They're both decently cheap if you don't mind a project and stay away from the iconic looking ones. For example just half a year ago I got a X68000, the gray desktop variant, for 80 euro. Difference is I got them known not working, but repair is rather easy on both the FM Towns and X68000 if you know a bit about electronics. In my case it was building a simple PSU as it was removed for some reason and recapping the system. Funnily enough getting a real keyboard for it will be more expensive than the system if I ignore shipping, hahaha. If want a "tested and working" system with the iconic look of the computer and with a keyboard you'd need to sacrifice your first born, and probably your second as well. Buying dusty looking "untested" units tend to be "works but dirty" or "needs minor maintenance" (unless its a system with a donkeykong barrel battery inside pissing its contents on the board).
Man, if ONLY it was released worldwide, it would sell well! Just looking at that sexy hardware makes me own one! Hehe. I love everything about it, the hardware, software, and even the audio, it just screams nostalgia! Great video as always, Mark! Cheers!
Perfect episode thank you Mark! One of the few pieces of hardware I've never owned so I couldn't wait for this video and it was ace. I actually got the beer and crisps out for this one. The closest I got was a 30 minute VHS tape of gameplay from various games including Tatsujin which made my jaw drop as I was playing Amiga at the time.
Wow that really was a great machine!!! I remember these back in the day rarer than rocking horse xxxx! Thanks for telling us a lot more about these systems.
Man I love this video because FM Towns, PC-98 and x68000 is the 3 computers I have a huge interest on rely love them. So to be able to learn even more about FM town is awesome. Thanks for a great video.
Awesome video as usual! The FM-Towns deserves more love! I really appreciate what you featured as I'm usually seeing ports of Western games and not this great selection. Truxton II may have one of the best first stage themes of all games on the system.
This is far and away the best retro gaming channel on youtube. It was also one of the first. Really enjoyed this in depth look. Still in a class of your own Mark.
Absolutely wonderful episode, Mark. The FM Towns is a very nice series of computers, though, aside from ogling a FM Towns Marty that was out of my price range at an import shop when I started college about two decades ago, I never really tried to find a way to get one or even emulate one, assuming there is any FM Towns emulators out there. Still, I love seeing, and especially hearing, videos where the systems are featured. You have to love the FM plus PCM sound of FM Towns, and it makes you wish SEGA had splurged a little more and added a PCM chip as well to the Mega Drive, either like the one in the FM Towns, the other Ricoh PCM chip that's in the SEGA-CD, the NEC chip that was in the System 16, or something besides just using FM channel 6 for PCM on the YM2612. As far as I know, no company used the audio lines of the cart port either except the 32X and, now, MegaSD, which is also a shame.The Genesis has great music, but some of the FM Towns soundtracks are just even better thanks to having those additional PCM channels. Aside, from the sound, I also really like the design of the Marty and just love the design of that FM Towns 2F. It's really a shame that systems like this and the X68000 never came to the west.
It was an Awsome system. The audio was so advanced for the time. Blew away any western computer. Amiga probably was the best the West had at the time but the 4 channels on that couldn't dream of competing with the two audio chips and multiple sound channels of the FM Towns. I'd say it even has a better audio set up than a stock X68000.
It seems many of the games of the FM towns had PCM recorded music. Without a CD ROM, no PCM music. The CDROM is more important than the audio processors quality. PC Engine CD could already play CD ROM music (which some gorgeous soundtracks), and all the computers that had a CD ROM. It might have great sound processors or better ones, but without the CD ROM, you would not have the great music of this quality in it. Though the Amiga system was nice and innovative for 1985, the Apple II GS that went out in 1986 was a lot better with 8 stereo channels and many other features (designed by the designer of the SID chip). Apple II GS had unfortunately less success than the Amiga, but i think it had the best sound system at that point. After the 80s, the Gravis Ultrasound card for PC was the best sound system for computers (32 PCM channels in 16 bits).
Excellent as always! This is one of the few retro systems I know almost nothing about. This was informative and interesting. It definitely had some nice games. Thanks!
Damn man, I've been waiting for this since you announced that you bought a FM Towns for cheap, must have been felt ages ago. Great that you finally made it.
New Zealand Story is the smallest ISO for this PC I ever found, 6 MB packed, and not much more unpacked. So much room still left on that CD unused. Rainbow Islands Extra is also extra sweet for the Marty, but goodness gracious it is not a cheap game to purchase.
This is a dream machine for me as I was into home computers back in the day. I played (sadly under emulation only) a lot the Tatsujin Oh port and also Alltynex, a doujin vertical shmup with melee attacks (not too bad). It is worth noting that the FM Towns received a good amount of ports of Western games that often ended up being better than the Amiga/PC/ST original counterparts (eg. the only version of Zack McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders which had 256 colour graphics was the FM Towns one).
What a surprise. I really enjoy your RC series. Thanks for the video. You know, I think the look of the dark gray FM Towns units hold up very well today.
"There was no SS (*tear) or PSx (*cheer) at this time yet ... The 3DO however ..." ~half hour mark I wanna now travel Asia to visit long-lost distant relatives and friends to see if someone has this stored up in the attic somewhere 😹 Love the new intro; excellent video, informative+entertaining as per usj! Keep up the wonderful work - we appreciate you grandly, Sire!
A working one is tough to find but broken units turn up at least once a week on Yahoo Auctions. The tower models mostly suffer from dead CD drives and dead PSUs. Just like what happened to mine 😭
I don’t think the launch price of 338,000Y ($2500) is much of a bargain compared to a $3000 X68000, both were expensive computers and is why machines like the NEC 88-98 series ruled the roost for PC gaming in Japan, selling tens of millions vs hundreds of thousands, these computers were good, but the hardware sales and prices put them in the Neo-Geo region for gamers, even the cheaper Marty was more expensive ($700) than the launch price 3DO!
It came with monitor too and for Japan it was a bargain. Back then japn was a very expensive place. Its all relative to the country. Kind of like in the UK we thought stuff in the US was way cheaper but in reality it wasn't when cost of living and avarage salary are considered. Even then it was still cheaper than an IBM PC. Oh, and the release price was, 200,000 yen, not 338000. I got the data from an original sales brochure. The ultra specked out system cost more though. But that's like comparing an Amiga 500 to a top end 1200.
