iCade and Atari Greatest Hits iPad App combo reviewed

I have been waiting until I received my pre-ordered iCade from Firebox before writing this review for one good reason. Atari’s Greatest Hits app does not play well with the on-screen controls. In fact I don’t think I’ve played any retro game app on my iPad that has had on-screen controls that work. Atari’s offering was especially bad and I have found most if not all of the games unplayable with unresponsive controls killing me off way before I should have been.

iCade should hopefully remedy that. We will see shortly…

Unpacking the iCade

As usual Firebox were better than average and I received my pre-ordered iCade on 22nd July (website stating that shipping would start on 28th). The printed iCade box was well protected in a larger plain packing box and came totally undamaged which was a good start.

Upon opening you find the instructions, a bag of bits, 2 AA batteries, a bag of Cola Bottle sweets (for eating while assembling I assume) and a flat-packed iCade. You have to assemble the iCade yourself but there are only 6 screws and 2 pins to use and assembly took under 5 minutes. The instructions were adequate and an appropriate size allen key is supplied. Oh, and the Cola Bottles were nice too.

First Impressions

Assembling something yourself in this way gives you a better idea of just how sturdy something is and I must say that if anything this thing is over-engineered. It really is like a mini arcade machine material-wise with the main body being made of essentially the same thing; plastic faced wood composite with a panel of realistic feeling set of switched buttons and a switched arcade style joystick. 2 AA size batteries (supplied) are inserted below the main control panel. There is also an AC Adapter jack situsted at the rear of the unit although it is not supplied with an AC Adapter (a seperate purchase from ION). A large ‘flip up’ panel on top of the unit lifts up to reveal instructions (if you really need them) and to make lowering your iPad into its ‘cradle’ easier. The ‘cradle’ also has a hole big enough to fit a standard iPad connector so it can sit in the iCade whilst charging if need be. A thing to be noted here is that the cradle is NOT a dock. The iPad has no physical connection to the iCade other than one caused by gravity and connection is made via a Bluetooth connection. This also leaves you able to place your iPad in a landscape orientation for certain games, although to do this the iPad sits ‘outside’ the unit in a groove just behind the stick and buttons which sort of spoils the arcade machine look of it all in my opinion. A nice touch is the fake ‘coin slot’ on the front of the unit which lights up when the unit is operating and gives it a really authentic look when the lights are dimmed.

Making a connection

Detailed instructions are included on how to connect your iPad to your iCade but I will run through the relatively simple process for you here too. Go to settings on your iPad and under ‘General’ switch Bluetooth ON and make sure it is discoverable. Hold down the bottom 4 buttons and the top white button on the iCade until the ‘coin slot’ on the front of the unit starts to flash. You will then be prompted by your iPad to enter a series of numbers on your iCade to ‘pair’ your devices. Don’t worry, the buttons and joystick directions have been allocated a number each and these are listed on the instructions under the top panel of the iCade unit. Once done you will not have to do this pairing again.

Time to play

Playing the formerly unplayable Atari’s Greatest Hits app was a bit of a revelation. Gone are the awkward unresponsive on-screen controls replaced by a great feeling arcade-style joystick and 8 arcade-style buttons. I’m glad they opted to go for a full set of 8 making the unit compatible with future multi-button games should any be released. I’m looking at you Capcom… Street Fighter would be amazing. The instructions include a handy control legend sheet which details the button layout for each game and I was also glad to see that when the iCade is being used the on-screen controls disappear, ensuring they don’t spoil the mini-arcade machine effect. One thing I was dissapointed to find was that to get to a game you had to use the touch screen. I would have liked to have seen full iCade integration and to be able to choose games by using joystick and buttons to select.

Most of the Atari games on offer here are from the VCS/2600 era and to be honest there are quite a few duds. I mean… anyone for a game of Hangman, Math Grand Prix or Brain Games? … no, thought not. Because these offerings are purely Atari’s own, you don’t get any of the great games that we all know and love by other software giants of the era like Activision, Parker Bros or CBS (to name a few). Hopefully we will see these in the future. That’s not to say there aren’t any good 2600 games on offer here. The like of Yars Revenge, Gravitar, Super-Breakout and many more are all here and play well, even if only for a short while.

The real gems (and the games most will be purchasing for) are the coin-op games. Atari’s coin-ops were not just pioneering but are arguably some of the best games ever to stand in an arcade and this collection doesn’t disappoint. From the inaugural Pong through to Crystal Castles these are all faithfully reproduced on-screen and most of them (thankfully) play perfectly with the iCade taking over from on-screen controls.

I say most because some of the trackball games and games like Pong or Breakout just cannot be replicated with a joystick. Missile Command is a good example of this, it was unplayable with an on-screen trackball before and with a joystick it’s even worse if anything. That said, Crystal Castles, Centipede and Millipede all play well with a joystick despite the originals utilising trackballs.

Conclusion

I don’t think that Atari’s Greatest Hits is an app worth purchasing without the iCade. And iCade is not worth purchasing only for use with Atari’s Greatest Hits. Whilst it is great fun for a while, the 2600 games just don’t have any longevity, the arcade games are too few and the app is too expensive (£10.49 for the full set of games). For the money paid, I would have liked to have seen some top Atari 7800 and maybe some Atari 5200 games thrown in too. I encountered a few minor problems along the way, the biggest being that after exiting the Atari app, the virtual keyboard no longer popped up when needed. To get it back again I had to switch bluetooth off. A minor bug, but annoying all the same. If you are willing to jailbreak your iPad an iCade is well worth purchasing for use with iMame4All which gives you access to thousands of arcade games, but for the majority who won’t be voiding their Apple Warranty on their shiny new iPad I can only say wait until other apps are released before parting with your cash. (Edit: An iCade compatible version of Midway Arcade has now been released and in conjunction with Atari’s app now makes the package a lot more appealing).