iPad arcade cabinet brings April Fools' joke to life (video)

Nope, this isn't the first iPad mod you'll have seen, but it's likely to be the biggest crowd pleaser yet. Inspired by the iCade cabinet -- an April Fools' joke that had most of us asking where we could buy one -- this really real arcade cabinet integrates Apple's slate, hooks it up to a set of old school controls, and lets users go to town with such old timer classics as Mr. Do! It's still in prototype form, hence the boxy exterior, but the action on screen is looking as good as you'd expect. See it on video after the break.

[trauph Posted Jun 28th 2010 7:44AM]

Nice!

[fowenati Posted Jun 28th 2010 7:56AM]

OOhhhhhh Shinnyyyy!!!!!!!!

[Linkreincarnate Posted Jun 29th 2010 2:07PM]

@trauph
Though I have to give props to these guys I prefer more buttons. I also wanted it to be an easy build. Thus I give you the humble beginnings of my DIY iPad arcade. http://www.linkreincarnate.com/2010/06/ipad-arcade.html.

[Baconbits Posted Jun 28th 2010 7:54AM]

(-_-).oO(..zZzZz...(

[Baconbits Posted Jun 28th 2010 7:54AM]

@Baconbits

It cut out my little dreaming of pacman emoticon :(

[fowenati Posted Jun 28th 2010 7:55AM]

ooohhhh shhhinnyyy

[Killing Time Posted Jun 28th 2010 7:56AM]

@Baconbits
you didn't close his dream bubble properly, now whatever i say will be in his mind.

[Professor Hubert J Farnsworth Posted Jun 28th 2010 10:49AM]

@Killing Time
You want to buy a Kin; you want to buy a Kin; you want to buy a Kin.)

Well at least there's one possible customer now.

[Dan L Motif Posted Jun 28th 2010 8:00AM]

Too bad you have to jailbreak it to emulate anything on it.

[Ducman69 Posted Jun 28th 2010 8:01AM]

"Nope, this isn't the first iPad mod you'll have seen..."

but its the last? *crosses fingers*

[MichaelJJackson Posted Jun 28th 2010 8:13AM]

@Ducman69 What's your problem

[Ducman69 Posted Jun 28th 2010 8:26AM]

@MichaelJJackson

I was criticized for dangling a baby off a balcony, being 'home alone' w/ Macaulay Culkin, and then died of a drug overdose. What about you?

[AquaGuy Posted Jun 28th 2010 10:20AM]

@Ducman69 roflmao :P

[Lukaz89 Posted Jun 28th 2010 10:49AM]

@Ducman69 you're disgusting

[MichaelJJackson Posted Jun 28th 2010 11:43AM]

@Ducman69 Your so busy critising others but have you ever looked at yourself.

[sophocha Posted Jun 28th 2010 8:27AM]

Genius!.....the only useful thing on Ipad....

[pintonion Posted Jun 28th 2010 9:12AM]

They gotta find a use for those things. They're not that useful to begin with.

Ah, why bother. No one is going to see this comment anyway.

[patches66 Posted Jun 28th 2010 12:34PM]

@pintonion
your self-deprecation was well-worth the extra click. a futile +1.

[sweetelectro Posted Jun 28th 2010 1:41PM]

@pintonion Read your comment on my iPad, and for the few seconds I read my ipad was useless.

[Curious D Posted Jun 28th 2010 10:35AM]

Since Mr. Do isn't available commercially, I'm wondering what program they are using to emulate Mr. Do so well. Mame4iphone doesn't seem to emulate this game really well and is based on a 320x240 resolution which cuts off the top and bottom a little. It is a great program, but does not seem to work as well as what's being demonstrated here. Anyone know?

[patches66 Posted Jun 28th 2010 12:40PM]

@Curious D
perhaps they're not using an ipad at all. i'm no expert, but the power switch (or whatever is it) on the lower-left corner jumps around a lot, and out-of-sync with the game screen.

[Curious D Posted Jun 28th 2010 10:29PM]

@patches66

I emailed the developer and he told me to standby over the next few weeks on the Twitter account. It would be cool if he had developed another version of MAME for the iPhone that will match the screen resolution for the iPhone. Mame4iPhone is good, but there are some quirks to it.

[Enduro Posted Jun 28th 2010 11:49AM]

I'd be more apt to get an iPhone if this was on the market (and it had a camera).

[rwalrond Posted Jun 28th 2010 12:01PM]

Funny thing is, you could probably get a more capable arcade machine, if you used one of these Windows 7 based slates coming out. Throw Mame32 on there and really go old school. How about some Halo! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99MDcnDXwi4

[Freekade Posted Jun 29th 2010 3:47PM]

Hi, Thanks for the comments and I also wanted to thank Vlad and engadget for running this. Just to reply to some comments.

@rwalrond spot on apple hardware in any form is not the greatest for mame or any emulation for that matter at the mo but its getting there check out http://jrowlinson.co.uk/page4/page4.html not a slate but still neat IMO.

@patches66 sure is an ipad you can thank my partners poor camera skills that and the fact I'm such an apple fan she was using my iphone to film so that does not help

@Curious D thanks for getting in contact and more info will be going out via @freekade on twitter I can tell you now that I am no software developer so thats not down to me this is a hardware solution. I am also waiting for a fresh stream of emulators for ipad.

Again thanks guys and I will have an update soon.

[Maximina Posted Jun 28th 2010 2:28PM]

The iCade baffles me, because they are advertising it in their magazines... Seems a bit far to go for an old April fools day joke. When I saw it in the magazine I assumed they'd already decided to produce the units... Alas, no.