[SOLVED] Cs0447 midterm project – connect 4 p0

Introduction
In this project, you will implement a 2 player game in MIPS assembly: Connect 4 aka Four-in-line. The game consists a board representing the play area. Two players face each other and drop tokens, one at a time, until one of them manages to place four in line!
Start early
SOMETHING!
Game mechanichttps://.com

Player 2, it’s your turn.
Select a column to play. Must be between 0 and 6

|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|
|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|
|_|+|+|+|+|_|_|
|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|
|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|
Congratulations player 2. You won!
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|
|_|+|_|_|_|_|_|
|_|+|_|_|_|_|_|
|_|+|_|_|_|_|_|
|_|+|_|_|_|_|_|
|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|
Congratulations player 2. You won!
Your assignment
Plan
1. Think of which functions you will need to implement, and what they will do.
1) Start from the main function and split your program into multiple steps.
2. Think of possible invalid user inputs, and how they will impact the program negatively.
1) Board bounds.
2) Filling a column to the top.
Implement
Implement the MIPS assembly code that executes the game described above. Your program will manage all interactions with the user and the board:
1. It begins by displaying a welcome message and an explanation of what the user should do. How is the game played?
2. Print the empty board.
3. Then, the game begins, and your program will:

1) Ask player 1 to play:
▪ Ask and validate user input (MARS will crash if the user gives no input or a letter, this is fine!)
▪ Don’t allow the user to select a non-existing tile.
▪ Don’t allow the user to select a full column.
▪ “Drop” the token into the board at the requested column.
▪ Check for a winning condition.
2) Ask player 2 to play:
▪ Ask and validate user input (MARS will crash if the user gives no input or a letter, this is fine!)
▪ Don’t allow the user to select a non-existing tile!
▪ Don’t allow the user to select a full column!
▪ “Drop” the token into the board at the requested column.
▪ Check for a winning condition.
3) Repeat until one of the players wins or the board is full.
4. In the end, print a message letting the winning player know the game has ended.
The welcome message
Bear in mind that you do your own thing, as long as it fits the project! So use the welcome message to explain to the user exactly how it should play the game. Explain the rules, and how the player can score points.
User input
Your program needs to ask the user in which column Assignment Project Exam Helphe/she wants to drop a token.
If the user inputs an invalid value, you inform the user of that and ask again. You must validate the user input! The exact way you implement this is up to you. You must ask the user to inputhttps://.com something to select the column.
Representing the board
Feel free to implement all data structures that you need. However, it is suggested you’d better use matricesAdd . You can implement your board as a matrix of words to keep the status of the game. Here is one suggestion:
board: .word
0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0,

if(board[i][j] == 0) { print(‘_’) } else if(board[i][j] == 1) { print(‘*’) } else { print(‘+’) }

0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0,
1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0,
1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0,
2, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0,
2, 2, 2, 1, 2, 0, 0
Board size
You can do one of two things:
Easy route
The board should be a 7×6 matrix.
Configurable route
You can make it configurable if you so wish, and then adjust for difficulty. AT THE TOP OF THE FILE! The simplest way is to name a number, like a #define in C. In MARS you can do that like this:
.eqv BOARD_SIZE 42 # 7*6
.eqv BOARD_WIDTH 7
.eqv BOARD_HEIGHT 6
Then you can use the name instead of a number, i.e. in instructions that would normally use a number (the code is nonsense, don’t use it):
lw $t0, 3($t1) -> lw $t0, N_PLAYS($t1)
li Assignment Project Exam Help$t0, 3
-> li $t0, N_PLAYS
beq $t0, 3, _label -> beq $t0, N_PLAYS, _label
.word N_PLAYS
arr: .word 0:100 -> arr: .word 0:BOARD_ELEMENTS
Or ask the user Add
Create variables, and ask what is the size of the board they want:
Printing the board
The board must be shown to the user. Check the example below if you are not sure how to proceed. The only requirement here is that Empty tiles must be empty, and players should have different tokens to represent the tokens. The following examples used an _ to represent empty tiles, * to represent “Player 1” tokens, and + to represent “Player 2” tokens.
Ending the game
The game should end when one of the players successfully drops 4 tokens in line. At that point, let the user know that the game has ended and who won.

|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|
|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|
|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|
|_|_|_|*|_|_|_|
Select a column to play. Must be between 0 and 6
3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|

|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|

2 |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|

3 |_|_|_|+|_|_|_|

5 |_|_|_|+|_|*|_|

2

|_|_|_|_|*|_|_|
|_|_|+|+|+|*|_|

1

Congratulations player 2. You won.

— program is finished running —

Project Stages
Stage 1 – Create the main loop logic and user interaction
The tedious part of this program will be to create all the strings, display them to the user, and get user input. It is also the simpler bit. During the first stage, it is suggested you focus on creating an application that prints the strings to the user, implements the main loop, and asks the user for input (don’t forget to make sure the input column is valid!). At this stage you don’t have to worry about saving the input, etc.
If you finish early, move on to stage 2 and try to display the board. You can edit the matrix manually to “simulate” some plays have occurred.
Stage 2 – The board
If you finish early, move on to stage 3 and try to find winning game conditions for horizontal and vertical 4-in-line.
Stage 3 – Winning the game
0 1 2 3 4 5 6

|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|
|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|
|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|
|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|
Since you know where the token was dropped, the easiest way, probably not the smartest, is to check the matrix entries around the dropped token. For example, this was the last dropped token:

|_|_|_|?|_|_|_|
|_|_|_|_|*|_|_|
|_|_|_|_|_|_|?|
|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|

Helpful Tidbits
Starting the code
This is a very simple program in a higher-level language! But it is much more complex in assembly. As such, here is some advice for developing your program.
Plan and start by writing high-level comments on how you plan to approach the problem:
• If you are not sure what to write, start with the items in the “Your assignment” section of the project 🙂
• Then add detail to those comments.
• If you need, write the program in a high-level language, draw a diagram, write pseudocode, and then translate that into MISP assembly.
TestingAssignment Project Exam Help
DO NOT TRY TO WRITE THE WHOLE PROGRAM BEFORE TESTING IT!
• It’s the easiest way to get overwhelmed and confused without knowing what to do! • Implement small parts of the code and test them! Add Split your code into functions
Use functions! They will help you manage the cognitive load. Here is a starting point!
main:
jal print_welcome jal
display_board

_main_loop:
…

_main_player1:
<stuff> j _main_loop
<more stuff>
Submission
Submit a single ZIP file with your project named studentID_MidtermProj.zip (e.g., 2023141520000_ MidtermProj.zip). In the zip file, there should be NO folder, just the following files:
• Your connect.asm file. (Put your name and student ID at the top of the file in the comments!)
• A readme.txt file (DO NOT SUBMIT A README.DOCX/README.PDF. SUBMIT A PLAIN TEXT FILE. PLEASE.) which should contain: a) your name, b) your student ID, c) anything that does not work, d) anything else you think might help the grader grade your project more easily.
Submit into the Blackboard. Let me know immediately if there are any problems submitting your work.

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