Tablet gaming is a bit of a mixed bag. Many casual games work perfect with touch systems, but core games often suffer from somewhat finicky touch controls that are far from ideal. Archos hopes to solve that though. How?

Archos is getting involved in the gaming world with its own 7-inch Android gaming tablet, the “GamePad”. What’s in store for the new tablet? We certainly don’t know everything about it’s specs yet. What we do know is the tablet is powered by a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, has a 1280×800 resolution, integrated Mali-400MP quad-core GPU.

The true impressive elements come with the built-in controller which has a D-PAD, ABXY buttons, and two analog sticks. Archos GamePad is built on Android 4.0 and has its own mapping software to add controller support for games that traditionally don’t offer it. The software is supposed to recognize things on its own, making it fairly plug and play.

This isn’t the first tablet announced with a built-in controller, with one of the most well-know efforts being the WikiPad. The big difference here is that WikiPad still doesn’t have any announced release date, the GamePad is now expected at the end of October.

Right now, Google Play has about 1000 apps that will support GamePad controls, and of course there are also traditional console game emulators. The GamePad is expected to start at €150 (roughly $200). Considering no U.S. Price was mentioned, it’s unclear whether this thing will only launch in Europe, or if it’s heading to the states as well.

What do you think? Interested?

Archos via Facebook

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I’m all for convergence. If you can give me one device that can suitably replace two devices, so long as there is no major loss in quality on either front, I’m a happy camper. That’s why the Chameleon X1 from Shogun Bros. sounds so intriguing. It may look like a mouse, but it’s also a gamepad.

On the one side, you get a fairly standard-looking optical mouse. There’s a scroll wheel in the middle, your usual assortment of buttons, and what appears to be an ambidextrous design. Shogun Bros. is saying that it has a 5-stage adjustable 1600dpi optical sensor with a 125Hz polling rate and it’ll connect wirelessly to your computer over the usual 2.4GHz dance.

Flip it over, though, and you’ll encounter a wholly different beast. It’s almost as if someone took the SNES gamepad, blew it up, and possibly added a couple of thumb sticks a la Sony Dualshock (at least that’s what they look like). You won’t really want to use something like this for Starcraft II, but it’d be great for all those MAME titles you have kicking around.

I’m hoping the performance is up to snuff, because at $55, the Chameleon X1 is actually reasonably priced. Look for it in Q1.

[SlashGear via ShoGun Bros.]

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