Emu-ception

Siezure Warning: This article contains video of the CHIP-8 version of PONG that may cause siezures. The videos in this article will not autoplay and sufficient information will be given in a caption under the video.

PONG, it’s a game that you can play (I know right?!). But have you ever considered what version is the best to play? I’ve wondered the same but today I’ve got the answer for you.

I was researching CHIP-8 for my first emulation project when I stumbled across a version of PONG that some would say is less than ideal. The two player controls are wack, and the game continually loops with no end goal in sight. However, this had potential.

For those of you who don’t know CHIP-8 is an interpreted assembly language that was used to create video games back in the 1970s. It allowed these games to work across multiple different architectures. Since it is one of the older game “consoles” it needed lower hardware requirements. So all that we need to make it better is to port it to a newer console!

Luckily, that work has already been done for us by the NES-CHIP-8 emulator graciously made open source by NovaSquirrel. I’m running a modified version of the NES-CHIP-8 project which can be found here. She did such a great job making this that I feel bad about what this is going to turn into… anyway, now we have the CHIP-8 game running on the NES (I’m using an emulator since I don’t own an NES myself).

Wait! That console came out in 1985! We have over 30 years of untapped potential!

Luckily, a really old unmaintained emulator project has the answer. The pocketnes project does just what its name tells you, allows you to run NES games straight from your pocket! No, I’m not talking about a smart phone emulator, I’m talking about a GameBoy Advance Emulator!!!

There are some graphical glitches and inaccuracies introduced here to fit into the GameBoy’s portable hardware but we’ve now got a console from… 2001? No, that can’t be right… that’s a whole 11 years ago!

Luckily, we have a solution! From the code of the popular VisualBoy Advance emulator comes VBA GX a GameBoy Advance emulator for the GameCube/Wii. Since, I don’t have a Wii handy I’ll be using the Dolphin emulator!!!!

This particular emulator has a Wiimote controlled menu. Make sure to turn on the DSP LLE Recompiler so you can hear the music!

Wait…

Well… at least it’s running on my gaming desktop I made in 2018… that’s only 4 years ago!

Have you ever asked how, before you decided if you should? Well, that’s what happened here. I’ve created PONG running on a CHIP-8 emulator running on a NES emulator running on a GameBoy Advance emulator running on a Gamecube/Wii emulator running on a Gaming PC! Check out the project on GitHub

Welp, hope you like it! Bye!