hahah, the 80's+90's cringe worthy nostalgia, it's bad really bad, I don't know how we ever thought this was 'cool' but it is 'campy' as hell and I love it lol XD
This is my first time watching a video of yours, but I want to commend you on a fantastic job! This video is informative and interesting. It is evident a lot of research went into this, and I enjoyed the editing style. Keep up the great work!
Loved the history behind this one. The shame is what could have been if they took more development time and bundled it with a game designed specifically for the Power Glove.
As somebody that grew up during the 8 and 16 bit gens.... let me give a first hand testimonial. Most kids, among the ones I knew at least, didn't give two f**ks about the power glove. We were like...why can't we just use the regular controller? I think the adults execs thought it was more interesting than the kids.
this one had nintendo people directly involved and aware of it though. bit different from "this game is playable so it gets the seal of approval by default"
Antiform I would have thought that people would have realised by now that the Nintendo seal of quality merely refers to the fact that the product is officially licensed and that it meets objective standards, aka those 10 million finger bends and won't explode on your arm, not that it's a product of subjective quality, aka it being a good product worthy of five stars from reviewers.
Taking a $10,000 piece of space age equipment (at the time) and producing a version that sold for well under $80 is just pure engineering brilliance. Too bad they weren't able to sort out the calibration issues. I am pretty sure if they were given enough time they could have fixed it.
I feel like the moral of the story is that a new product doesn't need to actually be cool in order to sell well, people just need to want to believe it's cool.
I was lucky, when my mom and I went to K-Mart to purchase the Power Glove -- the salesman actually talked us out of buying it. He cited the problems and difficulties in programming it to use for games as a reason not to buy, but the biggest thing he did to convince me that I would not like it is that he showed me a stack of returned Power Glove boxes behind the K-Mart electronics section counter...he must have had 4 or 5 opened boxes that had been brought back to K-Mart for refunds (as he said "if it is so great, why are so many kids returning them to get their money back?"). I was so thankful I didn't waste the time and money on it...and a few weeks later, another kid in my neighborhood DID buy the Power Glove and I actually got to try it for myself...I then found out just how right that saleman at K-Mart really was. This was a great video, I really enjoyed it. You just earned a new subscriber. I am looking forward to watching more informative and interesting videos like this.
+Reality Check Thanks and thanks for the story. My friends and I only got the power glove to work really well one time. Thing was way too difficult and not user friendly.
I should have returned mine, but didn't realize I was able to. I knew it sucked and knew I wasted $80 of my scrimped money within the first 10-15 minutes of playing around with it. I was so embarrassed and was aware I just wasted real money for the first time in my life as a 10 year old, and didn't want my parents to know. They knew though.
Awesome editing as always. I never had the power glove but I did have the laserscope helmet. The bend sensor they used was interesting it seems to be the same sensor that came with my arduino kit, I ended up using it to make my own sensor glove. it's interesting to hear how the invention of that sensor is tied to the power glove.
+Useless Duck Company Thanks man. I reeeeally want to start doing some fancier editing with After Effects but just have a hard time finding the time. Yeah, it's interesting how many things spawned off the Power Glove and Data Glove. When looking around at patents I found several other VR and motion related applications that actually referenced the gloves. I didn't even realize that patent applications referenced other patents.
I had one as a kid, was so excited and it really was unfortunately crap. Just basically made games unplayable, to say nothing of the set up time before you played. I should have immediately returned it to the store, but when you're young and stupid, you think the problem is you and not the product the adults sold you. Companies like Nintendo and Mattel should have been ashamed to have let it been sold at all.
There are two types of RU-vidrs. Those who interact with the comments section, and those who don't. You are in the first category, and that's a good thing.
+PSI Seven Thanks for taking the time to watch man. I try to reply to everyone. If someone took the time out to type a comment replying is really the least I could do. That and I genuinely appreciate it when people comment. I'm blown away people have been checking my stuff out lately. This video has gotten way more attention today than my videos normally do so unfortunately I think I've missed a few comments. Thanks again.
+ziatonic yeah I think so too. The guy in the power glove commercials and the glove master are two different guys. They're both Tom cruise doppelgangers. Had to be on purpose.
