Only an April Fool’s Joke Could Be This Good
We are not above succumbing to crazy viral ideas. Heck, that’s kind of our thing here at Pad and Quill. That is why our recent purchase of the iCADE was a business “research” decision. Yeah, that’s what it was.
On April 1st of 2010, ThinkGeek.com came out with a video about the main reason you should buy an iPad...so you could put it into an iCADE cabinet. This iPad cabinet is designed to look like an 80’s style retro arcade console and fits quite nicely on the corner of your desk. The whole production video was shot and uploaded to YouTube as practical joke. The $500-$900 iPad surely had better uses than sitting in this silly cabinet.
Enter great idea (stumbled upon) and viral marketing and before ThinkGeek knew what had happened they were getting thousands of requests to make the iCADE reality. One year later, with the pressure of the masses at full throttle, they were able to get technology and manufacturing partners on board. Pre-orders on the iCADE for iPad and iPad 2 began and eventually became BACKORDERED. Atari, the first name in old school video games joined them to release to the App Store an entire suite of old Atari gaming classics including: Asteroids, Space Invaders, Missile Command and 97 more! There is now an API for App developers so their games can work with the iCADE.
All we know is that when you pop the iPad 2 out of an Octavo case and gently place into the iCADE cabinet, your world changes. The big red joystick, just like the old arcade, feels perfect in your hand and the array of extra large buttons give the exact feel of the 80’s. You can almost hear Journey and Styx in the background of your mind as you play.
Pad and Quill salutes you ThinkGeek, you truly hit the mark on parting us with our money and our time.
-PQ Team