Retro Core i was comparing computers in Japan as we didn’t get any of them in the west, the reason why NEC sold more computers than Sharp or Fujitsu was their computers were better value for money, or course in most cases the specs weren’t as good but you got what you paid for. Btw i got the price of the FM Towns off the official Fujitsu website, but as you say its probably the model with the CD-ROM drive, which tbh is required to play most FM Towns games.
The one yoh probably got the price for would be fully loaded with business software and windows too. Those ones were expensive. All FM Towns machines have. CD drive though. It was the first ever machine to have one as standard.
I wish my old 486 machine came with sprite hardware. These Japanese gaming computers are very cool and I would have loved having one back in the day. Both the X68000 and FM Towns seem to have solid libraries. I imagine it would be difficult to choose a platform. It's funny to see this feature show up at this time as I've had FM Towns on my mind lately, believe it or not. I got the urge to go back and give Mad Stalker(the PC Engine version) a few plays last week after seeing it featured in a RUclips video. I hadn't played it in a few years. I enjoyed it even more this time around. I then ended up taking a look at Game Sack's X68000 video again because of that and it got me wondering if they'd ever cover the FM Towns, but here you are doing just that, and doing a good job of it. After playing Mad Stalker again, I was looking into how the X68000, FM Towns, and PCE versions all stack up. It made for an interesting comparison. The PCE version looks to be a port from the FM Towns as they share the single-layer backgrounds. Though it seems like they changed the credits/continue system for the PCE version, with limited credits, but with immediate continues. I think the FM Towns is like the X68000, with unlimited continues, but having to restart the stage. All three versions look to be good in their own ways. I was not able to actually play the FM Towns version unlike the other two. I imagine Tatsujin 2 was just too advanced or would have required a lot of work to convert to PC Engine or Mega Drive. It's surprising that Grind Stormer, which was on the same arcade board, was converted. A port to the FM Towns wouldn't need too much adjustment to the graphics to make it work. It's a shame Tatsujin 2, Dogyuun, and Grind Stormer came out in that transition period before the Saturn and Playstation came out, as they were likely considered too old when those systems were finally available. Nice job on this feature. As I said, the timing of this was really great for me since I've been looking into FM Towns. It was fun taking a deeper look at the library.
If I had to choose between the FM Towns and X68000, then it would be the X68000 due to it having more Arcade ports and an overall higher quality. Both are great systems though. Sadly both are really expensive these days. To fix my tower model will cost a pretty penny. I have a new CD drive for it but still looking for a PSU.
@@RetroCore That's about what I was thinking, and I'm sure you know more about the two platforms and their libraries than I do. I can see it being a tougher decision back when they were current and factoring in their retail costs.
@@BlownMacTruck I never got a notification of your reply, so I didn't see it until now. I figured that was the case with it being difficult to source the hardware. Thanks for providing the info.
@@RetroCore I had learned right before this FM Towns video came out that there was a cancelled version of the game for the Mega Drive. I just had an urge today to examine the screenshot that was scanned from a magazine and it seems the developer is currently finishing the game and intends to release it. In a bit of a funny coincidence, it seems that info came out right about the time this video went up on RUclips and days after I was playing the game(I like to think I willed it to happen). I thought you might be interested to know that as I know you are interested in new cart releases of old or unreleased games. Though, in the case of Mad Stalker, it may be redundant if you already have other versions. Still, it's cool to see this get finished as, ever since I found out about it, I was curious what the MD version would be like. From the lone screenshot, it looks like it uses the X68000's backgrounds since it doesn't have the BG limitation of the FM Towns or PC Engine. Perhaps we'll see more shots and video soon enough. Here's where I got the info, with the original info seeming to be from Opera House's Twitter: www.4gamer.net/games/999/G999905/20200225094/
@@RetroCore Sometimes I think someone at Sega didn't like Turbo Outrun. It never got a good port, it barely gets acknowledged, and it's rarely mentioned.
@@RetroCore I know I look in to it lol But still a Great piece of tech for its day. I had heard of the system. But I just didn't realise. How good it was? Another great video by the way Thank you.
The tower version of the FM Towns and the Sharp X68000 are totally on my dream list should the money and opportunity ever intersect. Japanese computers just give off more of a cool and high-tech vibe than their American contemporaries.
You need a Towns Pentium for proper framerrate on Mahou Daisakusen, even though its amazing how the japanese took advantage of the 486 CPU providing these machines with a quite "capable" graphics chip, while here we were still torturing our eyes with CGA or EGA monochrome graphic cards in our IBM Pc's.
Thats because most ports/games for the IBM PC were designed to run on the IBM 5150 from 1981 even during the early 90s. It wasnt until developers dropped support for the 8 bit machines and made games for the PS/2 or better that IBM PC gaming took a giant leap in graphics.
The most awaited Retro Core episode so far for an exorbitant game console. Hoping to see someone inserting at least a Compact Flash Hard Drive adapter for this rare beast to reduce the wear & tear of aging CD & floppy drives or even better, maximize the machine's compatibility ala RetroManCave's style.
They definitely have some common traits, being home computers with custom 2D hardware. I think there's overlap in the target market of the two platforms, and you can see that in the types of games. It's similar to PC Engine and Mega Drive in some ways as those two machines had much in common in terms of their libraries.
It looks like the FM Towns didn't have the specialized video chip etc. of something like the Neo-Geo and had to do a lot of things in software, which would explain the high CPU demands of the ports.
Wow soo may great games if this system was a worldwide release imagine😇... I only knew about this machine back in the day because i used to buy EGM (i still have those isues) along whit GAMEFAN & GAMEPRO & some other mags of that era😇 Great video thanks👍👍👍for uploading hope to see more of the Fm Towns
Great vid, they got some mileage out of that Afterburner soundtrack same one used in Mega CD Afterburner III - I guess its the same in the FM Town ABIII too! amazing music anyways.
The FM Towns basically seems like what would happen if the MS-DOS PCs of the late 80s actually had pretty beefy graphics hardware as standard. As it stands when the FM towns came out alot of PCs were still stuck in EGA land
@@RetroCore no chance of get to see any of this over here in the UK, used to love seeing a few screenshots of the FM Towns in magazines back in the day. Awesome 👍
One of the computers I must get, got even more hyped from your video! I do wonder if I should try to get one next trip to Japan, or get it from a auction site via a proxy. Thanks for making the video!
