Gooday Gaming Guests - Apple Pippin Atmark and Amstrad GX-4000 with a Splash of Panasonic Q SL-GC10 Gamecube

Episode Date: January 9, 2025

This is the Last of the Systems I have Had so Far.

Alright, so I'm going to do another earlier gaming system. I have two fun ones on deck here. So the first one is an Apple Pippin Atmark. It was a short-lived multimedia platform. So if you type that in eBay, you can see how expensive those are. I could never get them to play games. It was only a small library. It was out in the 1990s. To me, it was like internet-based. But I guess there was games you could play. I just never

could find them. Concept was a revision of a low-cost alternative to a Mac computer. It was Apple-licensed by Bandy, a leading Japanese toy entertainment. The name Pippin came from a type of apple aligning with Apple's brand name.

So Pippin is an apple. So I learned something new right there off the bat. So Pippin means another name for an apple. So that's where its name came from. So Pippin means another name for an apple. Okay. So that's where its name came from. It launched in 1996 based on a stripped down Macintosh architecture. It was powered by a 66 megahertz PowerPC 603 processor. Equipped with a 14.4 modem for interconnect internet use four times cd-rom and simplified

version of mac os 7 5.2 had really it's a really cool design the whole concept is really neat it's more of a collector's item I had a couple of them over the years Sold all of it and I actually had some extra memory one was a two megabyte And I think the other one that didn't have the I think that was an eight megabyte High price was five hundred ninety nine dollars Now they're like eight or nine hundred dollars if not more limited software Performance Shit some of the DNA of a Macintosh computer. I was underpowered if not more. Limited software. Performance. Shed some of the DNA of a Macintosh computer. It was underpowered.

Marketing issue. The Pippin's hybrid nature. Park console, park motor. Confused customers. Timing. Mid-1990s. Highly competitive. Due to lack of sales, it ended in 1997 and only sold 42,000 units so they're hard to find had a couple or you can get them anything you can get just

what you want to dish out anything in the few hundreds I would go when you start getting it to like six or seven or eight hundred. I can't do that anymore. Apple services, fantastic for the gaming history. It's a good collector's item. Alright, so I asked for the game library. It says it had over 80 title games. The ones I have, and when I tested

them on my YouTube here, I never had a game to play. I could never figure out, and I could never find any. So notable games. Super Marathon. Shockwave Assault. Gadget Invention.

Travel and Adventure. To try to find any of these games. These are so expensive. Super Game World. Which is a Rare Sonic game. Themed. The Journeyman Project. You can get that in CD. Where is Carmen

Ciego? Math and Spelling. Power Rangers. Kid Pix Studio. Multimedia and interactive titles. L-Zone. Puzzle Dragon's Lair. Dragon's Lair is in everything. Myst. same thing.

But not exclusive to Pitten. Best selling puzzle game ever. Pretty cool. Then there was animated based games. Bandy Visual had a game out. Neon Genesis Megalon. Train Simulator.

So, it's just the lack of just didn't do well. And some system I never knew about until I went out to kind of try to get every one of mostly every system out there

at one time. We're kind of past all that now. I have lots of videos of all of that power on self-test so we just do a little quick boot process of it um has a rom chip it uses the mac os system 7 architecture cd-rom check on that the os was 7.5.2 internet connectivity optional 14.4 modem this step is used for titles that offer web browsing and that's the only thing I could find it for simplified arrest use first CD first boot no no persistent storage in it okay all right so my next one is the armstread GX 4000 and that one is really older I think it's a 8-bit it can't be much more than that

had a couple of those 1990 so a little bit earlier than the than the Pippin 8 bit yeah I was gonna say I had been 8 bit I had two game three games I had for him burnout came with it really silly racing game. And then I had some sort of a fighting game and a Batman game. And I sold all those. Some local, some repack.

So it came out in 1990. It was an 8-bit cartridge. Launched in the UK for about $150. Lifespan was about a year. It was discontinued in 1991. Units sold fewer than 15,000 worldwide. Those are pretty pricey, but not as pricey as some of the other ones we've talked about.

Sleek design, very, very basic. So the hardware in there was a Z-Log Z80A processor running at 4 MHz. Those are all the processors for those other earlier systems that I've gone through. Same as the Armstrad PCP Plus series. So I have an Armstrad PCP and I have the monitor. So that computer system is really neat. I'm going to pull that out soon and play around with it.

I also have a Gotek in it so that I can get some stuff off the internet. I have not yet to do it. So this is the same company, Amstrad. The audio was the AY36912 sound chip.

Memory was 64 kilobytes of RAM. Utilized cartridges. They were smaller. The case was bigger. Bundled with two simple game controllers. Supported light guns like Operation Thunderbolt. So the library was approximately 25 to 30 titles. Very small. Burning Rubber is the one that comes with it.

Pretty bad. Pang, Switchblade, Robocop 2, Navy Seals. Most games were direct ports from the CBC computer. Lack of third party competition at the time was the Mega Drive and Super Nintendo 8-bit Sega system already

established so lacked exclusive titles timing was wrong 16-bit was already coming out so it didn't last long while the full-age was not super cheaper than the 16-bit so it's just expensive you could upgrade to a 16-bit and get better graphics all those we all know that back then those graphics were so good really awkward so that's the GX2000 let's see so those are two of the ones that I'm trying to think what else I can two systems down see here to think what I haven't done yet

did lots of those on eBay look I'm looking here in LZ so lots pippins GX1000s that's gotta be one I missed pretty much I've hit every system that I think I've had I did the GVCs, I did all the Nintendos there is a Panasonic let's find that, there's a Panasonic Gameboy Gamecube, what's it called, let's find that one Game Boy

Game Cube What's it called? Let's find that one I know I haven't done that I have a partial I guess you want to say I got it off eBay It's not all together

So it's a partial So this was the Panasonic Well we'll talk about this one So This one's $2,000 In the box uh i have one that i paid maybe a hundred and something for it so let's do this one because obviously so what it is really cool you it's a dvd player the game boy game cube rather The Game Boy. GameCube rather. And it comes in the Panasonic case like.

It's called the Panasonic Q. That came out in 2001. So we've significantly gone up in technology now. It was a Nintendo GameCube with a DVD player. Had a remote. It could play the GameCube discs. 1.5 gigabytes. The mini discs.

It played standard DVD games too. Instinctive, it was silver. With the blue light in the front. Region lock, like the original GameCube, the region lock. Controller ports, just like a GameCube. It came with a remote. I have the remote actually. It's $325 at launch

time in the United States. Release date, December 2001. Sold only in Japan, although some units were later imported to other countries for enthusiasts. The cube is simply more expensive in the stand in GameCube region locked produces deceased ceased 2003 is a sought after collectors item again you can find them so gives me a breakdown of the Q both of these game discs just like the GameCube DVD playback yes for the Q audio with optical and analog for the gamecube is only analog remote was included and then design was metallic cover experimental computers trying to crossbreed so let's see what the boot process is probably just basically the same i don't think would be much different than the game

cube let's see firmware check so it uses a Matsushi Satoshi DVD player firmware. Because remember this has the DVD player. Which back then would have made it a pretty cool item to get. Because you obviously couldn't play DVDs on a GameCube. It reads in lock

to Japan. So, a bootable boot process that had a dual booting. Switched between two firmware modes ensuring a seamless experience from gaming to multimedia all comparison standard to game library would be the same I'm gonna have to decide so what I want to do after this is we're going to try to see if I can learn, I want