Codex Gamicus
Advertisement

Template:Infobox information appliance

The CP System II (CPシステムII shīpī shisutemu tsū?) or CPS-2 is an arcade system board that Capcom first used in 1993 for Super Street Fighter II. It was successor to their previous CP System arcade hardware and was succeeded by the CP System III hardware in 1996.

History[ | ]

The earlier Capcom system board, the original CP System (or CPS-1), while successful, was very vulnerable to bootleggers making unauthorized copies of the games. In order to rectify the situation, Capcom took the CP System hardware (with QSound) with minimal changes and employed encryption on the program ROMs to prevent software piracy.

The CP System II consists of two separate parts; the A board, which connects to the JAMMA harness and contains components common between all CP System II games, and the B board, which contains the game itself. The relationship between the A and B board is basically the same as that between a home video game console and cartridge. CP System II A and B boards are color-coded by region, and each board can only be used with its same-colored mate. The exception to this is that the blue and green boards can be used together.

The B boards hold battery-backed memory containing decryption keys needed for the games to run. As time passes, these batteries lose their charge and the games stop functioning, because the CPU cannot execute any code without the decryption keys. This is known to hobbyists as the "suicide battery". It is possible to bypass the original battery and swap it out with a new one[1] in-circuit, but this must be done before the original falls below 2V or the keys will be lost.

Consequently the board would just die anyway, meaning even if used legally it would not play after a finite amount of time (Unless a fee was paid to Capcom to replace it).

Due to the heavy encryption, it was believed for a long time that CP System II emulation was next to impossible. However, in January 2001, the CPS-2 Shock group[2] was able to obtain unencrypted program data by hacking into the hardware, which they distributed as XOR difference tables to produce the unencrypted data from the original ROM images, making emulation possible, as well as restoring cartridges that had been erased because of the suicide system.

In January 2007, the encryption method was fully reverse-engineered by Andreas Naive[3] and Nicola Salmoria. It has been determined that the encryption employs two four-round Feistel ciphers with a 64-bit key.[4][5] The algorithm was thereafter implemented in this state for all known CPS-2 games in MAME.

Also thanks to the encryption, the system was never bootlegged until unencrypted program data became available.

Region colors[ | ]

  • Blue: U.S.A., Canada, and Europe
  • Green: Japan
  • Orange: South America
  • Gray: Asia
  • Yellow: "Region 0" (available by rental only)
  • Black: "Region 0" incorporated A and B board in the same unit

List of games[ | ]

