CHIP-8

🎮 CHIP-8 emulator written in Go.

Local Setup

Download and install Go, then install dependencies:

sudo apt install libc6-dev libglu1-mesa-dev libgl1-mesa-dev libxcursor-dev libxi-dev libxinerama-dev libxrandr-dev libxxf86vm-dev libasound2-dev pkg-config

Clone and run:

git clone https://github.com/TheInvader360/chip8
cd chip8
go test ./... && go run main.go -path=./rom/test/ti360.ch8

Command line options:

-path string : path to rom file (default "./rom/test/ti360.ch8")
-clock int   : cpu clock speed in hz (100-2000) (default 400)
-debug       : enable debug info in terminal
-fullscreen  : enable fullscreen mode
-height int  : height of client screen in pixels (default 320)
-width int   : width of client screen in pixels (default 640)

Example launch commands:

go run main.go
go run main.go -path=./rom/chip8/BRIX.ch8
go run main.go -path=./rom/chip8/BLINKY.ch8 -clock=1000
go run main.go -path=./rom/chip8/CAVE.ch8 -clock=300 -debug
go run main.go -path=./rom/chip8/PONG.ch8 -clock=500 -fullscreen
go run main.go -path=./rom/chip8/UFO.ch8 -width=1280 -height=640
go run main.go -path=./rom/chip8/WALL.ch8 -clock=300 -debug -width=640 -height=480
go run main.go -path=./rom/schip/DRAGON1.ch8 -debug -clock=2000
go run main.go -path=./rom/schip/JOUST23.ch8 -debug -clock=2000

Input

Mapping CHIP-8 keys to a QWERTY keyboard:

CHIP-8:     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

Additional controls:

P   - Pause or unpause emulation loop
O   - One iteration of the emulation loop (step through while paused)
I   - Initialize (reset to a clean starting state)
Esc - Exit