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    • iJoyPad Demoed on 3GS

    Written By: Matt Dunn
    August 1, 2009

    Oh boy… this is getting me much more excited than it should be…

    We’ve talked about it… ALOT. Obviously having a way to add buttons to an iPhone for gaming would open up a whole new world of use to the device. With the iPhone 3.0 software, there is a USB API that makes this all possible without jailbreaking the phone. There have been several versions of “iControllers” floating around almost since gaming came to the iPhone. Here’s a video of one such device.

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    • Random.

      Thanks God someone is thinking about that since it look like iControlPad is fake.

      It makes me shiver too.

    • Random.

      Oh, he (maker of the video) said iControlPad is “live & kicking, just had some delays” and that we will hesr some news from them “soon”. I hope that soon won’t be like last time (it lasted 1 year).

    • Nathan Mustafa, USA

      This needs to come from Apple. Apple has the means to produce something like this on a large scale, and can easily sell this to a quarter of the people who own an iDevice. By doing so, developers will have incentive to support the use of such an accessory.

    • Nigel Wood, UK

      The video shows both Wipeout and Ridgeracer being played through a PSX emulator on a Jailbroken 3GS. The iJoypod was superceeded by the iControlPad, but still shows how the potential of such a device could benefit gamers. Personally, I feel such a device will never be a success. One, the virtual pads in both Terminator Salvation and Resident Evil 4 prove that a touch based control scheme can work successfully… and two, until Apple support the implementation of such a device with the SDK, I doubt many developers will support it. Still, as a gadget it’s pretty neat.

    • http://www.pyrosmile.org Matt Dunn, USA

      Nigel you downer! :P

    • yesyes

      I think until Apple can integrate that touch feedback patent they filed/were busy with (ie you can ‘feel’ were the touch dpad is), this is a good alternative. Also, it does not clutter the screen with controls, leaving for a better experience. I like the design of iControlPad, and hope these and others will become widely supported by game developers.

    • http://www.pyrosmile.org Matt Dunn, USA

      I like to look on the bright side of things… if someone makes it, and it’s actually a good easy to use product, I don’t see why game developers wouldn’t at least test out making it an option for certain games. To be honest, I doubt any real production would be made of the device without pre-contracted support from enough game developers to make it worth their while.

    • Nathan Mustafa, USA

      That is why I think there needs to be a universal and official Apple gamepad. Of course, that would require Apple to admit that one of their products is lacking in some way. Just getting Copy/paste was a huge victory… so getting Apple to push out a gamepad seems like a sisyphean task.

      This is similar to the Xbox live-like services we see popping up, except the costs associated with this are much higher, and there is a much lower attach rate whereas every person who buys a networked game has access to the service for free. Spending time/money to code in the extra control options and spending any licensing costs associated with the product may be to much to service such a small userbase.

    • Rock $ Rolla

      At least someone had the sense to make a FAKE one

    • Heiko Hartmann

      Well, a looong time ago I owned a Sinclair ZX Spectrum (yes, I know, I’m old :) and this computer didn’t have Joystick Ports. External manufacturers stepped in and provided some hardware to add those ports, together with libraries to utilize them. There where different providers with different libraries plus hardware. And guess what? It worked. More than 50% of the games had support for these devices.

      I think this will even be better on the iPhone/iPod Touch devices because updating your game and providing the updates to the consumers is much easier than back in the 80s. If the Gamepad libraries are free and flexible and if the hardware is good enough, this could be a success.

    • DannyV

      I think an idea like this would be amazing but ONLY if it’s for home use. For example, say that you can have a video out kind of thing where you can connect your iPod Touch/iPhone to a monitor and the controller would connect via bluetooth to that (video out) receiver. So it would be cool because you could still play your games when you’re out on the touch screen and then when you get home, you can play it on the big screen with a controller. If that receiver could also work as a charger while your playing your games at home than it would be FANTASTIC.

    • http://www.silentrocco.com silentrocco

      Wrong direction!
      If I want this, I wouldn’t use an iPhone.
      We are just lazy and used to physical feedback thats all. I think more and more iPhone games are just awesome and very unique in the way you control them, the idevices don’t NEED buttons, thats the whole idea in compare to all the other hardware out there. Now we can stick colourful cases, extra batteries, funny stands and crappy extras to it. Great ;)
      I love my pure device and I love the stuff, people are creating expecially for it! But if you need a box of crappy plastic toys for your kids room. Go for it.
      I still pull our my PHONE and use it as a PSP :)

    • DannyV

      Yeah, I really don’t mind the control scheme used right now at all. Actually I like it quite a bit, makes it different. But I would like the control scheme for home use on a big monitor, since it would be kind of difficult controlling something looking at a small screen and a big screen. :D

    • legend.inc

      FINALLY

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