Apple Pippin

Release: 1995 (Japan), 1996 (North America)
aka: Bandai Pippin

In 1995, Apple developed its own video game console based on its Macintosh PowerPC architecture.

Like the 3DO, which was released by Panasonic, Goldstar and others, Apple chose not to market the Pippin itself. Instead, the company chose to license out the hardware out to other vendors, who would build and distribute the systems. Unfortunately, Apple was only able to secure one company who would actually release the system: Bandai.

The Apple Pippin was not intended solely as a video game console, but instead was marketed as a low-budget multimedia PC which played games. The system was priced at $599 U.S.

Bandai released the device in 1995 in Japan and a year later in North America. By the time the Apple Pippin appeared on the market, the Nintendo 64 and Sony PlayStation were the dominant consoles. Both were more powerful, game-specific and came at a lower price point. Since only Bandai had software available for the Pippin, there was little reason to invest in the console, and the device failed in the market.

The Pippin was powered by a 66MHz PowerPC processor and ran on a modified version of MacOS.