Release date Developer English title Japanese title Genre
1993-09-10 Capcom Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers
Super Street Fighter II: Tournament Battle
Super Street Fighter II
(スーパーストリートファイターII)
Head-to-Head Fighting Game
1993-12-03 Capcom Eco Fighters Ultimate Ecology
(アルティミットエコロジー)
Shoot 'em up
1994-01-13 Capcom Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom
(ダンジョンズ&ドラゴンズ タワーオブドゥーム)
Beat 'em up
1994-02-23 Capcom Super Street Fighter II Turbo Super Street Fighter II X: Grand Master Challenge
(スーパーストリートファイターIIX)
Head-to-Head Fighting Game
1994-05-20 Capcom Alien vs Predator Alien VS Predator
(エイリアンVSプレデター)
Beat 'em up
1994-07-05 Capcom Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors Vampire: The Night Warriors
(ヴァンパイア -The Night Warriors-)
Head-to-Head Fighting Game
1994-08-08 Capcom Ring of Destruction: Slammasters II Super Muscle Bomber: The International Blowout
(スーパーマッスルボマー -THE INTERNATIONAL BLOWOUT-)
Head-to-Head Fighting Game
1994-09-16 Capcom Armored Warriors Powered Gear: Strategic Variant Armor Equipment
(パワードギア -STRATEGIC VARIANT ARMOR EQUIPMENT-)
Beat 'em up
1994-12-08 Capcom X-Men: Children of the Atom X-Men: Children of the Atom
(X-MEN Children of The Atom)
Head-to-Head Fighting Game
1995-03-02 Capcom Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge Vampire Hunter: Darkstalkers' Revenge
(ヴァンパイアハンター -Darkstalkers' Revenge-)
Head-to-Head Fighting Game
1995-04-20 Capcom Cyberbots: Full Metal Madness Cyberbots: Full Metal Madness
(サイバーボッツ -FULL METAL MADNESS-)
Head-to-Head Fighting Game
1995-06-05 Capcom Street Fighter Alpha Street Fighter Zero
(ストリートファイターZERO)
Head-to-Head Fighting Game
1995-09-22 Capcom Mega Man: The Power Battle Rockman: The Power Battle
(ロックマン ザ・パワーバトル)
Platformer
1995-10-24 Capcom Marvel Super Heroes Marvel Super Heroes
(MARVEL SUPER HEROES)
Head-to-Head Fighting Game
1995-12-07 Capcom 19XX: The War Against Destiny 19XX The War Against Destiny
(19XX -THE WAR AGAINST DESTINY-)
Shoot 'em up
1996-02-06 Capcom Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow over Mystara Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow over Mystara
(ダンジョンズ&ドラゴンズ シャドーオーバーミスタラ)
Beat 'em up
1996-02-27 Capcom Street Fighter Alpha 2 Street Fighter Zero 2
(ストリートファイターZERO2)
Head-to-Head Fighting Game
1996-05-29 Capcom Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo Super Puzzle Fighter II X
(スーパーパズルファイターIIX)
Puzzle game
1996-07-08 Capcom Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters Rockman 2: The Power Fighters
(ロックマン2 ザ・パワーファイターズ)
Platformer
1996-08-05 Capcom Street Fighter Zero 2 Alpha Street Fighter Zero 2 Alpha
(ストリートファイターZERO2 ALPHA)
Head-to-Head Fighting Game
1996-08-26 Capcom Quiz Nanairo Dreams: Nijiirochō no Kiseki Quiz Nanairo Dreams: Nijiirochō no Kiseki
(クイズなないろDREAMS 虹色町の奇跡)
Quiz game
1996-09-09 Capcom X-Men vs. Street Fighter X-Men vs. Street Fighter
(X-MEN VS. STREET FIGHTER)
Head-to-Head Fighting Game
1997-03-19 Capcom Battle Circuit Battle Circuit
(バトルサーキット)
Beat 'em up
1997-05-19 Capcom Vampire Savior: The Lord of Vampire Vampire Savior: The Lord of Vampire
(ヴァンパイアセイヴァー -The Lord of Vampire-)
Head-to-Head Fighting Game
1997-06-20 Capcom Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter
(MARVEL SUPER HEROES VS. STREET FIGHTER)
Head-to-Head Fighting Game
1997-07-22 Capcom Capcom Sports Club Capcom Sports Club
(カプコンスポーツクラブ)
Sports game
1997-09-04 Capcom Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix Pocket Fighter
(ポケットファイター)
Head-to-Head Fighting Game
1997-09-13 Capcom Vampire Hunter 2: Darkstalkers' Revenge Vampire Hunter 2: Darkstalkers' Revenge
(ヴァンパイアハンター2 -Darkstalkers' Revenge-)
Head-to-Head Fighting Game
1997-09-13 Capcom Vampire Savior 2: The Lord of Vampire Vampire Savior 2: The Lord of Vampire
(ヴァンパイアセイヴァー2 -The Lord of Vampire-)
Head-to-Head Fighting Game
1998-01-12 Capcom Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes
(MARVEL VS. CAPCOM CLASH OF SUPER HEROES)
Head-to-Head Fighting Game
1998-06-29 Capcom Street Fighter Alpha 3 Street Fighter Zero 3
(ストリートファイターZERO3)
Head-to-Head Fighting Game
1999-02-22 Takumi Giga Wing Giga Wing
(ギガウイング)
Shoot 'em up
1999-05-27 Capcom Jangokushi: Haō no Saihai Jangokushi Haō no Saihai
(雀國志 覇王の采牌)
Puzzle game
2000-01-21 Eighting/Raizing Dimahoo Great Mahō Daisakusen
(グレート魔法大作戦)
Shoot 'em up
2000-04-12 Takumi Mars Matrix: Hyper Solid Shooting Mars Matrix
(マーズマトリックス)
Shoot 'em up
2000-06-20 Eighting/Raizing 1944: The Loop Master 1944 The Loop Master
(1944 THE LOOP MASTER)
Shoot 'em up
2000-10-10 Mitchell Mighty! Pang Mighty Pang
(マイティ・パン)
Platformer
2001-01-17 Cave Progear Progear no Arashi
(プロギアの嵐)
Shoot 'em up
2001-02-05 Mitchell Puzz Loop 2 Puzz Loop 2
(パズループ2)
Puzzle game
2001-08-20 Mitchell Janpai Puzzle Chōkō Janpai Puzzle Chōkō
(雀牌パズル 長江)
Puzzle game
2003-12-22 Capcom Hyper Street Fighter II: The Anniversary Edition Hyper Street Fighter II
(ハイパーストリートファイターII)
Head-to-Head Fighting Game

See also[ | ]

References[ | ]

External links[ | ]

Advertisement