FM Towns Computer / Marty Thread

[SuperDeadite]

Galaxy Force II is a good example as well. At 16mhz it runs fairly choppy. But on a 486 it runs at a rock solid 60fps and never slows down. It actually makes the game too fast making some parts really hard, but it is quite nice to play it so smoothly regardless.

For me, Towns is all about the weird stuff, like it's port of Last Survivor is a step down from the arcade, but it was the only port until Shou finally dumped the arcade original. Plus it supports 4 players if you connect 2 machines with a serial cable.

Also Rayxanber 1 is fantastic imo.

[gameoverDude]

Galaxy Force II is a good example as well. At 16mhz it runs fairly choppy. But on a 486 it runs at a rock solid 60fps and never slows down. It actually makes the game too fast making some parts really hard, but it is quite nice to play it so smoothly regardless.

For me, Towns is all about the weird stuff, like it's port of Last Survivor is a step down from the arcade, but it was the only port until Shou finally dumped the arcade original. Plus it supports 4 players if you connect 2 machines with a serial cable.

Also Rayxanber 1 is fantastic imo.

Have to agree about Rayxanber.
Last Survivor is something ahead of its time before all the FPS games (it's even earlier than Wolfenstein 3D), & the arranged soundtrack is amazing. I'm surprised that the FPS craze hasn't driven Sega to show this one some respect & do a sequel or remake.

[comp1demon]

Galaxy Force II is a good example as well. At 16mhz it runs fairly choppy. But on a 486 it runs at a rock solid 60fps and never slows down. It actually makes the game too fast making some parts really hard, but it is quite nice to play it so smoothly regardless.

For me, Towns is all about the weird stuff, like it's port of Last Survivor is a step down from the arcade, but it was the only port until Shou finally dumped the arcade original. Plus it supports 4 players if you connect 2 machines with a serial cable.

Also Rayxanber 1 is fantastic imo.

Superdeadite

I only spent about the last 2 weeks watching your videos OVER AND OVER on the FM Towns. You seem to be the best authority on the FM Town Computer that is an English speaker. Trying to read Japanese Forums and such with Translate is such a headache.

Can I pick your brain on a bunch of stuff. I know from your videos this is like 5-10 years old stuff for you, but for me it is a new hobby and I am just getting into it.

Anywhere I can find you for live chat? IRC? Facebook Groups? ect???

If not I understand. I just have a ton of questions if you would be patient with me about answering them.

[SuperDeadite]

Galaxy Force II is a good example as well. At 16mhz it runs fairly choppy. But on a 486 it runs at a rock solid 60fps and never slows down. It actually makes the game too fast making some parts really hard, but it is quite nice to play it so smoothly regardless.

For me, Towns is all about the weird stuff, like it's port of Last Survivor is a step down from the arcade, but it was the only port until Shou finally dumped the arcade original. Plus it supports 4 players if you connect 2 machines with a serial cable.

Also Rayxanber 1 is fantastic imo.

Superdeadite

I only spent about the last 2 weeks watching your videos OVER AND OVER on the FM Towns. You seem to be the best authority on the FM Town Computer that is an English speaker. Trying to read Japanese Forums and such with Translate is such a headache.

Can I pick your brain on a bunch of stuff. I know from your videos this is like 5-10 years old stuff for you, but for me it is a new hobby and I am just getting into it.

Anywhere I can find you for live chat? IRC? Facebook Groups? ect???

If not I understand. I just have a ton of questions if you would be patient with me about answering them.

PM Sent

[some japanese name]

Free Software Collections are very cheap to buy @ yahoo and from interest cause they boot a lower version (early FSC <10 but no guarantee if you want a specific numer i have to ask the guy who found the New Zealand Story trick) of the Towns Operating System (TOS). Some of them include little games like this one here; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMWRCh5fO4s Most of the stuff is free software like paint & video programms.

You can avoid the New Zealand Story crash after stage 1 and the Marty sound bug by booting them fist and starting the game under the earlier Towns OS version.
I believe the same thing does work with Taito Chase HQ sound bug (not on every system) but i have not tested this

Here are a few FSC pictures (and a few other games)
http://picasaweb.google.com/11254911850 ... directlink#

Does anyone have any info on the New Zealand Story sound bug?
I just received a Marty 2 along with Tatsujin Oh, Splatterhouse, and NZS (all legit discs if that matters); and though TO and SH work fine the music in NZS is alllll kinds of whacked out. This thread is the only result I got when I googled the issue. I should probably recap the system anyway, but if doing so isn't going to fix NZS' music I'd like to know that so I don't think I did something wrong when recapping.

