FM Towns

The FM Towns, introduced by Fujitsu in 1989, was one of the most forward-looking home computers of its era. Where nearly every contemporary machine treated a CD-ROM drive as an expensive optional extra, the FM Towns built one in as standard from the very start, pairing it with a 32-bit Intel processor, capable custom graphics able to display many thousands of colors, and PCM sound. It was, in effect, a multimedia computer arriving several years before the rest of the industry decided multimedia was the future.

That CD-ROM focus defined its identity as a games platform. Free from the tight storage limits of cartridges and floppies, FM Towns games could offer lavish full-color visuals, digitized sound, redbook audio soundtracks, and voice, giving them a richness that stood out sharply against the 16-bit norm. The platform hosted enhanced editions of major Japanese role-playing games and adventures, distinctive original titles, and versions of Western games that took advantage of its color and audio capabilities. It occupied a premium niche for players who wanted the most technically impressive experiences money could buy.

Fujitsu underlined the machine's gaming ambitions with the FM Towns Marty, released in 1993, a console version of the computer that has a claim to being one of the first 32-bit home game consoles and among the first consoles to ship with a CD-ROM drive as standard. The Marty was a bold experiment, though its high price and the crowded Japanese console market limited its success.

Commercially the FM Towns remained a relatively niche, high-end product confined largely to Japan, selling modestly compared with the mainstream computers and consoles of the day. Fujitsu evolved the line through the early and mid-1990s before discontinuing it around 1997 as the CD-ROM ideas it had championed became universal on PCs and consoles alike.

The FM Towns is remembered as a genuine pioneer that bet early and correctly on optical media and multimedia gaming. It was ahead of its time, and much of what made it special soon became the standard everywhere, a quiet vindication of Fujitsu's vision.