CP System
A CP System board
Developer(s)	Capcom
Publisher(s)	Capcom
Release date(s)	July 1988
Input methods	8-way joystick, from 3 to 6 buttons
Cabinet	upright
CPU	Motorola 68000 (@ 10 MHz)
Sound	Sound CPU: Z80 (@ 3.579545 MHz) YM2151 (@ 3.579545 MHz), OKI6295 (@ 6.061 kHz)
Display	Raster, 384 × 224 pixels (Horizontal), 3072 colors

The CP System (CPシステム, shīpī shisutemu^?) or CPS-1 is an arcade system board developed by Capcom which was first used by the 1988 game Forgotten Worlds. The first three games in Capcom's Street Fighter II series, the original, Champion Edition, and Hyper Fighting, all ran on this board.

[edit] History

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.

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

The CP System hardware was also utilized in Capcom's unsuccessful attempt at home console market penetration, the CPS Changer.

CP System's 10 MHz 68000 CPU and graphics IC

[edit] List of games

[edit] CP System Dash

CP System Dash
A CPS-1.5 board
Developer(s)	Capcom
Publisher(s)	Capcom
Release date(s)	December 1992
Input methods	8-way joystick, from 3 to 6 buttons
Cabinet	upright
CPU	Motorola 68000 (@ 12 MHz)
Sound	Sound CPU: "Kabuki" Z80 (@ 8 MHz) Q-Sound (@ 4 MHz)
Display	Raster, 384 × 224 pixels (Horizontal), 3072 colors

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 Q-Sound chips.

The CP System Dash boards have four interlocking PCBs and are contained in gray plastic boxes. To combat piracy, "suicide batteries" were implemented, which power the volatile RAM which contained the ROM decryption tables. If the batteries' voltage should drop below +2V, or if an attempt was made to dump the encryption codes, the decryption algorithms stored in RAM would be lost, and the CPU would no longer have valid code to execute, rendering the game inoperable, and necessitating the operator sending the board to Capcom to be fixed, at his own expense. Unlike the CP System II, CP System Dash sound ROMs were encrypted using "Kabuki" Z80s.

[edit] List of games

[edit] Capcom Power System Changer

A home version of the CP System, the Capcom Power System Changer was released in 1994. Capcom released the CPS Changer as an attempt to sell their arcade games in a home-friendly format. 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 featured an adapter that allowed the user to plug in the "CPS Fighter", a joystick controller Capcom originally released for the Super Famicom (and later the Mega Drive) when they released the Super Famicom version of Street Fighter II in 1992.

All of the CPS Changer games were based on the CPS arcade hardware. The CPS Changer games were simply arcade PCBs in a special plastic shell suitable for home use. This concept was later re-used in the CP System II hardware. Some CPS1 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. Originally released on the CP System II hardware, this special CPS Changer version, released at a premium at 35,000 yen, was degraded slightly for the older hardware. It had fewer frames of animation for the game characters, fewer onscreen colors, and sound effects sampled at a lower rate.

[edit] List of games

[edit] See also

• CP System II
• CP System III

[edit] External links

• CPS-1 at System 16 - The Arcade Museum
• GameSX Power Stick Analysis—looking at the features and functions of the A10CA stick.