Editing Programming game (section)

==As competitive games==
Many programming games involve controlling entities such as [[robot]]s, [[tank]]s or [[bacteria]] which seek to destroy each other. Such games can be considered environments of [[digital organism]]s, related to [[artificial life]] simulations. An early example is ''[[Core War]]'' (1984), where programs written in a standardized assembly-like language battle for space in a finite memory (virtual [[Magnetic-core memory|magnetic ''cores'']]). Players are given tools to develop and test out their programs within the game's domain-specific language before submitting the program to a central server. The server then executes the program against others and reports the results to the player, from which they can make changes or improvements to the program.

There are different [[tournament]]s and leagues for the programming games where the characters can compete with each other. Usually a script is optimized for a special strategy. Similar approaches are used for more traditional games; the [[World Computer Chess Championship]] consists of matches between programs written for the [[abstract strategy game]] of [[chess]].

The competitive programming game has also found its way to various [[board games]] such as ''[[RoboRally]]'' or ''Robot Turtles'', typically where a program becomes a premade deck of playing cards played one by one to execute that code.<ref>{{cite magazine | url = https://www.wired.com/2014/07/the-75-year-saga-behind-a-game-that-teachers-preschoolers-to-code/ | title= The 75-Year Saga Behind a Game That Teaches Preschoolers to Code | first = Cade | last= Metz | date = September 24, 2014 | access-date = October 3, 2016 | magazine = [[Wired (magazine)|Wired]] }}</ref>

Researchers presented ''RoboCode'' as a "problem-based learning" substrate for teaching programming.<ref>O'Kelly, Jackie, and J. Paul Gibson. "RoboCode & problem-based learning: a non-prescriptive approach to teaching programming." ACM SIGCSE Bulletin 38, no. 3 (2006): 217-221.</ref>