Fujitsu FM Towns Computer: Tsugaru Emulator Tutorial
8█▀█▀█▀█▀█▀█▀█▀█▀█▀█▀█▀█▀█▀█▀█▀█▀█▀█▀█▀█▀█▀█▀█▀█▀█▀█▀█▀█
▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
[Synopsis]
In this video, I run a standalone FM Towns computer emulator on a X64 Windows 11 based computer.
The Fujitsu FM Towns computer was introduced in February 28, 1989 in Japan, and it wasn't released in any other country. This computer was designed to be a arcade gaming computer, and it had many great arcade titles, like Marble Madness, Bubble Bobble, After Burner II, Chase H.Q., Operation Wolf, Raiden, Sky Shark, etc. However, there were MS-DOS titles, like Sim City, Strike Commander, Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon, Prince of Persia, Alone in the Dark, etc. This platform did go through a number of transformations from Feb of 1989 to the Summer of 1997.
The FM Towns used its own proprietary audio and video adapters, but it used a X86 CPUs from the 80386 SX-16 Mhz to a Socket 5 Pentium 120 MHz which was commonly used in the PC industry at the time. The FM Towns had Microsoft Windows 3.1, but it wasn't compatible with mainstream platforms. The firmware for the Fujitsu FM Towns was different from the standard firmware or bios of a standard IBM compatible computer at the time. This is why someone who owned a FM Towns computer couldn't run IBM compatible software. You can make a similar comparison with the Tandy 2000 computer, it used standard PC parts, but it had its own proprietary audio, video, and firmware. Therefore, a Tandy 2000 was not compatible with the IBM PC clones of the day.
The FM Towns and the FM Towns Marty which was a video game console derivative of the FM Towns computer was not commercially successful. The FM Towns Marty was a 16 bit video game console based on the 80386 SX processor, and in being released in 1993 gave it a very short lifespan, because 32 bit video game consoles were released as early as late 1994 by Sony(PS1) and Sega(Sega Saturn).
The FM Towns computer wasn't a commercial success for a number of reasons, and the biggest reason was due to the standardization of the PC industry starting in the early 1990s. In the 1980s, we had a multiplicity of different platforms and no standardization with various platforms, like the Apple II, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, BBC Micro, Sharp X68000, Amiga, Atari ST, Apple Macintosh, Apple IIGS, etc. These platforms were all different, and they had different operating systems, different firmware, different hardware, etc. The 1990s was a period of time in the computer industry where you had PC clone computer makers , Microsoft DOS, and Microsoft Windows 3.X becoming the standard. There was standardization in video adapters, like the Super VGA becoming the standard, and Sound Blaster becoming the standard for audio adapters. The FM Towns platform gradually moved towards standardization based on the PC industry, and this made later model FM Towns computers into another PC Clone.
The FM Towns was a very good computer, but it was released at a time when there were too many computers in the Japanese computer market, like the NEC PC-98XX, Sharp X68000, and tons of cheap PC clones with MS-DOS/MS Windows. Sure you had platforms, like Apple Macintosh and Commodore Amiga which was alive and kicking in the 1990s. Commodore Amiga went out of business in April of 1994. Apple was really struggling to survive in the 1990s, but they managed to pull through. Other than Apple, very few proprietary computer systems survived the 1990s. Fujitsu Towns survived until Summer of 1997 when it too went out of business. The PC market of the mid to late 1990s was a pretty cut throat business, where you had too much competition, and a over saturation of computers. Even IBM posted the biggest losses in their history in 1993 which was $8 billion, and this was due to all this competition in the IBM PC industry. In a over saturated market, the FM Towns platform lost its unique platform when it starting to resemble a IBM PC clone starting in the mid 1990s. As a result, Fujitsu decided to exit the IBM clone market in 1997.
▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
[Links]
♠ Tsugaru emulator Website (Download BIOS files here)
• http://ysflight.in.coocan.jp/FM/towns/Tsugaru/e.html
♠ Download Binary for Tsugaru
• https://github.com/captainys/TOWNSEMU/releases
♠ Other BIOS Files
• https://gekk.info/articles/fmtowns.html
♠ Games for FM Towns
• https://archive.org/details/Neo_Kobe_Fujitsu_FM_Towns_2016-02-25
• https://www.myabandonware.com/game/operation-wolf-q4
• https://archive.org/download/fmtownscdcollection/FM-Towns%20CD/
◙ For more emulator videos
• https://he-1000-1975.com/emulators/
▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
█▄█▄█▄█▄█▄█▄█▄█▄█▄█▄█▄█▄█▄█▄█▄█▄█▄█▄█▄█▄█▄█▄█▄█▄█▄█▄█▄█