New accessory potential in 3.0....is a game controller on the horizon?

[Pattycerts]

Title says it all, personally I find the on-screen d-pad hard to get used to, and with limited hardware buttons a game controller could open up the gaming possibilities on this phone tenfold! Something like the power pack that plugs in and mounts around the phone, trust me if there is a demand it can be done.

This is the first thing I thought of when watching the first 3.0 keynote and seeing the 'accessories' feature. Does this possibility excite anyone else? As far as I'm concerned its only a matter of time, and it HAS to happen.

 

[puffnstuff]

got into a discussion about this on another site. Two issues with this

A. Said hardware must work with certain app

Yes their is a loophole i.e code sharing but..

B. People are greedy douchebags so there is no guarantee all the developers will use the same code. So what may end up happening is a group of game developers may band together to make their own hardware that will only work with their games not everyone elses.


Tough situation that needs to be addressed I think

 

[Pattycerts]

Yeah, it would have to be an Apple-made product that they would profit on, certainly.

Remember they approve apps before hitting the store, so they can easily deny apps that try and use 3rd-party controllers.

A simple d-pad and 2-4 buttons would suffice, and Apple always likes simplicity so I can't imagine more than that. I really see no reason for them NOT to do this, apps can always have on-screen controls when no controller is detected.

 

[wahoo10]

It would be cool to see an iPhone mountable camera, to shush all of those people who wanted a front facing camera

 

[wikoogle]

I would love to see EA's upcoming Red Alert take full advantage of the 3GS's power.

But the bigger question is, how should such games aimed for the hardcore gamers control?

I think I have a some simple solutions.

First, there should be two circles/joysticks in the bottom to corner that you can move around slightly with your finger, and serve as dual analog nubs. Functionally, they would be identical to the analog nub found on the PSP.

Second, a flick of your wrist/iphone to the right should be analogous to pressing the right shoulder buttons on the PSP/DS and even Wii, and a flick of your wrist to the left should be analogous to pressing the left shoulder button on the PSP/DS.

And lastly, two buttons above each touch based analog nub would give you the psp all the functionality found in the PSP, DS and even Wii (actually more functionality since it essentially would have dual analog nubs).

And all these buttons should be at the most extreme ends of both devices so that they give you a full unobstructed view of most of the screen.

Is anyone making such a gaming iphone shells with dual analog nubs, shoulder buttons, and one that looks as sexy as the iphone? If anyone can pull that off and get a lot of support for such a peripheral, it would be apple.

What do you guys think?