A CHIP-8 emulator written in C. Includes some public domain CHIP-8 games in the games/ directory, and a basic disassembler written in Python under the tools/ directory.
- SDL2 - Graphics, sound, and input
- MinUnit - Unit testing
# install dependencies
brew install sdl2 sdl2_ttf sdl2_mixer
# build
cd dgCHIP8/
make clean all
# run
./dgCHIP8 <path/to/game>
The CHIP-8 was designed for a 16-key hexadecimal keypad. This emulator uses the following mapping to a QWERTY keyboard:
Keypad QWERTY
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
| 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 |
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
The disassembler is written using Python 3, and requires argparse and pprint packages.
# set up Python virtual environment
cd dgCHIP8
python3 -m venv ./env
source env/bin/activate
# install required Python packages
(env) pip install -r tools/requirements.txt
# run disassembler
(env) python tools/disassembler.py games/TETRIS
0x0200 a2b4 ■_■___■_ ■_■■_■__ LD I, 2b4 // Set value of register I to 2b4
0x0202 23e6 __■___■■ ■■■__■■_ CALL 3e6 // Call subroutine at 0x3e6
0x0204 22b6 __■___■_ ■_■■_■■_ CALL 2b6 // Call subroutine at 0x2b6
0x0206 7001 _■■■____ _______■ ADD V0, 01 // Add 01 to V0
0x0208 d011 ■■_■____ ___■___■ DRW V0, V1, 1 // Display 1-byte sprite starting at memory location I at (V0, V1), Vf = collision
0x020a 3025 __■■____ __■__■_■ SE V0, 25 // Skip next instruction if V0 == 25
. . .