
About
Crobots is a programming game released by Tom Poindexter in December 1985 as MS-DOS shareware, in which players write control programs (in C) for combat robots, developed on x86-based Unix systems. TclRobots is a programming game similar to Crobots, where players write a robot's control program in the Tcl language instead of C. Robots are equipped with a scanner, cannon, and drive mechanism, and battle head-to-head or in team matches until one is destroyed; a battle simulator is included for debugging robot programs. It requires Tcl 8.6 for its use of coroutines.
How it differs from the original
Unlike Crobots' C-based robot programs, TclRobots robots are scripted in Tcl and run in separate safe interpreters with a restricted command set — commands like exec, open, socket, and file access are disabled.
Getting started
Robot programs are run through the TclRobots interface: select robot files in the Files list, then click Run Battle to watch a single battle, or run a full round-robin tournament between multiple robot programs.