Now you’re playing with power!

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NOTE: This is a special guest blog written by honorable son Eric:

 

17 years before Nintendo’s motion-sensing Wiimote/Nunchaku, there was the Power Glove for the NES. An interesting early experiment in gaming technology, it was a barely functioning “glove” that sensed your arm and finger motions and let you control games with them.

In stark contrast to the Wiimote’s small and slim sensor bar, the Power Glove required that you place these three somewhat bulky sensors on the corners of your TV. It sold fairly well due to a successful marketing campaign, but it was totally impractical to use when compared to the normal controller.

The Power Glove was immortalized in the 1989 movie The Wizard, starring Fred Savage and a ton of Nintendo product placements. The clip above contains the infamous scene!

“I love the Power Glove. It’s so bad.” That quote can be taken in several different ways, don’t you think?
 

Thanks, Eric! I would like to add a few points about The Wizard.

  1. The movie title is an obvious reference to The Who’s “Pinball Wizard.”
    2.  
  2. When the kid starts up the Power Glove, the five notes it plays are from Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
    3.  
  3. The line “…Just keep your power gloves off her, pal, huh?” adds to the infamy.