CP Design's iPhone Game Pad prototype does Donkey Kong Country right (video)

With the iControlPad seemingly slipping further and further from reality, iPhone gamers with an affinity for buttons have fewer reasons to get out of bed in the morning and face the world. If that's you then it's time to wake up, Sunshine, because the iPhone Game Pad is here to bring a little light to your life. It's a somewhat chubby slip-on case that, as of now, works only with the original model iPhone. (There's a 3G/3GS model to come.) On the face it offers four primary control buttons plus a D-pad, what appears to be Select and Start buttons, plus a pair of shoulder buttons atop. This combination should make it perfect for emulation hounds or any 'ol heathen who values tactility over design purity. As of now it's just a prototype, but if you have the resources to bring this thing to production the folks at CP Design who crafted it would surely love to hear from you.

[Gitthew Posted Jul 26th 2010 9:03AM]

Lame

[Almo Posted Jul 26th 2010 9:07AM]

@Gitthew

Yes, you are indeed.

[BigJayDogg3 Posted Jul 26th 2010 9:09AM]

@Almo

That was the fastest downranking I've ever seen.

Sorry about the double post down below.

[James Sonne Posted Jul 26th 2010 10:06AM]

So why not just get a Nintendo DS with two screens at that point?

I'm not the demographic, though. The most exciting games I play on my iPhone are solitaire and su doku.

[ravinshrestha Posted Jul 26th 2010 11:20AM]

@BigJayDogg3 That's what she said!

[swanupthehwan Posted Jul 26th 2010 11:40AM]

@Gitthew the new iNintendo cannot be lame.

[Firehazel Posted Jul 26th 2010 12:33PM]

@Gitthew I'm sorry you feel that way. I totally thought it was a new console with the case on...

[dhenniga Posted Jul 26th 2010 1:04PM]

@Almo

It seems most people like this device here. Personally, I'm with the fact that it's absolutely awful looking, the d-pad and the buttons are clearly too high on the device and it looks like it would be impossible to hold one button whilst pressing another (something that is essential in Donkey Kong Country and lots of other SNES games). I think "Lame" summed it up quite nicely.

[Extinction Posted Jul 26th 2010 4:49PM]

@Gitthew Really? I thought it looked awesome. I'd buy one, it'd almost make my iphone into an actual gaming machine. Throw in a few extras like have it convert that stupid dock connector into a proper USB port and I'm sold.

[uckApple Posted Jul 26th 2010 5:38PM]

@Gitthew

Lose a few pounds, add 2 analog sticks, make it shiny and attractive and it will be a sure hit.

I hope Apple `reinvents` this because I am dying for a gamepad for the ipod touch / iphone.

[flett Posted Jul 26th 2010 8:27PM]

@Almo GOOD ONE!!


/s

[CodyTech Posted Jul 26th 2010 9:04AM]

Now THATS something I'd jailbreak for (I assume the Nintendo ROMs won't be on the app store :)

Cody

[BigJayDogg3 Posted Jul 26th 2010 9:06AM]

@CodyTech

I'm already jailbroken, but I'd buy one of these if it either hit amazon or a store near me.

I'm assuming it uses Bluetooth?

[BigJayDogg3 Posted Jul 26th 2010 9:08AM]

@CodyTech

I'm already jailbroken, but I'd buy one of these if it either hit amazon or a store near me.

I'm assuming it uses Bluetooth?

[BrandonHarris Posted Jul 26th 2010 9:38AM]

@CodyTech

i can has?

[AdhesiveWombat Posted Jul 26th 2010 10:57AM]

@CodyTech
I've been waiting for an add-on like this for years

[Gavin M Posted Jul 26th 2010 9:06AM]

Seems there's some lag

[Puggs Posted Jul 26th 2010 9:28AM]

@Gavin M
Looks like it is also the first gen iPhone. Maybe it works better on a newer version. I think this is a great solution and would make the iPhone a much better contender for a real portable gaming device in my opinion.

[koehler83 Posted Jul 26th 2010 9:30AM]

@Gavin M Hard to say whether it's the controller or the emulator.

[BrandonHarris Posted Jul 26th 2010 12:38PM]

@koehler83

It's not lag, it's just 1984

[BallastatuzX Posted Jul 26th 2010 3:43PM]

@Gavin M well that is a jailbroken iphone 2g

[Almo Posted Jul 26th 2010 9:06AM]

I quite like this! Hopefully more games will support it!!

[Firewave Posted Jul 26th 2010 9:11AM]

@Almo

Yeah, this is gunna fail if Apple/developers dont support it. I hope they do. It would be awesome.

[Almo Posted Jul 26th 2010 9:15AM]

@Firewave

If they produce an iPhone 4 version for about $20 and it goes mainstream with some clever marketing giving devs units for free, I'm sure plenty of app developers would love to support it in their games as an added bonus. I can think of many many appstore games that would be awesome with this simple yet genius addon.

