Alright folks, it’s finally here. We told you about the iControlPad nearly 3 years ago, and the company has finally started shipping the product. For those unfamiliar with the gaming accessory, let me give you a quick refresher.
When you think of iPhone gaming add-ons, you typically think of those little plastic suction-cup-tipped joysticks. iControlPad provides a much better solution for your touchscreen woes with physical, console-like controls…
iControlPad looks like a typical game controller. It has 4 action buttons, a D-pad, and 2 joysticks. It connects to your iPhone (and several other compatible devices) via Bluetooth.
The accessory comes with an adjustable plastic frame that allows for various phone-sized devices to be attached. The end result looks kind of like a modified Sega Game Gear. Still having trouble picturing it? Check out the video below.
[tube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=o-HA74MwVug#at=250[/tube]
It would seem like after 3 years of development, the product would be perfect, right? Wrong. The iControlPad still has some major hurdles to overcome if it wants to see any kind of success.
The most important is compatibility. While the iControlPad can be used on un-jailbroken devices, not all of the features work. You guessed it, an Apple restriction on 3rd party developers doesn’t allow the Bluetooth actions needed for the joysticks to function.
Jailbreakers on the other hand, can utilize all of the controls. There have been several demo videos released of folks using the iControlPad with popular emulators like psx4iPhone and snes4iphone.
It’ll certainly take a lot of support from 3rd party developers to help the iControlPad elevate above the rest of the made-for-iPhone controllers. While we’re at it, they may also want to do something about its hefty $69.99 price tag.
What do you think of the iControlPad?
[TouchArcade, via MacRumors]