Darwin

Darwin © 1961 Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc.

Darwin is an early programming game in which two or more users must try to conquer the arena (a segment of the computer's memory). The rules are governed by a program called the umpire which determines which functions can be called. Programs can probe memory locations, kill opposing programs and copy themselves to empty memory locations. The game ends after a set amount of time or when only one program (and its copies) remains alive. A limited number of memory allocations in a program can be set up as protected. When probing a protected memory allocation, the probed program would become active (until that program again hit a protected memory allocation).