January 30, 2011
Taking a Bite of the Apple

Let me start off with a little known fact: While Microsoft have been active in the home console market for roughly a decade, Apple were there first. The Pippin console was designed by Apple Technologies & marketed by Bandai, in a similar arrangement to the 3DO which was licensed by a few different companies.

Firstly thanks must go to the good people at Celga who are always fantastic in both customer service & response time for when you make a purchase or a bid. They’re not only useful for Japan Yahoo Auctions & if you’ve never used them before I suggest going to their website & checking out their FAQ. to see where you can buy from.



To cut a long story short we discovered someone in Japan who had come across some Bandai Pippins in a warehouse. The price was so good we bought 4 of them: 2 white “Atmark” Pippins & 2 “@World” Pippins. These are machines that can go for $500+ each on Ebay!



Let’s begin with the “Atmark” model. In Japan the “Atmark” was released first. This is the white model. The “@World” was the black model released in America & towards the end of it’s life in Japan. The “Atmark” is the more common model that appears frequently on Ebay.





Here it is, a brand new, never before opened Apple/Bandai Pippin. I confess I had some reservations about opening the box, but here goes…



The console is on the top with the accessories in the little white box sitting underneath. Let’s check out the console first.



On top we have some manuals, advertising & a CD catalogue. Nothing too interesting there. Let’s move those & unwrap the console.



Wow. I’ve been wanting one of these for a very long time & to actually get 4 of them in brand new condition… it really is about being in the right place at the right time. Now for the accessories. Lets check out what’s in the white box.



Some more manuals & there’s the Applejack controller that we covered HERE. Let’s move the manuals & see what’s underneath.



Top left is the box of software that comes with the system. On the top right we have the 33.6k modem that comes with it. May as well leave that there as we don’t have a dialup service to use it with.



The power & phone cables are in the bottom right with the Applejack on the left.



Here is the Applejack. As well as the buttons you can see here there are 3 buttons on the bottom & 2 orange buttons on the top. The top buttons appear to operate as a left & right mouse button along with the trackball in the middle.



On the back of the console itself we have the outputs. You have your standard AV & S-Video outputs with a VGA connection. You also have a printer connection & a connection for the modem. Let’s plug it all in.



I decided not to undo the cable around the Applejack as I have a hard time getting them back the way they were. Unfortunately I had to do that with the power cable as I don’t have a different one that matches.



Now, I own a lot of machines from the US & Japan & I’ve never had a cable that looks like this before. What is that little green bit sticking out the end? I guess I should check the manual…



Looks like it’s a ground connector. Well my step down adapter has an input for it, so that’s not a problem. Let’s turn it on.



Well it looks like it wants a CD. If you leave it long enough it performs a little animation of a CD entering the tray, then says “Pippin” & starts again. Let’s look at the software provided.



The only CD that seems worth checking out is “Word, Paint, Mail”. No games come with the console & like the Playdia it doesn’t really seem like it’s a machine for the “gamer”. That being said, Marathon (precursor to Halo) looks like it’s well worth checking out. Turning it on you see it starts up similar to Mac OS 7.5 which is the OS used for the system.



No point in checking out the mail application, but the word & paint parts of the program might be of interest.



The word part of the program has a pop up keyboard (for if you don’t have the keyboard peripheral, which I don’t) & you use the trackball to move the mouse pointer around. How about the paint application?



Again, nothing too exciting. With nothing else to do we may as well pack the console up. I’d rather get it back into the box as soon as possible anyway. Now for the black “@World” Pippin.



Hmm… the box is a bit smaller than the “Atmark”… Let’s open it & see what’s inside.



Umm… it’s just the console & a sheet of paper. As I mentioned earlier, the “@World” was released towards the end of the Pippin’s life in Japan. My personal theory is that these were leftover US machines that were sent to Japan & maybe used for warranty replacements. I could be wrong, but most of the information about the Pippin I could find doesn’t even mention that the “@World” was released in Japan, yet here we are…





As you can see, short of the branding on the front & the colour this is identical to the “Atmark” model.





Side by side there’s little physical difference between the machines. Plugging in the console we see that internally there’s no difference between the machines.

I suppose as the departed Michael Jackson used to say: “It don’t matter if you’re black or white”.

11:03pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZHAMUy2pUGWf
(Notes: 13)
  
Filed under: Apple Pippin Bandai Playdia Applejack Celga 
January 20, 2011
Playing the Playdia

After another bulk order from Japan Yahoo Auctions thanks to the good people of Celga, it’s time to check out one of the consoles we purchased. It was a bit of a Bandai-fest with us purchasing a black Pippin, white Pippin & a Playdia. For this article we’ll have a look at the Playdia. The title wouldn’t make a lot of sense if we didn’t…



First & foremost, these things are CHEAP. This one was purchased with all the games for 12,249 円 which is pretty reasonable considering the prices you’ll pick one up for on Ebay. Just look up the 2 Dragonball Z games alone & see what you’ll be paying, & that’s without the console!! If you haven’t checked out the Japan Yahoo Auctions article I strongly suggest you do. After all, I wrote it!!

