FM Towns vs. Amiga CD 32

[Gamereviewgod]

Ok, I'm looking into getting one of the above consoles. I'm leaning towards the Amiga since soft and other things seem to be easier to come by (and it was of course released here). Any recomendations? I'm not looking to be amazed, just for some decent gameplay. What a good price for either console?

Help me fellow DP readers, your my only hope!

[GaijinPunch]

An FM-Towns Marty went on Ebay for $193 + shipping not long ago. I offered one for $200 shipped EMS (from Japan) which I thought was more than fair, not too long ago, but got not takers until a friend finally took it.

The good games will kill you though. Emerald Dragon, Splatterhouse, Rayxanber, Tatsujin-Ou, Afterburner, and CSI (all either exclusives, or superior versions except the last 2) can cost a small fortune.

[digitalpress]

If Afterburner is one of the "good games" on the FM Marty Towns then I have to tell you that you don't want the system, period.

I own an FM Marty with about a dozen games. The BEST game I have is Morph (or Mega Morph, I forget the exact title), plays a little like Microcosm, but most of the others I own are high in Japanese text so I'm not sure if they're any good or not. I can tell you that Afterburner is no better than the Sega CD version.

Now the Amiga CD32, that's another story. I really like that system, and besides the fact that the games are fairly easy to find on the 'net, eBay, there are a wide assortment of English titles to choose from. At its best it's a 3DO-quality machine. At it's worst, a first-generation Genesis - so as you can see, it's never REALLY that bad. There are some crud games for it, but also a whole bunch of great ones (Total Carnage and Soldiers of Fortune are jumping to mind). I've got a boxful of software if you'd like to take a loaner someday.

[Keir]

Since I can't think of anyone besides Joe who actually owns both systems, you should listen to him. I definitely agree with his description of the CD32 though. Plus you can get a system with a few decent games for under $100. (check the list!)


Total Carnage and Soldiers of Fortune are jumping to mind
By Soldiers of Fortune I assume you mean Chaos Engine?

[digitalpress]

By Soldiers of Fortune I assume you mean Chaos Engine?

The very same... I always think of the game under its US title.

[Flack]

I've been looking for an Amiga CD32 since I saw one at OKGE. I haven't seen an NTSC unit on eBay yet! Everytime I look there are a few units for sale, but they all seem to be PAL. I guess they had a bigger production overseas or something?

Also, I asked this before but I forgot the answer. Are the games NTSC/PAL specific as well? Or just the units?

[GaijinPunch]

Never played the MegaCD version of Afterburner. In fact, I thought only Afterburner III existed for it. Afterburner on the FM-Towns I've found to have arcade quality graphics, but a crappy frame rate. Either way, it was the best version for the time as far as I could see, and the only version for Galaxy Force II.

Splatterhouse: Best home version... period.
Tatsujin Ou: Only home version (and better than Tatsujin II for the MD from what I hear... only played Tatsujin Ou, and its' nice)
Rayxanber: Only home version
Emerald Dragon: Best home version (claimed by Emedora nuts everywhere)
Not sure about Rainbow Islands, one of the other super rare titles.

There's a few others worth mentioning. All in all -- it's definitely an elitist machine. The really good games are pretty hard to come by, and expensive.

[Keir]

I've been looking for an Amiga CD32 since I saw one at OKGE. I haven't seen an NTSC unit on eBay yet! Everytime I look there are a few units for sale, but they all seem to be PAL. I guess they had a bigger production overseas or something?
It has been pretty slow for the CD32 on eBay lately. In the past I've never not seen one that at least claims to be NTSC on eBay. PAL units are much more common. The system was pretty much a failure in the US.


Also, I asked this before but I forgot the answer. Are the games NTSC/PAL specific as well? Or just the units?
Yes, but almost all PAL games will work on an NTSC system and vice versa. For best results you should use a monitor (like the old Commodore 1084 or similar).

[MarioAllStar2600]

An FM-Towns Marty went on Ebay for $193 + shipping not long ago.

I am the proud Winner of that Badboy.

Do you need the floppy disc to play a game on that system?

[Azazel]

The floppy drive is just supposed to be for saving game files. Most games come with a floppy disk but sometimes you'll have to provide your own. I thought you could save your data directly to the system but I could be wrong as I have gotten around to playing any games that use save data. Well I have Bible Master but it doesn't work with it.

your pretty correct for Tetsujin Ou. It seems pretty much better than the Tetsujin's on the PC Engine and Megadrive.

The FM Town probably has the best version of Emedora unless your one of those people who likes the changes that they did for the PC Engine version. Also don't forget some of the other good Glodia games like Bible Master and Vain Dream.

Galaxy Force 2 was pretty good although not as good as the Saturn version.

I also thought Bubble Bobble and the New Zealand Story were pretty good but I haven't played enough of the ports for other system to tell how well they rank with other versions.

Some other titles to look for

Shooters
Raiden Densetsu
Image Fight
Kyukyuko Tiger
Shooting Towns
Super Shooting Towns
Excellent 10

The Shooting Town games are shooter creator games and the last one has 10 home made games made using the above 2. The Raiden version is not the greatest. I prefer the PC Engine and PSX versions to it and there both better imho.

Fighters
Super Street Fighter 2
Asuka 120%
Madstalker

the last one's kind of iffy

stretegy
Bible Master
Bible MAster 2
Royal Blood

RPGs
Emerald Dragon
Alshark
Vain Dream
Xak 2
Xak 3
a few other action/RPGs that I havent gotten my hands on or don't remember the names of.

[GaijinPunch]

You don't need the floppy drive to work, although some people prefer it. I don't think I'll be playing enough games to fill up the internal memory.

I loaded up Emerald Dragon (saved, turned off, and loaded my game) without a floppy in the machine, so I'm going to say it works.