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The Apple Pippin is a defunct open multimedia technology
platform Platform may refer to: Technology * Computing platform, a framework on which applications may be run * Platform game, a genre of video games * Car platform, a set of components shared by several vehicle models * Weapons platform, a system or ...
, designed by Apple Computer, and marketed as PiPP!N. According to Apple, Pippin was directed at the home market as "an integral part of the consumer audiovisual, stereo, and television environment." Pippin is based on the
Apple Macintosh The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and ...
platform, including the classic Mac OS architecture. Apple built a demonstration device based on Pippin called "Pippin Power Player," and used it to demonstrate the platform at
trade shows A trade fair, also known as trade show, trade exhibition, or trade exposition, is an exhibition organized so that companies in a specific industry can showcase and demonstrate their latest products and services, meet with industry partners and c ...
and to the
media Media may refer to: Communication * Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass e ...
, in order to attract potential
software developers A computer programmer, sometimes referred to as a software developer, a software engineer, a programmer or a coder, is a person who creates computer programs — often for larger computer software. A programmer is someone who writes/creates ...
and hardware manufacturers. Apple licensed the Pippin technology to third-party companies. Bandai Company Ltd. developed the ATMARK and @WORLD models, and focused them on the gaming and entertainment business in Japan,
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
and the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
. Katz Media developed the KMP 2000, and focused it on vertical markets throughout
Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
and
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
.


Naming

The Apple Pippin platform was named for the Newtown Pippin, an apple
cultivar A cultivar is a type of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and when propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue culture ...
, a smaller and more tart relative of the
McIntosh McIntosh, Macintosh, or Mackintosh (Gaelic: ') may refer to: Products and brands * Mackintosh, a form of waterproof raincoat * Mackintosh's or John Mackintosh and Co., later Rowntree Mackintosh, former UK confectionery company now part of Nestl� ...
apple (which is the namesake of the
Macintosh The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and software en ...
). According to Apple, it intended for Pippin to be more than just a platform for game consoles. "Apple believes that over time Pippin will take many forms, including home telecommunication devices and much more. Apple did not want to choose a name that would be specific for certain market space, as it will certainly appeal to many types of consumers and be shipped in a variety of forms from many manufacturers." It was initially named "Sweet Pea" during the initial planning of the console. The word "pippin" was used by Apple prior to the Apple Pippin platform. The
Apple ProFile The ProFile (codenamed Pippin) was the first hard disk drive produced by Apple Computer, initially for use with the Apple III personal computer. The original model had a formatted capacity of 5 MB and connected to a special interface card that p ...
, an external hard disk drive for the
Apple III The Apple III (styled as apple ///) is a business-oriented personal computer produced by Apple Computer and released in 1980. Running the Apple SOS operating system, it was intended as the successor to the Apple II series, but was largely consi ...
and Apple Lisa, used the code name "Pippin" during development.


History

Apple never intended to release Pippin on its own. Apple intended to make the Pippin platform an open standard by licensing the technology to third parties, much like how JVC shared the VHS format in the 1970s. Relying on third-party companies to produce Pippin systems was a way to increase Macintosh's market share – a goal identical to Apple's clone attempt in the late 1990s. It even encouraged differentiation between systems, in order to encourage competition – as long as the systems stuck to Apple's reference design to avoid fragmentation.Apple Pippin Q&A document, February 27, 1995 The licensees could improve their systems by improving industrial design, integrating telephony, improving video and audio capabilities, increasing memory capacity, and more.


