Is The FM TOWNS MARTY Worth Playing in TODAY!? - Console History and Review - THGM 

I wouldn't kiss my console if I were you, it was covered in (what I think is mud) when I first got hold of it! :D

Since I'm rich now from getting rid of my so called girlfriend, I would get this system just to say I've brought it !

I decided 'yes', it was worth investing in. It's a unique console that we never got to experience here in the States, and it has some older games now that many of us haven't played other ports of. I picked up one game so far; Pu-Li-Ru-La, but am interested in a few others like, Ultima IV, Emerald Dragon, and Brandish (if I can get the floppy drive working). Another great video! I enjoyed it immensely.

I remember seeing the FM Towns when I was working at Sega of America back in the day, it was an impressive machine to say the least. Even the Sharp 68000 systems paled by comparison.

The FM Towns Marty almost looks like a PS3 Super Slim.

The Real 3DO. Isn't it the R.E.A.L 3DO?

The FM Towns Marty is interesting because it has an AMD 386 variant CPU inside the system, which makes it the first console to use a 32bit x86 CPU. The next console after to have an x86 32bit CPU is the original Xbox, which has a Pentium III derivative of some kind . I've had a DOS PC in the past with a AMD 386 33MHz CPU, which would not be that different from the one in the Marty. But the Marty has a custom graphics core and looks like it is much better at handling 2D scrolling graphics than the PC I once had. It's neat hardware. I can see why there were still developers making games for it up to 1999.

I just ordered mine today!!!! It came with5 games and the floppy is working as well 🔥🔥👍

Most of the fm town games came in these huge cases and have some of the best artwork I seen on any cover.

Shooty shooty Japanese-y is my favorite gaming genre.

The FM Towns Marty is the Amiga CD32 done right.

I am amazed that with the fairly powerful system spec's many titles are similar to the Megadrive regarding quality... especially considering the price. However, CD ROM based hardware was something new and exotic, so many companies tried to cash in on the this with high price tags. An old friend of mine purchased one in the day for $1000 Canadian...I remember playing Microcosm.

I'd buy for all the exclusives like some of the RPGs and Hentai games.

used to have two Martys. only one with a working disk drive though - never bothered to fix the belt on the second one... in the end sold off both and sticked to my FM Towns II UX 40. Also only kept the Viper Series as software and sold off my copy of Splatterhous LOL

I think we all should say thank you to Guru Larry for loaning THGM an FM Towns Marty #FactHunt #GuruLarry

It had some of the best versions of Wizardry and Ultima on it. However, its about as ridiculous as the NEOGEO as far as prices are concerned.

Got my FM Towns pc for 3000 yen (20~ pound) in HardOff. Got super lucky. It even has the Cyrix 133mhz process and 104mb ram. Cd drive works too. Love it! Play Raiden and Truxton 2 almost every other day.

think its time to take that picture of Billie Mitchell down

ouch, I just looked at the price of the system on ebay... this is SCARY! well thanks for looking into it!

Looks like this system could've been a lot of fun to grow up playing. However, the name sounds like some cringy middle aged hobo hopping trains whilst carrying a dirty knapsack. Thanks for uploading!

Fun fact, but rather unknown. The Marty had the BEST version of Marble Madness.

WTF?! A framed picture of Billy Mitchell? You're hitting hard trying to troll the viewers. lol

There was a Truxxton 2? I need to check that out. One Marty game I would have liked to see mentioned would be Sega's Last Survivor. A 3D multiplayer arena shooter which used sprites. Again an arcade port though.

32-bit consoles. order of release, first to last: FM Towns Marty, Panasonic 3DO, Amiga CD32, SEGA Saturn, Sony PlayStation, NEC PC-FX.

I think you said it yourself. It's a really high entrance price and there are other ways of playing most of the games on it. If it wasn't so expensive then it would be worth getting for the history alone. So, for most people that just want to play good games and nothing more, then I would probably have to say it's not worth it at all.

Ys cutscene on that monitor! ^_^ And there was a Truxton 2? Well I want a Marty now...

Flying Shark has no ending, it loops from stage two to five for ever. I used to play it in one of my Dad's favourite pubs when I was a kid, loved it but it's bastard hard! Toaplan became Cave later and made DonPachi etc

Why when you say “PC” sounds like “PC” but when you say “PC Engine” sounds like “PShe Engine”? 😂

I would buy every system ever if I had the money. I would make a legendary game room... wait... what's THAT? Last Gamer already did it?😥😑

Was a devkit made for the FM Towns? It would be nice to make some NEW games for it!

I remember being quite impressed with the Marty back in the day but simply put there are much better ways to play these games nowadays than on a hampered machine. Even the X68000 isn’t worth it if you want arcade conversions. However if you want it as a collectors piece (and have the money) then it’s cool. A copy of Splatterhouse for £500 though 😬

FM Town Marty is the only console to have an uncensored Splatterhouse I believe.

Love the sapphire background music!

