Galcon itself used to be mod-able, with several people creating bots for it. Someone rolled them all together in a single mod allowing you to pit different AIs

Galcon itself used to be mod-able, with several people creating bots for it. Someone rolled them all together in a single mod allowing you to pit different AIs against each other, tournament style. The whole package was an excellent sandbox for teaching AI to budding programmers. Sadly, that's all gone. Mods are gone, the modding forum is gone. Rather than an engrossing programming game, Galcon is now a mind-numbing clickfest. I am delighted to see Google picking up the concept.