From the almost-too-good-to-be-true department comes this iOS gamepad that connects through the headphone jack for minimal battery drain. The catch? Games have to be specifically written to use the controller. And, uh, they haven’t been yet.
With a total of 10 action buttons, a directional pad and a pair of dual analogue sticks, the controller is a far better solution for iOS gaming than finicky on-screen controls. And instead of a battery-draining wireless Bluetooth connection to your phone, the 60beat Gamepad connects to the headphone jack with a 1.2m cable and splitter that still lets you use a pair of headphones.
Unfortunately, iOS games have to be specifically written to be controlled with the gamepad and the current titles that do, including Bugdom 2 and Aftermath, are not exactly stellar. I’m not sure why its creators didn’t design it to connect to the dock port like other arcade joystick solutions do, and if they really expect portable gamers to spend $US50 on it, they’re going to have to muster up a considerable amount of third-party support. So, third parties? Please support them. [60beat via Ubergizmo]
Tim
Saturday, December 31, 2011 at 2:22 PMAI presume 1 reason they use the headphone, is 1 product can work on iOS devices, Android and any other hardware with a headphone/mic socket, without having to have separate adapters.
Another reason would be licensing, they wouldn’t have to pay apple any fees (Which i wouldn’t be surprised Apple would charge any legit manufacturer for using the dock connector).
Hopefully a lot of devs get on board with this, its about time a decent controller came out.
One thing that would be nice for it would be a way to attach the iPhone to it (and either allowing for external batteries to be connected to it while attached or even to provide extra power itself).
Jack
Saturday, December 31, 2011 at 5:06 PMerrr, so what happens to the sound?
Troy
Saturday, December 31, 2011 at 6:36 PM“the 60beat Gamepad connects to the headphone jack with a 1.2m cable and splitter that still lets you use a pair of headphones”
Jack
Sunday, January 1, 2012 at 3:59 PMSo it works by detecting certain sound frequencies for each button? Sounds simple enough, reminds me of TV remotes.
Flux
Monday, January 2, 2012 at 9:44 AMI’d still rather use the Dualshock 3 I already own (thanks Android), but perhaps the devs for this controller can borrow a move from the DS3 app devs and allow you to map buttons to touches on the screen. With a little (admittedly rather fiddly) setup, anything with virtual buttons can be controlled via a physical controller…