Posted tagged ‘Towns’

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FM Towns Controller Variants

01/04/2019

More FM Towns stuff! Because it’s been a while…

About year ago I was at a retro computer night which played host to 3 FM Towns systems, a rarity outside Japan!

First was my FM Towns Fresh ES computer:

This computer has been maxed out with 40MB RAM and an AMD 133, clocked down to 100Mhz. The original Fresh ES came with a 486DX2-66, so this is a considerable improvement. It does make some games run a little too fast, particularly Wing Commander.

One of the other attendees bought in a traditional FM Towns computer:

I can’t recall the specs of this particular computer, though the owner did have an external hard drive attached to it (as pictured).

Finally, another attendee bought in his FM Towns Marty console:

The Marty is surprisingly underpowered, though the games that the owner had played well on the unit. There were a few games it didn’t handle very well, including Street Fighter 2. This brings me to the controllers! We had 3 variants of the hardware, which included all 3 variants of FM Towns controller (to my knowledge).

 

The original controller is the one pictured on top, with the latter variations underneath. Originally I thought that the Marty controller and the latter FM Towns controller were pretty much identical, save for the logo and and the indent on the surface. Interestingly enough this is not the case!

 

The Marty controller looked a little smaller than the latter FM Towns controller, so I held them both up against each other. As you can see in the above image, this is definitely the case.

And here they are side by side. You can definitely see the size difference.

What is surprising is that creating hardware variations, even small ones like this, would have increased costs. Why not just keep both controllers the same across both lines? I suppose we’ll never know…

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The FM Towns Solution!

09/24/2017

As you can see, my FM Towns is up and running! I’m quite excited by this! So what happened? Glad you asked!

Earlier posts will show that when I purchased this machine I went overboard with extra video hardware, trying to make sure that I wouldn’t be caught with no video. I purchased an FMT-417 video converter unit

and an FMT-418 video card

but nothing worked, and I was left with a dodgy image coming out of the converter unit.

I took the computer over to a friend’s house, and he checked the pinouts on the VGA port on the back. I had read online that this was NOT a standard VGA port, and due to the fact that the voltage was on a different pin, if I was to plug the computer into a standard VGA monitor I risked frying the video circuit. My friend checked the pinouts and confirmed that this information might be correct for other models, but that the FM Towns Fresh ES has a standard VGA port.

We plugged the computer in to my monitor and it worked!

We expected that it would fail when trying to access 15khz and 24khz modes, as my monitor does not natively support these. It appears that my Fresh ES computer is able to convert the modes before sending them to a monitor, so it constantly displays at 31khz! I don’t even need the converter box.

I still asked me friend to repair the box, as I might need it for another Japanese computer, or to capture footage. He has replaced the capacitors on the FMT-417 and has confirmed that the video signal is now fine. I just need to pick it up from him at some point.

So, if you were planning on getting yourself an FM Towns computer without the CRT screen, buy yourself one of the later Fresh models. I can’t vouch for all of them having standard VGA output. The Fresh ES definitely does, so aim for one of those if you can find it. Other later computers, like the Fresh ET might as well, and if you have one let me know. I’d like to have a list of machines that don’t require video conversion.

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Another wild Japanese computer appears!

09/20/2017

My FM Town is finally working, but more on that in my next post. I’ve been checking out the NEC PC98 and Sharp X68000 series of computers, and decided to grab this PC9821 NR15/S10. This is supposed to be the Pentium 150 model with 16MB RAM.

This model has been modified, and its hard drive has been replaced with a 4GB Compact Flash cart. This has been partitioned 3 ways. One partition for Windows 98, one for DOS and one for data.

With it being a notebook I don’t have to worry about the video issues I was experiencing with the FM Towns, and I would have to potentially deal with if I imported a Sharp X68000. I have purchased it through a Japan Yahoo Auctions proxy bidder, so it will stay with them while I bid on other bits and pieces, but as soon as it’s here I’ll be experimenting and posting about it.

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Summary of FM Towns video issues

09/10/2017

Before we begin I was asked whether my FM Towns does actually work. Well, here’s a picture from the Japan Yahoo Auction that shows it working on a small LCD screen:

Right now I would be happy to just have it display on a small Century screen like the one in the image above!

