I'm a self-proclaimed computer geek. As such, I like to have games where you make a strategy, program a robot to follow the strategy, and kill everyone else on the playing field.

GarBots

I don't have a lot of time right now to invest in different programs, and what time I do have is just a few minutes waiting here and there for things to get done. Garbots is a great little Palm program if you want a little killing on the go. Fore more information, see my GarBots page.

WarBots

This was my first bot programming game that I ever played. Since it is so hard to find, I have a local copy laying around. Warbots was programmed by Chris Busch in Turbo Pascal. The program runs in DOS and requires an EGA/VGA screen (everyone has these now, right?).

I wrote a bot that drove around backwards. If it found another robot, it would cream the area, move forward, turn around, and shoot four or five times in a row. Worked quite well.

I also wrote a crack (some time back -- can't find it anymore) that would decrypt the .war files that were password encrypted. The encryption method used is just a simple XOR stream cipher.

Links

• AIForge (alternate) - Listing of different programming games
• C++Robots - Write your bot in C++, play by email, king of the hill competitions
• Google's List - Lots and lots of programming games
• Evolving Virtual Robots - How one person started to evolve robots
• RealTimeBattle - Program your robot in whatever language you wish
• Programming Games - A list of different programming games with descriptions