Big thanks to Mark Fixes Stuff: ru-vid.com and TheGebs24: ru-vid.com for taking part in this episode, if you're not already subscribed why not pay them a visit now and check out their videos. Neil
Could it be possible to use a disk emulator? Like the ones that emulate a floppy drive, but are usually SD card based? Also, there is a PCMCIA/floppy drive combo system available. I applaud your work in keeping these rare systems. But sometimes we have to find modern solutions to keep these amazing devices to work.
@@thejackofeverything7961 You are correct. The x86 series with an "SX" designation is lacking the coprocessor, the "DX" has it built in. An SX can be made to run akin to a DX with the math coprocessor. But generally the "integrated DX" processor tended to run better.
in the us we had "conversion vans" it was not uncommon to see smaller full size CRTs in them. in the 2000s i saw one with an n64 in it. (might have been built in the late 90s)
5:23 🔸 _When transporting the unit, make sure that there is no CD inside the unit to protect the internals, and attach the transport protection screws._ _After removing the screws, store them in the position shown in the figure below._
So, not unlike some record players that had a screw and sometimes an extra plastic piece to restrain the tone arm. I have only seen a transport screw used once before for a CD player before in a bookshelf stereo system, but it does makes sense for something that's meant to be portable like this - perhaps even more so with the Car Marty and other devices at the time that weren't using a caddy for the disk.
Fun colaboration, been watching Debs for a few years. FM Town systems are so interesting. Not the best versions of the games mostly, but the music tracks sound amazing apparently.
A forward thinking piece of technology IMO, even the implementation looks like something that would have been cutting edge for the time even if the software library wasn't, and quite cool to see in the cave amongst the other gems you have Neil, thanks for showing it to us!
13:20 That's first time I've ever seen JIS crosshead ("Philips" look'a'like) screws used in electronics. I thought they were common only on Japanese motorcycles 😀 Also astounding to hear machine from that era to be capable of GPS navigation 😯
The chip based memory was always the better direction, but for a short period optical and magnetic storage out performed it. People mostly never clicked to that thought in the time. 100GB USB stick is not unusual now, nor expensive.
Alpine made in-car monitors and a car adapter so you could plug in a Game Gear or an Alpine-branded version of the Sega Mega Jet. There's more info on SegaRetro, but I can't link to it because RU-vid will eat my comment.
other car systems, nintendo had a few vehicle systems im aware of, the visteon gba is the one you might actually be able to get ahold of, its not terribly hard to get ahold of all the parts or at least suitable replacements if you know what you are looking for. the other vehicle system(s) im aware of isnt one you can buy, an in flight entertainment system built into some planes and you would need one or more of the modified seats and the core system itself to get that working, no one has discussed the in flight model as far as im aware and no one has one. i would hazard a guess that there arent any left in service anymore so you cant even find one in the wild anymore
Who.. owned these? Are there pictures of them installed in the wild back then? I'm imagining hip young business men who work on the road and spend their nights cruising around having karaoke parties and playing splatterhouse.
The uk has invented loads of cool stuff that was very cool and very important to the future of technology , the first sub 100.00 home computer the zx80/81, the first hand held pc that fitted in your pocket, the psion , the arm architecture for processing that is still used today , acorn computers. Nintendo were still making playing cards when the zx80 computer was released
@@valley_robot He didn’t say the UK didn’t make anything cool. He said Japan had the coolest. As for Nintendo, they were converting bowling alleys into electromechanical light gun arcades and making “Color TV Game” home game consoles before the ZX80.
@@valley_robot I'm sorry, it wasn't my intention to imply anyone else's hardware was bad. I still think everyone had cool stuff. I feel UK hardware was cooler than the US hardware, for example.
