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CPS A-Board Differences

twistedsymphony

twistedsymphony

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I've noticed a lot of posts with confusion surrounding the different CPS1 A-Board differences. This confused me for a while as well when I was researching which boards to look for/buy. So I decided to piece together a guide.

CPS1 "Long" Board (10MHz)
Good for playing 10MHz games, also the largest PCB variant
cps_long.jpg
A-Board alone: https://i.imgur.com/EDviXRh.jpg
note that the audio chip is visible on the bottom left, is upright, and has a large heat sync, the volume knob is above the audio amp and the dip switches are perpendicular to the JAMMA edge.


CPS1 "Short" Board (10MHz)
Good for playing 10MHz games, also the smallest PCB variant
cps_short.jpg
A-Board alone: https://i.imgur.com/GTFN9Vr.jpg
note that the PCB is so short that you can't even see the audio chip under the B-Board, the audio amp is laid flat to fit under the B-board, the volume knob is moved to the left edge of the board so that it is still accessible and all of the dip switches are parallel with the JAMMA edge.


CPS1 "Dash" Board (12MHz)
Good for 12MHz games (some 10MHz games will run fast). this is the ideal candidate for a CPS1 multi
cps_dash.JPG
A-Board alone: https://i.imgur.com/4e6k3q7.jpg
Dimensionally and layout-wise this is nearly identical to the "short" board. the easiest way to tell if it's a "Dash" board is to look for the "CPS-Dash" sticker behind the dip switches. outside of the sticker the only way to tell the difference is to look for the crystal and see if it's labeled as 12MHz or 10MHz. 12MHz games, as seen here, tend to have shorter b-boards exposing more of the A-Board below.



CPS1.5 "Q-Sound" Board (12MHz + Q-Sound)
only good for CPS1.5 games
cps_qsound.jpg
A-Board alone: https://i.imgur.com/8SD9L5K.jpg/
Q-Sound Board alone: https://i.imgur.com/SWDANNg.jpg
All of these games come in a black plastic case with a filter-board (in this picture you can see the lower half of the case and the filter-board), also note that there is an additional Q-SOUND PCB in the stack between the A and B boards which has audio chips is on the top left rather than the bottom left. The A board is similar to the CPS-Dash board but does not have the audio section populated.


Upgrading a 10MHz PCB to 12MHz
According to Apocalypse even if you do have a 10MHz board it can be upgraded to a 12MHz by replacing the crystal: Interest Check: Darksoft CPS1 Multi - Unofficial
Most games should work on either board, there will just be more slow-downs on the 10MHz variants.
This image shows where this crystal is located.


Here are the different games and which board they're compatible with:
10MHz (can only use 10MHz board)
1941: Counter Attack
Captain Commando
Carrier Air Wing/U.S. Navy
Dynasty Wars/Tenchi wo Kurau (12MHz version also available)
Final Fight
Forgotten Worlds/Lost World
Ganbare! Marine Kun
Ghouls'n Ghosts/Daimakaimura (12MHz version also available)
The King of Dragons
Knights of the Round
Magic Sword: Heroic Fantasy
Mega Twins/Chiki Chiki Boys
Mercs/Senjou no Ookami II
Nemo
Pokonyan! Balloon
Street Fighter II: The World Warrior
Strider/Strider Hiryu (12MHz version also available)
Three Wonders
U.N. Squadron/Area 88 (12MHz version also available)
Willow


12MHz (can only use "Dash" board)
Adventure Quiz Capcom World 2
Area 88 (10MHz version also available)
Daimakaimura (10MHz version also available)
Mega Man: The Power Battle/Rockman: The Power Battle
Pang! 3
Pnickies
Quiz & Dragons: Capcom Quiz Game
Quiz Tonosama no Yabou 2: Zenkoku-ban
Street Fighter II': Champion Edition
Street Fighter II': Hyper Fighting
Street Fighter Zero
Strider Hiryu (10MHz version also available)
Tenchi wo Kurau (10MHz version also available)
Varth: Operation Thunderstorm


Q-Sound (can only use "Q-Sound" board)
Cadillacs and Dinosaurs
Muscle Bomber Duo
The Punisher
Saturday Night Slam Masters/Muscle Bomber: The Body Explosion
Warriors of Fate/Tenchi wo Kurau II: Sekiheki no Tatakai/Sangokushi II




I'm still very much a CPS noob so please correct any inaccuracies I may have posted, but hopefully these pictures and descriptions will help people seek out and buy the right PCBs for their CPS projects.
 

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ow and the CPS1 10mHz short and Dash board have exactly the same dimensions and parts layout, just a different crystal (and maybe the CPU or so, not sure...)
Your picture just shows a shorter B board (Mitchell, not a Capcom B board ;) )
 
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PascalP said:
the CPS1 10mHz short and Dash board have exactly the same dimensions and parts layout, just a different crystal (and maybe the CPU or so, not sure...)
Your picture just shows a shorter B board (Mitchell, not a Capcom B board )
Click to expand...
are you sure about that... my SFII CE has just as much of the A-board sticking out:

1070498759.jpg

looking through pictures it seems that most 10MHz have larger B-boards that extend a few cm past the connectors. and most 12MHz games have shorter B-boards that end immediately after the connectors.
 
