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Just bought an FM-Towns Marty! Recommend some games!

D

djtiesto

is beloved, despite what anyone might say
So, I've been interested in the Marty ever since I read an article in an old EGM about it. A friend of mine eventually got one and he burned a few games - Tatsujin 2 and PuLiRuLa being the 2 best ones. I recently got laid off, got a pretty big severance package, and found an even higher-paying and much more prestigious new job... so I have, for the first time in a while, money to burn. I bid on an ebay auction for a CIB Marty and won for a pretty good price.

So now it's time to get some games. I like most genres and don't mind playing text-heavy games in Japanese (so RPGs are definitely on the table... in fact, obscure Japanese RPGs for the FM-Towns / Marty are recommended).

Any owners of this system here? I think I asked years ago and got no response. There were only like 40,000 units sold, but who knows?
 
D

Dio

Banned
Brandish.

Dinosaur.

Lord Monarch.

Legend of Heroes I and II.

Xanadu.

Xanadu Scenario 2: The Resurrection of Dragon.

All Falcom titles that had an FM Towns version.
 
A

Aeana

Member
FM Towns has the best version of Emerald Dragon! My mission to get people to play it continues. ... But if you're looking for English stuff, there's a bunch of fantastic versions of Lucas arts games available for it.
 
D

Dragoon En Regalia

Member
If you ever find it, give Family Soft's AZURE a try. The game's a damn hard, but visually impressive rail shooter with some dungeon-crawling sections.

There's also the best versions of ZOOM's Genocide side-scrolling mecha actions games, collected in Genocide Square. And there's plenty of LucasArts ports and other DOS/Amiga localizations worth looking into.
 
1

1upsuper

Member
Very cool. I don't have any recommendations unfortunately, but I've wanted to pick up an FM Towns for years. Does the Marty have a completely different library than the regular Towns?
 
S

Sir_Crocodile

Member
Zap Rowsdower said:
The best version of Loom, because the CD version cut out a bunch of the dialogue.
Click to expand...

The FM TOWNS version is hyper expensive though. I guess it depends on just how much money OP wants to burn lol.

There's a pretty good version of Prince of Persia on the TOWNS. Probably the coolest version outside of the SNES one, certainly my favourite that uses the original level structure.
 
D

Dio

Banned
1upsuper said:
Very cool. I don't have any recommendations unfortunately, but I've wanted to pick up an FM Towns for years. Does the Marty have a completely different library than the regular Towns?
Click to expand...

It was backwards compat wit original FM Towns games, but it had its own small library of exclusive titles.

wiki said:
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 Fujitsu FM Towns PC. The Marty did have its own library of "Marty" specific games, but they were not enough to strengthen its niche position between video game console systems and personal computers.

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. This led to the creation of the Japanese "Marty's Law" (マーティーの法則 Mātī no Hōsoku?): if you don't keep offering something to sell, you can't increase sales.
Click to expand...
 
K

Kneefoil

Member
I've never even heard of this machine. Thanks for bringing it to my attention, OP.

Not that I'll likely have any use for this knowledge, but it's always interesting to read about consoles and games that you didn't know existed.
 
A

AmyS

Member
Galaxy Force II - It's limited to what the hardware can do, but it's a unique port to the FM-Towns platform with a fantastic OST.

l8urQxT.jpg


cjgsgfK.jpg


Some artwork from the manual of the PS2 release that I believe was in the FM Towns version.

yaVXvnT.jpg


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kML0T3X.jpg


zQTnZ7X.jpg


sDyAup7.png


Edit: Diehard GameFan's review of Galaxy Force II on FM Towns Marty.

tvNC56b.jpg


qXNvyGQ.jpg
 
Last edited:
D

djtiesto

is beloved, despite what anyone might say
Thanks so much for the recommendations!

Aeana: I'll definitely be picking up the ED for this to go along with my SFC and SuperCD versions (I did play through the English translation of the SFC game a few years back and liked it a lot, even though I hear it cut story out from the other versions?).

AmyS: Definitely getting Galaxy Force 2, the remixed soundtrack is fucking INCREDIBLE.

Dio: I'll have to check out those Falcom titles since I'm a big fan.
 
H

Hayama Akito

Member
Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders has the best version on FM Towns, the only available on CD. And yeah, includes both English and Japanese language modes.
 
Tizoc

Tizoc

Member
Dio said:
Brandish.

Dinosaur.

Lord Monarch.

Legend of Heroes I and II.

Xanadu.

Xanadu Scenario 2: The Resurrection of Dragon.

All Falcom titles that had an FM Towns version.
Click to expand...

How are the FM Towns versions compared to the other PC versions of the time?

Aeana said:
FM Towns has the best version of Emerald Dragon! My mission to get people to play it continues. ... But if you're looking for English stuff, there's a bunch of fantastic versions of Lucas arts games available for it.
Click to expand...

What's the best ver. of this game? FM Towns?
 
D

Dio

Banned
Tizoc said:
How are the FM Towns versions compared to the other PC versions of the time?
Click to expand...

Pretty good, from what I can tell. The FM Towns version of Brandish, for example, basically reuses the game art from the PC-98 version but has a slightly different but still cool UI. They're very similar AFAIK.

The biggest difference to me, when comparing the two Brandish versions, is the music:
PC-98:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14MBSSKKcis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYvNzmyCy00
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZEA2S4sDOI

FM Towns:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqAOxuu1qss
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diWq4Kd-3DA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFTFEYs3ExM

Last track is one of the bigger differences.
 
J

Jetman

Member
psyfi said:
Wow, never heard of this console. Totally had to google it. Cool!
Click to expand...

Kneefoil said:
I've never even heard of this machine. Thanks for bringing it to my attention, OP.

Not that I'll likely have any use for this knowledge, but it's always interesting to read about consoles and games that you didn't know existed.
Click to expand...

Wow, yeah, goddamn - I'm embarrassed to say I've never heard of this console either. Off to Google and Wiki I go.
 
Tizoc

Tizoc

Member
Dio said:
Pretty good, from what I can tell. The FM Towns version of Brandish, for example, basically reuses the game art from the PC-98 version but has a slightly different but still cool UI. They're very similar AFAIK.

The biggest difference to me, when comparing the two Brandish versions, is the music:
PC-98:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14MBSSKKcis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYvNzmyCy00
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZEA2S4sDOI

FM Towns:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqAOxuu1qss
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diWq4Kd-3DA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFTFEYs3ExM

Last track is one of the bigger differences.
Click to expand...

Yeah I noticed, Brandish 1 OST is wicked.

Per chance does Project EGG sell FM Town games on their store?

EDIT: Off topic but what's up with all the ass in Brandish 2, lol.
 
P

Peltz

Member
It's amazing that even though I love this hobby and am a retro collector, I still constantly learn about hardware that I never even knew existed. Crazy.
 
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