FM Towns Marty

Background

Fujitsu's FM Towns Marty, based on a successful line of FM Towns computers from the late 1980s, was the first 32-bit CD video game system (although it has a 16-bit data bus), only released in Japan. For its time of release, it was proven to be quite a powerful system, but when systems like the Saturn, PlayStation, and 3DO came to the market later in Japan, Fujitsu gave up on the Marty, releasing 69 games for the system, with unknown sales (most likely about 100,000 or so).

Logo (February 20, 1993-1995)

Car Marty version

Visuals: On a black background, there are the words "FM TOWNS MARTY" (with "MARTY" underneath "FM TOWNS" and in a somewhat very weird font) underneath a blue line and blue ball. Then, the screen goes slightly blue and cuts to a space background. Then, multicolored balls start grouping from each corner, making a whole 3D-like ball. It starts bouncing around the screen. Then the game loads.

Variants: On a Car Marty model, the black background shows a "CAR MARTY" above the globe with lots of spheres scattered and "FUJITSU TEN" below the globe instead of a blue ball.

Trivia: The Hoberman Sphere-esque molecule is only seen when you turn it on with no disc inside (or if an FM Towns game won't be allowed to play because of megabyte issues, the system has 2 megs of memory, and some FM Towns games require more than that).

Technique: CGI.

Audio: An upbeat, victorious-sounding theme.

Availability: Seen when an FM Towns Marty is turned on. They get a major price on eBay, especially for games (basic, not-so-special games could be as little as $15-$20 while classics like Splatterhouse could be as little as $200-$300).