iCade Transformed Into iPhone Gamepad by Mod-God Ben Heck

It's no lie that the iOS platform is great for handheld gaming--thousands of titles are available in the App Store at the tap of your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch screen. However, ever felt classic games on Apple's iDevices would be better if the controls were actual buttons instead? Modder Ben Heck thought so too, and has come up with a clever gamepad hack using a GeekTech favorite, the iCade.

Ben was looking to pay his hommage to CES by taking a popular consumer product--the iPhone--and making a cool gadget to go alongside. Enter the iPhone gamepad, featuring a useful mini USB. The gaming mod uses the circuit board of an iCade, which features both button and D-pad controls, and bluetooth. The board connects to the iPhone via a 30-pin connector and the headphone jack. The buttons and main chassis for the gamepad are laser cut by Ben too--notice how each button has an engravement depicting what it's for.

Once all put together, the PSP-like button pad is pretty handy for playing particularly sensitive games like GTA IV, or to simply make games a little easier. Watch Ben Heck's full instructional below for the lowdown on how to make the mod for yourself:

This is a pretty great mod for beginners too, due to the basic layout of the iCade, voltage similarities between the iPhone and board, and the fact you could make the controller even more portable by just not including as many buttons.

If you don't fancy building one of these for yourself, keep an eye out for the recently announced iCade Core--the portable version of the gadget used above.

[Element14 via Engadget]