CHIP-8 Interpreter

Basic CHIP-8 Interpreter, made using C with SDL2.

CHIP-8 is an interpreted programming language that was designed for early personal computers. The emulator aims to replicate the behaviour of a CHIP-8 machine, allowing users to run and interact with CHIP-8 programs.

Implemented Features

• SDL Integration: This project utilises the SDL libraries for window creation, rendering, and the handling of user input.
• Emulator Configuration: The emulator can be configured using a config_t struct, allowing users to set parameters such as window size, colours, and scale factor.
• Emulation Logic: Implements the main CHIP-8 instruction set for executing ROMs.
• Graphics Rendering: Handles graphics output, including pixel states and screen updates.
• Input Processing: Manages user input to interact with CHIP-8 programs.
• Debugging Support: Includes optional debugging functionality to aid in development (enabled via DEBUG flag).

Getting Started

Follow these steps to get started with the interpreter:

1. Install Dependencies:

   • GCC: Ensure you have the GNU Compiler Collection installed.
   • Make: Make sure you have the Make build tool installed.
   • For Linux:
     • Install libsdl2 and libsdl2-dev packages.
   • For Windows:
     • Download and unzip SDL2-devel-2.XX.X-mingw.zip from SDL Releases.

2. Build the Project:

   • Open a terminal and navigate to the project directory.
   • Run the command make to build the project.

3. Run the Interpreter:

   • On Linux: ./chip8 <path/to/rom/file>
   • On Windows: chip8 <path/to/rom/file>

Dependencies:

• gcc
• make
• For Linux:
  • libsdl2 and libsdl2-dev packages.
• For Windows:
  • SDL2-devel-2.XX.X-mingw.zip. (Download from SDL Releases)

Feel free to provide feedback to enhance the functionality and performance of the emulator.