Bandai and Apple

In 1993,
Bandai is a Japanese multinational toy manufacturer and distributor headquartered in Taitō, Tokyo. Its international branches, Bandai Namco Toys & Collectables America and Bandai UK, are respectively headquartered in Irvine, California and Richmond ...
wanted to deliver a scaled-down version of the Macintosh purely for CD-ROM game-playing. Bandai President and CEO Makoto Yamashina chose the Macintosh platform over other platforms available at the time. In early 1994, Bandai approached Apple with the gaming console idea. The original design was based on a
Macintosh Classic II The Macintosh Classic II (also sold as the Performa 200) is a personal computer designed, manufactured and sold by Apple Computer, Inc. from October 1991 to September 1993. Like the Macintosh SE/30, the Classic II was powered by a 16 MHz Moto ...
16 MHz
Motorola 68030 The Motorola 68030 ("''sixty-eight-oh-thirty''") is a 32-bit microprocessor in the Motorola 68000 family. It was released in 1987. The 68030 was the successor to the Motorola 68020, and was followed by the Motorola 68040. In keeping with general ...
running Macintosh system software. Apple's involvement would be to define the initial logic board design, and Bandai would provide the casing and packaging. This was considered the fastest delivery solution to market at a very reasonable
return on investment Return on investment (ROI) or return on costs (ROC) is a ratio between net income (over a period) and investment (costs resulting from an investment of some resources at a point in time). A high ROI means the investment's gains compare favourably ...
for both Apple and Bandai. As Bandai specifically marketed its Pippin models as game consoles, many of the releases are games and entertainment software or ''
edutainment Educational entertainment (also referred to as edutainment) is media designed to educate through entertainment. The term was used as early as 1954 by Walt Disney. Most often it includes content intended to teach but has incidental entertainmen ...
'' software. However, unlike conventional gaming consoles, the Pippin has no dedicated graphics or sound processors. Because the Pippin platform is based on Macintosh system software, graphic services such as 2D and 3D
QuickDraw A quickdraw (also known as an extender) is a piece of climbing equipment used by rock and ice climbers to allow the climbing rope to run freely through protection such as a bolt anchors or other traditional gear while leading. A quickdr ...
are made available to developers. Early on, Apple encouraged hardware developers to produce 3D rendering hardware so that the RISC processor could be free to tend to other processing.
MPEG The Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) is an alliance of working groups established jointly by ISO and IEC that sets standards for media coding, including compression coding of audio, video, graphics, and genomic data; and transmission and f ...
codec is not supported by the system software, as QuickTime is the only video format supported by the platform. Originally, Bandai never intended to develop a system with Internet connectivity in mind. However, Apple and Bandai received feedback from customers, indicating that they were looking for a system that could connect to the Internet. To make Internet connectivity possible, Apple had to incorporate a modem into the Pippin design. Two years earlier (1992), Apple had already moved away from the older serial interface with an external Hayes-compatible modem on its Macintosh systems, and switched to a serial interface which included
GeoPort GeoPort is a serial data system used on some models of the Apple Macintosh that could be externally clocked to run at a 2 Mbit/s data rate. GeoPort slightly modified the existing Mac serial port pins to allow the computer's internal DSP hardware o ...
– a serial data technology that allowed software to emulate a modem. Implementing GeoPort into the Pippin platform required Apple to make a major change in its design – moving away from the 68030 footprint and to a PowerPC footprint. Apple chose the PowerPC 603 32-bit processor, as it was designed to be a low-cost, low-end processor for embedded use. On December 13, 1994, Apple announced the Pippin platform in Tokyo, as well as the partnership with Bandai. In March 1996, the white-colored Bandai went on sale in Japan at a price of 64,800 yen, which included a dial-up modem and four bundled CD-ROMs. Yamashina predicted 200,000 Pippin ATMARK systems would be sold in Japan within the first twelve months. Once Bandai licensed Pippin from Apple, Apple made no effort to market the Pippin platform. All the marketing was to be done by the licensees. Bandai spent US$93 million in marketing alone to sell the Pippin line. As part of the licensing agreement, both Bandai and Katz Media were not allowed to use the term "computer" when marketing the Pippin systems, so that the systems would not be confused with Apple's own Macintosh product line. In October 1995, the '' Nikkei'' reported that Mitsubishi Electric Corporation would follow Bandai as a licensee to the Pippin technology. Although Mitsubishi didn't actually sign a license agreement with Apple, it did manufacture the systems for Bandai (and effectively, Katz Media) on an
original equipment manufacturer An original equipment manufacturer (OEM) is generally perceived as a company that produces non-aftermarket parts and equipment that may be marketed by another manufacturer. It is a common industry term recognized and used by many professional or ...
basis. Bandai originally planned to launch the Pippin in 1995, but the release was later pushed back to March 1996 for Japan and June 1996 for the US. The black-colored Bandai Pippin @WORLD (pronounced ''at-world'') went on sale in the United States in June 1996 at a price of US$599.00. The @WORLD bundle included a six-month unlimited Internet account from
PSINet PSINet, based in Northern Virginia, was one of the first commercial Internet service providers (ISPs) and was involved in the commercialization of the Internet until the company's bankruptcy in 2001 during the dot-com bubble and acquisition by Coge ...
at a cost of US$24.95 per month. Bandai predicted 200,000 Pippin @WORLD systems would be sold in Japan in its first twelve months, and 300,000 systems sold in the US within twelve months of being released there.


