I mean not do things because you need to do,
but instead to do things just to free your mind
I like to code, and I like electronics so I started wondering which options were in the market to be able perform my own ´experiments´ so after some research I end up with two finalists:
- RaspberryPI
- Arduino
Raspberry is awesome in many senses but it adds an additional layer of complexity which discoraged me to take it so I finally end buying an Arduino Nano ´Chinese clone´ for 2$, yes you are reading right, 2$!, I also bought several components to perform experiments: electric resistances, leds lights, a pair of stepper motors, ultrasound sensor, buttons, a joystick, and a pair of TFT screens , each one for about 6-8$ (1.8inches and 2.4 inches).. I felt really like stealing...
I decided to play with the idea of actualy building my own ´Hardware´ gaming box, so I performed all these steps:
- Attach Arduino Nano board to a breadboard
- Attach the 1.8 Inches TFT screen to the breadboard
- Connect Arduino power-out pins to power lines in the breadboard
- Connect TFT pins with Digital data pins D8,D9,D10,D11 and D13
- Connect the joystick to Analog pins A0 and A1
And the final hardware setup:
Details for the Nano pin connections
And for the joystick Pins:
http://blog.simtronyx.de/en/a-1-8-inch-tft-color-display-hy-1-8-spi-and-an-arduino/
| Arduino (Mini, Nano, Uno) | HY-1.8 SPI |
| D9 | Pin 07 (A0) |
| D10 (SS) | Pin 10 (CS) |
| D11 (MOSI) | Pin 08 (SDA) |
| D13 (SCK) | Pin 09 (SCK) |
| D8 | Pin 06 (RESET) |
| 5V (VCC) | Pin 02 (VCC) |
| GND | Pin 01 (GND) |
| 3.3V or 5V (VCC) | Pin 15 (LED+) |
| GND | Pin 16 (LED-) |
- Download and install Arduino IDE from https://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/Software
- Download and decompres libraries Adafruit_ST7735 and Adafruit_GFX from https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-gfx-graphics-library/overview
- Restart Arduino IDE and you are ready!
The only diference regarding code posted by Adafruit is the pin initialization:
#define TFT_PIN_CS 10 // Arduino-Pin an Display CS
#define TFT_PIN_DC 9 // Arduino-Pin an
#define TFT_PIN_RST 8 // Arduino Reset-Pin
#include <SPI.h>
#include <Adafruit_GFX.h>
#include <Adafruit_ST7735.h>
After this small change you are ready to use the TFT, as a proof of concept I made a simple game to just travel around a mace gathering some kind of diamonds:
Red point is the player, and green point is exit of the level, I am actually happy as it was very simple to set up everything and Arduino code is basically C/C++ (my old friend), so I just need to define some variables:
Adafruit_ST7735 screen = Adafruit_ST7735(screen_PIN_CS, screen_PIN_DC, screen_PIN_RST);
int sensorY = A0; //Analog pin Y ->A0
int sensorX = A1; //Analog pin X ->A1
int sensorValueY = 0;//Value for Y analog pin
int sensorValueX = 0;//Value for X analog pin
int myx =1;//X location of the player
int myy =1;//Y location of the player
int tx=0;//Used to convert joystick X analog input into +-1
int ty=0;//Used to convert joystick Y analog input into +-1
int x=0;//temp variables for loops
int y=0;//temp variables for loops
int tilesize = 10;//Size of the tiles(in pixels)
int mymap[20][20];//Game map
int points =0;//Points..
int level =1;//Level..
