Posted tagged ‘ES’

« D-Dimension Gaming home page

FM Towns Controller Variants

01/04/2019

More FM Towns stuff! Because it’s been a while…

About year ago I was at a retro computer night which played host to 3 FM Towns systems, a rarity outside Japan!

First was my FM Towns Fresh ES computer:

This computer has been maxed out with 40MB RAM and an AMD 133, clocked down to 100Mhz. The original Fresh ES came with a 486DX2-66, so this is a considerable improvement. It does make some games run a little too fast, particularly Wing Commander.

One of the other attendees bought in a traditional FM Towns computer:

I can’t recall the specs of this particular computer, though the owner did have an external hard drive attached to it (as pictured).

Finally, another attendee bought in his FM Towns Marty console:

The Marty is surprisingly underpowered, though the games that the owner had played well on the unit. There were a few games it didn’t handle very well, including Street Fighter 2. This brings me to the controllers! We had 3 variants of the hardware, which included all 3 variants of FM Towns controller (to my knowledge).

 

The original controller is the one pictured on top, with the latter variations underneath. Originally I thought that the Marty controller and the latter FM Towns controller were pretty much identical, save for the logo and and the indent on the surface. Interestingly enough this is not the case!

 

The Marty controller looked a little smaller than the latter FM Towns controller, so I held them both up against each other. As you can see in the above image, this is definitely the case.

And here they are side by side. You can definitely see the size difference.

What is surprising is that creating hardware variations, even small ones like this, would have increased costs. Why not just keep both controllers the same across both lines? I suppose we’ll never know…

Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Comments: 1 Comment

More FM Towns fun!

09/04/2017

Yesterday I had a brain storm! I have been using a GBS-8200 video converter card for my Amstrad CPC computers. It has a special connection that was plugged in to allow it to connect to a standard VGA monitor.

I read that this device will convert video signals at 15khz, 24khz and 31khz. These are the 3 frequencies that the FM Towns, the X68000 and the PC98 computers will display graphics at. I thought that maybe I could try and use it for the FM Towns. I lugged the computer out of its box again, put it on the desk and connected everything up. Honestly, you have no idea how heavy the computer is!

Before trying it & double checked the connections on the back of the computer.

You can see the expansion card I installed the other day, and underneath it is a VGA connection. Here’s a closeup:

The problem was that I only had one VGA cable in the house. Luckily MSY are around the corner from my job, so I was able to pick up a second lead for $3.00. I bought it home and plugged it all in. I have to be honest, I wasn’t completely confident this will work, if only because of all of the other problems I’ve had getting this going!

As you can see, I didn’t even bother connecting the speakers onto the side of the computer. So here’s the setup. I connected everything into the power and turned it on. The end result… well… it speaks for itself I suppose…

A nice healthy green screen and not a whole lot else. I tinkered with the settings on the GBS-8200, but they are rather limited. I also tried to disconnect the Amstrad connection and see if that made a difference, but no dice…

There was nothing else I could do except call it a day.

I think the solution to my problem is getting the Fujitsu converter box fixed. It probably needs a recap, but my soldering skills aren’t going to bring much to the table. I’ll have to call on my more electronically minded friends I think…

Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Comments: Comments Off on More FM Towns fun!

FM Towns Adventures

09/02/2017

The other week I posted about some Japanese loot I had recently obtained. One of the boxes contained an FM Towns Fresh ES computer. I knew that Japanese computers commonly used a different connection and signal to standard PCs. With this in mind, I purchased a couple of things that would help me get around it.

Now, the funny thing about this particular FM Towns is that the video out looks like a standard VGA connection, and not the 15-pin analogue RGB out connection seen on the X68000, NEC PC88, PC98 and other FM Towns computers. Still, I was wary and decided against connecting it to my monitor using a VGA connection.

You can see in the picture above that I have the computer opened, & sitting on top of it is a video card, an FMT-418. The card has the 15-pin analogue RGB out, and video in and out. Stupidly I thought this would be S-Video in & out. When I tried to plug an S-Video cable into the computer I soon learned that it was a form of video in and out, but without the S, so to speak… It might be a non standard connection, or a Japanese standard. I don’t honestly know.

By the way, I didn’t actually need to open the whole computer up, as the expansion cards simply slot in through the rear panels!

My backup plan was to use a Fujitsu converter box, called the FMT-417. I had imported one of these and an analogue RGB cable. I plugged one end into the video card and the other end into the converter box like so:

From the converter box I used an S-Video output to the monitor I was using. For reference, the converter box is at the rear of the above picture. The 100volt step-down adapter is in front of the monitor, as are the keyboard, mouse and controller.

You can see the end result wasn’t fantastic. The converter box was purchased as ‘junk’ on Japan Yahoo Auctions, so it clearly has some problems. Here’s a close up of the screen image:

You can KINDA see the OS. To be honest, this is better than I was expecting from something listed as ‘junk’ on JYA. I tried to load Afterburner 3 to see if it was playable:

Not really… You can kinda see what’s going on, but when I turned off the computer, leaving the converter box on the picture disappeared but the distortion remained. This means the issue is definitely with the converter. The converter also allows you to use standard composite out, but this didn’t work at all.

So it’s a work in progress right now. I need to get that converter box fixed. It could be a capacitor issue, but I’m not an electrician so I really don’t know…

Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Comments: Comments Off on FM Towns Adventures