Programming games are games where the actual playing is done by a computer program. The challenge is to write the program that controls the actions. The idea is that the better program wins.
A.I. Wars is a shareware game from Tactical Neuronics that allows you to design the artificial intellegence of an insect-like mechanized unit using its AI Command Language and then send the insect into battle to see how it handles itself against other AI units.
Fleets of automated war machines patrol the vast expanses between the planets. It is too perilous for humans, too distant for remote control. Vital shipping lanes must be protected. Hostile forces must be suppressed. Law and Order must be enforced. These tasks and others fall to the combat programmer.
It is your job, as a combat programmer, to construct an AI fleet. Carefully design the strategies and "artificial intelligence" necessary to direct each ship in your fleet. You are responsible for each minute detail: how your starships respond to the enemy, how they communicate with each other, how new starships are created, and so forth.
CodedWombat is a programming game, where little round coloured balls (robots) fire even smaller red balls at each other (bullets).
In this you can code small robots, using a simple language (in the final version) or in the robots machine code or in C++.
The robots (once coded) can then fight it out in a area.
This game uses plug-ins to define the objects in the game, and as such is very expandable. You can create your own bullets, scanners and objects...
Karel The Robot is a robot simulator that affords a gentle introduction to computer programming. Users write Karel programs and feed them to the simulator to watch them execute. Karel's programming language is similar to Pascal.
The definitive reference for Karel the Robot is the book Karel the Robot: A Gentle Introduction to The Art of Programming by Richard E. Pattis, Jim Roberts and Mark Stehlik (ISBN: 0471597252).
A programming game, in which robots controlled by programs are fighting each other. The goal is to destroy the enemies, using the radar to examine the environment and the cannon to shoot.