I just recently purchased an FM Towns PC (The first style) and it is supposedly on the way across the ocean as I write this. Although I've wanted a Towns for years, I find that I know very little about them and info on the web is sketchy at best. If someone knowledgable could answer my questions, I'd really really appreciate it. Firstly I know that the machine is upgradeable to 64MB of RAM, but I don't know what kind of RAM, and I'l like to upgrade it to ensure I can use it to play some of the more demanding games. I didn't really get involved in building PCs until the PC RAM standard, but I imagine the Towns uses something older. What would be awesome is if someone knows where I can buy more RAM, but just a consistent way to identify what I need would be helpful. Next, from playing with the UNZ emulator, it seems as though the FM Towns - the first model at least - will only recognize 127 MB of space from each hard disk - is this correct, or is there some formatting that I need to do to make it recognize more? (Using TownsOS 1.1) Also, does it use standard SCSI hard drives? Also I noticed that the Towns uses some funky 1.2 mb 3.5" floppies and the older 700k floppies, but not 1.44 mb floppies. Is there any way to format 1.44 floppies to be read by the drives, or to upgrade the drives themselves? (I imagine it would require an OS "level up" as well to incorporate the drivers, but I'm just guessing). Any help would be awesome. Thanks!
I don't have a FM Towns but I would assume the RAM is either in 8-bit SIMMs or in discrete 1-bit or 4-bit DRAM chips which you would install into DIP sockets. I don't think you'll need 64 mebibytes of RAM, perhaps 64 megabit or 8 mebibytes for the most demanding games. If it has DIP sockets, it certainly will not support 64 MiB of RAM, since that would be require 128 chips at minimum. All 3.5" floppies (of the same density) are the same. How bits are encoded differs from system to system, but physically and electrically the disks should all be compatible. If the software + disk controller can format disks (which it should of course) then you've got nothing to worry about. Edit: If the FM Towns uses MFM for encoding like PCs, you should be able to record disk images to use in your Towns (I'm sure you've wondered
You need a 3 Mode PC drive and a bios that supports it. Or, a USB drive that supports 3 Mode. I think there's a link on this forum to a place to purchase a 3 Mode USB floppy. Here's one on EBay now: http://cgi.ebay.com/Samsung-SFD-321U-USB-External-3-5-Floppy-Drive_W0QQitemZ160160107141QQihZ006QQcategoryZ44958QQcmdZViewItem#ebayphotohosting
I was aware of the 3 mode floppy drives, but I got the impression that was just in case you wanted to read FM Towns originals on a modern PC. I did not know that you could actually use those to format a 1.44 floppy in such a way that a genuine Towns PC could read it. As far as the RAM goes, can someone who owns one of these post some pics of its guts? I'll have mine in about a month so I guess I'll know sooner or later, but if someone could post some images, maybe I could not only get some consensus of what kind of RAM I might need, but also have some on hand and waiting to upgrade.
hi, on YJA you can see sometimes expansion ram. the most said is 10mb is enough for the graphical adventures games. less will cause slowdown seek if i remember correctly. i wait my fmtowns2, i hope do some boosts on it want put hard drive to install msdos oldies . and yes the infos i remenber say you can put normal scsi drives, but you need format them a special way. there was some info on fullmotionvideo.free.fr but their site/forum crashed a lot :/ what a waste of real gold information my goal to use the harddrive for exotic use , that would be a premiere... very hard to get info on google.co.jp about hard drive setup for non ostowns things
I'm a little new to the site. By YJA are you talking about Yahoo Japan Auctions? Do you remember roughly the price? I think 10 MB would be perfect.
You can always use an sram card to transfer data between a PC and Towns rather than messing around with floppies.
Ooh. That sounds interesting. Forgive an ignorant question, but what's an SRAM card and where do I get one?
There is a guide on a site somewhere, can't remember the name but I have it bookmarked on my PC at home, will send you the link when I get internet up and running there. I believe its this sort: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Epson-Seiko-memory-storage-card-1Mb-sram_W0QQitemZ130157887186QQihZ003QQcategoryZ4193QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem But I'm not entirely sure. From what I remember you need a very particular sort. That one seems to be very expensive for what it is - I got my 6mb card for £40 if I remember correctly.
