CHIP-8 Emulator

A CHIP-8 interpreter/emulator implemented in Rust with SDL2 for graphics and input handling.

About CHIP-8

CHIP-8 is an interpreted programming language developed in the mid-1970s. It was initially used on 8-bit microcomputers to make game programming easier. CHIP-8 programs are run on a virtual machine with its own instruction set, memory, registers, and display.

Features

• Full CHIP-8 instruction set implementation
• 64x32 monochrome display
• SDL2-based rendering and input handling
• Keyboard input mapping
• Sound timer support with audio playback (beep sound)

Building and Running

# Build the project
cargo build --release

# Run with a ROM file
cargo run --release <path-to-rom-file>

Controls

CHIP-8 uses a 16-key hexadecimal keypad (0-F). The keyboard mapping is:

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 |
+---+---+---+---+       +---+---+---+---+

Project Structure

• src/chip8.rs - Core CHIP-8 CPU and instruction implementation
• src/platform.rs - SDL2 platform/graphics layer
• src/main.rs - Entry point and main loop

Resources and Credits

This project was inspired by Austin Morlan's excellent CHIP-8 emulator tutorial in C++:

• Building a CHIP-8 Emulator

Additional resources:

• CHIP-8 Wikipedia