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Core Wars — Parallax Forums

Core Wars

ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
edited 2003-03-02 00:29 in General Discussion
I don't know why I thought of this last night, but.....

In the ancient past, two competitors would write programs that
would flip a bit in the other guy's (gal's?) computer memory. The
two programs would take turns fighting it out. When the right bits
were flipped, the other guy's program would crash. As I understand
it, the two programs ran on the same computer and shared the
same memory. However, the location in memory of your progream
was unknown to your competitor, so it was similar to Battleship.
You just lobbed logic bombs into memory, trying to wipe out the
functioning of the other program.

I'm wondering if that can be done with the Basic Stamp. Can two
Basic Stamps be connected together and write to each other's
EEPROM? If not (and I think not), then can they share an
EEPROM and be programmed to read directions from the shared
EEPROM (similar to what Stamps do). In this case, the program
to read EEPROM and operate on the instructions is programmed
into each Stamp. The program has to be the same on both
Stamps. The program also has to signal the competing Stamp
when it is its turn. To start the match, a 555 would oscillate at
high frequency. A push button is released when the match is to
start. If the output is high when the button is released, then the
first Stamp begins the match. If low, then the second Stamp
begins the match. Since the 555 oscillates too fast for humans to
count, releasing the switch would be near random.

What do you think?

Paul

Comments

  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2003-03-02 00:29
    You could simulate this game using only 1 Stamp connected to N switches
    (or a keypad). Two players would take turns flipping switches, or
    entering a keypad value. The program would first select random
    numerical values in the range 0 to 2**N, as the critical (crash) values.
    The first player to hit a critical value loses the game -- similar to
    Windows Minesweeper.

    Dennis

    Original Message
    From: verhap@o... [noparse]/noparse]mailto:[url=http://forums.parallaxinc.com/group/basicstamps/post?postID=-pWbNjOza4ekJNouu8bBKAJfaLFlo0hhNuNMWhn2u4Lu2EZ_bAgl8n8SHvRqZCAq0jj0NqchKnp2DLoS6tEhilUdNss]verhap@o...[/url
    Sent: Saturday, March 01, 2003 2:57 PM
    To: basicstamps@yahoogroups.com
    Subject: [noparse][[/noparse]basicstamps] Core Wars


    I don't know why I thought of this last night, but.....

    In the ancient past, two competitors would write programs that
    would flip a bit in the other guy's (gal's?) computer memory. The
    two programs would take turns fighting it out. When the right bits
    were flipped, the other guy's program would crash. As I understand
    it, the two programs ran on the same computer and shared the
    same memory. However, the location in memory of your progream
    was unknown to your competitor, so it was similar to Battleship.
    You just lobbed logic bombs into memory, trying to wipe out the
    functioning of the other program.

    I'm wondering if that can be done with the Basic Stamp. Can two
    Basic Stamps be connected together and write to each other's
    EEPROM? If not (and I think not), then can they share an
    EEPROM and be programmed to read directions from the shared
    EEPROM (similar to what Stamps do). In this case, the program
    to read EEPROM and operate on the instructions is programmed
    into each Stamp. The program has to be the same on both
    Stamps. The program also has to signal the competing Stamp
    when it is its turn. To start the match, a 555 would oscillate at
    high frequency. A push button is released when the match is to
    start. If the output is high when the button is released, then the
    first Stamp begins the match. If low, then the second Stamp
    begins the match. Since the 555 oscillates too fast for humans to
    count, releasing the switch would be near random.

    What do you think?

    Paul



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