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yes your picture does show an unusual long B board, but you are making me doubt myself now ;)

I will check some of my CPS1 A boards over the weekend and compare them to be sure!
 
let me know what you find... If both Short 10 and Dash boards are dimensionally and layout identical it would be nice to find something other than the sticker to tell them apart.

I have 2 Dash boards, I don't own any 10MHz boards for comparison.
 
Will check!

Also this is nice to know;
Interest Check: Darksoft CPS1 Multi - Unofficial

You just have to replace then 10Mhz crystal by a 12Mhz. The 68k supports quite well overclocking.Also there are many wrong beliefs regarding the CPU speed. The 12Mhz just gives extra CPU "power" when needed.
In other terms:
- playing a 10Mhz game on a 12Mhz motherboard won't make the game faster. However it may suppress eventual slowdows.
- playing a 12Mhz game on a 10Mhz motherboard can cause slowdowns.
 
Nice guide @twistedsymphony

Sadly 12MHz games and 10MHz games cannot be freely mixed.

Check the MAME source code for the full details on which game is used on which platform.

Some games which were released later like the retail version of Dai-Makaimura were changed to handle the 12 MHz CPU.
 
rtw said:
Sadly 12MHz games and 10MHz games cannot be freely mixed.
Click to expand...
I've updated the lists... I'm curious though, how do they get around this on the existing CPS1 multi? are the games patched to all run on a 12MHz A-Board?
 
twistedsymphony said:
rtw said:
Sadly 12MHz games and 10MHz games cannot be freely mixed.
Click to expand...
I've updated the lists... I'm curious though, how do they get around this on the existing CPS1 multi? are the games patched to all run on a 12MHz A-Board?
Click to expand...
I'm also curious to know the answer to this. Will a future CPS1 multi require two motherboards to play all games then? Or maybe patched games as twisted said?
 
rtw said:
Nice guide @twistedsymphony

Sadly 12MHz games and 10MHz games cannot be freely mixed.

Check the MAME source code for the full details on which game is used on which platform.

Some games which were released later like the retail version of Dai-Makaimura were changed to handle the 12 MHz CPU.
Click to expand...
That's wrong, the resale version of Daimakaimura contains the same code as the OG one but programs ROMs were merged and concateneted (8 × 27C010 in 2 × 27C4096).
I think it's worth mentionning all 12MHz games don't make use of the extra CPU power.
That's the case for the resale versions and probably the quiz games (I highly doubt they need the full CPU power).
 
Last edited by a moderator:
PascalP said:
Will check!

Also this is nice to know;
Interest Check: Darksoft CPS1 Multi - Unofficial

You just have to replace then 10Mhz crystal by a 12Mhz. The 68k supports quite well overclocking.Also there are many wrong beliefs regarding the CPU speed. The 12Mhz just gives extra CPU "power" when needed.
In other terms:
- playing a 10Mhz game on a 12Mhz motherboard won't make the game faster. However it may suppress eventual slowdows.
- playing a 12Mhz game on a 10Mhz motherboard can cause slowdowns.
Click to expand...
twistedsymphony said:
rtw said:
Sadly 12MHz games and 10MHz games cannot be freely mixed.
Click to expand...
I've updated the lists... I'm curious though, how do they get around this on the existing CPS1 multi? are the games patched to all run on a 12MHz A-Board?
Click to expand...
Read what I wrote above.
 
udongein said:
twistedsymphony said:
rtw said:
Sadly 12MHz games and 10MHz games cannot be freely mixed.
Click to expand...
I've updated the lists... I'm curious though, how do they get around this on the existing CPS1 multi? are the games patched to all run on a 12MHz A-Board?
Click to expand...
I'm also curious to know the answer to this. Will a future CPS1 multi require two motherboards to play all games then? Or maybe patched games as twisted said?
Click to expand...
This thread is a nightmare to me ;)
 
My understanding was that the 10mhz games could run on the 12mhz board without issue, but the 12mhz games on 10mhz may get slowdown (mostly SF2:CE and HF)

But it would make sense for the 10mhz games to run incorrectly on the 12mhz board, since Capcom would never have made provisions for (and it was unnecessary to do so) enforcing maximum clock speed on the games

However this does raise an interesting point for a potential multi, does the game code get modified, or is a second crystal installed onto the multi board that gets switched to if a 10mhz game is run - more difficult, but original game code could be used
 
xodaraP said:
My understanding was that the 10mhz games could run on the 12mhz board without issue, but the 12mhz games on 10mhz may get slowdown (mostly SF2:CE and HF)
Click to expand...
IMO that is still correct, but I could give it a try next week to run SF2WW or Final Fight on a 12mHz board
 
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