Capcom CPS Changer

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The Capcom CPS Changer was released in 1994 and was perhaps inspired by SNK's Neo-Geo. Capcom released the Capcom Power System Changer (not to be confused with the arcade CPS, Capcom Play System) in 1994, as an attempt to sell their arcade games in a home-friendly format. The CPS Changer adaptor was basically an encased SuperGun (Television JAMMA adapter), and was compatible with most JAMMA standard PCBs. Capcom's 'protection' against people using the CPS Changer on other arcade boards was the physical shape of the device. On a normal JAMMA PCB it would not attach firmly and tended to lean at odd angles, but it would work. The CPS Changer had outputs for composite video, s-video and line-level mono audio.

The CPS Changer was released alongside a joystick called the "CPS Fighter", which had the same connection as the Super Famicom/Super Nintendo, and it was later released in North America for that system. It was the first serious home joystick using arcade parts from a major manufacturer, and proved quite popular. It was later released for Sega's Megadrive and Genesis.

All of the CPS Changer games were based on Capcom's CPS-1 arcade hardware. The CPS Changer games were simply arcade PCBs in a special plastic shell suitable for home use. This concept was later re-used in Capcom's arcade-only CPS-2 hardware. Some CPS-1 games were changed slightly for home release, sometimes including debugging features or other easter eggs (source?).

The CPS Changer was sold as a package deal of the console itself, one CPS Fighter controller, and the Street Fighter II Turbo game for 39,800 yen. Additional games were sold for about 20,000 yen.

The CPS Changer sold poorly, and support was dropped in March 1996 after releasing the platform's last hurrah, a back-ported version of Street Fighter Zero. Originally released on the superior CPS-2 hardware, this special CPS-1 version, released at a premium at 35,000 yen, was degraded slightly for the older hardware. It had fewer frames of animation for the game characters, fewer onscreen colours, and sound effects sampled at a lower rate.

It is interesting to note that this last release, Street Fighter Zero, was used to break the encryption on Capcom's nigh impervious CPS-2 hardware. By analyzing the older, simpler CPS-1 game and comparing the code against the similar CPS-2 hardware it finally became possible to back up, emulate and preserve CPS-2 games.

Eleven total games were released for the CPS Changer:

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