chip8-py 0.1.1

A CHIP-8 emulator ecosystem.

pychip8

A modular, extensible CHIP-8 emulator ecosystem written in modern Python.

Note: This is a remake of an old project of mine, chip-8-python, which aimed to do the same thing but was honestly pretty poorly made. It was monolithic and clunky, and this one is built to be an actual Python package.

Installation

Requires Python 3.11+.

git clone https://github.com/las-r/pychip8
cd pychip8
pip install -e .

Usage

pychip8 path/to/rom.ch8

Config

Flags

Flags override the config file.

Flag	Description
--cpf <int>	Cycles per frame (default: 10)
--scale <int>	Display scale (default: 12)
--volume <float>	Audio volume 0.0–1.0 (default: 0.2)
--cosmac-shift / --no-cosmac-shift	COSMAC VIP shift quirk
--cosmac-jump / --no-cosmac-jump	COSMAC VIP jump quirk
--cosmac-i-add / --no-cosmac-i-add	COSMAC VIP index add quirk
--cosmac-font / --no-cosmac-font	COSMAC VIP font quirk
--cosmac-ls / --no-cosmac-ls	COSMAC VIP load/store quirk
--vf-reset / --no-vf-reset	Reset VF after logic instructions

File

On first run, a default config is created at:

• Windows: C:/Users/YOUR_USER_PROFILE/AppData/Local/pychip8/
• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/pychip8/
• Linux: ~/.config/pychip8/

Edit this file to set your preferred defaults.

Keypad

The CHIP-8 hex keypad maps to the left side of a QWERTY keyboard:

CHIP-8    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

Credits

• raylib (Python)
• Guide to making a CHIP-8 emulator
• Timendus' CHIP-8 Test Suite