That crazy beast in the picture is the soon-to-be-released Atari Arcade “duo powered” joystick contraption that’ll turn your iPad into a retro-style gaming rig. Not everyone even realizes that Atari, the video game giant of the 70’s, is still around. Indeed, not only are they still around but this device will accept the iPad sort of like a dock and then enable the joystick and buttons, thus creating a more vintage cabinet-style gaming experience.
Interestingly, Atari has also released “Atari’s Greatest Hits” as an app on the App Store that offers some of Atari’s classic titles in a bundle, ideal for use with this little doohicky. It also boasts being able to work with an iPad in both portrait and landscape mode, which suggests the controls connect via Bluetooth rather than a conventional dock (which begs the question: is that an actual dock, or just a slot that holds the iPad in place?). Unfortunately, there’s no release date specified on the website other than “Coming Soon”.
Atari is the company that gave us most of the well-known video games of the 70’s and 80’s, including Missile Command, Centipede and Pong… the title generally thought of as the first commercially-available video game in history.
Source: Redmond Pie
