CHIP-8 Emulator

A CHIP-8 emulator written in C, using SDL2 for graphics and input.

This is my first emulator and my first big project in C. I built it to learn how emulation works: decoding opcodes, managing memory, registers, the stack, timers, and drawing sprites.

Features

• All 35 standard CHIP-8 opcodes
• 64x32 monochrome display, scaled 10x
• Sprite drawing with XOR collision detection and screen wrap-around
• Delay and sound timers at 60 Hz
• Built-in hexadecimal font set loaded at address 0x000
• Programs loaded at address 0x200

Requirements

• A C compiler (gcc, clang, ...)
• SDL2 development libraries

Debian/Ubuntu: sudo apt install libsdl2-dev macOS (Homebrew): brew install sdl2 Windows (MSYS2): pacman -S mingw-w64-x86_64-SDL2

Building

gcc main.c -o main -lmingw32 -lSDL2main -lSDL2

Usage

1. Put a CHIP-8 ROM (a .ch8 file) in the same folder as the executable.
2. Run ./main.
3. At the GAME NAME: prompt, type the ROM name without the .ch8 extension (for pong.ch8, type pong).

Controls

The 16-key CHIP-8 keypad is mapped to the left side of the keyboard, following the usual layout:

CHIP-8 keypad        Keyboard
1 2 3 C              1 2 3 4
4 5 6 D      ->      Q W E R
7 8 9 E              A S D F
A 0 B F              Z X C V

Close the window to quit.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Thomas P. Greene's CHIP-8 technical reference, my main guide for the instruction set and the inner workings of the machine:

http://devernay.free.fr/hacks/chip8/C8TECH10.HTM