FM Towns Marty

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
FM Towns Marty
Windows 95B OSR2
CPUAMD 386SX at 16 MHz
Memory2 MB
Display352×232 – 640×480 resolutions, 256 colors on-screen out of a palette of 32 768; TV composite and S-Video output
GraphicsFujitsu custom graphics chip
Sound
Backward
compatibility
FM Towns

The FM Towns Marty

backward-compatible
with older FM Towns games.

In 1994, a new version of the console called the FM Towns Marty 2 (エフエムタウンズマーティー2, Efu Emu Taunzu Mātī Tsū) was released. It featured a darker gray shell and a lower price (

Intel 486
CPU, but this was also discovered to be false.

There is also the FM Towns Car Marty (エフエムタウンズカーマーティー, Efu Emu Taunzu Kā Mātī) for installation in

IC Card for the FM Towns Car Marty allowed it to use VICS,[5]
and was subsequently sold with a video monitor.

Technical specifications

CPU
MIPS[6]
)
RAM
Graphics
Sprites
Up to 1024 sprites, 16×16 pixels sprite size, 16 colors per sprite[10]
Sound
Data storage
  • CD-ROM, single-speed (1x)
  • Internal 3.5" HD
    PC98
    -style). This can be done from the BIOS GUI. The Marty's disk drive does not support 1440 KiB or 720 KiB FAT-formatted 3.5" floppy disks. For a PC to be compatible with FM Towns Marty floppies it must have a disk drive, BIOS and OS that supports "3 Mode". There are also USB floppy drives that support "3 Mode".

Multi-purpose
PCMCIA
type 1 slot

The Marty's IC Card slot is compatible with type 1 PCMCIA cards, including battery-backed SRAM cards (accessible from the BIOS menu) that can be mapped to a drive letter and used as a small drive. Fujitsu also officially released a PCMCIA 2400 bit/s modem (FMM-CM301) for the FM Towns Marty. This modem was bundled with the special TCMarty that also came with a printer port. While it is widely believed that the IC Card slot can be used for RAM expansions, this is not correct.

Controllers
  • 4-way D-pad, A and B buttons, Select, and Run, as well as an extra button above the two "face" buttons
  • 2 standard controller ports

    The controller connector is a

    Sharp X68000.[12]

  • Keyboard port

Games

Reception

Despite having excellent hardware from a gameplay perspective, both the FM Towns and the FM Towns Marty were very poor sellers in Japan. They were expensive and the custom hardware meant expandability was not as easy as with

PC98 series computers were also dominant in Japan when the FM Towns Marty was released, making it difficult to break out before the DOS/V invasion took control of the market. This was despite such revolutionary features as bootable CD-ROMs and a color GUI OS on the FM Towns PC, something that predated Microsoft's Windows 95b
bootable CD by seven years. Software today is rare and expensive due to the low production runs. Despite backwards compatibility with most older FM Towns PC games, compatibility issues plagued the Marty as newer titles were released with the FM Towns in mind, further limiting its potential as a true "console version" of the FM Towns PC.

When Fujitsu lowered the price and released the Marty 2 sales started to increase, but the corporate attitude was that it was a lost cause, and so the system was dropped.

Notes

  1. ^ エフエムタウンズマーティー (Japanese: Efu Emu Taunzu Mātī)

References

  1. ^ Die, 16-bit, Die! at ign.com
  2. 、151頁。
  3. ^ "Home Page".
  4. ^ "FM Towns Marty Disassembly". Nfggames.com. 2007-08-12. Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2016-06-24.
  5. ^ a b "International News". Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 54. Ziff Davis. January 1994. p. 92.
  6. ^ Enterprise, I. D. G. (25 March 1991). "Computerworld". IDG Enterprise. Retrieved 24 June 2016 – via Google Books.
  7. ^ "ACE Magazine Issue 27". archive.org. December 1989. Retrieved 24 June 2016.
  8. ^ a b c d "OLD-COMPUTERS.COM: The Museum". old-computers.com. Retrieved 24 June 2016.
  9. ^ "Edge Magazine - GamesRadar+". edge-online.com. Retrieved 24 June 2016.
  10. ^ a b "MAME | SRC/Mess/Video/Fmtowns.c". Archived from the original on September 7, 2014. Retrieved October 17, 2014.
  11. ^ "RF5C68A PDF Datasheet - Ricoh Corporation - Datasheets360.com". www.datasheets360.com. Archived from the original on 23 September 2015. Retrieved 17 January 2022.
  12. ^ "controls:capcompowerstick [NFG Games + GameSX]". gamesx.com. Retrieved 24 June 2016.

External links