Why Did The FM Towns Marty Fail !? - Gaming History Documentary
Вставка
- Опубліковано 27 чер 2022
- In today's video, we look at the history of the FM Towns Marty, a Japan-exclusive console created by Fujitsu. Let's look at why this high-end system failed. #retrogaming #gaminghistory #consolegaming
Support My Work On Patreon - / ladydecade
Follow me on Twitter @LadyDecade
Follow me on Instagram @lady_decade
Additional Gameplay & Other Footage Sources
• 100 FM Towns Games
100 FM Towns Games
Gary
• PuLiRuLa FM Towns Play...
PuLiRuLa FM Towns Playthrough Attempt
The Gaming Veteran
• Fm Towns 飛翔鮫 / FLYING ...
Fm Towns 飛翔鮫 / FLYING SHARK - 一周目 (1 - 5 Stage)
Kuroneko Games Online
• Video
Viewpoint - Fujitsu FM Towns Marty - 1993 - neogeomaster
neogeomaste
• Tatsujin Oh / Truxton ...
Tatsujin Oh / Truxton II on the FM Towns! The Exclusive Shmup from Toaplan
Video Game Esoterica
• Afterburner 3 - FM Towns
Afterburner 3 - FM Towns
kurtkurt777
• Video
スプラッターハウス for FM TOWNS / Splatter House
Higemaru
• Retro Gameplay #068 - ...
Retro Gameplay #068 - Raiden (FM Towns Marty)
Gameplay, No Talk
• Fm Towns マッスルボマー ザ ボディ...
Fm Towns マッスルボマー ザ ボディー エクスプロージョン / Muscle Bomber - Full Game
Kuroneko Games Online
/ 2
/ 779229506703949824
/ 3603636389654147
/ 1229488972134567938
gamesx.com/wiki/doku.php?id=f...
hakushin-retro-game-shop.mysh... - Ігри
Please consider supporting my show via Patreon - www.patreon.com/LadyDecade
with pertinent respect for Richard/THGM= you've got a dashingly LOVELY singing voice, LD! must be quite helpful to put your little ones to quick, pleasant slumber, I'm sure! there's an idea: you singing covers and/or parodies of songs and making them about games... I bet it can work quite well!
I can't watch this video because Fujits
Loved the CGR reference! I miss Mark's show.
@@RWL2012 lol, I got two minutes in. Maybe Brits pronounce Japanese words different. I wonder how Canadians pronounce Fujitsu.
@@zachariahcook703 no, they don't, this is just a mispronounciation of the word. "Foo-jit-soo" is the same way it is in any english speaking land, for some reason it research wasn't conducted on the name of the company for this video.
The two button controller is why I wrote off the TurboGrafx 16. And this was in 1989. Never ceases to amaze me how the SNES established the six button controller as the standard in 1991, yet consoles were still being released after that with less buttons.
because the only games using all those buttons was Street fighter and Mortal Kombat and the later was only using 4 vs the formers 6, other games was obscure, all those buttons really didn't see real use till PS1 effectively, before then it was wild west but PS1 made standards we are used to, even Sega Saturn had no real standard and had 1 analog stick when it 1st dropped.
@@DonaldHendleyBklynvexRecords there were quite a few games that required a 6 button controller. Mortal Kombat's was optional. You could get away with only 3 button on the Genesis but the 6-button controller gave you better control of the game. Also Sega revolutionized the shape of Game controllers. Even modern consoles use the boomerang-like design today.
So far you’re the only person to acknowledge the 3do was designed to go against the SEGA genesis and Super Nintendo. The funny thing is everyone I know that has had one says it would never beat the PlayStation and I would tell them I don’t think it was supposed too.
*compete
I find that acknowledgement to be fairly common. Even 3do ad campaign focused on referring genesis and snes as kids toys and so far, every 3do review or history video in UA-cam I've seen has shown clips of that "kids toys" ads.
@@realtsarbomba word
That's common knowledge I would of thought,I mean it was advertised yrs before, psx was kinda not really known about until 3 6 months before Japanese launch, you can only target your competitors at the present
@@brainbeatuk "you can only target your competitors at the present" - i dont't know if that's true, since it's inconceivable that your next gen product wouldn't go up against other next gen products. By the time 3DO was released, the Genesis was already 4 years old.
The FM Town's Marty sounds like a console that Doc Brown would invent for his friend Marty to play video games on
Lol I thought something similar..
