Looking for insight on CPS-2 gray boards

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Looking for insight on CPS-2 gray boards

Post by NoAffinity »

I'm helping a fellow local collector, and de-suicided his X-men vs. SF board. It is a gray B board, but apparently a Japanese A board - it says Japan on the sticker on the connector side of the case and the volume/test "buttons" are green.

I was under the impression that gray B boards required an "Asia" A board, and hoping to clear up my understanding. It is also my understanding that the only difference in the A boards is the connectors are physically different, but electronically there are no differences. In this case, the connectors match up, so if the aforementioned is true, then has this Japan A board been modified to work with an Asian gray board?

Please point out any mistakes in my understanding, or help correct any of the mentioned points. :shifty:
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Re: Looking for insight on CPS-2 gray boards

Post by leonardoliveira »

Looks like the casing you have is not the original/correct one for your board...

A ASIA B board certainly won't fit on a JAPAN A board but any board will fit inside of any casing.
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Re: Looking for insight on CPS-2 gray boards

Post by idc »

Look at the bottom of the B-board. Are all of the connectors the same type, or are they a mixture of male and female? Does one connector protrude further?

If they're all of the same type and protrusion, you have a Japanese B-board in a grey Asian case, and a regular Japanese A-board.

If they differ, you have a regular grey Asian B-board, and an Asian A-board in a Japanese case.

What's printed on the EPROM labels for sockets 3 to 10? Do any say XVSA or XVSJ?
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Re: Looking for insight on CPS-2 gray boards

Post by NoAffinity »

Good call. I didn't consider it could be an Asian A board in a Japan case. One connector is longer on the B board, like a doubled-stacked connector for lack of a better description. It fits perfectly on the A board which has the compatible connector recessed into the case (sitting lower than the surface of the case).

I will check the roms, but I desuicided it with the xvsfa decryption key, and I don't remember what the region read on the splash screen but I do remember the text was yellow.

Those few minor details aside, I think you've cracked the case (no pun intended), and it's an Asian A board in a Japan A board case. :problem: :D :thumbup:
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Re: Looking for insight on CPS-2 gray boards

Post by idc »

NoAffinity wrote:Good call. I didn't consider it could be an Asian A board in a Japan case. One connector is longer on the B board, like a doubled-stacked connector for lack of a better description. It fits perfectly on the A board which has the compatible connector recessed into the case (sitting lower than the surface of the case).

I will check the roms, but I desuicided it with the xvsfa decryption key, and I don't remember what the region read on the splash screen but I do remember the text was yellow.

Those few minor details aside, I think you've cracked the case (no pun intended), and it's an Asian A board in a Japan A board case. :problem: :D :thumbup:
Recessed connector on the A-board in this case means it's Asian.
Working with xvsfa keys means the B-board has Asian ROMs.
Yellow version/copyright screens also indicates Asian ROMs.

100% confirmed that the A-board is an Asia region board in a Japan region case. Either a previous owner re-cased it for some reason, or it's one of Capcom Mexico's specials. :)
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Re: Looking for insight on CPS-2 gray boards

Post by NoAffinity »

idc wrote: 100% confirmed that the A-board is an Asia region board in a Japan region case. Either a previous owner re-cased it for some reason, or it's one of Capcom Mexico's specials. :)
Now I'm intrigued and you have my attention. I didn't know there could be a second option. What is this about Capcom Mexico specials?
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Re: Looking for insight on CPS-2 gray boards

Post by leonardoliveira »

Capcom Mexico did not care about protocols, they would put game on any kind of board they could put their paws in. Pretty much like their Brazilian counterpart.

Brazil Capcom would mark the casing of the boards with a hot stamp (similar to cattle branding iron) which says "Certificado Qualidade CAPCOM" (Portuguese for "Quality assurance CAPCOM") but they would do it to any board regardless it be green, blue, orange, gray or yellow.

Basically, anything that is from Mexico or Brazil are made with leftovers and may be odd/spunky/weird.

However, Capcom Brazil only had keys for Brazil games. Capcom Mexico only had keys for Hispanic games.
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Re: Looking for insight on CPS-2 gray boards

Post by NoAffinity »

Interesting. Thanks for sharing the history.

I got a picture of the roms, but I'm feeling lazy, and hope a description suffices. :shifty: I think we've already got enough data points and have conclusively confirmed the set is Asian, but I thought I would share the observation anyway. There is no lettering on the roms, just the numbers "03", "04", etc.
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Re: Looking for insight on CPS-2 gray boards

Post by idc »

leonardoliveira wrote: Capcom Mexico only had keys for Hispanic games.
More or less. Capcom Mexico did also have keys for some games in other regions.

I've personally seen key cards for at least the following:

HSF2 USA. Curiously this version was only released in South America, not North America. Likely that there was no Hispanic key card and ROM set, so they used this instead.

Mars Matrix USA. There are only USA and Japan ROM sets in MAME, so again this might simply be a case of Capcom Mexico using this since there is no Hispanic one.

Battle Circuit USA. Only Euro, Asia and Japan in MAME, does a USA release exist? Not sure if there is an Hispanic version of this either.