Developer marketing

To encourage software developers to create content for the Pippin platform, Apple attempted to sell the platform as being scalable, in that applications written, for example, the ATMARK or @WORLD would work in future models of Pippin. In Apple's Q&A document, Apple contrasted its scalability with the Nintendo system, where the "Nintendo 8-bit NES cartridges don't work on the 16-bit SNES." The CD-ROMs do not contain region protection so that releases made for the ATMARK would also run on the @WORLD. Apple also promised the developers that, "Apple has no intention or desire to enter the business of regulating an industry which should be encouraged to exercise freedoms needed by the creative artists which Apple wants to evangelize onto the platform. Apple will abide by whatever ratings systems are regulated by governments. Apple, where reasonable, will endorse those systems which reduce excessive oversight and permit the freedom to the artists." An example of this is the ''Yellows'' series by Akira Gomi; originally a book displaying nude Japanese women, it was converted to an electronic database. To develop Pippin applications, developers had to become Apple registered developers, so that they could receive the developer kits, as well as receive discounts on equipment required for Pippin development, such as the Power Macintosh AV system. At the May 1995 World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC), details were made available to potential developers. Bandai also issued a "Pippin Security Key" in the Pippin hardware development kit, which when inserted into the AppleJack ADB port allowed an off-the-shelf Pippin system to bypass the authentication system when running non-authenticated CD-ROMs. Merlin Media was contracted to produce Pippin demonstration CD-ROMs.


Network Computer Platform

On May 21, 1996, Oracle Corporation, along with 30 hardware and software vendors, announced an intent to build computers that are designed around the ''network computer platform.'' The idea was to design technology based on a
profile Profile or profiles may refer to: Art, entertainment and media Music * ''Profile'' (Jan Akkerman album), 1973 * ''Profile'' (Githead album), 2005 * ''Profile'' (Pat Donohue album), 2005 * ''Profile'' (Duke Pearson album), 1959 * '' ''Profi ...
that included diskless computers, commonly coded applications using languages such as
Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mos ...
, and interface with the Internet using common software such as
Netscape Navigator Netscape Navigator was a web browser, and the original browser of the Netscape line, from versions 1 to 4.08, and 9.x. It was the flagship product of the Netscape Communications Corp and was the dominant web browser in terms of usage share in ...
. In May 1996, Apple became a partner in the network computing effort, and used the Apple Pippin platform as its implementation. Katz Media attempted to use the network computer platform concept as a way to push the Pippin into vertical markets. Although the Apple
iMac iMac is a family of all-in-one Mac desktop computers designed and built by Apple Inc. It has been the primary part of Apple's consumer desktop offerings since its debut in August 1998, and has evolved through seven distinct forms. In it ...
(1998) is popularly known for the disappearance of the floppy disk, the Apple Pippin platform was about two years ahead of the iMac in this effort. A June 1996 ''Pippin Special'' issue of ''Mac Fan'' magazine in Japan is dedicated entirely to Pippin.


Unfulfilled roadmap

Apple intended to grow the Pippin platform alongside the rest of the Macintosh line. In a July 1996 Apple developer publication, Apple's CEO Gil Amelio announced the Pippin 1997 Reference Platform, and suggested that the platform would include the latest Macintosh technologies, including
IEEE 1394 IEEE 1394 is an interface standard for a serial bus for high-speed communications and isochronous real-time data transfer. It was developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s by Apple in cooperation with a number of companies, primarily Sony an ...
or FireWire, and a 25-pin external SCSI port as standard interfaces. In May 1997, Bandai announced a docking station that would include
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 1 ...
support at US$139.00, although such a peripheral was never made available. In 1997, Bandai developed two prototype units and displayed them at the MACWORLD Expo/Tokyo '97 event. The Bandai ATMARK-PD was designed as a direct replacement of the original ATMARK footprint, and would have included an internal drive that can read a standard CD-ROM disc, as well as read/write to a magneto-optical WORM PD disk with 600 MB of storage capacity. The Bandai ATMARK-EX was to feature a footprint similar to a Macintosh desktop unit. It was designed to include 8 MB of RAM (expandable to 40 MB,) and the ability to utilize standard 72-pin EDO-DRAM modules, instead of the proprietary memory modules used in the ATMARK and @WORLD. The chassis can handle a half-sized PCI card internally. The displayed unit contains a PCI card-based Ethernet interface, as well as a built-in analog modem. An infrared-based ADB interface was also designed into the prototype, which would have opened up a new line of peripherals.


