[2] It would be the last proprietary system board Capcom would produce before moving on to the Dreamcast-based Naomi platform.

This is accomplished on the CPS-3 by providing the necessary CD and game-specific security cartridges, where the contents of the CD are then loaded into memory with the security cartridge decrypting the contents stored within the system memory in run time.

The board contains components common to all CP System III games, and includes a slot for the security cartridge.

When the CP System III board is first powered on, the contents of the CD are loaded into a bank of Flash ROM SIMMs on the motherboard, where it is executed.

The lone exception is Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact, which uses a default set of decryption keys that are written to dead cartridges on boot,[3] making it the few, if not the only CPS-3 games prevalent after support was dropped, due to its immunity to cartridge tampering or suicide.