Super Street Fighter II Turbo: Grand Master Challenge

English restoration · Japan's Super Turbo

Release candidaterc2Capcom CPS-2

Game: Super Street Fighter II X: Grand Master Challenge (Japan 940311)
Hardware: Capcom CPS-2
MAME set: ssf2xj
Version: rc2
Updated: 2026-09-17

Screenshots

Super Turbo, Grand Master Challenge: Japan's version of the game, under the US name.

US Super Turbo: Where it comes from. The US board on the left, the Japanese board on the right. — Where it comes from. The US board on the left, the Japanese board on the right.

Japanese Super Turbo X: Where it comes from. The US board on the left, the Japanese board on the right. — Where it comes from. The US board on the left, the Japanese board on the right.

US Super Turbo: Lost a round? The US game just counts down. Japan's game gives you a tip, now in English. — Lost a round? The US game just counts down. Japan's game gives you a tip, now in English.

Grand Master Challenge: Lost a round? The US game just counts down. Japan's game gives you a tip, now in English. — Lost a round? The US game just counts down. Japan's game gives you a tip, now in English.

US Super Turbo: Every win quote from the Japanese game, in English. The US game only had twenty short ones. — Every win quote from the Japanese game, in English. The US game only had twenty short ones.

Grand Master Challenge: Every win quote from the Japanese game, in English. The US game only had twenty short ones. — Every win quote from the Japanese game, in English. The US game only had twenty short ones.

Akuma's intro dialogue, cut from the export game, back in English.

The endings play out as they do in Japan: Jane and Amy arrive in Guile's ending, a scene the US game skips.

About this patch

Super Turbo came in two versions. Japan got Super Street Fighter II X, the one competitive players swear by. The rest of the world got a slightly different game: it plays differently, the continue screen is bare, most of the win quotes are gone, the endings are shorter, and Akuma's story is missing. Japan's version, of course, was in Japanese.

Grand Master Challenge is Japan's game in English. The fighting is untouched. Everything you read is new: all 136 win quotes, the strategy tips on the continue screen, the full endings, and Akuma's dialogue, translated fresh from the Japanese with Capcom's own English as the style guide.

It runs anywhere Super Turbo does: MAME, HBMAME, MiSTer, or a real CPS-2 board. The patch keeps the ROM's original sizes and key, so it drops in over the stock Japanese set.

What's changed

Japan's game, exactly as it plays in Japan
The Grand Master Challenge title, and a US region
Balrog, Vega, M. Bison and Akuma, the names you know
All 136 win quotes in English
The continue screen's strategy tips in English
Every ending in full, in English, including Akuma's
Akuma's intro dialogue, cut from the export game

Compared with the US Super Turbo

How the three compare.

	US Super Turbo	Japan	Grand Master Challenge
Gameplay	Export version	Japanese version	Japanese version
Language	English	Japanese	English
Title	Super Street Fighter II Turbo	Super Street Fighter II X: Grand Master Challenge	Super Street Fighter II Turbo: Grand Master Challenge
Character names	Balrog, Vega, M. Bison, Akuma	M. Bison, Balrog, Vega, Gouki	Balrog, Vega, M. Bison, Akuma
Win quotes	20	136	136
Continue screen tips	None	Yes	Yes
Endings	Shortened	Full	Full
Akuma's ending	Blank	Yes	Yes
Akuma's intro dialogue	Cut	Yes	Yes
Free Play	Yes	No	Yes

Spot a difference we missed?

A restoration is only as complete as its list of differences. If the Japanese version does something this one still doesn't, whether a line of text, a scene, a screen or a small detail, please let us know. Anything you find goes into the next release.

Downloads

Tools updated 2026-09-20. Game version unchanged.

Patch kit for MAME, HBMAME, MiSTer and original hardware

ssf2t-gmc-rc2-ips.zip (56 KB)

SHA-256: 15f3a9817b58fe2099a035a1b8fda7ded26d89b1f3d167e7b0275155ddb8b061

MiSTer MRA only

ssf2t-gmc-rc2-mra.zip (28 KB)

SHA-256: 762704c32164ba2cbad2796d378bc02d143ac6878a5e6872e45f8fc234893c5d

You need your own dump of Super Street Fighter II X: Grand Master Challenge (Japan 940311) as the MAME set ssf2xj.zip. Each zip includes a readme.txt with full instructions.

