ChipRust8

What is it?

CHIP-8 is an interpreted bytecode, originally for the COSMAC VIP. It's also a fan favorite for learning to write VMs and interpreters. This is yet another CHIP-8 interpreter, written in Rust.

Why is it?

I had a week off work between Christmas and New Year and wanted to see how far I could get. I also wanted to do some more substantive Rust programming, instead of just doing some puzzles.

Technical

Running It:

• git clone
• cargo run -- -r <chip8rom.ch8>

Run with -h for help.

Goals

• Extendability. There are a number of variants of CHIP-8, and while I don't have implementations for each variant, the system is designed in such a way that e.g. implementing a larger screen should be trivial.
• Modularity. I have chosen to use egui (via eframe) for this initial implentation. However, any other graphics framework could be used in its place, by writing a harness that can poll my GraphicsAdapter.
• Code Quality. I wanted to write something with a strong design, implemented well.
• Testing. Enough said.

Status

Successes

• The [CHIP-8 Test ROM] (https://github.com/corax89/chip8-test-rom) and IBM test ROM both pass
• Many demo ROMs work well
• Initial support for keyboard I/O, with a few kinks to work out.

To-Dos

• Better output formatting, instead of Unicode filled-boxes in a monospaced font
• Fix I/O. Currently causes stuttering on some games
• More testing.
  • Finish testing each instruction
  • Add testing for decoding
• Add docs.