14:42 About 18 years ago I worked in a small Computer store fixing PC's for a living. One day we received a PC that was probably 12-15 years old running on an old 386 CPU. It had been used to control heavy equipment in a machine shop for rebuilding car engines, etc. I still remember cracking open the case and the entire inside was coated with that stuff so high, you couldn't see what was underneath all the filth. It looked like black soot. Only the power supply in it was bad, so we grabbed a new AT power supply. In the rush I forgot the rule of AT power supplies when plugging them into the motherboard (Black to Black, Back to Back) and turned it on. The Power supply was just sitting in the case and not screwed in and it literally kicked into the air about an inch like it was a bucking bronco followed by a puff of smoke. Needless to say, that customer got a free 486 DX2 motherboard and new power supply that day.
Very good video overall. A few notes. -The Fuse can be replaced with similar fuse as the Super Famicom. Ive used a pickle fuse before as I've popped it over 5 times getting pin out wrong on some HW projects for Car Marty. -the cable for video out is unobtanium. Ive developed and created a card to stick in the back to get composite, audio left and right, mono audio and s-video from the car Marty. If you need one Neil let me know and I'll send you a mail. -I'm still working on an external FDD cable / dongle to stick in the back. I have a working prototype as I identified a modern connector to use but I need to revisit it. The external FDD for Car Marty is extremely unobtanium and hard to find. I've only seen one for sale on Yahoo. On the prototype I was able to successfully boot Columns and then Cameltry from a flash floppy gotek. So works but needs refinement.
I've always been fond of Lucasfilm Games' adventures. It wasn't until ScummVM that I found out about the FM Towns exclusives where Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade has a CD audio soundtrack and Zak McKracken is 256 colours.
ScummVM is such a great emulator isn't it. I was able to run some old Humongous Entertainment games on my smartphone when I ran them on PC/Mac way back in the day. Technology only gets better.
I'd really like to know how an FM Towns Car Marty would be set up in... well, a car. Can't find any images from my Google search. Trying to picture it, would an external monitor have been sold to display whatever? How or where would the monitor be mounted? I just want to see it set up in the environment it was originally intended for.
Those handbrake detection is the first thing bypassed, even today. Last time I had a fancy DVD car stereo installed they did it automatically without even asking...
It's impressive for 1994. Fully working PC in such small car format. It's a shame (but small) that they didn't deicide to use 386DX/40. BTW very interesting time for PC. What happend to computers in next 4 years in incredible.
This computer is insane, thank you for presenting it for us. 13:53 The most beautiful board I've ever seen. No joke. Who designed this were proud of their job.
Fascinating to see how far Japan was ahead of the rest of the world at that time. They had CD-based consoles in 1993... when we'd first see the PlayStation here in Europe in 1995. Same thing with say, the Super Nintendo: 1990 introduction in Japan, we got it in 1992. That'd be pretty unthinkable these days.
Interestingly the manufacturer, Fujitsu Ten, was taken over by Denso in 2017, where they're known as Denso Ten. They currently make a number of car infotainment systems, including for Subaru and GM, a lot of which are Intel Atom/Android based. So this is where it's all descended from.
What an interesting system, and a real flex for owners at the time, I’m sure - having the money to have that in your car, especially given the surely very limited time anyone was ever likely to spend actually playing on it. What would be great to see (though perhaps beyond your space constraints) is an exhibit built around it: a mock-up of a car with this installed, with an era-appropriate screen. A limited one, of course: get a dashboard, centre console, steering column and seat from a scrappy, but it’d be really fun and give a good sense of the experience 😊 Impractical, I know, but fun, I think.
I know what you mean about slot loading seeming futuristic. In '94, any console I'd seen with a CD-ROM would've had either a lid for top loading or a caddy front loader. My own CD-ROM was essentially a portable CD player with an extra attachment to add SCSI sockets to allow it to plug into my A1200 via a Squirrel branded PCMCIA to SCSI adapter. A slot loader probably would've looked like something out of Star Trek to me.
I had no idea it was that dirty inside the CD mech! I only ever checked the battery and caps for leakage and all seemed good. I'm glad it's got a full service and been cleaned inside and out, it's a fun albeit weird bit of video game history.
My grandparents had a Conversion Van that had a built in tv/vcr player. It also had a standard US electric outlet. You could put a console in there for vacations. We used to do that all the time.
