Pippin Power Player

A Pippin Power Player with AppleJack prototype.

The **Pippin Power Player** (ピピンパワープレーヤー, EVT-2) is the second Pippin prototype design that was shared by Apple Computer with Bandai and its partners in Japan to develop and validate titles for the Pippin platform. EVT is an acronym for *Engineering Validation Test* at Apple.

## Hardware

These prototype consoles closely match the final design of retail units and were initially made available to developers for JP¥ 120,000. Early pre-release units were not branded with logos and were sometimes modified with cables to attach external SCSI drives. Some developer units had been upgraded with pre-release 4MB memory modules.

## Design history

The internals of the system were designed in Cupertino, California by a team assembled by Eric R. Sirkin, Apple's director of Macintosh OEM products. Testing of the electronics commenced with the preceding Pippin Concept Prototype (EVT-1).

The external case was designed by a separate team between September 1994 and February 1995. Ray Riley and Rick Johnson of Apple Computer led the industrial design, with Dave Laituri and Gilbert Wong of Lunar Design consulting as product designers. Early models of design studies bore the Bandai logo. The near-final design prototype was called the **Pippin Power Player 100**.

Early design study model with Bandai's logo.An alternate color study model.A "Pippin Power Player 100" prototype.
## Developer releases

The "Pippin Power Player" brand was first revealed at Macworld Expo Tokyo '95 and was also exhibited at the 1995 Tokyo Toy Show, though the earlier Pippin Concept Prototype (EVT-1) was still being used as a demonstration unit. Bandai intended to have Pippin consoles ready for the 1995 holiday shopping season, but fell behind schedule.

3,000 Power Players were manufactured in December 1995, of which 1,000 were seeded to developers with early "C3" ROMs. 500 of these units were supplied with updated "monitoring" ROMs for market testing. One such pre-release console was displayed by Apple at Macworld Expo San Francisco '96 in January, where the tentative name "PowerStation" was reportedly used. It was also shown at the Winter Consumer Electronics Show that month in Las Vegas. Some Power Player developer kits had also been branded on the underside as "**Pippin ATMARK Personal Communicator**". Bandai officially launched the console as the Pippin Atmark and began taking pre-sale reservations on February 22 at Macworld Expo Tokyo '96.

Bottom of a prototype bearing both Power Player (49M001) and Atmark brandsBottom of a Pippin Atmark "monitoring unit" (PA-82001-S)Bottom of a Pippin Atmark retail version (PA-82001)
Some consoles with "monitoring" ROMs were shipped in the same final case as the Pippin Atmark with nearly identical markings, except that the product ID was PA-82001-S. Monitoring units continued to be made available to developers and the price was dropped to JP¥ 80,000 in December 1996. When units with developer ROMs were no longer available, Pippin authentication dongles were provided for developers to use on consumer models with ROM revision 1.2 or later.

## Gallery

The "Pippin Power Player" brand was first revealed at Macworld Expo Tokyo '95.Pre-release Pippin @ ATMARK EX-Memory 4MB module for an EVT-2 prototype.An early prototype AppleJack controller.A clear prototype controller found with a Pippin Power Player, alongside standard black and white units.Front of Pippin Power Player box.Back of Pippin Power Player box.Side of Pippin Power Player box, marked "NOT FOR SALE".Contents of a Pippin Power Player box set.
## References

1. ↑ Bandai Pippin Image Archive by Bryan G. Villados, *The Mac Geek*. 2017-04-15.
2. ↑ Pippin Developer Newsletter No. 3-1 (Japanese), Atmark Channel. 1995-10-25. Archived 1998-05-08.
3. ↑ Renders purport to depict ‘iPhone 11’ prototypes, features three rear cameras and square camera bump by Benjamin Mayo, 9to5 Mac Accessed 2019-01-06.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 開発用PIPPIN (Japanese) by みすてぃく, PIPPINであそぼ～. Archived 2002-11-07.
5. ↑ Un prototype de Pippin sur eBay by Pierre Dandumont, Le journal du Lapin (French). 2016-12-11.
6. ↑ Pippin Atmark 4mb Memory Module by Sebangulo, The Pippin Hardware. 2011.
7. ↑ Pippin: 2, 4 ou 8 Mo de plus? (French) by Pierre Dandumont, Journal du Lapin. 2019-02-10.
8. ↑ The Mac gaming console that time forgot by Richard Moss, Ars Technica. 2018-03-24.
9. ↑ Mais qui a créé le design de la Pippin ? (French) by Pierre Dandumont, Le Journal du Lapin. 2019-03-10.
10. ↑ *AppleDesign: The Work of the Apple Industrial Design Group*, p.201 by Paul Kunkel and Rick English. Graphis Inc. 1997-10-01.
11. ↑ Macworld TV Tokyo 1995 by KandaNewsNetwork,Inc., YouTube. 2013-08-29.
12. ↑ 1995年東京おもちゃショー　オーレンジャー　ビーファイター (Japanese) by kbigstone, YouTube. 2013-01-19.
13. ↑ 'Morphing' Into The Toy World's Top Ranks by Andrew Pollack, *The New York Times*. 1995-03-12.
14. ↑ Apple Licenses Game Player by Cameron Crotty, *Macworld*, p.35-36. 1995-04.
15. ↑ Pippin Developer Newsletter No. 4 (Japanese), Atmark Channel. 1996-01-10. Archived 1998-05-08.
16. ↑ Pippin Developer Newsletter No. 5 (Japanese), Atmark Channel. 1996-02-15. Archived 1998-05-08.
17. ↑ Macworld Expo/SF 1996 Report by Koya Matsuo, YouTube. 2016-05-10.
18. ↑ Putting all its eggs in one box, *InfoWorld*, p.49. 1996-01-29
19. ↑ The Computer Chronicles - Winter CES (1996) by *The Computer Chronicles*, YouTube. 2012-11-09.
20. ↑ Underside of the Pre-Release Pippin Developer Kit by Sebangulo, The Pippin Hardware. 2011.
21. ↑ Is Pippin a Breakthrough or Outmoded on Arrival? by Andrew Pollack, *New York Times*. 1996-03-14.
22. ↑ アップル不在のMacworld Expoが開幕 (Japanese) by 林信行, *PC User*, ITmedia. 2010-02-11.
23. ↑ Pippin Atmark PA-82001-S Monitoring Unit by Rosewood, Retrostuff. 2019-09-15.

## External links

* Bandai Pippin Museum & Archive at The Mac Geek
* Pippin ATMARK Developer Support Center (archived 2001-06-20)
* Quelques images de prototypes de Pippin dans Apple Design (French) by Pierre Dandumont at *Le Journal du Lapin* (2019-09-15)
	+ Une nouvelle Pippin découverte : la PA-82001-S (French) by Pierre Dandumont (2019-09-22)
* 開発版PippinをGET!!! by Flush Onin (archived 2004-02-21)