I owned several FM-Towns models back in the day and if memory serves, I was disappointed in the results of upgrading my RAM. Most games/programs I had did not utilize the extra memory. That's 10+ year old memories I'm going on, but you might want to see what you think of it as-is first. I recall the biggest lag on the original being the CD drive (single speed) read times. But it sure looked cool! I was disappointed when later Towns models went with more standard (not vertical and visible) CD drives. Did you get your Towns yet, BTW?
I got my towns about a week ago, but the monitor was delayed in customs for a week for some reason so I just got to set it all up this week. I discovered the requirements for the RAM (I think). After digging through old Japanese posts for weeks and finally getting the machine in hand, I was able to determine that it's using 72-pin SIMM chips. From the reading I've done, it is non-parity, which means that parity or non-parity chips should work okay. I haven't been able to nail down capacity yet, but I just bought a bunch of super cheap 2MB and 4MB chips to check it out. Evidently the older "Gray" models only need 100ms, but 60ms is recommended. I don't have the RAM in hand yet so I don't know for sure whether my research is correct. I'll probably have it by the end of the week. As far as the hard drive is concerned, I'm reasonably certain that the gray towns did not have built-in hard drives. I haven't completely disassembled the machine yet, but from what I've seen there don't appear to be any internal connectors. I've gleaned that it used SCSI-1 drives (SCSI-2 wasn't even a standard until 1994 evidently) but I don't know if just any 50-pin SCSI drive will do the job. Anyone that has used a hard drive with one of these care to chime in? So, anyway, I fired it up and everything seems to have survived the trip intact except for the power and the level meter LCD's on the front panel. They no longer light. I know they were working before the trip because the seller actually posted a video of the machine in action. I removed the side panel and looked at it. Everything on the front panel is hidden behind white plastic cover, but I noticed that there is a stiff ribbon cable connecting *something* on the front panel to the motherboard, and I know those things are very tempermental. I didn't see anything cracked or loose, but with those older ribbon cables, sometimes you can't really tell. Anybody run into this problem before or know of a possible fix?
Most USB drives support the three floppy standards of 720k, 1.25Mb and 1.44mb. Bought a USB drive out here for Y580 mainly so I could use my PC and MSX together...
Are you positive? 72-pin SIMMs weren't popular until Pentium systems. Also, I wouldn't think so since 72-pin SIMMs are 32-bit, with some trickery you can get them to operate in a 16-bit mode though. Edit: also you should certainly get the 60ns RAM.
According to this: SIMM FAQ it uses 72-pin, and, based on a visual inspection of the RAM expansion ports, the size definitely looks like 72-pin. I suppose I won't know for sure unless I count the pins, or just wait until my RAM arrives and find out I also found a site showing where the internal hard drives are fitted in a similar model. I have a 20F and this site shows a CX20 - outwardly they appear pretty similar. I'm going to have to disassemble mine now to see if it really does have an internal SCSI connector. If it does, this at least makes it cheaper to use trial and error to find a compatible drive. If that page is correct, and M2684SAU is a compatible drive, then I should be able to use its specs to find a good substitute if I can't just buy one of those. I'll be sure to post my findings when I've had a chance to actually try some of this stuff.
72 pin SIMMs are pretty easy to spot, they have pins on both side, 30 pin don't. 30 pin will also have to be installed in pairs, 72 pin won't.
