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CHIP-8

Awesome CHIP-8 Awesome

Virtual computer game machine from the 70s

A curated list of awesome CHIP-8 resources, tools, documentation, related projects and open source ROMs.

Created in 1977, CHIP-8 is the original fantasy console. Initially designed to ease game development for the COSMAC VIP kit computer, it has enjoyed several revivals over the decades for new and exciting platforms. Today, creating a CHIP-8 implementation is a rite of passage for anyone interested in learning about emulation.

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Community

Documentation

Emulator/interpreter development

Testing

  • chip8-test-rom - corax89's CHIP-8 test program, which tests most instructions for correct (Super-CHIP compliant) behavior.
  • CHIP-8 test suite - Timendus' collection of tests, including an improved version of corax89's test rom, a test for the behaviour of the flags and a CHIP-8 / Super-CHIP / XO-CHIP quirks test.
  • Delay timer test - Test program that checks the delay timer's behavior.
  • Random number test - Test program that checks the spread and mask for random number generation.

Emulators/interpreters

  • Octo - An IDE for development of CHIP-8, Super-CHIP and XO-Chip games.
  • Emma02 - An emulator for many old microcomputers, including COSMAC VIP, Telmac 1800 and ETI 660, which ran early CHIP-8 interpreters (which are included in the emulator).
  • Super-Chip8x - CHIP-8 emulator for the SNES.
  • CHIP-8 console on FPGA - A CHIP-8 emulator for the TinyFPGA BX chip.
  • Vinegar - CHIP-8/Super-CHIP interpreter for TI-83 (Plus) calculators.
  • LowResNX - CHIP-8 interpreter and debugger programmed in BASIC inside another retro fantasy console.

Software development

Tools

  • Octo - A high-level assembler for CHIP-8, Super-CHIP and XO-CHIP, complete with an environment for testing programs, and tools for sharing your creations.
  • wernsey chip8 - A CHIP-8 assembler/disassembler.
  • EZ-Bake Animator - A graphics preparation tool that creates XOR-ed animations.
  • EZ-Writer - A tool for converting text into CHIP-8 sprites.
  • EZ-Pack - An image slicing/repaletting tool.
  • Chipify - A script that filters and encodes mono-channel WAV audio to XO-CHIP audio.
  • octofont - Convert TrueType (ttf) fonts to Octo code for CHIP-8.

Guides and snippets

Postmortems

Postmortems detailing the development of specific games, written by the developers.

Games