FM Towns

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FM Towns

Manufacturer	Fujitsu
Years of production	1989—1997
Supersedes	Fujitsu FM-7
Price	¥338.000 (1989, Model 1)

FM Towns (エフエムタウンズ), also known as the Fujitsu Micro Towns and named after American physicist Charles Townes, was a family of computers made by Fujitsu and marketed only in Japan from February 1989 to mid 1997. The platform started as a hybrid PC-style computer running multimedia software and games intended to compete against rival NEC PC-8801, but became progressively more compatible with the IBM PC over its life cycle.

In 1993 the FM Towns Marty was released, a games console compatible with FM Towns games, followed in 1994 by the FM Towns Marty 2 with a darker grey case and lower price, and the FM Towns II SN, the only portable model in the whole series.

History

First generation: Models 1/2/1S/2S

The first model was based on the Intel 386 CPU and came in upto four variants that differed only by the amount of memory and number of floppy drives installed. The grey, eye-catchy vertical CPU case featured a vertically placed CD-ROM player on the front, complete with multimedia controls and audio connectors. A carrying handle was located at the top and the box could be opened from the left side without requiring any tools. A mouse and a gamepad were included as standard and the computer ran TownsOS, a custom GUI-driven Operating System. A DIN port was provided to attach a keyboard (sold separately) and a couple of Atari style DB9 ports supported the mouse and gamepad. The CRT monitor included was a rebranded Sony Trinitron.

Two keyboards were available for the computer: either a JIS keyboard, or a thumb shift keyboard. Both had key layouts similar to the FMR series and the company's OASYS series of Japanese word processors, with independent execution and conversion/non-conversion keys. Both were also equipped with Oasis Kana-Kanji Conversion (OAK) as a ROM for the Kana-Kanji Conversion System (Japanese FEP), achieving a level of usability comparable to that of Fujitsu's range of personal computers/word processors.

Second generation: Models 1F/2F/1H/2H

The second generation of the FM Towns comes again in a total of 4 variants depending on the number of floppy drives installed and the presence of a built-in hard drive. The hardware suffers a number of modifications that also affect the exterior of the case, which now includes 10 green/red LEDs.

Third generation: Models 10F/20F/40H/80H

The third generation reduces the number of custom components, which helps make the system more affordable. The range of monitors available also increases.

FM Towns II

In November 1991 Fujitsu extended the lineup with another computer under the nomenclature FM Towns II. Two variants were available: the traditional desktop form factor (model CX) and the UX, a system with an integrated Trinitron monitor and a front-loading, VCR-style CD-ROM player. In 1992 the upgraded HR, HG and UG models are added to the lineup, following the general design of the UX. The UR model is released in 1993.

White FM Towns

The MA, MX and ME models are released in the fall of 1993, and the MF in the spring of 1994. All of them are meant to be compatible with common PC monitors and come with a white case, made of metal in the ME and MF models to further reduce cost. Around this time Fujitsu starts selling their FMV series of PC AT clones.

In 1994 the HA and HB models are released, and so is the HC model in February 1995. Later that year Fujitsu releases the FM Towns II SN, a portable model in a laptop form factor. This computer was aimed at the educational market and lacked any provision for batteries, thus it relied entirely on an AC power outlet.

FMV Towns

Following the release of Windows 95, Fujitsu released in 1995 a modified version of their FMV platform named the FMV Towns, a computer partially compatible with the FM Towns that provided a switch on the front to toggle compatibility (emulation) mode, which relied on a custom expansion board installed in the PCI slot.

Peripherals

All models of the FM Towns come as standard with two Atari-style DB9 ports. The mouse supplied matched the color of the CPU case but changed its appearance every year, starting as a rounded mouse in the first generation, then becoming square for models 1F and 2F, then oval for models 10F and 20F. The last version, shipped with models HA, HB and later is similar to the one provided with the first wave of FMV computers.

The FM Towns gamepad complies with Atari specifications but it has Towns' unique "RUN" and "SELECT" functions and variable output for some pins. The gamepads for the grey Towns/Towns II series and the white Towns II series differ in design, with the buttons on the grey one being reportedly harder to use specially for diagonal movement. The white gamepad didn't suffer from this problem, and a 6-button gamepad was also released aimed at playing beat'em-up games. The pad for the FM Towns Marty is similar to the one for the Towns II series, with the addition of a "ZOOM" button to toggle screen magnification mode.

Some keyboards came with a mouse port compatible with the Fujitsu FMR series, though software support is limited. Models were available with or without a numpad, and with 2KRO or NKRO support. There was also a 106-key keyboard launched specifically for the FM Towns Marty, though it was also compatible with the FM Towns.

Acknowledgements

The first long version of this article was largely a short adaptation of a Google machine-translated version of this snapshot of the article about the FM Towns from the Japanese Wikipedia, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.