ThinkGeek has released the US$99.99 iCADE gaming cabinet (http://macte.ch/xVHp8), a retro-styled cabinet designed specifically to house an iPad or iPad 2 and to “transport users to the days when they spent endless hours playing classic arcade games.”

“We partnered with ION Audio to make our vision of the iCADE a reality,” says Ty Liotta, head of ThinkGeek’s GeekLabs. “After it was announced as an April Fool’s Day joke back in 2010, thousands of our customers wanted it and we’re excited to make it a reality through this partnership.”

The iCADE is a desktop-sized arcade game cabinet that features a fully functional gamepad, complete with retro arcade joystick and buttons. Gameplay is made simple by just sliding an iPad into the built-in cradle and connecting it to the iCADE via Bluetooth. The iCade is powered by two AA batteries. The ThinkGeek iCADE also features the original April Fool’s Day retro style graphics.

Users can play classic Atari games available now for download from the Apple App Store.  In preparation for this release, Atari released 100 of its Classic games for use with the iCADE.  Atari was able to configure the games for compatibility with the iCADE, including beloved games like Pong, Asteroids, Centipede and many more.