The Pippin Atmark Floppy Unit (PA-82002) is an expansion dock for Pippin consoles that adds the ability to read and write to floppy disks.[1]
Hardware[]
The optional dock was assembled in Japan for Bandai Digital Entertainment with internal components designed by Apple Computer.[2] The position of the ejection pinhole indicates that the floppy drive mechanism is a manual-inject unit from Mitsubishi Electric. The drive is capable of reading 800KB and 1.4MB floppy disks in HFS format. Older MFS-formatted 400KB disks can still be read under the Pippin OS based on Mac OS 7.5.2,[3] but this backwards compatibility disappears in Mac OS 8.[4]
Release[]
A white version of the dock was released in the Japanese market with the launch of the Pippin Atmark at an MSRP of JP¥ 12,000.[5] However, they are exceptionally rare.[6] Some unreleased prototypes contained a combination of a floppy drive in the front and a 10BASE-T ethernet port in the back.[7]
A dark version for Pippin @WORLD or Katz Media Player 2000 consoles had been announced for release in October 1996 at a list price of US$120, but is not known to have shipped to the public.[6][8][9]
Replica board[]
Hobbyists have produced a replica of the floppy adapter board to attach a floppy drive.[10] A FloppyEmu unit can also be used to emulate a floppy disk with a Secure Digital (SD) card, which can store multiple 400K, 800K, and 1.4MB disk images.[11][12] This can be a viable storage alternative for early Pippin Atmarks with revision 1.0 "KINKA" ROMs as they do not support external SCSI drives without a 1.2 ROM upgrade.[13][14][15]
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ Bandai Digital Entertainment To Offer Iomega's Zip Drive With New Internet Access Appliance., BusinessWire. 1996-06-18.
- ↑ Pippin Floppy Disk Unit by Mark Johnson. Flicker. 2013-10-11.
- ↑ Interchangeability and Compatibility of Apple Macintosh 1.4 MB “SuperDrive” Floppy Drives by Siber-Sonic, World O’ Apple & Macintosh. 2009-01-21.
- ↑ Working with Macintosh Floppy Disks in the New Millennium by Siber-Sonic, World O’ Apple & Macintosh. 2019-01-22.
- ↑ Spec. by chemy cano, Pipp!n@Archive. Archived 2007-02-05.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Video Game Bible 1985-2002 by Andy Slaven, p.61.
- ↑ Bandai-Pippin for sale... and more than complet by newcoleco, AtariAge. 2007-01-29.
- ↑ Consumers in U.S. To See a New Pippin by Jon Swartz, San Francisco Chronicle. 1996-06-14. Archived 1996-12-20.
- ↑ @World: Pippin shippin' by David Morgenstern, MacWEEK vol.10-46. 1996-12-02. Archived 1996-12-20.
- ↑ Pippin Floppy Board Replica 1.0 by DocTB, Oshpark. 2017-07-21.
- ↑ Floppy Emu and the Apple Pippin by Steve Chamberlin, Big Mess o' Wires. 2017-08-18.
- ↑ A virtual floppy drive for the Apple Pippin (French) at Le Journal du Lapin (2017-06-25)
- ↑ FDユニット自作 その１ (Japanese) by Kankoba, MAISON PiPPiN, GeoCities. Archived 2002-03-05.
- ↑ SCSI接続その１ (Japanese) by Kankoba, MAISON PiPPiN, GeoCities. Archived 2002-11-15.
- ↑ PEASE Turbo Support Page, Maki Enterprise. Accessed 2017-04-16.
See also[]
- Pippin titles with floppy support
- Pippin titles that include a floppy disk
- Pippin Zip dock
- Deltis 230 MO Docking Turbo
External links[]
- Floppy disk at Wikipedia
- A Floppy Drive for Apple's Pippin by Brian Benchoff at Hackaday (2017-09-04)
- A floppy drive for the Bandai Pippin by Piérre Dandumont at Le Journal du Lapin (2017-09-03)
- Pippin X-PCI and FDD connector wiring (Japanese) at MAISON PiPPiN (archived 2002-11-15)
- Pippin Atmark Floppy Adapter by Rosewood at Retrostuff (2019-10-09)
