Talk:Power Glove

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PowerGlove Technical Support Fun Fact[edit]

The technical support number listed on the power boxes for the PG (1-416-253-PLAY) is no longer a technical support number for Nintendo or the company that made it. It is a residential number now that will not get a kick out of being asked for technical support for your powerglove. NinjaChan

Lacking or flawed information[edit]

As someone who actually likes the bloody thing, i'm surprised at how little REAL information is contained in this article. For an article with a paragraph titled "how it works" there is no verbose mention of its use of a 3-point sensor bar whatsoever (though it is pictured), and the reader is left with the impression that the glove is simply a downgraded Dataglove, which is like saying a bicycle is a downgraded Ferrari F40. The sentences "It was the first peripheral interface controller to recreate human hand movements on a television or computer screen" and "It was based on the patented technology of the VPL Dataglove" seem contradictory. Compared to the R.O.B article, this one is uninformative and slapdash. --Decept404 (talk) 11:44, 21 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Possible Links[edit]

Hey would anyone consider linking this to the Wii page? Since the Power Glove might have been a very early inspiration to the motion-sensing version of gaming. Just like Duck Hunt.

Also this could be linked the the Angry Nintendo Nerd cause he just recently made a video about the Power Glove.

Stuff[edit]

"Various games were made just for the use of the Power Glove"

Wasn't Super Glove Ball the only game made specifically for the Power Glove?

some were but were never released, afaik. Family Guy Guy 19:42, 16 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

There was also the terrible but somehow passable for it's day 'Bad Street Brawler'. Information on this game at http://www.seanbaby.com/nes/egm16.htm

The power glove underwent a sudden design change between unveiling and commercial release. I don't remember exactly what, but i seem to recall the d-pad being a quad of buttons in the photos, looking like a playstation d-pad.

Wasn't the power glove also used as the original controller for the system in the "The First $20 Million" Giant89 03:11, 28 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

"It can be argued that the Power Glove is the predecessor of the Nintendo Revolution controller, which uses a sensor bar to detect movement in space. The method used is most likely some sort of triangulation." Most likely? It can be argued? Absolutely idiotic —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.30.19.247 (talkcontribs)

"Power Glove is also the name of a Legend of Zelda item that first debuted in the Adventure of Link." In Zelda 2, I thought they called the item the "Handy Glove"? Anyone know for sure? I haven't played in years. -- DocSigma 20:01, 6 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Is there no information on the the gloves ultrasonic positioning? The power glove is definitly an item is "A Link to the Past" Hackaday 06:19, 9 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you to whoever remembered the power glove gaming series and added it to the entry. I agree with hackaday about the neccessity of adding information about the ultrasonic positioning, as it was both an important feature of the glove, and one of it's most annoying setup entailments.

DocSigma both names appear as items in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, as different 'strengths' of a similar item. The handy glove allows you to lift the 'single tile' sized light colored stones, and the power glove allows you to lift the dark single tile stones and light 4 tile stones. Both items are represented with icons that are similar to the power glove.

The Power Glove influenced The Glove for the Nintendo 64 and Playstation. The Glove was created by Reality Quest.

Shouldn't it be added that the Power Glove was also barely functional? At all? I mean, it's hardly a POV issue when you're talking about an item that provenly hardly works.


Why has no one ever mentioned the role it played in the cartoon Captain N: The Game Master? I would add it, but the only references are the show itself. LReyome254 (talk) 15:58, 10 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Sources are not cited[edit]

This article does not properly WP:CITE sources, can someone possibly help out with that? Yamaguchi先生 21:33, 23 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

It has been almost one month and no one has offered to help with this — I am going to being removing unsupported content under the direction of Jimmy Wales [1] and adding reliable sources as I can locate them. Yamaguchi先生 01:37, 18 October 2006
I added the required references. Devil Master 16:21, 7 November 2006 (MET)

Compatible games list[edit]

What purpose does it serve to list all of these "compatible" games, would it not make more sense to list only those games designed for use with the Power Glove? No one would want to play the majority of these using the glove. Yamaguchi先生 01:34, 18 October 2006

Since the Power Glove included a standard controller, and the number buttons could be programmed to perform controller and button-press combinations, aren't all NES games not specifically designed for another peripheral (like the zapper) compatible with the Power Glove? Does this list have any meaning at all? — Gwalla | Talk 07:09, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
This list should be removed, because it adds little or nothing to the article. I suggest making a separate page List of Power Glove compatable NES games if you truely feel the list is necessary to include. ExplorerCY (talk) 03:33, 5 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Objections to list removal[edit]

Please put objections here, or it will be removed.

Power Glove Picture[edit]

It says that the Power Glove in the picture is the Mattel Version, however it is obviously of the PAX Version. It says PAX and Famicom right on the glove! I've edited it so that it says the correct thing. ToyoWolf 06:40, 12 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Power Glove flex sensor and some other details[edit]

Mattel (and presumably Pax) used a flex sensor supplied by Abrams Gentile Entertainment. [2] According to AGE, the product revenue "Gross $88 million"; if they sold for $99 that would be nearly 900k units sold; I'd be surprised if it really was that many but it's possible, esp. if maybe it was more popular in Japan than in US.

