FAQ ver.1.42 - November 06 2025 20:59:38.

  1. Q: I've never written a robot. It's quite difficult, isn't it? What do I have to do ?

    A: Not at all. The CROBOTS manual, all documents and hundreds of source code are freely available for learning.

  2. Q: Can I write robots using other programming languages (Pascal, C++, BASIC) ?

    A: No. CROBOTS accepts an ANSI C subset only.

  3. Q: Can I use Crobots32 (Pascal Robots or other clones) for testing my robot?

    A: No, and it would not be useful at all because they are not compatible (Crobots32 neither) with CROBOTS.

  4. Q: Is there any graphical interface of CROBOTS?

    A: As for the match visualisation no, there isn't: that for Ms-DOS/Linux platforms is text-based only. CROBOTS Amiga has a pretty good graphical interface but its compiler isn't 100% compatible with the Ms-DOS/Linux version.

  5. Q: Is there any CROBOTS version for Windows 7/10/11?

    A: Yes. There's a CROBOTS Windows32 and 64-bit binary.

  6. Q: May I run CROBOTS with other operating systems?

    A: CROBOTS runs on any operating systems with the arm64, x86-32 and x86-64 Windows/Linux/macOS architecture (or emulation). There're also (old) binaries for HP-UX, Solaris, IBM AIX, and Playstation architectures.

  7. Q: What's the Linux version which supports CROBOTS?

    A: Any! Check the (link) and download the binaries.

  8. Q: What are the differences between the CROBOTS binaries versions?

    A: There isn't any substantial difference. The Linux version is the official one. The only differences are the 32-bit and 64-bit versions: any binary (.ro) compiled with the 32-bit CROBOTS version won't work with the 64-bit one and vice versa. Interestingly, both Windows 32 and 64-bit CROBOTS executables do compile into 64-bit .ro binaries.

  9. Q: What are the best robots for benchmarking and comparisons ?

    A: As usual the best robots standing on the last yearly tournament final stage, or even better the best robots in the KOTH.

  10. Q: How can I analyse all CROBOTS log files ?

    A: Follow the download link where you can find several utilities which are useful for this purpose but if you are using GoRobots you won't need to analyse any log at all.

  11. Q: How do I calculate the repetition factor (which I can use for testing my robots) ?

    A: You decide how many matches each robots pair runs ; e.g. this number is TOT, the formula is : 

            TOT
      ------- (rounding up)
     (N-2) C 2
    Where N is the number of all robots and the nCr operator returns the numbers of combinations of 'n' elements 'r' times. Example: 1000 matches for each pair, 24 robots 
           1000        1000
    ----------  = ------ = 4.329 , rounded up to 5
   (24 - 2) C 2     231

    The face2face matches for each pair is obviously equal to the repetition factor.

  12. Q: How many tests do I have to run to obtain reliable results?

    A: The standard deviation, using a repetition factor 5 and 24 robots in a 4vs4 tournament, is about 1-1.5%; if you get any improvement or worsening outside this interval the results are fairly reliable, otherwise you may want to increase the repetition factor or repeat the test.. or test your luck :-)

  13. Q: The Linux version of the CROBOTS compiler, in a single match, is running too fast. What can I do?

    A: This is a well-known issue: the only work-around is to use the version of the CROBOTS compiler for MS-DOS in a DOSBox emulator, available for all Linux distributions.

  14. Q: Why the number of games are not the same for the robots of the KOTH ?

    A: Because some robot was removed and some other joined later creating a disparity between the number of participants and combinations. Moreover the 4vs4 is calculated with a random distribution of matches.