FM TOWNS MARTY

I advise you read the FM towns computer area first.

The Fujitsu company decided to make an attempt to penetrate the console games market by taking their popular FM TOWNS line of computers, and adding in some special components to create a stand alone machine. The plan was for the software designed for the FM TOWNS computers to be modified slightly so that the games would work on both the computer and the console. The best comparison would be to the then unreleased Pippin @mark, and the CD32. The FM Towns Marty has the distinction of being the first 32 bit games console.

When Marty was released, computers were very expensive in Japan, and were never under a thousand USD. Games for computers and most consoles ranged from $70 to $140+. Most computer games of the day were priced very high, and this was due to the fact that most had very small runs, and the developers HAD to make a profit. The practice disappeared in the 90's along with the Japanese boom economy. The software market diminished greatly. Now games range from $38-75, with the occasional release still in the $140 range. These $140 games are almost exclusively porn.

The FM TOWNS MARTY was to fill a niche in the market; Affordable, and able to draw upon remakes from the FM Computer Series. The Marty however, was met with a lukewarm reception, as most people wanted a computer, and not a games machine that was several hundred dollars above the the SuperFamicom and Megadrive. The Machine was  underpowered, and would soon be followed by a revision, the FM TOWNS MARTY 2. This was a 486 model, and did fairly well.

The Fujitsu company wisely never followed up the FM towns marty series, and soon after, Sony and the Playstation  devoured the market.