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Damn straight he's learning assembly! If it was good enough for me, it'll be good enough for my son!

Check out Advanced T-Robots. It's a programming game that uses a forgiving flavor of assembly.

No mention yet of programming games? Most of them are all self-contained, so you just have to run the program, type some things in, and hit run. C++ Robots on the other hand is simply a C API, so you get to use all the tools that real programmers use. (And all the joy that comes with that). These give a task to perform, maybe not a super-useful task, but it's at least a goal. Usually it's open-ended though, so there really isn't a sense of accomplishment. Most of them need better documentation. And most of them are old, so getting them running is a bit of a task.

A nice list.
AT-Robots What introduced me to programming.

(Good to know Logo/turtle was mentioned prior)

AT-Robots, by Ed T. Toton (the third). Assembly in a virtual environment. It's not... the newest, or the hippest language, the best, or possibly even a good idea... but by god's teeth if it was good enough for me, it'll be good enough for my kid.

You know, when he reaches highschool age.

I set up a large display on the front of my house, in what little space I have. But the only real technological bit, other than lights and flickering LEDs, and a Flying Crank Ghost, is a set of talking skulls. I use the "Scary Terry" servo control system, which is sold as a kit from Cowlacious.

Test of my routine during assembly

Same routine, deployed into the display (gradual echo effect was accidental)

My display's web gallery

I got introduced to programming via Advanced T-Robots, actually. Similar, but assembly-like code.

But no, programming games have moved on since P-Robots. Not much. Depressingly little, actually. But there is only the hazy genre link between this pacman AI competition and P-robots.

It's because people who might be interested in that kind of thing are busy writing farming bots for MMO's like WoW and aimbots for the FPS genre.

I got introduced to programming via Advanced T-Robots, actually. Similar, but assembly-like code.

But no, programming games have moved on since P-Robots. Not much. Depressingly little, actually. But there is only the hazy genre link between this pacman AI competition and P-robots.

one of the funner games i remember playing as a child was AT-Robots. i'm not sure if it was free back then (i might have gotten it at a swap meet or something), but it's certainly free now.

basically, it's a robot battle simulation. you use a text editor to write the AI for your bot(s) in ATRA (Advanced T-Robot Assembly), a simplified assembly-like language used in the game, and then you load your custom-made bots up in the game and run battle simulations against other types of robots.

even if you don't assembly or don't have any programming experience, it's relatively easy to open up one of the pre-written robots that come with the game and figure out what different instructions do by altering different program parameters and then seeing how this changes the robot's behavior.

it's a great way to get kids interested in programming (and perhaps robotics/AI) while having lots of fun. one of the game's best qualities is that it encourages experimentation and creativity. once you get into the game you're always trying to tweak your robots and experiment with new techniques to improve their battle performance. it's largely a process of trial-and-error when you first start, but it also encourages deductive reasoning and other analytical skills.

Here is one.
http://necrobones.com/atrobots/

I know there is a java based robot fighting game too. I don't remember what it is though.

I'm afraid I have to disagree with your reasoning, though you have definitely thought this through.

SmartDust is currently being commercialized, and while not nanotech scale it is very small, approximate 8mm x 5 mm., shown in this photo

Your points of jamming, memory, and complexity are very valid, but consider the following three technologies being researched:

1. Plastic memory wafers about the same size as SmartDust that will hold 1Gb. They've already gotten the size to 1 inch square holding 1 Gb of memory.
2. Quantum communication replacing their Wi-Fi communication
3. The relative simplicity of the rules needed to simulate predator-prey behavior in Artificial Life. For one such simulation, look here

Anyone remember AT Robots? You created EXE files that called routines in the server's API and did robot style stuff. The aim of the game was simply to kill the other robots though, and to survive the longest.

You could use any language (that produced a DOS compatible EXE), and I remember coding robots in the early 90's and having a lot of fun. Tournaments still continue for that game!

There was another game in which you had to program a robot that was a race car and get it to go around a track that it had to learn. I forget the name of that, but I heard tournaments also take place for that too.

Does anyone have any links to other cool programming games?

I vote at-robots asm!