A Chip-8 emulator written in TypeScript that runs directly in the browser.
This project was born from the desire to take on a stimulating technical challenge. Emulating an architecture like CHIP-8 requires a deep understanding of how it works, while translating those mechanisms into a typed and structured language. It's an excellent way to improve both algorithmic thinking, software architecture, and TypeScript skills.
CHIP-8 is known for its simplicity, making it a great starting point for building a first emulator. It's a concrete way to learn how a virtual CPU works, how machine instructions are executed, and how graphics are rendered — all without the complexity of a real console. This project allowed me to dive deep into the fundamentals of emulation.
CHIP-8 is an embedded system used in the 70s and 80s for very simple games. To learn more, you can refer to the CHIP-8 Wikipedia page.
To implement my emulator, I chose to use object-oriented programming (OOP) with TypeScript. OOP allowed me to separate the different parts of the emulator into distinct objects: CPU, display, memory, etc. This helped me better visualize the different components to emulate while keeping the architecture clear.
To complete this project, I had to dive into CHIP-8 and emulator documentation. Here are some useful resources to learn more and explore the source code: