Anyone tried using a cheap FPGA like this?

Yes, me

Yes I have. Used them for many projects including driving multiple servos on a hexapod, and a driver for those 64 x 32 led panels you can het from aliexpress for next to nothing. Main problem you will find is that they have a very small amount of on board RAM so will not suit some projects without adding external facilities. They are now excellent value for money. If you are just starting out I wouls search out Quartus v9.1 sp2, download for free. This is the last version of Quartus that is a complete integrated easy to use package which has a built in simulator, and supports Cyclone II's.

Ta, will have a look. When I first used programmable logic arrays they didn't actual have much in them and you could program them on paper and enter it in a few minutes. There are a few of those in the CPU boards on System X. I remember that we ordered the entire output of the manufacturer for the first year of manufacturing (Signetics IIRC). I never had a chance to do anything with these things as they were never approved for use on SystemX.

If you know what you are doing, you can still sketch out a schematic in Quartus v9.1, compile and upload it in a few minutes.

I've been using FPGA's professionally since around 1986 and have seen them evolve over time - and I still tinker around with more simple stuff now I am retired. They have now got to the stage where they are becomming systems on chips, including multiple hardcoded processors. They are now really aimed at software engineers - you now no longer need to understand how the things physically function, nor have much hardware design capability. To me that takes all the fun and interest out of it, and am glad to have had my careeer during those earlier years where resource was scarce and speed of operation required ingenuity.

The full development details for the Hedghog are here:

or

It rather depends on whether you want to create your own design/code, or just implement someone else's, the latter is trivial.

Plenty of success for these first-time users I've been following.