Apple Pippin

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wur
Posts: 30
Joined: April 9th, 2015, 6:55 pm

Apple Pippin

Postby wur » June 9th, 2022, 7:13 am

Hi critic,

I took a look at your website for the first time in while, congrats for keeping it going... I’m surprised my login still works. (Thanks for not purging people who haven’t logged in for 7 years!)

Have you thought about reviewing the Pippin, Apple’s abortive attempt to take on the n64 and ps1 in the mid 90s?

Most of the software looks like cd/i quality “educational cd rom” mush, but I guess there are two good games not available anywhere else: Racing Days, and Super Marathon.

Super Marathon is said to be one of the best mid 90s fps games, and was made by Bungie as the “killer app” for the system (just as they would do with a certain other series for Apple’s competitor, 5 years later)

Racing Days I guess is a pretty good Ridge Racer clone.

Anyway, it would cool if you could grab a Pippin and tell us what you think of these. (If you can track them down!)

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astrodomekid
Posts: 183
Joined: September 10th, 2016, 12:48 pm

Re: Apple Pippin

Postby astrodomekid » June 9th, 2022, 10:14 am

The Apple Bandai-Pippen cost $600 at launch, and that number hasn't gotten much better in later years. On top of that, the games are extremely hard to come by even on eBay. I did manage to find a few Pippin console listings there, but when it comes to the two games you mentioned I found absolutely nothing.

Honestly, I'm not even sure if AVGN will be able to cover the system.

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VideoGameCritic
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Joined: April 1st, 2015, 7:23 pm

Re: Apple Pippin

Postby VideoGameCritic » June 9th, 2022, 6:00 pm

wur wrote:Hi critic,

I took a look at your website for the first time in while, congrats for keeping it going... I’m surprised my login still works. (Thanks for not purging people who haven’t logged in for 7 years!)



You're welcome! For the record, the cut-off is 25 years so make you log in at least once every quarter century.

wur
Posts: 30
Joined: April 9th, 2015, 6:55 pm

Re: Apple Pippin

Postby wur » June 9th, 2022, 7:41 pm

Now that’s established, any hope of you getting a Pippin? ;-)

(Guess my memory is failing me—looks like I posted a few times last year, and back in ‘18 too :-(

I posted a lot after I finished college back in ‘05, to date myself :-(
)

VideoGameCritic wrote:
You're welcome! For the record, the cut-off is 25 years so make you log in at least once every quarter century.

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BlasteroidAli
Posts: 1594
Joined: April 9th, 2015, 7:50 pm

Re: Apple Pippin

Postby BlasteroidAli » June 10th, 2022, 7:17 pm


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Retro STrife
Posts: 2532
Joined: August 3rd, 2015, 7:40 pm

Re: Apple Pippin

Postby Retro STrife » June 11th, 2022, 4:06 am

We can’t even convince the Critic to buy a TI-99/4A. If you convince him to buy a Pippin, I’m leavin’ lol...

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BlasteroidAli
Posts: 1594
Joined: April 9th, 2015, 7:50 pm

Re: Apple Pippin

Postby BlasteroidAli » June 11th, 2022, 4:11 am

Retro STrife wrote:We can’t even convince the Critic to buy a TI-99/4A. If you convince him to buy a Pippin, I’m leavin’ lol...

That and the Mattel Aquarius. I think he should experience all the mediocracy the Mattel/Intellivision inflicted on us. Plus I would say the Coleco Adam but by all accounts, it was a complete hunk of ****. My pal who was Coleco mad had one and said it was total trash. It was so bad he sent it back to Silica shop.

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Atariboy
Posts: 956
Joined: April 7th, 2015, 11:07 pm

Re: Apple Pippin

Postby Atariboy » June 11th, 2022, 6:08 am

I have my doubts about Racing Days being worthwhile. After going to look up some gameplay video of it, it appears as if it's lacking almost any sort of vehicle physics in YouTube videos.

Graphically it's not unattractive for that console era, but I bet it's not pleasant to play like a good arcade racer such as Ridge Racer or Sega Rally is.

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Stalvern
Posts: 1952
Joined: June 18th, 2016, 7:15 pm

Re: Apple Pippin

Postby Stalvern » June 11th, 2022, 1:43 pm

Yeah, the car seems to just swivel left and right as it slides ahead. And the graphics chug badly even with hardly any polygons rendered. Ridge Racer has nothing to worry about here. (Edit: According to this guy, it plays about as well as it looks.)

This video doesn't paint a flattering picture of the system's library. Aside from Super Marathon, the only games that look at all worthwhile are the PC ports Gadget and The Journeyman Project (point-and-click adventure games that the Critic would most likely hate) and the 3DO port Shock Wave (which the Critic gave a C on its original platform), none of which have any reason to be played on the Pippin. One of the video's chosen "games" that "defined" the system is Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia – if even a fan of the Pippin can't come up with ten actual games, there's a problem.


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