Say "Pippin" three times in the mirror and it will show up behind you covered in matte black plastic and re-named "Apple TV."

It's what graybearded Apple gaming fanboys have been wishing for since the '90s, but the dream could end up becoming a reality at last. Hints buried within the iOS 4.3 beta 3 firmware indicate that Apple's Game Center on iOS devices may soon make its way to the latest-gen Apple TV.

Submitted to TUAW by an unnamed developer with access to the beta, there are a number of strings that reference "ATVGames," such as "ATVGamesScheduleController," "ATVGamesStandingsController," and "ATVGamesByDateController." There's also "ATVThunder" and strings that read "com.apple.appletv.play.live.thunder" and ".play.archive.thunder."

It sure seems as if Apple is moving ahead with some way to allow users to play basic games on the Apple TV. Since the device runs a version of iOS, Apple could be exploring ways to bring Game Center to the big screen—the games could be archived on the Apple TV's 8GB of flash storage, though others speculate that the games might even be streamed like OnLive's cloud-based PC gaming service. When Ars tested OnLive last year, we agreed that it was playable (though with some lag for certain games), so it's at least possible that Apple is aiming for something similar with the Apple TV.

These hints don't necessarily mean that gaming will come to the Apple TV in the next major software release, though. Apple may just start the ball rolling in advance of a future software release, or even an Apple TV hardware refresh. (After all, Apple added numerous multitouch features to the iPad in a recent beta release, but later added a note saying they were just being tested and not slated for official release just yet.)

Still, the prospect is exciting to those who have been waiting for Apple to take its promotion of games from the iPhone to the TV, so you can be sure that developers who have access to the betas will keep an eye on how the code changes.