Uncertainty about role of regionality with the CPS2, with or without the Multi

[toiawaseru]

Hi.

Reading through various posts about the CPS2, I believe I’ve learned the following:

• There are region specific releases of the CPS2 A & B boards.
• Generally, the color specifies a region i.e. blue case and buttons = US.
• Some, but not all, regions can be used interchangeably i.e. a blue B board can be used on a green A board.
• In the case where there is a mix & match between different region A & B boards, the B board determines the language displayed i.e. a blue B board on a green A board will display in English.

First, please correct anything above that is incorrect.

Second, what is the extent that regionality affects CPS2 games? Is it just language or are there any other content alteration cases? My reference point is the Neo Geo, where regionality will turn red blood into white sweat as an example.

Third, does using the CPS2 Multi have any effect on regionality or is it still determined by the donor B board?

Thanks in advance -- any assistance on these topics will help determine which types of A and B boards I wind up purchasing.

 

[tDRG]

1) Right, color corresponds to the region. But they're not unique. USA and European B boards are both blue. The region is determined by some of the ROM chips in the B board. They'll be labeled with something like SZ2U for a USA Street Fighter Alpha 2 https://www.mvs-scans.com/index.php/CPS2_-_Street_Fighter_Alpha_2
You can also tell what region a game is from the text at startup:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/CP_System_II

2) the one I'm aware of is that Norimaro is playable only in the Japanese versions of Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter
https://www.neo-geo.com/forums/inde...n-a-cps2-game-that-has-been-phoenixed.189581/

3) for the multi, I don't think region matters besides A-board compatibility. The ROM chips are removed and replaced with the multi, the bare boards themselves are region free. Region is just determined by which ROMs you load on the SD card.

 

[toiawaseru]

Hi.

Thank you for the reply and information. So it seems that for a multi setup I have a wider variety of A & B boards that are a match with each other as well as with the multi itself, and then my roms can tailor the experience I'm interested in. In the case where I want to keep the setup stock, then I will need to be more specific with the B board in particular to suit the experience I'm interested in and make sure I have a corresponding A board to match it.

Thanks.

 

[Zepherino]

Regional differences wont really matter much for the physical hardware of the multi, but there are some differences on the software side to take note:

- The Asia region of CPS2 ROMs tend to have some censorship (cut voice content, very noticeable in the Alpha/Zero series).
- SSF2T vs SSF2X has various differences that I'm aware of. The game speed will be different between versions. SSF2T competitive standard is Turbo 2 compared to SSF2X Turbo 3, however, the Freeplay SSF2X ROM uses Turbo 2. The difficultly of SSF2T is locked on the hardest difficulty due to a bug. Gief's headbutt has a much higher chance to stun in SSF2X.

I'm sure there's some other stuff here and there that I don't know as well.

 

[YesAffinity]

Theres other examples of difficulty being lower on Japanese compared to US (and possibly other regions), but not as notable as super x compared to ST as noted above. Alpha 2/Zero 2 is another example.