Source of the flex sensor is consistent with the Power Glove FAQ [3] "The PG was designed by Chris Gentile (the "G" of AGE) and someone named "Novak" at Mattel."

Here are two Web sites that claim the AGE flex sensor is currently available via Jameco as P/N 150551 [4] [5]

And here is the Jameco page with data sheets and price breaks [6]. 10 kohm resistance nominal, 30-40 kohm at maximum deflection. $12.95 in small quantities.

Michael Gold 20:59, 15 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

"The Power Glove sold approximately 100,000 units in the U.S. Its gross sales totaled $88 million." just doesn't sound mathematically accurate. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Zeroeon (talkcontribs) 03:55, 1 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Sizes[edit]

I think it'd be good info to add about the various sizes the Power Glove was made in. I don't know much about this, or I'd add it myself. Trey56 20:27, 27 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Was realised in a movie.[edit]

Somewhere I heard the first place the power glove was mentioned or seen in was some movie I forget what it was called, or I would have put it in. Can anyone tell me? —Preceding unsigned comment added by The End 1493 (talkcontribs) 00:35, 13 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

It was called The Wizard.--roddie digital 23:29, 18 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Functionality/Problems[edit]

It's not written anywhere that the Powerglove didn't really serve it's purpose as a controller. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.172.169.21 (talk) 16:10, 2 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

And it shouldn't be, because that's an opinion. — Gwalla | Talk 05:08, 4 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

it didn't work. that's not an opinion, it's a fact. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.60.226.93 (talk) 23:43, 13 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

No, it’s an opinion. The fact is, it DID work. It’s your opinion that it didn’t really serve its purpose as a controller. And fortunately, many people who have had the chance to use it share that opinion. — NRen2k5 22:24, 2 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
So it's ok for movie pages to mention reviews, the Virtua Boy page to mention headaches, the Ford Pinto page to mention it regularly explodes, the Tivo page to mention firmware critcisms, the 360 page to mention RROD, and thousands of other pages to mention commonly published complaints, criticisms, and reviews, but it's not ok to mention the Power Glove was widely criticized and parodied by magazines of the time? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.60.226.93 (talk) 06:24, 1 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Complaints, criticisms, and reviews are fine to mention in any article where they are relevant, but only if they are attributed to the critic/reviewer (or the publication in which the complaint, critique, or review appeared). "Some say", "it is widely thought that", or "it is often said by <non-centralized, diverse group>" is not sufficient: Avoid weasel words. — Gwalla | Talk 18:10, 1 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Check out the AVGN review, the power glove does NOT work. Androo123 (talk) 05:28, 29 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Metal Band[edit]

Is there any real relevance of having information on the metal band Powerglove merged in this article? Perhaps it could be made into its own article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 142.177.66.2 (talk) 05:25, 19 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

142.161.103.242 (talk) 14:55, 22 September 2008 (UTC) It looks like all references to the band are now gone -- what happened? Google indicates the nintendo glove page should be power_glove, and the band should be powerglove, but powerglove is now just a redirect to this page. Any way to revert that screw-up?[reply]

No screw up. There was a discussion and consensus was that the band does not meet notability requirements for Wikipedia. --Marty Goldberg (talk) 15:50, 22 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]
They have 2 full albums out and they don't meet notability requirements? I turn to Wikipedia to find out the discography of this band and it doesn't actually exist. The band's individual discs are located on Wikipedia, Metal Kombat for the Mortal Man and Total Pwnage, so why can't the band itself have a page? Sp!ke (talk) 23:38, 20 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I concur. There is no reason why they shouldn't be allowed their own article, especially when such visionaries as The Minibosses and The Megas get their own. Sherick (talk) 17:39, 20 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

"I love to Power Glove"[edit]

Does anyone notice that Lucas doesn't say "I love the Power Glove", he says "I love to Power Glove"? -- χγʒ͡ʒγʋᾳ (talk) 22:58, 12 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

No, it is indeed "the" and not "to." Watch it again. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.61.90.8 (talk) 01:55, 23 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

ultrasonic transmitter[edit]

Seems that is completly absent the 50% of the job of the powerglove in the article. Ok fiber flex, but what about Ultrasonic transmitter? Are stricly needed to detect glove movement in the space. i guess that emitters are in the glove, and two separate receivers are put on the front (usually on the monitor). 88.149.244.237 (talk) 14:29, 10 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