Check it out HERE!!

Anyway, let’s plug this bad boy in. Firstly, I’m a bit stuck for space, so the Playdia is going to have to sit on my pile of Super Play magazines & the step down adapter (remember, this is a 110v machine) will have to sit next to the TV.



One thing to I’d like to mention here is the weight of the machine. The console is rather light for what it is. This is compared to the Pippins (which we’ll cover in another article) which are actually quite hefty. Anyway, what to play? Let’s check out the games. By the way, they fit quite nicely on the bookshelf:



Let’s put in one of the main reasons I bought the console: Dragonball Z: Plan to Eradicate the Saiyajin Part 1.



Now to detach the controller that really doesn’t need detaching actually. It just sits there with nothing to hold it in place.

You can tell by the controller that this console isn’t designed for action games. A bulk of the games on the machine are video based or edutainment. There is one problem I have with the controller & that is the infra red sensor. Obviously you have to be sitting directly in front of the console for it to work. It’s a minor gripe however & one I found easy enough to deal with. Now to boot up Dragonball Z.





The video is quite nice running at noticeably fewer frames per second than your standard DVD. Remember this was 1994, so you have to make allowances. Anyway, Gohan has a bit of an accident involving firewood & Mr Popo comes down with a warning.







Anyway, to cut a long story short, Goku, Gohan & Piccolo head off to deal with the problem.



They split up & you have to guide all 3 of them to their goal. I’ll leave you here now as I want to find out what happens next & see when Vegeta & Trunks show up.

So that’s the Playdia. It’s a nice little system, but who is it for? Who should buy it & why? Well it’s not a machine I would recommend for the “gamer”. If you’re a collector however it’s a worthy addition to any collection. If you’re a Dragonball collector, well this is the only way to view the original “Dragonball Z: Plan to Eradicate the Saiyajin” short of forking out close to $1000 for the Japanese release of Dragonball Z: Dragonbox 2 which has it as an extra. Even then you miss out on the extra endings that only the game offers.

There is a cut down version of “Dragonball Z: Plan to Eradicate the Saiyajin” on “Dragonball Raging Blast 2” as an animated extra. Keep in mind however that this has been cut back to 30 minutes. The original Playdia version is about an hour in length.

11:11pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZHAMUy2fMpyL
(Notes: 7)
  
Filed under: Playdia Dragonball Bandai Pippin 
March 4, 2010
Dragonball - Bandai Wonderswan Review



System: Bandai Wonderswan

Released 2003

By Bandai



What the… I though this was a retro review? 2003? That was only 7 years ago, what’s going on?

OK, calm down people! This is actually a remake of Dragonball 3 for the Famicom which came out in 1989. Better now? Phew… Also, I’ve chosen to use “dub names” for this review. I figured everyone will know what I’m talking about that way, as even “sub only” fans know “Dub-isms” as they’re sometimes called.



Dragonball games are a dime a dozen. The SNES had 7 games alone, with most other systems getting at least 1 game during their lifetime. From the Famicom to the Playdia, SNES, Megadrive, Playstations 1, 2 & 3 & beyond, Dragonball has done the rounds several times over during the life of the franchise. Even today the Wii, Xbox 360 & PS3 all have Dragonball games, from Raging Blast to The Revenge of King Piccolo. What about this one though?



Dragonball starts off with a fancy introduction screen that really shows that this game means business. It uses the full power of the Wonderswan colour & looks amazing on the later Swancrystal (3rd Generation Wonderswan). The Wonderswan was released during the Gameboy Advance & Neo Geo Pocket era. Unfortunately like the latter machine it was little known outside of Japan, which is a shame as both consoles had their strengths. I’ve mentioned before that the Neo Geo Pocket was probably the finest handheld for fighting games ever made. The Wonderswan’s strengths lay in RPGs, & as such it received some brilliant Final Fantasy conversions & this game, which the console is perfectly suited for.



The game starts off at the beginning of Dragonball where Goku meets Bulma for the first time & takes you through to the final battle with Piccolo Jr at the 23rd Tournament. Along the way you get to also play as Yamcha & Krillin, though you control Goku throughout most of the game.



The text is in Japanese, but if you know the story of Dragonball you can happily skip it, because you know what’s happening. The game is effectively a card based RPG. You are given 5 cards on the bottom of the screen that you use to move around the map screen & to battle.



On the map screen the card you choose will determine how many steps you are allowed to take. This all depends on how many stars are on the Dragonball on the card. Choose a card with a 6 star ball & you can move 6 steps, etc… Each map may give you an option of various paths to take. If you take the wrong path earlier on you may have to backtrack, which can be frustrating as the game has random encounters, though they aren’t as frequent as some RPGs I could name.



