A little proof-of-concept to run an 8-bit emulator in a terminal via the Kitty Graphics Protocol:

Tested in Ghostty and Kitty on macOS.

In a Ghostty or Kitty terminal with Zig version 0.14.0-dev.*:

zig build --release=fast run-pengo

zig build --release=fast run-pacman

zig build --release=fast run-bombjack

Press 1 or F1 to insert a coin, and Enter to start.

In the game: Arrow Keys for direction and Space as fire button (in Pengo: push ice block, in Bombjack: jump).

In Bombjack, hit Space repeatedly to skip the long boot sequence.

Ctrl-C to quit.

• libvaxis for rendering
• chipz for the emulator core
• sokol-audio for the sound

Uses code snippets from:

• https://github.com/cryptocode/terminal-doom

Kitty Graphics Protocol:

• https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/graphics-protocol/

Ghostty:

• https://ghostty.org/