With the Android-based Ouya unveiling earlier this week to massive fundraising success, I've heard many people wondering why Apple hasn't done something similar to extend the success of iOS gaming into a more traditional TV-based game console. Yes, iOS 5 lets you use AirPlay Mirroring to stream game images from a portable iDevice to an Apple TV, but the results can be pretty jerky, and the scheme still relies on touchscreen controls that are ill-suited to a lot of TV-based games. If Apple released a console dedicated to bringing iOS games directly to the living room TV, complete with a traditional, button-based controller, it would have the potential to really shake up the existing console market.

Chris Jorgensen and Andi Greisel, who develop iOS games like Cavorite and Zombie Karts under the name Cascadia Games, got tired of waiting for Apple to act on that idea. That's why they came up with the iOS GameDock, an external iDevice accessory they're trying to fund on Kickstarter that basically turns an existing iDevice into a TV-based console powered by USB controllers and an HDMI output.

"Honestly, I've found myself hooking up my old SNES to my TV for fun lately," Jorgensen said. "And there are so many great retro games on iOS, I figured, why not recreate the old console experience with your phone in its entirety?"

To replicate the console-style controls they were going for, the GameDock's creators decided to piggyback on the bluetooth input standard championed by Ion Audio's iCade, which already supports over 100 iOS games. The pair was looking for a bit of a simpler form factor than the full-sized joystick and massive buttons on the iCade cabinet, though, so they decided to use modified NES controllers designed to work on the GameDock's two USB ports. While that controller's two-button design limits the number of games the GameDock will support, the creators say the form factor was too attractive to pass up.

"I loved NES when I was a kid, and still do really, so I immediately started developing around those controllers," Greisel said. "We certainly have discussed using other controllers, like SNES, but the look and feel of the NES controller just got me excited. Plus, there is beauty in their simplicity."

The GameDock also expands on the iCade's iOS button-control idea by allowing for simultaneous two-player games, which is an almost entirely new concept on iOS. Such games will have to be developed specifically with the GameDock in mind, and the team at Cascadia says they've got two big-name iOS developers doing just that (though they don't want to "put them on the spot" by revealing the developers' identities just yet). Cascadia itself is also working on an iOS remake of Apogee's 1994, DOS-based kart racer Wacky Wheels, which will support two players at once.

At $125 per Dock (plus the cost of an iOS device), the GameDock at first looks a bit less attractive than the $99 Ouya, which is self-contained. But the creators note the power of Apple's iOS devices and the existing library of proven, working games as benefits, and say they think keeping the TV interface separate from the actual mobile platform is actually the better way to go.

"We think this is the future," Jorgenesen said. "Instead of individual devices with their own storage / processing, we envision everything being peripherals for your phone. This is our humble first attempt at ushering in that future... if that doesn't sound too dramatic!"