Part I Design Overview
1.1 Design Purpose
We have designed an FPGA-based SEA development board for an airplane battle game. The airplane battle game is a casual puzzle game that is both simple and playable. In the initial screen, we have four options: start game, restart, skin selection and end game. After starting the game, players can use the gamepad to conveniently control the plane to move in any direction on the screen, and score points by dodging bullets and shooting enemy planes.
1.2 Application Areas
Some recent online stores for retro games have attracted many buyers who like old video games. Some enthusiasts have been collecting retro gaming products, and some casual gamers have started collecting old tapes and CDs, as well as the consoles they played as kids.
Although retro games represent only a small portion of the $10.9 billion global gaming industry, they are a very attractive niche market. The game platform can be used as a retro game console, and after post-processing improvements, the game can be ported to dedicated consoles or cell phones and other devices for players to use. This airplane battle game can relax, release stress and improve reflexes.
1.3 Main technical features
(1) With less BRAM resources, we used image compression coding to represent the original pixel matrix with less amount of data.
(2) We wrote the main menu and control logic of the game, which has rich functions and beautiful interface.
(3) We have external homemade gamepad, which can be plugged directly into the development board to control the game conveniently.
1.4 Key performance indicators
(1) Beautiful game interface, clear aircraft icons, smooth game animation display.
(2) The joystick and keys on the gamepad have high sensitivity and low command delay.
1.5 Main Innovation Points
(1) A homemade gamepad is used, which can control the game more conveniently and enhance the user experience compared to ordinary buttons.
(2) With onboard BRAM and less resources, picture compression coding is used to represent the original pixel matrix with less data volume.
Part II System Composition and Function Description
2.1 Overall Introduction
The system hardware consists of SEA development board (model xc7s25ftgb196-1), gamepad expansion board and HDMI display, and the FPGA reads the status of keys and joystick to control the game display. The overall game control module is divided into four aspects: button function control, main menu control, game logic control and text and picture information display control. According to the player’s different commands, the corresponding content is displayed on the HDMI screen.
2.2 Introduction of each module
According to the overall system block diagram, the specific design description of each module is given.
(1) Overall game control module
Key function control: Different keys correspond to different instructions, and this module is mainly responsible for key elimination and instruction conversion.
Main menu control: The main menu of the initial interface of the game has four options: start game, restart, skin selection and end game. You can move the cursor up and down by the keys to select different functions.
Game logic control: This module mainly carries out the design of game rules.
Display module: It is mainly responsible for text display and aircraft icon and bullet display.
(2) HDMI display driver module: drive the HDMI screen to display the game interface smoothly on the screen.
(3) Gamepad driver module: drive the PCF8591 chip on the gamepad to output the position status of the joystick.
(4) IIC communication module: realize the communication between gamepad and FPGA, and FPGA reads the data output from PCF8591.
Part III Completion and performance parameters
The displayed menu is shown in Figure 3, and you can move the cursor up and down to select the corresponding function. The game interface is shown in Figure 4, which implements the joystick to control the aircraft to move in any direction. The picture is clear, the screen display is smooth, the command delay is small, and the game rules are correct, which can give players a good sense of game experience.
Part IV Summary
Extensible points
A. Use the on-board esp32 module to realize offline download.
B. You can store some other games and design a game selection menu.
C. Use the onboard bluetooth module to realize online games.
D.Add the music part of the game
