Chasing the busy-beaver : notes and observations on a competition to find the 5-state busy beaver

This is a report on the results of a competition which was initiated on the occasion of the 6th GI-conference on Theoretical Computer Science, which took place at the University of Dortmund from January 5th to 7th, 1983. It was asked for the best solution of the 5-state Busy-Beaver-Game. At first we make some historical remarks, introduce the formalism, and list some results. Then the two best solutions are described. Next we make some remarks on the behaviour of good beavers and on the strange behaviour of some Turing machines. Zoological names were given to the latter machines. The amusing results are written down in the last chapter. In the appendix you can find a lot of examples.