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Capcom Backports - CPS+ Arranged Soundtracks / Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold / Final Fight CD

strygo

strygo

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Three new projects are ready. CPS+ puts Capcom's arranged CD-era soundtracks under the arcade games on MiSTer. Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold is rebuilt as a native CPS-2 game in four regional versions. And Final Fight gets the Sega CD cutscenes, running on the arcade board. Downloads and instructions are at arcade-patches. As with the translations from earlier this summer, you'll need your own roms and disc images. The kits build everything from your copies, and no game data is hosted.

Some background: back in 2018 I asked here whether the PS2 anthology's Zero 2 Dash could be extracted and run on CPS-2 hardware. It took a while, but I can finally answer my own question. Digging into SFA Anthology and Vampire Collection, I found the games are neither straight emulation nor ports. They're a hybrid: the original arcade code, statically compiled to the PS2's MIPS processor, with console features grafted on. That cuts both ways. Some versions outgrew the arcade hardware. Hyper Street Fighter Alpha and the Vampire Hunter 2 / Vampire Savior 2 Arrange modes lean on code and memory the CPS-2 doesn't have, which makes backporting them a much harder prospect. But Zero 2 Dash did fit. The arranged soundtracks sitting on those same discs pointed at something broader: even where a game can't come back to the arcade, its music can.

CPS+ - arranged CD-era soundtracks on MiSTer​

From Final Fight CD onward, Capcom kept sending its arcade soundtracks back to the studio for the home releases. Not every port got this treatment, but many of the CD-based ones shipped with a full re-recording of the music, the "arrange" versions, produced by the original composers' teams. For thirty years those recordings stayed locked to the home versions. CPS+ brings them to the arcade games themselves. The real CPS-1 or CPS-2 hardware logic runs the game, and when it posts a sound command for a song, the matching arranged track streams instead, started, looped and faded by the game itself. Hit sounds, voices and the announcer still come from the arcade sound path. No game code is modified.

  • 18 audio packs covering 14 games: Final Fight, Street Fighter II through Hyper Street Fighter II, the Alpha series, Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo, Mega Twins, Forgotten Worlds and Saturday Night Slam Masters
  • Alternate soundtracks where they existed: SNES and X68000 packs for Final Fight, the SNES soundtrack for Alpha 2, and HSF2's CPS-1 music bank as a pack of its own
  • Sources span Sega CD, Saturn, PC Engine CD, FM Towns and the PS2 collections. I went after every game where I could track down a complete, high-fidelity arrange recording
  • Runs on MiSTer with the three CPS+ cores included in the kit, built on jotego's jtcps cores (GPL, source on GitHub)
  • You build the packs from your own discs, and every pack verifies byte-for-byte against a published hash, so what you hear is exactly what was tested on hardware

Project page and downloads

Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold on CPS-2​

Alpha 2 Gold was the console revision of Alpha 2 that brought Cammy into the roster, first on PSX and Saturn and in final form on the PS2 anthology. It never had an arcade release. Starting from the anthology's version, it's now a native CPS-2 game in four regional versions.

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  • Four sets: Alpha 2 Gold (USA), Alpha 2 Dash (Europe), Zero 2 Dash (Japan) and Zero 2 Dash (Asia, English)
  • The 4 MB builds run in stock MAME and on real CPS-2 hardware. The 8 MB builds for HBMAME and MiSTer carry Cammy's complete audio
  • Built from your anthology disc and your Zero 2 Alpha romset. The set is reconstructed from the anthology's own data rather than patching the old arcade game to imitate it

Project page and downloads

Final Fight - CD cutscenes and arranged soundtrack​

The Sega / Mega CD release of Final Fight opened and closed with real animated cutscenes. Those scenes now run on the arcade game as native CPS-1 graphics, with captions timed to the CD dialog. Both the USA and Japanese versions are complete. Pair it with the CPS+ arrange pack and I think it's the best version of Final Fight anywhere. You get the CD's re-recorded soundtrack with proper loops instead of the CD's fade-outs, and the arcade's own sound effects on top.

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  • Opening and ending cutscenes converted to native CPS-1 tiles and retimed to the arcade's own frame rate
  • English captions for the CD voice acting on the USA build. The Japanese build is equally complete
  • Runs under HBMAME and on MiSTer. On MiSTer, the "Arrange + CD Cutscenes" build combines the scenes with the CPS+ soundtrack
  • Built from your own Final Fight CD rip and arcade romset. The kit combines the CD and arcade data into the finished sets

Project page and downloads

Feedback and what's next​

All three are release candidates, so please let me know if you hit any issues or have suggestions. For CPS+ I covered every game where a complete arrange recording exists on a console disc, but there are arrange albums from the same era that may be good candidates too. If you know that catalog and want to help chase down sources, or if you want a pack for a game I haven't covered, reach out.