[osiris2600 Posted Jul 26th 2010 11:02AM]

@Almo Keep dreaming.. If you want decent quality hardware your going to be looking at 40-50 bucks easy. Which I think is reasonable.

There is essentially no profit at $20.

[Firewave Posted Jul 26th 2010 11:20AM]

@Almo

Really, Id be happy if Steve Jobs allowed the the volume buttons to be used as trigger/grenade buttons.

[newtonpoole Posted Jul 26th 2010 12:18PM]

@Firewave
Just been chatting with someone from MFI at apple and they said atm they are not accepting licensing for the patent of a "gaming accessory" filed by apple. The sole purpose of such patent was to not allow anyone to come onto the market so with out apple's green light at this moment in time the answer is no :(

[Radar11c Posted Jul 26th 2010 9:06AM]

I would buy that. Power to physical buttons!!!

[dustinface Posted Jul 26th 2010 9:08AM]

I don't think I understand how this works. Does it connect to the 30-pin or use Bluetooth or something?

[zeal Posted Jul 26th 2010 11:00AM]

@dustinface

I think the buttons press down on the screen.

[Killing Time Posted Jul 26th 2010 11:24AM]

@dustinface

"Interfacing with the Apple 30 pin connector and providing tactile buttons in the conventional game pad layout, the iPhone Game Pad allows a massive library of arcade and console games to be ported to the iPhone"

from the website. keeping in mind that its a prototype, from what appears to be a small group of guys. ie it may never really exist.

[icepop77 Posted Jul 26th 2010 9:09AM]

I have to admit, even as an iPhone detractor, this is cool.

[Diesel1313 Posted Jul 26th 2010 9:14AM]

Halleluyah Real Buttons ! WOO HOOO !!!

[AckbarsFist Posted Jul 26th 2010 9:14AM]

I think it's actually pretty cool.

[sixtool Posted Jul 26th 2010 9:16AM]

mom ~ i want this..

[BiGD23 Posted Jul 26th 2010 9:18AM]

I'd definitely buy one of these if they were well made and reasonably priced.

For anyone wondering, you can already get sweet button action on a jailbroken iPhone using a wiimote or a wiimote classic. The wiimote only has 2 buttons so it's perfect for NES and the wiimote classic has a full compliment of buttons for SNES/Genesis/PSX. They sync to the iPhone over bluetooth.

[APV Posted Jul 26th 2010 9:18AM]

So everyone here hates the iPhone, yet on iPhone topics the haters get downranked?

I'm not trying to do so myself, I love my iPhone, but dang this site get's more confusing every day...

[AndreiTaylor Posted Aug 2nd 2010 8:53PM]

@APV

People don't down-rank based entirely on the fact the post has the word iPhone in it. People hate on the fact that everyone bring up the damn phone on every single topic that has ever been posted, regardless of weather on not the topic has anything to do with the phone.

If a comment goes into more than "iPhone FTW" or "HTC RUUUUUUULEZ" its probably not going to get down-ranked.

[Hazdaz Posted Jul 26th 2010 9:22AM]

You could buy that case, or maybe pray that one of these phone companies wakes the hell up and realize that there is a big, untapped market for a good phone with physical buttons.

[cswksu Posted Jul 26th 2010 10:24AM]

@Hazdaz
like the droid?

[Hazdaz Posted Jul 26th 2010 10:34AM]

@cswksu

Yea, don't make me laugh.

The Droid keyboard is utter crap, and even other Android phones with nice keyboards (like the upcoming Epic) still don't have good BUTTONS... They might be good keys for typing, but not a single phone out there has good buttons and a directional pad aimed at the gaming crowd.
We need a modern-day N-Gage.

[pvito Posted Jul 26th 2010 11:06AM]

@Hazdaz
A phone with a huge d-pad and A, B buttons?? Lmao good luck with that. This looks interesting. Very nice accessory if you like to game a lot. Would need to be supported though. iPod touch anyone?

[Blaque14K Posted Jul 26th 2010 12:40PM]

@Hazdaz yea I don't think you're ever gonna see a phone with dedicated game buttons. The dpad yes but not the buttons.

[Bhima Posted Jul 26th 2010 9:24AM]

Bump for actually making classic emulation playable with this.

[txphisher Posted Jul 26th 2010 9:24AM]

This sure would make all of the emulators a lot easier to play. The wiimote kind of sucks. It's cool at first, but it just doesn't have enough buttons for snes games, etc.

[brucebrendon Posted Jul 26th 2010 9:41AM]

it's what we all want - and are never gonna have.

[htd Posted Jul 26th 2010 9:46AM]

it comes with mini-usb connection, so it's hardware buttons, I love them. how about two analog sticks?

[IMarius Posted Jul 26th 2010 10:02AM]

fix it to have a proper d-pad , and it would work better , but if the price is good it should sell well .

[Slvrgun Posted Jul 26th 2010 10:06AM]

We need something like this for Android.

[Lundmark Posted Jul 26th 2010 10:16AM]

@Slvrgun Yes, but first you need some games.