Another cracking video Neil. For what it's worth , I have am FM Towns, and have never been able to track down an image of Marble Mardness where the music plays (sadly), so it's certainly not your Car Marty having an issue, it's the image.
I love the design of those Fujitsu products:) It looks like what someone in the late 80's would visualize future technology as looking like. I think they definitely have that cyberpunk aesthetic.
If it has the full FM Towns compatibility, then if you get a keyboard and mouse for it, you could probably run Windows 3.x and maybe even 95 on this. It would be fun to see, even if probably pretty useless :D
While you said the system is rare (I am assuming that means outside of Japan and surrounding Asian markets), I wonder if there is an active homebrew community. Also, do you participate in local/regional electronics and toy shows? I think people would love to see this and other rare electronics in action. (You don't have to open them to public play, you can just do demonstrations or have the consoles only accessible to you with a generic controller available to the public). Also, I would love to know more about the Towns OS, and why they went with a proprietary OS when so many games were available to a general IBM OS and it is much cheaper than porting a game. I am only assuming that the OS is not an IBM compatible because you said the games you were playing were Towns versions. Lastly, I understand your feelings about a slot fed CD Rom. So many systems came with a tray, or in the case of consoles, had a lid where you had to physically push the CD onto the spindle. Seeing a disk get pulled into a slot and then the CD Rom automatically did the rest of the work seemed magical.
Dear Sir. Being inspired by your visual feast I decided to surprise my wife by hooking a Vectrex up to the engine of my Cortina. However during a heavy breaking manoeuvre wires came loose and gave my wife a buttock rippling shock. This was hardly the "world of entertainment " we were promised. I feel that a free day pass to the Cave (and the arcade) will make up for my distress, and my wife's twitching, haunted face. Yours Sincerely Sir Curtis Tenderloin Milton Keynes
I'd love to see you do a video on the Hitachi HiSaturn Navi. I thought it might be a bit too rare and pricy for RMC, but then I remembered you were able to get your hands on a Pioneer LaserActive, so it could be achievable.
I'd love to see this installed in a period correct Japanese car with the screen and the one handed controller to see how it would have been used in a car.
Viewpoint is such a great choice! I have the Neo Geo CD version but sadly my NGCD is in storage back home :( - Hence why I've started looking for a CDZ :P
11.46 If you are having trouble with CD-Rs, try Verbatim Super Azo. Even my oldest CD player which refuses most newer CD-Rs and PS1 which is fussy will read Super Azo. Different speeds can help, try fastest first.
I can imagine police cars and taxis having this back then. I totally picture Miyuki's Honda Today patrol car having this set up in the anime You're Under Arrest.
That Yamaha chip is the same as the Megadrive’s 2612 FM chip, except this is a CMOS version of it (that’s why the part number is different). The Megadrive 2 has the 3438 core integrated into it’s main ASIC chip. What’s funny is that the 3438 has an improved DAC compared to the 2612, but Sega muntzed the amplifier circuit in the Megadrive 2 making it sound noisier then the Megadrive 1.
In answer to your question, I have a nice Hitachi HiSaturn, which was a Hitachi licensed version of the Sega console which came with the FMV unit included. However the 'holy grail' of Saturns is the HiSaturn Navi, which is a version of that same Hitachi machine but with a smaller form factor, additional extras such as karaoke ports, a GPS antenna and an LCD screen, all of which would indeed allow you to use it in your car. Add a couple of multitaps, squeeze ten people in your Nissan Micra and let's play Saturn Bomberman on the road!
When I was a kid in the early/mid 90s my grandpa bought a hi top van that came with a TV in the back and one of the cubby holes had hookups for an snes so I'd bring mine along on road trips. I loved it
I remember visiting the Minnesota State Fair and seeing a Saturn station wagon concept car fitted with a Nintendo and CRT in the back. I wanted that car so badly as a kid. I've never been able to find anything about it online.
