Arcadie

A range of popular mini arcadie cabinets and game pads for iOS & Kindle Fire products.

Considering I grew up with "real" arcades, rather than the consoles of today. I thought it would be an interesting idea to see if I could merge modern with retro. The result is the arcadie brand.

Using a simple trick to fool the smartphone that it is being interfaced with by human fingers, I managed to create a totally powerless and passive mechanical arcade unit that works with plastic user controls. Other competing units used Bluetooth or required actual finger touch to the screen to operate. The biggest advantage of this, apart from the zero setup, is the lack of any power needed! No batteries or power is drawn from the host device.

Arcadie proved to be very popular, appearing on TV, prominence in the Argos catalogue and constant 5 star reviews. Over 300k apps have been downloaded since 2012 and the last model supported from the 3GS to iPhone 5 in one unit. Arcadie was made available for the iPad mini & Kindle fire, with a mobile GO! version that was a cleverly designed silicon case that allowed the phone to light up the physical buttons.

The full arcadie product range.

Prototypes for each model were created. Using a combination of handmade parts, and laser cut MDF & styrene.

Design and production development of the game apps for iOS & Android. Dealing with app review and publishing for both platforms.

Logo & brand design.

Interactive FSDU design and build - Print advert design.

Packaging & product artwork design.

The web marketing video short.

arcadie was well received and starred on TV and in social media posts.

7 years after release, it appeared on the Gadget Show.