Quick CPS2 Phoenix Question

RetroRepair · Sep 13, 2010

I have always wondered about this and now I need to know.

Once a CPS2 game is phoenixed, does it make a difference what mobo you have for the game? i.e. if you have a green board and blue mobo, is there a way that will work? I know there is a soft region selection in the phoenix setup but will that change the hardware behavior?

I'm thinking no chance but I thought I'd find out before grabbing a green mobo.

As an aside, are US/Euro mobos able to play all blue boards?

Xian Xi · Sep 13, 2010

Certain regions need different chips to be replaced for the game to be phoenixed.

The Chief · Sep 13, 2010

US(blue) and JAPAN(green) games are fully interchangeable between US and JAPAN mother boards whether Phoenixed or not. What you can't do is take a Grey cart/mobo and use them with US/JAPAN carts/mobos, the connectors won't match up.

The soft region select works good for changing the region of most games however a few games don't take well to being switched and will have to stay in the default boot region to work proper.

RAZO · Sep 13, 2010

I believe U.S mobos play both Japanese green and U.S blue b boards. I only have one working U.S mobo and I ran my Green SSF2X board on it before It was phoenixed and it worked fine.

You might find the info you need over @ http://cps2shock.retrogames.com/

Xian Xi · Sep 13, 2010

Since he didn't specify A or B board, my post was targeted towards phoenixing in general.

For example, you can't use the phoenix roms from a green B board and apply them to a blue B board.

But if he is talking about just using a different A board then yes they are interchangeable.

RetroRepair · Sep 13, 2010

Xian Xi said:
But if he is talking about just using a different A board then yes they are interchangeable.

Yep that's all I needed to know. Cheers!

Xian Xi · Sep 13, 2010

Ah, I see. Well, then there is a little nugget of extra info.

Dion · Sep 13, 2010

The phoenix roms will work on any region. It doesn't matter. However, the pcb will be changed to the default region specified in the phoenix code.

There are a handful of games that have different phoenix revisions but they correspond to the revision of the original game code and not the region.

Sorry XX, but your statement is untrue. Raz didn't make a phoenix set for each region.

Xian Xi · Sep 13, 2010

Mitsurugi-w said:
The phoenix roms will work on any region. It doesn't matter. However, the pcb will be changed to the default region specified in the phoenix code.

There are a handful of games that have different phoenix revisions but they correspond to the revision of the original game code and not the region.

Sorry XX, but your statement is untrue. Raz didn't make a phoenix set for each region.

You need to check your facts dude. Different regions require different phoenix roms. I buy phoenix roms from Raz all the time.

Dion · Sep 13, 2010

I have phoenixed probably 100 pcbs (most of them mine) and have only bought one per game. It works for every region. I promise. If you buy it from raz he sends you the entire set. If you burn the entire set instead of individual roms it will work on ANY region of the game.

I have all but three or four phoenix sets and I try to collect every color of every game. I use one set to phoenix all of the games regardless of region. For example, I have a blue, green, orange and grey MVC. One phoenix set revived all of them.

I suppose Raz could change the default region and sell it to you. Only a small hex edit. But why pay for basically the same set three or four times?

Not trying to start a huge argument but the US phoenix set WILL revive a Japan pcb and vice-versa.

Xian Xi · Sep 13, 2010

When I was talking about region I was referring to Euro and US since US and Japan are interchangeable.

Dion · Sep 14, 2010

Euro is the same as US and therefore is interchangeable with Japan as well.

The US set will revive Euro, Asia, Hispanic, Japan and any other region. The sound and graphic data is the same for all regions. The program code is the only difference. So if you use the phoenix code with the US as the default region on a grey board it will in essence change it to a US board by default though you could change the region to asia if you like.

As far as the original question in the first post:

Japan green A-boards can be used with US and Euro Blue b-boards and vice-versa.

Asia Grey will only play asia b-boards.

Hispanic Orange will only play hispanic b-boards.

Yellow boards are all rental regardless of region. Therefore a yellow may have asia, hispanic or japan/euro cart connectors.

There are some spots on the web that say a grey a-board will play hispanic b-boards. This isn't true, though.

