Street Fighter III; third strike advice

[SouthernFist]

Hi Guys
   I just procured a beautiful Street Fighter III cabinet with 25' monitor and a nice oversized cab with Q-sound hooked up. Got it for 450.00, pretty good deal?

Anyways, I was wondering if there was anything special I should be aware of before I pick it up, I am not too familiar with the CPS III system and any and all advice concerning that would be great. Other peoples experiences, maintanence, etc... I mostly want to make sure it will be okay on the drive form the arcade to my house which is maybe 10 miles at most. I have a SF Hyper fighting and SF Alpha 3, but as this is a completely different beast I want to know a little bit about what I am in for.

Thanks so much for everyones time

[mrcram]

everything should be fine as long as the cps a and b boards are secured tightly and everything else in there.

[Q*Bert_OP]

everything should be fine as long as the cps a and b boards are secured tightly and everything else in there.

This is a CPS 3 game. There is a good chance that the  suicide battery will die in a few years. I would recommend changing it asap, because CPS 3 games are not able to be brought back to life at this time.

PS: You got an OK deal , if you like the game, and plan on keeping it that way, but if you are building a MAME cab, you would have been better off buying an older game to MAME.

[SouthernFist]

Thanks guys. Will most certainly make sure all of the boards are securley fastened before attempting the move. I have had some problems with my alpha 3 machine after moving so this was the real source of my question.

Thanks for the advice on the suicide battery? Anybody know a good source for people who will do this relatively quickly and cheap. I found a good tutorial for doing it but am a little nervous about since it seems that you need to provide an alternate battery while you are swapping it out. The CPS 2 can last (if I am not mistaken) for like 30 minutes without the battery correct?

As for the MAME project, naw, I'll be keeping this as a SF3 machine. I have been searching for some time for a nice SF3 in a nice maintained cabinet as I do not really have the time right now to refurbish a cab. So for 450 I feel like it is a pretty good deall. As I said, the cabinet is pretty sweet. I will post some pics when I pick it up this weekend if anyone is interested in seeing.

With my other SF cabinets this completes the collection for me. Now I just gotta find some worthy competition to come get tossed. hehehe. Thanks for the advice guys.

[SouthernFist]

can the board really not be revived if it dies? Not even by sending it to capcom. that really stinks.

[Q*Bert_OP]

can the board really not be revived if it dies? Not even by sending it to capcom. that really stinks.

At this point, no. Also, Capcom Coin-op closed 2 years ago...

[SouthernFist]

At this point, no. Also, Capcom Coin-op closed 2 years ago...

Thats really hurt. So much for the days of the arcade. Sad really.

So anyone a good reliable source for CPS 3 battery replacement? Anyone else have to do this. I certainly do not want to lose the board. I have searched long for this game and it would be heart wrenching for this happen. Especially if it is avoidable.

Thanks

[MameMaster!]

This guy will replace the battery. He's a good guy and trustworthy....good luck and enjoy the cab it sounds sweet!

http://www.jammaboards.com/store/cleaning-maintenance/cps-2-battery-replacement-service/prod_84.html
From his website---
Does your CPS-2 Battery need to be changed?
While your CPS-2 board is not powered up, there is a battery located inside that keeps your board memory 'alive'. Once this battery begins to lose power and drops below certain threshold, it can no longer provide enough power to keep the encoded memory alive. Once this has happened, you board will be completely disabled. This is why the battery is usually just referred to as 'The Suicide Battery'.

So, if your CPS-2 board has never been updated...Now is the time to perform this maintenance step to give your board another good 3 - 5 years of extra life!

If your B board is not functioning properly / will not power on this service will not fix the problem. This service is only to be a 'preventative maintenance' step to ensure your B Board does not fail due to a dead battery.


Servicing Description/Process:
1

[MikeDeuce]

Doesn't look like the nastiest procedure, if you like soldering:

http://cps2shock.retrogames.com/cps3/index.html

But $18 almost seems hard to beat

[SouthernFist]

Thanks everyone for the help. I checked out the aforementioned website however and it does not seem he does CPS3 replacements, unless the procedure is that similar. hmmm. Seems simple enough though, and no I dont care too much for soldering 18 bucks is hard to beat if he does CPS3 replacement. I will look around some more. Thanks

[SouthernFist]

Well I got some feed back from the guy at the mentioned site (http://www.jammaboards.com/store/cleaning-maintenance/cps-2-battery-replacement-service/prod_84.html)  about battery replacement. Seems he does not touch the CPS3. Well, I guess if anyone has some advice about other sources to look to that would be most appreciated. Otherwise I need to get brave and attempt it on my own. Im going to wait until I can actually look at the board before I decide what to do.

Is there anyone who has more experience with this sort of thing living in the Bay Area that would be willing to help me out? Of course I dont expect free help. Just an idea.

 Thanks again

[Greywolf]

Meanbean replaces CPS3 batteries:

http://mysite.verizon.net/dinhdu/index.htm

And here's a feedback thread for his service at neo-geo.com:

http://www.neo-geo.com/forums/showthread.php?t=137735

Hope this helps!

[SouthernFist]

thanks alot greywolf, thats just what I needed. just sent him an email. Good looking out.

[SouthernFist]

Hi there
   so I picked up the machine today. It was as I hoped, working perfectly and nice and clean inside. Im shipping off the CPS3 next week to get a new battery (thanks again Greywolf) put in.

The transition was no problem and I had little difficulties getting it set up again after arriving home.
just thought I would post a pic of the machine alongside my alpha 3 machine. Sold the Hyper fighting to a buddy who wants to MAME the cabinet. Is it possible to do this with a MAC? It is not one of the newer intel macs. Just a G4 tower, about 2 years old.

Either way, next step is to set up the myspace page. Going to put it up to try and get some good CA street fighters over here and have some tourneys. I know we are still around, just no more arcades in the north bay.

Either way, heres the pic

Thanks again everyone for the help and advice