Road Rash: Jailbreak

In the early 1990s, while American players were enjoying their Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis consoles, Fujitsu was offering Japanese players another fascinating way to spend an afternoon. The FM Towns Marty arrived in 1993 with a CD-ROM drive, a floppy drive, and access to part of an impressive computer-game library. It never received an official American release. For most of us on this side of the Pacific, it remained one of those mysterious machines we discovered much later and immediately wanted to know more about. Imagine looking beyond the familiar cartridge shelves and finding Turbo Out Run, Splatterhouse, Monkey Island 2, and a collection of shooters that seemed determined to fill every inch of the screen. Some were games American players already knew from other machines. Others were much less familiar. Together, they made Fujitsu’s hardware an enticing prospect, particularly if your idea of a good console involved bringing a little more of the arcade home. The Marty grew out of the FM Towns computer family, which Fujitsu introduced in 1989. That background gave the console a different character from the machines many of us had under our televisions. Alongside the arcade conversions were adventure games, computer-style controls, and software designed around a CD drive from the outset. A mouse could be just as relevant to the next game as the pad sitting beside it. CD-ROM storage gave developers room for recorded music, detailed artwork, and larger collections of game data. What they did with it varied from one release to another. For players, the attraction could be wonderfully immediate. The scenery looked inviting, the music sounded rich, and the game you thought you knew had become another version worth investigating. LucasArts adventures were a particularly appealing part of that wider Towns library, sitting surprisingly comfortably beside the racing games and violent arcade action. It is easy to see why the Marty still attracts curious players. Here was a Japanese CD console with Fujitsu’s computer heritage behind it, offering a set of experiences that never became part of the ordinary American console conversation. Whether it deserves the title of the best console America never got is a fine argument to have over a stack of old games. Its actual library gives us plenty to talk about, provided we keep track of which releases work on the Marty and which need a more capable FM Towns computer. The computer came first Fujitsu introduced the FM Towns in 1989, four years before the Marty. CD-ROM was central to its design from the start. The original machines combined a 16 MHz 386-class processor with a built-in CD drive, giving developers room for large programs, images, and recorded sound. Fujitsu’s own technical history describes the machine as a multimedia computer, and its hardware makes that ambition easy to understand. The Computer Museum’s FM Towns profile documents the original system. The FM Towns computer family established the CD-based library that the Marty would later draw from. That library was unusually good at making a familiar game feel extravagant. A racing game could surround its traffic dodging with recorded music. An adventure could offer colorful scenery and a soundtrack worth hearing outside the game. Those benefits depended on the individual release, of course. Putting a game on a CD did not automatically improve every part of it. What the FM Towns Marty can actually run The Marty uses a 16 MHz 386SX-class processor and has 2 MB of standard RAM. Its sound hardware combines FM synthesis, sampled audio, and CD audio. The MAME hardware documentation records the platform’s processors, sound devices, and model differences. The FM Towns Marty brings CD-ROM and floppy drives to a console-sized case, but its standard memory limits which computer releases it can run. Memory requirements matter. A game written for a Towns computer with more RAM does not become Marty compatible because the disc fits. MAME’s preserved software records list Super Street Fighter II as requiring 4 MB, twice a stock Marty’s memory. Modern expansion hardware exists, but a modified machine should be treated separately when shopping for games. MAME’s FM Towns release records and the expansion-card maker’s specifications explain that distinction. The selections below range across the Towns family. The ranking is an editorial choice, with a heavy preference for arcade action and one thoroughly welcome pirate adventure. For original hardware, check the particular release’s requirements and peripherals before buying. A great FM Towns game and an easy Marty purchase are sometimes two different things. 