Last week I got the iControlPad to use with my iPad and after playing with it over the weekend I think it’s a great gadget for gamers. The iControlPad is a Bluetooth controller designed by the same guys behind the Open Pandora gaming device so you should know it was designed by gamers for gamers.
I was originally a bit worried that there would be a bit of lag between the control pad and the game but from my short experience with the device there doesn’t seem to be any lag whatsoever. It felt as if I was playing with a wired controller which is great, similar to the wireless Xbox and PS3 controllers.
The iControlPad works with a bunch of official games in the App Store but I actually got it so I could play SNES games using an emulator. Since I got an iPad 3 I’ve gone ahead and jailbroken my original iPad 1 into a gaming device. I’ve installed a SNES emulator on the iPad as well as some games and now with the iControlPad it’s a great portable Super Nintendo. The iControlPad actually has 6 buttons similar to the SNES except the top shoulder buttons (L and R) are located on the bottom of the back of the device which will take a bit of getting used to. Other than that I didn’t have any issues with it, it has a built in battery and charges via USB so it’s very practical.
The iControlPad I ordered came with a phone holder that attached to the rear of the controller. The holder fits not only iPhones but other phones as well including Android phones since the iControlPad works basically with both operating systems. The price of the controller is $74.99 and I ordered it from ThinkGeek but they’re out of stock right now. Your other option is to get it directly from the iControlPad website [Here]
18 replies on “iControlPad Review”
Main issue is that the program itself has to have support for it, and as of now there aren’t many games that include iCade/controller support, even less if you choose not to jailbreak.
I think the best use is jailbroken emulators since those all seem to have support for it.
Also not to mention that getting an iPad+Controller to jailbreak + play emulators on is a lot more expensive than getting an emulation device, or just hooking up a PS3/360 controller to your PC and downloading emulators on it (still the most problem free method of emulation)
Or, using a psp/ds ?
Or any cheap android phone?
What about your laptop o.o?
Guys I’ve tried a lot of dedicated emultaors and the best two were the Dingoo (which is cheap but doesn’t play a lot of systems) and the Open Pandora (Which was expensive but emulates everything including PS1 and N64 games).
Laptop or computer is ok if you’re playing games for nostalgia purposes and short periods but isn’t practical. Open Pandora is great but expensive and I sold mine. Dingoo is great but screen is tiny.
Right now for me best SNES emulator is the iPad 1 with the iControlPad. Only investment I had to do was the price of te controller. Cheaper than buying an Android device plus controller.
PSP/DS are horrible for emulation. The DS actually isn’t that bad for SNES games but I’m liking the iControlPad with iPad combo because the iPad acts like a small tv screen and I play with a controller similar to the SNES one (i’ve actually moved the buttons around to match the SNES exactly even).
You don’t need the iControlPad, it really depends on what you want.
If you actually spent 200KD on an Open Pandora, you should have spent it on the 120Kd Xperia play, perfect for Emulation/
And the PSP snes flawlessly for me o.o .
And i’m gonna PM u a surprise video that might shock you.
I spent $75 on iControlPad, that’s a lot cheaper than spending $500 on Xperia 😉
The PSP SNES has weird framerate and sound. You can fix the framerate with frameskip settings but not in every game, and I can’t find a fix for the sound in some games.
I’m using Samsung Galaxy tab 10.1 + PS3 controller via sixaxis app. Cheaper, sturdier and better….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHx3Z3XKGWo
When it comes to homebrew and emulation, Android tramples IOS.
unless the Galaxy Tab suddenly costs under $75 not really sure how this is cheaper.
The PSP is actually great for PS1 emulation because it is officially supported, it IS a PS1 basically, no weird workarounds and it plays any PS1 game flawlessly. The unofficial emulators for other systems are crap though :I and all DS emulators are similarly crap.
Honestly the only issue is I don’t want to jailbreak my iPad, I heard it really messes up iBooks.
Also I’ve tried Android emulation and it is pretty glitchy. It’s alright in a “Haha look gameboy games on my phone” way but definitely not something I’d play through an entire game on.
Can’t you hook up the Dingoo to a TV? I never tried it myself but it has a little AV OUT port.
Yeah Dingoo hooks up to a TV.
And I also wouldn’t jailbreak my iPad but the only reason I did is because I got the new one. Not sure if it messes anything up though.
iBooks DRM is designed to crash iBooks if you’re jailbroken.
This is stupid because:
1) You can still legally buy books if jailbroken
2) Unlike Apps, YOU CAN PIRATE BOOKS WITHOUT JAILBREAKING
No sense whatsoever.
Apple actually intentionally goes and adds new DRM in every update as well, this was an old issue that was fixed then resurfaced in iOS5 Jailbreaks.
Mark weren’t you against jailbreaking devices? 😉
Well I’m against people jailbreaking so they can install 99cents apps for free.
agreed! 🙂
But not against downloading roms developed by people and playing them on emulators for free, hmmm… interesting…
The discussion was mostly about older systems for which you’ll have a hard time finding any games for sale and would have to hook up the original system even if you did. Technically you are right: Downloading ROMs is piracy unless the company making that particular game ceased to exist or made it free. On the other hand, most SNES games probably fall in the abandonware category – Nobody cares if you dowload and play them on an emulator. Hence making a difference between apps and legacy games seems legitimate to me.
I’m definitely going to get one!