@@RetroCore yeah, got more of these "japan only" machines I want to pick up also. I have purchased a X68000 already, it needs a new PSU which I already have a solution for, just need to get around to fix it.
Some pretty impressive games for this cool computer system. Another thing I noticed on SSFII is there is no 3D line scrolling effect for the ground/floor unlike most other ports.
Ah, it does have the floor line effect (raster effect it's called) but I switched it off to speed up the game. With it switched on the game runs very slowly.
A small addition: There is a conversion of ZakMcCracken on the FM-Towns and it is the best version out there. While the PC Version is still in EGA mode. The FM Towns Version offers VGA-style graphics with mor colours.
Nice video, I've always wondered about this system since discovering its existence not long ago. The only game I own for it is Raiden Densetsu, but since I don't have an FM Towns I have to use emulation. Sadly the game has a slightly inconsistent framerate, but it's still the second-best home port of Raiden next to PS1 Raiden Project, and it has an amazing arranged soundtrack. It's a shame that the FM Towns and its games are at Neo Geo AES levels of expensive.
I can only speculate why systems like this didn't come out in the west. There was already a home computer format war going on back then, so the pool just might have just been too crowded for more competition to show up.
Well, in Europe there was, certainly. In the US, the IBM PC standard was pretty much the only game in town, especially after the first legal clone BIOSes in the mid-80s and the resulting wave of cheap IBM clones, as the dichotomy of PCs as work machines and Nintendo as the games box took firm hold in the country.
One game I wish I could play is Dinosaur it was released for this computer but also for Windows later but again only in Japan and it has a great soundtrack more the FM Towns version.
@@RetroCore It was developed by Nihon Falcom the same guys that did Ys, Xanadu, Sorcerian and all those classic RPGs for those early computers PC 88, X1, PC 98, MSX and also the FM Towns.
Wow... I never knew much about the FM Town, but it looks great ! I moved from a 128K +2 Speccy to an MSX 2+ in the late 80s and got lots of Japanese games for it. A couple of years ago I discovered the Sharp 6800 and I was surprised to find many " improved " versions of my favorites MSX games running and playing better then ever. How would you compare the FM Town to the 6800 ? Toward the end of the video you mentioned that indeed the 6800 was more powerful, but maybe the FM Towns had a bigger and better library ? Anyway, great video. Cheers.
Wow. Moving from a ZX Spectrum to the MSX2 is a great upgrade. I have a MSX2 as well. Its a great 8 bit system. The X68000 is much better than the FM Towns. It has so many Arcade perfect game on it. But I think the FM TOWNS has a much better sound system on board. As for games, the X68000 has more but it is a much more expensive system. Saying that, the FM TOWNS is also quite expensive.
Thanks Mark because If I ever just buy the pc unit i will know how to hook it up to a modern monitor or a tv. I have a Marty, but wondered how many of these games you showed are compatible with the Marty too.
Also of note, Samurai Spirits will not run properly unless you have a ton of RAM, which I believe means some models of the FM Towns will not run it. Looks like Super Street Fighter might also be the same way.
Wow, maybe the model of FM Towns matters (I think the Car Marty, or whatever that thing was called, an old internet friend of mine had one, and it wasn't all that great a model I believe he said), especially with all the RAM you have and the game still runs this slow. Maybe SNK should've ported the game themselves, ouch. Such a beautiful port, and it's super sluggish.
What is that track played on the beginning of this video? You know, not your intro, on your overview on the FM Towns. What can I say about that track? IT’S HYPER AWESOME!!!
Hello, I recommend you to enable FAST MODE for play certain games. You can do it by booting with F key pressed in the keyboard. You can access to a BIOS menu for activate the speed modes and boot device by Booting with A and B buttons in the game pad. Great video, sir.
Booting with pad's A and B buttons ( BIOS screen ) Booting with pad's A button ( Start from CDROM ) Booting with pad's B button ( Start from Floppy 0 ) Booting with F key ( FAST MODE ) Booting with N key ( NORMAL 386 Compatible MODE ) Booting with C and D keys ( boot from CDROM ) Booting with F and 0 keys ( boot from Floppy 0) Booting with F and 1 keys ( boot from floppy 2) Booting with H and 0 keys ( boot from Hard Drive )
I have to write a second comment. These arcade ports are amazing for the time period when they came out. Even the 89 games were incredible compared to what else was available at the time. Wow! Just fantastic. Do you have the Marty? Was that a lower powered console? I really don’t know much about it nor do I know if it had many games.
The Marty is basically an FM Towns computer but with far less ram making it in compatable with almost half of the game library. I don't own one as I own two FM Towns computers as show in this video. Although one is now broken.
The dream machine, maybe even more than NEOGEO. In Italy it was impossible to find it, even from the best equipped dealers and the magazines of the time sometimes wrote articles to magnify its computational power. It would have been nice to live in Japan in the 80s and 90s.
I confused could this run Ms Doss games or Windows games since it had Windows logo on front or was custom versions. For them FM towns computers . Sorry about my confusion I never heard of them computers tell now
Ah the legendary FM Towns. I could be wrong but I think it was the first 32 bit machine made before the 3DO etc. Pity it didn't come out here in the west. Could have had some potential if treated right. Hard to get games for it now so it's a real collectors piece. Are there any other consoles you haven't done yet Mark?
I am so jealous of what the Japanese had back in the day what with this and the x68000. What did we have? The bloody Amiga and the piss poor conversions we wasted far too much money on.
Totally agree even though the diehard Amiga fans think it's so brilliant. The FM Towns and X68000 destroyed it in every way possible. The arcade conversions on Amiga and ST were a complete joke let's be honest.
@@paulacuff6063 Annoyingly, given a decent development period and better coders, the Amiga and even the C64 were capable of at least reasonable approximation of games such as Out Run. What we got were rushed half arsed efforts trying for that Christmas number 1.
The Amiga and ST were technically inferior to the likes of FM Towns and X68000 to begin with. But it does not mean they couldn't have handled better ports than they did. The biggest problem was the amateurish style of development that was in place in the UK at the time. They didn't get over the bedroom coders way of making games until the mid 90's, when pretty much every European developer had closed down or become part of some larger multinational company.
