On the way to your gravity assist around the Moon, your ship computer beeps angrily about a "1202 program alarm". On the radio, an Elf is already explaining how to handle the situation: "Don't worry, that's perfectly norma--" The ship computer bursts into flames.
You notify the Elves that the computer's magic smoke seems to have escaped. "That computer ran Intcode programs like the gravity assist program it was working on; surely there are enough spare parts up there to build a new Intcode computer!"
An Intcode program is a list of integers
separated by commas (like 1,0,0,3,99). To run one,
start by looking at the first integer (called position 0).
Here, you will find an opcode - either 1,
2, or 99. The opcode indicates what to
do; for example, 99 means that the program is
finished and should immediately halt. Encountering an unknown
opcode means something went wrong.
Opcode 1 adds together numbers read from
two positions and stores the result in a third position. The three
integers immediately after the opcode tell you these
three positions - the first two indicate the positions
from which you should read the input values, and the third
indicates the position at which the output should be
stored.
For example, if your Intcode computer encounters 1,10,20,30,
it should read the values at positions 10 and 20,
add those values, and then overwrite the value at position 30
with their sum.
Opcode 2 works exactly like opcode 1,
except it multiplies the two inputs instead of adding
them. Again, the three integers after the opcode indicate where
the inputs and outputs are, not their values.
Once you're done processing an opcode, move to the next one
by stepping forward 4 positions.
For example, suppose you have the following program:
1,9,10,3,2,3,11,0,99,30,40,50
For the purposes of illustration, here is the same program split into multiple lines:
1,9,10,3,
2,3,11,0,
99,
30,40,50
The first four integers, 1,9,10,3, are at positions
0, 1, 2, and 3.
Together, they represent the first opcode (1,
addition), the positions of the two inputs (9 and 10),
and the position of the output (3). To handle this
opcode, you first need to get the values at the input positions:
position 9 contains 30, and position 10
contains 40. Add these numbers together to
get 70. Then, store this value at the output
position; here, the output position (3) is at
position 3, so it overwrites itself. Afterward, the
program looks like this:
1,9,10,70,
2,3,11,0,
99,
30,40,50
Step forward 4 positions to reach the next opcode,
2. This opcode works just like the previous, but it
multiplies instead of adding. The inputs are at positions 3
and 11; these positions contain 70 and
50 respectively. Multiplying these produces 3500;
this is stored at position 0:
3500,9,10,70,
2,3,11,0,
99,
30,40,50
Stepping forward 4 more positions arrives at opcode
99, halting the program.