A CHIP-8 interpreter, written in C++ and using SDL2.

Runs on Windows and Linux. Make sure to run it from CLI (or drag and drop a rom file in Windows).

• All CHIP-8 opcodes implemented

• Sound support with replaceable .wav file

• Configurable speed

• COSMAC VIP timing emulation mode (inaccurate, a bit too fast but works well enough in most games), based on Laurence Scotford's analysis of the respective CHIP-8 interpreter.

• Toggleable 8XY6/8XYE (bit shift) and FX55/FX65 (memory store/fill) behavior between CHIP-8 and SUPER-CHIP

• SUPER-CHIP support

• Configurable keymap

• Configuration at runtime (i.e. without having to restart the interpreter)

• GUI for loading roms and configuring the interpreter

• CMake support (for building)

COSMAC VIP layout mapped to a 4x4 rectangular array of keys, 1 through V in QWERTY. Shown below.

(Real key in a QWERTY layout: emulated key)

1: 1, 2: 2, 3: 3, 4: C,

Q: 4, W: 5, E: 6, R: D,

A: 7, S: 8, D: 9, F: E,

Z: A, X: 0, C: B, V: F

Run the interpreter with any rom file. A default config will be created in the interpreter's directory (Windows) or $XDG_CONFIG_HOME (Linux).

cycles: How many opcodes per second to execute. Only works in fixed timing mode.

sound: Set to true to enable sound, and to false to disable.

sound_buffer: Sound buffer size

legacy_memops: Set to false to use SUPER-CHIP's FX55/FX65 (memory store/fill) behavior, and to true to use CHIP-8's.

legacy_shift: Set to false to use SUPER-CHIP's 8XY6/8XYE (bit shift) behavior, and to true to use CHIP-8's.

timing: Set to cosmac to emulate COSMAC VIP timing (inaccurate). Set to fixed to run at a specific speed in opcodes per second.

1. Install g++, Make, SDL2 and SDL2 mixer (development libraries). The procedure for this depends on your distro.

2. Download/clone this repository and cd to its directory.

3. Build it (dynamically linked): make

4. Test it (optional): ./Chimp8

5. Strip debug symbols to reduce executable size: make strip

1. Install MSYS2 and start with the UCRT64 environment.

2. Update the packages: pacman -Syu You may need to run this step more than once to make sure that all packages are up-to-date.

3. Install build tools and dependencies: pacman -S mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-toolchain mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-SDL2 mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-SDL2_mixer

4. Download/clone this repository and cd to its directory.

5. Build it (dynamically linked): mingw32-make Alternatively, build a statically linked executable: mingw32-make STATIC=1

6. Test it (optional): ./Chimp8.exe

7. Strip debug symbols to reduce executable size: mingw32-make strip

8. If you built a dynamically linked executable, you'll need to copy DLLs from /ucrt64/bin for the app to start outside MSYS2.