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Computer Science From Scratch
book

Computer Science From Scratch

by David Kopec
September 2025
Intermediate
280 pages
7h 38m
English
No Starch Press
Content preview from Computer Science From Scratch

5 BUILDING A CHIP-8 VIRTUAL MACHINE

In this chapter, we’re going to develop a version of a virtual machine known as CHIP-8, a platform from the early days of personal computing that was primarily used for playing games. Although our program will be able to play CHIP-8 games, it’s not the games themselves that interest us—it’s what building a CHIP-8 virtual machine can teach us about low-level programming and how a computer works at the register and instruction levels. These insights make building a CHIP-8 virtual machine a popular first step into the world of programming emulators.

Virtual Machines

Think of a virtual machine (VM) as a ...

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Publisher Resources

ISBN: 0642572230142Errata Page