In the Power Glove the flex sensors are carbon-based. In the DataGlove the sensors are optical fibers. There are two ultrasonic speakers (transmitters) in the glove and three ultrasonic microphones (receivers) around the TV monitor. The ultrasonic speakers take turns transmitting a short burst (a few pulses) of 40 kHz sound and the system measures the time it takes for the sound to reach the microphones. Then a triangulation is done to calculate the location of each of the two speakers. This then specifies the location (X, Y, Z), yaw and roll of the hand. The only dimension it can't calculate is the pitch of the hand, since you can pitch your hand without moving the location of the two ultrasonic speakers. [I developed the hardware and software for the original prototype at VPL before AGE got hold of the invention]. -Tom Zimmerman —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.23.83.156 (talk) 07:02, 2 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry I did not include a reference. Please refer to the following issued US Patent that describes in great detail (including schematics) how the ultrasonic tracking works. Regards, Tom Zimmerman (AKA Thomas G. Zimmerman).... US Patent 4988981 "Computer data entry and manipulation apparatus and method", Inventors: Thomas G Zimmerman, Jaron Z Lanier, Filed Feb 28, 1989, Issued Jan 29, 1991 76.9.68.191 (talk) 00:33, 27 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]


I am not sure how to include this information because I have no Citations for it. There was a Power Glove in a VR Lab at Syracuse University (SUGRFX) in 1990-3 time frame. We used the glove as a navigation aid moving through a 3D Environment. Internet notes remind me that the glove/controller was interfaced through Motorola MC68HC11 Microcontroller, to our SGI's serial port. Our SGI computer was used to render our 8bit Z-buffered world, thats 8 bits in each direction. David Barberi was the C coder, I broke things and did demos.

The glove has a pair of ultrasonic transmitters presumably chirping at different frequencies transmitting to the L shaped part that rested on the screen. Glove position is determined by timing the each transmitter between the 3 receivers and doing a simple triangulation in space. Triangulation was accurate enough to provide roll and distance out to about 8'. Pitch and yaw data was not available. Overall performance had a steep fall off the further you were from the screen because the receivers would loose track of the transmitters. Some of the claims of unreliability were due to this and the ultrasonic nature of the positioning source. Simply jangling a ring of keys would cause erratic movement and loss of tracking. A similar problem would be had for any kind of high frequency noise source.

The Power Glove has 4x4 resolution. That is 4 fingers by 4 positions. Finger positions as have been previously been mentioned was a resistive strip. Bending the strip increases the resistance. This resistance is broken into ranges by the A/D converter. The resistive strip ran though the Thumb, Index, Middle and Ring fingers.

We had both a Power Glove, and the much nicer Gentile DataGlove. We had them because Gentile was a graduate of Syracuse University and he had donated the equipment. Rjhawkin (talk) 03:25, 11 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Film link[edit]

The link to The Wizard seems to go to a different version of the film to the one discussed here. I'm not sure which page has the inaccuracies, but the page linked to features a film with different actors and characters. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.176.205.122 (talk) 10:24, 10 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Did it lead to WII motion control?[edit]

The technology used by the glove is entirely different to the Wii remote - Ultrasonic speakers vs Infrared - gyros vs flex sensors etc - nobody involved with the glove developed the wii (as far as I can tell) and the relative failure of the power glove would seem to contradict the idea that it lead to the wii control scheme.

The article implies a direct relationship where none exists. To quote the article cited:

"The Powerglove also has a pretty impressive legacy. The motion-sensitive controls that it pioneered are being used today in both Nintendo’s Wii and the PlayStation 3’s SixAxis controllers."

This is patently untrue - none of the technology used in the power glove is used in these devices.... —Preceding unsigned comment added by Espontaneo (talkcontribs) 13:59, 22 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]


Powerglove the video game metal band[edit]

Powerglove was previously not deemed encyclopaedic due to not conforming to Wikipedia standards of artist notability. However, Powerglove are now signed to a renowned record label and so deserve to have an article. This can be found here: Powerglove (band). Please add to this article but only include sourced information. I've added disambiguation headers for both articles BUT entering "powerglove" in the search field will still redirect here. The redirect page is foolishly protected so can someone please sort that out. Jeff24 (talk) 20:30, 21 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

They've been deleted three times and I still see nothing that gives any real sense of notability. Simply signing to a NA indie label does not demonstrate that. And there was nothing "foolishly protected", it was protected precisely because of this. It was deleted 3 times before, and now here's a 4th recreation. --Marty Goldberg (talk) 21:15, 21 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I disagree. The band has signed to E1 music and from their list of signed artists they all seem notable. In addition they have toured with bands like Sonata Arctica, HammerFall and DragonForce among others, all very big names. That the redirect page was protected is ridiculous. 94.192.87.215 (talk) 11:46, 22 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Shouldn't Beethoven (dog) be added in the "In popular culture" section[edit]

I remember the power glove being used in the first beethoven (dog) movie in the mario bros 3 scene DNVIC (talk) 15:00, 13 June 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Add Canada to list of locations where sold[edit]

In the following line, under Development:

"Rather, it was designed by Grant Goddard and Samuel Cooper Davis for Abrams/Gentile Entertainment (AGE), made by Mattel in the United States[3] and PAX in Japan."

Source is the Power Glove box I own with French language on it, Mattel logo and a Zellers sticker on it, can provide pictures as source. Would edit myself but a bot will come along and undo it because I'm a rando. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.108.0.223 (talk) 22:26, 31 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]