The question should be "is it worth paying for today?" when the games are a few hundred dollars each, it should be "is it worth the price?" When they are wanting $800 US for Splatterhouse, and $1000 US for Shadow of the Beast, the answer is no, you can get an X-Box one and a PS4, AND a couple of games, for the price of one game, let alone the console.

Reminds me of the top loading 3D0, not just in appearance but games and function, would pic the Marty over the 3D0 to collect for.

Playing Super Street Fighter 2 with only two buttons would be a nonsense anyways... The port looks quite decent, it has an arranged sounttrack, big and detailed characters, but no real parallax scrolling, just like the 3DO version of Super SF2 Turbo.

These things are stupidly expensive in working condition. I've come close a few times to buying one but once they go over 500 euors it's just too much. As you mentioned the system really is handicaped by both the low memory, which leads into the slow CD-ROM, which you really feel when games have to re-load their state. Considering it's a 386sx in there, the port of Galaxy Force II is nothing short of amazing, especially when put against anything home system of the era. Although for my tastes I'd almost rather just get a GF2 arcade board for the insane pricing. I'm amazed how SEGA has not taken their old sprite super scaler games of the 1980's and converted them to VR, as it would be an incredible experience. But SEGA being SEGA is more content in selling endless Sonic, even if the better Sonic games are actually written by a super SEGA fan - Christian Whitehead, who has done far more to keep the Sonic 16bit era alive than SEGA. It's always interesting that the system runs MS-DOS and bundles the Pharlap 386 runtime to unlock the 32bit mode of the 32bit CPU. Shame that Fujitsu never could see putting their graphics/sound onto the PC98, but that's life. Great video!

I TOTALLY don't know about any game series called Viper, Viper GTS, Viper V6 or anything like that.

Plays Turbo Outrun but stays in low gear the whole time and is unable to pass even the traffic.

Still angers me to learn of all the censorship we have Been subject to in the States. Treat us like fucking babies

Doc Brown ODE + Hxc Floppy Emulator is a must. Failing CD drives and the floppy drive is a major failure too.

Just sold mine! very fragile and expensive system with not big library of stupidly expensive (and not exclusive) games..

Just got a DOC Brown ODE and HxC Floppy emulator for my Marty console. No need for CD discs or real floppies.

no, the fm towns totally sucks. it had amazing specs but turned out to be an another boring hentai and shmup machine with barely any good games.

FM Towns had hentai games? Oh the irony is stunning

Outside of CD quality music, from the games shown in the video, it wasn't really a console taking gaming to a new level, despite being the first 32-bit console, most of these 2d games, the Saturn could run without breaking a sweat..

I always wanted to know how Snatcher one of Kojima's early games looks on this. It's ok on TG-16.

@1:27 WTF? She's lifting her leg and dress to fart out a green feather duster?!?

Ill give u a gew more years i preety sureyour channels content will hit1mill views.

Uh oh ... he's gone and "mispronounced" a Star Wars name "Palpatine". Now he's gonna get it! No but I do wonder how it would be to use the FM Towns Marty with a keyboard and floppy as a retro game development system. Just ... I couldn't personally justify it, compared to the less hipster Amiga CD32. (I actually already have an Amiga 1200 and Amiga 500, but no CD drive.)

That final shooter game reminded me very much of Sega's Zaxxon that played in the arcade. A friend of mine also had the Amstrad CPC port Sorry isometric 2.5 D one

I would have to say no. The high cost of literally everything and the easy breakability factor makes it an easy pass for me. Great video as usual though, good sir.

are you supposed to jam your ears down with those hats? LOL

REALLY been digging your videos lately! This one on particular, as I knew nothing of the FM Towns. Love the hardware specs you share on each console as well. HOLLA HOLLA HOLLA Bid daddy Top Hat!

Confused as to how this console can be considered 32 bit. The 386SX CPU had a 16 bit data bus which seriously cripples it's performance when compared to the original 386 (DX) full 32bit CPU. It was created as a "cheap" 386 as the motherboard components could be lower spec due to the 16 bit data bus. However they were renowned for being barely faster than the 16bit 286. The original Mororala 68000 is also a 32 bit CPU with a 16 bit data bus, but I don't recall anyone referring to the Amiga CDTV as a 32 bit console!! Appreciate there is more to console capabilities than "bits". Looking at the games shown the graphics hardware was far beyond the average 386sx VGA pc!

Stuck in 'L' on Turbo Outrun huh? Great review mate 😎

I'd still be happy to have that design on my desk. The thing was a beautiful design and the rest of the world had ugly beige IBM compatibles LOL

never thought id be jealous of a console #waaa LOL. I was hoping you'd have played R-Type on it, looked amazing!

The towns marty is a such a fucking weird name. O_o

My definitive favorite game for this platform has to be Genocide Square, a compilation remake of the two games of the obscure Genocide saga (which appears in the video at 5:45) which were originally released for the NEC PC-98 and Sharp X68000, but this remake polishes many things over the original two like balancing the dificulty, correcting hitboxes and making a more fluid control (still hard to beat tho, but It's worth and you have infinite continues), also adding some amazing FMV intro cutscenes along with remastered music tracks, also, most of Its text is in english so the story and other things are fairly easy to understand.

