This is the iPhone Game Pad from Melbourne industrial designers CP Designs. It slips over your iPhone, turning it into a proper gaming device, without all that touchscreen nonsense.
Currently only a working prototype, the Game Pad will hopefully – one day – be available for commercial purchase. Fingers crossed… as opposed to the cross fingers you normally get from iPhone gaming.
iPhone Game Pad [CP Designs, thanks Josh for the tip!]
Bookiegnu
Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 4:05 PMIf only there were some kind of device you could hold in your hand with buttons built in that you could somehow play games on…
Jk. That’s awesome.
Naytan
Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 5:27 PM“Jk”, but no seriously that’s pretty funny that they’re adding something that was removed for the reason of technological advancement (buttons).
Foxbane
Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 7:24 PMJust because something is seen as the way of the future doesn’t mean that its any good or that it works. Or something may be better then the current but gets ditched aka the Concord
Doug Sherry
Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 10:00 PMI think that was more of a maintenance issue with the Concorde
Naytan
Wednesday, August 4, 2010 at 2:04 PMOf course, you’re 100% correct, I don’t use touch screen mobile phones because I like having buttons.
But it’s still ironic.
lecks
Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 4:10 PMoooh, now if only it had some sort of cartridge or disk drive it woul- i’m sorry i cant complete that with a straight face.
dawdle
Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 4:48 PMI don’t think the case hiding the actual buttons of the phone is a good idea.
And now it’s iPhone 4 already, hello?
Shouldn’t this prototype have moved on already?
Woopstreet
Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 5:08 PMWhen I saw what game it was he was playing, I started begging for him to perform:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGjkN9t0dvw
Nonetheless! That is an awesome bit of kit, and I would definitely pay good money for the privilege!
Jeremy
Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 5:15 PMYeah I think we take those ideas and maybe add another screen on top of the touch screen… :P
Nicholas Corcoran
Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 5:44 PMi told someone about this and said to them why don’t you just get a psp and they said because i pod touches can play music aswell… they fail.
Steve M
Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 7:41 PMWhile the answer you got was stupid, your question wasn’t too great either. A question like “Why not just get a PSP?” is missing the point of a product like this entirely. This, if sold, would probably be a $50 add-on, marketed for people who already have an iPhone or iPod Touch – and that’s a lot of people – not as something to replace a more dedicated gaming device.
Personally, I don’t see the point. Touch controls are just fine when the developer takes a bit of care. I’m much more interested in the prospect of playing Donkey Kong Country on my iPhone…
Matthew Buckner
Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 9:37 PMHmm, already playing Donkey Kong Country on my Android….
Mitchell
Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 5:50 PMAnd if your iPhone 4 experiences signal loss, just blow in the cartridge for 2 minutes.
Grim
Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 8:21 PMI take it this requires jailbreaking to use, unless Nintendo have started releasing their games emulated on an Apple platform. Now that’d be something to see!
Matthew Buckner
Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 9:40 PMYes you would need to jailbreak as Apple would not allow the emulator to be published on the app store.
However, if you buy an Android capable phone (Like the excellent HTC Desire I purchased recently) you can play all the NES, SNES, GBA, Genesis and (some) PSX roms your heart desires – without modding your phone!
G4me Lov3r
Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 11:28 PMIphone 4 is already jailbroken!
But yea, I am thankful that David understood how buttons are still necessary for gaming. Touch screen (well iphone/ipad anyway) is not responsive enough for most games.
Philip Mayes
Wednesday, August 4, 2010 at 10:28 AMThis is only true if you try and take a game from another platform (with buttons) and try and shoe-horn it onto the iPhone. The games that I play most are ones designed with the iPhone’s interface in mind and they play awesomely, no buttons required.
G4me Lov3r
Wednesday, August 4, 2010 at 8:18 PMThat’s true. But not only games that require fast reaction/input, even games that is slow but require buttons are not good on iphone either. FF 1 & 2, Monkey Island, Myst.
But I don’t think there will ever be a game which will work well with iphone unless if it’s puzzle. It’s the only game which won’t break immersion, no need of quick reaction, no annoying on-screen GUI, and still fun.
clocks
Wednesday, August 4, 2010 at 5:52 AMI dig the shit out of this.
Happydude
Wednesday, August 4, 2010 at 6:48 PMiPhone 2G *vomits*
Steven Bogos
Wednesday, August 4, 2010 at 9:17 PMThis is very interesting. One of the greatest flaws I had with the iPhone, and one of the reasons i never succumbed to the hype and bought one (despite being cheap) is the lack of buttons. Touch screens are great, and i love my DS’s bottom screen, but when you’re playing a game, a serious game, you NEED BUTTONS.
I’d love to get my hands on this and try it out, although it seems like a bit of a gimmick. I’ve never been a fan of having to buy a peripheral to play a game, especially on a cell phone. It means I’d have to lug this thing around with me wherever i take my iPhone.