CP System

The development of the CP System hardware began in 1986 when Capcom president Kenzo Tsujimoto came up with the concept inspired by the success of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), known domestically as the Family Computer (Famicom). He saw the rise of home video games as competition for the arcades, and stated that "the only way we can make money is to give people twice what they can get at home". After a number of arcade game boards designed to run only one game, Capcom also 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 developed the hardware for about two-and-a-half years, during which time they developed two custom microchips known as the "CPS Super Chips", which were equivalent to the power of ten normal arcade boards at the time. The two chips cost around £5,500,000 or to develop, ==Technical specifications==

• CPU: • Primary: Motorola 68000 @ 10 MHz (some later boards 12 MHz) • Secondary: Zilog Z80 @ 3.579 MHz • Co-processors: 2x CPS Super Chip • 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 • Onscreen colors: 4096 (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 • RAM: • 68000: 64 KB WORK RAM + 192 KB VRAM (Shadow) • Z80: 2 KB WORK RAM • PPU: 192 KB VRAM + 16 KB CACHE RAM ==List of games (32 games)==

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 contained in gray plastic boxes; this concept of enclosing arcade PCBs 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 drops 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. This renders the game inoperable, necessitating the operator sending the board to Capcom to be fixed at their own expense. Unlike the CP System II, the CP System Dash sound ROMs were encrypted using "Kabuki" Z80s. The CP System Dash 68000 code is not encrypted at all. List of games (5 games) All five games are developed and published by Capcom. ==Capcom Power System Changer==

A home video game console version of the CP System, the Capcom Power System Changer (or CPS Changer), was released in late 1994 in Japan to compete with SNK's Neo Geo AES. It was Capcom's attempt at selling their arcade games in a home-friendly format. The CPS Changer was sold as a package deal containing the console itself, one CPS Fighter joystick controller, and Street Fighter II (Dash) Turbo for 39,800 yen. Additional games were sold for about 20,000 yen. Upon its release in November 1994, Capcom initially manufactured only 1,000 units in Japan. The CPS Changer's adapter was basically an encased SuperGun (i.e. 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 would 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/Super NES controller ports, allowing the use of all Super Famicom/Super NES controllers, including their own 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. The final game for the CPS Changer was a backported version of Street Fighter Zero (also known as Street Fighter Alpha) in 1995, originally released for the CP System II hardware. This port, released at a premium 35,000 yen in 1996, was downgraded slightly for the system's less capable hardware: it ran at a slightly slower frame rate, had a lower color depth and palette, a different soundtrack generated entirely by the system's sound chips, fewer sound effects, and the music and sound effects being sampled at a lower rate. Street Fighter Zero for the CPS Changer also had a limited release overseas in the arcades for publicity testing purposes (being released as Street Fighter Alpha for those regions) where it was distributed as a standard CP System release, especially to those who couldn't afford the upgrade to the CP System II hardware. Another CP System II game that was backported around the same timeframe, Rockman: The Power Battle (also known as Mega Man: The Power Battle), also received similar changes when it was ported to the CP System hardware (but not for the CPS Changer, as it had no new releases for it since Street Fighter Zero), and it too had limited releases in the arcades much like the publicity versions of Street Fighter Zero for the CPS Changer. List of games (11 games) All 11 games were developed and published by Capcom. ==See also==