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Where does one go to learn how to create an emulator? I'm interested in picking up C/Go (probably the latter nowadays) while trying to make an emulator. Is ther

Where does one go to learn how to create an emulator? I'm interested in picking up C/Go (probably the latter nowadays) while trying to make an emulator. Is there a process people adhere by or do they seriously just figure it out?

ferg 14y ago
It's mostly the steep curve of learning the platform you're trying to emulate. Start here: http://emu-docs.org/ http://emu-docs.org/ and read everything you can get your hands on. Begin with the CPU and start emulating that. Then just start adding hardware bit by bit. It makes a lot more sense as you get into it. For NES emulation, the community at nesdev.com is amazing for assistance if you get stumped.
fiatpandas 14y ago
I'm just beginning with emulators and I wrote my first one to emulate CHIP8 a few months ago. I'm now working on a gameboy emulator. Anyways, having no experience with assembly, processor instructions, bitwise operations, etc, I started with this tutorial: http://www.multigesture.net/articles/how-to-write-an-emulator-chip-8-interpreter/ http://www.multigesture.net/articles/how-to-write-an-emulato... Also, good reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CHIP-8 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CHIP-8 I think that tutorial quite good and I emerged with a solid understanding of what exactly emulators/interpreters do, and what it means to emulate a certain device. CHIP8 is very simple, so moving to gameboy is actually a very big leap. The gameboy's instruction set (you'll know why that is a crucial piece of information after completing the CHIP8 tutorial) is much larger, so it requires a lot more work and understanding. Let me know if you have any questions
- jimmaswell 14y ago
  I have a 90%-working chip-8 emulator in JS. I never got around to fixing an instruction that waits for user input, though. http://luna.thehorseplace.us/pr/chip8.html http://luna.thehorseplace.us/pr/chip8.html
awy 14y ago
I wrote a post about creating a Chip-8 emulator in JavaScript, if JS is your thing. http://blog.alexanderdickson.com/javascript-chip-eight-emulator http://blog.alexanderdickson.com/javascript-chip-eight-emula...

ferg 14y ago

It's mostly the steep curve of learning the platform you're trying to emulate. Start here: http://emu-docs.org/ http://emu-docs.org/ and read everything you can get your hands on. Begin with the CPU and start emulating that. Then just start adding hardware bit by bit. It makes a lot more sense as you get into it. For NES emulation, the community at nesdev.com is amazing for assistance if you get stumped.

fiatpandas 14y ago

I'm just beginning with emulators and I wrote my first one to emulate CHIP8 a few months ago. I'm now working on a gameboy emulator. Anyways, having no experience with assembly, processor instructions, bitwise operations, etc, I started with this tutorial: http://www.multigesture.net/articles/how-to-write-an-emulator-chip-8-interpreter/ http://www.multigesture.net/articles/how-to-write-an-emulato... Also, good reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CHIP-8 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CHIP-8 I think that tutorial quite good and I emerged with a solid understanding of what exactly emulators/interpreters do, and what it means to emulate a certain device. CHIP8 is very simple, so moving to gameboy is actually a very big leap. The gameboy's instruction set (you'll know why that is a crucial piece of information after completing the CHIP8 tutorial) is much larger, so it requires a lot more work and understanding. Let me know if you have any questions

jimmaswell 14y ago
I have a 90%-working chip-8 emulator in JS. I never got around to fixing an instruction that waits for user input, though. http://luna.thehorseplace.us/pr/chip8.html http://luna.thehorseplace.us/pr/chip8.html

awy 14y ago

I wrote a post about creating a Chip-8 emulator in JavaScript, if JS is your thing. http://blog.alexanderdickson.com/javascript-chip-eight-emulator http://blog.alexanderdickson.com/javascript-chip-eight-emula...