Hacking Chip
The CPS-2 Hacking Chip: key to arcade security and emulation.
The Hacking Chip is a component of the CP System II (CPS-2) arcade hardware, used to decrypt and run encrypted game data stored on the B board.
Quick Facts
- Franchise
- System Shock
- Type
- Hacking component; interface accessory
- Function
- Augments or enables terminal-hacking capabilities
- Developer
- Looking Glass Studios
- Usage context
- Inserted into or used alongside the player's hacking interface at secured terminals
Lore & Background
The CP System II was developed by Capcom to combat bootlegging. It uses encryption on program ROMs, with decryption keys stored in battery-backed memory on the B board. If the battery fails, the keys are lost and the board becomes non-functional, a phenomenon known as the 'suicide battery'.
Reader's Guide
To restore a dead CPS-2 board, the encryption method was reverse-engineered in 2007 by Andreas Naive and Nicola Salmoria, and in 2016 Eduardo Cruz, Artemio Urbina, and Ian Court enabled clean 'de-suicide' restoration without hardware modifications.
Did You Know?
- The CPS-2 encryption uses two four-round Feistel ciphers with a 64-bit key.
- The system was never bootlegged until unencrypted program data became available in 2001.
- Capcom ended all official support for the CPS-2 on February 28, 2019.
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