Then some functions to draw the map and load levels map:
void DrawMap(){//Draw array on the screen
screen.fillScreen(ST7735_BLACK);
for (x=0;x<14;x++){
for (y=0;y<14;y++){
if( mymap[x][y]==1){screen.fillRoundRect(x*tilesize+1,y*tilesize+1,9,9,3,ST7735_CYAN);}//Wall
if( mymap[x][y]==2){screen.fillRoundRect(x*tilesize+3,y*tilesize+3,5,5,3,ST7735_WHITE);}//Diamond
if( mymap[x][y]==9){screen.fillRoundRect(x*tilesize+1,y*tilesize+1,9,9,3,ST7735_GREEN);}//End of level
}
}
}
void LoadLevel1(){//Init level array
for (x=0;x<20;x++){
for (y=0;y<20;y++){
mymap[x][y]=2;
}
}
for (x=0;x<13;x++){
mymap[x][0]=1;
mymap[x][13]=1;
}
for (x=0;x<14;x++){
mymap[0][x]=1;
mymap[12][x]=1;
}
I think it is easy to imagine LoadLevel2 and LoadLevel3 how do they work ;), next step is to perform initialization function from Arduino:
void setup(void) {//Arduino init function
screen.initR(INITR_BLACKTAB); //Init TFT
LoadLevel1();//Load level 1
DrawMap();//Draw Map
screen.setTextSize(1);
screen.setTextWrap(true);
screen.setTextColor(ST7735_WHITE);
screen.setCursor(1,140);
screen.print("Points:");//Draw starting points
screen.setCursor(50,140);
screen.print(points);
screen.setCursor(1,150);
screen.print("Level:");//Draw starting level
screen.setCursor(50,150);
screen.print(level);
}//End of setup
Not much to say here, finally there is the game loop:
void loop() {//Game loop (Arduino loop)
tx=0;
ty=0;
sensorValueY = analogRead(sensorY);//Read joystick analog Y
sensorValueX = analogRead(sensorX);//Read joystick analog D
screen.fillRoundRect(myx*tilesize+1,myy*tilesize+1,9,9,3,ST7735_BLACK);//Replace current player location with a black box
//Convert analog values to +1 .. -1
if (sensorValueY>600){ ty=1;}
if (sensorValueY<400){ ty=-1;}
if (sensorValueX>600){ tx=1;}
if (sensorValueX<400){ tx=-1;}
if( mymap[myx+tx][myy+ty]!=1){//is it a wall?
//No: update player location
myx+=tx;
myy+=ty;
}
if( mymap[myx][myy]==2){//is it a coin?
points++;
mymap[myx][myy]=0;//Update map
screen.fillRect(1,140,140,10,ST7735_BLACK);
screen.setCursor(1,140);
screen.print("Points:");//Update points counter
screen.setCursor(50,140);
screen.print(points);
}
if( mymap[myx][myy]==9){//is it end of level?
level++;
//If we change level we load new level
if (level == 1)LoadLevel1();
if (level == 2)LoadLevel2();
if (level == 3)LoadLevel3();
if (level == 4)level=1;//Back to first level
DrawMap();//Draw map again
screen.setCursor(1,140);
screen.print("Points:");
screen.setCursor(50,140);
screen.print(points);
screen.setCursor(1,150);
screen.print("Level:");
screen.setCursor(50,150);
screen.print(level);
}
screen.fillRoundRect(myx*tilesize+1,myy*tilesize+1,9,9,3,ST7735_RED);//Draw player
delay(100); //Delay to adjust game speed
}//End of loop
Compared with other coding projects I have made I feel shame of this crap coding, but it actually works, it is not very complicated to think in replacing the colored squares with a real tileset, and make some real game clones like Tetris , Asteroids, Mario bross, etc.
More content to come!
Adafruit_ST7735 screen = Adafruit_ST7735(screen_PIN_CS, screen_PIN_DC, screen_PIN_RST);
int sensorY = A0; //Analog pin Y ->A0
int sensorX = A1; //Analog pin X ->A1
int sensorValueY = 0;//Value for Y analog pin
int sensorValueX = 0;//Value for X analog pin
int myx =1;//X location of the player
int myy =1;//Y location of the player
int tx=0;//Used to convert joystick X analog input into +-1
int ty=0;//Used to convert joystick Y analog input into +-1
int x=0;//temp variables for loops
int y=0;//temp variables for loops
int tilesize = 10;//Size of the tiles(in pixels)
int mymap[20][20];//Game map
int points =0;//Points..
int level =1;//Level..