Fascinating video! I don't remember ever seeing one of these before. It's fun to learn new things. I've studied electronics ever since the late 1970's, but I've not seen these Marty systems. It's simply amazing what they'd done with this FM Towns Car Marty! Window cleaner is great stuff! Even better than rubbing alcohol in some cases since it's not as harsh, yet still evaporates quickly. There's also 'contact cleaner' but it usually isn't necessary.
My first jobs was for cartunes sound and cellular. lots of crazy custom work I remember a dodge viper being modified with a custom n64 molded into the glove box. The screen was in the stereo, It would pop out like a cd deck and flip up. Not to mention the stereo being able to shake the bolts loose on the car.
FINALLY! someone is talking about this, ive always wanted one and whenever i told people about it they gave me weird looks, nice to finally see a vid on it
as a sort-of retro collector myself i knew there were a few models of Fm Towns, but i never heard of this one. Thanks for this video and i hope to see more interesting ones.
I think the first part of those instructions means the system can only be plugged into a Japanese western style 60hz NTSC TV, remember they have two different TV systems in Japan depending on which part of the country you live in.
The TV system is the same. They have a different mains frequency in different parts of the country, 50 vs. 60 Hz, but TV has always been 60 Hz (or 59.94 Hz because NTSC is weird) all over Japan. I can't see any kanji for "Japan" or "west" in that red text shown on 5:23, and my Google Translate outputs semi-legible instructions for the transport lock screw when pointed at the screen. So it must have been just a hilarious case of kanji misrecognition.
Are you sure about this or are you getting TV refresh rates confused with electricity? I know they have different Hz for electricity but I'd never heard of different TV refresh rates. All Japanese consoles are fixed at 60Hz.
@@googleboughtmee Yeah, I may have been a little mixed up, I thought they had both NTSC and Pal there but now it looks like it is just NTSC. Still I am not sure what else that sentence could be trying to say.
@@raggersragnarsson6255 I haven't watched it for years either. You only see it for a few seconds, but the death ditty from Pac Man is quite prominent as I recall.
Well it was nice of them to provide an upgrade path out of towns into pc while having a machine for the changeover period to use your existing sw while you find new sw.
The satnav is interesting. I had a garmin way back then and one quirk was the us government purposely degraded the signal making it kinda spotty for navigation use
You're correct that mineral oils and greases can damage plastics, but did you know that using silicone oils and greases in metal-to-metal situations can also be bad? Using silicones in metal-to-metal situations, particularly steel-to-steel can cause "galling" which accelerates wear massively.
10:30 Yes, handbrake feedback is exactly for that. Almost all ie. DVD video capable units have that function to prevent driver watching movies on the road. Apparently it's tested on annual car MOT on many countries.
pcmcia in desktop units is based. Being able to swap serious I/O cards, on the native bus without conversions and the resulting speed losses, would be soooo fucking cool, even these these days, even if you have to turn off the computer to do so. turning it off and on again is worlds easier than opening the damn thing up.
I remember Splatterhouse when it first appeared in my local arcade as a teen. It was slightly shocking at the time and very difficult, albeit I pumped quite a few 10ps into it and never got very far. I moved on to other games as it just sucked up coins at my skill level for better value. Xybots was my other more fun coin eater for me. Great to see it here and these quite obscure machines as well. Thanks once again Neil. The best as always.
Back in 2008,... I had a touch screen video audio receiver, in my car, with it hooked up to a 2000 watt subwoofer, and a Playstaion 2 slim, installed in the glove box,... I'd sit parked, and play GTA Vice City with the audio cranked,.... and when something, in game, would explode, the whole car would shake and rock around on it's suspension. It was pretty dope.
in my world now, worked in car entertaiment for 10 years fitting systems and had a playstation in my car, the monitor cost over £200 for some poor resolution gaming.
I don’t but these are standard apple crates screwed together so should be quite easy to replicate if you can find some crates. Thanks for complimenting them!
When I drove a truck, back in the late 80s, I had a 12" RCA color TV, and Super NES. It got me through many long nights, and layovers, out on the road.
