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[Kazza]

I think that everyone can probably guess what number 1 is. Unsurprisingly given the era, shoot'em ups and side scrolling beat'em ups dominate this list (it wouldn't be until the CPS2 that Capcom really went all in with one on one fighters)

Capcom showed a great level of consistency in the quality of their arcade games during this time. Even the worst of these are just mediocre rather than outright bad, and some of the top rated ones were truly groundbreaking. For me personally, Ghouls and Ghosts, Strider and Final Fight have the most nostalgic value, as those are the ones around in my arcade (plus they all got excellent home ports to Sega systems). I was a little too young to be able to compete with the bigger boys when SFII was released, although it was a constant fixture anywhere that had arcade machines. I never saw Saturday Night Slam Masters back then, but it looks like a really fun wrestling game. I also never knew the excellent UN Squadron got a sequel.

A CPS1 collection with all 32 games would be a day one purchase from me. Come on Capcom!

Regarding the specs of the board, am I correct in thinking that the Mega CD was equally powerful (except for the colours)? I never knew it before today, but the CPS1 also uses a Motorola 68000 CPU, and it's set at a similar speed to the Mega CD one. Given the similarity of the hardware, and that Sega had already got an excellent port of one CPS1 game up and running (Final Fight), it's a shame that the system didn't see any more conversions.

Spoiler: CPS1 and MegaCD specs

Technical specifications (CPS1)

• CPU:
  • Primary: Motorola 68000 @ 10 MHz (some later boards 12 MHz)
  • Secondary: Zilog Z80 @ 3.579 MHz
• Sound chips:
  • Yamaha YM2151 @ 3.579 MHz
  • Oki OKI6295 @ 1 MHz (7.576 kHz samples)
• Display
  • Resolution: Raster, 384x224 @ 59.6294 Hz
  • Color depth: 16-bit (12-bit RGB with 4-bit brightness value)
  • Colors available: 65,536[1]
  • Onscreen colors: 4096[1] (192 global palettes with 16 colors each)
• Sprites:
  • Simultaneously displayable: 256 (per scanlines)
  • Sizes: 16x16, max. 16 colors (15 unique + 1 transparent)
  • Vertical and horizontal flipping capability
• Tiles: Sizes 8x8, 16x16, 32x32 with 16 colors (15 unique + 1 transparent)
• Tile maps: 3 maps, 512x512, 1024x1024, 2048x2048 pixel
• 68K RAM: 64 KB WORK RAM + 192 KB VRAM (Shadow)
• PPU: 192 KB VRAM + 16 KB CACHE RAM
• Z80 RAM: 2 KB WORK RAM

Sega Mega CD/Sega CD Technical Specifications

• Processor: Motorola 68000 running at 12.5 MHz
• CPU: 16-bit CPU (syncs with Genesis 68000 CPU)
• Audio: Stock Genesis audio (16-bit, 8-channel PCM with 8x over-sampling at 32 KHz)
• Enhanced PCM and DAC capabilities
• Graphics: Sega custom ASIC graphics processor (scaling, rotation, zoom, etc.)
• Colour Palettes: 128 colour palette using HAM (Hold And Modify) techniques and 256 colour palette for FMV sequences (CinePak and TruVideo)
• RAM: 768K RAM on-board (added to stock Genesis memory, doubles system memory) and 128K RAM dedicated to CD-ROM, 64K backup RAM
• ROM: 128K
• Connection: Custom sidecar connector (plugs into side of Genesis console)
• CD-ROM drive: ISO-9660 Mode 1 compliant 1X CD-ROM drive (150 Kbytes/sec data transfer rate)
• Media: 500 MB max capacity utilizing standard CD-ROM discs
• CD-ROM compatible with High Sierra, Red Book (CDDA), and CD+G formats

 

[cireza]

I think that everyone can probably guess what number 1 is. Unsurprisingly given the era, shoot'em ups and side scrolling beat'em ups dominate this list (it wouldn't be until the CPS2 that Capcom really went all in with one on one fighters)

Capcom showed a great level of consistency in the quality of their arcade games during this time. Even the worst of these are just mediocre rather than outright bad, and some of the top rated ones were truly groundbreaking. For me personally, Ghouls and Ghosts, Strider and Final Fight have the most nostalgic value, as those are the ones around in my arcade (plus they all got excellent home ports to Sega systems). I was a little too young to be able to compete with the bigger boys when SFII was released, although it was a constant fixture anywhere that had arcade machines. I never saw Saturday Night Slam Masters back then, but it looks like a really fun wrestling game. I also never knew the excellent UN Squadron got a sequel.

