Core War: Color Robot Battle

Color Robot Battle is a programming game for the TRS -80 Color Computer designed by Glenn Sogge and implemented by Del Ogren. The object of the game is to write a program to control the movement, scanner, laser and missile of a battle robot and eliminate the opponent's robot.

Specification

Programs are written in Robot Language — a registerless hybrid of BASIC and Logo. Labels are up to 6 characters terminated by > . Programs begin at START> and automatically jump back to START> after executing the last command. Colons separate commands on the same line. The following commands are supported:

Command Description * The remainder of this line is a comment F<n> Move forward <n> steps B<n> Move back <n> steps L<n> Move left <n> steps R<n> Move right <n> steps T<n> Turn clockwise <n> octants T−<n> Turn anticlockwise <n> octants D<n> Turn to face direction <n> H<n> Halt for <n> turns XM Fire missile XL Fire laser C<label> Call a subroutine at <label> G<label> Go to <label> =S If something is in range in any direction… #S If there's nothing in range in any direction… =M If a missile is in the current octant… #M If there's no missile in the current octant… =R If a robot is in the current octant… #R If there's no robot in the current octant… =W If a wall is directly ahead… #W If there's no wall directly ahead… =? If a random value is true… #? If a random value is false…

Robots battle in Robot Land — a 128×90 arena. A robot starts with 62 units of robot energy and loses energy every time its attacked, collides with something or fires a weapon. A robot is destroyed when its energy level reaches 0.

The complete specification is available in the Color Robot Battle manual.

Software

Color Robot Battle was developed by The Image Producers and published on a ROM /Program Pak by Tandy/Radio Shack in 1981, catalogue number #26-3070, priced $39.95. The following robot programs are available:

Alpha and Omega by Glenn Sogge and Del Ogren (included with Robot Battle).

Alpha, Beta, Delta and Epsilon by Brendan Donahe.

Fred and Irving by Paul S Hoffman (published in The Rainbow, April 1983).

Sigma and Tau by John Metcalf.

robots.zip contains all 10 programs in .CAS format.

References