Short: COREWAR GAME ASSEMBLY VIRUS MADgic41.lzh is Version 4.1 of The MADgic Core: Core War for the Amiga Copyright 1992 Mark A. Durham. It is freely distributable in its complete archived form. The archive should be decompressed to an empty floppy disk to get the full effect of the system. It requires about 77% of an 880K disk. Here are just some of the things new for version 4.1 of The MADgic Core: ASR --- Multiple file assembly - By far the biggest new feature for 4.1 is the ability to assemble multiple files with a single invocation of ASR. From the WorkBench, you SHIFT-Select multiple source files while starting up ASR. ASR will issue a report on each individual file as it is assembled as well as list the number of successful and failed assemblies at the end of execution. This will work even across volumes (different disks). From the Shell, just type the command ASR followed by a simple AmigaDOS pattern (one containing only #'s and/or ?'s). ASR can handle multiple directories with a single pattern. For instance, to assemble all of the ICWS tournament programs in each of the four directories as they appear on The MADgic Core disk in df0:, issue the command "ASR df0:#?/#?.s" ASR can handle even more levels (i.e. #?/#?/#?/#?.s) if necessary. Or you can just list multiple files (i.e. "ASR file1 file2 etc."). This feature has allowed the deletion of all of the object files from the tournament program directories to make room for other improvents. ToolTypes - ASR recognizes the following Tooltypes field of the ASR icon set using the WorkBench menu Info command. They are: WINDOW=/// where is the left edge of the assembly window, is the top edge, is the , and is the height (in pixels). Some combinations may not be available and could possibly result in a crash. NOCOMMAS= where is either TRUE or FALSE. NOCOMMAS=TRUE tells the assembler not to expect commas between operands. If this option is set, operands are separated by whitespace and therefore no whitespace can occur with operand expressions. Ordinarily ASR can determine whether operands are separated by whitespace or not, but some instructions can be ambiguous. Example: DAT 2 -1 (Is it "DAT (2-1)" or is it "DAT 2, -1"?). NOICONS= where NOICONS=TRUE keeps ASR from saving .info files along with the object files. DISPLAY= where DISPLAY=TRUE will list the assembly to the window. PRINT= where PRINT=TRUE will list the assembly to the PRT: device. VERSION= where is 86 for ICWS'86 and 88 is for ICWS'88. The fields for SPL were swapped between ICWS'86 and ICWS'88. This option tells the assembler how to assemble instructions like "SPL 0". The default is ICWS'88. Only MARS truly supports the ICWS'86 style assembly. SmallMARS and FastMARS really expect an ICWS'88 assembly, but otherwise behave as ICWS'86 rules dictate. There is no way for you to know whether an object file was assembled as ICWS'86 or ICWS'88, so I recommend you use this option only if you absolutely have to do so. Command line options - ASR supports many command line options from the Shell. They are: -c Same as NOCOMMAS=TRUE above. -i Same as NOICONS=TRUE above. -l Same as DISPLAY=TRUE above. -v86 Same as VERSION=86 above. -v88 Same as VERSION=88 above (the default). There are AmigaDOS style options which fulfill the same functions as the above. Here is the template for the ASR command: FILES/A/M,D=DISPLAY/S,P=PRINT,NC=NOCOMMAS/S,NI=NOICONS/S: Redcode support - ASR now supports all but the strangest abuses of Core War. Colons and underscores in labels are the most frequent characters now supported in 4.1 but not in previous versions. MARS ---- Preloading filenames from WorkBench - If you SHIFT-Select one or two object file icons while starting up MARS from the WorkBench, the filenames are preloaded into the file requester brought up by the Load command. You still need to issue the Load command to actually load the programs. What is new for 4.1 is that you can preload the file requester across volumes (disks). ToolTypes - You can set many defaults in the ToolTypes field of the MARS icon by using the WorkBench menu Info command. Here are the recognized tools: SIZE= where is any of the Core sizes available from the Core menu (2000, 4000, 8000, 8192, 16000, 32000, 64000, and 128000). CYCLES= TASKS= COLOR=||||||| where each r, g, or b is a hexidecimal number (0-F). The default colors are, in this order, grey, light blue, dark blue, white, black, light red, dark red, and green. VERSION= where is either 86 for the ICWS'86 standard or 88 for the ICWS'88 standard. New for 4.1 are: CPU= where cpu type is MEMORY for Memory-Based and REGISTER for Register-Based. MEMORY=//// where is the left edge of the Memory Window, the top edge, the width, and is the height. Some combinations may not be available. is optional and can be either ON or OFF. TRACE=//// where all the fields behave the same as above. GAUGE=/ TIMER=/ SOUND= where is either ON or OFF. MARS does not recognize any flags or commands from the Shell. Improved Style Guide Compliance - The Load requester no longer automatically selects the first string gadget. Select the first gadget with the mouse or type the or keys to automatically select the first gadget. Otherwise, the , , or keys will activate the A..., B..., or Random gadgets, respectively. Clicking outside active requesters will result in the Wait pointer (the 2.0 Stopwatch) being displayed. The Wait pointer now appears during every activity which may impede interacting with the program. More keyboard shortcuts - Almost every menu command now has a keyboard equivalent with at least a remote relationship to the command. (There are exceptions). New sound features - You can now control each warrior's sound volume individually from the Sound requester. New "processor" support - MARS now supports a Memory-Based interpretation of the standards as well as the original (default, and correct - so say I) Register-Based interpretation. New 2.0-look system gadgets - The Trace Window and Memory Window both now have system gadgets with 2.0-look system gadgets, even under 1.x versions of the operating system. This is a bit of an experimental hack, and I'm not sure whether I will keep them - or even if they will work under all circumstances. Mark A. Durham (MAD) Email: durham@ricevm1.rice.edu GEnie: M.DURHAM2 USmail: P.O. Box 301173 Houston, TX 77230-1173 USA Architecture: m68k-amigaos