10 FM Towns games worth exploring 10. Turbo Out Run FM Towns, 1989 The turbo button is the temptation. There is traffic in the way, the road is moving underneath you, and a police car has picked a particularly inconvenient moment to become interested. Pressing it feels magnificent until you remember that extra speed leaves less time to steer. Turbo Out Run trades the original game’s branching holiday for a more directed race across America. The Ferrari F40, upgrades, and pursuit give the trip a different character. You are managing the next stretch of road and deciding how much trouble a burst of speed will cause. The Towns release is especially appealing for its recorded soundtrack. The music gives the race a scale that the little cars and roadside objects cannot supply by themselves. It is a cheerful place to begin exploring the system, even when the Ferrari is having a much worse afternoon than you are. The police are already waiting in Turbo Out Run, and the turbo gauge makes a bad decision look very attractive. 9. Pu-Li-Ru-La FM Towns, 1994 Two children with magic sticks wander into a beat ’em up that seems unable to leave an ordinary background alone. Enemies wobble toward you, scenery becomes unsettling, and the next screen is liable to produce something stranger than the last. The fighting is approachable enough to let the artwork take the lead. Walking, hitting, and using magic leave you time to notice the odd mixture of cartoon characters and digitized imagery. Some scenes are funny, some are uncomfortable, and several manage both. That unpredictability gives Pu-Li-Ru-La its place here. There are more polished ways to spend an evening hitting things, but few look like this. The Towns version belongs to the platform’s appealing collection of arcade conversions that escaped the familiar American console shelves. Pu-Li-Ru-La makes an ordinary walk through town look like a deeply questionable idea. 8. Splatterhouse FM Towns, 1992 Rick picks up a plank, and suddenly the next monster has a very immediate problem. Splatterhouse gets considerable mileage out of that simple exchange. The corridors are filthy, the creatures are unpleasant, and the impact of a well-timed swing does much of the talking. Its horror-film borrowings are obvious, but the pacing gives them force. A room offers a new weapon, a different enemy, or a nasty little surprise, then moves you onward. The deliberate movement makes spacing important. Charging ahead carelessly is a reliable way to shorten Rick’s evening. The Towns conversion is an attractive way to revisit Namco’s original arcade game. Calling any port the definitive version invites arguments, so the better reason to try it is straightforward. The battered rooms, heavy blows, and grotesque creatures still make a wonderfully grim combination. Rick prepares a heavy swing in Splatterhouse. The room is unlikely to improve afterward. 7. Puyo Puyo FM Towns, 1994 Dropping four matching blobs is easy to understand. Arranging them so that one disappearing group drops another into place is where the trouble starts. A promising stack can become a beautiful chain or a very tall monument to your optimism. Playing against an opponent makes every decision more urgent. A chain sends nuisance pieces across the divide, so a neat little arrangement on your side can become a disaster on theirs. You are building something while watching someone else prepare to knock it over. Puyo Puyo supplies a welcome change of pace between the shooters and brawlers. The Towns release has the colorful competitive presentation shown here. Its 1994 disc is separate from the earlier NES game currently represented in our catalog, so the related link below is labeled accordingly. A versus match in the FM Towns version of Puyo Puyo. The image links to a related Gamebase entry for the earlier NES release; that is a different edition. 6. Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge FM Towns, 1994 Guybrush Threepwood can get himself into trouble while hanging from a rope. That is reassuringly consistent behavior for a pirate whose confidence usually arrives well before his competence. Monkey Island 2 makes following him around a pleasure even when the next puzzle refuses to cooperate. The islands give you conversations to exhaust, objects to pocket, and schemes that ought to have stopped at the planning stage. The jokes work because the characters take their ridiculous problems seriously. A failed idea can still reward you with a line worth hearing. The FM Towns edition is part of the system’s fascinating connection to Western computer adventures. It earns its place through the game itself, rather than a claim that this version redraws everything better than DOS. Its painted-looking locations and comic timing hardly need that extra sales pitch. Guybrush finds another precarious place to hold a conversation in Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge. 5. Raiden Densetsu FM Towns, 1991 The first glance gives you roads, buildings, and military machinery. Then the bullets begin to converge, and that apparently modest landscape becomes a demanding place to keep a small aircraft alive. Raiden’s appeal is how quickly its clear rules produce difficult decisions. Choosing a weapon affects how you handle the next formation. Staying near a useful firing line can be tempting, but waiting there too long invites a shot aimed at exactly that position. Bombs offer breathing room, usually just as you are beginning to regret saving them. The Towns release, known as Raiden Densetsu, brings that familiar Seibu Kaihatsu rhythm home. It is a good counterweight to the stranger scenery elsewhere in this countdown. You can understand the danger immediately and still spend a long time learning how to survive it. A bomb buys a little breathing room in Raiden Densetsu, the FM Towns release of Raiden. 