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Apple Games

iCade, an Arcade Cabinet Docking Bay For Your iPad 55

Posted by CmdrTaco from the i'd-buy-one dept.
schmidt349 writes "ThinkGeek has announced a cool new accessory for that iPad you're too ashamed to be seen buying in the Apple Store. iCade is an arcade cabinet/dock that lets you play all your favorite vintage arcade games at your desk, on the airplane, or in the bathroom with an authentic look and feel. Games are still being licensed, but iCade's launch titles include Dig Dug, Donkey Kong, Q-Bert, and everyone's favorite, Super Steve Brothers. Quarters, thick veil of cigarette smoke, and annoying eight-year-olds are not included."
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iCade, an Arcade Cabinet Docking Bay For Your iPad More

iCade, an Arcade Cabinet Docking Bay For Your iPad

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  • I've always wanted to try this.....

  • I really want one.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Hatta ( 162192 )

      Nice idea, but you can run MAME on pretty much anything. Putting together a mini-MAME cabinet would run you less than the iPad to begin with.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by 4phun ( 822581 )

        Nice idea, but you can run MAME on pretty much anything. Putting together a mini-MAME cabinet would run you less than the iPad to begin with.

        Clever idea

        Why hasn't anyone ever done it?

      • Putting together a mini-MAME cabinet would run you less than the iPad to begin with.

        It's not like you'd have to glue it in place. You could still use it for other things.

    • Actually, it shouldn't be too hard to build something like that thing for real.

      I would bet that someone at arcadecontrols.com is going to start drawing up plans for a cabinet like that. Building it around a mini-ITX board and a small LCD (One of Dell's doublesight displays seems about right, though you could probably find something cheaper) or maybe a netbook would probably work nicely and give more flexibility than an ipad, though you'd probably want to enlarge it a bit to add more buttons so you can use

  • OK so it suffers from the tinsy problem of being fictional, but that would be cool if made. Thinking about it, perhaps there really is a market for something like that made from a Mini-ITX board? Cheers, Ian
    • If you look at the bottom of the iCade page for suggestions, you will find things like a knife that makes noises depending on what you cut, canned unicorn meat, a secrets bear that lets you spy on kids, and my personal favorite, the Tribbles'n'Bits breakfast cereal [thinkgeek.com]. It has to be the ultimate Geek breakfast. Unfortunately, under availability it shows that it is only available on Sherman's Planet.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by rtobyr ( 846578 )
      It's too bad this isn't real. It could be done relatively easily, and people would buy it. I don't imagine that Apple would want MAME on their App Store, though. You'd have to do it for jailbroken iPads.

  • Brilliant! (Score:4, Interesting)

    by whisper_jeff ( 680366 ) on Thursday April 01, 2010 @11:39AM (#31700706)
    I know I'll (rightly) be labeled an Apple fanboi for this but THAT IS FUCKING BRILLIANT!!

    That is easily one of the coolest damn accessories I've seen for a computer device! Gawd damn, the 10 year old geek that hung around arcades who still lives in me is jumping up and down with glee over that while the Apple fanboi in me is saying "yeah. I know. I want to get it already. Calm the hell down kid!"

    Too! Fucking! Cool!

  • I would so buy that...hell I'd buy an ipad just to get one of those.

    • I know. I was so hoping it was real as Slashdot didn't tag it as AprilFools. This is a pretty cool idea, but I am pretty sure a charging station / gamepad for the iPad could probably be made for less than $150. Shoot, could probably license a few dozen games and still get the device in for around $50.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Yvan256 ( 722131 )

        You never built an arcade cabinet, have you. The parts alone would probably be around 50$ minimum, even in volume. The sides are CNC'ed laminated particle boards, the edges need T-molding, the joystick and buttons have to be arcade-grade, etc.

        Yes there is a market for that, but even ThinkGeek couldn't expect to sell 100K or even 10K of these, so also think about that when you think about volume pricing.

    • Re:Damnit April Fools Day I Hate You (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Rary ( 566291 ) on Thursday April 01, 2010 @01:01PM (#31701280)

      I would so buy that.

      So tell them [thinkgeek.com]. If enough people want it, they'll make it [thinkgeek.com].

      • ... And whoever at Apple looks at the submission "iCade MAME Emulation App" will laugh maniacally as they hit the giant red DENIED button.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by dissy ( 172727 )

          ... And whoever at Apple looks at the submission "iCade MAME Emulation App" will laugh maniacally as they hit the giant red DENIED button.

          Actually, MAME has already been ported to the iPod/iPhone, and runs fully.
          My fully, I mean it has no emulation issues that the full version doesn't also have, not that it is actually fast enough to be playable.

          At least on my 3G iPhone it is too slow to actually play.
          However it is fast enough to show that it works. In Golden Axe I was getting almost 1 frame a second, but

          • Actually what? I said Apple would deny this app on sight. Jailbreaking your iPhone and installing MAME is completely unrelated and something the average user would probably not do. Not to mention that making a peripheral intended for jailbroken phones is a good way to incite Apple's wrath, just look at the iControlPad battle brewing.
    • That was my thought, had to hit the order to confirm it was fake. It's like the ton ton sleeping bag, it's actually a pretty cool idea. Was actually enough to get me to consider an ipad thing. Now, would need a few more titles working for the cabinet, but it is a really cool idea.
  • There are development board that come with a ipod connector. http://hackaday.com/2010/03/29/microchips-pic-development-for-iphone-and-ipod/ [hackaday.com] Combine with some buttons and wood and it doesn't look like it would be that hard of a project.

  • Not user friendly (Score:4, Interesting)

    by cmiller173 ( 641510 ) on Thursday April 01, 2010 @11:56AM (#31700830)
    Ignoring the obvious April fools' part of this, I think the screen would need to be angled back a bit for for usability sake.

  • Heck, I'd buy Mame for the iPad.

  • I don't want the iPad or cabinet, I just want the game.

  • ...but I'm actually kinda disappointed this is just an April Fools gag. I really think this is a pretty neat idea (despite questionable licensing issues).

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by CrackerJackz ( 152930 )

      Its always a little sad to me that in this day and age, a neat idea can't happen not because of a technical reason, but because of a licensing / legal problem.

  • Look, I KNOW it's a ThinkGeek April Fool's joke, and I'm still not really that thrilled over the iPad and probably won't wind up getting one.

    But really, that DOES look like it'd be pretty awesome. And technically feasible.

  • Sinistar (Score:3, Funny)

    by Princeofcups ( 150855 ) <john@princeofcups.com> on Thursday April 01, 2010 @12:33PM (#31701084) Homepage

    Hate to bitch, but unless it has a 49 position joystick for Sinistar, I'm not interested.

  • I would buy their tribbles 'n' bits cereal, and I'd give serious thought to the moodINQ (other jokes on the website. Scroll down on the iCade page to see the others).

  • I'm assuming this will go the way of the Tauntaun Sleeping Bag, along with the Dharma Initiative Alarm Clock and the Monolith Action Figure.

  • before going into production. The screen looks awfully vertical, making it hard to see when it's down at your hands on the tabletop. A little angle on the screen would be nice.

    The controls look like it covers up the bottom part of the screen, making you miss a lot of the action.

    Maybe after they rework this a bit from the april fools prototype, it might turn out to be a great idea.

  • it is really a very clever decision http://www.squidoo.com/womensera [squidoo.com]

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