The iCade, now with 100% more being real!

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

Think Geek's brilliant April Fool's gag of 2010, the iCade iPad bartop type arcade cabinet peripheral like the others gags that have become real before it (Star Wars Tauntaun sleeping bag, canned Unicorn Meat), is now in production and will be released for sale later this year.

Apparently the developers of the hardware have also made an Apple approved joystick API that can be easily implemented in any app, so existing stuff can get updated by the respective developers.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/106770-ThinkGeek-Makes-Joke-a-Reality-with-iPad-Arcade-Peripheral

http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/9/2011/01/340x_vshbi-hsjhq.jpg

http://kotaku.com/5727058/icade-makes-your-ipad-feel-like-a-real-arcade-machine

[zemmix]

So anyone here got one yet?

http://www.thinkgeek.com/images/products/zoom/e762_icade.jpg
http://www.thinkgeek.com/electronics/retro-gaming/e762/

They've been shipping for a little while now. I put in an order for one and it's supposed to ship by the 21st... I'm going to the US for a trip at the end of this month so hopefully it arrives before I leave back to Japan.

Only one app for it so far, the 100 game Atari collection. But the developer of the Commodore and Amiga apps has pledged support and he's even released an open source SDK for the iCade so hopefully more apps will support it in the future.

At worst I just bought a $100 iPad stand that looks killer. I've spent $100 on worse.

[isufje]

No offense, but this is hilarious. Seriously, are these supposed to be substitutes for the real real arcade experience or what???

http://cdn-ak.f.st-hatena.com/images/fotolife/k/kws162/20100410/20100410224143.jpghttp://www.thinkgeek.com/images/products/frontsquare/e762_icade.jpg
http://vicepost.com/wp-content/uploads/ipad%20joystick.jpg

[Guru of Time and Space]

No offense, but this is hilarious. Seriously, are these supposed to be substitutes for the real real arcade experience or what???


Joke response? Rhetorical question?
Is anything ever a substitute for the "real real" experience?

-GoTaS

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

Of course it's not a substitute for a real arcade experience.

But it's a novel approach to gaming on the iPad and it introduces a much complained about absent physical control structure ... that happens to emulate an arcade cabinet.

I'll pick one up once there are more apps supported. I have the full Atari collection and even that needs some more control improvements (and ALL games need to play in vertical mode!) before I'd consider dropping $100 to be able to play that with physical controls.

[StealthLurker]

No offense, but this is hilarious. Seriously, are these supposed to be substitutes for the real real arcade experience or what???



Nope. But I ordered 2 of them. The "ultimate" ipad dock. Plan to keep one at work and one at home.

Now just need the new jailbreak for the iPad2 to hit and iMAME4ALL support to come through then I've got a cool little gadget for the office.


.

[98PaceCar]

Got one for father's day and I have to say, it's one of the coolest useless gadgets I've gotten in a long time. The build quality is great and it works very well. If I had to complain about something, I'd prefer it to hold the iPad a bit more securely but I don't think it's going to move during play.

I think mine is going to have a permanent place on my desk at work. Well worth the $100!

[zemmix]

Got one for father's day and I have to say, it's one of the coolest useless gadgets I've gotten in a long time. The build quality is great and it works very well. If I had to complain about something, I'd prefer it to hold the iPad a bit more securely but I don't think it's going to move during play.

I think mine is going to have a permanent place on my desk at work. Well worth the $100!

Great! Someone has one!

How do you find the response timing of the controls? Is there any lag? I've read somewhere on the net that they noticed a little bit of lag but that might have just been a pre production unit.

[98PaceCar]

Great! Someone has one!

How do you find the response timing of the controls? Is there any lag? I've read somewhere on the net that they noticed a little bit of lag but that might have just been a pre production unit.

So far so good. I haven't noticed any lag yet, but that doesn't mean it's not there. The biggest thing that I've seen is sound issues in the Atari Collection. Seems to be more on the 2600 side of things where certain sounds are off. For example, the extra life sound in Asteroids. Not unlike normal emulation though and certainly nothing off-putting enough to skip buying an iCade.

[StealthLurker]

FYI, the iPad2 jailbreak is finally out and an experimental version of iMAME4ALL with iCade support is out as well. The iCade I have at work running some Cave goodness! The onscreen controls disappear once you use the joystick or push a button on the panel.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v337/jviloria/iCade/icade_1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v337/jviloria/iCade/icade_2.jpg


.

[zemmix]

Wow that looks great. I'll be jailbreaking my iPad2 to give this a go.

Unfortunately my iCade didn't get to me in California before I had to go back to Japan. Original ship date was the 21st but then it got pushed to the 24th and then again to the 27th! It finally arrived 4 hours after I had left for the airport. Don't know when I will get it now.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

FYI, the iPad2 jailbreak is finally out and an experimental version of iMAME4ALL with iCade support is out as well. The iCade I have at work running some Cave goodness! The onscreen controls disappear once you use the joystick or push a button on the panel.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v337/jviloria/iCade/icade_1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v337/jviloria/iCade/icade_2.jpg


.

Thanks for sharing that, sounds pretty awesome, can't wait to try one with a jailbroken iPad.