*Formerly 'A Look Back'
I'm back again with a look at another classic console. Had to change the name of the article, but I'm hoping to stick with 'Retro Rearview' for the rest of these. (Hat tip to our lead-in act Bobby Blackwolf for the suggestion! tune into his show every night before ours at 5PM Pacfic every Sunday @ allgames.com!)
Anyway, the next system I wanted to take a look at was the FM-Towns Marty, a console version of an obscure Japanese computer that was released back in 1991 by Fujitsu. Also notable about this system is that it was the first 32-bit system ever released, predating the Saturn, PSX and 3D0 by three years.
The FM-Towns itself was more like a desktop PC, but the Marty was geared more toward the console gaming market. Most of the 'FM-Towns' games should also be compatible with the Marty, but your mileage may vary.
Speaking of games, the Marty did have a decent selection of great games, including several arcade ports:
- After Burner
- After Burner III (Which amazingly looks on par with Namco's 'Ace Combat/Air Combat' on the PSX)
- Alone in the Dark
- Bubble Bobble
- Chase HQ
- Drakkhen
- Eye of the Beholder II (But oddly no sign of the original EotB)
- Flashback: The Quest For Identity
- Galaxy Force II
- Image Fight
- Kyukyoku Tiger
- Loom (Man this game was everywhere!)
- Marble Madness
- Muscle Bomber (Known in the states as Saturday Night Slam Masters, a Capcom-themed wrestling/fighting game which also costarred Mike Haggar of Final Fight fame.)
- New Zealand Story (Perhaps one of my favorite Taito games ever)
- Operation Wolf
- Puyo Puyo
- Samurai Spirits (aka Samurai Shodown in the US)
- Super Street Fighter II (from videos I've seen, a pretty amazing port!)
Sadly, despite Fujitsu's best efforts to compete with the Super Famicom (SNES) and Megadrive/Mega CD (Genesis/SEGA CD), the Marty just couldn't keep up with the big boys, which is disappointing... from the videos I've seen on youtube in researching this article, it certainly looked like a neat system to own.
Unfortunately as far as checking out the FM-Towns Marty, unlike the last installment where I covered the MSX, there isn't any word on a Wii Virtual Console appearance for the Marty. So, you'll have to try eBay, or use an emulator such as Xe which emulates many systems including the Marty. As for the games.... sadly you're on your own.
I hope you enjoyed my second installment of Retro Rearview. I'll try to keep this series going for at least a little while longer, with a few more classic/obscure systems to talk about. If you have an obscure system you'd like to see me spotlight on RR, hit me up on twitter @darktetsuya!
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