CPS-III
Capcom System III is an arcade platform developed and used by Capcom. It consists of one board with flash-SIMMs and a CD-ROM drive, with the games using a special cartridge and a CD. It is a JAMMA system with a JAMMA+ harness and stereo RCA connectors for use with an external amplifier.
CPS-3 games come in a CD whose contents are slightly modified and copied to the flash-SIMMS placed on the board. The process of installing a game to the board takes between 25 and 30 minutes.
The cartridge is an essential part of the setup, since it contains a CPU and also the decryption keys for the game. It it usually setup with a black metal bar that keeps the cartridge in place.
Contents
SIMM requirements
There are three kinds of flash-SIMMS for CPS-3: 32MBit, 64MBit and 128MBit. The 32MBit one has two surface mount chips on it, the 64MBit one has 4 and the 128MBit one has 8. Sometime steh SIMMS have stickers with names such as PRG (64MBit), SND (32MBit) and CHR (128MBit).
Each game has different storage requirements, so a board suited for one game might need more memory to run other game. However if the board is set for the larger games, it will run without using the extra memory without problems.
The board has 7 slots and they are numbered as follows:
SIMM requirements taken from MAME CPS-3 driver:
| Game | Slot 1 | Slot 2 | Slot 3 | Slot 4 | Slot 5 | Slot 6 | Slot 7 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Warzard / Red Earth | 64MBit | 128MBit | 128MBit | 32MBit or 128MBit | |||
| Street Fighter III: New Generation | 64MBit | 128MBit | 128MBit | 32MBit or 128MBit | |||
| JoJo's Venture | 64MBit | 64MBit | 128MBit | 128MBit | 32MBit | ||
| JoJo's Bizarre Adventure | 64MBit | 64MBit | 128MBit | 128MBit | 128MBit | ||
| Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact Giant Attack | 64MBit | 64MBit | 128MBit | 128MBit | 128MBit | ||
| Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike Fight for the Future | 64MBit | 64MBit | 128MBit | 128MBit | 128MBit | 128MBit |
Suicide
The game specific cartridge has a CPU and the decryption keys held in SRAM. If the battery dies of the CPU detects tampering, the keys are erased. The tampering includes variations in voltage, static electricity, pulling the cart out while the game is running or even touching the bottom part of the board while turned on. There are even rumors that connecting the kick harness while running might cause this.
The battery can be changed to prevent it from committing suicide, and this should be done once every 5 years or whichever is the expected life of the battery used. Please check the external links page for information on how to change the battery.
Nothing can be done by the community regarding suicide cartridges. Capcom of Japan is rumored to still service them through local retailers, but this is unconfirmed.
Harness
The JAMMA+ harness found in CPS-3 is 32 pins in two rows. It is most commonly used as a Kick harness, extending the JAMMA 3 buttons per player to 6 buttons, and is used by all the games in this platform.
| Top row | Pin | Pin | Bottom row |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | ||
| 3 | 4 | ||
| 5 | 6 | ||
| 7 | 8 | ||
| Player 2 Button 6 | 9 | 10 | |
| 11 | 12 | ||
| 13 | 14 | ||
| Player 1 Button 6 | 15 | 16 | |
| Player 1 Button 5 | 17 | 18 | |
| Player 1 Button 4 | 19 | 20 | |
| Player 2 Button 4 | 21 | 22 | |
| Player 2 Button 5 | 23 | 24 | |
| 25 | 26 | ||
| 27 | 28 | ||
| Volume Up | 29 | 30 | Volume Down |
| Volume Ground | 31 | 32 | |
| Kick Ground 2 | 33 | 34 | Kick Ground 1 |
The volume up and down buttons in the harness have the same effect as the ones in the board.
The harness is compatible with the Sega Naomi I/O board by Capcom and CPS-2 games.
XRGB-2 Specific settings
As usual with arcade boards, you'll need to set the frontal switch to PCB or adjust the potentiometers if available in the SuperGUN.
Signal is slightly to the left, can be fixed by changing H_POS. However there is no cropping present with the default value.
XRGB-3 Specific settings
As usual with arcade boards, you'll need to adjust the 220 ohm setting or use the potentiometers if available in the SuperGUN.
CPS-3 also presents distortion on the top 24 lines. To attenuate this set AFC to manual and AFC level to 3, it only reduces the problem in B1 and eliminates it in B0. A reboot of the XRGB-3 might be needed after setting AFC level.
| AFC at default 2 | AFC manual and level at 3 |
Widescreen mode
Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact has a Widescreen mode (first option on the game settings menu). It works on a 16:9 arcade monitor or with the XRGB-2 and XRGB-3 units. When using these, you only need to set your display to 16:9 if supported over VGA or DVI.
Noise in stereo out
Sometimes a hum is present when using the RCA stereo out, in case of a SuperGUN a ground loop isolator solves the problem. When using a QSound amplifier, a 18v transformer is needed since Capcom cabinets fed them with only 12volts.
Tested games
Since the platform had just very minor revisions and almost all existing games have been tested, it can be safely assumed that they are valid across all boards.
- Red Earth
- Street Fighter III: New Generation
- Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact
- Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike
- Jojo's Venture
External Links
CPS Shock Battery replacement tutorial
