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This is a reference page for those who want more information about SF1, and in particular the workings of the pneumatic cabinet. Be warned, this is a bit technical. Be also warned that despite my best efforts, I may not know what I’m doing, and some of this information may be inaccurate (but I will gladly fix the error if you inform me). Please, also let me know if you have any questions, or anything cool to add.
The SF1 Manual is frequently referenced in this chapter. I would also like to mention that there is a wonderful article on SF1 by Matt Leone from Polygon called, Street Fighter 1: An Oral History, which describes the history of SF1 from interviews with the original developers. It is a worthwhile read, and some of the information below also references it.
The Arcade Cabinet
In the US, the SF1 arcade cabinet came in two forms: the Deluxe (aka Pneumatic version), and Standard (aka 6-button version). According to the interviews by Polygon, the Standard version was made after the SF1 Deluxe cabinet failed to sell well.
The Standard version of SF1 was housed in a Dynamo HS-1 cabinet (this cabinet was used in many other dedicated Capcom arcade cabinets in the 1980s). In the 6-button cabinet, the attack strength of the buttons decreases as you go from left to right (see picture below); the order was reversed in it’s sequel, SF2.
There may be a cocktail version of SF1. According to the Game Machine’s Upright / Cockpit Videos list in October 1987, “A cheaper cocktail table version of the game went to #1 on the Table Videos list in January 1988“. It is unclear if this quote refers to US or worldwide sales. Therefore this quote is possibly referring to a Japanese SF1 cocktail table found in a flier, or erroneously to the Standard version of SF1. Sometimes arcade fliers advertise prototypes, and it is currently unclear if a Japanese cocktail cabinet was ever actually produced for the public (as there are no actual pictures of one available). It would be wonderful to see an actual cocktail cabinet if one were to ever surface.
There are also several European variations of the SF1 cabinet distributed by Electrocoin. These include a Deluxe cabinet that looks similar to the US and Japanese versions, but they also made several versions of the 6-button cabinet. One version is highlighted in this thread, and pictured below (it is most excellent).
There are an unknown number of SF1 cabinets sold, as no official numbers exist. The numbers quoted below are based on interviews, and may represent a mix of US or worldwide sales, and outright guesstimates and exaggerations. So depending on the source (who may or may not be biased), the deluxe pneumatic cabinets were estimated to sell 200 units, but possibly up to 1000, and maybe even 3000 units. The dedicated six-button version (standard and/or cocktail) was estimated to sell around 10,000 units, or maybe even tens of thousands of units. One of those interviewed speculates that, worldwide, up to 50,000 SF1 PCBs were sold, including bootleg PCBs. Take these numbers with a grain of salt. For some perspective, it is estimated that SF2:WW sold ~60,000 “machines” (but then again, SF2:WW was a conversion kit, and so this number is also ambiguous).
The Main PCB
The SF1 Main PCB consists of 3 boards stacked on top of each other, and connected sequentially via a Molex connector, and 3 ribbon cables. The topmost board is designated A, the middle B, and the bottom C. This may seem a bit counter-intuitive, since the CAPCOM’s CPS1 and CPS2 board sets have their A-boards at the bottom of the stack. But, what is consistent from these Capcom boards is that the A-boards all contain the JAMMA connector.
Through this whole process, I have acquired a collection of SF1 boards in both the pneumatic, and 6-button configurations. From my small sample of boards, I have found that there are two different versions of the SF1 PCB composed of 3-board stacks. Unmodified, the SF1 board stacks labeled, 87120-X (X = A, B, or C), can only use the 6-button scheme. On the other hand, SF1 board stacks labeled, 86116-X-2, can use both the 6-button, and pneumatic controls. Most 86116 boards were converted from pneumatic to 6-button controls via a ROM swap. Some 6-button conversion 86116 boards were distributed from the factory, and some of these came without their pneumatic hose connectors (Biomech011 calls this the Mark II, or the Neutered PCB).
The 87120 board stack is technically JAMMA+ (and resembles MVS or CHAMMA), because buttons 4 and 5 for P1 and P2 are located at pins 25/c, and 26/d, respectively. The 87120 A-board also has 3 pins at CN5 to connect button 6 for both players. There are also 4 pins at CN6 that allow for two sets of speakers to be connected for stereo sound!
The 86116 pneumatic board stack has pins at CN6 for stereo sound. When used for the 6-button configuration, the 86116 board stack becomes similar to the 87120 set, but it is a bit different. Instead this board set uses the one connector (CN6 pictured above) for both stereo sound, and for buttons 3 and 6 for P1 and P2.
The easiest way to separate the A-, B-, and C- boards from each other is to remove the 4 screws on the corners of the A-board, and then remove the 4 PCB feet on the bottom of the C-board.
The B-boards from each set look almost identical. However, the A- and C-Boards from the different stacks look very different. The A-boards have been mentioned above. The 86116 C-boards contain two identical daughtercards labeled, 86116-E-X (similar to the cards found in Capcom’s 1943, and I presume other Capcom games of the era); these are absent in the 87120 C-boards.
Boards from both the 86116 and 87120 stacks can be physically plugged into each other, but as they are, mixing the different board sets are not compatible with a functional game. As mentioned, the B-boards from both sets look almost identical, and when swapped, the game will boot, but then crash (at least on the 3 board combinations I tested). I presume it’s possible to modify each board so that they can be compatible with each other. But this is not currently within the scope of this article, nor the skills of this writer.
