CPS-2 A and B board info

Steve X2

I'm looking at getting a few CPS-2 games and just want to get a few things clear in my mind.
Maybe some of you who have these games and system boards can correct me or add any information you have that I might need.


So, am in right in saying that the blue game boards (B boards) are only compatible with blue European, American and Canadian motherboards (A boards)?
Green game boards are from Japan and will not work in Euro motherboards?


I've done a little research on these "Suicide batteries" and it seems I am better off getting the games that have been "Phoenixed".
From what I can tell these "Phoenixed" game boards have had the main game roms unencrypted so even if the battery dies they are still playable.
Is this correct?

Is it not true that you in fact dont even need a battery if the game board is "Phoenixed" as all the battery does is help hold the encryption keys in volatile memory?

I also understand that I need to watch out for bootlegs if I am in fact buying a "Phoenixed" game board.


Maybe someone can shed some light on the kick harness required for CPS-2 games.
I assume I just need the one kick harness set up per motherboard and not per game?


Anyway, hopefully I'm not talking a load of rubbish but if I've made some mistakes or am missing some vital info please let me know.

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Pyongyang

This might come in useful for you. Not only a good video but all the videos the guy uploads are very good too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YuLwJyIBwQ

KeRbDoG

I'd take a little more care about swapping the battery out than that guy does,

• He takes no ESD precautions, well doesn't mention anything anywho if this is meant to be a tutorial
• Once he puts the battery in the solder holes in the PCB he just bends both terminals on to the board - could easily fry a component which doesn't like 3.6v

Myrddin

In their standard form, the game regions & corresponding a boards are normally region specific. However, every board I've owned always ran on blue or green a boards (you can tell by the colours of the buttons).

A Phoenixed CPS2 B board has its programme roms decrypted. This means there's no further need for a battery which retains the decryption cipher. The battery is always removed from a Phoenixed game. Coincidentally, I know Razoola anyway always ads the ability to change the games region once Phoenixed. I was able to change my SSF2T to SSF2X - Grand Master Challenge, simply by holding a certain button on boot, & selecting the new region. This probably allows the game to work with any a board, I can't verify that though (I sold all my boards).

Bootlegs are definitely something to watch out for, & it doesn't even have to be advertised as Phoenixed for it to be a bootleg. Simply put, with the encryption/decryption system removed, there's nothing stopping me from burning dumped rom files onto the right chips, putting those chips into a b board casing (only 5-9 chips are needed, the rest of the hardware stays the same) & dressing it up with a fancy label.

The CPS2 kick harness is a standardised mini ide type adaptor, one should be all thats needed

Pyongyang

KeRbDoG wrote: »

I'd take a little more care about swapping the battery out than that guy does,

• He takes no ESD precautions, well doesn't mention anything anywho if this is meant to be a tutorial
• Once he puts the battery in the solder holes in the PCB he just bends both terminals on to the board - could easily fry a component which doesn't like 3.6v

Didn't know that, that said that's why I don't solder anything myself as I haven't a breeze what I'm doing! I wish there was some sort of soldering course for beginners.

Hmm, I wonder if The Doc or Enternow fancy a nixer?

Myrddin

Pyongyang wrote: »

Didn't know that, that said that's why I don't solder anything myself as I haven't a breeze what I'm doing! I wish there was some sort of soldering course for beginners.

Hmm, I wonder if The Doc or Enternow fancy a nixer?

Changing a CPS2 battery is really very easy dude...but my advice is to email Raz & get a price on Phoenixing your boards

Pyongyang

I'd end up cremating the board. I remember once I tried to swap out an led in a CD drive and it looked like I'd fished it out of Mount Etna by the time I finished.

Needless to say the 'mod' didn't work.

Steve X2

Thanks for the info guys. I reckon I have all I need now.

There's actually not that much to the whole CPS-2 thing. I thought it was a lot more complicated than it is from what some people have said in the past.

Happy days


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CathalDublin

I've an eprom programmer, I've never pheonixed a cps board but seems straight forward enough to do.
if anyone has a dead board I wouldn't mind having a go at it