Katz Media Player 2000

On June 4, 1996, Katz Media, based in Norway, became the second (and last) company to sign a license agreement with Apple to produce Pippin systems. While Bandai was targeting the Japan and United States markets, Katz Media focused on Europe and Canada. Because Katz Media was a media software-only company, it signed an agreement with Bandai so that Bandai would produce the hardware as an
OEM An original equipment manufacturer (OEM) is generally perceived as a company that produces non-aftermarket parts and equipment that may be marketed by another manufacturer. It is a common industry term recognized and used by many professional or ...
for Katz Media. Katz Media originally intended to produce two configurations of the Pippin: one as a basic multimedia system for running CD-ROMs, and a higher-end system supporting Internet access. The goal was to start shipping Pippin units in November 1996, but Katz Media didn't actually start shipping their products until March 1997; it ended up producing only one model of the Pippin – the Katz Media Player 2000 (KMP 2000). The KMP 2000 was available in two configurations: with or without an external 50-pin SCSI interface on the back of the unit. To develop content, Katz Media worked with a variety of multimedia developers and publishers to "Pippinize" their existing CD-ROMs and make them available for the Pippin. Katz Media never sold the KMP 2000 in the retail market. Instead, it attempted to use the system as a
set-top box A set-top box (STB), also colloquially known as a cable box and historically television decoder, is an information appliance device that generally contains a TV-tuner input and displays output to a television set and an external source of sign ...
for a television set or VGA display, to be distributed to its partners' respective client bases in order to interface with a variety of vertically marketed interests, such as catalogs, databases, Internet content, and so on. As a result, the KMP 2000 is the rarest of the Pippin systems, and is extremely difficult to find in today's used market. Katz Media signed a number of agreements with companies across Europe and Canada. One agreement was to publish CD-ROM-based catalogs for Redwall Retail Stores, and use the Pippin as an
interactive kiosk An interactive kiosk is a computer terminal featuring specialized hardware and software that provides access to information and applications for communication, commerce, entertainment, or education. By 2010, the largest bill pay kiosk networ ...
that would be set up in stores running the CD-ROMs. Katz Media also attempted to push the KMP 2000 into
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
– a country where, in May 1997, only 20 percent of its citizens had access to the Internet. The idea was to use the country's existing cable network to bring in Internet access, and the KMP 2000 was to be used as an Internet appliance that would be issued to subscribers. A hotel chain in Europe signed a deal with Katz Media to use the KMP 2000 in hotel rooms so that guests could access the Internet. Katz Media then signed with a hospital in France, using the KMP 2000 as an online system so that, as a team, physicians could pull up and review case studies, and collaborate on diagnoses and treatments. On June 16, 1997, the Netface Consortium in the Netherlands selected the KMP 2000 as the device to be used as a part of what the company called "the world's first Internet shopping mall." CAI-Westland owned a two-way cable system with 55,000 subscribers, and the KMP 2000 was to be given to the subscribers as a device to shop for products from a consortium of 23 companies.


