A Keychain size game console that plays SCHIP-8 Games, and more.
You can find instructions on building this project here.
The KeyCade Nano supports programs written in:
- CHIP-8 — A Virtual Machine for writing simple games. Originally created for the RCA COSMAC VIP computer. For information the [S]CHIP-8 Instruction set, and hints at its implementation, please check out Cowgod's Chip-8 Technical Reference
- EmbedVM — A more generic VM for embedded systems. Clifford Wolf created a emulator for an imaginary 16-bit CPU and then a compiler for a Small-C like language.
- uBASIC. I created a fork of Adam
Dunkels' exceptionally simple BASIC interpreter. It was added as an
amusement more than anything else, but it can be used to write real code.
The "About" page on the main menu is written in it (See
Games/About.hfor an example).
You can learn more about the software stack, and how to write your own programs, in the Documentation
The KeyCade Nano is (currently) built around the following hardware:
- 0.96" 128x64 Pixel Monochrom OLED Display
- A 5-Way Tactile Switch (aka "the joystick")
- Two tactile buttons: [A] — the top, and [B] - the bottom.
- A STM32L432KC
Low Power ARM Cortex-M4 Mirocontroller:
- 64K SRAM
- 256K of Flash
- 80Mhz
Just as the software for the KeyCade Nano is open source, the hardware is also available under a OSHW compatabile license. Please see the KeyCadeNano Hardware Repository for more information.
Not all [S]CHIP-8 programs are known to work. Some require the full 16-key keyboard, and as such will never be able to work on the hardware as it currently is. Others fail for as yet undetermined reasons, such as the game Ant.
Currently all game engines are limited to 4K of executable code. While this is (more than) enough for many types games, but people will always want more. While the hardware currently 64K of SRAM, future editions — should they ever exist — are likely to support much less. So we are sticking with this number for now. You are free to expand this as you see fit.
There is no persistant storage, no way of saving games, high scores, or the like. In the future a portion of cartridge space may be put aside for app based storage.
All of the CHIP-8 Games have come from one of the following public archives:
- Mir3z'w Javascript CHIP-8 Emulator
- Dmatlack's CHIP-8 Emulator
- SVision-8: CHIP-8 and SCHIP emulator
- David Winter's CHIP-8 emulation page
- Zophar's Domain
Except where otherwise noted, all files in the project are covered by the MIT License as follows:
Copyright (c) 2018 Jock Murphy. jock@jockmurphy.com
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.