Fujitsu is a Japanese information technology company that builds a wide range of computers from tablet PCs to supercomputers. In 1989, they released the FM Towns computer in Japan. The FM Towns was its own computer platform, designed for high-end multimedia applications and games. It was named after Charles Hard Townes, a Nobel Prize winning physicist, but spelled "towns" because "Townes" is pronounced "tow-ness" in Japan. Shortly afterward, Fujitsu decided to make a video game system based on the FM Towns architecture. The Marty, released on February 20, 1993, was a video game console variant of the FM Towns computer. It was compatible with all FM Towns computer games.
The Marty was a very powerful console for its time. It used CD-ROMs and was the first 32 bit system ever released, in effect starting a new generation of video game consoles. The power of the system allowed it to have full arcade ports, as opposed to the cut-down arcade ports common on other systems of the time.
The system used an AMD 386 processor with 16 MHz.
In April 1994, the FM Towns Car Marty was released. This was a variant of the Marty that could be installed in a car. It even included a built in navigation system.
What Makes It Obscure?
The Marty was expensive - the equivalent of over $1000 at release. This was cheaper than the FM Towns computers, but the system was positioned as a high-end gaming system. The system also had incomplete compatibility with the FM Towns' later games. The FM Towns evolved over time, and eventually the Marty's hardware was insufficiently powered to play some games. The FM Towns was in production until 1997, four years after the Marty was introduced.
In 1994, the Marty 2 was introduced, and the price was dropped to the equivalent of about $700. Sales began to increase, but the Marty line was discontinued the next year. Fujitsu felt the system was a lost cause. This led to the creation of "Marty's Law" - "if you don't keep offering something to sell, you can't increase sales".
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