Thanks,
Steve
 
I can not tell you how long I've wondered if there was a way to get the arcade version of Final Fight with the Mega CD music, this is awesome. Any plans to add this to the CPS2 version that came out a few years ago?
 
ShinGouki94 said:
I can not tell you how long I've wondered if there was a way to get the arcade version of Final Fight with the Mega CD music, this is awesome. Any plans to add this to the CPS2 version that came out a few years ago?
Click to expand...

I hadn't considered it, but it should be easy enough to add support using the same audio pack. I'll investigate.
 
Finally got round to running the FF cutscenes, amazing work, coupled with the Sega CD music it feels like a new game. Love playing HSF2:AE with the PS2 soundtrack too. Not sure where you want bug reports but the Q-Sound logo on attract mode doesn't seem right with the arranged soundtrack.
 
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ShinGouki94 said:
Finally got round to running the FF cutscenes, amazing work, coupled with the Sega CD music it feels like a new game. Love playing HSF2:AE with the PS2 soundtrack too. Not sure where you want bug reports but the Q-Sound logo on attract mode doesn't seem right with the arranged soundtrack.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the feedback! In which game are you referring to the Q-Sound behavior?

I added a new version (1.1) here.

You can now generate a pack compatible with Final Fight 30th Anniversary CPS2 Edition.

I also added support for pairing the SNES soundtrack of UN Squadron. You'll need the Capcom Music Generation: Area 88 Original Soundtrack to create the pack.

Lastly, I added support for the X68K MIDI soundtracks of Ghouls 'n Ghosts, Street Fighter 2: Champion Edition, and Super Street Fighter 2. You'll need the X68K disk images and the Roland SC-55 ROMs to produce these.

Thank you for the suggestion before!
 
strygo said:
Thanks for the feedback! In which game are you referring to the Q-Sound behavior?
Click to expand...
SSF2 SSF2T or SSF2X arrange seem to do the same (almost no audio for Q-sound), HSF2 Arrange seems fine (plays the Q Sound jingle ok)
 
I'm too dumb to use python even with the instructions in readme file, someone have a more detailed instructions to do this?
 
I just released an update, v1.2, here, with the following changes:
  • Final Fight / Magic Sword Double Impact arrangements, using Capcom's free album download
  • Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix arrangement, using the OC ReMix, using the free download
  • Strider arrangement, using the PlayStation game disc
  • Fixes the QSound issue reported by ShinGouki94 (thank you!)
  • Fixes some other minor timing issues for the Final Fight X68000 arrangements
 
All three projects have been updated.

CPS+ 1.3 is a reliability release, aimed mostly at making the kit easier to get through. GarouSP, this one is for you in particular, and sorry for the slow reply:
  • Building on Windows now works end to end: paths pasted straight into discs.toml, the X68000 tools build with MinGW or Visual Studio, and the Strider pack records and verifies with MAME's official Windows build.
  • Every pack now builds to the same bytes on any computer. Double Impact and HD Remix used to come out slightly different on some PCs, so those three hashes changed by an inaudible amount. Packs you already built still work.
  • Better failure messages: if a pack doesn't verify, the builder names the disc track that differs and why, and fixes rips that are only shifted. There's a --check-inputs pass that checks your discs without building anything.
  • The packs and the three cores are unchanged, so nothing from 1.2 needs rebuilding.

Final Fight EX rc2:
  • Final Fight - CD Cutscenes is now Final Fight EX, with a new title screen. The MiSTer MRAs are named to match.
  • Fixed visual defects on the player select screen.
  • The kit builds on Windows, takes .zip or .7z romsets, and checks for every romset file before it starts, naming anything missing.
  • Both sets are rebuilt and their checksums changed, so rebuild them with the rc2 kit.

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The new Final Fight EX title.

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The ending's reunion scene, redrawn from the Sega CD.

Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold rc3 is the big one. The English builds (USA, Europe and Asia) now carry the whole Japanese script in English:
  • Every story and ending page is back, in the Japanese order, including scenes the English version cut short.
  • Evil Ryu has his own ending again, with his narration and his scene with Akuma, instead of borrowing Ryu's.
  • All 452 win quotes from the Japanese game, in English, picked by opponent and remaining health the way the Japanese game does it, and centered on screen. Cammy keeps her four Gold quotes.
  • Red blood on hits, as in Japan.
  • Birdie's third victory pose is back; the English builds showed another pose in its place.
  • The Manual guard panel on the select screen now explains itself. It appears when the operator turns on Auto Guard.
  • Every set has new checksums, so rebuild them with the rc3 kit.

