Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, Odds and ends, Mods, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch
Video: Working iControlPad adds buttons to the iPod touch
It's pretty wild to have seen the iControlPad go from idea to concept to production, and here's the final step straight from Engadget: video of the device working just as planned. ZodTTD is playing quake4iphone on it, and while the naysayers will probably still have some nays to say, I'm convinced. If Apple is as serious as it seems about turning the iPhone and the iPod touch into serious gaming devices, it would be worth selling something like this as an official accessory. It's fine and good to say that the multitouch screen works even for traditional controls, but so far, we haven't seen a developer that's been able to put "buttons" on the screen and still be able to make worthwhile use of screen space.
As Engadget says, there's still no price or release date on the iControlPad, and given that it's working on jailbroken games right now, there's no sign yet that we'll have any official App Store support. But it's an idea for which the time, in my humble opinion, has come.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Steve said 7:09PM on 1-19-2009
Isn't that a first generation iPhone? Not an iPod Touch like the title says?
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Dr. Spaceman said 7:36PM on 1-19-2009
Yes, but who cares?
Steve said 7:39PM on 1-19-2009
I don't really care. I just think it's kinda funny that TUAW makes mistakes like that. :-)
Westy | P H O T O N O M Y said 7:12PM on 1-19-2009
this is cool.. but its not quite teh greatest hard core gaming console me feels..
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Stephen.4 said 7:22PM on 1-19-2009
The iPod touch with the phone speaker at the top... It must be a mod?
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Dr. Spaceman said 7:37PM on 1-19-2009
It's an original iPhone.
Stephen.4 said 7:47PM on 1-19-2009
I know, it was just a joke :).
Christian A. Stroemmen said 7:39PM on 1-19-2009
Is it just me or does it seem to really lag? It seems he presses right(/left/up/down) and then it takes a while before the game registers it.
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Andrew said 8:01PM on 1-19-2009
I hope apple is serious about making iphones into worthy game devices, and I hope this catches on and allows more console like games on the devices.
although I can see lots of complaints from people who buy a game and then realize the only good way to play it is with a $30 (guessing on price) accessory.
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Spoon Tangy said 11:11PM on 1-19-2009
What game develop is going to support it anyway?
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jthollister said 6:24AM on 1-20-2009
Well, IF this actually gets produced, and IF it is allowed to work with legit App Store apps, then I will still wonder... WHY? The iPhone Touch Screen and Accelerometer add up to a far superior user experience than the old gameboy style. Why would we want to move backwards?
Certainly the game would have to be a little better integrated than what was demoed here. It looked incredibly unintuitive and difficult to move around. I can imaging making it a lot better if you could look around by using the touch screen, and move/strafe with the D-pad.
So, maybe if you got some smart coders you could do some cool stuff with this, but there are a lot of big IFs involved, so I'm not really ready to get very excited about it at this point.
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mex said 4:05PM on 1-20-2009
Totally agree! It's usefull like an usb floppy drive for macbook air!
collide007 said 5:37PM on 1-22-2009
Reminds me of those biological controllers on the film 'Existenz'.
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