ThinkGeek Makes Joke a Reality with iPad Arcade Peripheral

[Greg Tito]

ThinkGeek Makes Joke a Reality with iPad Arcade Peripheral

At this point, we should just assume that every April Fool's joke from ThinkGeek is coming true.

Last year, nerd consumer products website ThinkGeek ran a facetious listing on April 1st for an iPad peripheral that approximated an old arcade cabinet. The iCade worked by sliding your iPad into a slot that connected with Apple's proprietary connector to provide a joystick and buttons on par with a Donkey Kong. Well, following in the footsteps of the The iCade is in production now [http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/plush/bb2e/] and ThinkGeek says it will be available Spring 2011.

Teaming up with Atari was a genius move, as they can supply many of the games that exemplified the arcade era. Right now, the game shown is Asteroids but ThinkGeek promises that it will release the API so that other developers can write games that can be used with the iCade.

I myself don't own an Apple product, and probably never will succumb to the temptations of that cult, but the iCade seems like it makes sense.

What do you think, iPad owners? Would you buy a $100 peripheral to play arcade games on your desk?

Source: Thinkgeek [http://www.thinkgeek.com/electronics/retro-gaming/e762/]

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[Snotnarok]

Too bad they don't just sell a small arcade emulation device, that'd be REALLY awesome. X-arcade, but for your desk.

 

[rembrandtqeinstein]

Dammit why can't I have money so I can enjoy cool stuff like this!

 

[Ironic Pirate]

ThinkGeek is officially fucking awesome.

It's also very easy to waste hours reading those testimonial type things on their website. Like TvTropes, almost.

 

[Egitor]

Oh cow, I wish I could hook one up to my iPhone ^^

 

[Nerf Ninja]

I do have an iPad and sometime around spring 2011 I will also have an iCade, it's that simple.

 

[coldfrog]

Erm... I would possibly buy an iPad to buy that thing to play old arcade games on my desk... Holy hell... I just would hope they sell the games for like a dollar, because that'll run me about 400 dollars to play Galaga. Never mind that I already own three copies of it already. Damn, I hope they make Galaga for it.

 

[Danpascooch]

I want to love ThinkGeek SO much, but everything I buy from them either breaks within a day, or was shown on the site using tricks to make it look higher quality (I once bought a gadget that had no fucking back, the microchip was exposed)

 

[chif-ii]

Proof that buttons will never completely fade. Viva le Arcade!

 

[New Troll]

iCade just might be that reason to break down and buy an iPad.

 

[runedeadthA]

iCade just might be that reason to break down and buy an iPad.

Don't do it! Don't give into apples devious clutches!

OT; I seem to keep reading iCade as eye-ca-d as opposed to eye-cay-d. Hehe, Cad.

 

[AngryFrenchCanadian]

I suppose Think Geek is using the 1st of April to see consumer interest in possible future products they could make.

 

[Something Amyss]

LOL. That's stupid, but amazing at the same time.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

thats pretty cool, kudos for sure to that, but i cannot, and will not, buy that overpriced notebook, it is entirely useless to me in this day and age, especially when i have a laptop that can do even better than it and its also on the go like that is.

(yes i have an itouch, but due to itunes user friendliness and getting a brand new itouch for 150 off of a friend, i couldn't refuse)

 

[2xDouble]

This has officially topped my list of "the most useless, most awesome peripheral" for the iPad.

 

[Vzzdak]

I myself don't own an Apple product, and probably never will succumb to the temptations of that cult, but the iCade seems like it makes sense.

Do what you want. Just remember that such cult references are part of Microsoft's long fingers of [a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear,_uncertainty_and_doubt"]FUD[/a].

Having classic hardware controls for classic games is fantastic. I haven't fiddled with old emulators for a while, though at the time I was fortunate to have a kind of flight control joystick with a variety of buttons that came in handy. In particular, I was able to play Discs of Tron (highly recommended game, though tricky for people).

 

[Gildan Bladeborn]

Ha ha ha, that is super awesome - excuse me while I go loudly exclaim to potentially disinterested family members this hilarious development.