A simple CHIP-8 emulator written from scratch in C++.
Built out of curiosity to explore low-level systems, emulation, and how real hardware is mimicked in software. This is my first real C++ project, and most games run perfectly!

• 🧠 Interprets all CHIP-8 instructions (based on CHIP-8 technical reference)
• ⌨️ Full keyboard input support (mapped to CHIP-8 hex keys)
• 🖼️ 64x32 monochrome display rendered with [your rendering library here — SFML/SDL/OpenGL/etc.]
• 🔉 Optional sound buzzer support
• 💾 ROM loading from file

• Most popular CHIP-8 ROMs (like Pong, Tetris, Breakout) work perfectly ✅
• A few advanced or timing-sensitive ROMs may have glitches ❌
  (Improving timing accuracy and opcode edge cases is a future goal)

• C++17 or later
• SFML for graphics and input

git clone https://github.com/python-fuse/chip8-emulator.git

cd chip8-emulator

make

./chip8 path/to/rom.ch8

Clone repo

Open in your favorite IDE or compile with:

g++ -std=c++17 src/*.cpp -o chip8 -lsfml-graphics -lsfml-window -lsfml-system
Run:

chip8 path\to\rom.ch8

CHIP-8 Keypad 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

(You can customize these mappings in the source code)

• CHIP-8 Technical Reference

• Cowgod's Chip-8 documentation

• Community blog posts and emulator dev guides

• Low-level memory layout and stack manipulation

• Instruction decoding and opcode implementation

• Timing and clock cycles

• Input handling and rendering pipelines

• How real consoles and interpreters work behind the scenes

Due to copyright, ROMs are not included. You can find freely available test ROMs and games online (e.g., here).

Add configurable timers and improve accuracy

Add debugger / step-through execution

Better error messages and crash handling

Save/load emulator state

Disassembler or visual instruction viewer

MIT License — see LICENSE

Umar Muktar GitHub

Feedback, forks, and contributions welcome!