Breakout

Created in MIPS Assembly

How to play

Running instructions

1. Open breakout.asm in EMARS
2. Open the bitmap display through Tools $>$ Bitmap Display++
3. Ensure the bitmap display configuration matches the configuration at the top of breakout.asm
4. Toggle Attach Keyboard++ and click Connect to to MIPS
5. Assemble and run breakout.asm to play

Controls

• Press spacebar to launch the ball.
• Press a and d to move the paddle left and right.
• Press p and u to pause and unpause.
• Press q to quit the game.

Additional Features

Multiple lives

Achieved by allocating memory for a lives variable and implementing a draw_lives function which draws a red heart on the screen for each of the player's lives. Whenever a collision is detected between the ball and the bottom of the screen, the lives variable is decremented until it reaches 0 at which point the game completely resets.

Different ball speeds

Achieved by creating multiple set_ball_speed functions which changes the velocity attributes of the ball. Depending on where the ball hits on the paddle, a different set_ball_speed function is called changing the direction and speed of the ball.

Sound effects

Achieved using the MIDI out syscall. We created a function that performs the syscall which is called every time a collision with the ball is detected.

Pausing and unpausing

Achieved by allocating memory for an is_paused variable. If the value of is_paused is true, then the game loop will only call the function for handling input and will not call the function for drawing and moving objects.

Launching the ball

Achieved by initially setting the velocity of the ball to 0 and then after detecting a space key press, setting the velocity of the ball to its normal value. The ball also follows the paddle until the space bar is clicked, allowing the ball to be launched at any desired location.

Displaying score

We created methods for manually drawing each digit on the screen using the draw_rect function. Allocated memory for a score variable which tracks the player's score and increments every time the ball collides with a brick. By extracting each digit of the score variable, we can draw each digit of the score on the screen.