CPS II board

aha2940 · Oct 11, 2014

Hi

I have a man who is selling a CPS 2 board, top half color is gray, bottom half is black, the game is Street Fighter Alpha Zero 2. I saw the thing, it looks just like the ones on the Internet, but I don't know what should I look on it to know if it's original? Are these boards known to have any problems? it seems to have a jamma connector, but from what I've read I will need also a kick harness, right? will any standard JAMMA supergun + harness work?

Thanks!!

Kid Panda · Oct 11, 2014

Grey boards are known to have cuts made for some reason.

aha2940 · Oct 11, 2014

Kid Panda said:
Grey boards are known to have cuts made for some reason.

Thanks for the Info, KP. What kind of cuts? like the game being shorter, or something? or some things being left out, like the voices in the korean MVS games?

Thanks!!

ebinsugewa · Oct 12, 2014

aha2940 said:
but I don't know what should I look on it to know if it's original? Are these boards known to have any problems? it seems to have a jamma connector, but from what I've read I will need also a kick harness, right? will any standard JAMMA supergun + harness work?

Depending on how much you care, this game may have had the encryption/battery removed. For some people that's not 'original,' but you can't tell the difference from gameplay. If it hasn't had the battery removed, a known problem is that it will die and render the game unplayable, in addition to potentially corroding traces on the PCB. The board is JAMMA, and yes, you'll need a CPS2 kick harness. Depending on what you mean by supergun, it may or may not be easy. Some superguns will have an adapter to allow the use of various kick harness, others are more trouble.

aha2940 · Oct 12, 2014

ebinsugewa said:
Depending on how much you care, this game may have had the encryption/battery removed. For some people that's not 'original,' but you can't tell the difference from gameplay. If it hasn't had the battery removed, a known problem is that it will die and render the game unplayable, in addition to potentially corroding traces on the PCB. The board is JAMMA, and yes, you'll need a CPS2 kick harness. Depending on what you mean by supergun, it may or may not be easy. Some superguns will have an adapter to allow the use of various kick harness, others are more trouble.

Thanks for your help, ebinsugewa. I do not think the battery has been removed on this thing, it belongs to a guy who was arcade owner and is selling that stuff. I bought some Neo carts from him and some still had the virgin crack on the screws. The guy is not the kind of person to mod these things IMHO. What I mean by supergun is that I am currently gathering the parts to build one, so I can design it the way I want to. I would use it mostly for CPS1/2 games and an MV1C Neo board.

Thanks!!

ebinsugewa · Oct 12, 2014

You should consider something like a DB9 port for the kick harnesses, CPS1 and CPS2 will require different ones.

ReplicaX · Oct 13, 2014

ebinsugewa said:
You should consider something like a DB9 port for the kick harnesses, CPS1 and CPS2 will require different ones.

Or use a CPS2 harness and buy a CPS2 to CPS1 Kick Harness Adapter from JNX.

joele · Oct 31, 2014

Sorry why are grey boards any more likely to have been phoenixed (suicide battery removed)?

Grey just means Asian region, different regions had different colours, base section and top section have to match region, unless it has the phoenix bios installed..

All regions top board have suicide batteries that need to be replaced every 3-5 years or they will die.. Some people change the bios and reflash the game chips to avoid this, but that adds the risk they 'could' have swapped a cheap game for an expensive one, but less hassle than changing batteries. You can also just replace the battery every 3 or so years and be safe, it in't hard to change really, plenty of help online explaining what to do.. If you do miss it and it dies you can send it off and get it phoenix'ed but as has been said it may reduce the value.

aha2940 · Oct 31, 2014

joele said:
Sorry why are grey boards any more likely to have been phoenixed (suicide battery removed)?

Grey just means Asian region, different regions had different colours, base section and top section have to match region, unless it has the phoenix bios installed..

All regions top board have suicide batteries that need to be replaced every 3-5 years or they will die.. Some people change the bios and reflash the game chips to avoid this, but that adds the risk they 'could' have swapped a cheap game for an expensive one, but less hassle than changing batteries. You can also just replace the battery every 3 or so years and be safe, it in't hard to change really, plenty of help online explaining what to do.. If you do miss it and it dies you can send it off and get it phoenix'ed but as has been said it may reduce the value.

Hi

You are right, the color does not make any difference in the probability of the board being phoenixed. I think ebinsugewa was only pointing out the fact that many of these CPS II boards have been phoenixed (no matter the color) and that I should be aware of that in case it mattered to me, that's all.

Regards.

alec · Oct 31, 2014

People Phoenix grey Street Fighter boards to bring back the missing sound samples. There might be a few samples missing from the Dark Stalker games, I'm not sure. X-Men and shooters should have the sounds all there. SFA2 is most certainly not a conversion, so I'd say go for it and Happy Custom Comboing!

mikejmoffitt · Oct 31, 2014

alec said:
People Phoenix grey Street Fighter boards to bring back the missing sound samples. There might be a few samples missing from the Dark Stalker games, I'm not sure. X-Men and shooters should have the sounds all there. SFA2 is most certainly not a conversion, so I'd say go for it and Happy Custom Comboing!

To clarify, a lot of Japanese games get a general "Asia" release mostly for China and Korea. Often a lot of vocal Japanese samples get cut out of the game, replaced with nothing or grunts. On some CPS3 games (like Second Impact) it's an option that has the sounds cut by default but can be re-enabled. For a lot of CPS2 and KF games, the calls to play the sounds are just nop'd out (see the KoF '98 Korean Version on YouTube for what it sounds like).

alec · Oct 31, 2014

The voices on an Asian 2i can be turned back on? That's awesome, I remember that not being possible on 3rd Strike.

ebinsugewa · Nov 1, 2014

Is there anything missing from the grey ST? A friend of mine has one and I never noticed anything was amiss.

Scott · Nov 3, 2014

Yeah I doubt its a boot - Progear and Anniversary are the ones you have to look out for since they are so rare. I doubt anyone would bother booting an Alpha 2. If you don't wanna open it up, you can check the label on the board. If its nice and glossy, and has clean rounded edges, its probably original. I've never seen a boot that didn't have a crappy looking, roughly cut label.

Liquid Snake · Nov 27, 2014

When do you know it's time to change battery?
Do you change it as soon as you bought the board or wait until showing blue screen?

kahel · Nov 27, 2014

If you wait for the solid color screen it going to be too late . The encryption keys will be lost and you will need to phoenix it . If you don't know when the battery was last changed then you need to change it to make sure it doesn't die , those battery don't loose voltage until death so you cannot measure it . Best thing is to change the battery and put a sticker inside the case with the date of the last battery change . Then you change it each 5 years to be sure.

Liquid Snake · Nov 27, 2014

Thanks!!!!!

ebinsugewa · Nov 27, 2014

Liquid Snake said:
When do you know it's time to change battery?
Do you change it as soon as you bought the board or wait until showing blue screen?

To be safe a lot of people change them as soon as they get them. Just make a note to yourself or put a sticker on the shell with the last time you replaced it. I recently opened up an Alpha 1 with the factory battery still ticking, they last a pretty long time.

CPS II board

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