If you think jailbreakers have all the fun, you’re right: Not only do they have a cool universal port of the MAME project to play all those retro games, but now they can even do it with experimental support for the $99 iCade cabinet.

Engadget is reporting that emulator junkies can now shout “Game on!” from their iPad connected to the $99 iCade cabinet that ThinkGeek started shipping earlier this summer. That’s because the iMAME4All project now has “experimental” support for the iCade, courtesy of a 3.5MB download from their Google Code site.

“Best way to use iCade with iMAME4All is in fullscreen portrait mode, hit the option button and choose options,” the project page explains. “The onscreen controls will fade out when you start using the iCade buttons -- to get on screen controls back, just touch the screen. If the iCade is off (the fake coin slot light is off) just hit an iCade button or move the joystick. (You must have paired the iCade via bluetooth before.) When the iCade turns off, the SW keyboard may popup and then backdown, this is normal don't be alarmed.”

The only potential bad news here is that iMAME4All itself requires a jailbroken device -- for obvious reason, Apple would never allow an emulator such as this capable of side-loading game ROMs from every dark corner of the internet. But the project has been ongoing for a while now, and with JailbreakMe.com 3.0 now making it so easy, there’s never been a better time to try it. Head over to the Google Code site for iMAME4All and find out more!

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