Chip-8 emulator for the VIC +16k

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huffelduff
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Chip-8 emulator for the VIC +16k

Post by huffelduff »

Hi there everyone,

What is Chip-8?
Chip-8 is a virtual machine designed in the mid-1970s by Joseph Weisbecker for use with the COSMAC VIP and Telmac 1800 microcomputers. The purpose of the framework was to simplify the programming of games on these computers. Weisbecker designed the system to be (1) a register machine with (2) a limited instruction set and (3) with fixed width instructions. These three characteristics are in line with what today would be called a virtual RISC machine.

The eXimietas VIC-20 Chip-8 emulator can run original Chip-8 programs as well as programs which use the altered HP-48 instructions. However it does not support the additional instructions that the SCHIP introduced. Therefore it is not SCHIP compatible and also not XO-CHIP compatible. In short this emulator is an essential or basic Chip-8 emulator.

You will find a library of programs included with the software on a separate disk as well as an archive for you to explore.

If you have questions or bugs to report regarding the emulator, please post them here.
Some footnotes: The system only supports Chip-8, not SCHIP or XO-Chip.

Greetings

H

You can find the link under software releases to download it:
http://sleepingelephant.com/ipw-web/bul ... 02#p118202

A screenshot from the game Airplane
Screensht - Airplane.png
A screenshot from the Demo Kaleidoscope
Screensht - Kaleidoscope.png
Last edited by huffelduff on Sat May 06, 2023 10:02 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Mike
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Re: Chip-8 emulator for the VIC +16k

Post by Mike »

What is a Chip-8?

...

Before you answer - please look at your start post here, considering someone probably hadn't read your Announcement. For a start post, it is very uninformative! You should consider adding some information and screenshots from your Announcement to here, and shortening the Announcement itself correspondingly (one screenshot over there should suffice). Thank you.
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huffelduff
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Re: Chip-8 emulator for the VIC +16k

Post by huffelduff »

Mike wrote: Sat May 06, 2023 6:35 am For a start post, it is very uninformative! You should consider adding some information and screenshots from your Announcement to here
Hi there Mike,

Let me do so.
I will modify the original post.

Here's a screenshot of one of the games: A knock off of Atari Gunfight
Image - Gunfight.png
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huffelduff
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Re: Chip-8 emulator for the VIC +16k

Post by huffelduff »

I have updated the version to 1.11 because of a small but significant bug:

Here's the change log:
v1.11:
- A last minute vertical and horizontal pixel optimization attempt turned out to break some games such as Blitz! and Wall, so this change has been rolled back.
- Updated the cosmetic settings section to allow for 32 color combinations for the game screen instead of just 16.
- There was small bug in the key mapping settings where the joystick would only allow left rotation sometimes when switching between keys and joystick
- Small update to the manual

Greetings

H
kokkiklhs
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Re: Chip-8 emulator for the VIC +16k

Post by kokkiklhs »

Nice to see an emulator for such an obscure machine on our beloved VIC!
I will suurely give it a good go as soon as I find the time!
Thank you, huffelduff!
8)
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huffelduff
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Re: Chip-8 emulator for the VIC +16k

Post by huffelduff »

kokkiklhs wrote: Sun May 07, 2023 2:14 pm Thank you, huffelduff!
Hi there kokkiklhs,

My absolute pleasure.
kokkiklhs wrote: Sun May 07, 2023 2:14 pm Nice to see an emulator for such an obscure machine on our beloved VIC!
Yes the Chip-8 system is very much lesser known and weirdly there is still an annual Gamejam on itch.io called Octojam for the system. It still garners interest and if I can get my programming skills on the platform to some passable level I will probably participate.

Anyhow thanks for the response

Greetings

H
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RobertBe
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Re: Chip-8 emulator for the VIC +16k

Post by RobertBe »

We finally ran the Chip-8 emulator with its games at the last FCUG meeting. We had fun with the games!

Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group - http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm
Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network - http://www.portcommodore.com/sccan
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huffelduff
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Re: Chip-8 emulator for the VIC +16k

Post by huffelduff »

RobertBe wrote: Mon Aug 14, 2023 1:19 pm We finally ran the Chip-8 emulator with its games at the last FCUG meeting. We had fun with the games!
Hi there Robert,

That is so cool, I am glad that you had fun with it. I had a blast going through the archives myself.
I have started work on a new emulator for the VIC, hopefully I'll be able to post something about it soon.

Greetings

H
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RobertBe
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Re: Chip-8 emulator for the VIC +16k

Post by RobertBe »

huffelduff wrote: Tue Aug 15, 2023 10:22 pmI have started work on a new emulator for the VIC...
Oh, a new emulator! Interesting. :)

Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group - http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm
Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network - http://www.portcommodore.com/sccan
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