This package in an alternative Java starter kit for Planet Wars AI Challenge. The scripts could be modified to work for any language that runs on *nix with minimal effort.

http://ai-contest.com/

MyBot.java is a sample bot - feel free to modify and test your changes. (Java starter classes are coming soon.)

Requirements:

* Java 1.6

Layout:

.build/ - build_zip.sh copies source files, does a test compile and build a zip from here
.play/ - play.sh, play_all.sh and tcp.sh use this for compilation and logs
.play/build/ - compiled class files
.play/game/mapXXX - output and logs from last game on mapXXX
.play/game/tcp - output and logs from last game with TCP
example_bots/ - contains the jars for the example bots
maps/ - contains the example maps
src/ - java source files go here
tools/ - contains the PlayGame and ViewGame jars

Usage:

[0] Rename maps to standardize numbers (optional)

This will move maps/mapX.txt -> maps/map00X.txt and maps/mapXX.txt -> map0XX.txt. I just like the names consistent to stardize the output so I can easy grep, awk, etc.

$ ./rename_maps.sh

[1] To run a game against an example bot on map 5, run

$ ./play.sh 005 [bot-name: default is DualBot]

Take a look at the log: MyBot.log

[2] To play an example bot on all 100 maps, run

$ ./play_all.sh [bot-name: default is DualBot]

This will take a few minutes to run..

[3] To play other people's bots in REAL TIME without having to submit
your code to the contest server, run

$ ./tcp.sh

Just make sure that you change the my_bot_name variable to something other than MyBot.
See http://www.benzedrine.cx/planetwars/ for more details. 
Thanks dhartmei for setting up the server!

[4] To view a game replay, run

$ ./view.sh 005

[5] To build a zip file for submission, run

$ ./build_zip.sh

Enjoy!

-InvaderZim