replicators see Core Warrior 1 and 3.
;name Blue Funk 3 ;author Steven Morrell ;strategy Fixed another in-memory/in-register bug
The strategy line doesn't explain a lot about what the warriors does, unless you know Blue Funk and Kline's Emerald, but a little testing can easily show that Blue Funk 3 is a classic stone with a binary launched imp spiral. The most interesting property of the stone is the self modifying bombing pattern; in practice BF3, after completing its modulo 4 bomb run shifts the pattern and repeat it displaced, going to bomb the whole core. To better see it, try running BF3 after changing the 'spl i' line in a dat, so deactivating the spiral.
;name Cannonade ;author P.Kline, Paul Kline, pk6811s@acad.drake.edu ;strategy break gates, score points ;strategy stone and gate-busting imp-spiral(s)
Cannonade is worth mention mainly for the stone structure, well described by S. Morrell in its book, and for the gate busting imps, descibed in Morrell's manual too. Cannonade relies more on the imps for attack than on the stone, using it, with a wide mod 10 pattern, to kill scanners and provide a core clear. Unfortunaltely, for it, 94 redcode allows forward clears and increment gates, and Cannonade's imps are unable to crash them; it's still a powerful opponent in 88 redcode.
;name Fire Storm v1.1 ;author W. Mintardjo ;strategy Stone with anti-imp core clear
Firestorm is another stone, worth mention as a way to implement a two pass clear in 88 redcode. To see it trace the 'ptr' line and look how the clear pointers self modify.
;name Iron Gate ;author Wayne Sheppard ;strategy cmp scanner-SPL/JMP-Gate
Iron gate is a classic 88 redcode cmp scanner, using spl 0 /jmp -1 stun bombs. Worth notice are the compact code and the decrement protection. For a better discussion on Iron Gate and cmp scanners see my hint in Core Warrior 19.
;name Porch Swing ;Author Randy Graham ;strategy Swing with a little wider range. ;strategy Now 80% bomb/scan with djn-stream once-thru
Porch Swing is the warrior I saw more dominate; last summer it scored more than 170 pts in the 94 hill, to disappear as soon as people began to take counter measures like boot and use of bombs with b-field of 1. It's a classic example of once through scanner bomber with a deadly multipass clear.
;name Rave ;author Stefan Strack ;strategy Carpet-bombing scanner based on Agony and Medusa's
Rave is another classic cmp scanner, attacking with a carpet of spl 0. Its relative Agony II, similar but using boot, is one of the longest living warriors in the 94 hill.
;name Thermite 1.0 ;author Robert Macrae ;strategy Quick-scan -> incendiary bomber.
An example of quick scanner, using vampire attacks, followed by an incendiary bomber. For a discussion on Thermite see Core Warrior 5.
;name Tornado ;author Beppe Bezzi ;strategy the original one ;strategy Fast 60% c bomber
Tornado is the fastest pure bomber appeared till now (the 75% and 80% are mixed scan bombers) It's interesting the use of bombs as pointers for next one. Tornado is discussed in Core Warrior 7. The version in the benchmark never stood in the hill for long, being too vulnerable to paper, but was a good complement for Marcia Trionfale in the p-warrior Jack in the box (that was in the hill for very long :-) Exercise for the reader: make it self splitting to increase resistance, add a djn stream, a multipass clear and a bit of paper protection; if you can do it without bloating Tornado you'll make the hill with success. Yes, Tornado 3.0