website/content/museum/fujitsu-fm-towns.md

---
title: Fujitsu FM Towns
categories:
- Computers
types:
- Home Computer
origins:
- Japan
years:
- '1989'
cpus:
- Intel 80386dx
params:
  name: FM Towns
  company: /companies/fujitsu
  company_name: Fujitsu
  specs:
  - label: NAME
    value: FM Towns
  - label: MANUFACTURER
    value: Fujitsu
  - label: TYPE
    value: Home Computer
  - label: ORIGIN
    value: Japan
  - label: YEAR
    value: February 1989
  - label: END OF PRODUCTION
    value: Unknown
  - label: KEYBOARD
    value: Full stroke 123 (!) keys with function keys and numeric keypad
  - label: CPU
    value: Intel 80386dx
  - label: SPEED
    value: 16 MHz
  - label: CO-PROCESSOR
    value: 80387 arithmetic coprocessor
  - label: RAM
    value: 1 or 2 MB, depending models (max 64 MB)
  - label: VRAM
    value: Unknown
  - label: ROM
    value: Unknown
  - label: TEXT MODES
    value: Unknown
  - label: GRAPHIC MODES
    value: |-
      from 256 x 256up to 640 x 480\
      up to 1024 sprites (16x16)
  - label: COLORS
    value: 16 M colors palette - up to 32768 on screen
  - label: SOUND
    value: 6 channel FM, 8 channel PCM
  - label: SIZE / WEIGHT
    value: Unknown
  - label: I/O PORTS
    value: SCSI
  - label: BUILT IN MEDIA
    value: one or two 3.5'' floppy discs depending models; single speed CD-ROM, optional hard-drive
  - label: OS
    value: Town OS
  - label: POWER SUPPLY
    value: Built-in power supply unit
  - label: PERIPHERALS
    value: Unknown
  - label: PRICE
    value: Unknown
  tabs:
  - photos
  - software
  - emulators
  - links
  - videos
  photos:
  - title: FM TOWNS
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: null
  screenshots:
  - title: SCREENSHOT
    subtitle: ''
    text: Thanks to [fullmotionvideo.free.fr](http://fullmotionvideo.free.fr/) for this picture
    image: /media/museum/software/fujitsu_fmtowns_ss_3x3eye_1.jpg
  - title: SCREENSHOT
    subtitle: ''
    text: Thanks to [fullmotionvideo.free.fr](http://fullmotionvideo.free.fr/) for this picture
    image: /media/museum/software/fujitsu_fmtowns_ss_3x3eye_2.jpg
  - title: SCREENSHOT
    subtitle: ''
    text: Thanks to [fullmotionvideo.free.fr](http://fullmotionvideo.free.fr/) for this picture
    image: /media/museum/software/fujitsu_fmtowns_ss_amaranthiii.jpg
  - title: SCREENSHOT
    subtitle: ''
    text: Thanks to [fullmotionvideo.free.fr](http://fullmotionvideo.free.fr/) for this picture
    image: /media/museum/software/fujitsu_fmtowns_ss_american-ultra-quizz.jpg
  - title: SCREENSHOT
    subtitle: ''
    text: Thanks to [fullmotionvideo.free.fr](http://fullmotionvideo.free.fr/) for this picture
    image: /media/museum/software/fujitsu_fmtowns_ss_nobunaganoyabou-tenshouki.jpg
  - title: SCREENSHOT
    subtitle: ''
    text: Thanks to [fullmotionvideo.free.fr](http://fullmotionvideo.free.fr/) for this picture
    image: /media/museum/software/fujitsu_fmtowns_ss_nobunaganoyabou-tenshouki_2.jpg
  emulators:
  - title: FM Towns Bochs Emulator
    url: http://fmbochs.emuvibes.com/
    platform: Windows
    text: Windows emulator
  - title: UNZ Emulator & info
    url: http://members.at.infoseek.co.jp/townsemu/index.html
    platform: Windows
    text: UNZ Emulator & info
  links:
  - title: ASSEMBLER - FM Towns page
    url: http://assembler.roarvgm.com/FM_towns_computers/fm_towns_computers.html
    text: Nice page with a lot of pictures
  - title: FM Towns Software Database
    url: http://homepage2.nifty.com/ftowns/db/sdb.html
    text: The name says it all (in japanese)
  - title: FM TOWNS world
    url: http://homepage2.nifty.com/ftowns/
    text: Dedicated japanese site
  - title: The World of FM Towns
    url: http://ktj.dip.jp/towns/index_e
    text: Some interesting info here
  videos:
  - title: FM Towns II japanese TV commercial
    url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkPMpmBfwfI
    text: 'Length: 15 s'
  - title: FM Towns japanese TV commercial
    url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SstlqNyuD1w
    text: 'Length: 30 s'
  - title: FM Towns japanese TV commercial
    url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9UlTdrjbr8
    text: 'Length: 30 s'
  - title: FM Towns japanese TV commercial
    url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y01Pjyin-pU
    text: 'Length: 30 s'
  comments:
  - author: Conrad Russo (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada)
    date: Monday 26th March 2012
    text: I would also like to note that the version of Windows that runs on the FM-TOWNS is a special modified version of Windows. Just popping in a standard Windows 95 CD will get you nowhere, although once you have Windows 95 installed, standard Windows software will run unmodified.
  - author: Conrad Russo (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada)
    date: Monday 26th March 2012
    text: I would like to note that the FM-TOWNS is not fully IBM PC Compatible as stated in the description. I''m not sure as my FM-TOWNS II UR has not arrived to me yet, but as far as I know only well-behaved software that doesn''t bang the hardware will run unmodified on the FM-TOWNS, since there are some significant differences between the PC standard and the FM-TOWNS. Things like port addresses are different and the graphics system is almost certainly incompatible with any PC graphics mode, so that would just leave properly written text mode software as being interchangeable and even then I am not sure. I will test it out once I have the TOWNS.
  - author: Jay (UK)
    date: Monday 23rd August 2021
    text: Gamepads can be pretty expensive for this. However, 3rd party gamepads are available on eBay for a fraction of the price. Just type in RETROPAD to the eBay search and you will find. Great to have a cheap gamepad for second player!
  - author: Wren Mandagorn (United Kingdom)
    date: Tuesday 23rd January 2007
    text: The FM Towns was briefly available in the UK through specialist suppliers. It came as an all black system which I think was unique at the time. The FM Towns was also compatible with most (though not all) PC software at the time. Indeed I played most of the ‘must have’ PC games on my Towns around the early 90’s!!
  related:
  - /museum/fujitsu-fm-towns-ii
  - /museum/fujitsu-fm-towns-ii-ex
  oc_id: 968
  source:
    url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230609034103/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=968
    date: '2023-06-09'
---

