Emu: Terminal-driven Vintage System Emulator

A terminal-driven emulator for several vintage computer systems, featuring a lightweight interactive console loop.

Supported Systems

• Motorola 6809: A powerful 8-bit (with 16-bit features) microprocessor.
• MITS Altair 680: A compact 6800-based computer.
• Kaypro II: A Z80-based CP/M machine.

Prerequisites

To build and run the emulator, you will need:

• clang / clang++
• make
• objdump (Linux) or otool (Darwin)

Building the Project

Build the emulator from the repository root:

make

This will produce the following outputs in the build-emu/ directory:

• emu: The main emulator binary.
• emu.lst: A disassembly listing of the emulator itself.

To clean the build artifacts:

make clean

Or for a full cleanup:

make spotless

Running the Emulator

Basic Usage

Run the default system (currently 6809):

./build-emu/emu

Command Line Options

Show the help message and a list of supported systems:

./build-emu/emu -h

Run a specific system with a custom ROM:

# 6809 with BASIC
./build-emu/emu -s 6809 -r test/BASIC.HEX

# Altair 680 with mits680b ROM
./build-emu/emu -s altair680 -r mits680b.bin

# Kaypro II with system ROM
./build-emu/emu -s kaypro -r rom/kaypro/kayproii_u47.bin

Console Interaction

The emulator runs in a raw terminal mode.

• Use Ctrl-D to exit the interactive console loop and shut down the emulator cleanly.

Project Structure

• cpu/: CPU core implementations (6800, 6809, Z80).
• dev/: Emulated devices (Memory, UARTs, etc.).
• system/: Concrete system implementations and the system factory.
• console.cpp: Terminal handling and interactive loop.
• libihex/: Submodule for Intel HEX file support.
• test/: ROMs, test scripts, and assembly code for verification.