Now Try a 'Space Invaders' Demo to Test Your Setup

Author: Paul Schreiber (via the FPGA-Synth list)

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I just figured out the "da Vinci Code" in getting this to work on the 3E demo board.
The original code/files can be found on the FPGA Arcade page

Requirements :

  1. Spartan-3E demo board
  2. VGA monitor
  3. PS/2 Keyboard
  4. 2 * 3k3 resistors
  5. 2 * 4n7 capacitors
  6. Headphones/Line input

How:

  1. Go to your xilinx\spartan3e directory on your drive. Make a new sub-directory called invaders.
  2. Go to www.synthtech.com/fpga and download the 2 files into that sub-directory.
    One file is the BIT file that tells the Xilinx FPGA how to interconnect all the logic gates. The other file is a batch file that will call the iMPACT serial downloader, look for the board, and program the FPGA.
  3. Connect the 3E demo board by attaching the USB cable. Also, attach your VGA monitor to the VGA connector, and the keyboard to the PS/2 connector. Turn power on. The board will run whatever is in FLASH (most likely the program that shipped with it).
  4. Run the invaders.bat file. This will shell out to MS-DOS, the BIT file should download to the board. The whole process is 10 seconds or so.
  5. The LCD will 'freeze' where it was (Invaders does not use the LCD). BUT....you should see on the VGA screen *sideways* the game running! Note: chances are, you will have to manually adjust the horizontal size controls on your monitor (on my LCD, I had to 'squish' the image about 20%).
    The left and right arrow keys move, the spacebar fires.
    To start, hit the C key (for coin) and press 1 or 2 for # of players.
  6. Audio comes out via the a pair of pins on teh right hand side of the board (labeled IO11 and IO12), wire the pins as per the 'readme.txt' file.
    you don't have too use the resistor/cap, but be warned the output is very hot if you don't.

This is running a full Intel 8080 CPU *and* uses the original 2K EPROM files from the machine. The game uses about 33% of the available gates in the 3E device. Enjoy!