Short answers, pulled from the story.
The CP System III was the final arcade system board ever designed by Capcom, released in 1996 with the arcade game Red Earth. This hardware represented a bold gamble by the Japanese developer to maintain the quality of their flagship fighting titles while transitioning to a new medium. The system utilized compact discs to store game data, a decision driven by the need to reduce production costs and simplify the manufacturing process.
The CP System III security mechanism used a battery-backed SRAM in a security cartridge to store per-game decryption keys, which caused games to become unplayable if the battery died or the cartridge was tampered with. This suicide feature protected Capcom's intellectual property but meant that many games were lost to time as the batteries in the cartridges failed. The only exception to this rule was Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact, which used a default set of decryption keys written to dead cartridges on boot.
Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact was the sole game to officially utilize the system's widescreen mode, which increased the resolution from the standard 384×224 pixels to 496×224 pixels. This feature was a testament to the system's advanced sprite scaling capabilities, which allowed for smooth, high-quality graphics that were ahead of their time. The decision to include widescreen support in Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact was a strategic move by Capcom to differentiate their product from competitors.
The CP System III library consisted of six games, all developed by Capcom and all head-to-head fighting games, with the final game, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Heritage for the Future, released in September 1999. The six games included Red Earth, Street Fighter III: New Generation, Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure / JOJO's Venture, Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Heritage for the Future. Each game was released between 1996 and 1999, with the final game, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Heritage for the Future, released in September 1999.
The CP System III featured a Hitachi HD6417099 SH-2 CPU running at 25 MHz, which provided the processing power needed to handle the system's advanced graphics and sound capabilities. The system included 512 KB of work RAM, 512 KB of sprite RAM, 8 MB of character RAM, 256 KB of color RAM, and 32 KB of SS RAM, all of which were used to create the system's impressive visual and audio output. The system's maximum color palette was 16 million shades, with a maximum of 32,768 colors on screen, providing a rich and vibrant visual experience.