README
1README for pMARS version 0.9.0 - portable corewar system with ICWS'94 extensions
2
3____________________
4What is Core War?
5
6 Core War is a game in which two or more virus-like programs fight against
7 each other in a simulated memory space or core. Core War programs are
8 written in an assembly language called Redcode which is interpreted by a
9 Core War simulator or MARS (Memory Array Redcode Simulator). The object of
10 the game is to prevent the other program(s) from executing. For more
11 information about Core War check out the usenet newsgroup rec.games.corewar
12 and its FAQ list ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/games/corewar-faq
13 or go to http://www.koth.org/.
14
15____________________
16pMARS highlights
17
18 * portable, run it on your Mac at home or VAX at work
19 * free and comes with source
20 * core displays for DOS, Mac and UNIX
21 * implements a new redcode dialect, ICWS'94, while remaining compatible
22 with ICWS'88
23 * powerful redcode extensions: multi-line EQUates, FOR/ROF text repetition
24 * one of the fastest simulators written in a high level language
25 * full-featured, programmable debugger
26 * runs the automated tournament "KotH" at http://www.koth.org and
27 http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~pizza/koth/ and the annual ICWS tournaments
28
29____________________
30Documentation
31
32 pmars.6 is the nroff-source for UNIX man pages. You can install it in
33 /usr/man/man6 for use with the UNIX "man" command or format it with nroff
34 -man. pmars.doc contains man pages without control characters that have
35 been formatted for printing.
36
37 doc/primer.94 and doc/primer.cdb contain short introductions to the ICWS'94
38 draft and the cdb debugger respectively. redcode.ref is a quick reference to
39 the redcode syntax supported by pMARS. CONTRIB has guidelines for porting
40 pMARS to new platforms and contributing new display code.
41
42____________________
43Compiling the source
44
45 There are a number of C preprocessor symbols that control which version
46 of pMARS is compiled. To enable an option, include -DSYMBOLNAME in CFLAGS
47 of the makefile or uncomment the relevant section in config.h.
48
49 GRAPHX
50 This option enables a platform-specific graphical core display.
51
52 SERVER
53 Disables the debugger for a non-interactive tournament version. The
54 pMARS program that runs the KotH email tournaments is compiled with
55 SERVER enabled.
56
57 EXT94
58 Enables the experimental opcodes SEQ, SNE and NOP, as well as the
59 A-field relative addressing modes *, {, and }. This option should
60 usually be enabled. EXT94 also enables the P-space extensions LDP,
61 STP and PIN.
62
63 SMALLMEM
64 makes all addresses 16-bit as opposed to the usual 32-bit wide. This
65 limits core size to 65535, but also drastically reduces the memory
66 footprint of the program. We found that SMALLMEM reduces the
67 simulation speed of pMARS on most CPUs, with the exception of those
68 with a very small primary cache.
69
70 There are other compile directives described in config.h, in particular
71 some that fine-tune the UNIX curses display.
72
73 pMARS has been tested with various ANSI and non-ANSI C compilers. If
74 you can't get it to run or you had to change the source extensively,
75 contact the authors with a full description of the problems and
76 diffs to the source if applicable.
77
78____________________
79Platforms
80
81 UNIX
82 A standard UNIX makefile is provided. If you specify the GRAPHX
83 directive, a character-based display using the curses library is
84 built. On some systems, it may be necessary to remove -ltermcap from
85 the LIB variable in the makefile.
86
87 UNIX/X11
88 If you specify the XWINGRAPHX directive, the X-Windows display
89 version of pMARS is compiled. You also need to change the link
90 library by uncommenting the "LIB = -lX11" line in makefile. X11
91 pMARS has a few new command line options that are described in
92 pmars.doc.
93
94 LINUX
95 The Linux/SVGA version of pMARS has been derived from the DOS
96 graphical version and therefore should behave very much like that
97 one.
98
99 Some notes for compiling the Linux/SVGA version:
100 * You will need the Linux SVGA library (libvga) version 1.12 or above
101 to compile pMARS for Linux (it may work with older libraries, but
102 I have not had an opportunity to test it).
103 * If you #define GRAPHX in config.h or in the makefile, the graphical
104 version will automatically be built unless you explicitely
105 specify CURSESGRAPHX.
106 * You will have to link with -lvgagl -lvga. makefile already contains
107 a sample definition of LIB with these libraries.
108 * The code assumes that Function keys etc. map to the 'standard'
109 escape sequences. pMARS will not recognize these keys otherwise.
110 * You need root privileges for the SVGA library, so either run pMARS
111 as root, or a better solution is to set the SUID bit of the
112 executable (do the following with root privileges).
113 # chown root pmars
114 # chmod u+s pmars
115 * The code assumes your mouse is available via /dev/mouse. This is
116 usually a link to the 'real' mouse interface, e.g. on my system:
117 # cd /dev
118 # ls -l mouse
119 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 5 Mar 2 00:22 mouse -> ttyS0
120 * The second digit of the the argument to -v indicates (just like in
121 the DOS version) the graphics mode:
122 1 ... 640x480 with 256 colors
123 2 ... 800x600 with 256 colors
124 3 ...1024x768 with 256 colors
125 6 ... 320x200 with 256 colors
126 all other digits will result in the 640x480x256 mode.
127
128 Deficiencies/bugs of the Linux/SVGA version:
129 * Currently, the following keys are recognized by pMARS: F1-F10, the
130 cursor keys, insert, delete, home, end, page up and page down,
131 and Alt-a to Alt-z.
132 * The result of a fight is printed to the console after returning
133 from the graphical display -- only the last two lines or so are
134 not visible until you press <return>.
135 * Bug reports are welcome - just drop a note to m.maierhofer@ieee.org
136
137 DOS
138 You will need the free 32-bit DOS compiler DJGPP - a DOS port of gcc -
139 and ndmake or some other make program. pMARS also compiles with the
140 16-bit DOS compilers of the Borland/Turbo C family, but the maximum
141 number of warriors is limited to 8 because of memory constraints.
142
143 The GRAPHX compile directive enables the combined VGA/textmode
144 display of pmarsv.exe. You can enable the graphics and textmode
145 displays selectively with the DOSGRXGRAPHX and DOSTXTGRAPHX
146 directives. If you so desire, you can even link in a curses display
147 using the PDCurses library by specifying the CURSESGRAPHX directive.
148
149 MAC
150 The Mac GUI version of pMARS, MacpMARS, will compile with Think C
151 and MPW C, possibly others. Source code for the interface/display of
152 MacpMARS as well as instructions on how to make the executable are
153 in MacpMARS*s.cpt.hqx. The GUI code has not been updated for v0.7 of
154 pMARS yet, so you need the base archive for v0.6 (pmars06s.zip).
155
156 VMS
157 pvms*s.zip contains command files to build pMARS for VMS flavors. You
158 need DEC C; VAX C will not work. This file also contains a complete VMS
159 help system.
160
161 OTHERS
162 pMARS should compile with Borland C++ for OS/2, although we haven't
163 tried it. The OS/2 version currently doesn't have a core display.
164 pMARS has also been reported to compile on Amigas.
165
166____________________
167Language support
168
169 All strings are contained in the file str_eng.c for easy translation into
170 languages other than english. If you would like to see pMARS speak your
171 native tongue, translate the strings and send the file to us. We will then
172 include the new str_???.c in the next release and might even release the
173 foreign language binaries.
174
175$Id: README,v 1.1.1.1 2000/08/31 10:22:56 iltzu Exp $
176