Chip8 Emulation

A CHIP-8 emulator written in Rust with WebAssembly support.
The Hello World of Emulation!

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About

CHIP-8 is a simple, interpreted programming language from the 1970s used for video games on early microcomputers. This project implements a complete CHIP-8 emulator in Rust, featuring both a native desktop version (SDL2) and a web version (WebAssembly).

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Features

• ✅ Full CHIP-8 instruction set implementation
• 🦀 Written in Rust for safety and performance
• 🖥️ Desktop version with SDL2 graphics and audio
• 🌐 Web version with WebAssembly (runs in browser)
• 🎮 Includes 20+ classic CHIP-8 games
• 🎵 Sound timer support with beep audio
• ⌨️ Keyboard controls for both desktop and web
• 📦 Modular architecture with reusable core library

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Getting Started

Desktop Version

Prerequisites:

• Rust toolchain (stable)
• SDL2 development libraries

Build and Run:

git clone https://github.com/Jayesh-Dev21/Chip8_emulation.git
cd Chip8_emulation/rust/desktop
cargo run --release

Web Version

Prerequisites:

• Rust toolchain with wasm32-unknown-unknown target
• wasm-pack

Build:

cd rust/wasm
wasm-pack build --target web --out-dir ../../web/pkg --release

Serve locally:

cd web
python3 -m http.server 8000
# Open http://localhost:8000

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Controls

Keyboard Mapping:

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

showcase.webm

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Project Structure

Chip8_emulation/
├── rust/
│   ├── chip8_core/          # Core emulator logic (library)
│   ├── desktop/             # SDL2 desktop application
│   └── wasm/                # WebAssembly wrapper
├── web/                     # Web UI (HTML/CSS/JS)
│   ├── pkg/                 # Generated wasm files
│   └── c8games/             # ROM files
├── ROMS/                    # Additional ROM collection
└── README.md

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Technical Details

• Core Library: Platform-agnostic CHIP-8 emulator
• Desktop: Uses SDL2 for graphics, input, and audio
• Web: Compiled to WebAssembly, runs in modern browsers
• Audio: Native rodio (desktop) / WebAudio API (web)
• Random: Deterministic fallback for wasm builds

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Contributing

Contributions welcome! Feel free to open issues or submit pull requests.

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License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.

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Acknowledgements

• CHIP-8 Wikipedia
• Cowgod's CHIP-8 Technical Reference
• Rust and WebAssembly communities

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Made with ❤️ by Jayesh-Dev21