CHIP-8 Emulator

This is a feature-rich CHIP-8 emulator built with Wails (Go backend) and Svelte (frontend) with Tailwind CSS v4 for styling.

Download

You can download the latest releases for your operating system from the releases page.

Features

• Customizable Settings: Adjust display color, enable/disable scanline effects, change CPU clock speed, and remap keyboard controls via an intuitive settings modal.
• Enhanced Application Menu:
  • File: Load ROMs via file dialog, Save/Load emulator state, Quit.
  • Emulation: Pause/Resume, Soft Reset (reload current ROM), Hard Reset (clear all state).
  • Help: Dynamic "About" dialog displaying application version and details, and a direct link to the GitHub repository.
• Interactive Keypad: On-screen keypad for direct input.
• Debug Panel: Real-time view of CPU registers, memory, stack, and disassembly.
• Screenshot & State Saving: Capture screenshots and save/load emulator state to/from files.
• Gamepad Support: Basic gamepad input mapping.
• Drag-and-Drop ROM Loading: Easily load ROMs by dragging them onto the emulator window.

Getting Started

To run the emulator, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to the project directory:

   cd chip8
   

2. Run in development mode:

   wails dev
   

   This will compile the Go backend, install frontend dependencies, and start the development server. The emulator UI should open in a new window.

Usage

1. Load a ROM: Use the "File" -> "Load ROM..." menu option or drag and drop a .ch8 file onto the emulator window.
2. Emulation: The emulator will automatically start executing the loaded ROM.
3. Controls: Use the keyboard (remappable in settings) or the on-screen keypad.
4. Settings: Access settings via the gear icon in the header or the application menu.
5. Debug: Switch to the "Debug" tab to view internal emulator state.

Project Structure

• app.go: Wails application binding, main emulator loop, and backend logic for settings, file operations, etc.
• main.go: Entry point for the Wails application, Wails configuration, and application menu definition.
• wails.json: Wails project configuration, including application metadata (version, URL).
• chip8/: Contains the core CHIP-8 CPU emulator logic (chip8.go) and unit tests (chip8_test.go).
• frontend/: Svelte frontend application.
  • src/App.svelte: Main UI component, orchestrating other Svelte components.
  • src/lib/: Contains reusable Svelte components (e.g., SettingsModal.svelte, EmulatorView.svelte, DebugPanel.svelte, stores.js).
  • src/stores.js: Svelte stores for managing global application state like settings and notifications.
  • src/app.css: Tailwind CSS imports.
  • src/main.js: Frontend entry point.
  • tailwind.config.js: Tailwind CSS configuration.
  • postcss.config.js: PostCSS configuration.
  • wailsjs/: Auto-generated Wails bindings for Go backend communication.

Development

Go Backend

To run Go tests for the CHIP-8 core:

cd chip8
go test -v ./chip8

Frontend

To install frontend dependencies:

cd frontend
bun install

To build the frontend separately:

cd frontend
bun run build

LICENSE

The project is licensed under the MIT License.