Xian Xi · Sep 14, 2010

Mitsurugi-w said:
Euro is the same as US and therefore is interchangeable with Japan as well.

The US set will revive Euro, Asia, Hispanic, Japan and any other region. The sound and graphic data is the same for all regions. The program code is the only difference. So if you use the phoenix code with the US as the default region on a grey board it will in essence change it to a US board by default though you could change the region to asia if you like.

As far as the original question in the first post:

Japan green A-boaurds can be used with US and Euro Blue b-boards and vice-versa.

Asia Grey will only play asia b-boards.

Hispanic Orange will only play hispanic b-boards.

Yellow boards are all rental regardless of region. Therefore a yellow may have asia, hispanic or japan/euro cart connectors.

There are some spots on the web that say a grey a-board will play hispanic b-boards. This isn't true, though.

I have just verified your statements and I am not happy that I had to pay for basically the same code when I phoenixed 2 versions of the same game when I could have used the same rom set.

Razoola · Sep 14, 2010

Actually what you are saying is not true. While a phoenix fix of one region can be used to fix another region board of the same game in most cases it will not play 100% correctly for the new region selected. Small details like gameplay changes, character sounds, some cheat codes will all be wrong and so on. In other cases entire languages will be wrong and game crashes too. This is why there is a warning message when changing region. To know the region the fix is based on you simply set the default language, that said some people have patched to change that also like has been mentioned already on this thread.

The phoenix fixes I do are based on the game region the fix is for, not like those found in MAME, many of those phoenix fixes are bad, in many cases they are patched by other people. In one case I knew someone passing out fixes so he got duds which would look to work but not 100% correct, some of those got into MAME also if I remember right.

If you want to be sure to get correct fixes its best to get your fixes from me (unless you pass them around). I do warn people of potential problems if the region is not going to be the same as the board they have.

Razoola · Sep 14, 2010

Mitsurugi-w said:
Not trying to start a huge argument but the US phoenix set WILL revive a Japan pcb and vice-versa.

Try that with SFA3 (any English region), watch the crash as it tries to write japanese text.

Xian Xi · Sep 14, 2010

Is it because certain regions are missing certain files? Kinda like Korean MVS games have missing sounds and stuff?

Dion · Sep 14, 2010

I would pay for multiple copies of certain games. For example, SFA3 and SFZ2A since they do have problems when switching region. But if you phoenix it and keep it in the default region it will play fine. SFA3 will have some things different. I think the default region I have is Asia. SFA3 was changed A LOT for asia.

I would definitely pay for a US SFA2 phoenix fix that had evil Ryu, etc. still playable.

Razoola · Sep 14, 2010

Xian Xi said:
Is it because certain regions are missing certain files? Kinda like Korean MVS games have missing sounds and stuff?

Game data is different between region for many games yes.

mainman · Sep 14, 2010

Basically the only way I can explain it is like this. It like getting a blood transfusion of type A blood when you are type B. Your getting that desperate rise in blood pressure but at the cost of soon having a deadly hemolytic reaction

Like raz said there are differences in the programming code of the same game from different regions. If you slap euro phoenix roms on a japanese board without changing the rest of the program to euro you are giving it a bad transfusion, sure it will boot but it will keep flat lining.

jepjepjep · Mar 22, 2011

Razoola said:
The phoenix fixes I do are based on the game region the fix is for, not like those found in MAME, many of those phoenix fixes are bad, in many cases they are patched by other people. In one case I knew someone passing out fixes so he got duds which would look to work but not 100% correct, some of those got into MAME also if I remember right.

If you want to be sure to get correct fixes its best to get your fixes from me (unless you pass them around). I do warn people of potential problems if the region is not going to be the same as the board they have.

How could one tell if the phoenix roms are correct? I recently got Mars Matrix and Dimahoo which were already phoenixed. How do I know if they were using your files, Raz?

mainman · Mar 22, 2011

jepjepjep said:
How could one tell if the phoenix roms are correct? I recently got Mars Matrix and Dimahoo which were already phoenixed. How do I know if they were using your files, Raz?

he can do a check sum for you

Quick CPS2 Phoenix Question

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