Tiny Emulators: A Web-Based Journey Through Retro 8-Bit Computing History
I have compiled a comprehensive collection of tiny emulators running directly in your browser, featuring classic systems like the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, and Amstrad CPC. You can instantly explore visual CPU remakes, run vintage BASIC and FORTH interpreters, and play iconic games such as Boulderdash and Prince of Persia. This project brings the nostalgia of 8-bit computing to life without any installation required.
The magic of 8-bit computing lives on in these tiny emulators, allowing you to run Prince of Persia and Boulderdash instantly in your browser.
- flohofwoe
FYI this is a heavily outdated URL (the one with '-preview' in it, last updated in 2021) which I had created at some point to test some things.
The proper and uptodate URL is:
https://floooh.github.io/tiny8bit/
Apart from the 'pin-emulation' the other interesting feature is that the CPUs are 'cycle stepped', e.g. the CPU no longer has a special 'controller role' in the system but is just 'ticked along' with all the other chips. This blog post describes how that works for the Z80 emulation (the instruction decoder is still a big switch-case, but with one case-prong per instruction cycle instead one prong per whole instruction: https://floooh.github.io/2021/12/17/cycle-stepped-z80.html)
I didn't really get around to work on the project since 2023 though (and before that I worked on it mainly as a 'vacation project' over the Christmas breaks), I mostly just updated the sokol and Dear ImGui dependencies since then, and sometimes added new scene demos appearing on https://www.pouet.net/ and https://csdb.dk/.
- Folcon
I don't know about anyone else, but this really reminds me of 0x10c [0]
I'm still fascinated by the idea of a setting with virtual mini computers, I've designed a couple as thought exercises based on it/space travel as well as cyberpunk mixing in a little Zach like flavour for some of the chip design, even figured out a fantasy variant
Not sure why, but I've not been able to convince myself that it's anything other than ultra niche, so if you're interested in this and want to talk about it, chime in here or drop me an email (in profile)
- Lerc
I love the pin level emulation model of this. The self contained modular behaviour of components has real flexibility.
For a long time I have wondered if extremely thin but explicitly defined interfaces are an under-explored domain for interoperability.
Beyond simple chip emulation, any set of values that are sampled on each side of the interface at defined times, and a small set of signals to provided temporal access. Be it pins, a small set of registers, or a memory mapped region, it seems like an excellent target for conformance testing.
Perhaps in a world of AI generated code, modular components with explicit conformance requirements would allow people to not care what happens inside the black box, provided it cannot be made to violate it's behaviour requirements.
- ChrisArchitect
Please update the url to https://floooh.github.io/tiny8bit/ (as is linked officially and in previous submissions, noted last year by the dev even https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43821756)
where'd you get this preview one from OP? linked somewhere?
- renaudg
Thank you for demonstrating how great and underrated the Amstrad CPC is (and the comparatively undeserved strength of the British nostalgia distortion field towards the ZX Spectrum ;) )
My favourite demo in the list : https://floooh.github.io/tiny8bit/cpc.html?file=cpc/phx.dsk&...