The Redcode standard leaves the underlying instruction representation undefined and provides no means for programs to access it.

Development of Redcode, however, has continued in an informal manner, chiefly via online forums such as the rec.games.corewar[2] newsgroup.

Three of the common strategies (replicator, scanner and bomber) are also known as paper, scissors and stone, since their performance against each other approximates that of their namesakes in the well-known playground game.

[3] With an understanding of Core War strategies, a programmer can create a warrior to achieve certain goals.

The 1984 Scientific American article on Core War[13] nevertheless cites the game Darwin, played by Victor A. Vyssotsky, Robert Morris, and Douglas McIlroy at Bell Labs in 1961.

The first description of the Redcode language was published in March 1984, in Core War Guidelines by D. G. Jones and A. K.

Dewdney revisited Core War in his "Computer Recreations" column in March 1985,[15] and again in January 1987.

[16] The International Core Wars Society (ICWS) was founded in 1985, one year after Dewdney's original article.

[17] Nonetheless, the 1994 draft was commonly adopted and extended, and forms the basis of the de facto standard for Redcode today.

Both Redcode and the MARS environment are designed to provide a simple and abstract platform without the complexity of actual computers and processors.