CHIP-8 Emulator

A faithful CHIP-8 virtual machine emulator that recreates the 1970s interpreter originally designed for the COSMAC VIP microcomputer. Built with C++17, the emulator implements the complete CHIP-8 architecture including memory management, CPU registers, display rendering, timers, and keyboard input. It features two platform-specific frontends: Allegro 5 on Linux and native Win32 (GDI + WinMM) on Windows with zero external dependencies. It supports loading ROM files to run a variety of classic games.

Features

• Full 35-opcode instruction set: Complete implementation of the original CHIP-8 specification
• 4096 bytes of memory: Faithful memory layout with program space starting at address 0x200
• 16 general-purpose registers: V0 through VF, plus index register and program counter
• 16-level call stack: Supports deep subroutine nesting
• 64x32 monochrome display: XOR-based sprite drawing with collision detection
• Dual timers: Delay timer and sound timer, both operating at 60 Hz
• 16-key hexadecimal keypad: Mapped input for all CHIP-8 key codes
• Built-in font sprites: 4x5 pixel hex digit characters (0-F) loaded into memory
• ROM file loading: Load and run classic CHIP-8 game ROMs
• Cross-platform: Linux (Allegro 5) and Windows (native Win32 GDI) frontends with shared emulation core
• Windows version: Zero external dependencies — uses only Win32 API (GDI for rendering, WinMM for sound, GetAsyncKeyState for input), double-buffered display to avoid flickering

Technical Details

• Language: C++17
• Linux frontend: Allegro 5 (windowing, rendering, audio, fonts)
• Windows frontend: Win32 API — GDI for pixel rendering with double buffering, WinMM for WAV playback, GetAsyncKeyState for keyboard input
• Build system: CMake 3.10+
• Platform: Linux and Windows

Build Instructions

Linux (Allegro 5)

Requirements: CMake (3.10+), Allegro 5, pkg-config

git clone https://github.com/ArturKos/CHIP-8.git
cd CHIP-8/linux_emulator
mkdir build && cd build
cmake ..
make -j$(nproc)
./chip8_emulator ../../roms/Pong.ch8

Windows (Visual Studio / MSVC)

Requirements: CMake (3.10+), MSVC compiler. No external libraries needed.

git clone https://github.com/ArturKos/CHIP-8.git
cd CHIP-8\windows_emulator
mkdir build && cd build
cmake .. -G "Visual Studio 17 2022"
cmake --build . --config Release
Release\chip8_emulator.exe ..\..\roms\Pong.ch8

Windows (MinGW)

cd CHIP-8\windows_emulator
mkdir build && cd build
cmake .. -G "MinGW Makefiles"
cmake --build .
chip8_emulator.exe ..\..\roms\Pong.ch8

Check out the project on GitHub: CHIP-8 Emulator on GitHub

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