State of Retro Gaming in Emacs
summary
Implements a working CHIP‑8 emulator called chip8.el that runs full speed at 60fps and fits under 1000 source lines, supports SuperChip‑8, uses integer vectors for RAM/registers to avoid garbage collection, drives the main loop with Emacs timers, and renders by painting characters with background colors for acceptable performance. Sound is a single beep controlled via an external mpv fifo process. Includes unit tests, logging-based diffs against another emulator for debugging, and a brief radare2 Python plugin for disassembly.
AI-written summary · about
chapters (15)
- 0:00About
- 0:31Motivation
- 1:48What the hell is a CHIP-8 anyway?
- 2:09System specs
- 2:48How does it work?
- 3:19Game loop woes
- 4:26Mapping the system to Emacs Lisp
- 5:01Decoding instructions
- 5:41Testing
- 6:14Debugging
- 6:48Analysis
- 7:27Rendering
- 8:25Sound
- 9:04What next?
- 9:53Questions?
related talks
32mMaking an Emulator in JavaScript?
27mWriting an emulator in JavaScript?
29mEmulating With JavaScript
37mEmulators, Immutability, and Time Travel
18mEmulating the Nintendo Game Boy CPU with Elm
35mBuilding a GameBoy emulator with Elixir and Scenic
45mEmulating a 6502 System in JavaScript
40mBuilding a GameBoy emulator with Elixir and Scenic