Back in 1999 or so I was really into the genre of "programming games", i.e.
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Back in 1999 or so I was really into the genre of "programming games", i.e. games where you don't have direct input on the game, but instead write a program that's supposed to achieve the goals. Maybe the best-known is Core War from 1984 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Core_War) but I tried a bunch out
I was introduced via RoboWar for Mac OS (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RoboWar) on a shareware disc and was hooked. You'd program a robot that had a weapon (several choices), a radar (to "see" enemies), and engine (could move around an arena): the goal was to destroy all enemies with your better program.
But I had a Windows machine so I played Robot Battle instead, written by Brad Schick for early Windows (3.1, 95, etc). It used a C-like language to run the bots. Similar to RoboWar but simplified: all robots were identical, the only difference being the brains. I learned C syntax through this!
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Robot Battle had a mailing list (the RBML) for players to share tips, get insider announcements, and organize tournaments! The users were very helpful, I remember them fondly (thank you all for putting up with my stupid teenage ideas and posts...) There was even someone who composed a .IT "ode" lol
in 2001 bschick released 1.4 of the game, on GarageGames - the ONLY time I ever paid a shareware registration fee! New version was way faster, allowed unlimited arena sizes & bot counts, built-in tournament support, and graphical updates.
RBML moved to a forum.
One big enhancement of 1.4 was the addition of "radio"s for the bots, to allow them to communicate. It was primitive (shared channels) but opened up strategic opportunity in team matches: bots could tell each other where enemies were or coordinate radar coverage. Some folks even wrote jammers (!)
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anyway I drifted away shortly after (college) and the game faded away - but Brad released the source code at some point, though i can't find it now. And there is now RoboCode (https://robocode.sourceforge.io) which is directly inspired by Robot Battle, so the legacy remains. Definitely an interesting time
I've been thinking about "programming games" lately again, and unfortunately from a "strategy" perspective these simpler ones (you control A Tank) seem dead-end: most games ultimately have a "best" way to play, which in these games is often just "always be moving and shooting".
e.g. Core War there are ~3 archetypes, and genetic algorithms have hyperoptimized the parameters of each one. RB tournament winners were often composites of basic strategies glued together (run around map edges, hide in corner, etc) , selecting at match start which had been most successful so far
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this is kinda why I lost interest - it's no fun running simulations just to fine-tune "distanceBeforeShooting" variable to 2 decimal places.
the future of these I think is in multi-agent stuff, like Starcraft AI tourneys. I'd love to see a modern programming game designed ground-up for strategy
stuff like "control a disparate army with multiple specialized units", or bigger & more complex scenarios than just "find the enemy on the open plains and kill him". MindRover had single-bot challenges too ("solve this maze") but competition is always more exciting
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@greg I've always been attracted to those kind of games, but never really managed to get hooked.
There's a "recent" one that kinda matches your description : Screeps https://screeps.com/
It's a RTS-y kind of MMO with programmable agents of different kinds : some kind build, some can fight, mine, etc.
Again I never really spent much time on it, but I always wished I could, see if it's really interesting.
(You can even host your own server apparently !) -
@trotFunky actually You're the second person to recommend Screeps and yeah I definitely need to check it out!
