1.2K Tiny Corewar Evolver

Here's the latest version of the Tiny Corewar Evolver, a small (<1.2K) GWBasic program to evolve Redcode warriors against a benchmark. This version producted Wrath of the Machines after a 28 hour run.

The two biggest differences from TEV0 are as follows:

• no longer aborts a bad benchmark early
• replaces the lowest scoring warrior with the current warrior

TEV12.BAT

@dir /b /o-d *.red >w.evo
@echo END >>w.evo
@gwbasic tev12
@erase ?.evo

TEV12.BAS

10 P$="pmars -s 80 -p 80 -c 800 -l 5 -b -k -P":R=142:L=5:P=25:K=80
20 O$="mov.imov.ispl.bdjn.f;xxxx":M$="<@>{*}$#"
30 DIM W$(99),A$(L,P),B$(L,P),C(L,P),D$(L,P),E(L,P),S(P):RANDOMIZE TIMER
40 W=0:OPEN "w.evo" FOR INPUT AS #1:M=LEN(M$):q=0:h=1
50 INPUT #1,W$(W+1):IF W$(W+1)<>"END" THEN W=W+1:GOTO 50 ELSE CLOSE #1
60 q=(q mod p)+1:J=1:FOR I=2 TO P:IF S(I)<s(j) THEN j=i
70 NEXT i:FOR I=1 TO L:A$(I,J)=A$(I,q):B$(I,J)=B$(I,q):C(I,J)=C(I,q)
80 D$(I,J)=D$(I,q):E(I,J)=E(I,q):NEXT I:S(J)=s(q)
90 Z=S(Q)/H:FOR I=1 TO L:IF RND*Z<.3 THEN C(I,q)=INT(RND*K)
100 IF RND*Z<.3 THEN E(I,q)=INT(RND*K)
110 Z$=MID$(M$,INT(RND*M)+1,1):IF RND*Z<.3 THEN B$(I,q)=Z$
120 IF RND*Z<.3 THEN D$(I,q)=","+Z$
130 IF RND*Z<.1 THEN A$(I,q)=MID$(O$,INT(RND*LEN(O$)/5)*5+1,5)+" "
140 NEXT I:OPEN "w.evo" FOR OUTPUT AS #1:FOR I=1 TO L
150 PRINT #1,A$(I,q);B$(I,q);C(I,q);D$(I,q);E(I,q):NEXT I:CLOSE #1
160 s(q)=0:FOR I=1 TO W:SHELL P$+" w.evo "+W$(I)+" >s.evo"
170 OPEN "s.evo" FOR INPUT AS #1:INPUT #1,Z$:CLOSE #1:Z=1
180 IF MID$(Z$,Z,1)<>" " THEN Z=Z+1:GOTO 180
190 s(q)=s(q)+3*VAL(LEFT$(Z$,Z))+VAL(RIGHT$(Z$,LEN(Z$)-Z)):NEXT I
200 IF s(q)>H THEN H=s(q):SHELL "copy w.evo best.war"
210 goto 60

Results from an Even Simpler Corewar Evolver

Over the last week I've been removing as much as possible from TEV, the Tiny Corewar Evolver. The latest version is down to 1.2K and produced a mad mad bomber which entered SAL's nano hill in 7th place:

;redcode-nano
;name wrath of the machines
;author John Metcalf
;strategy evolved mad mad bomber
;strategy 28 hours with TEV 1.2K
;assert CORESIZE==80

spl.b #76, {32
mov.i >11, {49
mov.i }79, {76
mov.i <64, {29
djn.f $-3, {58
end

Corewar Tiny Evolver TEV v0

The Corewar Tiny Evolver is a small (< 1.5K) program written in GWBasic. After a couple of hours evolving, TEV is capable of producing programs able to compete with hand-written progams and enter the Corewar nano hill.

Instructions

Place TEV0.BAS, TEV0.BAT and a selection of benchmark warriors in the same directory. The parameters in line 10-20 are set up for the nano hill but can be adjusted if required.

Run TEV0.BAT. Evolution will continue until you decide to terminate the program. Throughout the process, the best warrior can always be found in the file BEST.WAR.