4. Super Street Fighter II FM Towns, 1994; requires more RAM than a stock Marty Cammy gets close to T. Hawk, and the difference in their size makes the next exchange look particularly hazardous. Super Street Fighter II’s four newcomers gave an already familiar cast fresh matchups, while the returning fighters kept their old arguments going. The pleasure is in the spacing and timing. A missed attack leaves an opening. A jump that looked safe becomes an invitation. The Towns conversion lets you explore those fights in another distinctive home version of Capcom’s arcade game. This entry needs the clearest hardware note in the list. The FM Towns release requires 4 MB of RAM, so a standard 2 MB Marty cannot run it. Keep it on your Towns-computer shortlist, or investigate a suitable expanded setup, rather than buying it for an untouched console. T. Hawk catches Cammy in Super Street Fighter II. This FM Towns release requires 4 MB of RAM. 3. Viewpoint FM Towns, 1993 A ship moves diagonally across the screen while enemies approach along the tilted scenery. Viewpoint makes judging space feel unfamiliar before it has even started being particularly cruel. The angle is attractive, but it also changes how you read an approaching shot. Charging a blast gives the shooting a useful rhythm. Smaller enemies invite quick fire, while something sturdier encourages you to hold the button and commit to a more deliberate attack. The scenery and mechanical creatures give those encounters plenty of character. The Towns conversion is worth trying because Viewpoint remains such an unusual shooter. Its appeal is the combination of perspective, detailed artwork, and demanding movement. Admiring the machinery for too long is, unfortunately, a reliable way to collide with something. The angled floor makes every approach distinctive in Viewpoint. 2. Alltynex FM Towns computer pick, 1996 The ship can fight at a distance, but transforming into a robot makes getting close much more tempting. Alltynex builds its action around that decision. You have tools for keeping enemies away and another form that encourages a far more personal introduction. That change of range gives encounters a satisfying tension. Remaining in ship form offers room to react. Closing in can produce stronger, more immediate attacks, at the cost of putting the machine you are trying to preserve right beside the danger. Alltynex belongs to the Towns computer scene and the independent development history that led toward SITER SKAIN’s later shooters. It is included as a wider-library choice, with no promise of stock Marty compatibility. The developer’s site discusses the original Towns game and its later projects. Alltynex takes its transforming craft into an asteroid field. Explore FM Towns games in Gamebase; an exact original Alltynex entry is not currently available. 1. Tatsujin Ou FM Towns, 1993 A huge flaming skull spreads across the playfield, and for a moment the screen belongs to your bomb. Tatsujin Ou is not shy about filling the display. Lasers, enemy formations, and elaborate explosions give it the sort of spectacle that makes a shooter difficult to ignore. The problem is surviving long enough to enjoy the next display. Positioning matters, power matters, and a mistake can leave the return journey considerably less comfortable. Its demanding pace will delight some players and send others looking for something kinder. Also known as Truxton II, Toaplan’s shooter gives this countdown a suitably uncompromising finish. The 1993 Towns conversion is a particularly interesting home release of an arcade game with a formidable reputation. It takes first place here for its combination of visual excess and thoroughly demanding play. A skull-shaped bomb lights up Tatsujin Ou, also known as Truxton II. Where to start with the Marty For an introduction, Turbo Out Run makes the system’s music and arcade ambitions easy to appreciate. Puyo Puyo offers a different kind of competition, and Splatterhouse supplies the sort of unpleasant evening that horror fans tend to enjoy. The tougher shooters will still be waiting when you want to test your patience. The Marty is most interesting when you look closely at the games it can play and the computer family behind it. There are delightful ports here, awkward hardware requirements, and releases that reward a little research. Browse our FM Towns Gamebase section for individual games, or visit the emulation section as you explore ways to revisit them. Which of these would you put first?

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Road Rash: Jailbreak

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Translations

Utilities

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