In The News: CES 2011: Hands on with Ion Audio's iCADE

CES 2011: Hands on with Ion Audio’s iCADE

You can thank ThinkGeek for one of their joke products from last year’s April Fool’s Day, as it’s become one of Ion Audio’s coolest products at CES: the iCADE. Ion Audio saw the idea for an iPad arcade system and just couldn’t help but make it a reality. I went back to Ion Audio’s booth today to get a hands-on look so you know exactly what to expect when the iCADE hits the market around June for an expected $100.

The Ion Audio iCADE is a dream come true. Seriously, this thing is awesome. It has eight arcade style buttons and that classic joystick you’ve come to love on every Pac Man cabinet ever made. The cabinet is likely made of particle board and wrapped in an iCADE themed graphic. I’m told they’ll also be making a special edition just for ThinkGeek with a different graphic wrapping the outside.

The buttons and joystick feel exactly like what you’d expect from an arcade cabinet. Buttons have that satisfying click, as does the joystick. The actual controller is the only part of the mini arcade system that isn’t mini.

The cabinet has a hinge on the top that opens to allow insertion of an iPad. But there’s no connection made to the iPad whatsoever since the controller works over Bluetooth. This kind of bums me out, actually. I’d really like to see at least a hole in the bottom to pass through a cable for charging. But what would really make this thing killer is a dock hooked up to some speakers to make the arcade experience complete. There’s still time, though, and we can continue to hope.

Since the controller works over Bluetooth, it will be relatively simple for developers to update their games to support the iCADE. Atari is already fully on board and pledging to support iCADE with all of their iOS offerings, and hopefully more will join as the product ramps up for release later this year. We’ll definitely be following up on this one later in the year when it’s available.