The Pippin Atmark, known outside Japan as Pippin @world, was a multimedia platform designed by Apple Inc. and produced by Bandai in 1995.

• CPU: PowerPC 603 running at 66 MHz
• Sound: Stereo 16-bit 44 kHz sampled I/O
• Screen: 8-bit and 16-bit video support, support for NTSC and PAL composite, S-Video and VGA (640×480) monitors
• RAM: 128KB NVRAM
• I/O Ports: 4x CD-ROM drive, two high-speed serial ports, one of which is GeoPort ready, PCI-compatible expansion slot, headphone output jack (with individual volume control), optional floppy drive
• Controllers: 2x “Applejack” controllers featuring a 4-way pad, a trackball and 4 buttons
• OS: Stripped down version of System 7 Mac OS

The emulation of this system is Preliminary.

In mid 90s, Apple designed the Pippin as a low cost playback tool for multimedia CD-ROMs initially created for the Macintosh and/or IBM compatible PC. The technology was derived from Apple's second generation Power Macintosh hardware.

The idea behind the project was to offer multimedia technology at a very low entry price and through distribution by several companies. Hence, Apple had chosen to make the Pippin platform available under license to manufacturers interested in building and selling their own version. The only company which decided to produce the Pippin was Bandai, which was looking at entering the console video game market. A Norwegian company, Katz Media Productions, announced that it was planning to import the platform in Europe and to use it as a low cost PC with web ability, but the system was never marketed.

The main difference between the Pippin and the Macintosh computers it was based off, was that Pippin operated from a run-time version of the Mac OS on less memory with more dedicated functions. In particular, Pippin shipped with only a readable CD-ROM mechanism as a mass storage device and no hard disk. Mass storage devices could still be optionally added by the users, though.

On the other hand, the Pippin used ADB inputs, and therefore Apple mouses and keyboard could be used in place of the standard AppleJack controller.

Other accessories available at launch included an external floppy, keyboard, mouse, external ink jet printer (Apple Ink Jet printers were compatible with no need of adapters) and a GeoPort telecom adapter for analog phone lines. More add-on devices were announced including hard disks, PCMCIA slots, MPEG2 codecs, etc. but not all of them were actually released.

Unfortunately, the system had no success, probably due to its high price (low for a multimedia computer, but quite high for a video game console) and the limited number of available titles, mostly produced by Bandai itself.

The Pippin was abandoned in 1996.

• AppleJack controller
• AppleJack Wireless (IR) controller
• Pippin keyboard with drawing tablet
• Pippin Modems (14.4, 28.8, 33.6kbit/s)
• Pippin memory (2, 4, 8, 16MB)
• Pippin Floppy Dock
• Pippin MO 256MB optical disk
• Pippin ADB adapter (For connecting Macintosh devices to Pippin)

(info from Pippin FAQ and Wikipedia)

• Bandai Pippin Museum & Archive
• Pippin Article at lowendmac.com
• Pippin Pictures