By now we’ve all heard what the analysts and game developers think about the iPad, but what about the gamers? How do are we feel about the new tablet? We are thrilled, or at least should be. Since forever clever gamers have been taking apart their coveted consoles and resembling them into more compact shells so they can take their gaming on the road without suffering the drawbacks and limitations that come along with a portable gaming system. Most of the time these contraptions become pieces of fanboy high art, being much too bulky for logical usage. With the iPad, Apple has simplified our vision and gathered support from many developers.

Gamers are pretty easy to please. All we really want is something that can play great games in a great resolution, everything else falls by the wayside. Since now the portable gaming market hasn’t fulfilled out most basic needs. Sony’s PSP produces great graphics and has had some great games grace its LCD but the screen is still too small. Nintendo’s DS added dual screens in an effort to increase the visual area and add some unique touch functions, but the hardware is too weak to produce any decent graphics. Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch are capable of producing crisp graphics on a gorgeous display, but once again the hardware is incapable of handling anything too complex.

Enter the iPad. A tablet device with more horsepower than Sony’s PSP, more accurate touch controls than Nintendo’s DS, and a 9.7” display that trumps both systems puny screens. With over 140,000 apps to draw from the iPad is the ultimate portable gaming system. We not only get games on the iPad, but applications that deal with gaming too: Xbox Gamerscore apps, PS3 trophy apps, apps dedicated to video game blogs, web comics, and industry news. It’s video game convergence wrapped in a shiny aluminum finish. The games may not look too enticing yet, but remember developers were only given a quick 2 week deadline to show off what they could do with the iPad. Imagine what they will come up with when they are given the time to experiment with the systems full capabilities.

At first glance the iPad may be a super sized iPhone, but there’s a lot more under its hood. Can you imagine playing portable versions of Mirror’s Edge or Assassin’s Creed on a stunning 9.7” display? The iPad can deliver near laptop performance without the bulkiness of having the display and keyboard hinged together.

The iPad is what gamers have been dreaming of for ages, we may just be too stunned to realize it yet. Maybe now we can stop making these ridiculous home console/laptop hybrids to satisfy our portable gaming needs.