14 DAY TRIAL // Apple's iPhone Software Roadmap event opened our eyes as to what the iPhone can really do in terms of gaming. The handset's touchscreen capabilities, as well as those ushered in by the accelerometer, provide an intuitive control scheme for many types of games, but mostly for casual ones. Folks, however, still love traditional button-mashing, which is why some of Nintendo or Sony's popular titles might never make it on the iPhone... not without the iControlPad at least.
The developers' blog reveals that May 8th marked the day they managed to connect a "hacked up SNES joypad" with the iPhone's serial port. The next step was to decide on how the controls were going to "hook up to the iPhone itself." The team decided on a PSP-like design for the iControlPad.
May 17th saw the team putting the first iControlPad prototype together (pictured above) which, although lacking the start and select buttons, can give a pretty good impression of how natural games will feel on it: "We have our first prototype put together and the design works very well," the team noted. "We don't have the Start and Select buttons on this version but don't worry they will be in the final set up. The current system is slightly smaller than the PSP and feels very nice to hold and use."
The crafty blokes also assure that "the iPhone is locked perfectly in place when in the control pad" and that they "plan to make an iTouch version too!" The control pad should also offer some protection, thanks to its bulky nature. Still, the developers confidently claim that "the final one will be much more sleek and fitting." Who needs protection, anyway?
So far, the iControlPad works only on jailbroken iPhones. This allows emulation software to be installed so the control pad becomes usable with games. The iControlPad is (allegedly) already supported by "some of the biggest iPhone devs like ZodTTD - PSX, GBA emu and more." The team says it is sending out units to several others. Best of all, full source code and SDK support will also be available soon.