Decline

By 1997, the Bandai @WORLD was extremely unpopular in the United States. Bandai canceled production of the Pippin during its merger discussions with Sega in early 1997, and after the merger was canceled, began rethinking its marketing strategy for the Pippin. This led to a short-lived, last resort attempt to market the Pippin as an all-in-one
set-top box A set-top box (STB), also colloquially known as a cable box and historically television decoder, is an information appliance device that generally contains a TV-tuner input and displays output to a television set and an external source of sign ...
, but this approach failed. Bandai pulled the @WORLD out of the American market, and shipped the unsold units back to Japan. The black-colored units were re-branded ATMARK (without the ATMARK labeling on the front) and sold in the Japanese market. By the time the Pippin systems were released, the market was already dominated by the Sega Saturn,
Sony PlayStation is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a divi ...
, and the mostly
Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ser ...
-based PC. In addition, although Apple made efforts to sign on software developers, there was little ready-to-use software for Pippin, the only major publisher being Bandai itself. The system's third-party developers consisted solely of small software houses. At a price of on launch, it was considered too expensive. When Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, he stopped all
Macintosh clone A Macintosh clone, also known as a Clonintosh (a portmanteau of " Clone" and "Macintosh"), is a computer running the Mac OS operating system that was not produced by Apple Inc. The earliest Mac clones were based on emulators and reverse-engineere ...
efforts, which shut down the Apple Pippin concept. Once Apple stopped all development of the Pippin platform, it affected all parties. Bandai stopped the production of all models of Pippin by mid-1997. Katz Media, who was receiving its systems from Bandai, vowed to continue supporting Pippin in a PR notice released June 25, 1997. Katz Media reportedly had some 100,000 units committed because of written agreements with companies spanning twenty countries. The company would eventually file for bankruptcy by the end of 1998. On February 27, 1998, DayStar Digital purchased all remaining inventory of hardware from Bandai and sold the inventory to anyone who would buy them. A former employee of DayStar placed sales of the Pippin through its distribution chain as high as 2,000 systems. Bandai continued to support its consoles until December 31, 2002.


Apple Bandai Pippin

The goal of the Bandai Pippin was to create an inexpensive computer system aimed mostly at playing CD-based multimedia software, especially games, but also functioning as a
thin client In computer networking, a thin client is a simple (low-performance) computer that has been optimized for establishing a remote connection with a server-based computing environment. They are sometimes known as ''network computers'', or in th ...
. The operating system is a version of System 7.5.2, and is based on a 66
MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that one he ...
PowerPC 603 The PowerPC 600 family was the first family of PowerPC processors built. They were designed at the Somerset facility in Austin, Texas, jointly funded and staffed by engineers from IBM and Motorola as a part of the AIM alliance. Somerset was opened ...
processor and a 14.4 kb/s
modem A modulator-demodulator or modem is a computer hardware device that converts data from a digital format into a format suitable for an analog transmission medium such as telephone or radio. A modem transmits data by Modulation#Digital modulati ...
. It features a 4×-speed CD-ROM drive and a video output that can connect to a standard television display.


Marketing

In Japan, Bandai produced Pippin-based systems called the . Most of the Atmark systems use the same platinum color used on many of the Apple Macintosh models at the time. In the United States and most parts of Europe, Bandai named the system the Bandai Pippin @WORLD (pronounced "at-world"). The @WORLD has the same specifications as the Pippin Atmark, but runs an English version of Mac OS. Most of the western systems use a black color.


System overview


Hardware

The Apple Pippin platform is based on the PowerPC Platform, a platform designed and supported by IBM and Apple. The PowerPC 603 processor is based on RISC design, thereby allowing peripherals to rely on the Pippin CPU. For example, instead of relying on a fully-featured analog modem, the Pippin has a GeoPort serial port. Various dialup Internet service providers (ISP)—including Prodigy,
America On-Line AOL (stylized as Aol., formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City. It is a brand marketed by the current incarnation of Yahoo! Inc. ...
, and eWorld—were supported by the Pippin platform, as well as generic ISPs. The address bus of the PowerPC 603 can theoretically access memory up to 64 MB. However, the operating system's maximum addressable memory size is 37 MB. Furthermore, because of the ASIC design of the Pippin hardware, the maximum RAM size that can be added is 32 MB. Officially, Bandai produced memory upgrade modules of 2, 4, 8 and 16 MB. The memory chips are soldered onto a printed circuit board which is placed in a plastic housing, making installation into a Pippin system simple for the end user.Memory Module Take-Apart
Japanese hackers produced an aftermarket 16 MB module, but because the module was much larger than the memory module compartment on the Pippin, installation required removing the logic board from the chassis, and then mounting the large memory module in-between the logic board and chassis.
Apple encouraged hardware developers to produce PCI compatible peripherals that could be added to the Pippin. The only official method of producing add-ons for the Pippin was by developing PCI-compatible devices and then placed in a docking station cabinet. A proprietary
riser card A Riser Card is a printed circuit board that gives a computer motherboard the option for additional expansion cards to be added to the computer. Usage Risers is usually connected to the mainboard's slot through an edge connector, though some, ...
interface (referred to by Apple as an X-PCI slot) is located on the bottom of a Pippin system and is used by
docking station In computing, a docking station or port replicator (hub) or dock provides a simplified way to ''plug-in'' a mobile device, such as a laptop, to common peripherals. Because a wide range of dockable devices—from mobile phones to wireless mou ...
s. A docking station for a Pippin can contain a variety of hardware, such as SCSI or floppy disk drive controllers, video interfaces, codecs, or network interfaces such as
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 1 ...
. The logic board passes PCI signals through the X-PCI docking interface, and then to the docking station.X-PCI to PCI pin-out diagram
/ref> Docking stations within the Pippin line do not provide pass-through support, thereby limiting a Pippin system to use only one docking station at one time. For example, a docking station for a floppy disk drive would need to be removed in order to attach a docking station for the magneto-optical drive. Katz Media produced a generic docking station, containing a PCI slot, allowing a user to install PCI cards. No PCI-based peripherals were ever developed specifically for the Pippin. The operating system is not located in the Pippin's onboard storage and is instead located on the CD-ROMs for each of the Pippin's software releases. Apple could thus upgrade the operating system without having to sell new hardware to the consumer. However, because of this, once Pippin software releases ended, it became impossible to upgrade to a later operating system or install extensions and such. The system automatically reboots whenever the CD-ROM eject button is pushed, so a user can not load the system software off one CD-ROM, and then insert another CD-ROM. Apple intended for the Pippin platform to be an appliance, and encouraged consumers to purchase a fully featured Macintosh system if they were looking for something upgradable. Bandai never upgraded its system software beyond the 7.5.2 version. Hardware enthusiasts have been able to run system software as late as Mac OS 8.0, but this can only be done on a system utilizing a developer ROM-BIOS.


