Power Glove
The Power Glove is a data glove for the 8-bit game console Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) from 1989. The game controller is worn over the right forearm and uses acoustic sensors to determine its position and movement data. The Power Glove became known through the novel use of game mechanics from virtual reality and its massive advertising in various media. The controller was criticized for its imprecise control and the resulting difficult playability, the gadget was also delivered without software and only two video games Super Glove Ball and Bad Street Brawler were programmed for its use.
development
The controller was developed by Grant Goddard and Samuel Cooper Davis for Abrams / Gentile Entertainment (AGE), produced by Mattel in the United States and distributed by PAX in Japan. Although Nintendo officially licensed the product, the game console manufacturer was not directly involved in development or sales. Extensive development work was also done by Thomas G. Zimmerman and Jaron Lanier , a pioneer in the field of virtual reality who was responsible for the programming and commercialization of the DataGlove . Zimmermann produced the first prototype that could determine the position using ultrasonic transceivers. In the first prototype, the finger position was determined using optical flex sensors and later replaced by cheaper carbon-based ones by the AGE team.
The Power Gloves went on sale in 1989. The product was withdrawn from the market just one year after the start of sales.
Design and functionality
The data glove has the usual NES controller buttons on the forearm, a control pad and a program button and buttons with the numbers 0–9. To enter a command, first the PROG button is pressed followed by a number to e.g. B. to change the rate of fire of A and B.
The Power Glove is based on the patented technology of the DataGlove from VPL Research . Because of the lower performance of the consumer hardware used and in favor of lower manufacturing costs, a number of modifications were made. The DataGlove recognizes roll-pitch-yaw position changes and 256 finger positions (8 bit) via optical fiber optics. The Power Glove only recognizes rolling movements and four positions (2 bits) each on four fingers via sensors with a more conductive color, which means that all finger positions can be displayed together in one byte .
The glove has two built-in ultrasonic loudspeakers (transmitters) that communicate with three microphones on the receiver side, which are to be positioned in the area of the television set. The two ultrasonic loudspeakers send sound impulses in the (inaudible) frequency range of 40 kHz, from which the system calculates the respective transit time to the receivers. The relative position of the two loudspeakers is determined using a triangular calculation and the rotation is derived. The glove's pitching motion is the only dimension that cannot be determined. The Power Glove is connected to the game console with a cable and does not require any additional power supply.
Video games
Only two video games with an explicit interface to the Power Glove came on sale in 1990: Super Glove Ball , a three-dimensional version of Breakout , and the side-scroller - Beat 'em up Bad Street Brawler . Both games can also be controlled with the standard NES controller , but some movements can only be generated with the Power Glove. The two games were marketed as the Power Glove Gaming Series . Due to a very "imprecise and delayed input" in Super Glove Ball , the video game was almost unplayable, whereas Bad Street Brawler suffered from "repetitive and idiotic gamplay" and hardly supported the additional functions of the Power Glove.
Since neither of the two games was offered in retail in Japan, the Power Glove was only advertised as an alternative controller.
The two video games Glove Pilot and Manipulator Glove Adventure were announced, but never realized. Another never finished video game was Tech Town or Tektown , a virtual puzzle game in which the player moves a robot hand inside an abandoned space station, opens doors with a glove and picks up objects. A preview of the video game was shown in the Official Power Glove Game Players Gametape .
Games without assistance can be played by configuring the Power Glove via codes on the keypad according to the respective control scheme of the video game.
reception
About 100,000 units of the Power Glove were sold at a cost of $ 75.
In the Nintendo-produced feature film Joy Stick Heroes (English original title: The Wizard ), the Power Glove was advertised with massive product placement . The gadget can also be seen in the horror film Freddy's Finale - Nightmare on Elm Street 6 (1991), the family comedy A Dog Named Beethoven (1992) and Hackers - On the FBI's Network (1995) and the 80s parody Kung Fury (2015) . In 2013 a documentary called The Power of Glove was made.
The discrepancy between the advertising promise and the actual functionality as well as the involuntary comedy of a film dialogue from Joy Stick Heroes , which reflects this a posteriori (quote: "I love the Powerglove. It's so bad!"; The English adverb "bad" in the context can mean both “crazy” and “really bad”), years later gave the device a meme in nerd culture.
Web links
- Power Glove Instructions . In: microsoft.com . 1989. (PDF; English)
- Howard Eglowstein: Reach out and touch your data . In: byte . July 1990. (PDF; English)
- David J. Sturman, David Zeltzer: A Survey of Glove-based Input . In: IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications . 1994. 9 pages. (PDF; English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Backwards Compatible - The Power Glove. In: Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). May 19, 2008, accessed February 19, 2018 .
- ↑ AGE Tech . Abrams Gentile Entertainment. Archived from the original on May 25, 2015. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved May 13, 2009.
- ↑ 1993 VR Conference Proceedings . North Carolina State University. 1993. Archived from the original on July 7, 2009. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved May 13, 2009.
- ↑ Tobias Heidemann: The Power Glove Story: So bad that you have to love it. In: GIGA . July 8, 2013, accessed February 19, 2018 .
- ^ New Game Available . In: Official Power Glove Game Players Gametape . Volume 1, Issue 9. Spring 1991. VHS. (English)
- ^ Nathan Chandler, How the Nintendo Power Glove Worked. In: Howstuffworks. Retrieved February 19, 2018 .
- ↑ a b c d Chris Baker: Nintendo Flashback: The Disastrous Power Glove. In: Rolling Stone . March 3, 2017, accessed February 19, 2018 .
- ↑ George Zachary: Generator . In: Next Generation . Issue 23. Imagine Media. November 1996. ISSN 1078-9693. Page 24. (English)
- ↑ Jeffrey Matulef: The Power Glove gets its own feature-length documentary. In: Eurogamer . Gamer Network, July 13, 2013, accessed January 19, 2019 .
- ↑ Angela Watercutter: There's a Nintendo Power Glove Documentary Coming (Yes, It Has a Wizard Reference). In: Wired . July 11, 2013, accessed February 19, 2018 .
