Atmark Town (アットマーク タウン) is a CD-ROM-based online communications suite which was bundled with Pippin Atmark consoles in Japan.[1][2]
Development[]
Pre-release screenshot of Bandai Town.
According to What is Pippin?, an early marketing CD-ROM that was released in 1995, the software suite was being developed under the tentative working title Bandai Town.[3] That name was instead used for the title of Bandai's Japanese website from 1996 to 1999.[4]
Features[]
In version 1.0, users navigated a virtual 3D "town" to access e-mail, chat, forums, games and news features.[2] Online connection was handled through "Pip PPP".[5]
Version 2.0 included e-mail, forum, online shopping, chat, online manuals/reference, and a pager function to contact other logged-in users, while minimizing memory requirements by replacing the 3D navigation with simpler text-based menus.[6]
Releases[]
Version 1.0 was first released by Bandai Digital Entertainment on March 28, 1996 with the launch of the Pippin Atmark special "Network set" (「ネットワークセット」) in Japan. When a lower-priced base "Pippin Atmark body set" (「ピピン＠アットマーク」「本体セット」) was introduced on June 15, 1996, Atmark Town became available separately as part of an "optional Internet Kit" (「別売インターネットキット」).[7]
Version 2.0 was announced on November 18, 1996 as a free update to existing users.[8] Unlike Internet Kit,[9] no memory upgrade was required to use the newest version.[6] Atmark Town stopped accepting new users of version 1.0 on January 20, 1997, and features of version 2.0 went live on January 30th.[10]
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ Apple Pippin scans by DFJustin, The Internet Archive. 2013-08-10.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 アットマークタウン (Japanese), Third Stage. Archived 1999-09-15.
- ↑ Le CD-ROM «What is Pippin ?» et les prototypes de Pippin (French) by Pierre Dandumont, Le Journal du Lapin. 2019-01-27.
- ↑ Welcome to Bandai Town (Japanese), Bandai Co. Ltd. 1996-10-29.
- ↑ BDE: What's New - ネットワーク強化による アクセスポイント変更のお知らせ (Japanese), Bandai Digital Entertainment. Archived 1997-10-25.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Atmark Town 2.0 updated features (Japanese), Atmark Channel. Archived 1997-01-02.
- ↑ Spec. by chemy cano, Pipp!n@Archive (Japanese). Archived 2007-02-05.
- ↑ What's New? アットマークタウン会員の皆様へ (Japanese), Atmark Channel Home Page. Archived 1997-01-02.
- ↑ What's New? Internet Kitバージョンアップサービス (Japanese), Atmark Channel Home Page. Archived 1997-01-02.
- ↑ To Atmark Town Members (Japanese), Atmark Channel. Archived 1997-06-29.
See also[]
External links[]
- 古本 ピピンプロジェクト バンダイのマルチメディア戦略 ('96年) at お銀ちゃんの無駄袋 (Japanese)
