Power Glove
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Image:Power-Glove-image-layed-out.jpg Image:Supergloveball.GIF Image:Powerglovead.jpg The Power Glove is a controller accessory for the Nintendo Entertainment System designed by Abrams/Gentile Entertainment, made by Mattel in the United States and PAX in Japan. The peripheral originally retailed for $100 (USD).
This controller was unique in the fact that it was a glove instead of the normal controller. On the glove it included a set of controls like a normal controller. It also included a program button and buttons labeled 0-9. A person would hit the program button and a numbered button to do various things (such as increase or decrease the firing rate of the A and B buttons). Along with the controller, someone could move their hand in various movements to control the character on-screen.
It was based on the patented technology of the VPL Dataglove, but with many modifications that allowed it to be used with a slow hardware and sold at an affordable price. Where the Dataglove could detect yaw, pitch and roll, used fiberoptic sensors to detect finger flexure and had a resolution of 256 positions (8 bits) per 5 fingers, the Power Glove could only detect roll, and used sensors coated with conductive ink yielding a resolution of 4 positions (2 bits) per 4 fingers. This allowed the Power Glove to store all the finger flexure information in a single byte.
Only two games were released with specific features for use with the Power Glove, Super Glove Ball, a 3D Breakout clone, and Bad Street Brawler, a difficult to control Double Dragon clone, playable with the standard NES controller, but allowing exclusive moves with the glove. Two more games, Glove Pilot and Manipulator Glove Adventure, were announced but never released. Super Glove Ball was never released in Japan. Since no games ever retailed in Japan, the Power Glove was sold only as an alternative controller. This decision hurt sales and eventually caused PAX to declare bankruptcy.
In popular culture
The power glove made an infamous appearance in the movie The Wizard, where Lucas Barton (Jimmy's rival) was seen playing Rad Racer using the device. Afterwards, he proclaims, "I love the Power Glove! It's so bad!" which became a popular quote among video game aficionados.
Freddy Krueger uses a "Power Glove" (in reality, his own razor-tipped glove with various lights and buttons attached) to kill Breckin Meyer's character, whom he had trapped in a video game, in 1991's Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare. An article in Nintendo Power magazine, released after the film, featured an interview with "Krueger" player Robert Englund, who claimed he had installed "retractable blades" on his own Power Glove at home.
The glove was somewhat difficult to use; in order for the glove to register with the ultrasonic sensors, one had to keep their knuckles pointing at them at all times. In addition, since each finger had 4 positions, it is difficult to have disparate fingers in different positions simultaneously. Thus, while it was possible to control 16 different states simultaneously, most people have difficulty keeping the ring and index fingers straight, while bending the middle finger.
While the Power Glove was never a popular input device for the NES, it later gained tremendous popularity among virtual reality enthusiasts as a wired glove. This was mostly due to its low cost and high availability. In 1996, Abrams/Gentile Entertainment was expected to release a new and better Power Glove, designed specifically for the PC, but the product never materialized. Later, they designed a product codenamed Gauntlet that went on to become Essential Reality's P5 Glove.
The "Power Glove" is the name of a Legend of Zelda item that first appeared in the Adventure of Link.
One of the villains in Pure Pwnage wields a Power Glove.