Thursday, December 4, 2014

Battlecode links

There are a number of essays and posts on Battlecode strewn across the internet. I'm trying to collect links to all of them here, and I update this post as I find more. This post also has links to the software and game specs from past years so you can download and play previous versions. 

 In addition to this post you should check out Bovard Tiberi's archive of Battlecode history.

General Battlecode posts

I read a lot of these to motivate myself before my first Battlecode in 2014!

Posts from specific years

Here are links to post-mortems and code repositories from Battlecodes past.

2009
  • Winning team gtg ice skating lessons' strategy report. (I'm hosting this myself; the original here seems to be down.)
2010
  • Winning team My Archon Died BellmanFording the Stream's strategy report. (I'm hosting this myself; the original here seems to be down.)
2011
2012
2013
2014
  • A nice post on Battlecode 2014 by David Westreicher of team schnitzel
  • My recollections as 2014 winner that one team
  • My code repository, which contains links to other 2014 repositories
2015
2016


Battlecode software from previous years


You can still download the last few years' versions of Battlecode and try them out. There are even recorded lectures and example code to help you out. If you are planning on doing Battlecode for the first time, a little practice on a previous year's competition can help you get a running start when the new game is released. While the game changes from year to year, the API is fairly stable and many of the problems you need to solve are the same each year. 

Battlecode 2013


The OpenCourseWare site for Battlecode 2013 has everything you need to try your hand at the 2013 competition, including the game software and specs, an example player, and recordings of the course lectures.  

Battlecode 2014


In Battlecode 2014 the goal was to herd cows into pastures and get 10 million giga-gallons of milk before the other team, while sending soldiers to shoot the other team's cows and blow up their pastures. 


Battlecode 2015


The 2015 competition was a pretty standard RTS game: you had to go out on the map and mine ore to make units to attack and destroy the enemy HQ. 

Battlecode 2016


The 2016 competition was a zombie invasion, with the goal being to survive longer than the other team or to destroy them outright.

    Even older Battlecode gameplay specs

    Here are the gameplay specs for the Battlecode competitions all the way back to 2001, the first year of Battlecode. Before 2007 Battlecode was called Robocraft. Thanks to Alex Chen for these links.



    The Tech articles about Battlecode

    Here are some articles about Battlecode in The Tech, MIT's student newspaper. Thanks to Dan Gulotta for these links.
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