Corewar

Programming game. Bots, written in the assembly-like language, battle in a circular memory area.

Description

This is the implementation of the programming game Core War. The project has 3 distinct parts:

1. Assembler. Converts file .s, written in the assembly-like language, into bytecode file .cor. Then the compiled bot can be loaded into the virtual machine.
2. Virtual Machine. Runs the game. Loads bytecode of up to 4 players into a circular memory area. Then executes each champion's code operation after operation. Wins a player who created the last active process, i.e. the process which executed the last live operation.
3. Visualization. Displays the game in a terminal with formatting by ncurses library (screencast above).

Writing a smart bot was not the task here, as there is a separate project for that.

This is the project of the Algorithms branch of the School 42 curriculum

Detailed description of the task: corewar.en.pdf

Usage

Compile with make. Two executables will be created.

Assembler

./asm [bot.s] - this will compile a file bot.s into a bytecode file bot.cor.

Test *.s files are located in champs_s directory. There are also precompiled bots *.cor in champs_cor directory.

Virtual Machine

Run like this:

    ./corewar [-d N] [-s N] [-e / -E] [-v] [-l N] <[-n N] champ1.cor> <...>

Options:

    -n N    : Specify player's number (N >= 1 && N <= number_of_players (4 max))

    -v    : Visual mode (overrides dumps and logs)

    -d N (-dump N)    : Dump memory (32 octets/line) after N cycles then exit
    -D N        : same as -d but 64 octets/line
    -s N    : Run N cycles, dump memory (32 octets/line), pause, then repeat
    -S N    : same as -s but 64 octets/line
    -e / -E    : Dump memory at the end of a game (32 / 64 octets)

    -a    : Print output of 'aff' operation

    -l N    : Print logs. Add numbers together to enable several logs:
            1 - show lives
            2 - show cycles
            4 - show operations
            8 - show deaths
            16 - show PC movements (except for jumps)

Tested only on Mac OS X.

Credits

As a group project, it's done in collaboration with my 3 awesome schoolmates. Our roles were:

• @bjarne0706 (assembler)
• @dstepanets (virtual machine)
• @anatoliinerus (vizualization in ncurses)
• @evlasov (virtual machine and debugging)