Then some functions to draw the map and load levels map:
void DrawMap(){//Draw array on the screen
screen.fillScreen(ST7735_BLACK);
for (x=0;x<14;x++){
for (y=0;y<14;y++){
if( mymap[x][y]==1){screen.fillRoundRect(x*tilesize+1,y*tilesize+1,9,9,3,ST7735_CYAN);}//Wall
if( mymap[x][y]==2){screen.fillRoundRect(x*tilesize+3,y*tilesize+3,5,5,3,ST7735_WHITE);}//Diamond
if( mymap[x][y]==9){screen.fillRoundRect(x*tilesize+1,y*tilesize+1,9,9,3,ST7735_GREEN);}//End of level
}
}
}
void LoadLevel1(){//Init level array
for (x=0;x<20;x++){
for (y=0;y<20;y++){
mymap[x][y]=2;
}
}
for (x=0;x<13;x++){
mymap[x][0]=1;
mymap[x][13]=1;
}
for (x=0;x<14;x++){
mymap[0][x]=1;
mymap[12][x]=1;
}
void setup(void) {//Arduino init function
screen.initR(INITR_BLACKTAB); //Init TFT
LoadLevel1();//Load level 1
DrawMap();//Draw Map
screen.setTextSize(1);
screen.setTextWrap(true);
screen.setTextColor(ST7735_WHITE);
screen.setCursor(1,140);
screen.print("Points:");//Draw starting points
screen.setCursor(50,140);
screen.print(points);
screen.setCursor(1,150);
screen.print("Level:");//Draw starting level
screen.setCursor(50,150);
screen.print(level);
}//End of setup
Not much to say here, finally there is the game loop:
void loop() {//Game loop (Arduino loop)
tx=0;
ty=0;
sensorValueY = analogRead(sensorY);//Read joystick analog Y
sensorValueX = analogRead(sensorX);//Read joystick analog D
screen.fillRoundRect(myx*tilesize+1,myy*tilesize+1,9,9,3,ST7735_BLACK);//Replace current player location with a black box
//Convert analog values to +1 .. -1
if (sensorValueY>600){ ty=1;}
if (sensorValueY<400){ ty=-1;}
if (sensorValueX>600){ tx=1;}
if (sensorValueX<400){ tx=-1;}
if( mymap[myx+tx][myy+ty]!=1){//is it a wall?
//No: update player location
myx+=tx;
myy+=ty;
}
if( mymap[myx][myy]==2){//is it a coin?
points++;
mymap[myx][myy]=0;//Update map
screen.fillRect(1,140,140,10,ST7735_BLACK);
screen.setCursor(1,140);
screen.print("Points:");//Update points counter
screen.setCursor(50,140);
screen.print(points);
}
if( mymap[myx][myy]==9){//is it end of level?
level++;
//If we change level we load new level
if (level == 1)LoadLevel1();
if (level == 2)LoadLevel2();
if (level == 3)LoadLevel3();
if (level == 4)level=1;//Back to first level
DrawMap();//Draw map again
screen.setCursor(1,140);
screen.print("Points:");
screen.setCursor(50,140);
screen.print(points);
screen.setCursor(1,150);
screen.print("Level:");
screen.setCursor(50,150);
screen.print(level);
}
screen.fillRoundRect(myx*tilesize+1,myy*tilesize+1,9,9,3,ST7735_RED);//Draw player
delay(100); //Delay to adjust game speed
}//End of loop
Compared with other coding projects I have made I feel shame of this crap coding, but it actually works, it is not very complicated to think in replacing the colored squares with a real tileset, and make some real game clones like Tetris , Asteroids, Mario bross, etc.
More content to come!
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