CHIP-8 Emulator

A CHIP-8 emulator written in C with SDL2 for graphics rendering. CHIP-8 is an interpreted programming language developed in the 1970s for simple video games.

Features

• Full CHIP-8 instruction set implementation
• 64x32 pixel monochrome display
• SDL2-based graphics rendering with 10x window multiplier (640x320 resolution)
• 16-key hexadecimal keyboard input
• Sound timer support with system beep
• Delay timer implementation
• Memory management with 4KB RAM
• Stack-based subroutine calls (16 levels deep)

Requirements

• GCC compiler (MinGW for Windows)
• SDL2 library
• Windows OS (current implementation uses Windows-specific functions)

Building

The project uses a Makefile for compilation. To build the emulator:

make

This will compile all source files and create the executable at ./bin/main.exe.

To clean build artifacts:

make clean

Usage

Run the emulator with a CHIP-8 ROM file:

./bin/main.exe <path_to_rom>

Example with included ROMs:

./bin/main.exe ./bin/pong.rom
./bin/main.exe ./bin/INVADERS

Controls

The CHIP-8 uses a 16-key hexadecimal keypad (0-F). The keys are mapped as follows:

CHIP-8 Keypad:          Keyboard Mapping:
+-+-+-+-+               +-+-+-+-+
|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|
+-+-+-+-+               +-+-+-+-+

Keyboard mapping:

• 0-9: Keys 0-9
• A-F: Keys A-F

Project Structure

chip8/
├── bin/                    # Executable and ROM files
│   ├── INVADERS           # Space Invaders ROM
│   ├── pong.rom           # Pong ROM
│   └── SDL2.dll           # SDL2 dynamic library
├── include/               # Header files
│   ├── chip8.h            # Main emulator structure
│   ├── chip8keyboard.h    # Keyboard handling
│   ├── chip8memory.h      # Memory management
│   ├── chip8registers.h   # CPU registers
│   ├── chip8screen.h      # Display handling
│   ├── chip8stack.h       # Stack operations
│   ├── config.h           # Configuration constants
│   └── SDL2/              # SDL2 headers
├── lib/                   # SDL2 libraries
├── src/                   # Source files
│   ├── main.c             # Entry point and SDL event loop
│   ├── chip8.c            # Core emulator logic
│   ├── chip8keyboard.c    # Keyboard implementation
│   ├── chip8memory.c      # Memory implementation
│   ├── chip8screen.c      # Screen implementation
│   └── chip8stack.c       # Stack implementation
├── docs/                  # Documentation
├── Makefile              # Build configuration
└── LICENSE               # MIT License

Technical Details

• Memory: 4096 bytes (0x000-0xFFF)
• Program Start Address: 0x200
• Display: 64x32 pixels, monochrome
• Registers: 16 general-purpose 8-bit registers (V0-VF)
• Stack: 16 levels for subroutine calls
• Timers: 60Hz delay and sound timers
• Character Set: Built-in sprites for hexadecimal digits (0-F)