On April 1, 2026, Apple turns 50. And while most celebrations will focus on the iPhone and Mac, there’s one chapter that’s hard to ignore: gaming. Not today’s polished, AAA-on-your-phone moment, but a far messier experiment from 30 years ago.
Seongjin Park / UnsplashBack in 1996, Apple wasn’t the giant it is now. Instead, it was struggling, experimenting, and occasionally missing the mark. Enter the Pippin. A console so badly misjudged that it became a lesson in how not to do gaming. And yet, in 2026, it feels less like a mistake and more like an idea that simply showed up too early.
Remembering the Pippin
You see, the Apple Pippin wasn’t just a failed console. It was a snapshot of a very different Apple, one that didn’t quite know what it wanted to be. Launched in partnership with Bandai as the “Pippin
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