72-pin SIMMs it is. Three of these babys (Compaq 141753-001 - nowhere in the description does it say 72-pin, however I had the vendor send me some pictures to confirm they were) popped in just fine and the system recognized them, no problem. Now I have a total of 8MB of RAM - probably more than I'll ever need or use (at least I'm not likely to ever run into a game that I can't play). At least now when I get a hard drive, I'll be able install and play Wing Commander 2. I played the crap out of Raiden, Bubble Bobble, Galaxy Force II and Splatterhouse last night. I just can't believe the colors on this thing. I can certainly understand why people were gushing over it back in the day. The Saturn version of Galaxy Force II didn't even look this good - of course it was full screen, and the FM Towns windowframes it, but the lack of scanlines makes it look phenominal. The only version I've played that actually looked better was on MAME. As far as internal hard drives, the Towns does, in fact, have a 50-pin internal SCSI connector hidden in the compartment to the left of the fan, however there are no molex connectors to power the drive. I removed the power supply to see if there was a place to put one, and there is not. I could possibly work around this by wiring a separate power supply to the built in power supply, but I think it's much more elegant just to go with an external drive. I don't have confirmation yet, but I believe these guys can use old Mac SCSI drives as long as it uses a Centronics 50 adapter. The OS looks to be able to recognize immense drive sizes (I've tested with up to 9GB using UNZ) But I'm probably going to stick with something more conservative like 500MB - I don't think I'll ever use even that much.
SUCCESS! I have finally obtained the answers to all of my questions and I have my Towns fully upgraded just like I wanted it - 500 MB hard drive and 8MB of RAM. Thanks for everyone that helped - hopefully summarizing this here will help the community in some small way. I also took the liberty of updating the FM Towns Wikipedia entry with most of this info. Q: What kind of RAM does the FM Towns use - specifically if you'e looking to upgrade it? A: 72-pin SIMMs. Either parity or non-parity will work. As far as speed, 100ns or less is required, 60ns is recommended. As far as size, 2MB SIMMS will work, I haven't found a need for larger ones, but I suspect that 4MB SIMMS will work as well. The Towns has three slots to upgrade RAM. Q: Did FM Towns come with internal hard drives? A: The FM Towns (gray models) did not typically ship with hard drives installed because they are not needed for most things, though there is a hidden compartment behind the cooling fan opposite the power supply with an internal SCSI 50-pin port. Strangely there is no power port for the drive in my machine - possibly this was an optional feature that was not included in the one I have. Q: What kind of hard drives does the FM Towns use - specifically if you would like to upgrade or add one? A: The traditional way of strapping a hard drive to one of these bad boys was to use the external SCSI-1 port on the back. It uses a 50-pin Centronics 50 connector. The Towns seems to share compatibility with early to late 90's external Macintosh hard drives, but I believe any external hard drive using the Centronics 50 connection should work. The size of the HDD shouldn't really be an issue, I've seen the OS handle everything from 40MB to 9GB drives. Q: What kind of monitor can you use with the FM Towns - I mean other than the official one? A: The DB15 RGB connector on the Towns is identical to early Macintosh monitor connections. Old Mac monitors should work, or you can search for a Mac-to-PC adapter designed to let you use VGA monitors with early Macs. You may have to fiddle with dip switches on the adapters depending on the monitor, and the default resolution on the Towns may be too low for some newer type monitors. There a dozen resources on the net to show you what the resolution and refresh rates are for the Towns, just compare them to your monitor's supported settings to see if it'll work. Q: Can I use 1.44MB floppies with the older Towns models? A: Yes. Just insert the floppy and use the Towns OS menu to format it. In my case I used the OS that loads with Loom to format a 1.44 floppy to 1MB for use as a savegame. The floppy shold be perfectly readable on a modern PC with a 3-mode floppy drive. I haven't had much success the other way around, though (formatting a floppy on a modern PC with a 3-mode drive and then trying to use it in the Towns). Q: I saw a screenshot of a 32-bit version of R-Type running on FM Towns - where can I get my hands on it? A: Unfortunately you can't. Hudson announced they were working on R-Type for the Towns some time back in 1988, and even showed off some screen shots which made it into an issue of EGM (issue 4, specifically), but for unknown reasons scrapped the project. Possibly it was abandoned when Hudson learned that Fujitsu would not be bring the FM Towns to the US market after all. The only proof I could find that it ever existed was the screen shot in EGM 4 and a two line blurb on the Japanese Wikipedia. I have heard, however, that "Shooting Towns" has some elements in common with R-Type, but I've yet to check it out. Q: Will FM Towns change my life? A: Only if your life wants to change.