I remember seeing this in computer magazine's, it was very pricey. This system run games almost the same as the arcades with the correct music and sounds because of the cd. Microsoft's next console is somewhat like this a cross between pc and game console.
"but we are running out of time" looks at the time, damn almost 1 hour most youtubers say that at the 8 minutes mark hahaha anyway, how long does it usually take to make a video like this? excellent work and effort mind you.
Haha, and those RUclipsrs bitch that life is hard having to make short videos. They have no idea what hard work is. Anyway, this video has been in production for many months although a lot of that time was due to finding a new FM Towns after my Tower system shown at the being of the video broke. I guess if I was to break it down it would go like this. 7 to 8 hours of playing the games. 2 hours to record and edit the voiceover. 1 hour to film me speaking to camera and the B-roll footage. 1 hour to make all the graphics including title card for RUclips. 3 hours to edit everything together. So in total a video like this takes about 14 to 15 hours to produce.
nice channel i have subscribe, interesting and nice this Japan computer, first time i hear, i remember some of this games, im don't remember if this game 12:35 i have play on Amiga 500 or Arcade
Thanks for subscribing, Marco. The next special I'll be covering is also based upon a Japanese exclusive system. One that was the follow up to an extremely popular console but sadly the follow up was a massive failure.
I personally always wanted to buy the FM Towns Marty for the video game collection Mark. It makes the Neo-Geo AES look like a charity store purchase instead. 8^) Anthony..
Actually, im not sure if it's been corrected or not, but Sorcer Striker was actually first ported to the X68000. And its an arcade perfect port, queue the collective sigh of releif lol.
The FM Towns' case looks awesome. I'd love to see a new computer case that looks similar to it.
The flashing led lights and vertical CD drive are very sexy.
The FM Towns and Sharp X68000 are some amazing computers, too bad they're too expensive nowadays...
@The Princess Peach Guy Yeah.
They're both decently cheap if you don't mind a project and stay away from the iconic looking ones. For example just half a year ago I got a X68000, the gray desktop variant, for 80 euro. Difference is I got them known not working, but repair is rather easy on both the FM Towns and X68000 if you know a bit about electronics. In my case it was building a simple PSU as it was removed for some reason and recapping the system.
Funnily enough getting a real keyboard for it will be more expensive than the system if I ignore shipping, hahaha.
If want a "tested and working" system with the iconic look of the computer and with a keyboard you'd need to sacrifice your first born, and probably your second as well. Buying dusty looking "untested" units tend to be "works but dirty" or "needs minor maintenance" (unless its a system with a donkeykong barrel battery inside pissing its contents on the board).
@@relo999 Huh, cool.
Man, if ONLY it was released worldwide, it would sell well! Just looking at that sexy hardware makes me own one! Hehe. I love everything about it, the hardware, software, and even the audio, it just screams nostalgia!
Great video as always, Mark! Cheers!
It's a classic system for sure. Makes the IBM PC's of the day look extremely sad.
I love my HA53 FM-Towns. Even has the DX4-100 upgrade. My son can never get enough of Raiden on it.
Good that your son is playing the classics that aren't Nintendo based 👍
@@RetroCore He isn't a fan of Nintendo. Even his RUclips name is SegaAidan. haha!
I really enjoy these obscure / rare system video's.
Japan have so many awesome products I have never seen.
Thanks for sharing and caring 😃
Perfect episode thank you Mark! One of the few pieces of hardware I've never owned so I couldn't wait for this video and it was ace. I actually got the beer and crisps out for this one. The closest I got was a 30 minute VHS tape of gameplay from various games including Tatsujin which made my jaw drop as I was playing Amiga at the time.
Yeah, glad the video was worthybof beer and crisps. That's what I like to eat and drink in front of something good.
I always wonder why this machine was named FM Towns. Now I gonna add this info in my " Some-what obscure games trivia" list
Because "AM Villages" would have sounded pretty stupid ?
Excellent video as always!! I never knew about the FM Towns, but it seems like a very interesting console with more than few great games!! A+
Wow that really was a great machine!!! I remember these back in the day rarer than rocking horse xxxx! Thanks for telling us a lot more about these systems.
You're very welcome. Sadly these days the FM Towns is quite expensive.
Man I love this video because FM Towns, PC-98 and x68000 is the 3 computers I have a huge interest on rely love them. So to be able to learn even more about FM town is awesome. Thanks for a great video.
Awesome video as usual! The FM-Towns deserves more love! I really appreciate what you featured as I'm usually seeing ports of Western games and not this great selection. Truxton II may have one of the best first stage themes of all games on the system.
Yep, I made a point to stay away from most western PC ports even though most are best on the FM Towns.
39:07 "HOLY EPILEPTIC SEIZURE BATMAN!!" LOL, awesome video!
This is far and away the best retro gaming channel on youtube. It was also one of the first.
Really enjoyed this in depth look. Still in a class of your own Mark.
Thank you, Mike S. Yep, I've been making videos for over 20 years now.
Absolutely wonderful episode, Mark. The FM Towns is a very nice series of computers, though, aside from ogling a FM Towns Marty that was out of my price range at an import shop when I started college about two decades ago, I never really tried to find a way to get one or even emulate one, assuming there is any FM Towns emulators out there. Still, I love seeing, and especially hearing, videos where the systems are featured. You have to love the FM plus PCM sound of FM Towns, and it makes you wish SEGA had splurged a little more and added a PCM chip as well to the Mega Drive, either like the one in the FM Towns, the other Ricoh PCM chip that's in the SEGA-CD, the NEC chip that was in the System 16, or something besides just using FM channel 6 for PCM on the YM2612. As far as I know, no company used the audio lines of the cart port either except the 32X and, now, MegaSD, which is also a shame.The Genesis has great music, but some of the FM Towns soundtracks are just even better thanks to having those additional PCM channels. Aside, from the sound, I also really like the design of the Marty and just love the design of that FM Towns 2F. It's really a shame that systems like this and the X68000 never came to the west.
It was an Awsome system. The audio was so advanced for the time. Blew away any western computer. Amiga probably was the best the West had at the time but the 4 channels on that couldn't dream of competing with the two audio chips and multiple sound channels of the FM Towns.
I'd say it even has a better audio set up than a stock X68000.
