Trademork managed to dig up a patent Apple filed on February 5th to cover both hand-held units and stand alone machines capable of playing videogames. It’s interesting and seems to further the growing whispers that Apple wants to get into the videogame realm – in some capacity beyond their rudimentary iPod games.

As Ars Technica points out, Apple has attempted – at least somewhat – to go in the videogame direction in the past with the Pippin in the 1990s. But that was an attempt made in the Steve Jobs-exile days of Apple, with Jobs spearheading such a project, it’s certainly enough to get fanboys in a tizzy.

While the obvious initial thought may be to turn the Apple TV into a gaming console, it wouldn’t surprise me if Apple’s real intentions weren’t so straight-forward. Apple’s current crop of games sold in the iTunes store only work on “traditional” iPods – they don’t take advantage of the iPod Touch or the iPhone’s Multi-Touch capabilities. Clearly Apple is going to take their games in this direction eventually, but the fact that they haven’t done it yet seems to indicate they are working on something fairly large for it.

Back in December patents revealed Apple working on more advanced Multi-Touch capabilities specifically aimed at gaming on handheld devices. This had me all excited with dreams of the iPhone turning into a type of Nintendo DS machine. But actually it could be much more – the DS only utilizes old-school touch-screen technology, not Multi-Touch, this could add a whole new element to gaming similar to how the Wiimote has revolutionized home console gaming.

Speaking of Nintendo, Apple teaming up with the now #1 console maker has long been a fanboys dream. Something about the two companies seems to inspire rabid dedication among their fans – and the two together would probably lead to mass hysteria. Imagine Nintendo selling their old classic games via the iTunes store. Imagine a Virtual Console channel on the Apple TV similar to the one on the Wii. Sure this is wishful thinking, but if Apple is serious about breaking into the videogame world, it’s something they should maybe consider.

Whatever Apple is planning in the gaming realm, I’d love to see some games – beyond the Internet-based ones – on my iPhone soon. They love to tout that if you carry around an iPod and a cellphone, why not just carry around one with the iPhone? Well how about if you carry around an iPod, a cellphone, and portable gaming system? It’d be a great selling point to add that capability to the iPhone while they work on the more advanced gaming stuff.