[comp1demon]

Free Software Collections are very cheap to buy @ yahoo and from interest cause they boot a lower version (early FSC <10 but no guarantee if you want a specific numer i have to ask the guy who found the New Zealand Story trick) of the Towns Operating System (TOS). Some of them include little games like this one here; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMWRCh5fO4s Most of the stuff is free software like paint & video programms.

You can avoid the New Zealand Story crash after stage 1 and the Marty sound bug by booting them fist and starting the game under the earlier Towns OS version.
I believe the same thing does work with Taito Chase HQ sound bug (not on every system) but i have not tested this

Here are a few FSC pictures (and a few other games)
http://picasaweb.google.com/11254911850 ... directlink#

Does anyone have any info on the New Zealand Story sound bug?
I just received a Marty 2 along with Tatsujin Oh, Splatterhouse, and NZS (all legit discs if that matters); and though TO and SH work fine the music in NZS is alllll kinds of whacked out. This thread is the only result I got when I googled the issue. I should probably recap the system anyway, but if doing so isn't going to fix NZS' music I'd like to know that so I don't think I did something wrong when recapping.

I have not played Zealand Story yet. But I have a Marty I and marty II as well as a FM TOWNS II (PC) - I can try all 3 of them. Post a clip of the sound bug so I can find the same spot in the game and see if mine does it too.

Also if you just bought the marty 2 and it came with those 3 original disc games, that must have been some purchase $1400? Care to share price paid.

[some japanese name]

It's as soon as you turn the game on. The intro animation (which should have sound) is usually silent and then when gameplay begins instead of the jaunty bgm that's supposed to play it's just disjointed bleeps and bloops. It's reallllyyy grating to hear.

I didn't pay that much, the games aren't complete in big box- just jewel cases and instructions.

[Koa Zo]

Galaxy Force II is a good example as well. At 16mhz it runs fairly choppy. But on a 486 it runs at a rock solid 60fps and never slows down. It actually makes the game too fast making some parts really hard, but it is quite nice to play it so smoothly regardless.

For me, Towns is all about the weird stuff, like it's port of Last Survivor is a step down from the arcade, but it was the only port until Shou finally dumped the arcade original. Plus it supports 4 players if you connect 2 machines with a serial cable.

Also Rayxanber 1 is fantastic imo.

First I've heard of Last Survivor. I would have dumped tons of quarters into that if any of the local arcade would've had it. That's so rad FM Towns allows serial linked 4-player. And what a soundtrack for that era!

Regarding Galaxy Force II, that got me wondering, do any FM Towns games support analog controllers?

[SuperDeadite]

Yes. Galaxy Force II, Turbo Outrun, Wing Commander, and a few more support the Cyberstick. Afterburner II sadly does not, don't remember about Afterburner III.

[cawley1]

Guys,
After a year messing with my X68000 XVI, I am now about to embark on the FM Towns journey! If anything, FM Towns seems more difficult to come by information than X68000...

I have two computers due - a Fresh-FT and a Fresh-TV. I know the Fresh-TV boots, but no idea about the Fresh-FT! I also have no keyboard or mouse for either system.
Is there a SD card solution for this system, with a HD image similar to the X68000 one, or is it easy enough to set up Towns OS and Windows on it? What is the largest HD to use with these computers?

SuperDeadite, if possible, could you drop me a PM, so I can fire you some inane questions, you likely know the answer to already?!

Let me know,
Thanks,
Paul

[uroko-sakanabito]

Free Software Collections are very cheap to buy @ yahoo and from interest cause they boot a lower version (early FSC <10 but no guarantee if you want a specific numer i have to ask the guy who found the New Zealand Story trick) of the Towns Operating System (TOS). Some of them include little games like this one here; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMWRCh5fO4s Most of the stuff is free software like paint & video programms.

You can avoid the New Zealand Story crash after stage 1 and the Marty sound bug by booting them fist and starting the game under the earlier Towns OS version.
I believe the same thing does work with Taito Chase HQ sound bug (not on every system) but i have not tested this

Here are a few FSC pictures (and a few other games)
http://picasaweb.google.com/11254911850 ... directlink#

Does anyone have any info on the New Zealand Story sound bug?
I just received a Marty 2 along with Tatsujin Oh, Splatterhouse, and NZS (all legit discs if that matters); and though TO and SH work fine the music in NZS is alllll kinds of whacked out. This thread is the only result I got when I googled the issue. I should probably recap the system anyway, but if doing so isn't going to fix NZS' music I'd like to know that so I don't think I did something wrong when recapping.

Yeah, its quite an easy fix;
Just burn & boot some older Towns OS version and start the game from there.

