PyChip8
CHIP-8 Emulator
The goal here is to create a flexible CHIP-8 emulator with hooks and tools to experiment with emulation and hopefully create a machine learning environment.
It only provides a curses view, I will maybe add a PyGame view.
Depenencies
- curses
Usage
$ python main.py path_to_rom
Keybindings
AZERTY keybindings
| 1 | 2 | 3 | C | / | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| 4 | 5 | 6 | D | / | a | z | e | r |
| 7 | 8 | 9 | E | / | q | s | d | f |
| A | 0 | B | F | / | w | x | c | v |
API
Under development
The emulator provides an API class that can be used to control the emulation. It provides the following tools:
- API.machine: Direct access to the memory, registers and flags
- API.tools: Provides tools such as a disassembler
- API.hooks: Add and remove hooks
- API.control: Pause, load rom, emulate key press, ...
Hooks
Hook routines can be added via the hooks API. Currently, hooks are:
- init_hooks: Called at emulator startup
- pre_hooks: Called before each cpu update
- pre_frame_hooks: Called before each frame rendering
- post_hooks: Called after each cpu update
- post_frame_hooks: Called after each frame rendering
Known issues
- No QWERTY keybindings
- The current display is really ugly
- The curses view screws up the terminal display when killed
- The APIs are under development
- The framerate needs to be adjusted
- Sound only supports aplayer
ROMs
I don't own any of the provided ROMs, you can find them on https://github.com/dmatlack/chip8/tree/master/roms
References
The CowGod CHIP-8 Technical Reference v1.0