CPSIII: Unterschied zwischen den Versionen

I dont think much people will read the preface so I make myself short. Why I wrote this FAQ? Because I think there was a high demand for it. Same questions all day, some unanswered due to the fact that there is so little information about CAPCOM´s CP System III (CPS3). Having a central ressource to collect questions and hopefully answer them will lead to a ressource without redundancy and mis-information. The CPS3 is an interesting system although it has VERY few games on it, nearly all of them ported to the Dreamcast. The only one not ported is a game called Red Earth / Warzard. I hope this FAQ will bring some light into the dark CPS3 background and hopefully will answer your questions. Maybe you join the CPS3´s hall of g33ks.

A: Yes, that is possible. You have to make sure you got enough flash Chips with enough capacity installed, though. So better buy a board with more flash chips (3rd Strike) than one with less (Warzard/Red Earth). Additionally there are flash chips with different sizes. Please take a look at the memory chart submitted by MKL.

A: Additional place for a battery (1/2AA). I am not sure whether there are boards that use them. Maybe it is for high scores. For instance, 3rd Strike has no battery installed there. Note: This is NOT the suicide-battery! Please read further in case you want to know what a suicide battery is.

A: There is no chance of bringing it back to life without help of CAPCOM. It has to be sent back. But only an arcade operator can do that and only in the country the game was made for. So you need to find yourself a friendly arcade operator. The picture below shows the picture you receive in case the cart is dead.

Monitor view of dead CPS3

A: Yes you can. On most CPS-3 it is a Panasonic 6x CD-Rom unit, model number CR-504. But another one makes no difference. Just buy a standard SCSI CD-Rom drive unit and set jumpers on the back properly. . Note: If you have to mount the game vertically be sure to to get a CD-Rom with clips to lock the CD inside the tray. Newer units dont have this feature.

A: There are game boards that do not have a CD-Rom included in the package. The data for the game is stored on the board itself. Not all games have No-CD versions. One game that has is SFIII: 3rd Strike. It is better to have a CD version because No-CD versions are more rare to find if something is broken and if a flash chip fails, you can replace it easily and re-initialize the game.

A: TBA

A: TBA

A: A full jap/euro/us CPS3 kit should include the following things:

      

Minimum requirements for CPS3

A: It initializes itself. The data from the CD will be copied into the flash chips on the board. Some say this process must not be interrupted else the board dies. The author thinks that is not true (although never tested) because such things will happen and it would be a hassle for CAPCOM itself.

A: It will decrypt the data needed to boot and then load the game from the flash roms. Decryption data is stored inside the security cart.

A: There are special tools called ?TODO?. But it is possible to use a small pliers and get the screws out using the edges of the pliers. ?PICTURE?.

A: This is quite easy to tell. If it IS dead, you will get a scrambled screen on bootup. It looks like a switched on TV without antenna with the picture being still. Well, of course there could be another reason but it is quite unlikely. If it shows a black screen with CD-Rom running check whether the security cart has good contact with the motherboard. Cleaning with electronical cleaner may help too.

A: No, there is not (09.01.2004).

A: Please take a look at the link section below. There you will find suppliers of game boards. Be sure to allways ask for insurance for defective boards (yes, boards can die during shipping!) and if information can provided, for the running time of the board. When you receive your board, be sure to swap the battery or let someone else do it for you. This is the only way to be sure it wont die soon.

A: Due to the fact that a CPS3 board delivers standard JAMMA through its JAMMA edge (unlike the NeoGeo MVS for instance) it can be directly hooked up to a cab or a supergun. For six button support you have to wire up the kick harness You wont need any additional things like an audio amplifier (as needed for the NAOMI) as long as you  use only mono sound. For stereo, an amplifier is needed such as CAPCOMs Q-Sound system.

A: Please look under the Manuals & Art section on the main page.

A: This is by far the most asked question out there. Good news: First of all it is possible. Bad news: Unlike changing batteries of CPS2 boards it requires more skill to change a battery of a CPS3 board. And you want to do it with a second person to help you, because desoldering the old one alone is a pain in the ass (for myself I would never do it alone). And that isn´t all. There are two versions of boards out there, an early version and newer one. Please take a look at the hardware section to find out about the different versions. An extremely good guide to desolder the batteries can be found here.

A: -

A: NO, IT IS NOT! You have to take care, yes, but you also have to do that with your other PCBs. The only fragile part is the security cart (which is only because sensitive data is stored on it). The CPS3 is like a PC motherboard. Take it this way if you want. These arent too fragile also.