It also works from pure DOS if i remember correct. Should be easy to create some boot disk.

[uroko-sakanabito]

Guys,
After a year messing with my X68000 XVI, I am now about to embark on the FM Towns journey! If anything, FM Towns seems more difficult to come by information than X68000...

I have two computers due - a Fresh-FT and a Fresh-TV. I know the Fresh-TV boots, but no idea about the Fresh-FT! I also have no keyboard or mouse for either system.
Is there a SD card solution for this system, with a HD image similar to the X68000 one, or is it easy enough to set up Towns OS and Windows on it? What is the largest HD to use with these computers?

SuperDeadite, if possible, could you drop me a PM, so I can fire you some inane questions, you likely know the answer to already?!

Let me know,
Thanks,
Paul

you can use my hdd image (the one without scsi cd drivers included)
https://assemblergames.com/threads/fm-t ... one.68102/

[some japanese name]

Free Software Collections are very cheap to buy @ yahoo and from interest cause they boot a lower version (early FSC <10 but no guarantee if you want a specific numer i have to ask the guy who found the New Zealand Story trick) of the Towns Operating System (TOS). Some of them include little games like this one here; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMWRCh5fO4s Most of the stuff is free software like paint & video programms.

You can avoid the New Zealand Story crash after stage 1 and the Marty sound bug by booting them fist and starting the game under the earlier Towns OS version.
I believe the same thing does work with Taito Chase HQ sound bug (not on every system) but i have not tested this

Here are a few FSC pictures (and a few other games)
http://picasaweb.google.com/11254911850 ... directlink#

Does anyone have any info on the New Zealand Story sound bug?
I just received a Marty 2 along with Tatsujin Oh, Splatterhouse, and NZS (all legit discs if that matters); and though TO and SH work fine the music in NZS is alllll kinds of whacked out. This thread is the only result I got when I googled the issue. I should probably recap the system anyway, but if doing so isn't going to fix NZS' music I'd like to know that so I don't think I did something wrong when recapping.

Yeah, its quite an easy fix;
Just burn & boot some older Towns OS version and start the game from there.

It also works from pure DOS if i remember correct. Should be easy to create some boot disk.

First, thanks for the clarification!
Second, is it as easy as burning a disc, and then swapping once the older OS launches or is it something I'd need a keyboard/mouse for?

[uroko-sakanabito]

You need a mouse to work with Towns OS, its very similay to early Windows.
If you want to work with my image / Dos you also need a keyboard.

When you have a mouse, insert some old tos and boot.
Then switch the CD with NZS and click the game icon.
One of the early TOS version does work 100%.

[cawley1]

Guys,
I have messaged uroko-sakanabito directly over on Assembler, as I have a feeling he will know the answers, but if anyone else can help...

I got a Fresh FT via Yahoo Japan - it's working well, and I have stripped it down and given it a full clean I have a keyboard for it, and I am using the SNES mouse with an adapter.

The computer boots the few originals I have, and most burnt CD's with no issues. Very occasionally it seems to not play a CD track in a game, but I have only experienced this one or two times. Some games give me bigger issues (Mahou Daisakusen loaded once, but usually fails after it shows 'checking drive status' or whatever as it boots).

It also has Towns OS installed on a hard drive, and it was booting into this. I had an issue when testing when I first go it, that sometimes on 'MS-DOS Starting' screen (immediately after the boot screen with the drive select) it would hang with a high pitched beep. If I powered off for five seconds and re-booted, this was cleared. However, I have now replaced the battery in the computer, and while it saves the date and time, it now also saves this error, so I cannot boot into Towns OS from the Hard Drive.

To be honest, I would be happy to format and start again. I know it has MS-DOS and Towns OS on it, but I don't think Windows was installed. The problem I have is I don't know where to start on which is the best version of Towns OS to install, and how to go about formatting and starting again.

I can burn the CD's I will need from the big 'full ISO pack', and I can probably make floppies on my old Win98 PC, so I should be able to get the tool - I wondered if you could help me figure out what I need to do, and how to do it?

Lastly, an odd one with sound. I have noticed that some games (Genocide2, Prince of Persia) have a loid static/hissing sound while playing. I can adjust the volume on Genocide2, so it's no longer audible and I can hear the music and effects, but I also get a similar distortion on Chase HQ when I assume the car makes the skidding sound. What causes this? Is it to do with the faster processor, or later hardware in the computer, compared to an original Towns system?

Anyone can help me on the above?
Thanks,
Paul

[uroko-sakanabito]

If it starts to have problems with CD audio try replacing all PSU caps. Should help 75% of the time, if not its the laser and you have to look for some replacement parts or drive.

