Chip-8 Emulator

A simple Chip-8 emulator written in Zig with SDL2 for rendering.

Overview

This Chip-8 emulator is a learning project that implements the classic Chip-8 virtual machine from the 1970s. Chip-8 was designed to make game programming easier on 8-bit microcomputers, and it's often used as a first project for emulator development.

Features

• Complete implementation of the Chip-8 instruction set
• SDL2-based display with configurable scaling
• ROM loading functionality
• Memory and register debugging capabilities

Requirements

• Zig compiler (latest version recommended)
• SDL2 library

Building

zig build

Usage

./chip8Emulator /path/to/your/rom.ch8

Project Structure

chip8Emulator/
├── src/
│   ├── main.zig          # Entry point and SDL setup
│   ├── emulator/
│   │   └── chip8.zig     # Core Chip-8 implementation

Implementation Details

The emulator implements:

• 4KB of memory
• 16 8-bit registers (V0-VF)
• An index register (I)
• A program counter (PC)
• A 16-level stack with stack pointer
• ROM loading from file

Current Status

The emulator is in early development. Basic ROM loading and memory inspection are working, with graphics rendering in progress.