Very informative video indeed! I'm gonna check a few more here soon, but I have a funny feeling I'm gonna end up subscribing to your channel. We'll see. As for the Power Glove, this thing never did catch my appeal as a kid. I remember thinking it looked clunky and asking logical questions like, "why can't I just use the controller like I always do? Is it *that* hard to push buttons??" Now that I think about it, I'm kinda wondering who this product was really made for.
+Dakkon Blackblade Thanks, appreciate it! I actually do have LJN on my list of topics to cover. It's a long list so I'm not sure when I'll get to it but I definitely will. I'm pretty sure they came from deepest recesses of hell.
The Gaming Historian has a video on LJN, as well as one on the Power Glove, I enjoy watching both channels as you get a bit of information here that GH misses and vice versa.
6:10 "... asked Mattel CEO to play (Punch-Out!!) using the Data (Power) Glove, and on her first attempt... she knocked Glass out." And this was never ever repeated by any future Power Glove owner, ever.
Great videos, hinest titles, talking in a regular voice with reasonable volume..... What's not to like? Well worth the upvotes and subscriptions you've earn. Thank you.
+Able Magawitch Thanks! I'm not a fan of ridiculous, over the top, screaming RU-vid channels myself so I try to just be me and make videos that won't risk destroying ear drums and speakers 😁 . Not that there's anything necessarily wrong with those kinds of videos but they're just not my thing. Glad you're enjoying the videos. Next video is going to be on the Atari Jaguar and it'll probably be out in one to two weeks. Probably lol.
Given the extreme market demand for this kind of product, it's surprising that later generations of consoles made at a time when technology had made this much more achievable - such as as the Xbox or Playstation 2, that they never tried again. There's something inherently cool about wearing something on your wrist that allows interaction with a digital device. Games like Fallout with the HUD being an accessory, and so on.
I don't understand why nobody has ever made a Zapper with a D-pad where your thumb would go, especially with all the first person shooters out there. Use your thumb to move around using the D-pad and aim and shoot at stuff on the screen using the Zapper. It seems so obvious, but nobody has ever made one to my knowledge.
+Yubby Yubby The Virtua Boy is on my long list of topics to cover so I'm sure I'll get to it at some point. Might be a while but I'll get to it one day.
+cloudtx thanks! If you were binge watching you probably went through all the videos already ha ha. There's more on the way. A little trailer/preview for my next one will be up today or tomorrow.
+jandastroy Thanks! Yeah, I was disappointed by it too. We got it to calibrate perfectly ONE TIME and we actually had a good time playing Super Glove Ball. We never got it to work properly ever again.
Not having games for it is what probably cooled it off. For me I had a hard time getting it to work right but that was because I was a kid I had no clue about calibration I assumed you just plugged everything up and let it rip. Even when someone would set it up for me some of the games were a pain in the ass to play.
Power glove could returned with the same technologies that was supposed to be used in the first place and better technology(optics fiber, sensors,etc...)since most of them are now cheap and could be use for VR related games.
I always wanted one of these, but when I went into the store to get one, it wasn’t really a glove! It was kind of a shell with straps to go around your arms. It was also incredibly frustrating to use the keypad. The motion/gesture capability wasn’t too good either.
"I love the Power Glove. It's so bad!" "The Wizard" Yes, Lucas, you were so right! It was so bad! Glass Joe's only win was against anyone who fought him with the Power Glove.
+Jenovi just two as far as I know. The regular size almost everyone used and a smaller size. I recently picked up a small one. It's not impossible to get into but it's extremely tight. Like a compression glove for your nes.
Small , Large, and XL, I had all 3, and the XL was really hard to find since very few stores had any of them shipped in because the NES was "for kids". Only the XL fit my hand comfortably, so that one got the most use. The other two I ended up chopping up for use with GlovePIE back when "VR" was the big thing. The XL also had another problem, it used the same size flex sensors as the other two (obviously for MFG costs) but because the knuckle was not in the same position on the XL one, it suffered from less flexible range, so in glovepie, you obviously had 0 to 255 for detecting digit position, the XL kind of capped out around 200 without finger gymnastics.
stumbled upon your vids yesterday, i subbed right away, very nice voiceover and pictures man, you are very good at what you do. Keep it up i really enjoy it thx!
