A minimal, fast, and fully-implemented CHIP-8 emulator written in C — built with clean architecture, readable instruction decoding, and accurate behavior inspired by modern CHIP-8 specifications.
This project is a complete CHIP-8 emulator implemented in C, designed with clarity, correctness, and maintainability in mind.
It faithfully reproduces the behavior of a modern CHIP-8 virtual machine, including:
- A 4 KB memory model
- 16 general-purpose registers
- A 16-level call stack
- Timers (delay & sound)
- Input keypad handling
- Full display instructions and XOR-based drawing
- Complete opcode support, implemented one-by-one with readable, isolated logic
The emulator focuses on transparency over abstraction — each instruction (from 0x00E0 to 0xFx65) is individually defined, decoded, and executed in a clean structure that makes the execution model easy to understand and extend. The project’s architecture makes it ideal for developers exploring low-level systems, interpreters, or virtual machine design.
Whether you want to load classic CHIP-8 ROMs, study virtual machine execution, or experiment with emulator development, this project offers a compact yet complete foundation.
CHIP-8 uses a 16-key hexadecimal keypad.
This emulator maps those keys to a modern keyboard as follows:
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|
This layout preserves the original 4×4 CHIP-8 keypad structure while providing a more comfortable input experience on a standard QWERTY keyboard.
Running the CHIP-8 emulator is straightforward and requires only a ROM file and the executable.
Follow the steps below to get started:
Download the most recent version of the emulator from the Releases page:
👉 https://github.com/mertbasaryildirim/chip8-emulator/releases
Unzip the downloaded .zip file to any directory of your choice.
Copy the CHIP-8 ROM file you want to run into the same directory where chip8.exe is located.
Execute the emulator with your ROM file as an argument:
chip8.exe <ROM_FILE>For example:
chip8.exe TETRIS.binThe resources below were used as part of the research and development process for this emulator.
They may also serve as valuable starting points for anyone learning about CHIP-8 or exploring emulator design concepts:
- https://austinmorlan.com/posts/chip8_emulator/
- https://multigesture.net/articles/how-to-write-an-emulator-chip-8-interpreter/
- https://github.com/eshyong/Chip-8-Emulator
Here’s a short demo of the emulator running Pong, one of the most popular and classic games developed for CHIP-8. The video shows the emulator’s display output and how the game plays in real time.