Even because the FM Towns's mascot "Marty" appears sometimes dressed as a "spy" , just like Marty Mcfly in Back to the future II :-)
I agree
The SD card CD replacement board is called " Doc Brown" lol, something I'm considering to buy for my own FM Towns Marty !!
@@hardcore8uk wait really that’s so funny
@@garystinten9339
Yes I am Scottish and great ..... At collecting vintage/ retro consoles 😉😀😃
If you’re trying to get younger kids into non-tablet games- I’d suggest the original Sonic 1 and 2. My kids took to Sonic faster than any other console games (as a Mario fan it pains me to admit) because there are fewer pits and you don’t die as long as you have rings. On top of that the controls are dead simple!
My 5-year-old prefers to play the Android version of Sonic 2 as Tails because he can fly. She also loves Smash Bros even if the more complex moves elude her. It doesn't matter as much when I'm the other player and I can go easy on her.
The new Sonic Origins collection with "Anniversary Mode" gives you infinite lives so there's no Game Overs anymore. I would've loved that as a kid because the OG versions put you back to the start of the whole game if you lost all your lives.
Mario kart seems to always hook younger kids. Ive gotten all my siblings into games at a young age thru that. Also kirby air ride!
I never ever heard about this marty hardware gaming system until you mentioned to history in this video
Never thought of a vectrex as a "babysitter" for a 3 year old. Neat.
Why the fuck do all the Japanese desktop computers look so fucking beautiful? FM Towns, Sharp x68000, loads of MSX based machines.
It seems that in the West they tried their best to appeal to the office market which then became the 'family computer' market (remember those days? Everyone sharing one computer? Damn I miss that)
One day I will get a FM Towns machine. I would be even happy with a broken one and then just put a raspberry pi in it or something.
YES!!! I’ve been waiting for you to do this!!! Love it! ❤️❤️❤️
In Back to the Future 2, Marty McFly's boss in 2015 is called Mr. Fujitsu...
Is the simulation glitching again? Or was someone at Fujitsu being a smartass?
Are we just going to pretend she completely ignored the letter “U” in Fujitsu?
Yeah that bothered me the whole video lol
I was waiting for someone to say something lol. I have a feeling it was done on purpose.
Exactly!!!
In fluent japanese, you do not pronounce the
Last U in a noun.
@@tron.44 Well neither she nor us are fluent
I have been waiting for the Marty to be covered ! Thank you
Did wonder how much of this footage is of my machine that I lent you years ago :P
I only bought the one game as an example as I'm not paying £200 plus each time for a game I can't even understand!
Love your channel, thanks for the great video.
Its crazy how most of the CD consoles from that era shared similar form factors (PC engine DUO, Amiga CD 32, FM Towns Marty, Sega Xeye, etc)
Yeah, at the time of coming across a lot of these in varying game mags from 1992-1996, I was almost under the impression that they were clones from different manufacturers of both the Sega CD and TurboDuo.
First time I heard about the FM Towns Marty was in Gamefan from 1994-1995.
Fantastic video! Absolutely loved it! I myself only knew so much about the FM Marty, so it was cool hearing what you had to say about it, and information regarding the console. This isn't a console a lot of people talk about let alone talk about in a video, so I'm glad you made this video!!!!
I love the obscure consoles you cover!
Lady decade is my favorite. Plenty of other channels cover these topics, but she's my favorite to listen to.
What a fantastic as always dear lady video it's totally awesome to hear all the history totally brilliant 🤩🤩🤩👍👍🎮🕹️
Thank you. I love it when I get to learn about something that Ive never heard about before.
One of the holy grails in my collection. Absolutely wonderful console
Great video, but why are we leaving off the last syllable of Fujitsu? There are many words that are not pronounced in the West as they are in Japan, and this really only confuses things.. Fujitsu itself pronounces the "soo" in Western marketing material. The name is a combination of three Kanji, and the last Kanji is pronounced "soo".
She's kind of doing a hybrid between Eglish and Japanese pronnunciation. She is calling it Fujits in an English accent. In Japanese it sounds like if it was spelled like this: Foo-Jee-Tss
Nice oooo
I think it is the Asian pronunciation? Much like Asus is pronounced Asooooooooooooooos. I guess in Asian the poop with their anoooooooooooooooos.
@@SharifSourour I’m British and we don’t miss out the U. This is truly bizarre.
