CHIPcade Script

With CHIPcade Script, you can program games for the CHIPcade system. It mixes high-level structure with low-level control — like a friendly assembly language that doesn’t bite.

Code Modules

Every CHIPcade game has at least two modules:

init — runs once when the game starts
update — runs every frame (60 FPS by default)

You can add more modules using the ➕ button in the toolbar. For example, it’s common to add a Utilities module for reusable logic.

CHIPcade includes built-in functions for basic math and a Math library for more advanced operations.

Reading / Writing to Registers

CHIPcade uses 8 general-purpose registers: R0 through R7. You can read and write to them directly or dynamically using indexed access.

R3 = R4 + R5
R[3 + 3] = R[4] + R[5]
r[2] = sin(R7) * 0.5

Both R and r work, but uppercase is preferred for clarity. There are no variables — just registers and Data.

Arithmetic

CHIPcade supports all basic arithmetic operations:

Addition (+)
Subtraction (-)
Multiplication (*)
Division (/)
Modulo (%)

These operators can also be used in assignment form:

R3 += R4
R3 -= R4
R3 *= R4
R3 /= R4
R3 %= R4

You can freely combine operations and use data or register values. Floating point, signed, and unsigned types are all supported — CHIPcade handles type casting automatically.

Expressions

CHIPcade Script supports full expressions, including math, comparisons, and logic. You can freely combine values, registers, and functions.

Boolean Values

true and false are valid constants
Expressions can return a boolean result — useful in if and jumpif

Logical Operators

and — Logical AND
or — Logical OR
! — Logical NOT (prefix)

Note: not is not supported — use ! instead.

Example:

    if R0 > 0 and R1 < 10
        R2 = 1

    if !(R3 == 5)
        R2 = 0

Comparisons

You can use standard comparison operators:

== — equal
!= — not equal
<, <=, >, >=

Example:

    jumpif R0 == 10 or R1 > 5 ? Skip

Expressions are evaluated left to right with standard precedence. Use parentheses to group if needed.

Data Modules and State

You can add Data modules via the ➕ button in the toolbar. Each module contains 1024 16-bit values.

You can access them by name and index:

R0 = Data[0]
Data[R3] = 42.0

Valid index range: 0–1023
Out-of-range accesses are safely ignored at runtime
On creation, all values are initialized to 0
Data is persistent — values are preserved between runs
If you need to reset state, do it in the init module
You can also edit Data module values directly in the editor

Because Data is persistent, your game state is automatically saved — no extra save/load logic required.

Code Flow

CHIPcade executes code top to bottom in each module — just like a good old BASIC listing. You can control flow with if, goto, jumpif, and loops.

If statements

if R0 > 0
    R1 = 1
else
    R1 = 0

No parentheses, no colons — just clean and readable.

jumpif and Loops

Use jumpif for manual loops:

# Set all 1024 values of Data to 0
R0 = 0
loop:
    Data[R0] = 0u
    R0 += 1
jumpif R0 < 1024 ? loop

jumpif jumps to the given label if the condition is true.

To avoid infinite loops, jumpif automatically breaks after 1000 invocations.

notify and notifyR7

Schedule code execution in the future — handy for timed events:

# Call DrawHighScore after 1 second
notify("DrawHighScore", 1.0)

# Call DisableSprite after 1 second and pass a value to R7
notifyR7("DisableSprite", 1.0, R2)

DisableSprite:
sprite[R7].active = false

Think of it like retro timers with built-in callbacks.

notifyCollision

Calls a specified code tag when any sprite from one collision group collides with a sprite from another.

This is especially useful when dealing with many potential collisions (e.g. lots of bullets and targets), where manually checking sprite[x].collisionWith() for each sprite would be too tedious or inefficient.

When a collision is detected:

R6 will contain the index of the sprite from the first group
R7 will contain the index of the sprite from the second group

You can then take action on both sprites inside the callback.

Example

# Call Utilities.Collision if collision groups 10 and 11 collide
notifyCollision("Utilities.Collision", 10, 11)

Available Functions

CHIPcade Script includes built-in math functions for handling common calculations:

sin(value) Returns the sine of a value (in radians).
cos(value) Returns the cosine of a value (in radians).
degrees(value) Converts radians to degrees.
radians(value) Converts degrees to radians.
random() Returns a float between 0.0 and 1.0
random(upTo) Returns a random value between 0 and upTo (inclusive). The returned type matches the type of upTo — float, signed, or unsigned.