Chip8 Emulator with C++

A work in progress emulator for the Chip8 instruction set written for fun.

Overview

This is a very basic emulator of the standard Chip8 instruction set. It is capable of playing roms (No sound). More features to come later.

Setup

1. Clone the repository to your local machine.
2. In your CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH location, include an SDL2 package.
   • If needed, download the VS version of SDL2 from here.
   • If needed, download CMAKE from here. Add CMake to windows path if desired.
   • If you do not have a custom CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH location, use a system location such as C:/Program Files/ and place the SDL2 folder there.
3. Run the following commands in cmd/powershell for building with CMake:

cd "{Path to project directory}"
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ../
cmake --build . --config {Release or Debug}

• Alternatively, use CMakeTools in VSCode.

4. From your SDL2 download, in the folder ~/SDL2/bin/x64, copy SDL2.dll to the folder {Path to project directory}/build/{Debug or release}.
5. Run the executable.

Usage

Controls

The valid keys for interacting with the roms are currently:

    1 2 3 4
    q w e r
    a s d f
    z x c v 

DEBUG KEYS:

• 0: Toggle stepping mode. Processes 1 instruction at a time.
  • UP ARROW: While in stepping mode, move forward one instruction.

Loading ROMS

Currently only loads roms from a "roms" folder in the same directory as the executable. When loading the program, type the name of a rom in the folder including the .ch8 extension.