QuickTime

**QuickTime** is a multimedia framework originally developed by Apple Computer for its Macintosh line of computers. It can be used by Pippin consoles to play back digital video and other media if it boots from a "Pippinized" CD-ROM that includes the necessary QuickTime extensions.

## Supported versions on Pippin

QuickTime 2.1 was the current version at the time of the launch of the Pippin Atmark in March 1996; version 2.5 was released on July 22nd of that year. Since Pippin consoles run a streamlined version of Macintosh operating system 7.5.2, they can run versions of QuickTime up to 4.1.2 (version 5.x requires Mac OS 7.5.5 or newer). Memory requirements increase with newer versions of QuickTime.

Early Pippin prototypes contained reprogrammable flash ROMs that ran more slowly and used 250KB more RAM than their permanent counterparts, potentially affecting smoothness of QuickTime playback.

## Components

### QuickTime MPEG Extension

On January 24, 1997, Apple released the QuickTime MPEG Extension, which allowed playback of MPEG-1 video on Power Macintosh computers without the need for additional dedicated hardware, such as the Apple MPEG Media System card. Apple pledged to support MPEG on the Pippin platform, but chose to avoid including dedicated hardware on the first consoles due to cost. Early developers instead relied on the Cinepak codec for digital video on the Pippin.

### QuickTime Musical Instruments

Adds MIDI support to QuickTime 2.0 and later. A companion QuickTime Music control panel and Macintosh MIDI Manager had also been in development for QuickTime 2.1, but were never released. *Super Marathon* sacrificed the ability to play MIDI-based music by dropping QuickTime extensions to conserve memory and run on Pippin consoles in their default configurations.

### QuickTime PowerPlug

The PowerPlug extension accelerates performance of QuickTime 2.5 and later on systems with a PowerPC processor.

### QuickTime VR

QuickTime VR allowed for 360-degree navigation in multimedia titles, such as *Blue Sango*, *Clone Ranger*, and *Star Trek: The Next Generation Interactive Technical Manual*. Though announced as being in development, none of these titles shipped for the Pippin platform.

## Deprecation

QuickTime 7 introduced QTKit in April 2005 as a new 64-bit framework in the transition leading up to QuickTime X. Classic QuickTime (pre-X) and QTKit have since been deprecated in favor of AVFoundation and AVKit, which originated on Apple's iOS platform and have now become the default media framework for macOS.

## References

1. ↑ August and July 96 by Judith L. Stern and Robert Lettieri, Archive Little QuickTime Page. Accessed 2019-02-04.
2. ↑ April 2001 by Judith L. Stern and Robert Lettieri, Archive Little QuickTime Page. Accessed 2019-02-04.
3. ↑ Pippin Developer Newsletter No. 5 (Japanese), Atmark Channel. 1996-02-15. Archived 1998-05-08.
4. ↑ Press Release: Apple Introduces High-Quality MPEG Software for QuickTime by Jonathan Hirshon, Apple Computer. 1997-01-24. Archived 1998-12-02.
5. ↑ QuickTime gets extension: MPEG-enhanced playback possible by Ed Scannell, *InfoWorld*. 1997-02-03.
6. ↑ The 66 Most Asked Questions Regarding Pippin (PDF) by E.R. Sirkin, Apple Computer. 1995-03-02.
7. ↑ Let’s Play Apple Pippin: *Chisato Moritaka* (French) by Pierre Dandumont, Le Journal du Lapin. 2018-04-29.
8. ↑ The making and remaking of *The Journeyman Project: Pegasus Prime* by Peter Rootham-Smith, Adventure Classic Gaming. 2013-03-27.
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Apple Easter Eggs: QuickTime by David K. Every & Daniel Fanton, MacKido. 2002-11-09.
10. ↑ Marathon's Story - Subject: Re: super marathon by Alexander M. Rosenberg, Bungie.org. 1998-08-03.
11. ↑ Marathon's Story - July 27, 2011 (Wednesday) by Hamish Sinclair, Bungie.org. 2011-07-27.
12. ↑ Pippin software (Japanese), Atmark Channel. Archived 1997-06-29.
13. ↑ PIPPIN@MARK software release list (Japanese), Retrogeme.
14. ↑ Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard: the Ars Technica review - QuickTime X by John Siracusa, Ars Technica. 2009-08-31.
15. ↑ Exploring AV Foundation, Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, 2011. Accessed 2019-02-05.
16. ↑ Transitioning QTKit Code to AV Foundation, Apple Developer Documentation Archive. 2013-05-28. Accessed 2019-02-05.
17. ↑ Moving to AV Kit and AV Foundation by Sam Bushell, Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, 2013. Accessed 2019-02-05.

## External links

* QuickTime | Software at Apple Computer (archived 1997-02-12)
* Archives | News Index at Judy and Robert's Little QuickTime Page
* QuickTime at the Apple Wiki
* QuickTime / VR at Wikipedia