The auction didn’t come with the screen, and I knew that going in. I prepared myself by purchasing 2 options. The Fujitsu FMT-417 video converter box:

This unassuming little unit has ports on the front:

And on the back:

It was listed as Junk on the Auction page, so I knew I might have problems. The standard video out doesn’t work at all, and the S-Video out gives the following picture:

The second item I purchased to potentially solve any video issues was the Fujitsu FMT-418 video card:

Which I promptly installed. You can see the standard RGB output on the right, and on the left is Video in and Video out. I thought that the Video out and in were S-Video out and in. Sadly this isn’t the case, and the outputs are a different shape. I had to do a little digging on some Japanese FM Towns websites and have found the following pin outs:

So if I can’t get the FMT-417 video converter box fixed then maybe a cable to connect the video out to S-Video out will work. I’ve looked at some other options that I might use, but the FMT-418 is THE video card to own if you’re using an external one. While I was bidding on FM Towns parts this little unit showed up:

This is the Fujitsu FMT-TU101 TV unit. The rear of the device shows inputs and outputs for the standard RGB connection:

Along with S-Video in and out, and standard composite. I wasn’t able to win this auction, though I have been keeping an eye out to see if another one surfaces.

So that’s it! Which option will end up working for me? Will I get the FMT-417 video converter box fixed? Will I get a cable made for the FMT-418 video card? Or will I seek an alternative?

Watch this space!

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More FM Towns fun!

09/04/2017

Yesterday I had a brain storm! I have been using a GBS-8200 video converter card for my Amstrad CPC computers. It has a special connection that was plugged in to allow it to connect to a standard VGA monitor.

I read that this device will convert video signals at 15khz, 24khz and 31khz. These are the 3 frequencies that the FM Towns, the X68000 and the PC98 computers will display graphics at. I thought that maybe I could try and use it for the FM Towns. I lugged the computer out of its box again, put it on the desk and connected everything up. Honestly, you have no idea how heavy the computer is!

Before trying it & double checked the connections on the back of the computer.

You can see the expansion card I installed the other day, and underneath it is a VGA connection. Here’s a closeup:

The problem was that I only had one VGA cable in the house. Luckily MSY are around the corner from my job, so I was able to pick up a second lead for $3.00. I bought it home and plugged it all in. I have to be honest, I wasn’t completely confident this will work, if only because of all of the other problems I’ve had getting this going!

As you can see, I didn’t even bother connecting the speakers onto the side of the computer. So here’s the setup. I connected everything into the power and turned it on. The end result… well… it speaks for itself I suppose…

A nice healthy green screen and not a whole lot else. I tinkered with the settings on the GBS-8200, but they are rather limited. I also tried to disconnect the Amstrad connection and see if that made a difference, but no dice…

There was nothing else I could do except call it a day.

I think the solution to my problem is getting the Fujitsu converter box fixed. It probably needs a recap, but my soldering skills aren’t going to bring much to the table. I’ll have to call on my more electronically minded friends I think…

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FM Towns Adventures

09/02/2017

The other week I posted about some Japanese loot I had recently obtained. One of the boxes contained an FM Towns Fresh ES computer. I knew that Japanese computers commonly used a different connection and signal to standard PCs. With this in mind, I purchased a couple of things that would help me get around it.

Now, the funny thing about this particular FM Towns is that the video out looks like a standard VGA connection, and not the 15-pin analogue RGB out connection seen on the X68000, NEC PC88, PC98 and other FM Towns computers. Still, I was wary and decided against connecting it to my monitor using a VGA connection.

You can see in the picture above that I have the computer opened, & sitting on top of it is a video card, an FMT-418. The card has the 15-pin analogue RGB out, and video in and out. Stupidly I thought this would be S-Video in & out. When I tried to plug an S-Video cable into the computer I soon learned that it was a form of video in and out, but without the S, so to speak… It might be a non standard connection, or a Japanese standard. I don’t honestly know.

By the way, I didn’t actually need to open the whole computer up, as the expansion cards simply slot in through the rear panels!

My backup plan was to use a Fujitsu converter box, called the FMT-417. I had imported one of these and an analogue RGB cable. I plugged one end into the video card and the other end into the converter box like so:

From the converter box I used an S-Video output to the monitor I was using. For reference, the converter box is at the rear of the above picture. The 100volt step-down adapter is in front of the monitor, as are the keyboard, mouse and controller.

You can see the end result wasn’t fantastic. The converter box was purchased as ‘junk’ on Japan Yahoo Auctions, so it clearly has some problems. Here’s a close up of the screen image:

You can KINDA see the OS. To be honest, this is better than I was expecting from something listed as ‘junk’ on JYA. I tried to load Afterburner 3 to see if it was playable:

Not really… You can kinda see what’s going on, but when I turned off the computer, leaving the converter box on the picture disappeared but the distortion remained. This means the issue is definitely with the converter. The converter also allows you to use standard composite out, but this didn’t work at all.

So it’s a work in progress right now. I need to get that converter box fixed. It could be a capacitor issue, but I’m not an electrician so I really don’t know…

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More Japanese Stuff

08/20/2017

The top box is full of Wonderswan, Gamegear and Gameboy stuff, and the bottom box is an FM Towns computer!

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