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Capcom may be famous these days for its gargantuan Resident Evil and Monster Hunter franchises, but it has been one of the industry's key players since the glory days of the 80s, tirelessly pumping out solid-gold classics like Bionic Commando, Mega Man, Black Tiger, 1942, Ghosts 'n Goblins, Final Fight and Strider years before Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine had their first unfortunate encounter with a slavering zombie in Spencer Mansion. Capcom - like fellow Japanese publishers Taito, Konami and Namco - excelled in the coin-op realm when coin-ops still mattered, and benefitted greatly from the dominance of the Nintendo Famicom in its homeland. When that particular console morphed into the NES and made the jump to western shores, it turned these same companies - and the games they created - into instantly recognisable household names. However, it would be the release of Street Fighter 2: The World Warrior in 1992 that elevated Capcom to an entirely different level to its peers; one of the most commercially successful coin-ops of all time - and an equally profitable domestic property on a wide range of home systems - this seminal release triggered a public frenzy for one-on-one fighters which would continue unchecked for the best part of the decade and would establish Capcom as one of Japan's most prolific game-makers.
Much of this success was laid down by Capcom's dedicated hardware team, which came up with its own arcade hardware. The first CP System powered such coin-guzzling classics as Final Fight, Captain Commando and Street Fighter II, but 1993's CPS2 was a marked improvement and would be Capcom's go-to arcade board until the much-hyped arrival of CPS3 in 1996. CPS2 would be supported for an entire decade - the final game was 2003's Hyper Street Fighter 2: Anniversary Edition - and played host to some of the finest 2D competitive fighting games ever created.
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