Capcom Sports Club USA. There is no known dump of this, it's not in MAME, so I'm unsure if the USA version was actually released. Oddly, there is an Hispanic ROM set in MAME, so that does exist. I've no idea why Capcom Mexico retained the USA key card.

To summarise, Capcom Brazil did whatever the hell they wanted to, with Hispanic region ROMs. Capcom Mexico even more so, apparently with any region. :awe:

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Re: Looking for insight on CPS-2 gray boards

Post by WilalvesBR »

leonardoliveira wrote: Basically, anything that is from Mexico or Brazil are made with leftovers and may be odd/spunky/weird.
Not 100% true. They had their own region "keyed" boards (Orange South America) manufactured in Japan since the very beginning of CPS2 and no other places shared that region design in order to have leftovers to be sent.
leonardoliveira wrote: However, Capcom Brazil only had keys for Brazil games.
They also had keys for some Hispanic games, Alien vs Predator retail or rental purchased from them came with Hispanic region code (Brazil region of that game doesn't seems to exist).

idc wrote: More or less. Capcom Mexico did also have keys for some games in other regions.

I've personally seen key cards for at least the following:

HSF2 USA. Curiously this version was only released in South America, not North America. Likely that there was no Hispanic key card and ROM set, so they used this instead.

Mars Matrix USA. There are only USA and Japan ROM sets in MAME, so again this might simply be a case of Capcom Mexico using this since there is no Hispanic one.

Battle Circuit USA. Only Euro, Asia and Japan in MAME, does a USA release exist? Not sure if there is an Hispanic version of this either.

Capcom Sports Club USA. There is no known dump of this, it's not in MAME, so I'm unsure if the USA version was actually released. Oddly, there is an Hispanic ROM set in MAME, so that does exist. I've no idea why Capcom Mexico retained the USA key card.
At some point USA boards got Mexico included in it's copyright abrang area.

Mexico was previously in it's own copyright area (Hispanic) within orange South America boards which didn't make sense since it's located in North America.

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Capcom Japan specials :lol:

Jyangokushi: Haoh no Saihai in blue US/Euro case.
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Puzz Loop 2 in blue US/Euro case.
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Capcom USA specials :lolno:

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Re: Looking for insight on CPS-2 gray boards

Post by idc »

Some good observations there, WilalvesBR. I'd forgotten about the inclusion of Mexico within the USA region on some (later?) games.

I think that something similar can be said for Australia and the surrounding areas. There is an Oceania region, for which I've only ever seen one game dumped (Street Fighter Zero 2). In general, those countries actually got a mixture of Euro/Etc and Asia region games, rather than Oceania region.

I do myself have Japan region games in blue cases. I have to say though, that I've never seen any USA region games in the wrong colour cases, so those images are a sight to behold! :lol:
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Re: Looking for insight on CPS-2 gray boards

Post by leonardoliveira »

Thanks WilalvesBR, that post was very educative. :awe:

Always fun see that the rule wasn't enforced strictly even on USA/EU/JP.
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Re: Looking for insight on CPS-2 gray boards

Post by Hokuto »

Mexico started to get included with the USA region after Capcom de Mexico went kaput (around '99-00). And yes, they did whatever the hell they wanted with any region keys.
The weirdest I've seen was an XVSF Asia region (even worse, the later version with fixed infinites), on a green SSF2X case, as well as the JP/US connectors. They basically reworked the poor selling SSF2X into the hot thing that was XVSF at the time, with the first keys they found laying around :lol:

Btw, I have this theory that maybe can shed some insight on "lost" or undumped revisions. Fire up the Phoenix rom for any game, and switch the region to Hispanic or other undumped region; if the text or copyright screens are according to whatever you switched, then maybe there is one board out there, dead or alive.
E.g: I switched Cyberbots to Hispanic, and got "Capcom de Mexico SA de CV" on the title screen, as well as fully translated text in Spanish. Same deal with Slammasters II (though that one has been found and dumped since).
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Re: Looking for insight on CPS-2 gray boards

Post by zumbito »

What are those keycards? Never seen them before. Are they to reprogram CPS2 games?
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Re: Looking for insight on CPS-2 gray boards

Post by leonardoliveira »

zumbito wrote:What are those keycards? Never seen them before. Are they to reprogram CPS2 games?
Capcom security writer box had an infrared serial input port which was meant to connect with a Sharp PA-XX series PDA computer running a small BASIC program (contained on those PA-9C96 cards) which would upload the cryptographic key to the writer which in turn would upload to the board, making the encrypted ROM work.
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Re: Looking for insight on CPS-2 gray boards

Post by zumbito »

Wow that sounds cool. Does anybody have that hardware?
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Re: Looking for insight on CPS-2 gray boards

Post by idc »

zumbito wrote:Wow that sounds cool. Does anybody have that hardware?
Yes. :shifty:
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Re: Looking for insight on CPS-2 gray boards

Post by Mrhide »

idc wrote:Yes. :shifty:
:lol:
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Re: Looking for insight on CPS-2 gray boards

Post by leonardoliveira »

bitmap logo taken from the said basic program.

Very nice logo. :D
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Re: Looking for insight on CPS-2 gray boards

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