Sorry, I have no gaming suggestions for you, but I'll answer the thread title anyway.

Telnet is alive and kicking in my house; I use it everyday.

I wrap non-interactive telnet inside Python and Objective C to control my Denon 4306 A/V receiver from my n8x0's, my iPod touch, and my Mac and Linux desktops. The Denon is very trusting, but because I like my speakers, when my son gets older I might have to lock it down with a tightly coupled OpenWRT solution.

I dig that bottom-row keyboard and number pad setup. I'm gonna steal that one day.