Merged, split and complete sets work, including nested or renamed ROMs. Use --rompath /path/to/roms to search a collection (repeatable), and --check to check inputs before building. ZIPs and extracted folders need no extra software; 7z archives require 7-Zip. QSound can stay in your emulator's ROM path; valid firmware already embedded in a source set is kept in complete outputs.

How to apply

unzip ssf2t-gmc-rc2-ips.zip -d ssf2xj-patch
cd ssf2xj-patch
python3 apply.py /path/to/ssf2xj.zip --out-dir out

The script checks every file against the checksums below, applies the patches, checks the result, and writes the files for every platform in one go:

out/mame/ssf2xj.zip
out/hbmame/ssf2tgmc.zip
out/mister/_Arcade/_Arcade Patches/_Restorations/Super Street Fighter II Turbo Grand Master Challenge (USA) [English Restoration].mra
out/mister/games/hbmame/ssf2tgmc.zip

MAME and original hardware. Put the zip from out/mame/ ahead of the stock set in your MAME rompath (it keeps the name ssf2xj.zip), or burn its ROM files. MAME reports checksum warnings for the patched ROMs. That's expected, and the game runs normally.

HBMAME. Put the zip from out/hbmame/ in HBMAME's roms/ folder next to your stock ssf2xj.zip. It loads with no checksum warnings. The HBMAME set definition (ssf2tgmc) is generated with the restoration; an upstream submission is pending, so for now you add it to your own HBMAME build.

MiSTer. Copy the _Arcade folder from out/mister/ to the root of your SD card, and keep the stock, unmodified romset at games/mame/ssf2xj.zip (split MAME sets also need qsound.zip). You need Jotego's jtcps2 core, which update_all installs. The MRA applies the restoration in memory as the game loads, so nothing on your card is modified, and it keeps its own settings and saves under ssf2tgmc. The MiSTer-only download holds the same MRAs, ready to copy.

out/mister/ also holds the HBMAME set in games/hbmame/. The MRA above doesn't need it, but the CPS+ Arrange and HD Remix MRAs load it, so if you use CPS+, copy the games folder from out/mister/ to your card as well.

Any IPS patcher. Apply each file in ips/ (Flips, Lunar IPS, …) to the ROM file of the same name and re-zip the set yourself.

Changed ROMs

File	Size	Original CRC32	Patched CRC32
sfx.13m	2.0 MB	cf94d275	75dac0eb
sfx.15m	2.0 MB	5eb703af	84dcc039
sfx.17m	2.0 MB	ffa60e0f	bfcaf206
sfx.19m	2.0 MB	34e825c5	13a55fd3
sfxj.03d	512 KB	50b52b37	b8a10ee0
sfxj.04a	512 KB	af7767b4	86104c3a
sfxj.08	512 KB	2de76f10	ea0d1d90

Release history

rc2 (2026-09-17)

The English was checked line by line against Capcom's own US script. Wherever Capcom's wording kept the Japanese meaning, it's now used: 54 lines across the win quotes, the endings and the Tournament Battle rules. Chun-Li's "Men are no challenge at all", for one, is now "You're no challenge at all". The Japanese story points stay, like Shoryuken instead of Sheng Long, and Cammy's spy story.
Every ending now plays out exactly as it does in Japan. Some scenes were being skipped under the US region, like Jane and Amy arriving to stop Guile.
Ending text looks like the US game's again: the fighters' lines in blue, everyone else in pink, and every caption centered in its box.
Akuma's reply to M. Bison is complete: "I am your shadow. Those possessed by the shadow must die. Your time is up!"
Dhalsim's teleport tip now explains that your input decides where he reappears.
Only sfxj.03d changes, so rebuild your set with the rc2 kit.

rc1 (2026-09-10)

First public release.

Related projects

arcade-projects request thread, the request this project set out to answer
CPS+, companion project: the arranged Anniversary Edition and HD Remix soundtracks for Super Turbo on MiSTer

Notes

MAME shows checksum warnings for the seven patched files. That's expected; the game plays normally. HBMAME with the ssf2tgmc set definition loads it without them.
Fan work, unaffiliated with Capcom. The patch contains no ROM data; you need your own dump of the Japanese set.