The most random thread ever!!!

[The Skarzs]

Wow. xD xP

[Søren]

[Hickory]

[rachel25]

Do the roar

Better?

?? 

I'm Trying!

Happy?

[Lady Ashenwyte]

Do the roar

Better?

?? 

I'm Trying!

Happy?

[rachel25]

Do the roar

Better?

?? 

I'm Trying!

Happy?

[James Gryphon]

[rachel25]

[LT Sandpaw]

@James, what is this Robowar thing?

[rachel25]

[James Gryphon]

It's one of my favorite classic Macintosh games (later ported to Windows). You pick your robot's weapons, armor, etc., write code for it, and pit it against other robots in the arena. The different hardware options allow for different strategies, defenses, etc. There were tournaments from something like 1991 to 2010.

I got the old Mac source code and've played with it for a bit, making some changes and improvements. (The colored bullets, explosions, etc. you see in the video are all mine.)

[rachel25]

[LT Sandpaw]

Rachel what's with all the Once Upon a Time gifs!?

@James, huh interesting. So do you program your own robot with different commands like move forward, shoot, shield and the like or is it already preprogramed and you just have to select what you want your robot to do?

[James Gryphon]

RoboWar has its own Assembly-like programming language, "RoboTalk", with lots of different registers, operators, etc. Here's an example of a very simple bot (which should run, unless my programming skills've gone down the tubes).

Code Select Expand

main:
aim 41 + aim' sto
range 0 > fire if
main jump

fire:
150 fire' sto
main jump

Each bot is totally autonomous; you just start the battle and watch what their code makes them do. It's rather strategic that way; you have to account (or not) for what each other bot might do in advance of the actual battle.

[The Skarzs]

Rachel what's with all the Once Upon a Time gifs!?

THAT'S what those are from. . . Well, she did make a topic in Cavern Hole for that series.