

IPad as an Arcade Machine - alanthonyc
http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/41/iCade.shtml?icpg=Carousel_iCade_1

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aaronbrethorst
Why is it that the only products I ever want to buy from ThinkGeek are their
April Fools jokes?

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duck
Okay, I've said multiple times that I won't be getting an iPad... but this
almost changes my mind (assuming this is real and not an April Fools joke). I
still won't get one until v2 ships though.

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colomon
I'm presuming this is a joke, because given the restrictions Apple has stuck
on emulators, I can't see them letting a version of MAME (presumably with
illegally copied ROMs?) through.

That said, it's a killer idea, and I think it might well do very well if Apple
would allow it.

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nkassis
agreed, ThinkGeek often manages to make some of the coolest April Fools joke.
I want some tribbles and bits. And the iCade would probably sell like hot
cakes if it was real.

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rauljara
"Beautifully retro styled, handcrafted wooden tabletop arcade cabinet and MAME
emulator for your otherwise useless iPad"

"Availability: 80's"

These things say parody to me, but if it was a real idea, I think it'd make
money. Which says bad parody to me. It's like saying, hey look, here's a
plausible and possibly even moderately good idea. Isn't that silly?

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Luc
ThinkGeek did that before, with the 8-bit tie in 2007. It was an April Fool's
joke, but so many people actually wanted one that they started producing it
for real.

<http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/looflirpa/>

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jcl
And the Tauntaun sleeping bag in 2009, apparently:
<http://www.thinkgeek.com/tauntaun/index.html>

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pyre
I'm waiting for a real version Super Steve Bros.

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petercooper
It wouldn't happen on the iPhone/iPad. Making any references to Steve Jobs
(even slight ones) is against App Store policy.

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pyre
It was presented as a MAME game, so I'm not expecting it on the AppStore. More
likely it would be a HTML5/Flash game or some emulator ROM hack or something.

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petercooper
_More likely it would be a HTML5/Flash game_

You know.. you might be on to something here.

Most of the old school arcade games could probably work very well as
HTML5/JavaScript games if you had a hardcore JavaScript coder on the case.
Even if the games were "free" on the Web, a cabinet and control system like
the iCade could still be very valuable and do-able (I believe the iPad lets
you use a BlueTooth keyboard, so the controls could be implemented that way,
perhaps).

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aresant
It's an April fools joke BUT ThinkGeek has a habit of turning jokes into real
products if there's enough demand - click add to cart and sign up for the
email list if interested.

This is how I got my nephew a Tuantan sleeping bag - eg:

[http://www.avclub.com/articles/april-fools-joke-backfires-
on...](http://www.avclub.com/articles/april-fools-joke-backfires-on-
thinkgeek,26098/)

~~~
charlesju
Too bad Apple would never approve an emulator. It would be cool if they got
the licensing for all those games though.

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tedunangst
Only if the emulator needed net access. An emulator with a 100 bundled ROMs is
no trouble.

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cubicle67
I'm pretty sure one of the things you can't do with Mame is bundle ROMs with
it

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tedunangst
I'm pretty sure someone could edit the line of mame source that does
'fopen(argv[1], "r")' and replace it with something more suitable for a
bundle.

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swift
I believe the previous poster meant that the license of MAME forbids bundling
it with ROMs.

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tedunangst
Indeed, it does, but that's not Apple's decision. There's no reason why
another emulator, such as one you write, couldn't come bundled.

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KirinDave
This is an example of a good apr1 joke becuase it'd be so awesome.

A custom cabinet and a full install of MAME with the games hosted on an
external usb drive in the cabinet? It sounds crazy but I'm pretty sure it'd
rule.

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yak
Um...it's April Fool's day...fools.

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jcl
Granted, but having seen it, I'm sure there are at least a couple people who
are going to build the thing themselves.