Sometimes the map screen can be confusing being that it is viewed in a 3D perspective. Given the option of left or up you may choose the wrong direction & waste a couple of moves. Even when you know which way is which it is still easy to push the wrong direction when you’re distracted. However if you go one way & then turn back on the same turn you will get those backtracked steps back. The map has various coloured spots which will take you to little minigames that make little sense to the non English speaker. Key locations & bosses are also clearly visible on the map screen.



Don’t worry about Yamcha, he puts up a fight now, but he becomes useless in Dragonball Z. I call it karma…



When battling you first choose how many cards are going to be used in this round. You then have to choose a card that has a Dragonball with the highest amount of stars on it. If you have more stars than your opponent then you get to attack, if not then you have to defend. Your defence is measured by the number in the right hand corner of the card. Know your Japanese numbers, I cannot stress this enough, as the higher the defence the less likely you are to incur much or any damage from an attack. It’s a balancing act & a game of luck.



Like most RPGs, after a battle you earn experience. Once you earn enough experience you go up a level. Each level you get 5 points you can put towards your abilities.



Special attacks are all here including the Janken Punch:



Wolf Fang Fist:



& of course the legendary Kamehameha:



Though the game covers 153 episodes of Dragonball it still takes liberties with the storyline. One of the early quests is to find the Power Pole & to do this you must navigate a maze, find a key, open the door, defeat the enemy & there it is.



Some events in the game must be unlocked before you can proceed to others, such as the Ox King on Fire Mountain. He will not even speak to you unless you have found Master Roshi & obtained the Flying Nimbus.



As it so happens you need Roshi anyway to:

a) Put out the fire on Fire Mountain

b) Enable Goku to perform the Kamehameha



The cut scenes in the game are nothing short of spectacular. For those who don’t know, the Wonderswan operates on a single double A battery which lasts for hours, even when it’s doing stuff like this. One thing that does let the game down however is the pallette swapped sprites. This is typical of a lot of 8 & 16-bit RPGs, & was present in the NES version. The other thing that annoyed me was the fact that yes there are pallette swapped boss sprites, but they appear before the bosses themselves do!



There’s a Murasaki clone & I’m not even up to the Red Ribbon Army saga which is when he shows up. Metallitron is another one from the Red Ribbon Army saga who you encounter well before he is due to appear.



As I mentioned earlier, the game does take some liberties with the storyline, but it does follow the manga / anime very closely. Key events happen as they are meant to, though you do have options, such not to not take Turtle to Master Roshi. That won’t get you anywhere though as without him you can’t get all the Dragonballs, can’t put out Fire Mountain & won’t get your training for the 21st Tournament. Therefore it’s best to just follow the storyline verbatim.



The music in the game is a bit tinny though that’s to be expected. The title screen has a wonderful rendition of the Dragonball theme song, “Makufushigi Adventure”. The attacks are your standard fuzzy type POW noises. Most of the sound effects serve their purpose & aren’t going to wow you.



I suppose the final mention should go to the minigames. I don’t understand a lot of them, but then again I haven’t fully read the FAQ on Gamefaqs.com. If you get this game & want a good understanding of what’s going on I seriously suggest giving that FAQ a readthrough. Some of the minigames are essential to the storyline, others are there to give you items or power you up. Which does which I don’t know. Some of the games require you to choose a card higher than the one shown on the screen, one of the games is a simple game of “Pairs” where you try to find the 2 of the same cards:



Well I got the first 2 right… Oh well… One of the early on minigames gives you 5 cards & requires you to choose the correct one for Master Roshi. The correct card has a pair of pink panties on it, the wrong ones all have grey panties. If you get it wrong you have to take them back to Roshi, then go back & start again. This can get annoying as it takes a few turns to get from Roshi’s Island to the minigame & then back again, which means random encounters, the possible landing on minigame spots which at this stage you can’t be bothered with. I got the right pair of panties on the 3rd go, but any longer & it would have gotten very frustrating.



Reviewing RPGs is a tricky one. Obviously all of these screens are from very early on in the game, but to get you shots from later on would require hours of gameplay, which I have done on the actual cartridge itself. However I don’t think it’s any secret that these screens are not taken from the actual Wonderswan.

With that out of the way, I have to say that inspite of the language barrier I really enjoyed this game, though it’s not for everyone. If you don’t have a lot of patience then look elsewhere. If you’re a Dragonball fan & think you can handle the problems a non Japanese speaker would have then by all means give it a go. I give this game 78%. I enjoyed it, but I can see why some people wouldn’t.

5:32pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZHAMUyPONEq
(Notes: 9)
  
Filed under: Dragonball Bandai Wonderswan