Overview
The Bandai Playdia was a video game console that was released in Japan on October 23, 1994 for approximately ¥24,800 or $295. The console was never released outside of Japan. The Playdia mainly offered games and media for children and younger teens, the software titles on the system mostly composed multimedia educational and entertainment titles.
Under development at Bandai in the early nineties, the system was code-named the BA-X. The system was an early CD-based system and was a Japanese counterpart to some of its other fellow early nineties multimedia focused game machines, such as the Philips CD-I and the Panasonic 3DO. The platform was also one of the first systems to include an early wireless controller, though the controller was infra-red based, unlike modern radio frequency wireless technology.
The Playdia system’s game software was mainly composed of educational and multimedia titles, many based on Bandai intellectual properties such as Sailor Moon, Mobile Suit Gundam and Dragon Ball. Some of these properties were used simply as anime based quiz games for the console. Bandai itself was the only company to support the platform with game software.
Internal Details
- Sanyo Lc89515 - CD-ROM Host Interface
- Toshiba TA2035F - CD Focus tracking server
- Toshiba tc9263f - CD Single Chip processor
- Rohm 6398FP - 4 Channel BTL Driver for CD Player motor
- Toshiba TMP87C800F - 8 Bit Microcontroller (8K ROM, 16K RAM) - 8 MHz Operation, can access 64K (TLCS-870 series which is based heavily on the Z80)
- Sharp LH52B256 - 256K (32K x 8) Static RAM chip
- NEC μPD78214GC - 8 Bit Microcontroller (16K ROM, 512 byte RAM) - 12 MHz Operation, can access 1MB (NEC 78K series)
- Toshiba TC514256JAJ - 256K Word x 4 Fast Page DRAM Chip
- Asahi Kasei AK8000 - Audio / Video processor
- Philips DA8772AH - Triple 8Bit DAC converter
- Sony CX1229M - NTSC/PAL Decoder
- Rohm BA10324AF - Quad Op Amp
- Sanyo LC78835K - 18BIT DAC with filter
- Rohm BU3052BCF - Dual 4 Channel Analogue Multiplexer
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