The latest articles on DEV Community by Daniil Mira (@zazpro). https://dev.to/zazpro https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F391172%2F82d11984-0a0f-4c56-8485-76c537e4edd8.jpeg https://dev.to/zazpro en Daniil Mira Wed, 20 May 2020 19:34:18 +0000 https://dev.to/zazpro/c-chip-8-emulator-interpretator-3dd8 https://dev.to/zazpro/c-chip-8-emulator-interpretator-3dd8 <h2> Some words about Chip-8 </h2> <p>Chip-8 is an interpreted programming language that runs on a virtual machine. It was first used in the mid-1970s on a 8 bit computer (as you can guess from the name).</p> <h2> Why to do it? </h2> <p>Chip-8 virtual machine and language are relatively simple and it is a very good starting point for getting into emulation in general.</p> <h2> How to do it? </h2> <p>Now as we decided why to do it. I want to share some links that got me inspired and helped a lot during the development of this project:</p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.multigesture.net/articles/how-to-write-an-emulator-chip-8-interpreter/" rel="noopener noreferrer">How to write an emulator (CHIP-8 interpreter)</a></li> <li><a href="http://devernay.free.fr/hacks/chip8/C8TECH10.HTM" rel="noopener noreferrer">Cowgod's Chip-8 Technical Reference</a></li> <li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CHIP-8#Virtual_machine_description" rel="noopener noreferrer">CHIP-8 - Wikipedia</a></li> <li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150227183132/http://bobpowell.net/lockingbits.aspx" rel="noopener noreferrer">Using the LockBits method to access image data</a></li> </ul> <h2> C# </h2> <p>C# is definitely my favorite OOP language. As a way to get some more advanced practice for this language, this kind of project was chosen.</p> <h2> Some problems that you might encounter </h2> <ul> <li>Different specifications of the instructions from different sources.</li> <li>Slow image render without using any graphics framework.</li> <li>A very long main switch loop. (Can be solved by using function pointers)</li> </ul> <h2> Ways to solve them </h2> <ul> <li>Different specifications: Can be solved just by simple testing of both different variants.</li> <li>Slow image render: Can be solved by modifying image bits directly using pointers.</li> <li>Long main switch loop: Switch loop can be substituted by a function pointers but in C# that my be not the fancies solution. Anyway I stuck to this solution at least for learning purpose.</li> </ul> <h2> Download link </h2> <p><a href="https://github.com/ZAZPRO/Chip8/releases" rel="noopener noreferrer">GitHub Releases</a></p> <h2> Source code </h2> <p><a href="https://github.com/ZAZPRO/Chip8/" rel="noopener noreferrer">GitHub</a></p> csharp dotnet emulator chip8