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Cammy joins the roster on the character-select screen.

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Shin Akuma is selectable too: press Start five times on Akuma.

On MiSTer, the MRAs across all three projects are renamed and reorganized in this batch. They're all Title (Region) [Tag] now, they live under _Arcade/_Arcade Patches/ split by kind (_Enhanced Versions, _Restorations, _Translations, _Arrangements), and their headers carry proper region, platform and category fields so Arcade Organizer sorts them. Delete the MRAs your earlier install left on the card: they'll show up as duplicates, and the Final Fight ones point at a set that has been renamed.

I've also started a new projects thread covering the rest of what I've been working on: Super Street Fighter II EX, Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter EX, and English restorations of MSHvSF and Street Fighter Zero 2 Alpha. I'll be posting new releases there from now on rather than starting a thread each time, so this thread stays about CPS+, Alpha 2 Gold and Final Fight.

GarouSP, if you still can't get a pack to build, post what the builder printed and I'll walk you through it. As always, let me know if anyone else hits issues.
 
Thank you for doing these. I was only after Final Fight, but ended up doing the SF's too. I've got my MiSTer in a cab setup with a stereo AMP, so these patches all sound great 8)
 
@wigsplitta, thank you! A cab with a stereo amp is exactly how I hoped these would get heard. I'm glad Final Fight pulled you into the SF games too.

Two updates since my last post:

Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold rc4
  • Cammy's stage music is restored: her X-Men vs. Street Fighter theme, played on Alpha 2's own sound hardware. You can hear it in a two-player match.
  • Portraits before a fight and in the story scenes no longer pick up the wrong colors.
  • In the English builds, the last lines of every ending now display in full, and ending text sits clear of the screen edges.

On MiSTer, Gold has moved in with the restorations, since it's a version that never made it to the arcade. The MRAs are now in _Arcade/_Arcade Patches/_Restorations and tagged [Backport], e.g. "Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold (USA) [Backport]". When you copy the new ones over, delete the old ones from _Enhanced Versions.

CPS+ 1.4
  • Every Street Fighter II family game now has every soundtrack. Super, Super Turbo (including Super Street Fighter II X, Grand Master Challenge and EX) and Hyper each get eight: the Anniversary Edition arrange, the CPS-1 soundtrack, HD Remix, the X68000 MIDI score and the four MS-DOS soundtracks.
  • New: all four soundtracks from the 1995 MS-DOS Super Street Fighter II Turbo (FM, Roland Sound Canvas, Roland MT-32 and the CD audio), built from your copy of the game.
  • New: Captain Commando with its PlayStation soundtrack, USA and Japan.
  • The SF2 games share one pack per soundtrack, which takes about 330 MB off the card. Super and Super Turbo now fade the music out at the end of a match like the board does, and the CPS-1 soundtrack plays at the board's own level. It was about 5 dB too loud.
  • The X68000 MIDI character select, bonus stage and endings now loop instead of cutting out partway.
  • The Alpha 2 Gold Arrange MRAs now load the rc4 sets, so rebuild Gold first if you use them.

1.3b came out in between, and I didn't post it here. It fixed the SF2 family's music dropping out when a second player joins at the character select.

To upgrade CPS+, drop the 1.4 kit over your old one and run make_packs.py again. It rebuilds the packs that changed, and the rest come out identical. On the card, delete the old hsf2_arrange, hsf2_cps1, ssf2t_arrange and ssf2t_hdremix packs from games/CPS+/, and the old "Hyper Street Fighter II (World)" and "Super Street Fighter II EX The Ultimate Championship" MRAs.

As always, let me know if you hit anything.
 
I see 1.5 is out, loving the extras in SSF2Tex. The NG+ is a great idea, not built them yet but would love to see Pulstar in the next build, CD track always sounded better vs AES.
 
Seriously epic stuff all around that a lot of us have dreamed about. Keep up the great work!
 
Spent most of last night playing VS2, amazing work. Any plans for an EX arrange version of VS with all the characters? I always felt the colour scheme in VS2 were a little off compared to VS
 
ShinGouki94 said:
Spent most of last night playing VS2, amazing work. Any plans for an EX arrange version of VS with all the characters? I always felt the colour scheme in VS2 were a little off compared to VS
Click to expand...
I'm investigating it - it's a little more challenging since the VS and VS2 engines aren't identical.
 
rc5 SSF2Tex build is awesome too, no idea how you've added the extra menu in, amazing work. Any plans to add these into a HSF2 ex? Would be awesome to see a version with Ten Gouki in.

Another random request for Final Fight, is it possible to add a level select in? I remember years ago someone created a hack that added one in.
 
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