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 |