ION are expanding the iCade into a complete family of controller products with the introduction of the iCade Jr, Mobile and Core…
The iCade was originally meant as an April fool prank on ThinkGeek.com, but demand for a product such as this, that converted your iPad into a miniature arcade cabinet, was too high to ignore, and the real iCade from ION was born. We reviewed the unit back in June last year and were impressed with its genuine arcade feel. At the time only Atari’s Greatest Hits was available for the device, but since then it has become the iPad controller of choice for many developers. The growing list of supported games now includes Mos Speedrun, Muffin Knight (our personal favourite iCade title), Velocispider and Super MEGA Worm (see our iPad magazine for a special feature). More recently iMAME was released which fully supported the iCade, and opened up literally thousands of classic arcade games, from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to Metal Slug. Unfortunately it was only a matter of time, and iMAME has been pulled from the AppStore.
Thanks to the success of the iCade arcade cabinet, ION has unveiled three new products at CES this week.
The first of these is iCade Core (picture centre). It offers up the same footprint as the original, but without the full cabinet surround. It’s essentially the same main base unit stripped back. Echoing that of an arcade stick peripheral you find on Xbox and PS3. We are assuming that this option is for those wanted to spend less but for the same experience.
iCade Mobile is the second addition (pictured left). This option is for iPhone and iPod Touch and adds four face buttons and a multidirectional D-pad, as well as two shoulder buttons (giving the same six buttons as iCade for maximum game support). Your iPhone of iPod Touch fits snuggly into a moulded rubber enclosure which is rounded at each end allowing it to swivel into portrait or landscape orientation without the need to move the controls. It’s a cool idea, but looks a little clunky compared to other options out there such as the iControlPad. Expect to pay around $80 for this in the spring.
Last up is the iCade Jr. (pictured right). This one looks more like a gimmick than the others, and is a miniature version of the original iCade but for iPhone and iPod Touch. It’s certainly a great little collectors item, or retro dock, but I doubt it would be comfortable to use over long periods of time. Around $50 is expected for this pice of desktop gaming gadgetry.
There seems to be more and more interest in controller options if iDevices gaming, will we eventually see Apple throw in the towel and create their own? I doubt it, and to be honest I kinda like seeing what other weird and wonderful accessories are on the horizon.
Source: Engadget
