Pippin Atmark Floppy Unit

Unattached floppy dock with exposed connector.

The **Pippin Atmark Floppy Unit** (PA-82002) is an expansion dock for Pippin consoles that adds the ability to read and write to floppy disks.

## Hardware

The optional dock was assembled in Japan for Bandai Digital Entertainment with internal components designed by Apple Computer. The position of the ejection pinhole indicates that the floppy drive mechanism is a manual-inject unit from Mitsubishi Electric. The drive is capable of reading 800KB and 1.4MB floppy disks in HFS format. Older MFS-formatted 400KB disks can still be read under the Pippin OS based on Mac OS 7.5.2, but this backwards compatibility disappears in Mac OS 8.

## Release

A white version of the dock was released in the Japanese market with the launch of the Pippin Atmark at an MSRP of JP¥ 12,000. However, they are exceptionally rare. Some unreleased prototypes contained a combination of a floppy drive in the front and a 10BASE-T ethernet port in the back.

A dark version for Pippin @WORLD or Katz Media Player 2000 consoles had been announced for release in October 1996 at a list price of US$120, but is not known to have shipped to the public.

## Replica board

Hobbyists have produced a replica of the floppy adapter board to attach a floppy drive. A FloppyEmu unit can also be used to emulate a floppy disk with a Secure Digital (SD) card, which can store multiple 400K, 800K, and 1.4MB disk images. This can be a viable storage alternative for early Pippin Atmarks with revision 1.0 "KINKA" ROMs as they do not support external SCSI drives without a 1.2 ROM upgrade.

## Gallery

Pippin Atmark Floppy Unit on display at Macworld Expo Tokyo 1996.Promotional image of a KMP 2000 with a floppy dock and other matching peripherals.A X-PCI to floppy disk adapter board from a Pippin Atmark Floppy Unit.Hobbyist replica of the floppy disk adapter board.Comparison of a drive from a magneto-optical dock (left) with a floppy dock mechanism (right).Front of a prototype combo dock with a floppy drive in the front and an ethernet port in the back.Back of a prototype combo dock with a 10BASE-T ethernet port (bottom left).Closeup of the 10BASE-T ethernet port on the back of a prototype combo dock.
## References

1. ↑ Bandai Digital Entertainment To Offer Iomega's Zip Drive With New Internet Access Appliance., BusinessWire. 1996-06-18.
2. ↑ Pippin Floppy Disk Unit by Mark Johnson. Flicker. 2013-10-11.
3. ↑ Interchangeability and Compatibility of Apple Macintosh 1.4 MB “SuperDrive” Floppy Drives by Siber-Sonic, World O’ Apple & Macintosh. 2009-01-21.
4. ↑ Working with Macintosh Floppy Disks in the New Millennium by Siber-Sonic, World O’ Apple & Macintosh. 2019-01-22.
5. ↑ Spec. by chemy cano, Pipp!n@Archive. Archived 2007-02-05.
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Video Game Bible 1985-2002 by Andy Slaven, p.61.
7. ↑ Bandai-Pippin for sale... and more than complet by newcoleco, AtariAge. 2007-01-29.
8. ↑ Consumers in U.S. To See a New Pippin by Jon Swartz, *San Francisco Chronicle*. 1996-06-14. Archived 1996-12-20.
9. ↑ @World: Pippin shippin' by David Morgenstern, *MacWEEK* vol.10-46. 1996-12-02. Archived 1996-12-20.
10. ↑ Pippin Floppy Board Replica 1.0 by DocTB, Oshpark. 2017-07-21.
11. ↑ Floppy Emu and the Apple Pippin by Steve Chamberlin, Big Mess o' Wires. 2017-08-18.
12. ↑ A virtual floppy drive for the Apple Pippin (French) at Le Journal du Lapin (2017-06-25)
13. ↑ FDユニット自作 その１ (Japanese) by Kankoba, MAISON PiPPiN, GeoCities. Archived 2002-03-05.
14. ↑ SCSI接続その１ (Japanese) by Kankoba, MAISON PiPPiN, GeoCities. Archived 2002-11-15.
15. ↑ PEASE Turbo Support Page, Maki Enterprise. Accessed 2017-04-16.

## See also

* Pippin titles with floppy support
* Pippin titles that include a floppy disk
* Pippin Zip dock
* Deltis 230 MO Docking Turbo

## External links

* Floppy disk at Wikipedia
* A Floppy Drive for Apple's Pippin by Brian Benchoff at Hackaday (2017-09-04)
* A floppy drive for the Bandai Pippin by Piérre Dandumont at *Le Journal du Lapin* (2017-09-03)
* Pippin X-PCI and FDD connector wiring (Japanese) at MAISON PiPPiN (archived 2002-11-15)
* Pippin Atmark Floppy Adapter by Rosewood at Retrostuff (2019-10-09)

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