CHIP-8 Emulator

This is a simple CHIP-8 emulator build with the help of the language-agnostic high-level guide written by Tobias V. Langhoff.

Features

• Full CHIP-8 instruction set implementation.
• Support for both CHIP-8 and SUPER-CHIP.
• Configurable CPU clock speed.
• SDL-based display.

Specifications

• Memory: 4KB (4096 bytes) of RAM.
• Display: 64 x 32 pixel monochrome display.
• Registers:
  • 16 8-bit general-purpose registers (V0-VF).
  • A 16-bit index register (I).
  • A 16-bit program counter (PC).
• Stack:
  • Support for 16-bit addresses.
  • 16 levels for subroutine calls.
• Timers:
  • An 8-bit delay timer (60 Hz).
  • An 8-bit sound timer (60 Hz).
• Input:
  • 16-key hexadecimal keypad.

Default Key Mapping

Original   ->  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

Building

Prerequisites

• C compiler (gcc/clang)
• SDL2 library
• Make

Compilation

make

Usage

./chip8 -r ROM_FILE [options]

# Options:
#   -c SPEED     Set CPU clock speed (instructions per second)
#   -o           Enable original CHIP-8 behavior

Acknowledgements

• Tobias V. Langhoff for the excellent CHIP-8 guide.
• Austin Morlan for the detailed instructions on making this emulator using C++.
• Ivan Garcia for his CHIP-8 repo.