The or CPS-3 is an
arcade system board
An arcade video game takes player input from its controls, processes it through electrical or computerized components, and displays output to an electronic monitor or similar display. Most arcade video games are coin-operated, housed in an arc ...
that was first used by
Capcom
is a Japanese video game developer and video game publisher, publisher. It has created a number of List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises, with its most commercially successful being ''Resident Evil' ...
in 1996 with the arcade game ''
Red Earth''. It was the second successor to the
CP System
The is an arcade system board developed by Capcom that ran game software stored on removable daughterboards. More than two dozen arcade titles were released for CPS-1, before Capcom shifted game development over to its successor, the CP System ...
arcade hardware, following the
CP System II
The or CPS-2 is an arcade system board that Capcom first used in 1993 for ''Super Street Fighter II''. It was the successor to their previous CP System and Capcom Power System Changer arcade hardware and was succeeded by the CP System III hardw ...
. It would be the last proprietary system board Capcom would produce before moving on to the
Dreamcast
The is a home video game console released by Sega on November 27, 1998, in Japan; September 9, 1999, in North America; and October 14, 1999, in Europe. It was the first sixth-generation video game console, preceding Sony's PlayStation 2, N ...
-based
Naomi
Naomi or Naomie may refer to:
People and biblical figures
* Naomi (given name), a female given name and a list of people with the name
* Naomi (biblical figure), Ruth's mother-in-law in the Old Testament Book of Ruth
* Naomi (Romanian singer) (bo ...
platform.
History
The CP System III became the final arcade system board to be designed by Capcom. It features a security mechanism; games are supplied on a
CD, which contains the encrypted game contents, and a security cartridge containing the game
BIOS
In computing, BIOS (, ; Basic Input/Output System, also known as the System BIOS, ROM BIOS, BIOS ROM or PC BIOS) is firmware used to provide runtime services for operating systems and programs and to perform hardware initialization during the ...
and the
SH-2 CPU
with integrated decryption logic, with the per-game key stored in battery-backed
SRAM. Capcom chose the CD medium in order to keep down the price of the system. When the CP System III board is first powered on, the contents of the CD are loaded into a bank of
SIMM
A SIMM (single in-line memory module) is a type of memory module containing random-access memory used in computers from the early 1980s to the early 2000s. It differs from a dual in-line memory module (DIMM), the most predominant form of memory ...
s on the motherboard, where it is executed. The program code is then decrypted at run time via the security cartridge. The security cartridge is sensitive to any sort of tampering, which will result in the decryption key being erased and the cartridge being rendered useless. Games become unplayable when the battery inside the security cartridge dies. The lone exception is ''
Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact'', which uses a default set of decryption keys that are written to dead cartridges on boot,
[ making it the few, if not the only CPS-3 game prevalent after support was dropped, due to its immunity to cartridge suicide.
In June 2007, the encryption method was ]reverse-engineered
Reverse engineering (also known as backwards engineering or back engineering) is a process or method through which one attempts to understand through deductive reasoning how a previously made device, process, system, or piece of software accompli ...
by Andreas Naive, making emulation
Emulation may refer to:
*Emulation (computing), imitation of behavior of a computer or other electronic system with the help of another type of system
:*Video game console emulator, software which emulates video game consoles
*Gaussian process em ...
possible.[ Later developments led to eventual bypassing of the suicide and security routines of the games, and the development of a so-called "super cartridge" capable of running all CPS-3 games.
]
Specifications
* Main CPU
A central processing unit (CPU), also called a central processor, main processor or just processor, is the electronic circuitry that executes instructions comprising a computer program. The CPU performs basic arithmetic, logic, controlling, and ...
: Hitachi
() is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It is the parent company of the Hitachi Group (''Hitachi Gurūpu'') and had formed part of the Ni ...
HD6417099 ( SH-2) at 25 MHz
* Storage:
** SCSI
Small Computer System Interface (SCSI, ) is a set of standards for physically connecting and transferring data between computers and peripheral devices. The SCSI standards define commands, protocols, electrical, optical and logical interface ...
CD-ROM drive
A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains computer data storage, data. Computers can read—but not write or erase—CD-ROMs. Some CDs, called enhanced ...
** RAM
Ram, ram, or RAM may refer to:
Animals
* A male sheep
* Ram cichlid, a freshwater tropical fish
People
* Ram (given name)
* Ram (surname)
* Ram (director) (Ramsubramaniam), an Indian Tamil film director
* RAM (musician) (born 1974), Dutch
* Ra ...
(variable amount)
** Flash ROM
Flash memory is an electronic non-volatile computer memory storage medium that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. The two main types of flash memory, NOR flash and NAND flash, are named for the NOR and NAND logic gates. Both use ...
: 8 × 16 MB
* Sound chip: 16-channel 8-bit sample player, stereo
* Maximum color palette: 16 million shades['']Computer and Video Games
''Computer and Video Games'' (also known as ''CVG'', ''Computer & Video Games'', ''C&VG'', ''Computer + Video Games'', or ''C+VG'') was a UK-based video game magazine, published in its original form between 1981 and 2004. Its offshoot website ...
'', October 1996
page 10
* Maximum number of colors on screen: 32,768 (15-bit colour, 555 RGB)
** Palette size: 131,072 pens
** Colors per tile (backgrounds / sprites): 64 (6 bits per pixel) or 256 (8 bits per pixel), selectable
** Colors per tile (text overlay): 16 (4 bits per pixel)
* Maximum number of objects: 1024, with hardware scaling
* Scroll faces: 4 regular + 1 text overlay 'score screen' layer
* Scroll features: Horizontal & vertical scrolling, linescroll, linezoom
* Framebuffer zooming
* Color blending effects
* Hardware RLE decompression of 6 bpp and 8 bpp graphics through DMA
* Resolution, pixels: 384×224 (standard mode) / 496×224 (widescreen mode)
List of games
All six games are developed by Capcom and are all head-to-head fighting games in a list of games that appears to be as small as the CP System Dash
The is an arcade system board developed by Capcom that ran game software stored on removable daughterboards. More than two dozen arcade titles were released for CPS-1, before Capcom shifted game development over to its successor, the CP Syste ...
library.
See also
* CP System
The is an arcade system board developed by Capcom that ran game software stored on removable daughterboards. More than two dozen arcade titles were released for CPS-1, before Capcom shifted game development over to its successor, the CP System ...
* CP System II
The or CPS-2 is an arcade system board that Capcom first used in 1993 for ''Super Street Fighter II''. It was the successor to their previous CP System and Capcom Power System Changer arcade hardware and was succeeded by the CP System III hardw ...
References
External links
CPS-3 at System16: The Arcade Museum
CPS-3 memory, suicide and SCSI information
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cp System Iii
Capcom arcade system boards
SuperH architecture