Atari Arcade Duo Joystick for iPad Takes on iCade

September 4th, 2011 by: Technabob

Tweet Pin It

I was grabbing the latest update to Atari’s Greatest Hits on my iPad yesterday, when I noticed a mention of something in the release notes. They mentioned that the game was now compatible with the “Atari® Arcade – Duo™ Powered joystick”. Being the curious type, I had to investigate further, and found this.

Turns out that there is a new iPad-compatible joystick in the works, which you can use to play all those classic arcade and Atari 2600 games in the aforementioned collection. Now you already know that there’s been an arcade joystick out for a while now called the iCade, which has awesome retro arcade looks, but is also quite pricey (at $100).

The Duo stick does away with iCade’s fancy arcade cabinet design, instead going for a minimal look that’s likely to keep the price much lower. Due to its open-air design, it’s also likely to do a better job at supporting both landscape and portrait modes than the iCade can.

While I love my iCade, I have to say that I’m totally bummed out that there aren’t yet more games that take advantage of it – and I really want a trackball and spinner controller for many of the games anyhow. But if you’re looking for a way to play those joystick-based classics, and don’t want to break the bank, you might want to keep an eye out for the Atari Arcade Duo Joystick over at Discovery Bay Games. No word yet on a release date or pricing, but there’s no way it could be as expensive as the iCade.