Thanks, I'm trying! lol. I'm really hoping to get to spend some time in After Effects soon so that I can really make some really cool videos from a visual perspective. I just need to find the time. The power glove definitely has an interesting history. One thing I kind of glossed over was how Chris Gentile (from A.G.E) kept annoying the hell out of the Mattel engineers and programmers. Also, Will Novak from Mattel thought the thing was going to suck from the start. It always blew my mind that these guys had the balls to say, "yeah, we can take a $10,000 piece of equipment and turn it into a $75 video game accessory. No problem." As a kid, I remember having a really fun time playing Super Glove Ball the one time we magically calibrated it perfectly. Every other time was a disaster. Reply · 1
Excellent video on the Power Glove--I enjoyed the presentation and "kinetic flow" of your editing here. It's something I strive to do myself in my videos. Also, it was good talking to you for two seconds or so over on Ian's stream Hopefully we'll have another chance next weekend.
+Jimmy Hapa (Import Gaming FTW!) Thanks man! Coincidentally my gf and I just watched your video on Sailor moon famicom games last night. It was really well done. We were both quite jealous of your mastery over Japanese language as well.
You could do a video compilation of all of the old videogame tech that has way outlived its design intent. I know people have done some crazy stuff with wiimotes and kinects also. The military may have a lot of hand-me-down tech, but so do videogames, and we're better for it.
Always nice to relive that history. One technical correction to your narration, starting at 3:40. Referring to Fig 1 of my patent, ultrasonic transmitter (17) on the glove (12) sends a 40kHz signal to three microphones (20) placed around the monitor (22).
the power glove was just ahead of its time and over complicated in its design. its a glove...all us kids really just wanted to punch shit with it...all those buttons and awkward arm controller idea just ruined it...if they kept it simple and made it to punch and chop shit it would have been fun. the best accessory was the gun especially for duck hunt, hogans alley, gotcha (the paintball war game) and the punisher...the punisher was sick! they should have made more games for the gun where you use the controller for some stages and the gun for others...
why isnt the powerglove making a comeback for VR? it would be so much better than the controllers that come with the oculus rift and htc vive. of course with MUCH improvement using modern technology and tracking.
Son of a bitch... I was supposed to calibrate that flaming pile of shit? Oh well, it was make-believe gold when paired with the Ghostbusters proton pack and a Nerf blaster!
+skanlessdago Thanks! My next one is going to be on the Atari Jaguar and should be out in a week or two. It's actually going to be my longest video to date, coming in right around thirty minutes.
Wrestling With Gaming I was just thinking about the Jaguar. I wanted to get it just for one game. Alien vs Predator or something like that. Played demo in Wal-Mart back in the day. Saved up enough money to buy one. Went to go buy it and guess. My luck. None. Lady at the counter said something about they sold last one and were discontinued.
+Daniel Stanford Funny you mention the jaguar. I don't know if I mentioned it to you on one of my other replies but the next video is going to be on the Atari Jaguar. I was able to get some input on it from Leonard Tramiel and am getting some assistance from a guy that works for a gaming magazine with research verification. All of that has made the video take longer to complete bit I think it'll be well worth it. Most of it is already edited. I just have two more pages worth of material to edit but then I'll have it checked for accuracy and add or remove as needed. I should have it up in a week or two
+Daniel Stanford here's a preview I had posted of the Atari jaguar video last month. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-GQEdB1U4B9c.html It's currently unlisted so it doesn't show up on my video list. Once I realized I wasn't going to make it anywhere close to my deadline I took the preview down and posted the Famicom modem video since it was pretty much ready to go.
+Corey Trevor Thanks! Appreciate you taking the time to watch and comment. Next new video should be out in a week or two. It'll be on the Atari Jaguar.
Thanks man! I feel like I've been saying, "it'll be out next week" for like a month. Oh wait, I was lol. Might do some drunk streaming tomorrow night btw.
I've been avoiding this channel for the longest time based just on the name, I thought it was gonna be about WWF games, but man, video essays like this are my shit. Subbed
When will manufacturers understand that gamers don't really want virtual reality? We just want to live through incredible adventures without leaving our couch, and a simple gamepad is more than perfect for that.
Thanks for this video. I always wondered what the Power Glove was actually for. Wasn't there an accessory for the NES that looked like a little robot? I think I remember seeing it in Nintendo commercials when I was a kid. What did it do?
R.O.B the robot i think is what you're thinking of. I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure the only games it was technically made for Gyromite and Stack Up. I had one but barely remember what it did lol. I think it just reacted to stuff that happened on screen and made a few movements. I know that the working principle behind it was basically the same as the NES zapper so it'll onnly work with an old school CRT tv. Hmm, maybe I should research it and do a video on it.