What other English talkies were on the FM Towns besides Ultima 6 (which is one of my favorite games in the series mind you)? I've heard that it had an English talkie version of Monkey Island as well LONG before the PC did...is this true and do these games run on the Marty?

6:37 Once Street Fighter 2 came out a 6 burron FM Towns Marty controller came out. it is very rare but I have seen pictures of it

Great video. I'm it's popular enough that you can revisit it. I would love to hear more about titles that are English friendly and games that are exclusives or better/changed from other consoles. The arcade ports are interesting but with mame being so easy it doesn't seem worth it to get the system for its great ports.

Since you brought up the PC-98 it remonded me of something that I've discovered several years ago, believe it or not but Sonic The Hedgehog actually appeared (alongside a Puyo Puyo) in a hentai game on the console, I believe it was called "A Hard Day Night" or something like that, I always wondered if SEGA had anything to do with the game or even aware of its existance. But yes, Sonic The Hedgehog appeared in an official hentai game, I suppose it's not all that surprising when you concider many of his "official" appearences in recent animes such as Ben-To and Hi-Scoool! Sega Hard Girls.

The comment that the only way to get Truxton 2 is to get it for the FMTowns is pretty odd... you could also buy the arcade board, of course.

Get back on zelda with that other dude piss funny

Watching the Turbo Outrun footage had me screaming “PUT IT IN HIGH GEAR YOU MUPPET!”

So basically it has games you can emulate on mame but with load times yeah no thanks. But hey thanks for telling me the name of that pulirula game ive been wondering what the name of that game was.

I had my first hands on with it at Blackpool Play expo last weekend along with a stack of other unusual consoles. Interesting and cool.

Ah... I laughed SO HARD upon seeing that framed picture of Billy Mitchell. Well played, sir! :D

You're very wrong about games being better on other consoles lol. Ok the Marty splatterhouse is the the best version from the sega genesis and pc engine.

THGM: "Meaning that this is the only way to get hold of a physical copy of this game." Me: *Laughs in Supergun*

I just recently learned about the existence of the FM Towns. Now I am finding out about the FM Marty

I would rather get an FM Towns computer than the console if I had a choice. Probably will never get either to be honest.

This is funny, I just searched FM towns Marty, because I like the intro. And then this comes up :)

Why do you still have a picture of billy Mitchell still up? As a warning of who not to let in?

Will you do more videos like this for the FM Towns Biff and the FM Towns Doc?

I love the FM Towns Marty, one of few last consoles I want to buy. I do have a few games I can emulate, one is a cool side scrolling shooter where you could add enemies, textures, etc. like RPG maker, only SHMUP form- Super Shooting Towns. Plus I love the Raiden series and own all 5, another arcade perfect port of the 1st one, and my fav is on, believe it or not, the Atari Jag!

As a collector and a gamer I definitely want to add this to my collection.

Nice video, however I do wish you would show a much larger variety of the games for the system. The main thing we are interested in here is the games, so show them off while you have the chance!

The worst named games console of all time

After seeing this vid on the FM Towns marty I decided to make my own youtube vid about this hard to find console.

what about the genesis 32x combo I know that it was a console plus addon but it was still enhanced to 32 bits

Lovely machine, I always enjoyed looking at the different games in my magazines. Very expensive back then and still so today but tres cool if you can afford the thing. Arcade perfect and better even with that CD sound (though the load times and language barrier are a thing to bear in mind).

i really need one of these...one day it will be mine....first world problems ;)

Where would we all be without Guru Larry ?

Larry needs to upen a freaking museum or at least upload a video tour of his game room.

I want one, but I'm poor :c

Who cares, this console was super exclusive if you were in the west and a hardcore gamer in the 90's. If I ever get rich and have the space, I will dedicate a massive room to all computers. The FM TOWNS and Sharp X68000, philips cdi were the 3 consoles I wanted in the early 90's :)

I agree, the version of turbo outrun looks very good and does not have the sped mod feel to it.

I love the tumb nail!

To answer the question as to whether it's worth it to get this in the here and now, the answer is no. Too pricey for a relatively insignificant system. Honestly, all those attempts to jump start the fifth generation that were released before the PS1 and Saturn are forgettable and not worth playing, except maybe the 3DO, and that one only be aside of it's longer lifespan making it have a somewhat competent library.

I love the small text on the front. There was an nec shop in Edinburgh, the staff didn't know what a PC engine was so my hopes of importing one way back in the late 80s never happened!

Look what I'm holding 😎

Thumbnail link

it has an a-ma-zing version of Kyuukyoku Tiger

Fujitsu made a big mistake turning marty into a home console instead of a living room FM towns computer.

With the name like FM towns Marty, I would have guessed that this would have been a british console All the way

I would choose to buy an FM Towns just to play Rayxanber and I'm not ashamed of that.

Holy hell I love that sound effect when the boy attacks in that game at the end of the vid.