Fujitsu FM Towns Marty

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Fujitsu FM Towns Marty
FM-Towns-Marty-Console.jpg
Manufacturer Fujitsu
Generation Fifth generation
Release date 1993
Media type CD-ROM, 3½-inch floppy disks

The FM Towns Marty (エフエムタウンズマーティー efuemutaunzumātī) was a fifth-generation video game console released in 1993 by Fujitsu, exclusively for the Japanese market costing roughly the equivalent of $700 USD. It was the first 32-bit home video game system, and came complete with a built in CD-ROM drive and disk drive. It was based on the earlier FM Towns computer system Fujitsu had released in 1989. The Marty was backward-compatible with older FM Towns games.

The high price kept the console from being as popular as Fujitsu desired.  So did the associated image of the FM Towns with being a “kiddie computer” for children, since most of its sales went to schools and younger students. Despite this kiddie image or perhaps to help combat it, Fujitsu did little to stem the number of adult-oriented hentai games which appeared on the Towns and the Marty.

To improve the poor sales, Fujitsu released a cheaper revision, known as the FM Towns Marty 2, for 66,000 Yen in 1994. By the time of the Marty 2’s release, Fujitsu had effectively given up on the console.  It was discontinued around the time of release for the Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation.

Nowadays, the FM Towns Marty is an oddity, held up in collector circles for its obscurity, its rarity, and its quality. It stands as a true collector’s item, revealing the hidden depths of the import and retrogaming realm.

Technical specifications

The FM Towns Marty was one of the first consoles to basically be a personal computer dedicated to being a video game console, making it in some ways the spiritual predecessor of consoles such as theXbox. It was also the first 32-bit console in any region, predating the 3DO in the US and the Amiga CD32 in Europe and Australia.

The system has no piracy protection and it can play burned CD-Rs and any Audio-CD. Features built in karaoke and a microphone jack.

  • “Marty’s Law” was developed based on the overall poor performance of the console: if you don’t keep offering something to sell, you can’t increase sales.
  • the controller features a button which can change screen resolution in some games
  • Some games require both a CD and a floppy disk, so even if a burned CDR is used, a correctly formatted floppy is also required.
  • Many games on the Marty are pornographic in nature.
  • CPU: 32-bit AMD 386SX processor, clocked at 16 MHz.
  • RAM: 2 MB
  • Display: 1024 sprites in 16×16.
  • Resolution: 352×232 up to 640×480, with a color palette of 32768 (max of 256 on screen)
  • Audio: 6 channel FM, 8 channel PCM.
  • Utilizes a x1 CD-ROM and 3.5” floppy drive
  • I/O ports: Contains a PCMCIA Type 1 slot, 2 DB9 controller ports, a keyboard port, and jacks for headphones and a microphone. The SRAM cards which used the PCMCIA slot were used to store data, behaving like early memory cards. Video outputs to composite and S-Video.
  • Power: includes an internal AC 110V power supply, running at 50/60 Hz.

ROM dump

ROM Size MD5
FMT_SYS.ROM 256KB 8053958D759487F7765D740EF3FD529F
FMT_FNT.ROM 256KB B91300E55B70227CE98B59C5F02FA8DD
FMT_DOS.ROM 512KB 3F3DDE5DD766B4921E5C7265DF14F93D
FMT_DIC.ROM 512KB 8FA4E553F28CFC0C30A0A1E589799942
MAR_EX0.ROM 512KB 4F43E0A04FA5EB609AD93D6498FC3EE1
MAR_EX1.ROM 512KB 62C7F3FE1827AF995D0C82C664611954
MAR_EX2.ROM 512KB A260BC140B96EE43445CA026D0CB452B
MAR_EX3.ROM 512KB 655FC5F6F661C6B28C8B877DD2E26AD1
MYTOWNS.ROM 32B -