I think it's because she's aware that sometimes the "u" sound is silent in Japanese like in "desu" but this scenario doesn't apply to Fujitsu, Japanese speakers pronounce the u at the end of this word.
I didn't even know this console existed! Excellent work on this one~
OMG! An oversized VHS-like box unnecessarily housing a CD jewel case? I think I love the FM Towns Marty.
That's adorable your kid is obsessed with the Vectrex, kinda wish I could be able to play on one some day.
I absolutely love this channel. You are brilliant 👀😎
A Vectrex is definitely a necessity for gracious living!
It could be an ideal brand for a new quasi-retro console (like Atari VCS, Intellivision Amico, or Coleco Chameleon). First off, even though not many people owned a Vectrex, a lot of us drooled over it. It offered a visual experience unlike anything else, and yet today this retro vector graphics style is en vogue (look at the Atari Recharged games, for example).
Furthermore, Vectrex titles are relatively obscure and unusual, so they're more suitable for modern updates. The only somewhat popular vector graphics arcade title ported to the Vectrex was Star Castle.
As a bonus, the Vectrex actually had a controller matching modern sensibilities - analog stick on the left(!), arcade style controller you placed flat on a table rather than holding in your hand.
Neo Geo and Vectrex are my favorite gracious living consoles by far.
I love it when she smiles.😊
I had no idea that console ever existed until today and have been collecting for many years.
Great video.
I look forward to that "necessity for gracious living" intro every time.
The Marty sounds like a parody console in a comedy sketch. "Exclusive to the Marty- Splendid Marion Sisters!"
Also bonus points for the phrase "Bouejy"
I actually think it was named after Marty McFly from Back to the Future. I guess in Japan Marty just sounded like a super cool name, they missed the point that the character was supposed to be kind of an everyman with a boring name.
@@djutmose im thinking of donkey kong and toad
@@djutmose Yeah I can see where that logic makes sense, good point
awesome video! :D
I've always found the FM Towns Marty to be an interesting footnote in console history.
Compared to 16 bit games consoles the Marty is vastly superior spec wise and includes some future looking things like bootable CDs and so on. Gotta give it credit for that. But a large reason why the 16 bit consoles were less powerful was to keep the price of the console low.
Compared to a "real" PC the Marty is well behind the curve in many ways. The AMD 386SX chip in the Marty was released in 1991, but that's based on the Intel 386SX which was released in 1988 and the original Intel 386DX was released in 1985 so the heart of the console was based on tech that was fairly old at launch. Sure it was less expensive than a "real" PC but that's because the PC world had moved on to 486 CPUs operating at 2x-5x the 16 mhz clock speed of the Marty and was gearing up for the Intel Pentium in 1993. The CD-ROM was the most contemporary part of the console and probably accounted for 1/3 of the total price of it by itself.
Pricing was well above a games console but below that of a real PC and I feel like so many concessions were made to get it to that price point that it didn't excel in either area. I think that along with fierce competition at the time led to the Marty's demise.
I learned alot, thank you for the video .
Need a collab: Top Hat, Lady Decade, Larry Bundy Jr, and Slopes to go after the Amico. 🤣👍
Another gem of a vid. I’d never heard of this system. Thank you for sharing.
I still do wish you would do some vids on systems that were popular in the UK and the rest of Europe while we Yanks were hooked on the NES, Genesis (Mega Drive) and SNES. You had a lot of PC action going on in the 90’s and I would love to hear about those systems and the games that were popular as you were growing up. Please consider it for future vids.
Thanks.
Hadn't heard of this one at all! Being a huge Saturday Night Slammasters fan, I really wanna check this version out now. Great video!
Good morning afternoon or evening lady Decade ❤️ love the channel too
Another great video lady decade 👍
Great video !
I love this thing! I’m oddly a bit of an FM Towns fangirl even though I don’t actually own one 😅 I made a texture for my VRChat avatar’s shirt with the Marty mascot even. Great video as always Lady Decade!!
as you can see from my av, I'm a huge fan of Mr. T the mascot too!
Wow, now that's an obscure system. I don't know where you find these! The games actually look decent. That splattahouse version looks VERY close to arcade.
Nice video made the pain in my sore throat go away
I've never heard anyone pronounce FUJITSU like that before. Always heard "foo-jit-su".
Japanese pronunciation. in Japan and China tsu is one letter, and the emphasis is in the ts. we also mispronounced the Tso in General Tso' chicken. they coulda told me 40 years earlier lolz
Can you imagine being a phone phreak, think hackers the movie, in the early 90s and having access to the car Marty? And the best part is while their phone freaking they can record all the tones to a floppy drive, and then jam out to a CD on the way home.