Very little is known about this Japanese system. Help welcome !!

It apparently had some success in Japan, with great game conversions. Based on the IBM PC architecture, it had excellent sound and graphic features.

It has the barebone of a classic IBM PC system but was conceived from the start as a real familial multimedia system. Graphic resolutions go from 360x240 to 640x480 with 256 colors simultaneously on screen from a color palette of 16.7 millions colors. Most of these graphic modes have two graphic pages. Up to 1024 sprites can be created, with 16x16 pixels size each.

The sound features are excellent too. It can play stereo CDs of course, thanks to its built-in CD-ROM drive. It also has 8 PCM (Pulse Code Modulation) stereo voices, thanks to a Sega chipset, which is generally used for special effect sounds. A Yamaha FM chipset is also included and offers 6 FM channels, mostly used for melodies...

The FM Towns is delivered with a joypad, a microphone and a mouse. The operating system, Town OS, is graphical and use windows, scrollers, icons, etc. The system is somehow compatible with other IBM PC systems, using a special version of DOS + DOS Extender. It can even run Windows !

Where does the name FM Towns come from? In those days, Fujitsu named its PC products after nobel-prized scientists. So, the codename of the first model of FM TOWNS is thus "Townes", in honour of Charles Hard Townes, one of the winners of the 1964 Nobel Prize in Physics. But the word "TOWNES" could be pronounced "Tau-Ness", so to be clear that it has to be pronounced "Townz", the letter "e" was removed from the codename before production. The word "FM" comes from "Fujitsu Micro".

It was followed by the [FM Towns II](/museum/fujitsu-fm-towns-ii/).

---

More information from **Dave Lundberg**:\
I worked on a few games for this system, notably "The Case of the Cautious Condor". For the era, it was just an incredible piece of hardware. Many, many different graphic modes, sprites, scrolling, etc. As anyone who did real development for this system will tell you, it was just a killer piece of gaming hardware.

The TOWNS-OS was sort of a pre-cursor to Windows and superior to Window 3.1 (but it was still buggy). That said, we didn't use TOWS-OS but instead wrote our games in protect mode assembly and C using (I think) a WATCOM tool chain. Once the system was started and we set the basic video and sound modes, we wrote generally directly to the hardware.

Fujitsu took great pride in the low-cost CD-ROM they had designed. In 1989, we made test CD-ROMs at a pressing plant since there were no cheap writers available. The test discs we made of glass. When you put a glass disc in the vertically mounted CD-ROM drive, the mass of the disc overwhelmed the cheap drive motor, resulting in 1,000s of read retries. An early test of ours once took several minutes to load 30K of code!

<table> <tr> <td></td> <td>We need more info about this computer ! If you designed, used, or have more info about this system, please send us pictures or anything you might find useful.</td> <td></td> </tr> </table>