Apple Pippin

The Apple Bandai Pippin (often simply referred to as the Apple Pippin) is a multimedia technology platform designed by Apple Computer and manufactured primarily by the Japanese toy giant Bandai. Released in March 1996 in Japan and September 1996 in North America, it is widely remembered as one of the most spectacular commercial failures in video game hardware history. Attempting to bridge the gap between a home Macintosh computer and a living room gaming console, it arrived at the exact wrong time, with the exact wrong library, and at the exact wrong price.

Core Concept
During the mid-90s, Apple was struggling and looking for new revenue streams. Instead of building and selling a console themselves, their strategy was to design the internal architecture and license the Pippin technology to third-party manufacturers (highly similar to the strategy of the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer). Bandai took the bait. Bandai manufactured the white Pippin Atmark for the Japanese market and the black Pippin @WORLD for the United States. The overarching goal was to create an inexpensive, CD-ROM-based “multimedia appliance” capable of playing games, running educational software, and browsing the newly emerging World Wide Web directly on a standard television set.

Hardware and Features
Beneath the plastic shell, the Pippin was essentially a stripped-down Macintosh Classic masquerading as a game console:

Macintosh Guts: It was powered by a 66 MHz PowerPC 603 processor and ran on a customized, read-only version of Mac OS System 7.5.2 (dubbed “PippinOS”). Because the OS was stamped directly onto the game CD-ROMs rather than a hard drive, the system booted the operating system fresh every time you inserted a disc.

The “AppleJack” Controller: The console’s boomerang-shaped controller was highly unusual. Alongside a standard D-pad and face buttons, it featured a prominent built-in trackball in the center. This was completely necessary, as it functioned as a mechanical mouse to navigate Mac OS menus and web browsers.

Pioneer of the Living Room Web: The Pippin included a built-in 14.4 kbps modem (with the @WORLD variant coming with a 28.8 kbps modem), making it one of the very first consoles out of the box to offer internet browsing. However, trying to read standard 90s HTML text on a fuzzy, low-resolution CRT television was a famously miserable experience.

No Region Locking: In a rare pro-consumer move for the 1990s, the hardware was completely region-free, meaning US consoles could play Japanese discs without issue.

Notable Software
The Pippin’s library is notoriously bleak. Because Apple positioned it as a “multimedia” device, the catalog was flooded with dry edutainment software, digital encyclopedias, and interactive music CDs rather than system-selling video games. However, a few titles stand out:

Super Marathon: Bungie faithfully ported their legendary Macintosh first-person shooters (Marathon and Marathon 2) to the console as a bundle, easily making it the most robust and mechanically sound game on the entire platform.

Bandai Anime Licenses: In Japan, Bandai leveraged their massive IP catalog, releasing heavily marketed multimedia titles like Dragon Ball Z: Idainaru Dragon Ball Densetsu and various Mobile Suit Gundam digital database games.

Racing Days: A 3D polygon racer that proved the hardware had some graphical capabilities, though it looked incredibly dated next to Ridge Racer or Wipeout on competing systems.

The Downfall
The Pippin was doomed from the moment it hit store shelves. Bandai launched the console in the United States at an eye-watering price of $599 (roughly equivalent to over $1,100 today).

For context, by late 1996, the Sony PlayStation and Sega Saturn were already dominating the market with massive libraries of 3D games, and the revolutionary Nintendo 64 was launching for just $199. There was absolutely no reason for a consumer to buy an underpowered Mac disguised as an overpriced console. When Steve Jobs triumphantly returned to Apple in 1997, one of his first acts of restructuring was to ruthlessly kill off the company’s Macintosh clone and licensing programs. This drove the final nail into the Pippin’s coffin, effectively discontinuing the console after an estimated dismal 42,000 units sold globally.

Quick Note
The Apple Pippin is a fascinating, plastic monument to the confusing “multimedia” craze of the 1990s—an era when tech companies believed people wanted to read encyclopedias on their televisions.

In short: It is a holy grail for hardcore Apple hardware collectors today, but as an actual gaming console, it remains an expensive, trackball-controlled footnote in the shadow of the PlayStation.