technology workshop craft home food play outside costumes

by ECE2220_2015 on November 26, 2015

Table of Contents

........................................................................................................................... 1

Intro: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Step 1: PS/2 Keyboard Input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Step 2: VGA Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Step 3: Apple Generation & Collisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Step 4: Snake Coding & Game Specifics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Step 5: Contributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Step 6: References & Source Code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

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Related Instructables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

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http://www.instructables.com/id/Snake-on-an-FPGA-Verilog/
Intro:
This project was completed for the class ECE2220, at the University of Manitoba, for the Fall 2015 term. The board used throughout the project is an Altera DE2 Cyclone
IV board. Coding is done with Verilog HDL via Quartus II.

"Snake" is a simple game where the user controls a snake to eat items generated at random locations in the play area. The snake gets longer and harder to control the
more items it consumes. You lose if the head of the snake collides with its own body, or if the snake hits one of the borders.

The game originated from the 1976 arcade game Blockade [1], and variations on the game are still around today. For example, in the YouTube website, you can play
snake over a video while it loads, and Google has made a doodle in which you can play a slightly updated version of snake.

The four contributors to this project are:

Computer Engineering students: Daniel Lovegrove, Ian Sweetland

Electrical Engineering students: Kristjan Jacobson, Roberto Alves

What's needed to replicate this project:

- Altera DE2-115 board

- VGA cable & monitor

- PS/2 keyboard (a USB keyboard with a PS/2 adapter may or may not work, do not count on it)

- USB cable to upload program to the board

- Power cable for board

- Quartus II Software to edit and open the Verilog code

Subsequent steps will explain the features of the game, and explain VGA output/keyboard input to give future students a better idea of how they work, and how to
implement them in their own projects. These were the most difficult parts of the project to do, because there is not a great amount of useful information on the internet for
implementing these functions with Verilog.

**Mainly, this instructable tries to be a concise guideline for future project-goers who need a reference for various modules, and to understand more of the capabilities of
the FPGA board.

[The source code is on the last page (references)]

Image Notes
1. VGA out
2. PS/2 in
3. The board used

http://www.instructables.com/id/Snake-on-an-FPGA-Verilog/
Step 1: PS/2 Keyboard Input
The input from the keyboard is straightforward to understand. There are several things to know:

1. When the keyboard is not sending input, it is sending a constant 1 (high) for its data, as well as the clock.

2. A single key press will consist of at least 33 bits of input from the keyboard.

3. When a key is first pressed, it sends 11 bits of data in the form of a 'make' code. When it is released, it will send an 11 bit 'break' code, proceeding with the same make
code again. (There are exceptions when pressing specific keys, don't worry about these too much)

4. The keyboard will send the same 11 bits containing the make code over and over again while you hold a specific key down.

5. The keyboard sends data on the negative edge of its clock.

6. The keyboard has its own clock that you can read. You do not need to define your own clock to work with the keyboard.

To expand, the first image shows what the keyboard will send within every 11 bits. It sends first a zero to start, then 8 bits of data specific to the key you pressed (the
make code), a parity bit (PB), and finally a one to stop. The parity bit is either a one or a zero, depending on how many 1s are in the make code. If there are an even
number of ones, it will be 1, and if there are an odd number of ones, the parity bit will be 0. It wants to make the total number of ones an odd number. [2]

To look up the keyboard make/break codes, there are many sources. Try this. Note that all key presses have the same break code in common: F0.

This information will only apply to a PS/2 keyboard, do not try to use a different type of keyboard with an adapter and expect the same results.

The output of our keyboard module is a 'one hot' 5 bit output, the direction the snake goes depends on the position of the 1.

Image Notes
1. Retrieved from http://pcbheaven.com/wikipages/The_PS2_protocol/

http://www.instructables.com/id/Snake-on-an-FPGA-Verilog/
Step 2: VGA Output
A 640 x 480 VGA display works like this: a pixel is activated at the top left (y = 0, x = 0). The monitor activates one pixel at a time, going right along the top of the display
until it reaches (y = 0, x = 640). When it reaches the edge of the screen (x = 640), the monitor starts activating pixels at (y = 1, x = 0) and does the same thing. It keeps
doing this until it reaches (y = 480, x = 640), where it will start the process all over again. Basically, it activates the pixels one by one (serially) in an orderly fashion from
left to right, going downwards. More info here [3].

Also, If you want to display a colour other than black, you need to specify 8 bit values of red, green, and blue for the monitor to display.