The beep during the startup can be caused due to wrong config or autoexec settings / lines, installing TOS on top of MS Dos is very fragile.
You can try to boot from Dos Diskette and edit the files. Try to rem everything and look if it starts to boot into command line again. Then add other files and find out what exactly causes your error.

Also check the settings in setup2 and post a screen please, sometimes the system loses its rom and hdd settings leading to many problems. C drive always should be the rom, everything else causes armageddon on Towns

The later towns systems only cause problems because of the higher ram, CPU is afaik never the problem. I also never heard of audio problems aside from NZS, i bet its just your PSU caps. If you are not using many add on cards, you can also replace the PSU with some 160w pico.

[cawley1]

Hi,
Sorry for the long delay in replying - I have been messing around with these two computers for a while now and have started to understand them a bit more.

The Fresh FT seems to be working well (I see what you say about capacitors in the PSU, but I am getting issues with sound on the same three games - Chase HQ, Genocide/Genocide2 and Prince of Persia - and no others. At this point, I wonder if it is CPU or RAM related?) I have played about with the setup2 program, and managed to delete the second partition on my drive - this sounds like a big problem, but it now boots into Towns OS with no issue! One thing I did have a problem with is the original partition I deleted was 170mb, but the max the setup2 can create is 127mb... How is it possible the original owner had 170mb partition on the drive?

The Fresh TV is currently in bits as I clean it up and fully test it. It looks like the CD drive in this one is more delicate, as it won't load my CD-R's, but will load originals! The Hard Disk seems as though it was damaged, so I could not format it and start to partition. I need to get it all back together and do more testing to see what I can get it to do. I want this one as it should output native RGB, while the Fresh FT is only VGA.

I bought myself a SCSI2SD and have restored your image file from Assembler. While this boots into TownsOS, I can't 'see' any of the other files in the TownsOS windows program. I can get into a version of DOS (I type 'tmenu' and it takes me back into TownsOS) but I cannot seem to load any of the games at the command prompt?! What am I doing wrong here?

Thanks in advance for your help.
Cheers,
Paul

If it starts to have problems with CD audio try replacing all PSU caps. Should help 75% of the time, if not its the laser and you have to look for some replacement parts or drive.

The beep during the startup can be caused due to wrong config or autoexec settings / lines, installing TOS on top of MS Dos is very fragile.
You can try to boot from Dos Diskette and edit the files. Try to rem everything and look if it starts to boot into command line again. Then add other files and find out what exactly causes your error.

Also check the settings in setup2 and post a screen please, sometimes the system loses its rom and hdd settings leading to many problems. C drive always should be the rom, everything else causes armageddon on Towns

The later towns systems only cause problems because of the higher ram, CPU is afaik never the problem. I also never heard of audio problems aside from NZS, i bet its just your PSU caps. If you are not using many add on cards, you can also replace the PSU with some 160w pico.

[uroko-sakanabito]

I think you can list pure files in TOS if you klick on the hdd and then on one of the right top window icons. Then its 2nd or 3th option to list all files.
Sorry can only recreate from memorys because i do not have any Towns ready these days (did just move in here) but it should work that way.
If not try the other options. In pure DOS it should list files with "dir". Remember hdd drive should be d:, c: has to be the rom.

Makes not much sense to diagnose any Towns computer or marty before you did a recap of the PSU.
Its also possible that other caps on the mainboard cause audio problems.

Hope my setup is ready again around 1.12, then i can help you more.
Nice to hear that my image at least still works

[comp1demon]

Could swear I saw a Post somewhere about playing Towns Games Images on the Towns PC from a CF card or something..

Anyone have any information about this?

I thought I remembered reading about CD game images working from another type of media.

Anyone?

[guibrush]

Hi, sorry for digging out a one year old topic, but I foud it browsing the web searching about a solution for my problem thid thread came just in time
I have a FM Towns that's work great with original games, but I wanted to try the image done by uroko-sakanabito, as it's sound great. I could restore the image and put it on the SD of my SCSI2SD, and I have a similare issue as described further : the FM Towns hang with a continuous bip.

If I understand good, I need to use the setup2.exe programm to configure the ram and the hard disk of my FM Towns. I think that this can be the problem, because the battery was exchanged (not by me).

My problem is that I don't know where to find this programm. I can't create a floppy disk has I don't have any old windows machine here. Is this programm available on a CD present in the mega pack ?
If not, can somebody be kind enough to make me a floppy (that I will pay, of course).
Thanks for your help !

