CHIP-8 Emulator

A simple CHIP-8 emulator written in Rust that runs in the terminal.

Features

• Full CHIP-8 instruction set implementation
• Terminal-based display using Unicode blocks
• Configurable CPU frequency
• Real-time keyboard input
• Timer support (delay and sound timers)

Usage

# Run with default settings (tetris.ch8 at 700Hz)
cargo run

# Load a specific ROM
cargo run pong.ch8
cargo run --rom space_invaders.ch8

# Adjust CPU speed
cargo run --tickcpu 1000

# Combine options
cargo run --rom breakout.ch8 --tickcpu 500

# Show help
cargo run --help

Controls

The CHIP-8 keypad is mapped to your keyboard as follows:

CHIP-8 Keypad:    Your Keyboard:
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

Press ESC to exit the emulator.

ROM Files

Place your CHIP-8 ROM files (.ch8 files) in a test_roms directory or specify the full path:

cargo run test_roms/tetris.ch8
cargo run /path/to/your/game.ch8

Requirements

• Rust (latest stable version)
• Terminal with Unicode support
• CHIP-8 ROM files

Dependencies

• crossterm - For terminal input/output
• rand - For random number generation

Building

git clone <your-repo>
cd chip8-emulator
cargo build --release

Performance Notes

• Default CPU frequency: 700Hz
• Timer frequency: 60Hz (standard)
• Display refresh: ~60 FPS
• Adjust --tickcpu for different games (some may require faster/slower speeds)
• Still missing audio, will implement

Compatibility

Implements the standard CHIP-8 instruction set. Should run most classic CHIP-8 games including:

• Tetris
• Pong
• Space Invaders
• Breakout
• And many others

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