Neo geo costed 1500 without a game and controller the controller pad was 150$ controller arcade stick costed 200$ and the games were atleast 200$+ here in Aoetearoa in the 90s
Agreed it is one that definitely counts and there is many examples west or east depending on the era and need of mentioning other consoles to not broaden the topic.
I was so tired yesterday, i couldnt keep my attention going. But your videos deserve a third watching anyway, as they are a necessity for gracious living 😁
14:55 "inside the box you'll find another box"
Somebody call Xzibit.
Nice 1 Lady D, i own said console and can confirm it's a truly special piece of kit, i also own the very rare Marty branded mouse and rarer branded Marty keyboard, plus 2x branded pads.
Keep the great videos coming Lady D, piece love n respect !!!!
WOW! Thanks LD!
I remember seeing this and games for it for sale in the back of Diehard Gamefan magazine. Not only was the hardware expensive, but I remember the games being pretty pricey too. Even moreso than the other import games like those for S.Famicom, Mega Drive and PC Engine.
PlayStation came after anyways so 3DO was the one to beat, not the other way round. Absolutely adored mine mainly for Road Rash and SSF2T, but also had Space Hulk, Samurai Showdown and NFS
All the poor Marty needed was Renpy 😄
It really had everything going for it, but with that insanely high price they definitely should have known it would fail miserably. It's just common sense. The amount of wealthy people in Japan (and anywhere else) is going to be very low compared with those who are not wealthy, and of those who are wealthy, far less then half are probably going to be buying your console. You obviously can't survive on such a tiny consumer base. I bet this is a helluva collectors item though, especially thanks to so many of those games having an English language option!
And I thought that I had an obscure Japan only console (NEC PC-FX) lol.
I remember seeing screenshots from this system in gaming magazines and thinking "DAMN THAT LOOKS COOL!"
$700? Ehh, still better off getting an Amiga 500.
Love the video.
Only thing that drove me crazy was the "Fujits" and leaving off the "u"
Ooh new video!!!!
but was the handheld Marty AM Village Color any good?
The FM Towns to this day still offers the most playable version of Shadow of the Beast ie. the hit detection actually works :P
Very informative
Ah.. The GM Towns Marty McFly, the console that flights through time.
No wonder the console is so unknown to the public, keep it up your ladyship! 👍🏻
There were some great jokes in there guys cheers. Thank you soo much for focusing on the hardware rather than software library. its the hardware that gets me, well.....
8:36 is Brøderbund game STUNTS, which was an amazing racing game. Track Customization all kinda stuff.
I miss that game.
I like the packaging. May be a box in inside a box but CD Dual Cases do break easy. So having a bigger one to house it is nice. It's a bit much but I like it. Protective and just a cool design. Also makes for better bigger art then the smaller of the CD case even if comparable to bigger cardboard or steelbook or others today.
Surprised by some big titles. Also it's a video game is the best way to describe Turbo Outrun. Sure map tech wasn't the case I think much back then (not that I know but guessing) besides paper maps and also hardware limitations or visual variety is key with games. Other we would have Desert Bus but a bit better and that would be boring clearly if literal then creatively designed. Games are better cutting out things to make it fit the world then recreating one to one. Always have.
What it was seen as is something I guess but otherwise being too ahead is too much for customers either price or just them getting sick and tired of using the same thing over and over to upgrade to the next one. Some businesses want to be first, have an idea first or whatever but customers have to be willing to care even besides good quality games and too early for them to care/get interested at the right time to move on (or like phones BS reasoning like social and a camera).
Controls are one thing menus are another. If has two buttons and menus or similar to a mouse left and right mouse button are what most of your games have not surprised. Menus do allow for things I'd we don't have buttons though. A weapon wheel versus many keyboard keys to bind each one for example. I'd point n clicks or visual novels sure (which many He tai games are visual novels some have RPG elements I guess maybe back then. No clue but some do nowadays but either way it's not bad to have few buttons I'd many games weren't going to use them even if more buttons allows for a fair amount then people seeing constant menus (or not wanting a screen on controller to lower the menus in some way like dual screens).
But not surprised it was a Hentai Otaku's console than anything else when it fails. Japan has to open it up to other audiences when it fails it seems. Of a format fails have the adult industry bring it somewhat back up for disk formats or consoles. They may be weird but I get why even if some are better than others for games in today can't say for back then having no clue of many of them/not digging in to really care.
