CHIP-8 Interpreter

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

Overview

This project implements a CHIP-8 interpreter, which can run CHIP-8 ROMs. CHIP-8 is an interpreted programming language developed in the 1970s, primarily used for creating simple video games on microcomputers.

Features

• Complete CHIP-8 CPU emulation
• Graphics display (64x32 pixels, scaled for modern displays)
• Keyboard input handling
• Built-in font set support
• Memory management
• SDL2-based rendering

Prerequisites

• Rust (2021 edition or later)
• SDL2 development libraries

Installing SDL2

Ubuntu/Debian

sudo apt-get install libsdl2-dev

macOS

brew install sdl2

Windows

Download SDL2 development libraries from SDL's website or install via MSYS2.

Building

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/chip8-interpreter.git
cd chip8-interpreter

2. Build the project:

cargo build

Running

To run the interpreter, load one of the roms in the roms/games folder. For example:

cargo run roms/games/Space_Invaders_[David Winter].ch8

Project Structure

• src/main.rs: Main entry point and SDL2 initialization
• src/chip8/: Core emulator components
  • cpu.rs: CPU implementation and instruction handling
  • memory.rs: Memory management
  • display.rs: Display handling
  • keyboard.rs: Keyboard input processing
  • constants.rs: System constants and font data

Testing

To run tests, load one of the test roms in the roms/test folder. For example:

cargo run roms/test/1-chip8-logo.ch8

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Acknowledgments

• Cowgod's CHIP-8 Technical Reference
• SDL2 Rust bindings