ApeXtreme is a cancelled

video game console A video game console is an electronic device that Input/output, outputs a video signal or image to display a video game that can be played with a game controller. These may be home video game console, home consoles, which are generally placed i ...

that was developed by

Apex Digital Apex Digital, Inc. is an American electronics manufacturer based in Walnut, California founded in 1997. It manufactures and distributes high definition and LCD panel televisions, DVD recorders and players, and other digital items including photo ...

. While the console made a promising first appearance at the

Consumer Electronics Show CES (; formerly an initialism for Consumer Electronics Show) is an annual trade show organized by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA). Held in January at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Winchester, Nevada, United States, the event typi ...

in January 2004, it had been cancelled by December of that year. The console was initially based on VIA's Glory Personal Gaming Console Platform (although Apex Digital later switched to an AMD CPU and NVIDIA GPU platform), and would have included a

keyboard Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

mouse A mouse ( : mice) is a small rodent. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (''Mus musculus' ...

, game controller and a

remote control In electronics, a remote control (also known as a remote or clicker) is an electronic device used to operate another device from a distance, usually wirelessly. In consumer electronics, a remote control can be used to operate devices such as ...

History

The ApeXtreme was developed by

and Digital Interactive Systems Corporation. The system was announced by January 8, 2004, and the system was shown later that year at E3 2004. It was reported that the home system was to be released in third quarter of 2004 and planned to be released two distinct versions: a basic model for US$299, and a more powerful version for US$399. By the time Apex Digital dropped VIA, the price had raised to $499.95. By December 22, 2004 Apex Digital began pivoting from a release of a gaming console. By December 31, 2004 the release of the console was placed on hold.

Features

The system would have sported a number of features related to console gaming and multimedia, such as: *Drop & Play technology, developed by

DISCover Discover may refer to: Art, entertainment, and media * ''Discover'' (album), a Cactus Jack album * ''Discover'' (magazine), an American science magazine Businesses and brands * DISCover, the ''Digital Interactive Systems Corporation'' * Di ...

, allowing the user to play PC games by simply inserting them into the console's optical drive. *The ability to store computer games on the system's

hard drive A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with magnet ...

. *The ability to play

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

VCD Video CD (abbreviated as VCD, and also known as Compact Disc Digital Video) is a home video format and the first format for distributing films on standard optical discs. The format was widely adopted in Southeast Asia, Central Asia and the ...

audio CD Compact Disc Digital Audio (CDDA or CD-DA), also known as Digital Audio Compact Disc or simply as Audio CD, is the standard format for audio compact discs. The standard is defined in the ''Red Book'', one of a series of Rainbow Books (named fo ...

MP3 MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany, with support from other digital scientists in the United States and elsewhere. Origin ...

Windows Media Audio Windows Media Audio (WMA) is a series of audio codecs and their corresponding audio coding formats developed by Microsoft. It is a proprietary technology that forms part of the Windows Media framework. WMA consists of four distinct codecs. The or ...

slideshows A slide show (slideshow) is a presentation of a series of still images ( slides) on a projection screen or electronic display device, typically in a prearranged sequence. The changes may be automatic and at regular intervals or they may be manua ...

and

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

radio.

Drop & Play

The system's Drop & Play feature works by referring to a database of

scripts Script may refer to: Writing systems * Script, a distinctive writing system, based on a repertoire of specific elements or symbols, or that repertoire * Script (styles of handwriting) ** Script typeface, a typeface with characteristics of handw ...

for information on how each specific game should be played. This technology would allow the console to play normal PC games without modification, at the cost of requiring regular updates to allow the user to play recently released titles. Furthermore, DISCover would have had to write a script for every one of the titles for which the console boasted support, a list of more than 2700 scripts. Upon the insertion of a valid game disc, the ApeXtreme would have run and maintained the game with only minimal interaction with the user, automatically configuring the game and installing patches where possible. In addition, the system's support for normal

USB Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard that establishes specifications for cables, connectors and protocols for connection, communication and power supply (interfacing) between computers, peripherals and other computers. A broad v ...

connections would have allowed the player to select between traditional console and PC input devices (i.e., allowing them to play with either a gamepad or a keyboard and mouse). Outside of the ApeXtreme, the Drop & Play technology found use in

Alienware Alienware is an American computer hardware subsidiary of Dell. Their product range is dedicated to gaming computers which can be identified by their alien-themed designs. Alienware was founded in 1996 by Nelson Gonzalez and Alex Aguila, and is ...

's DHS series of media centers.

Specifications

VIA model

At the system's debut at 2004 CES show, the system originally used 1.4 GHz

VIA C3 The VIA C3 is a family of x86 central processing units for personal computers designed by Centaur Technology and sold by VIA Technologies. The different CPU cores are built following the design methodology of Centaur Technology. In addition to ...

mated to VIA CN400 chipset and DeltaChrome S8 graphics core with 64MB of VRAM as part of VIA's Glory Personal Gaming Console/Eden Embedded System Platform, with six USB ports (four USB 2.0 ports on front, two on rear), and several choices for audio and video connectivity (5.1 channel RCA/optical/coaxial and component/S-Video/composite/DVI, respectively), and a pair of Ethernet and RJ-11 ports for networking, as well as using

Windows XP Embedded Windows XP, which is the next version of Windows NT after Windows 2000 and the successor to the consumer-oriented Windows Me, has been released in several editions since its original release in 2001. Windows XP is available in many languages. In ...

as the console's operating system. The system sported 256 megabytes of RAM. Internal storage consisted of a either a 20 gigabyte or a 40 gigabyte hard disk drive.

AMD model

By March 2004, HardOCP reported that Apex Digital had dropped VIA and replaced the CPU with AMD AthlonXP 2000+, mated to NVIDIA's nForce2 IGP and GeForce4 MX graphics card with motherboard manufactured by

Biostar Biostar Microtech International Corp. () is a Taiwanese company which designs and manufactures computer hardware products such as motherboards, video cards, expansion cards, thermal grease, headphones, home theater PCs, remote controls, desktops ...

. The system had 256 megabytes of RAM. This version of the system sported a 40 gigabyte storage drive. Networking was supported with an

ethernet Ethernet () is a family of wired computer networking technologies commonly used in local area networks (LAN), metropolitan area networks (MAN) and wide area networks (WAN). It was commercially introduced in 1980 and first standardized in 198 ...

port. 5.1

Dolby Digital Dolby Digital, originally synonymous with Dolby AC-3, is the name for what has now become a family of audio compression technologies developed by Dolby Laboratories. Formerly named Dolby Stereo Digital until 1995, the audio compression is lossy ...

audio was supported.

References

{{Home video game consoles Vaporware game consoles Sixth-generation video game consoles X86-based game consoles