diff --git a/compiler/src/prog8/CompilerMain.kt b/compiler/src/prog8/CompilerMain.kt
index 820873e11..bb8453b80 100644
--- a/compiler/src/prog8/CompilerMain.kt
+++ b/compiler/src/prog8/CompilerMain.kt
@@ -4,17 +4,20 @@ import kotlinx.cli.*
 import prog8.ast.base.AstException
 import prog8.code.core.CbmPrgLauncherType
 import prog8.code.target.*
+import prog8.code.target.virtual.VirtualMachineDefinition
 import prog8.compiler.CompilationResult
 import prog8.compiler.CompilerArguments
 import prog8.compiler.compileProgram
 import java.io.File
 import java.nio.file.FileSystems
 import java.nio.file.Path
+import java.nio.file.Paths
 import java.nio.file.StandardWatchEventKinds
 import java.time.LocalDateTime
 import kotlin.system.exitProcess
 
 
+
 fun main(args: Array<String>) {
     val buildVersion = object {}.javaClass.getResource("/version.txt")?.readText()?.trim()
     println("\nProg8 compiler v$buildVersion by Irmen de Jong (irmen@razorvine.net)")
@@ -46,6 +49,7 @@ private fun compileMain(args: Array<String>): Boolean {
     val compilationTarget by cli.option(ArgType.String, fullName = "target", description = "target output of the compiler (one of '${C64Target.NAME}', '${C128Target.NAME}', '${Cx16Target.NAME}', '${AtariTarget.NAME}', '${VMTarget.NAME}')")
         .default(C64Target.NAME)
     val sourceDirs by cli.option(ArgType.String, fullName="srcdirs", description = "list of extra paths, separated with ${File.pathSeparator}, to search in for imported modules").multiple().delimiter(File.pathSeparator)
+    val startVm by cli.option(ArgType.Boolean, fullName = "vm", description = "load and run a p8-virt listing in the VM instead")
     val moduleFiles by cli.argument(ArgType.String, fullName = "modules", description = "main module file(s) to compile").multiple(999)
 
     try {
@@ -76,6 +80,10 @@ private fun compileMain(args: Array<String>): Boolean {
         return false
     }
 
+    if(startVm==true) {
+        return runVm(moduleFiles.first())
+    }
+
     if(watchMode==true) {
         val watchservice = FileSystems.getDefault().newWatchService()
         val allImportedFiles = mutableSetOf<Path>()
@@ -184,3 +192,14 @@ private fun compileMain(args: Array<String>): Boolean {
 
     return true
 }
+
+fun runVm(listingFilename: String): Boolean {
+    val name =
+        if(listingFilename.endsWith(".p8virt"))
+            listingFilename.substring(0, listingFilename.length-7)
+        else
+            listingFilename
+    val vmdef = VirtualMachineDefinition()
+    vmdef.launchEmulator(0, Paths.get(name))
+    return true
+}
diff --git a/docs/source/todo.rst b/docs/source/todo.rst
index 6a6372189..017e3d5c0 100644
--- a/docs/source/todo.rst
+++ b/docs/source/todo.rst
@@ -3,7 +3,6 @@ TODO
 
 For next release
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
-- add -vm option to load an existing p8virt file directly in the virtual machine
 - pipe operator: allow non-unary function calls in the pipe that specify the other argument(s) in the calls.
 - writeAssembly(): make it possible to actually get rid of the VarDecl nodes by fixing the rest of the code mentioned there.
 - allow "xxx" * constexpr  (where constexpr is not a number literal), now gives expression error not same type