Open Radar

 
With iPhone and iPad now being connectable to TVs, opportunity for turning these devices into true game consoles is better than ever. iPhone and especially iPad could greatly benefit from the ability to use additional buttons at the same time, but current device configuration does not make that easy; action gameplay is especially difficult on a large device such as iPad. 

Opposable thumbs also mean that we can press two buttons on top of devices easily, but it's much more difficult to press more than two buttons in a relaxed position. iOS devices do not possess backside buttons.

In the last few years, a market of third party controllers which can be used with iOS devices has grown organically. However, these devices are nonstandard and require third party integration into each individual game.

These problems can be solved in an extremely easy way.

Providing a standard API for game controllers, and optionally access to non-keyboard external Bluetooth HID devices (such as Apple Magic Mouse, or numerous gamepads and joysticks currently on the market) would allow game developers to make even more compelling game titles than those currently present on the market.

Use case:
Space flight simulator. These are typically played with joysticks or gamepads. This is important due to need for fast access to numerous space ship controls. Here is a minimum example:
- obviously: yaw, pitch and roll
- speed control
- turbo
- call space station
- fire laser
- fire missile
- set next target
- set previous target
All of these could be put on the screen, but it would be quite difficult unless game was played solely on iPad with main view displayed on TV, and iPad being used only as an input device.


Duplicate: 10661415
See also: 9547856