20 Facts About Bandai Pippin

Bandai Pippin is based on the Apple Macintosh platform, including the classic Mac OS architecture.

Apple built a demonstration device based on Bandai Pippin called "Bandai Pippin Power Player, " and used it to demonstrate the platform at trade shows and to the media, in order to attract potential software developers and hardware manufacturers.

Apple Bandai Pippin platform was named for the Newtown Bandai Pippin, an apple cultivar, a smaller and more tart relative of the McIntosh apple .

In 1993, Bandai Pippin wanted to deliver a scaled-down version of the Macintosh purely for CD-ROM game-playing.

Originally, Bandai Pippin never intended to develop a system with Internet connectivity in mind.

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However, Apple and Bandai Pippin received feedback from customers, indicating that they were looking for a system that could connect to the Internet.

Once Bandai licensed Pippin from Apple, Apple made no effort to market the Pippin platform.

Black-colored Bandai Pippin @WORLD went on sale in the United States in June 1996 at a price of US$599.

In May 1997, Bandai Pippin announced a docking station that would include Ethernet support at US$139.

Bandai Pippin ATMARK-EX was to feature a footprint similar to a Macintosh desktop unit.

Bandai Pippin pulled the @WORLD out of the American market, and shipped the unsold units back to Japan.

Goal of the Bandai Pippin was to create an inexpensive computer system aimed mostly at playing CD-based multimedia software, especially games, but functioning as a thin client.

In Japan, Bandai produced Pippin-based systems called the Pippin Atmark.

Apple Bandai Pippin platform is based on the PowerPC Platform, a platform designed and supported by IBM and Apple.

Japanese hackers produced an aftermarket 16 MB module, but because the module was much larger than the memory module compartment on the Bandai Pippin, installation required removing the logic board from the chassis, and then mounting the large memory module in-between the logic board and chassis.

The only official method of producing add-ons for the Bandai Pippin was by developing PCI-compatible devices and then placed in a docking station cabinet.

Docking stations within the Bandai Pippin line do not provide pass-through support, thereby limiting a Bandai Pippin system to use only one docking station at one time.

However, because the Bandai Pippin platform ran only on non-writable CD-ROM, a modification to the boot process had to be made.

Developers are constrained to the base hardware profile of the Bandai Pippin platform, using no hard drive cache for downloaded content, and sharing 128 KB of NVRAM with the system.

In May 1996, PC Graphics Report interviewed a Japanese executive associated with Bandai Pippin, 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 Pippin.