It seems many of the games of the FM towns had PCM recorded music. Without a CD ROM, no PCM music. The CDROM is more important than the audio processors quality. PC Engine CD could already play CD ROM music (which some gorgeous soundtracks), and all the computers that had a CD ROM. It might have great sound processors or better ones, but without the CD ROM, you would not have the great music of this quality in it. Though the Amiga system was nice and innovative for 1985, the Apple II GS that went out in 1986 was a lot better with 8 stereo channels and many other features (designed by the designer of the SID chip). Apple II GS had unfortunately less success than the Amiga, but i think it had the best sound system at that point. After the 80s, the Gravis Ultrasound card for PC was the best sound system for computers (32 PCM channels in 16 bits).
Amazing job as usual Mark, videos like this are the reason I´m proud to support your channel.
Thanks, patbrown911. These videos take an age to make but I'm glad people enjoy them.
Retro Core feat. GameSack. The ultimate youtube retro gaming crossover.
👍😁
Excellent as always! This is one of the few retro systems I know almost nothing about. This was informative and interesting. It definitely had some nice games. Thanks!
I'm glad that you found the show interesting and could learn about a new system.
Damn man, I've been waiting for this since you announced that you bought a FM Towns for cheap, must have been felt ages ago. Great that you finally made it.
Yeah, this has been a long one in the making but it finally got here.
The soundtrack for Mad Stalker is soooooo good.
Been looking forward to this one. Great video Mark!
Glad you like it.
Great video Mark. I’ve always wanted to learn more about this system. Looks really nice I must say!
I m a old user of x68000 in hk senice 1990
You introduction is very good
Great job well done
Keep on!!!
Thank you wai tat Lui. And keep on fighting the CCP. The whole world is in a mess right now thanks to them.
I didn't think I would, but I actually miss when you shout out the system name with the reverb effect. "EFFF EMMMM TAUNNNNNNS~!"
Lol, I forgot all about doing that.
Wow that afterburner music, made my ears happy! ❤:D
New Zealand Story is the smallest ISO for this PC I ever found, 6 MB packed, and not much more unpacked. So much room still left on that CD unused. Rainbow Islands Extra is also extra sweet for the Marty, but goodness gracious it is not a cheap game to purchase.
Mahou Daisakusen was also on the Sharp X68000 and now available on the PS4. Fun game!
This is a dream machine for me as I was into home computers back in the day. I played (sadly under emulation only) a lot the Tatsujin Oh port and also Alltynex, a doujin vertical shmup with melee attacks (not too bad). It is worth noting that the FM Towns received a good amount of ports of Western games that often ended up being better than the Amiga/PC/ST original counterparts (eg. the only version of Zack McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders which had 256 colour graphics was the FM Towns one).
Yes in fact the Lucasarts games are the best versions I was surprised Mark didnt show them in his video.
I was going too but in the end I never bothered.
In fairness the FM Towns came out 4 years after the Amiga so it's not entirely fair to say it blew the Amiga away.
What a surprise. I really enjoy your RC series. Thanks for the video. You know, I think the look of the dark gray FM Towns units hold up very well today.
It sure does. It still looks very cool while the newer FM Towns II Fresh looks like a boring 90s PC.
This was a very professional video , Mark. You are getting pretty damn good at this.
I should be, been doing it long enough lol 😁
I'd like all my videos to be this high in quality but that can't happen due to not having the time.
a brilliant documentary, Mark!
Thanks, John. Glad you enjoyed the show.
@@RetroCore you're wecome!
"There was no SS (*tear) or PSx (*cheer) at this time yet ... The 3DO however ..."
~half hour mark
I wanna now travel Asia to visit long-lost distant relatives and friends to see if someone has this stored up in the attic somewhere 😹
Love the new intro; excellent video, informative+entertaining as per usj!
Keep up the wonderful work - we appreciate you grandly, Sire!
Excellent video Mark. I imagine that these systems are pretty hard to find nowadays.
A working one is tough to find but broken units turn up at least once a week on Yahoo Auctions. The tower models mostly suffer from dead CD drives and dead PSUs. Just like what happened to mine 😭
@@RetroCore Broken PSUs can be replaced with a pico psu.
I don’t think the launch price of 338,000Y ($2500) is much of a bargain compared to a $3000 X68000, both were expensive computers and is why machines like the NEC 88-98 series ruled the roost for PC gaming in Japan, selling tens of millions vs hundreds of thousands, these computers were good, but the hardware sales and prices put them in the Neo-Geo region for gamers, even the cheaper Marty was more expensive ($700) than the launch price 3DO!
It came with monitor too and for Japan it was a bargain. Back then japn was a very expensive place. Its all relative to the country. Kind of like in the UK we thought stuff in the US was way cheaper but in reality it wasn't when cost of living and avarage salary are considered. Even then it was still cheaper than an IBM PC.
Oh, and the release price was, 200,000 yen, not 338000. I got the data from an original sales brochure. The ultra specked out system cost more though. But that's like comparing an Amiga 500 to a top end 1200.
Retro Core i was comparing computers in Japan as we didn’t get any of them in the west, the reason why NEC sold more computers than Sharp or Fujitsu was their computers were better value for money, or course in most cases the specs weren’t as good but you got what you paid for. Btw i got the price of the FM Towns off the official Fujitsu website, but as you say its probably the model with the CD-ROM drive, which tbh is required to play most FM Towns games.
The one yoh probably got the price for would be fully loaded with business software and windows too. Those ones were expensive. All FM Towns machines have. CD drive though. It was the first ever machine to have one as standard.
The FM Towns is a rather nice machine. Lots of great games to boot. I always wanted a variant of it.
Sadly now they are pretty expensive if in working order.
@@RetroCore a shame really. I see the unit fairly often at retro conventions I attend, and I really like it.
I wish my old 486 machine came with sprite hardware. These Japanese gaming computers are very cool and I would have loved having one back in the day. Both the X68000 and FM Towns seem to have solid libraries. I imagine it would be difficult to choose a platform.
