I've had some interest in the Pippin since I first saw one, which was the same day I learned of its existence. I don't recall it ever showing up in my gaming magazines as I played on my friend's PlayStations and Saturns while I waited for my pre-order N64 (which was called the Ultra 64 at that time). It was at the Midwest Gaming Classic back 10-15 years ago when it was at its much smaller venue, back when they took over a local Sheraton.
In the past 5 years, I started restoring old hardware as a hobby, starting with a Mac SE/30. The next project was to restore an SE and get it on GlobalTalk. Since then I’ve had a few other smaller projects like getting an ImageWriter II working, an iBook clamshell, a PowerBook 2400C, etc. Earlier this year at VCF SoCal I met the guy who wrote the Pippin Kickstart bootloader. He gave me a copy for free, and I added the Pippin to my future project list. I just needed to find one first.
I went to Japan on a school trip with my son and was able to cut away at night to a few SURUGA-YA stores and we spent an afternoon in Akihabara but was not lucky enough to find anything. I already knew I would have to go far off the beaten path and be extremely lucky to just come across something in the wild. A month prior to our trip, a YouTube streamer captured a Pippin Atmark in the box for a reasonable price. I’m sure it was snagged quickly, but I did go back to that store to see if it was there without any luck. It was snagged because for some reason (they are rare) the prices for these consoles are insane. Auctions from Japan place the consoles close to $1,000 and even more if the unit is a prototype or has some uber-rare accessories.
At this year’s Midwest Gaming Classic there was a brand new Pippin Atmark in the box in the vendor hall - and in the original shipping box, which I was able to get for a fair price. Today, I finally opened it up to remove the battery to protect it from future damage.
I don't think this thing has ever been used. It smelled brand new, and there was zero dust anywhere. The cables and controller were packed perfectly as they were from the factory. I used this video as my guide to disassemble the console. It was fairly accurate, but my model used security-style torx screws. The packaging included a brochure with some interesting examples of the Pippin in use.
What was interesting, and I think I already knew this, but there are only one or two references on the web that show this -- the signatures from a few folks on the Pippin team are embossed on the inside of the top case.
The biggest concern and issue I faced was the FFC - flexible flat cable. Some details can be found here. It was easy enough to pull out, as the video called it out, but getting it back in was a pain. I eventually realized I had to pull the connector tabs out a little, and then I could easily get the cable in and gently push the tabs in with a tiny screwdriver.
And it's back together and working! Hoping to get it running off a BlueSCSI for #MARCHintosh 2027!
In the past 5 years, I started restoring old hardware as a hobby, starting with a Mac SE/30. The next project was to restore an SE and get it on GlobalTalk. Since then I’ve had a few other smaller projects like getting an ImageWriter II working, an iBook clamshell, a PowerBook 2400C, etc. Earlier this year at VCF SoCal I met the guy who wrote the Pippin Kickstart bootloader. He gave me a copy for free, and I added the Pippin to my future project list. I just needed to find one first.
I went to Japan on a school trip with my son and was able to cut away at night to a few SURUGA-YA stores and we spent an afternoon in Akihabara but was not lucky enough to find anything. I already knew I would have to go far off the beaten path and be extremely lucky to just come across something in the wild. A month prior to our trip, a YouTube streamer captured a Pippin Atmark in the box for a reasonable price. I’m sure it was snagged quickly, but I did go back to that store to see if it was there without any luck. It was snagged because for some reason (they are rare) the prices for these consoles are insane. Auctions from Japan place the consoles close to $1,000 and even more if the unit is a prototype or has some uber-rare accessories.
At this year’s Midwest Gaming Classic there was a brand new Pippin Atmark in the box in the vendor hall - and in the original shipping box, which I was able to get for a fair price. Today, I finally opened it up to remove the battery to protect it from future damage.
I don't think this thing has ever been used. It smelled brand new, and there was zero dust anywhere. The cables and controller were packed perfectly as they were from the factory. I used this video as my guide to disassemble the console. It was fairly accurate, but my model used security-style torx screws. The packaging included a brochure with some interesting examples of the Pippin in use.
What was interesting, and I think I already knew this, but there are only one or two references on the web that show this -- the signatures from a few folks on the Pippin team are embossed on the inside of the top case.
The biggest concern and issue I faced was the FFC - flexible flat cable. Some details can be found here. It was easy enough to pull out, as the video called it out, but getting it back in was a pain. I eventually realized I had to pull the connector tabs out a little, and then I could easily get the cable in and gently push the tabs in with a tiny screwdriver.
And it's back together and working! Hoping to get it running off a BlueSCSI for #MARCHintosh 2027!
