Geartowns

THIS PROJECT IS UNDER ACTIVE DEVELOPMENT

IT IS NOT READY FOR USE, DO NOT USE IT YET

Geartowns is a cross-platform Fujitsu FM Towns emulator written in C++ that runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, BSD and RetroArch, with an embedded MCP server for AI debugging and development.

This is an open source project with its ongoing development made possible thanks to the support by these awesome backers. If you find it useful, please consider sponsoring.

Don't hesitate to report bugs or ask for new features by opening an issue.

Features

• CD-ROM drive emulation with cue/bin, iso and chd images, m3u disc playlists and disc swapping.
• Support for playing physical CD-ROM discs on Windows, macOS and Linux.
• Floppy disk emulation with two drives supporting d77, d88, hdm, xdf and img images, m3u playlists, write protection and optional persistence of disk changes.
• Compressed image support (zip).
• Save states with 5 slots and rewind support.
• Run-ahead support to reduce input latency.
• Video recording to AVI and screenshots.
• Supported platforms (standalone): Windows, Linux, BSD and macOS.
• Supported platforms (libretro): RetroArch.
• Full debugger with just-in-time disassembler, execute, data, I/O and interrupt breakpoints, code navigation, call stack, debug symbols, automatic labels, memory editor, trace logger, profiler, i386 registers, descriptor tables and paging inspectors, and viewers for CRTC, palettes, framebuffers, sprites, YM3438, RF5C68, CD-ROM, floppy controller and disks, interrupts, timers, DMA, RTC and keyboard.
• MCP server for AI-assisted debugging with GitHub Copilot, Claude, Codex and similar, exposing tools for execution control, memory inspection, hardware status, rewind and more.
• Windows, Linux and macOS Portable Mode.
• Programmable Shader Chain.
• Media loading from the command line by adding the CD-ROM or floppy image path as an argument.
• Media loading using drag & drop.
• Support for modern game controllers through gamecontrollerdb.txt file located in the same directory as the application binary.

Tips

Basic Usage

• Firmware: Geartowns requires the FM Towns system ROM files to run. Use Machine → Firmware → Choose BIOS Directory... to select a folder containing FMT_SYS.ROM, FMT_DOS.ROM, FMT_FNT.ROM and FMT_DIC.ROM. FMT_F20.ROM is optional and a blank ROM is used if it is not found. In libretro the files must be placed in the RetroArch system directory.
• CD-ROM Images: Geartowns supports chd, zipped and unzipped cue/bin and iso images, and m3u playlists for multi-disc games. CUE audio tracks can use raw BIN, compatible WAV (44100 Hz, 16-bit, stereo) or Ogg Vorbis files. Change discs from the CD-ROM menu.
• Floppy Images: Insert floppy disks from the Floppy 1 and Floppy 2 menus, or load them from the command line. Supported images are d77, d88, hdm, xdf and img, also inside zip files, and m3u playlists.
• Machine: Only the FM Towns Model 1/2 and Custom machine configurations are emulated for now. Change them from the Machine menu.
• Portable Mode: Run with --portable, or create an empty file named portable.ini in the same directory as the application binary. On macOS, place the file next to the .app bundle.

Debugging Features

• Docking Windows: In debug mode, you can dock windows together by pressing SHIFT and dragging a window onto another.
• Multi-viewport: In Windows or macOS, you can enable "multi-viewport" in the debug menu. You must restart the emulator for the change to take effect. Once enabled, you can drag debugger windows outside the main window.
• Single Instance: You can enable "Single Instance" in the Emulator menu. When enabled, opening a file while another instance is running will send it to the running instance instead of starting a new one.
• Debug Symbols: The emulator automatically tries to load a symbol file when loading media. For example, for path_to_image.cue it tries to load path_to_image.sym. You can also load symbol files using the GUI or the CLI. Each line of a symbol file defines one symbol as address name, name = address or name EQU address, where the address can be linear or selector:offset. Comments start with ; or #.