It's funny to see this feature show up at this time as I've had FM Towns on my mind lately, believe it or not. I got the urge to go back and give Mad Stalker(the PC Engine version) a few plays last week after seeing it featured in a RUclips video. I hadn't played it in a few years. I enjoyed it even more this time around. I then ended up taking a look at Game Sack's X68000 video again because of that and it got me wondering if they'd ever cover the FM Towns, but here you are doing just that, and doing a good job of it. After playing Mad Stalker again, I was looking into how the X68000, FM Towns, and PCE versions all stack up. It made for an interesting comparison. The PCE version looks to be a port from the FM Towns as they share the single-layer backgrounds. Though it seems like they changed the credits/continue system for the PCE version, with limited credits, but with immediate continues. I think the FM Towns is like the X68000, with unlimited continues, but having to restart the stage. All three versions look to be good in their own ways. I was not able to actually play the FM Towns version unlike the other two.
I imagine Tatsujin 2 was just too advanced or would have required a lot of work to convert to PC Engine or Mega Drive. It's surprising that Grind Stormer, which was on the same arcade board, was converted. A port to the FM Towns wouldn't need too much adjustment to the graphics to make it work. It's a shame Tatsujin 2, Dogyuun, and Grind Stormer came out in that transition period before the Saturn and Playstation came out, as they were likely considered too old when those systems were finally available.
Nice job on this feature. As I said, the timing of this was really great for me since I've been looking into FM Towns. It was fun taking a deeper look at the library.
If I had to choose between the FM Towns and X68000, then it would be the X68000 due to it having more Arcade ports and an overall higher quality. Both are great systems though.
Sadly both are really expensive these days. To fix my tower model will cost a pretty penny. I have a new CD drive for it but still looking for a PSU.
@@RetroCore That's about what I was thinking, and I'm sure you know more about the two platforms and their libraries than I do. I can see it being a tougher decision back when they were current and factoring in their retail costs.
Joe said he’d like to do an FMT show, it the hardware is hard to find in working order for non-exorbitant prices.
@@BlownMacTruck I never got a notification of your reply, so I didn't see it until now. I figured that was the case with it being difficult to source the hardware. Thanks for providing the info.
@@RetroCore I had learned right before this FM Towns video came out that there was a cancelled version of the game for the Mega Drive. I just had an urge today to examine the screenshot that was scanned from a magazine and it seems the developer is currently finishing the game and intends to release it. In a bit of a funny coincidence, it seems that info came out right about the time this video went up on RUclips and days after I was playing the game(I like to think I willed it to happen). I thought you might be interested to know that as I know you are interested in new cart releases of old or unreleased games. Though, in the case of Mad Stalker, it may be redundant if you already have other versions. Still, it's cool to see this get finished as, ever since I found out about it, I was curious what the MD version would be like. From the lone screenshot, it looks like it uses the X68000's backgrounds since it doesn't have the BG limitation of the FM Towns or PC Engine. Perhaps we'll see more shots and video soon enough.
Here's where I got the info, with the original info seeming to be from Opera House's Twitter:
www.4gamer.net/games/999/G999905/20200225094/
Turbo OutRun might have fallen short in playability, but the arranged soundtrack is incredible.
That is true.
@@RetroCore Sometimes I think someone at Sega didn't like Turbo Outrun. It never got a good port, it barely gets acknowledged, and it's rarely mentioned.
Very informative video.
Thanks for the upload.
An thank you for watching.
Awesome episode as always 👍
Thanks, man.
That thing sounds amazing!! And games look great to. I want one now.
You'll need to sell an organ sadly. They're not cheap these days.
@@RetroCore I know I look in to it lol
But still a Great piece of tech for its day. I had heard of the system. But I just didn't realise. How good it was? Another great video by the way Thank you.
The tower version of the FM Towns and the Sharp X68000 are totally on my dream list should the money and opportunity ever intersect. Japanese computers just give off more of a cool and high-tech vibe than their American contemporaries.
I don't know why no US manufacturer ever tried to do a computer like the FM-Towns or Sharp X68000 or even the PC-98.
@@NotaPizzaGRL The Mindset PC is the closest example I can think of, resembling a Sharp X68000 tower laid down on its side.
You need a Towns Pentium for proper framerrate on Mahou Daisakusen, even though its amazing how the japanese took advantage of the 486 CPU providing these machines with a quite "capable" graphics chip, while here we were still torturing our eyes with CGA or EGA monochrome graphic cards in our IBM Pc's.
Thats because most ports/games for the IBM PC were designed to run on the IBM 5150 from 1981 even during the early 90s. It wasnt until developers dropped support for the 8 bit machines and made games for the PS/2 or better that IBM PC gaming took a giant leap in graphics.
I know Retro Core's been around forever, but I'm getting major Game Sack vibes on this episode (no complaints!)
Ah, my system focused videos all seem to have the Game Sack vibe 😁
The most awaited Retro Core episode so far for an exorbitant game console. Hoping to see someone inserting at least a Compact Flash Hard Drive adapter for this rare beast to reduce the wear & tear of aging CD & floppy drives or even better, maximize the machine's compatibility ala RetroManCave's style.
A compact flash HD exists but at 25,000 yen in not buying one soon.
@@RetroCore ouch thats pricey. Please do you have a link to the adapter Mark?
I feel that the FM Towns has connections with the SHARP X68000.
Yes, I know that 😁 but it's also on the PSP or at lest here in Japan it was.
They definitely have some common traits, being home computers with custom 2D hardware. I think there's overlap in the target market of the two platforms, and you can see that in the types of games. It's similar to PC Engine and Mega Drive in some ways as those two machines had much in common in terms of their libraries.
@@RetroCore Ah !! 👌
Really comprehensive. Cheers.
Glad you enjoyed the video.
Evolution reminds me of the Apple IIgs game "Tunnels of Armageddon".
It does a bit.
It reminds me of prebuilt PCs like Alienware if it was exclusive to Japan and was released in the early 90s.
What an awesome machine.. great video!
It looks like the FM Towns didn't have the specialized video chip etc. of something like the Neo-Geo and had to do a lot of things in software, which would explain the high CPU demands of the ports.
The BEST one yet. Loved it.
*mini arcade ports and a lot of erotic titles too! LOL* ⭐️
Hehe, probably more erotic titles than normal games I'd say.
Wow soo may great games if this system was a worldwide release imagine😇...
I only knew about this machine back in the day because i used to buy EGM (i still have those isues) along whit GAMEFAN & GAMEPRO & some other mags of that era😇
Great video thanks👍👍👍for uploading hope to see more of the Fm Towns
I used to live reading Game Fan.
So many shooters🥲 Amazing system
Great vid, they got some mileage out of that Afterburner soundtrack same one used in Mega CD Afterburner III - I guess its the same in the FM Town ABIII too! amazing music anyways.