Program Layout

• batch file: generate a list of benchmark warriors, run the evolver
• 10-20: set evolution parameters (see Parameters)
• 30-50: initialise the evolver
• 60-110: mutate current warrior based on how well it performs
• 120-130: write current warrior to file
• 140-180: benchmark current warrior, abort if poor performance
• 190: if benchmark warrior is best to date, save a copy
• 200-220: replace a lower scoring warrior with current warrior
• 230-250: if score below threshold, discard warrior and select another
• repeat from 60

Parameters

The evolution parameters are set in lines 10-20

• K: coresize
• L: maximum warrior length
• P: number of warriors in the evolution pool
• R: number of rounds per benchmark battle
• M$: addressing modes to be used
• O$: opcode/modifier combinations to be used
• P$: pMARS command line

TEV0.BAT

@dir /b /o-d *.red >w.evo
@echo END >>w.evo
@gwbasic tev0
@erase ?.evo

TEV0.BAS

10 P$="pmars -s 80 -p 80 -c 800 -l 5 -b -k -P":R=142:L=5:P=20:K=80
20 O$="mov.ispl.bdjn.f;xxxx":M$="<@>{*}$#"
30 DIM W$(500),A$(L,P),B$(L,P),C(L,P),D$(L,P),E(L,P),S(P):RANDOMIZE TIMER
40 W=0:OPEN "w.evo" FOR INPUT AS #1:M=LEN(M$):H=80
50 INPUT #1,W$(W+1):IF W$(W+1)<>"END" THEN W=W+1:GOTO 50 ELSE CLOSE #1
60 FOR I=1 TO L:IF RND*S(1)/H<.6/L THEN C(I,1)=(C(I,1)+INT((RND-RND)*K))MOD K
70 IF RND*S(1)/H<.7/L THEN E(I,1)=(E(I,1)+INT((RND-RND)*K))MOD K
80 IF RND*S(1)/H<.3/L THEN B$(I,1)=MID$(M$,INT(RND*M)+1,1)
90 IF RND*S(1)/H<.4/L THEN D$(I,1)=MID$(M$,INT(RND*M)+1,1)
100 IF RND*S(1)/H<.3/L THEN A$(I,1)=MID$(O$,INT(RND*LEN(O$)/5)*5+1,5)
110 NEXT I
120 OPEN "w.evo" FOR OUTPUT AS #1:FOR I=1 TO L
130 PRINT #1,A$(I,1)+" "+B$(I,1);C(I,1);","+D$(I,1);E(I,1):NEXT I:CLOSE #1
140 S(1)=0:FOR I=1 TO W:SHELL P$+" w.evo "+W$(I)+" >s.evo"
150 OPEN "s.evo" FOR INPUT AS #1:INPUT #1,Z$:CLOSE #1:Z=1
160 IF MID$(Z$,Z,1)<>" " THEN Z=Z+1:GOTO 160
170 S(1)=S(1)+3*VAL(LEFT$(Z$,Z))+VAL(RIGHT$(Z$,LEN(Z$)-Z))
180 IF I>W/5 AND S(1)*150/H<I*R THEN 240 ELSE NEXT I
190 S(1)=100*S(1)/(W*R):IF S(1)>H THEN H=S(1):SHELL "copy w.evo best.war"
200 FOR J=2 TO P:IF S(J)>S(1) THEN NEXT J:GOTO 230
210 FOR I=1 TO L:A$(I,J)=A$(I,1):B$(I,J)=B$(I,1):C(I,J)=C(I,1)
220 D$(I,J)=D$(I,1):E(I,J)=E(I,1):NEXT I:S(J)=S(1)
230 IF S(1)>H*.9 THEN 60
240 Z=INT(RND*(P-1))+2:FOR I=1 TO L:A$(I,1)=A$(I,Z):B$(I,1)=B$(I,Z)
250 C(I,1)=C(I,Z):D$(I,1)=D$(I,Z):E(I,1)=E(I,Z):NEXT I:S(1)=S(Z):GOTO 60