CORE WARS/COREWARS

"Core Wars n. A game between `assembler' programs in a machine or machine simulator, where the objective is to kill your opponent's program by overwriting it. Popularized in the 1980s by A. K. Dewdney's column in "Scientific American" magazine, but described in "Software Practice And Experience" a decade earlier. The game was actually devised and played by Victor Vyssotsky, Robert Morris Sr., and Doug McIlroy in the early 1960s (Dennis Ritchie is sometimes incorrectly cited as a co-author, but was not involved). Their original game was called `Darwin' and ran on a IBM 7090 at Bell Labs. See core. For information on the modern game, do a web search for the `rec.games.corewar FAQ' or surf to the King Of The Hill site." - JARGON FILE, VERSION 4.3.1, 29 JUN 2001

* Each program is a "virtual machine" consisting of computer code. * Programs are written in special languages such as "CoreWars" and "Red Code" that resemble assembly language. * Programs are eliminated when they crash or run out of system memory ("core") in which to operate. * "Last program standing" is the winner.