CP System - CP System Dash

A year before releasing the CP System II, Capcom released an enhanced version of the original CP System dubbed the CP System Dash, which had some features that would later be used in the CP System II, such as the Q-Sound chips.

The CP System Dash boards have four interlocking PCBs and are contained in gray plastic boxes. To combat piracy, "suicide batteries" were implemented, which power the volatile RAM which contained the ROM decryption tables. If the batteries' voltage should drop below +2V, or if an attempt was made to dump the encryption codes, the decryption algorithms stored in RAM would be lost, and the CPU would no longer have valid code to execute, rendering the game inoperable, and necessitating the operator sending the board to Capcom to be fixed, at his own expense. Unlike the CP System II, CP System Dash sound ROMs were encrypted using "Kabuki" Z80s.