Command Line Usage

geartowns [options] [media_file] [symbol_file]

Arguments:
  [media_file]                CD-ROM (.cue, .chd, .iso) or floppy (.d77, .d88, .hdm, .xdf, .img, .m3u), also in .zip
  [symbol_file]               Optional symbol file for debugging

Options:
    -f, --fullscreen          Start in fullscreen mode
    -w, --windowed            Start in windowed mode with menu visible
      --mcp-stdio             Auto-start MCP server with stdio transport
      --mcp-http              Auto-start MCP server with HTTP transport
      --mcp-router            Enable compact MCP tool routing
      --mcp-http-address A    HTTP bind address (default: 127.0.0.1)
      --mcp-http-port N       HTTP port for MCP server (default: 7777)
      --headless              Run without GUI (requires MCP)
      --portable              Store configuration and user data beside the application
    -v, --version             Display version information
    -h, --help                Display this help message

MCP Server

Geartowns includes a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that enables AI-assisted debugging through AI agents like GitHub Copilot, Claude, Codex and similar. The server provides tools for execution control, memory inspection, breakpoints, disassembly, hardware status, rewind and more. STDIO and HTTP transports are supported, with STDIO preferred.

For complete setup instructions and tool documentation, see MCP_README.md.

Agent Skills

Geartowns provides Agent Skills that teach AI assistants how to effectively use the emulator for specific tasks:

• geartowns-debugging — Game debugging, code tracing, breakpoint management, hardware inspection, and reverse engineering.
• geartowns-romhacking — Cheat creation, memory searching, data modification, text translation, and game patching.

Install with npx skills add drhelius/geartowns. See the skills README for details.

Build Instructions

Windows

• Install Microsoft Visual Studio Community 2026 or later.
• Download the latest SDL3 VC development libraries from SDL3 Releases (the file named SDL3-devel-x.y.z-VC.zip).
• Extract the archive and rename the resulting folder (e.g. SDL3-x.y.z) to SDL3.
• Place the SDL3 folder inside platforms/windows/dependencies/ so that the include path is platforms/windows/dependencies/SDL3/include/SDL3/.
• Open the Geartowns Visual Studio solution platforms/windows/Geartowns.sln and build.

macOS

• Install Xcode and run xcode-select --install in the terminal for the compiler to be available on the command line.
• Run these commands to generate a Mac app bundle:

brew install sdl3
cd platforms/macos
make dist

Linux

• Ubuntu / Debian / Raspberry Pi (Raspbian):

If you are using Ubuntu 26.04, you can install SDL3 directly. Use the following commands to build:

sudo apt install build-essential pkg-config libsdl3-dev libgl-dev
cd platforms/linux
make

For Ubuntu 24.04, you need to build SDL3 from source first. Use the following commands to build both SDL3 and Geartowns:

sudo apt install build-essential cmake git curl jq pkg-config \
  libx11-dev libxext-dev libxrandr-dev libxcursor-dev libxfixes-dev \
  libxi-dev libxss-dev libxkbcommon-dev libwayland-dev libdecor-0-dev \
  libdrm-dev libgbm-dev libgl1-mesa-dev libegl1-mesa-dev libdbus-1-dev libudev-dev libxtst-dev
SDL3_TAG=$(curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/libsdl-org/SDL/releases/latest | jq -r '.tag_name')
git clone --depth 1 --branch "$SDL3_TAG" https://github.com/libsdl-org/SDL.git /tmp/SDL3
cmake -S /tmp/SDL3 -B /tmp/SDL3/build -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr -DSDL_TESTS=OFF -DSDL_EXAMPLES=OFF
cmake --build /tmp/SDL3/build -j$(nproc)
sudo cmake --install /tmp/SDL3/build
cd platforms/linux
make

• Fedora:

sudo dnf install @development-tools gcc-c++ SDL3-devel
cd platforms/linux
make

• Arch Linux:

sudo pacman -S base-devel sdl3
cd platforms/linux
make

BSD

• FreeBSD:

su root -c "pkg install -y git gmake pkgconf sdl3"
cd platforms/bsd
USE_CLANG=1 gmake

• NetBSD:

su root -c "pkgin install gmake pkgconf SDL3"
cd platforms/bsd
gmake

• OpenBSD

doas pkg_add gmake sdl3
cd platforms/bsd
LDFLAGS=-L/usr/X11R6/lib/ USE_CLANG=1 gmake

Libretro

• Ubuntu / Debian / Raspberry Pi (Raspbian):

sudo apt install build-essential
cd platforms/libretro
make

• Fedora:

sudo dnf install @development-tools gcc-c++
cd platforms/libretro
make

Contributors

Thank you to all the people who have already contributed to Geartowns!

License

Geartowns is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 License, see LICENSE for more information.