CP System

After a number of arcade game boards designed to run only one game, Capcom embarked upon a project to produce a system board that could be used to run multiple games, in order to reduce hardware costs and make the system more appealing to arcade operators.

Capcom began developing the CPS hardware around 1986, when Capcom president Kenzo Tsujimoto came up with the concept inspired by the success of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). He saw the rise of home video games as competition for the arcades, so said the "only way we can make money is to give people twice what they can get at home".^[3]

Capcom developed the CPS hardware for about two-and-a-half years, during which time they developed two custom microchips that they called the CPS Super Chips, equivalent to the power of ten normal arcade printed circuit boards (PCBs) at the time.^[4][5] The two chips cost £5,500,000 or $9,800,000 (equivalent to $25,000,000 in 2023) to develop.^[4]

The system was plagued by many bootleg versions of its games. In particular, there were so many bootleg versions of Street Fighter II that they were more common in some countries than the official version. This problem was virtually eliminated by Capcom in the later CP System II.^{[citation needed]}

The CP System hardware was also utilized in Capcom's unsuccessful attempt at home console market penetration, the Capcom Power System Changer (or CPS Changer), a domestic version of the CP System similar to the Neo Geo AES.

Capcom ceased production of the CP System hardware on May 11, 1995; however, new software continued to be released for the hardware as late as 2000. Capcom ended technical support for the CP System hardware and its games on March 31, 2015.^[2]

• CPU:
  • Primary: Motorola 68000 @ 10 MHz (some later boards 12 MHz)
  • Secondary: Zilog Z80 @ 3.579 MHz
• Co-processors: 2x CPS Super Chip^[4][5][6]
• Sound chips:
  • Yamaha YM2151 @ 3.579 MHz
  • Oki OKI6295 @ 1 MHz (7.576 kHz samples)
• Display
  • Resolution: Raster, 384×224 @ 59.6294 Hz
  • Color depth: 16-bit (12-bit RGB with 4-bit brightness value)
  • Colors available: 65,536^[7]
  • Onscreen colors: 4096^[7] (192 global palettes with 16 colors each)
• Sprites:
  • Simultaneously displayable: 256 (per scanlines)
  • Sizes: 16×16, max. 16 colors (15 unique + 1 transparent)
  • Vertical and horizontal flipping capability
• Tiles: Sizes 8×8, 16×16, 32×32 with 16 colors (15 unique + 1 transparent)
• Tile maps: 3 maps, 512×512, 1024×1024, 2048×2048 pixel
• 68000 RAM: 64 KB WORK RAM + 192 KB VRAM (Shadow)
• PPU: 192 KB VRAM + 16 KB CACHE RAM
• Z80 RAM: 2 KB WORK RAM

A year before releasing the CP System II, Capcom released an enhanced version of the original CP System dubbed the CP System Dash, which had some features that would later be used in the CP System II, such as the QSound chips.

The CP System Dash boards have four interlocking PCBs and are contained in gray plastic boxes. This concept of arcade PCBs encased in a special plastic enclosure would later be reused for the CP System II hardware. To combat piracy, "suicide batteries" were implemented, which power the volatile RAM which contained the manual configuration of the display hardware registers, as well as the priorities registers. If the batteries' voltage should drop below +2V, the registers manually defined in factory by Capcom in RAM would be lost, and the PPU would no longer have access to the hardware specific register set on the game used, rendering the game inoperable, and necessitating the operator sending the board to Capcom to be fixed, at their own expense.

Unlike the CP System II, CP System Dash sound ROMs were encrypted using "Kabuki" Z80s. The CP System Dash 68000 code is not encrypted at all.

A home version of the CP System, the Capcom Power System Changer (or CPS Changer), was released in late 1994 in Japan to compete against SNK's Neo Geo.^[9] Capcom released the CPS Changer as an attempt to sell their arcade games in a home-friendly format. Upon its launch in November 1994, Capcom initially manufactured only 1,000 units in Japan.^[10]

The CPS Changer adapter was basically an encased SuperGun (Television JAMMA adapter), and was compatible with most JAMMA standard PCBs. Capcom's "protection" against people using the CPS Changer on other arcade boards was the physical shape of the device. On a normal JAMMA PCB it would not attach firmly and tended to lean at odd angles, but it would work. The CPS Changer has outputs for composite video, S-video and line-level mono audio. The CPS Changer also featured Super Famicom controller ports, allowing the use of all Super NES controllers, including their six-button joystick, the "CPS Fighter".

All of the CPS Changer games used the CP System arcade hardware. The CPS Changer games were simply arcade PCBs in a special plastic shell suitable for home use. This concept had already been done with the CP System II hardware a year prior. The plastic shells are identical to that of CP System Dash games. Some CPS-1 games were changed slightly for home release, sometimes including debugging features or other easter eggs.^{[citation needed]}

The CPS Changer was sold as a package deal of the console itself, one CPS Fighter joystick controller, and the Street Fighter II (Dash) Turbo game for 39,800 yen. Additional games were sold for about 20,000 yen.

The final game for the CPS Changer was a back-ported version of Street Fighter Zero in 1995, originally released for the CP System II hardware. This special CPS Changer version, released at a premium 35,000 yen in 1996, was degraded slightly for the older hardware: it had fewer frames of animation for the game characters, fewer onscreen colors^{[citation needed]}, a different sounding soundtrack with less sound effects, as well as the sound and music effects being sampled at a lower rate. This release was also available in limited quantities overseas in the arcades for publicity testing purposes, including those that couldn't afford the upgrade to the CP System II hardware.

While not released for the CPS Changer, Mega Man: The Power Battle, originally released for the CP System II hardware that same year, was also similarly back-ported as well. It was made as a standard CP System release. Like with the CPS Changer version of Street Fighter Zero, this version has several differences to accommodate the older hardware, which included among others, a different sounding-soundtrack and lower-sampled sound effects. As with the CPS Changer version of Street Fighter Zero, it was also released in limited quantities overseas for publicity testing purposes, especially for those who couldn't afford to upgrade to the CP System II hardware. This version is included in Mega Man Anniversary Collection and Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium.

• CP System II
• CP System III

• CPS-1 at System 16 - The Arcade Museum
• GameSX Power Stick Analysis — looking at the features and functions of the A10CA stick
• CPS-1, CPS-2 and CPS-3 releases comparison at UVL
• Full list of CP System ROMs