Located on the C-board are SF ROMS chips 19 through 24. These contain the game ROM data. The original ROM chips are labeled 27c512. The SF1 Pneumatic ROM file is called, Street Fighter (World, Analog buttons); it is labeled as, SF1.zip, and can be found in the usual places.
The End PCB
The End PCB is electronic, and has no interface for the pneumatic hoses. It was included in the Pneumatic cabinet, and contains pins to connect power, video, sound, coin, and controls for Player 1 and Player 2 (abbreviated in the document as P1 and P2, respectively). The connectors for the End PCB are summarized in Sections 3-6, and 4-24 of the SF1 arcade manual and pictured above.
The connector for P1 and P2 buttons 5 and/or 6 are on the Main PCB, and not on the End PCB. The 56-pin connector on the End PCB is strictly JAMMA with 3 action buttons per player, and does not include traces for pins 25/c, and 26/d which correspond to P1 and P2 buttons 4 and 5, respectively. Therefore, the End PCB is not compatible with a 6-button PCB without modification. Notably, two of the three End PCBs I have seen have been modified so that pins 25/c, and 26/d function for their respective buttons.
As mentioned, the SF1 End PCB was made by Atari. Jamesv833 pointed out that the SF1 End PCB looked similar to the End PCB found in the Atari game, Rolling Thunder. The Rolling Thunder manual confirms that these End PCBs look identical, and are both labeled, A044201-01. Rolling Thunder came out in 1986, and SF1 in 1987. Atari likely repurposed the same End PCB to use in SF1. This may explain why action buttons 1-3 for P1 and P2 were wired for the SF1 End PCB even though these buttons were not used on the pneumatic cabinet.
Jamma Nation X produces a type of End PCB for the 6-button version SF1 that is compatible with the CPS kick harnesses. Different configurations will be required depending on your SF1 board version (86116 vs 87120). Interestingly, the pinout for SF1 board stack 87120 is very similar to Street Fighter: The Movie: The Game.
The Junction Box
The junction box is a U-shaped metal apparatus that attaches to the cabinet. It has round stickers of different colors, and the letters, SFP-20, stamped on it. Upon closer inspection, the business end of the junction box is a solid brick of metal. Each face of the metal brick has 4 holes drilled straight through; you can look into one end of each hole, and out the other like a telescope. These holes are terminated on each end by barbed tube connectors that are also made of metal.
According to the SF1 instruction manual (Section 3-5), the pneumatic controls use silicon tubes. The silicon tubes that I received from wisenheimr came in two lengths: 11.75″, and 23.75″. Either length can go on either side of the Junction Box, but I use the longer tube on the Control Panel end as this helps with installation and removal of the Control Panel. The tubes have an outside diameter of 0.25″, and an internal diameter of 0.125″ (I used a simple fuel line tube as it is red in color and pretty).
The pneumatic connectors are color coded on both the Pneumatic PCB and Junction Box for consistent installation. Player 1 Punch and Kick correspond to the Blue and Black dots, respectively. Likewise, Player 2 Punch and Kick correspond to Red and Green dots, respectively. These colors are arbitrary designations, and can be mixed and matched.
The Pneumatic Control Panels
The top of a pneumatic control panel has a large 1/4″ thick black rubberized metal plate. This surface has one large opening for a joystick, and two other openings for the pneumatic cylinders. The tops of the pneumatic cylinders are capped by two rubber buttons (officially called bash pads), and black rubber padding.
Each white cylinder is made of thick plastic. The top of the cylinder (streaked in black) is mobile and compressible. When compressed, air is expelled from the tube connector at the base of the cylinder. Also note one visible spring coil near the base that provides resistance and recoil when the top of the cylinder is depressed.
The white cylinder is held together by four large screws around its center. Inside the cylinder is a spring and pneumatic piston.
The pistons within the Control Panel pneumatic cylinders are still manufactured by a company called, SMC Pneumatics (Yorba Linda, CA). The complete pneumatic piston (Part number: CQ2B32-01-56670) was made custom for Atari/Capcom. It is unavailable, but a representative at SMC states that the configuration can be easily reproduced if the correct measurements are made, and compared to the dimensions of their new standards found in their catalogue. If you know what a “stroke” is as it refers to pistons, then you may be able to help recreate some pneumatic controls.
SMC Pneumatics still makes the floating joints (Part number: JA20-8-125), and seal repair kits (Part Number: CQ2B32-PS) for the pneumatic pistons. The floating joints are useful as spares, but they are industrial strength, and unlikely to break with regular use. However, the seal repair kits are easy to use, and are very useful to refurbish inconsistent pneumatic controls.
The following gallery gives detailed pictures of the pneumatic controls, and its components. The pictures may be helpful if you wish to disassemble the pneumatic cylinder and replace the O-rings, attempt to make a reproduction, or are just curious about how things work.
Thank you for reading, and please let me know if you have any questions. Now, let’s see some resurrected pneumatic cabinets!
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STREET FIGHTER ONE 
Thank you for putting this all out there Vinsanity.
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Thanks so much for reading!
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Thanks for the info. I went and checked my cab and found the pneumatic PCBs , end board and junction box. No hoses or control panels. Guess I’ll have to start looking.
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Cool—let me know how it goes. Would be awesome to see another one of these working.
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excelente felicitaciones!
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This is inching me, a middle aged housewife of no electrical experience nor mechanical inclination, one more inch closer to undertaking my idiotic quest to restore a Time Traveler cabinet. Thank you! I think!
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That would be super amazing!!
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