📚 Introducing: The Book of Robocode 🤖

The Robocode community now has a comprehensive guide for mastering bot programming!

The Book of Robocode is a free, open-source resource covering everything from your first bot to advanced competitive strategies.

🎯 What's Inside

• Step-by-step tutorials for beginners
• Movement strategies (circular, wave surfing, and more)
• Targeting techniques (linear, circular, pattern matching)
• Radar and energy management
• Real code examples for both Robocode and Robocode Tank Royale

🔗 Links

🌐 Read it online: book.robocode.dev

💻 GitHub: robocode-dev/book-of-robocode

✨ Features

• 📖 Progressive learning path from novice to expert
• 🔬 Math and are physics explained clearly
• 🏆 Competition-ready strategies
• 🤝 Built on 20+ years of RoboWiki knowledge

Whether you're writing your first bot or aiming for the top of the RoboRumble rankings, this book has something for you!

Contributions welcome — open an issue or PR if you'd like to help expand the content. 🚀

Happy robocoding! 🎮

Robocode 1.10.1

Version 1.10.1 (09-Dec-2025)

Bugfix

• #71: Replaced Thread.stop() call with Thread.interrupt() in the RobotThreadManager
  • The Thread.stop() call has been removed as of Java 21, so the old call to stop() would cause the rest of the battle to be aborted; e.g., if you were running 100 rounds, but after the second a robot's thread needs to be terminated, then that would abort the rest of the rounds. By swapping in interrupt, the thread should still terminate, but gracefully.
  • Thanks go to Jeremiah Blanchard for fixing this ❤️. Nice catch!

Changes

• Improved documentation and comments with all sample bots.
• Updated libraries (dependencies) to the latest versions (including Eclipse Compiler for Java and Codesize).

Download Robocode 1.10.1 from here

Robocode 1.10.0

Version 1.10.0 (04-Jun-2025)

Robocode's code around RobocodeSecurityManager has been refactored to ensure compatibility with Java 24 and newer versions, even after the retirement of the Security Manager in Java 24. Read more here.
Additionally, Robocode remains fully functional on older Java versions, from Java 8 onward.

Changes

• Java 24 support: Implemented new security mechanisms that work with Java 24+ while maintaining compatibility with Java 8+.
• Versioning update: Adopted Semantic Versioning starting with version 1.10.0.

Download Robocode 1.10.0 from here

Robocode 1.9.5.6

Version 1.9.5.6 (30-May-2025)

Bugfix

Lim Sim Yee found and fixed the following vulnerabilities. Thank you for the PRs ❤️

Vulnerabilities fixes:

• Bug #67: The CacheCleaner contained a Directory Traversal Vulnerability when deleting files (recursively).
• Bug #68: Fix for Insecure Temporary File Creation.
• But #70: Fix Integer Overflow Vulnerability in Buffer Write Method.

Download Robocode 1.9.5.6 from here

Robocode 1.9.5.5

Version 1.9.5.5 (29-Mar-2025)

Changes

• Robocode cannot run with Java 24, which implemented JEP 486: Permanently Disable the Security Manager.
  • Robocode has its own security manager built on top of Java's Security Manager, which has now been removed with Java 24.
  • Robocode will not start up when running Robocode on Java 24 and newer. Instead, an error message is written out that Robocode does not support Java 24.
  • Fixing this issue requires a big rewrite of large parts of the security mechanisms in Robocode to prevent robots from doing harm on the system and from cheating against other competitor robots in battles.
  • Use Java 23 or an older version of Java instead, or head over to the new platform for Robocode: Robocode Tank Royale.

Download Robocode 1.9.5.5 from here

Robocode 1.9.5.4

Version 1.9.5.4 (30-Sep-2024)

Bugfix

• The built-in Eclipse Compiler for Java (ECJ) could not be found.

Download Robocode 1.9.5.4 from here

Robocode 1.9.5.3

Version 1.9.5.3 (11-Sep-2024)

Bugfix

• [#66]: Fixed an issue where Robocode would not start when executing the robocode.sh script for Linux and macOS due to this error: java.lang.UnsupportedOperationException: The Security Manager is deprecated and will be removed in a future release
  • Thanks goes to @scientificworld for this fix. 😊

Improvements

• Upgraded built-in Eclipse Compiler for Java to version 3.39

Download Robocode 1.9.5.3 from here