Technical specifications

According to Apple, what would be included in a Pippin-based product was specific to each manufacturer. Other than the color, the specifications on the Bandai releases were the same across both the ATMARK and @WORLD packages, while the Katz Media release addressed features needed to be scalable, including an external SCSI interface, additional on-board memory, and the lack of RSA technology.


=ROM-BIOS

= (*) Hard drive is supported by the Pre-Release ROM-BIOS, but only if a Zip 100 is detected as part of the SCSI chain.


=Peripherals

= Standard equipment in every Apple Pippin package includes a dial-up analog modem (earlier packages included a 14.4 kbit/s modem (PA-82010 or PA-82007), while later packages included a 33.6 kbit/s modem (PA-82017/BDE-82017)) over a GeoPort interface and one corded AppleJack gamepad. Originally, the expansion of the Pippin was to be by way of the docking station. However, Apple was looking forward to third-party manufacturers producing add-on products, such as PCMCIA slots, MPEG-2 codecs, among others. Some add-ons were made available by Bandai and other third-party manufacturers, this includes a docking station with a 3.5-inch floppy disk drive (PA-82002), a Deltis 230 MO Docking Turbo (MOS330P) with a 230 MB
magneto-optical A magneto-optical drive is a kind of optical disc drive capable of writing and rewriting data upon a magneto-optical disc. Both 130 mm (5.25 in) and 90 mm (3.5 in) form factors exist. In 1983, just a year after the introduct ...
disk drive that is manufactured by Olympus Optical Co. Ltd. (requires KINKA 1.2 or later); and AppleJack wireless controller/gamepad (PA-82014/BDE-82014), and a Keyboard drawing pad stylus combination through the AppleJack ADB interface (PA-82003). Note that earlier releases of the Bandai Pippin ATMARK could not use the 230MB MO drive; later models had this support added. Unfortunately, Bandai nor Apple sold the ROM-BIOS upgrades as a finished good. Other peripherals not designed specifically for the Pippin line can also be used without modification of the hardware or operating system listed of an Apple Color StyleWriter 1500 and 2500 series through its serial port, an external SCSI hard disk drive (requires external SCSI), and an Iomega Zip 100 SCSI external drive (requires external SCSI.) Standard Apple-made ADB devices, such as the Apple Keyboard line, and the Apple Desktop Bus mouse, can be used on a Pippin via an ADB-to-AppleJack adapter. AppleJack devices can be used on an ADB-based Macintosh by creating a homemade AppleJack-to-ADB adapter (PA-82005/BDE-8005). Some devices, such as the AppleJack gamepad (PA-82004), require extensions for the Macintosh system software.