Yeah, I think it is the same soundtrack on Mega CD and FM Towns Afterburner III.
Yes im sure on my copy the soundtrack doesnt change on each stage if I remember correctly.
Honestly, the FM Towns 2 Fresh looks more like a game console than a home computer.
The FM Towns basically seems like what would happen if the MS-DOS PCs of the late 80s actually had pretty beefy graphics hardware as standard. As it stands when the FM towns came out alot of PCs were still stuck in EGA land
It sure did. The Japanese had the right idea. Build a PC with more in mind than spread sheet applications.
3:50 more than 1000 (and the total software list with all the educational stuff and applications is over 2000).
i devoured this video. Well made! ^________^
Thanks for this, you do some great work!
Thanks, Danger Otter.
@@RetroCore no chance of get to see any of this over here in the UK, used to love seeing a few screenshots of the FM Towns in magazines back in the day. Awesome 👍
Damn, the audio quality was really good on this machine... We didn't see normal PC audio quality this good in America until like... 1992!?
Yep. It had console quality audio but doubled up. Richo and Yamaha sound processors.
Great channel!
We really missed out on these computers in the US! We had DOS, Windows, and Macintosh; none of which were very good at videogames.
One of the computers I must get, got even more hyped from your video!
I do wonder if I should try to get one next trip to Japan, or get it from a auction site via a proxy.
Thanks for making the video!
Shipping will be really expensive so I'd try and pick on up on a trip to Japan.
@@RetroCore yeah, got more of these "japan only" machines I want to pick up also. I have purchased a X68000 already, it needs a new PSU which I already have a solution for, just need to get around to fix it.
TOWNSはわが青春、まさか海外ニキがTOWNS紹介動画を作ってくださるなんて…
Some pretty impressive games for this cool computer system. Another thing I noticed on SSFII is there is no 3D line scrolling effect for the ground/floor unlike most other ports.
Ah, it does have the floor line effect (raster effect it's called) but I switched it off to speed up the game. With it switched on the game runs very slowly.
A small addition: There is a conversion of ZakMcCracken on the FM-Towns and it is the best version out there. While the PC Version is still in EGA mode. The FM Towns Version offers VGA-style graphics with mor colours.
That seems to be the case with many PC games in the FM towns. Same with the lucas art games.
15:55 that voice coming out of the right channel sounds just like Tails from Sonic Heroes when doing his flying jump move
Nice video, I've always wondered about this system since discovering its existence not long ago. The only game I own for it is Raiden Densetsu, but since I don't have an FM Towns I have to use emulation. Sadly the game has a slightly inconsistent framerate, but it's still the second-best home port of Raiden next to PS1 Raiden Project, and it has an amazing arranged soundtrack.
It's a shame that the FM Towns and its games are at Neo Geo AES levels of expensive.
Maybe beyone Neo Geo levels in some cases.
Thank you. Very enjoyable video!
Genocide square looked like a combination between Strider and Assault Suit Valken :D
Just a shame it's not as good as either. Not a terrible game but it could be a bit better.
I can only speculate why systems like this didn't come out in the west. There was already a home computer format war going on back then, so the pool just might have just been too crowded for more competition to show up.
I think that was the reason. Quite a shame too as this and the X68000 were vastly superior to what we had.
Well, in Europe there was, certainly. In the US, the IBM PC standard was pretty much the only game in town, especially after the first legal clone BIOSes in the mid-80s and the resulting wave of cheap IBM clones, as the dichotomy of PCs as work machines and Nintendo as the games box took firm hold in the country.
That's an amazing System! Usually in BotP the FM Towns have a very good ports of the games.
It does. The X68000 normally out does it but the FM Towns still holds it own.
One game I wish I could play is Dinosaur it was released for this computer but also for Windows later but again only in Japan and it has a great soundtrack more the FM Towns version.
I don't think I've seen that one.
@@RetroCore It was developed by Nihon Falcom the same guys that did Ys, Xanadu, Sorcerian and all those classic RPGs for those early computers PC 88, X1, PC 98, MSX and also the FM Towns.
9:14 - yeah, that definitely would not have flown with US publishers, lol.
Wow... I never knew much about the FM Town, but it looks great ! I moved from a 128K +2 Speccy to an MSX 2+ in the late 80s and got lots of Japanese games for it. A couple of years ago I discovered the Sharp 6800 and I was surprised to find many " improved " versions of my favorites MSX games running and playing better then ever. How would you compare the FM Town to the 6800 ? Toward the end of the video you mentioned that indeed the 6800 was more powerful, but maybe the FM Towns had a bigger and better library ? Anyway, great video. Cheers.
Wow. Moving from a ZX Spectrum to the MSX2 is a great upgrade. I have a MSX2 as well. Its a great 8 bit system.
The X68000 is much better than the FM Towns. It has so many Arcade perfect game on it. But I think the FM TOWNS has a much better sound system on board.
As for games, the X68000 has more but it is a much more expensive system. Saying that, the FM TOWNS is also quite expensive.
It might have been cheaper back then, but collecting for it is WAY expensive now!
That's very true. Games cost a lot and the hardware is really expensive.
See this (and a NEO GEO AES) would have been gaming nirvana for younger me! It's what I wanted out of our PCs back in the day, Arcade at home!
Ah, only the ultra rich could afford such luxurious gaming.
How do you connect the FM towns II to a TV or monitor? I would love to get a FM towns fresh, but the shipping is expensive from Japan.
I use a RGB to JP21 RGB cable. I then connect that to my Framemeister which connects to the TV via HDMI.
I use an OSSC as a lot of games 15khz and wont display on a normal tv/monitor.
Thanks Mark because If I ever just buy the pc unit i will know how to hook it up to a modern monitor or a tv. I have a Marty, but wondered how many of these games you showed are compatible with the Marty too.
I think you should keep that 60fps Retro Core intro in your hardware reviews. The animation’s so smooth.
Yep. The old one was only 480p and at 30fps. This new one is 1080p at 60fps.
Retro Core What was the music in your intro anyway?
It's mentioned on the end credits. I don't remember off the top of my head.
Retro Core K.
Also of note, Samurai Spirits will not run properly unless you have a ton of RAM, which I believe means some models of the FM Towns will not run it. Looks like Super Street Fighter might also be the same way.
