CHIP-8 - CHIP-8 Today

CHIP-8 Today

There is a CHIP-8 implementation for almost every platform imaginable, as well as some development tools. Despite this, there are only a small number of games for the CHIP-8.

CHIP-8 has a descendant called SCHIP (Super Chip), introduced by Erik Bryntse. In 1990, a CHIP-8 interpreter called CHIP-48 was made for HP-48 graphing calculators so that games could be programmed more easily. Its extensions to CHIP-8 are what became known as SCHIP. It features a larger resolution and several additional opcodes which make programming easier. If it were not for the development of the CHIP-48 interpreter, CHIP-8 would not be as well known today.

The next most influential developments (which popularized S/CHIP-8 on many other platforms) were David Winter's emulator, disassembler, and extended technical documentation. It laid out a complete list of undocumented opcodes and features, and was distributed across many hobbyist forums. Many of the emulators listed below had these works as a starting point.