Recreate a simple Core War using the C language.

Background#

About half a month ago, DBinary, a programming expert, organized a programmer competition called "Magnetic Core Battle" (磁芯大战) where the outcome was determined by code.

Although I'm not very skilled, I still wanted to create my own version for fun.

Development#

The logic of Magnetic Core Battle is very simple:

Let the user edit their own robot code.
Run the code.
End the game and see who occupies more territory or who eliminates the other player.

Due to my limited technical skills, I started by implementing the territory occupation.

First, I implemented a simple function to render the map:

// Define map size
int map_data[12][12];

/* Load map data */
void base() {
    for (int i = 0; i < 12; i++) {
        for (int j = 0; j < 12; j++) {
            map_data[j][i] = 0;
        }
    }
}

/* Render map */
void lod_map() {
    printf("\n");
    for (int i = 0; i < 12; i++) {
        for (int j = 0; j < 12; j++) {
            printf("[%d]", map_data[i][j]);
        }
        printf("\n");
    }
    printf("\n");
}

Next, I added and rendered two players:

int p1_data = 1;
int p2_data = 2;

/* Current coordinates */
int p1_now[] = {0,0};
int p2_now[] = {11,11};
...

/* Render players */
void lod_map() {
    map_data[p1_now[0]][p1_now[1]] = p1_data;
    map_data[p2_now[0]][p2_now[1]] = p2_data;
...

}

I wrote a player controller and loaded player code:

/* Mobile control */
void move(int direction, int player) {
    if (player==1) {
        switch (direction) {
            /* down */
            case 1:
                p1_now[0] = p1_now[0]+1;
                break;
            /* up */
            case 2:
                p1_now[0] = p1_now[0]-1;
                break;
            /* left */
            case 3:
                p1_now[0] = p1_now[1]-1;
                break;
            /* right */
            case 4:
                p1_now[0] = p1_now[1]+1;
                break;
            default:
                break;
        }
    } else {
        switch (direction) {
            /* down */
            case 1:
                p2_now[0] = p2_now[0]+1;
                break;
            /* up */
            case 2:
                p2_now[0] = p2_now[0]-1;
                break;
            /* left */
            case 3:
                p2_now[0] = p2_now[1]-1;
                break;
            /* right */
            case 4:
                p2_now[0] = p2_now[1]+1;
                break;
            default:
                break;
        }
    }
}

/* Control the player */
void player_1() {
    move(1, 1);
    move(1, 1);
}

void player_2() {
    move(2, 2);
}

/* Read the player data */
void lod_player() {
    player_1();
    player_2();
}

Next, I implemented the game statistics:

/* Statistical game data */
void lod_end() {
    int p1_num;
    int p2_num;
    for (int i = 0; i < 12; i++) {
        for (int j = 0; j < 12; j++) {
            if (map_data[i][j] == 1) {
                p1_num++;
            } else if (map_data[i][j] == 2) {
                p2_num++;
            }
        }
    }
    /* printf("[INFO]Game data: P1:%d, P2:%d\n", p1_num-12, p2_num-12); */
    if (p1_num<p2_num) {
        printf("[WIN]P2 win!\n");
    } else if (p1_num>p2_num) {
        printf("[WIN]P1 win!\n");
    } else {
        printf("[WIN]No Winner.");
    }
    
}

Finally, I started the game:

int main() {
    printf("\n[INFO] Start Game\n\n");
    base();
    for (int i=0; i<12; i++) {
        printf("[INFO] Round %d", i);
        lod_player();
        lod_map();
        sleep(1);
        
        /* Some mod(?) */
        //printf("\33[2J \033[0m");
        //printf("\007 \033[0m\n");
    }

    lod_end();

    return 0;
}

Complete code: Github