Jewel Cases
Once again thanks for tackling the obscure though I know about the console by now. Said on the previous video but so glad you along with THGM seem to make content that is simply made based on interest rather than being motivated by an algorithm.
FM Towns had excellent industrial design. Clean-looking machines, nice color schemes.
This review gave me a warm fuzzy. My initials were mentioned so many times. My initials are a necessity for gracious living.
I freakin’ love this lady’s personality
The only best game was Splatterhouse A great port of the arcade game since all music in all the levels play unlike the original arcade one
Minecraft dungeons was the first day one release my kid was excited for. We do a lot of co op games together and parallel plays. He played diamond I played pearl. Recently he got into attack on titan so we’ve been doing the game, show, and sharing lore videos and theories. It’s a lot fun.
@@jacobprayer8656 i believe it's a comment based on the end of the video, with the question about lady decade's children and gaming
Why is her voice Soooo CUTE !!! I get a kick out of her emphasis on various words…WAAAAY TOOOOO CUTE !!! ☺️🤗☺️
I'm going to guess it's because, throughout my entire childhood, the only way I ever knew the Marty even existed was because of the magazine Diehard Gamefan.
I've only heard about The Towns FM Marty through the Triple Jump UA-cam Channel in the past 6 months
Ayyyy, been at the top of my grail list for over fifteen years now, same with some form of FM Towns PC. Mostly due to the name having my name in it haha.
Lady Decade is a necessity for gracious living!
The whole while I was kinda waiting for an explanation on the name. I guess the world may never know
i had my kid get started on the genesis and nes. she loves retro games now but her heart belongs to minecraft
Maybe it’s because it has pixelated “retro“ graphics
Im kinda curious now, what console was the most successful as a karaoke machine.
I do too. Especially if the JVC X Eye (Genesis/Sega CD in 1) had karaoke disk support and mic support with a certain button/port among I assume other multi media pushing CD based consoles and people getting used to multimedia in them then just cartridges and games as the only thing they do.
Of all the CD playing ones at least I'm curious. I think the PS1 & PS2 could play Audio or Music CDs besides others in the past and the PS2 had microphones for Singstar sure but I assume outside that or because of Singstar it may have been likely for Karaoke type games in Japan than what we think of music/singing games. The Panasonic Q could too I think do some playback of stores maybe. I am just trying to remember/theorise what I remember of consoles people covered showing version features.
It's not an area I know much about or I assume is advertised much or because of not knowing anything about this feature or the marketing in Japan even/them even caring for consoles doing it in their homes then just going out to a place instead they push them for those purposes there.
I hope that the unit had a 80387 socket to take a 80387SX chip which disables the 80386SX so it can run games that might be using floating point code.
I love the CGR nod there
Thank you for your perfect pronunciation of karaoke :D
Fancy doing your bookwork on that console if you could get a compatible keyboard.
Never heard of this but I know Id've loved it in the day.
Do I hear some Saturday Night Slam Masters music in the background around the 13:00 point?
How can you play super street fighter 2 turbo on this?
"The fapping, coomer kind." I LOLed.
Why do you keep dropping the U in FujitSU? You keep saying FUJITS. It says on the box FUJITSU. I did a search to see if I was saying it wrong, but everything I found was FU-JIT-SOO
Classic Game Room.. ah. I miss that
Does that say Doc Brown V2 on that pcb?
consolizing is my new favorite verb
Fast Show reference! You legends....
Also, not floppy for floppy...
Lady Decade can you do a video on the Japanese Sharp X68000
Due to marketing it as a home console. It should've been a living room Fm towns computer
13:41 As a hardcore horror fan, that lineup alone honestly impresses me. I thought this console was home to nothing more than niche Japanese dating sims and the like.
My kids love the GameCube. Got it years 3 ago and they still play it. They even prefer it over the Nintendo switch.
I would have liked to have tried this console out had I known about it.
I wonder if Fujitsu named this console after Marty McFly from Back to the Future?
I actually have one sitting in my collection, I have it hooked up all ready to play and I have a box as well along with 5 games, I don't really play it often anymore, but when I first got it a year ago, I really did enjoy all great perfect ports splatter house, Saturday night slam masters... Raiden ....out runners!.. Puyo puyo is a good one❤❤
I really miss my... IntelliVision! 🎶.
Love that song.