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CP System

Arcade System published 36 years ago by Capcom Co., Ltd.

Not listed in MAME yet

CP System © 1988 Capcom Company, Limited.

The CP System (CP-S for short) was an arcade system board that ran game software stored on removable ROM cartridges. More than two dozen arcade titles were released for CP-S, before Capcom shifted game development over to its successor, the "CP System II".

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TECHNICAL

The CPS1 system is made of 3 boards: A, B and C. The first two games released on this system also exist as a 2-board setups, where the C-board is integrated into the B-board.

CPU:
Primary: Motorola 68000 (@ 10 MHz)
Secondary: Zilog Z-80 (@ 3.579 MHz)

SOUND CHIPS:
Yamaha YM2151 (@ 3.579 MHz)
OKI 6295 (@ 7.576 MHz), Stereo

DISPLAY:
Resolution: Raster, 384x224 (@ 59.60 Hz)
Color Depth: 16 bit
Colors available: 65,536
Onscreen colors: 4096

SPRITES:
Simultaneously displayable: 256
Sizes: 16x16, 16 colors (15 unique + 1 transparent)
Vertical and Horizontal Flipping capability

Tiles: Sizes 8x8, 16x16, 32x32 with 16 colors (15 unique + 1 transparent)
Tile Maps: 3 Maps, 512x512, 1024x1024, 2048x2048 pixel
68K RAM: 64 KB WORK RAM + 192 KB VRAM(Shadow)
PPU: 192 KB VRAM + 16 KB CACHE RAM
Z80 RAM: 2 KB WORK RAM

TRIVIA

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, the CP System, in order to reduce hardware costs and make the system more appealing to arcade operators.

The system was plagued by many bootleg/hack versions of its games. In particular, there were so many hacks 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.

A year before releasing the CP System II, Capcom released an enhanced version of the 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.

Also, a home version of the CP System, the "CP System Changer" was released in 1994. Capcom released the CPS Changer as an attempt to sell their arcade games in a home-friendly format.

UPDATES

There are several revisions of the A-board, but they are functionally equivalent
and interchangeable except for 89626A-4 DASH used by SF2CE which has a 12MHz xtal
replacing the 10MHz one. Note that it's likely that from one point onwards Capcom
simply switched to make only 89626A-4 DASH board, that is all games after a
certain point should use the 12MHz xtal not just sf2ce.

Known A-board revisions:
88617A-4
88617A-5
88617A-7
88617A-7b
89626A-4
89626A-4 DASH

SERIES

1. CP System (1988)
2. CP System II (1993)
3. CP System III (1996)