Introduction
For our 2003 ECE476 Design Project, we designed a Tetris game that was playable via a 16 button keypad and was displayed on a black and white television at a resolution of 128×100. The heart of the hardware system consists of the ATMEL Mega32 microcontroller and an STK500 test board. The game mimics what you would expect of the original Tetris game, where you would advance in level (and increase in speed) as you progress by completing lines in the game.
Although the game Tetris may seem like a simple program, the limited computing power and memory space of the 16 Mhz microcontroller make this tasks more challenging than one would anticipate. Instead of hooking up a computer to a television screen, we merely used a small microcontroller chip and several simple circuits to implement our design.
We wanted to design a project that would fully harness the processing power of the 16 Mhz Mega32 processor. Yet we understand that performing graphic manipulation on a television screen can be extremely CPU intensive. Therefore, we chose a game that at times had significant amount of graphical changes, but the game for the most part did not require a tremendous amount of calculation during normal game play. Furthermore, debugging the game required hours of game play, which did wonders for our Tetris skills.=)
High Level Design
We wanted to design a project that would fully explore the processing power of the 16 Mhz Mega32 processor. We understand that performing graphic manipulation on a television screen can be extremely CPU intensive, therefore a game of the appropriate level of sophistication was chosen. At times significant processing power was required to handle the graphical manipulations (that are sometimes divided between multiple cycles), but the game for the most part did not require a tremendous amount of calculation during normal game play allowing the processor to catch up. Furthermore, debugging the game required hours of game play, which did wonders for our Tetris skills.=)
Although the game is in black and white on a television screen, it includes the standard features that you would expect of a Tetris game under any gaming platform. The game initially requests the user to press a button, between one and nine, to select the corresponding level (appropriate speed) for the game to begin in. The game then advances in level (and increases in speed) as you progress by completing lines in the game.
For more detail: Tetris Video Game