[evewalker]

Hey folks,

I recently jumped into the FM Towns platform with a FM Towns II UG20. It's a neat system, and all caps are replaced and it's running great, so I've been slowly learning my way around it. I still have some (probably stupid) questions involving external scsi drives, and generally how to use them on the system.

I'm using a SCSI2SD with an external scsi cable - how do you format/mount hard drives? I haven't been able to figure out how to do it in Towns OS, and I've seen a lot of conflicting info online regarding images and whatnot, so I'm kind of confused as to how to get a usable drive going. I see some hard drives listed in the OS, but it says they aren't ready.

Secondly, once that's accomplished, what is the best way to get Towns OS installed as opposed to running it off of the CD? I haven't been able to find much info on this, but it seems to be possible based on what I've read.

Thanks for helping a FM Towns noob out.

[SuperDeadite]

Basically you need to boot TownOS from CD, then mount an HDD, setup partitions, format them, save changes to SRAM and reboot. Then you can easily install TownsOS to HDD via it's install icon. You must have a working battery to keep SRAM settings intact. With a dead battery you will have to boot TownsOS from CD and remount the HDD every time you turn the machine on.

[evewalker]

Basically you need to boot TownOS from CD, then mount an HDD, setup partitions, format them, save changes to SRAM and reboot. Then you can easily install TownsOS to HDD via it's install icon. You must have a working battery to keep SRAM settings intact. With a dead battery you will have to boot TownsOS from CD and remount the HDD every time you turn the machine on.

Thanks! This is what I was expecting, I think my issue right now is more or less blindly navigating the Japanese menus in TownsOS to find the drive mounting/formatting part of the interface. The battery is working fine on my FMT, and I have four existing (but obviously no longer physically present) drives that the previous owner was using showing up which have to presumably be removed.

[DeathAdderSFT]

Hey, y'all.

Just wanted to drop by and share my opinion of the FM V-Towns (model FMVTS-B) that I've been setting up and playing with for the past month or so: I dig it! For someone familiar with Western PCs, the V-Towns is a fine machine to quickly and easily jumpstart an FM Towns experience, and -- once you've added a removable battery to the Towns PCI card! -- getting the hard drive set up with Towns OS is not too much of a headache.

I'd also like to happily confirm that Alone in the Dark and Rainbow Islands Extra both work fine for me. These two games have been reported incompatible with the V-Towns, but it seems this may only apply to certain models of the machine? The FMVTS-B is an early V-Towns with a different BIOS than the later models. If anyone's had trouble getting certain games working with their V-Towns, please let me know which ones so that I can do compatibility testing against my own machine.

[protivakid]

Do Shadow of the Beast or kyuukyoku tiger (Twin Cobra) work on the Marty?

I'm guessing Network Q RAC Rally does not, right?

[SuperDeadite]

Do Shadow of the Beast or kyuukyoku tiger (Twin Cobra) work on the Marty?

I'm guessing Network Q RAC Rally does not, right?

Shadow and Kyukyoku work fine. RAC Rally doesn't...it really needs a 486 to be any fun.

[protivakid]

Do Shadow of the Beast or kyuukyoku tiger (Twin Cobra) work on the Marty?

I'm guessing Network Q RAC Rally does not, right?

Shadow and Kyukyoku work fine. RAC Rally doesn't...it really needs a 486 to be any fun.

Thanks! Out of curiosity, will the Marty refuse to boot in-compatible games or will they just chug along?

[SuperDeadite]

Do Shadow of the Beast or kyuukyoku tiger (Twin Cobra) work on the Marty?

I'm guessing Network Q RAC Rally does not, right?

Shadow and Kyukyoku work fine. RAC Rally doesn't...it really needs a 486 to be any fun.

Thanks! Out of curiosity, will the Marty refuse to boot in-compatible games or will they just chug along?

Most will freeze the system during boot attempt.

[DanHero]

Allow me to hijack the topic: I own a Marty and only recently bought an FM-Towns II. a couple of games that have no problems on Marty have sound problems on PC, namely chase hq and Op wolf. The games load and the soundtracks can be heard fine, but the sound effects cause an unbearable cacophony. Even shadow of the beast does not start on pc, while on Marty it runs without pronounced problems. Is there a solution? Is there anything I can do?

[SuperDeadite]

"FM Towns II" isn't enough data to go on, but anyway:

Shadow of the Beast won't boot if there is too much RAM installed. Been awhile, but I think around 4mbs is the sweet spot.

Sound issues are usually caused due to speed sensitivity. You need to disable Fast Mode.

This is why I keep both a UX20 and a Fresh around.
Some games will do weird things depending on if you have a keyboard and mouse connected or not as well.