To be able to play the game, we need to use a VGA compatible monitor to allow us to display the game. There are several things needed to make the VGA generator
module work:

1.We set our maximum height and length to match the screen resolution we wanted for the program (640 x 480).

2. We used the positive edge of the VGA clock while using if statements and non-blocking assignments to create an x coordinate count as well as a y coordinate count.
These xCount and yCount can be used to draw things on the display, as well as track the snake and apple. They track where on the screen that you are.

3. We stated that if our x coordinate and y coordinate didn't match our maximum length or maximum height, then we would increase their coordinates by one

4. Using the positive edge of our VGA clock again, we use a non-blocking assignment to define our display area as the x coordinates multiplied by our y coordinates.
These values are true if either one of these coordinates is less than our screen resolution (640x480).

5. Concluding the VGA generator module, we use three assign statements, two of which "VGA_vSync and VGA_hSync", were assigned as the inverse of the vertical
sync, and horizontal sync. Our final assign statement included using the display area we define in our previous assignment and using "blank_n" to define our display
area.

6. Also note, the VGA cannot run on a 50MHz clock signal like the board supplies, rather, it works with a 25MHz clock. We use a separate module (pictured) to reduce
the 50MHz clock to 25MHz.

A helpful page to learn more about VGA specifics is the Wikipedia page for VGA [4], and a useful resource for some Verilog specifics relating to VGA is this page [5].

Image Notes
1. how the Altera uses the coding described in Verilog to assign different inputs
to outputs in the VGA.
2. photo taken from: DE2_115_User_Manual, page 55

Image Notes
1. The code that we used to generate VGA output

Image Notes
1. Module to reduce the 50MHz clock by half.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Snake-on-an-FPGA-Verilog/
 Image Notes
1. A standard 15 pin VGA cable which was used for this project.
Image retrieved from http://www.amazon.in/VGA-
Cables/b?ie=UTF8&node=1375288031

Step 3: Apple Generation & Collisions

In our game, the snake eats apples to grow larger. We made a pseudo-random coordinate generating module to place an apple in a random part of the screen when the
game starts, and when the snake collides with an apple.

To generate a random position for the apple to be placed on the screen, we use the "randomGrid" module to randomly select a location for the apple to appear.

A collision is detected by checking if the snake and another object are being drawn on the VGA at the same time (checking if their coordinates are the same). Lethal
collisions consist of the snake colliding with its own body, and non-lethal collisions occur when the snake collides with an apple, in which case the size of the snake is
increased.

If a lethal collision is detected, such that if the snake collides with the border or itself, the VGA output will display a completely red screen, signalling that the game is over.

Image Notes
1. random coordinate generator

Image Notes
1. Game Over screen. Simple, yet effective

http://www.instructables.com/id/Snake-on-an-FPGA-Verilog/
Step 4: Snake Coding & Game Specifics
The first image above is the Verilog code that was used to program our snake. Depending on the input from the keyboard, the snake head will move 10 units in a given
direction.

Game specifics not yet mentioned:

- We have the snake grow around 4 extra body sizes when it eats an apple, rather than the classic 1. This is to make the game faster paced.

- Our snake is updated at around 30Hz on the VGA.

- To reset the game, the first push button is used.

Image Notes
1. Example of snake getting larger.

Image Notes
1. photo taken form: DE2_115_User_Manual, page 19

Step 5: Contributions
VGA output: Ian Sweetland, Kristjan Jacobson

Keyboard input: Ian Sweetland, Kristjan Jacobson, Daniel Lovegrove

Game specifics: Ian Sweetland, Kristjan Jacobson

Report: Roberto Alves, Daniel Lovegrove

Step 6: References & Source Code

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_(video_game)

2. https://www.networktechinc.com/ps2-prots.html

3. http://www.eecg.utoronto.ca/~jayar/ece241_06F/vga/vga-monitors.html

4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_Graphics_Array...

5. http://www.fpga4fun.com/PongGame.html

6. http://www.element14.com/community/thread/23394/l/...

If you do use any of our information or code here, please don't forget to credit/reference us!

File Downloads

Kristjan Snake.zip (18 MB)

[NOTE: When saving, if you see .tmp as the file ext, rename it to 'Kristjan Snake.zip']

http://www.instructables.com/id/Snake-on-an-FPGA-Verilog/
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http://www.instructables.com/id/Snake-on-an-FPGA-Verilog/