System software

On a typical PowerPC-based Macintosh system, the boot process includes loading a bootstrap loader from ROM, loading the Process Manager stored in the boot blocks of the startup device, locating a "blessed" System Folder on the startup device, and then loading Finder. However, because the Pippin platform ran only on non-writable CD-ROM, a modification to the boot process had to be made. For developers who were using standard 7.5.2 system software, a "PippinFinder" was installed into the System Folder, allowing the CD-ROM to be bootable on a Pippin-based system. Once development was finalized, PippinFinder was removed from the System Folder, and the Pippin-specific system software was placed onto the build. In addition, an alias of the main executable was placed into the Startup Items folder, so that upon bootup, the application will launch automatically. Developers are constrained to the base hardware profile of the Pippin platform, using no hard drive cache for downloaded content, and sharing 128 KB of NVRAM with the system. The standard Finder interface was replaced with a simpler interface called "Pippin Launch". In Finder, the interface is based on folders and files. In Pippin Launch, the icons are clickable squares, and the user does not have access to standard Finder features, such as "New Folder". Among developers, "Pippinized" is a reference to creating CD-ROMs designed to boot on a Pippin device. The system and application software is prepared on the external hard disk drive, and with the use of a dongle available only to developers, is tested by booting off the hard disk drive on the Pippin system. After the CD-R is made, the disc had to be sent out to an authorized CD stamping house to be authenticated. RSA's public/private key system was used to create the authentication system on the Pippin platform. Other than the RSA authentication and modified system files, according to Apple, "Yes, Pippin titles will play on Macintosh computers. If the titles are 68k based they will play on both Power Macintosh and 68k based Macintosh computers. If the titles are written in native PowerPC code they might also play on both platforms depending upon whether or not the developer chose to code in fat binaries or not."


Reception

In May 1996, ''PC Graphics Report'' interviewed a Japanese executive associated with Bandai, concluding that attempting to market a gaming console as a computer was a sign of lack of cultural research on the part of the Japan-based Bandai. In particular, computer illiterate people did not know what an "@" sign was, as in @WORLD. Consumers in America could not grasp the idea of surfing the Internet using such a device. The executive could not understand how Americans might not be interested in surfing the Internet. Even among Internet surfers, the Apple Pippin was not necessarily the console of choice. A July 1996 article in ''
Electronic Gaming Monthly ''Electronic Gaming Monthly'' (often abbreviated to ''EGM'') is a monthly American video game magazine. It offers video game news, coverage of industry events, interviews with gaming figures, editorial content and product reviews. History The m ...
'' pointed out that the competing Sega Saturn and its separately sold Netlink device combined still cost under $400, making it a far less expensive internet option than the Pippin. And, any device that wasn't simple to use would be a failure in the U.S. market. The small default memory configuration can't run the industry-standard Netscape 2.0 browser, or anything comparable to
Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mos ...
and
VRML VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language, pronounced ''vermal'' or by its initials, originally—before 1995—known as the Virtual Reality Markup Language) is a standard file format for representing 3-dimensional (3D) interactive vector graph ...
support. The rendering of text on a TV screen makes reading difficult since at the time the composite video output was the more commonly available connection to television sets. The price was too high, especially during late 1996 when the Bandai Pippin was originally released. In May 2006, the Pippin was listed 22nd in ''
PC World ''PC World'' (stylized as PCWorld) is a global computer magazine published monthly by IDG. Since 2013, it has been an online only publication. It offers advice on various aspects of PCs and related items, the Internet, and other personal tech ...
'' list of the "25 Worst Tech Products of All Time."


References


External links


Apple's original Pippin siteBandai Pippin Museum & Archive, including PDF Technical NotesPippin screenshotsThe Computer Chronicles' coverage of CES 1996, including Apple's demonstration of the PippinGil Amelio's gold-finish Pippin at the Computer History Museum


(Japanese) {{Apple hardware
Pippin Pippin or Pepin may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Pippin (comics), ''Pippin'' (comics), a children's comic produced from 1966 to 1986 * Pippin (musical), ''Pippin'' (musical), a Broadway musical by Stephen Schwartz loosely based on the life ...
Bandai consoles Products introduced in 1996 Products and services discontinued in 1997 Fifth-generation video game consoles PowerPC-based video game consoles Regionless game consoles Digital media players Apple Inc. partnerships