iCade is No Joke, Just a Lot of Fun

Sometimes a great joke opens up a whole new world of possibilities. Such was the case with the design jolt called the iCade. ThinkGeek ("Stuff for Smart Masses") has been pulling April Fool's Day pranks since 2001. Their jokes include caffeinated meatloaf, the George Foreman USB iGrill, and the Personal Soundtrack T-shirt. Whimsical, entertaining and downright silly concepts.

When ThinkGeek's 2010 pranks included the iCade, the iPad Arcade Cabinet, the public response was astounding. "Too bad it isn't real," the world roared. Techie magazines wrote about it, bloggers blogged about it, designers dreamed about it. Imagine a home arcade machine with old-fashioned authentic games that had already won the hearts of a generation of early gamers.

Hmmm. When the public wants something that badly, there is only one clever marketing thing to do. Give it to them. ThinkGeek began to consider the possibilities and when ION Audio got in touch and suggested that the two companies brainstorm together, it seemed like the ION iCade arcade duet was a winner in the making. One problem that had restricted earlier consideration of creating a real iCade was the issue with the Apple dock connector. It had licensing restrictions. Once the Bluetooth solution was developed, it was an easy decision to move forward with the iCade.

Atari got into the game and decided to allow its series of retro games to be updated to function on the gadget. In a very short period of time (barely nine months) the iCade debuted at the Consumer Electronics Show in January 2011. The miniature arcade held the iPad as the screen and the 1979 Atari classic, Asteroids, was installed as the demo display game. On June 27, 2011, the functioning iCade went on sale to the public with the Atari app adding the perfect set of great old games.

The iCade arcade cabinet looks like a real, albeit miniature, gaming machine complete with a 8-way ball-top arcade stick (joystick controller as it used to be known) and eight big red buttons. Even though the iPad 2 is now the state of the art in the tablet field, the original Apple iPad took on new meaning with the iCade cabinet. Atari's Greatest Hits has expanded the available games way beyond Asteroids. While not all iPad games are created equal, the Atari reintroduction of their beloved classics has really hit the public's fancy. You can access 100 of the classic Atari games as well as 2600 other Atari titles.

There have been a couple of criticisms but they are minor such as the inability to use the iPad's landscape feature because it fits into the dock in portrait mode and the inability to play the Atari games outside of the app. The peculiar thing is that it is possible to slide the iPad into the cabinet horizontally too so why the non-landscape issue was deemed worthy of a complaint is puzzling. One other comment that has been heard is that the arcade buttons are not indented as they were in the days of real arcade games but this may be asking too much from any retro gaming device.

The iCade is battery-powered (2 AA batteries) as well as AC-adapter powered. You can also plug in an iPad docking cable to charge it even while you are playing away. At just under $100, this is a delightful toy. Whether you were an early fan of the Atari or are young enough to wonder what on earth it is, the classic games are still enchanting to many players. There is even the possibility that you remember the good old days when video arcades were in their heyday. If so, you are in for a real treat with this desktop sized game that brings back the days of retro arcade games.

Imitation is considered to be the truest form of flattery and there are already spin offs in terms of arcade apps that can also be used on the iPad and the iPad 2.   But iCade is still the best!