iPad occupies new quarters in iCade arcade cabinet

by Randy Nelson on Jan 10th 2011 5:30PM

Know what your desk, coffee table or car dashboard needs? The iCade. That is if you have an iPad and want a (very) small arcade cabinet to stick it in. Built by ION for internet nerd wares vendor ThinkGeek, the iCade features a special iPad cradle designed to not scuff your precious tablet, along with a ball-top joystick and eight concave buttons.

If you have the money, space and understanding loved ones to spare, you can pre-order the iCade for $99 from ThinkGeek. Shipments begin this spring and include the iCade app, a front-end for (initially) a handful of Atari classics, such as Asteroids, with the promise of more to come. The iCade API is also being provided to iOS devs free of charge, so here's hoping the likes of Cave release updates to make their games compatible with this inspired add-on.

Source: ION

Tags: accessories, apple, arcade, iarcade, ion, mobile, peripherals, retro, thinkgeek

Reader Comments (16)

That's...actually quite brilliant.

Didn't this begin as an April Fools prank? Glad to see they're actually making it.

@CBA25 I think it did. Though it really is an awesome device. Maybe it's a very drawn out april fools prank... i.e. Shipments in "Spring"--April Fools!

@CBA25 Yup. It was, as far as I know, a thinkgeek April fools gag that was so well responded to that they actually made it.

.Well.. I now want an iPad.

iPad here I come.

No fake buttons on glass, that feels worse then nails on a chalkboard?
My interest is piqued!

You could build a fully functional PC into a cabinet this size for less than the cost of the ipad + icade. People have been doing it for years. Not magical enough I guess.