A CPS1 collection with all 32 games would be a day one purchase from me. Come on Capcom!

Regarding the specs of the board, am I correct in thinking that the Mega CD was equally powerful (except for the colours)? I never knew it before today, but the CPS1 also uses a Motorola 68000 CPU, and it's set at a similar speed to the Mega CD one. Given the similarity of the hardware, and that Sega had already got an excellent port of one CPS1 game up and running (Final Fight), it's a shame that the system didn't see any more conversions.

Spoiler: CPS1 and MegaCD specs

Technical specifications (CPS1)

• CPU:
  • Primary: Motorola 68000 @ 10 MHz (some later boards 12 MHz)
  • Secondary: Zilog Z80 @ 3.579 MHz
• Sound chips:
  • Yamaha YM2151 @ 3.579 MHz
  • Oki OKI6295 @ 1 MHz (7.576 kHz samples)
• Display
  • Resolution: Raster, 384x224 @ 59.6294 Hz
  • Color depth: 16-bit (12-bit RGB with 4-bit brightness value)
  • Colors available: 65,536[1]
  • Onscreen colors: 4096[1] (192 global palettes with 16 colors each)
• Sprites:
  • Simultaneously displayable: 256 (per scanlines)
  • Sizes: 16x16, max. 16 colors (15 unique + 1 transparent)
  • Vertical and horizontal flipping capability
• Tiles: Sizes 8x8, 16x16, 32x32 with 16 colors (15 unique + 1 transparent)
• Tile maps: 3 maps, 512x512, 1024x1024, 2048x2048 pixel
• 68K RAM: 64 KB WORK RAM + 192 KB VRAM (Shadow)
• PPU: 192 KB VRAM + 16 KB CACHE RAM
• Z80 RAM: 2 KB WORK RAM

Technical Information (Mega CD)
CPU
Motorola 68000 @ 12.5 MHz
Sound
Ricoh RF5C164
Memory
64 kbit internal RAM
Media
CD-ROM, CD+G

Actually the MegaDrive has a 68000 CPU already. The Mega-CD adds another one, which is mainly used to read and prepare the data to be loaded in the MegaDrive RAM for the game to run.

So the MegaDrive was already a good contender for ports.

 

[Kazza]

Actually the MegaDrive has a 68000 CPU already. The Mega-CD adds another one, which is mainly used to read and prepare the data to be loaded in the MegaDrive RAM for the game to run.

So the MegaDrive was already a good contender for ports.

It was (as shown by the good ports it got of Strider etc), but the MD's 68000 is much slower than both the Mega CD's and CPS1's 68000 (7.6MHz, 12.5MHz, and 10/12MHz respectively). I just noticed that the MegaDrive and CPS1 also both have a Zilog Z80 secondary CPU , as well as different versions of the Yahama sound chip. Very similar hardware.

 

[cireza]

It was (as shown by the good ports it got of Strider etc), but the MD's 68000 is much slower than both the Mega CD's and CPS1's 68000 (7.6MHz, 12.5MHz, and 10/12MHz respectively). I just noticed that the MegaDrive and CPS1 also both have a Zilog Z80 secondary CPU , as well as different versions of the Yahama sound chip. Very similar hardware.

Indeed. Capcom also created the CPS-3 hardware with the Saturn processor in mind, to simply porting games to the Saturn. Sadly, we never got CPS-3 games on Saturn.

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

This guy’s accent is awesome, LOL.

I’m very unfamiliar with the arcade scene, so I like these videos a lot.

 

[Kazza]

Indeed. Capcom also created the CPS-3 hardware with the Saturn processor in mind, to simply porting games to the Saturn. Sadly, we never got CPS-3 games on Saturn.

Thanks for the info, I had no idea. It appears that Capcom only produced 6 games for the board before quickly moving on to Sega's Naomi board. I'm guessing that Naomi was both cheaper and more powerful.

 

[Trimesh]

Thanks for the info, I had no idea. It appears that Capcom only produced 6 games for the board before quickly moving on to Sega's Naomi board. I'm guessing that Naomi was both cheaper and more powerful.

Operators hated the CPS-3 - largely because it went so overboard with security. There was a little security module that plugged into the main board - but it would erase itself with minimum provocation and brick the machine to the point where it just displayed randomly colored crap. To recover it, you had to send the board back to Capcom.

 

[Kazza]

Now for the 38 CPS2 games: