X68000 VS FM Towns (I know this is a 68K forum!)

[Broken]

Hi any thoughts on this? (I know it's only partly 68k on this forum). I hear there's many Hentai games for it (80% of the games?) like the 68k. I think like the 68k it was released at a similar time to the Amiga and ST. I was thinking of getting the PC tower type version or Marty awile ago but I think they're v expensive and the PC one probably heavy as well. I guess emulation could be used but isn't that big an area for this machine from what I've heard. I've seen some screen shots for a few games but haven't seen any for a bit. A few interesting titles that I'd like to play are Operation Wolf, Rainbow Islands, Splatterhouse and any shooters but these cost loads for it. Wonder what they're like compared to the Arcade versions?

[NFG]

The FM Towns is a more powerful beast, when it comes to gaming.  The 80386 processor was much more able to feed the whole system at a faster rate.  Games I've tried that are directly comparable - Image Fight & Viewpoint - are far better on the Towns.  Faster, less slowdown, and with Image Fight, higher resolution as well.

Tatsujin Oh (truxton 2) on the Towns is brilliant, it's just gorgeous and if you didn't put it beside an arcade version you wouldn't know the difference.  I've heard that Splatterhouse is great, but I've never tried it.   Raiden Densetsu is awesome on the Towns, and until Raiden Project came out for PS1 it was the best version you could play at home.

That said, it has far fewer good games than the X68000.  Dempa Micomsoft and Capcom and Namco and Taito and Toaplan and Konami made the X68000 kick ass.  It's the must-have machine for golden age games.  The Towns just doesn't compare.

[Broken]

Cool info cheers dude. How long u been into gaming etc Lawrence?

[NFG]

I've been gaming since I was seven, which gives me about...  28 years of gaming experience.  =)

[Broken]

Shit no wonder u got a good knowledge base! I first got into games when I was about 12-13 playing SNES and Megadrive + Amiga 500+. I never knew about Pc Engine, 68K or Towns back then, only the arcades. Before that I was always quite into games, I used to occasionally twag Junior School just so I coulkd spend the day at the College where my Dad worked playing on the BBC (5.25 inch disks!). I played the Speccy a few years after this and always thought it was shit - sorry if I offended any speccy fans - I never got into it prob because I never had one. Then there was a gap for several reasons until I really got back into gaming about yr 1999 with the PSX. I know a lot of Nintendo, Sega fans etc resented Sony and I can see why up to a point - the DC was a good system that was very unlucky timing wise, but it got me back into it. After that got more into Nintendo, Sega, NEC, SNK etc to present. The only thing I knew about SNK back when they came out was that a guy I knew got one but the most spoilt guy in school. And even he had to sell it in the end as the games at �100+ a time was even too much for his spoilt ass to handle!

[NFG]

My dad brought home a 2600 when I was seven.  It was my first real exposure to video games, and I quite liked it.  The next toy he brought home was an Atari 400 computer.  Then an 800, then 1200xl, then 800xl, 130XE, 520ST, 1040ST, Mega2 and Mega4 ST...  Then I bought myself a TT030 from a friend...

Console-wise, I busted ass doing yardwork for a whole summer to earn a MegaDrive and PC Engine, my first real modern consoles (the Atari 7800 and XEGS didn't count!).  Then I got a TG16, and then - once I started managing a video game store in 1994 (and started my own in 96) I REALLY got into it.  =D

Thing is though I was always hacking them.  From the time I was four I was disassembling my toy robots.  I was opening Atari peripherals from day one - and getting caught 'cause I sucked at putting them together, and I'd leave wires hanging out of touchpads n shit. 

When I had a PC Engine and a TG16 I learned quick the games were incompatible, but I also learned that - with a little help from a knife - the expansion ports were compatible.  I had my PCE AV-Booster attached to my TG16 within days of getting it. 

Curiosity + screwdriver = dangerous.

[Broken]

Shit pretty cool. See u got a lot of exposure to Atari thanks to your Dad. I haven't seen several of those Atari consoles - Mega 2 etc. I remember the ST from the Amiga days but I rated the Amiga better at least for games. Was the videogame store only online? Probably save a lot on costs if it was. Saying that the Internet had only just started to sort of kick off in '96 at least in the Uk.

Cool about messing with and taking apart stuff. Guess it's getting it to work again once put together.

Sorry about being ignorant here but would attaching a PCE AV-Booster to a TG16 achieve? Game compatibility? I thought the AV-Booster was good instaed of doing an RGB mod? Sorry about this I ain't got anywhere near the knowledge or clued up as you.

[NFG]

The Mega STs weren't consoles, they were pizza-box style ST computers, the first with detached keyboards.  We actually sold them for a time with touchscreens and LAN cartridges for a restaurant point of sale system.  =)

The PCE AV-Booster does for the TG-16 what it does for the PCE: it provides AV outputs, which the TG lacked.

[guyjin]

Crazy question: if you like the FM Towns so much, how come you don't have a FM Towns user group? it's not like there's a ton of FM Towns forums out there.

Also, why on earth would you import a PCE AV booster? Were they much less expensive than the American boosters?

one last thing, I think the XEGS was great... but about 5 years too late

[NFG]

You're kinda confused, guyjin.  Who said I liked the Towns?  I have one, it has a few good games, but that doesn't mean I like it.  As for the PCE booster, I bought a PCE 'cause it was cheaper than the TG at the time, costing about $18 compared to ~$50 IIRC.  Of course, this was two decades ago, so my memory's hazy, but I can assure you games were cheaper through a hong-kong wholesaler than from the local Radio Shack.

[papa_november]

For the record, Japanese Turbografx hardware is still less expensive than Western TG hardware, and it probably always will be. They simply made a lot more of it.

[guyjin]

You're kinda confused, guyjin.  Who said I liked the Towns?  I have one, it has a few good games, but that doesn't mean I like it. 

I misread your post, I guess.

As for the PCE booster, I bought a PCE 'cause it was cheaper than the TG at the time, costing about $18 compared to ~$50 IIRC.  Of course, this was two decades ago, so my memory's hazy, but I can assure you games were cheaper through a hong-kong wholesaler than from the local Radio Shack.

I probably should have known that, since the Coregrafx and later models basically made the AV booster obsolete.