I have 22mb in mine which is well enough.
Wow, maybe the model of FM Towns matters (I think the Car Marty, or whatever that thing was called, an old internet friend of mine had one, and it wasn't all that great a model I believe he said), especially with all the RAM you have and the game still runs this slow. Maybe SNK should've ported the game themselves, ouch. Such a beautiful port, and it's super sluggish.
What is that track played on the beginning of this video? You know, not your intro, on your overview on the FM Towns. What can I say about that track? IT’S HYPER AWESOME!!!
Hello, I recommend you to enable FAST MODE for play certain games. You can do it by booting with F key pressed in the keyboard. You can access to a BIOS menu for activate the speed modes and boot device by Booting with A and B buttons in the game pad. Great video, sir.
Booting with pad's A and B buttons ( BIOS screen )
Booting with pad's A button ( Start from CDROM )
Booting with pad's B button ( Start from Floppy 0 )
Booting with F key ( FAST MODE )
Booting with N key ( NORMAL 386 Compatible MODE )
Booting with C and D keys ( boot from CDROM )
Booting with F and 0 keys ( boot from Floppy 0)
Booting with F and 1 keys ( boot from floppy 2)
Booting with H and 0 keys ( boot from Hard Drive )
Hi , did anyone knows the name of the first song ? Its really good ... And give me some memories of granada on the genesis !
It was from Genocide 2 FM Towns version.
@@RetroCore thanks a lot Mark!
Any list of English friendly games?
9:17 - I wonder what's behind that door. Maybe a bright light 🤔
A pink elephant in the Japanese version. Naughty 😅
@@RetroCore A pink elephant? I don't get it... 🤔🤷🏻♂️
I have to write a second comment. These arcade ports are amazing for the time period when they came out. Even the 89 games were incredible compared to what else was available at the time. Wow! Just fantastic. Do you have the Marty? Was that a lower powered console? I really don’t know much about it nor do I know if it had many games.
The Marty is basically an FM Towns computer but with far less ram making it in compatable with almost half of the game library.
I don't own one as I own two FM Towns computers as show in this video. Although one is now broken.
The dream machine, maybe even more than NEOGEO. In Italy it was impossible to find it, even from the best equipped dealers and the magazines of the time sometimes wrote articles to magnify its computational power. It would have been nice to live in Japan in the 80s and 90s.
I confused could this run Ms Doss games or Windows games since it had Windows logo on front or was custom versions. For them FM towns computers . Sorry about my confusion I never heard of them computers tell now
It can run Windows as long as you install a HDD. That means all Windows games of the time too.
Ah the legendary FM Towns. I could be wrong but I think it was the first 32 bit machine made before the 3DO etc. Pity it didn't come out here in the west. Could have had some potential if treated right. Hard to get games for it now so it's a real collectors piece. Are there any other consoles you haven't done yet Mark?
Maybe Kellin was referring to the FM Towns Marty which was basically a cut back FM Towns PC. That was indeed the first 32bit console.
@@RetroCore That's the one Mark. That's why I rely on your gaming knowledge. Lol.
i neeeeed that grey case
I am so jealous of what the Japanese had back in the day what with this and the x68000. What did we have? The bloody Amiga and the piss poor conversions we wasted far too much money on.
Agreed people rave about the Amiga but it pales in comparison to these Japanese machines.
That is so true. The Japanese machines did cost more but I think it was worth it.
Totally agree even though the diehard Amiga fans think it's so brilliant. The FM Towns and X68000 destroyed it in every way possible. The arcade conversions on Amiga and ST were a complete joke let's be honest.
@@paulacuff6063 Annoyingly, given a decent development period and better coders, the Amiga and even the C64 were capable of at least reasonable approximation of games such as Out Run. What we got were rushed half arsed efforts trying for that Christmas number 1.
The Amiga and ST were technically inferior to the likes of FM Towns and X68000 to begin with. But it does not mean they couldn't have handled better ports than they did. The biggest problem was the amateurish style of development that was in place in the UK at the time. They didn't get over the bedroom coders way of making games until the mid 90's, when pretty much every European developer had closed down or become part of some larger multinational company.
I remember seeing this in computer magazine's, it was very pricey. This system run games almost the same as the arcades with the correct music and sounds because of the cd. Microsoft's next console is somewhat like this a cross between pc and game console.
LGR should have to do an review on this one
"but we are running out of time"
looks at the time, damn almost 1 hour
most youtubers say that at the 8 minutes mark hahaha
anyway, how long does it usually take to make a video like this?
excellent work and effort mind you.
Haha, and those RUclipsrs bitch that life is hard having to make short videos. They have no idea what hard work is.
Anyway, this video has been in production for many months although a lot of that time was due to finding a new FM Towns after my Tower system shown at the being of the video broke.
I guess if I was to break it down it would go like this.
7 to 8 hours of playing the games.
2 hours to record and edit the voiceover.
1 hour to film me speaking to camera and the B-roll footage.
1 hour to make all the graphics including title card for RUclips.
3 hours to edit everything together.
So in total a video like this takes about 14 to 15 hours to produce.
nice channel i have subscribe, interesting and nice this Japan computer, first time i hear, i remember some of this games, im don't remember if this game 12:35 i have play on Amiga 500 or Arcade
Thanks for subscribing, Marco. The next special I'll be covering is also based upon a Japanese exclusive system. One that was the follow up to an extremely popular console but sadly the follow up was a massive failure.
Does PuLiRuLa looks like a Studio Ghibli film on drugs??😂
Great video on this hardware!! But, OUCH on Super SFII. It fared better on x68000.
Yeah. I think I need a high end FM Towns to play Street Fighter.
I personally always wanted to buy the FM Towns Marty for the video game collection Mark. It makes the Neo-Geo AES look like a charity store purchase instead. 8^)
Anthony..
That it does. All FM Towns related products are really expensive.
Think I never heard of the II. I have games for the FM-Towns but not actual machine. But hey they work on ScummVm.
Actually, im not sure if it's been corrected or not, but Sorcer Striker was actually first ported to the X68000. And its an arcade perfect port, queue the collective sigh of releif lol.
Thank god it's not as bad as this FM Towns version.
@@RetroCore yeah it's solid. And it's sequels as well. Right up to Dimahoo.