One of my friends had ROB the Robot. Yes it was terrible. Had it been able to be used as a second player for when you don’t have a friend to play with it would have been revolutionary.
+DoctorBlankenstein thanks for checking out the video. That's actually a good idea. I've always been curious about the u-force but never owned one myself. I'll probably try to track one down first just to have a little bit of first hand experience to give my research some personal context.
Don't ever stop making videos. I've watched a ton of videogame documentary videos and only watched two of yours so far (just discovered your channel last night), and you're leaps and bounds better. Your articulation, presentation, and your material all coalesce perfectly. Thanks again for the great videos. I'll be binge watching the rest of your material tonight.
+Shawn Thanks man! It's been a rough day so this was actually really nice to read. You might change your mind when you get to some of the older ones! Lol. I actually have a new video coming out tomorrow on the Atari Jaguar. It'll probably be published around 2pm EST. Thanks for checking the channel out and for the kind words. Really appreciate it.
Once again great editing and a good story as well,I really enjoy how you stick to the thesis (how the power glove originated from NASA research) and intertwined relevant ads of the day. Keep it up - surprised your subscriber count isnt going up quicker - you have a post with 3k upvotes on reddit and soon these views will translate intro subscribers! Liked.
+jblsucks321 Thanks man. Unlike that bully JBL, you don't suck lol. I wanted to spend a bit more time on the backgrounds of Zimmerman, Lanier, and Chris gentile but there's another video out there that does that so I decided to go a different route. I wish my sub count would go up quicker too haha. RU-vid is a marathon though man. I just gotta keep plugging away making the next stuff I can. I didn't know about the 3K Reddit post. That's crazy. What sub Reddit is it in? It explains why this video has gotten so much attention. The count hasn't fully updated on here but according to RU-vid Analytics it's at 12K views in 24 hours. I'm floored... and a bit buzzed but that's not relevant. Good hearing from you.
The Power Glove was released in 1989, and according to dollartimes.com, its price of $75 had the same buying power as $150.27 in 2017. Fantastic video, I subscribed immediately.
+adamlundq Thanks so much. As much as I didn't like the Power Glove as a kid it really is pretty impressive that they were even able to put it together in such a relatively short period of time.
I was born in 1988 so I obviously don't remember the release of the Power Glove but one thing I do know about the Power Glove is that it was featured in The Nightmare on Elm Street series which is probably why I know it
They ought to make a new power glove. I'm sure that with all the technological advancements since, Nintendo could potentially make an impressive device today that actually works like it was intended.
So, we're going to take a device that costs $10,000 and sell it for $75 with parts that cost around $20? I can't see what could have gone wrong there....
+Daniel Young it might be from another one of my RU-vid videos. Most of the music in this one I purchased the rights to use through motion array but any other ones that are royalty free are always linked to in the video's description.not sure which of the songs used you were referring to but you might find it in the description.
+Nick Parbs Thanks! I'm glad you like them man. It'd be cool if those subs come one day but I'm just happy people have been checking the videos out lately.
+rayikaikin haha! Yeah, it was... not good. My friends and I got it perfectly calibrated once. Super Glove Ball actually went really well with it that day. That was the only time we got it to with as intended.
Thanks man! Haha, that's funny. As a kid I wanted a Sega CD and I didn't own a Genesis so I get what you mean. As a kid, I remember having a really fun time playing Super Glove Ball the one time we magically calibrated it perfectly. Every other time was a disaster.
I think it's probably the three-dimensional location of the hand (left/right,up/down,forward/backward) and then the tilt of the hand left and right (I think that is called yaw) and the tilt of the hand forward and backward (pitch?). The last two aren't really dimensions, but I think that is what they are talking about.
Glass Joe!!!!!????? My son has been beating him with KO's sine he was 4! Hahahahahhahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
I just came across your channel I'ma a gamer and I love all your videos I have watched so far... Keep up the GREAT work! EDIT: You got me as a subscriber!
+Steven Ashley Thanks so much! I should have another video up in the next couple of weeks or so. It's going to be on the Atari Jaguar. I actually got some input on it from Leonard Tramiel from Atari. It's probably going to be close to a 30 minute video. Never as a kid did I think I would ever spend so much time researching the Jaguar lol. Thanks again for checking the channel out
