The FM Towns was a 386-based computer from Fujitsu, one of the many computers that tried and failed to supplant the PC during Japan's bubble era. It was never popular, despite some really exceptional game releases, with stores at the time desperately unable to sell the machines despite advertising and promotional support from Fujitsu.
After the initial system was released, with its distinctive front-face flip-open CD drive, Fujitsu went on to release a desktop unit, and then two console-ized versions, in an attempt to capture more marketshare. It never caught on. Ads in magazines were reprinted in the West, and we could see how Fujitsu's attempt to market the system as an edutainment system was doomed to fail like all the others.
In any case, here's a Marty2, identical to a Marty but for a faster CPU and a darker shell (grey instead of beige).
Design-wise the system resembles a PC Engine Duo, with the drive on the wrong side. Sony's PS3 also reminds me a lot of this system.
With the cover removed, the first things you see are the CD drive on the left, floppy and power supply on the right.
With the peripherals and PSU removed, this is the shielding. There's approximately four thousand screws holding this thing on, which account for roughly 20% of the system's weight. And it ain't light.
This is the main PCB. It's just like a non-expandable PC, with a 386 CPU, lots of RAM, a keyboard and mouse port, two joystick ports, A/V and Svideo out the back, and PCMCIA on the right.
I dunno what this thing is, or whether it's in the first Marty. It could be a clock speedup mod, or simply an after-the-fact fix of some kind.
Another shot of the motherboard.
A quality floppy-drive repair job. The old rubber belts tend to turn into tar, much like in a Famicom disk drive. An elastic is a perfect short-term fix.
