wchip8

This project is a Chip8 emulator implemented in Zig programming language utilizing WebGPU for rendering. The primary objective of this project was to learn WebGPU and API programming while creating a simple and efficient Chip8 emulator.

Features

• Chip8 Emulation: The emulator accurately emulates the behavior of the Chip8 virtual machine, allowing users to run Chip8 programs and games.
• WebGPU Rendering: Utilizes WebGPU for rendering graphics, providing efficient and hardware-accelerated graphics rendering in the browser.
• Command-line Interface: Supports running Chip8 programs via the command-line interface, allowing users to specify ROM file paths and customize background and foreground colors.

Getting Started

Prerequisites

To run this project, you need to have Zig version 0.12.0-dev.3180+83e578a18 installed on your system.

Build and run

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/GiuseppeCesarano/wchip8

2. Build the project:

zig build -Doptimize=ReleaseFast -Dtarget=native-native

3. Run the emulator with the following command:

./wchip <path-to-rom-file> <optional:background-color> <optional:foreground-color>

• path-to-rom-file: Path to the Chip8 ROM file you want to run.
• background-color (optional): Background color for the emulator display in hexadecimal format (e.g., RRGGBB).
• foreground-color (optional): Foreground color for the emulator display in hexadecimal format.

Special thanks

Big thanks to Timendus for chip8-test-suite! His ROM collection has been instrumental in testing and improving this emulator.