A rather creative YouTuber has managed to give the quirky Nintendo Power Glove a new use by modifying it to be compatible with his Switch.
One clever Nintendo fan has done something so bizarre and unnecessary that it's impressive -- modifying his Nintendo Power Glove to use as a controller for the Switch.
As reported by IGN, Niles Mitchell, who goes by the name Will It Work? on YouTube, uploaded the 10-minute video on his channel describing the history of the controller and how he was able to modify the Power Glove to make it work. The YouTuber also included a demonstration of the glove in action, showing off gameplay of Pokémon Legends: Arceus and even hooking it up to a real-life, remote-controlled Mario Kart in Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit.
RELATED: Kanye West Once Pitched a Video Game to Super Mario Creator Shigeru Miyamoto
Similar to a YouTuber who makes accessibility adapters for Xbox and Playstation controllers, the modification could have never come to fruition without some essential pieces of equipment. The first piece, the USB NES RetroPort, is a small inline adapter that allowed the YouTuber to turn the glove into a USB controller, as it was originally powered by a serial port. The second piece, the ConsoleTuner Titan One, enabled the Switch to identify the glove as an external controller.
Not everything worked perfectly during Mitchell's work, though. The glove's motion control worked by utilizing sensors in front of the user's TV. As modern TVs are too thin to attach the Power Glove's sensors, Mitchell had to build a small wooden frame to mount them on. These sensors are also notorious for being slow, and throughout the video, the latency issues became very apparent. The YouTuber also had problems with the controls, having to use a script that would push the A button down to allow auto-acceleration in Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit. However, this is not entirely surprising, as the clunky controls of the Power Glove would result in the release of only two compatible games. This is in sharp contrast to the Nintendo Switch, which hosts over 4300 games and may become an even larger game library after a supposed Game Boy Advance emulator leak.
The Nintendo Power Glove was released to consumers in December 1989 and was an early example of virtual reality technology, allowing players to control aspects of a game with the motions of their hand. The glove sold less than a million units and was considered a commercial failure for the time. However, it has enjoyed a resurgence in nerd culture in the decades since and can now be found with prices fetching up to $500. Still, this is nowhere close to what some people will pay for Nintendo items, with one Brazilian Redditor even purchasing Barbie Glam and Groom Pups for an astounding $1,600.
Race Maddock hails from Indiana and is a Gaming News Writer at CBR. He is a 2022 graduate of Ball State University with a Bachelor of Arts in journalism and telecommunications. When he's not at his desk writing, you can usually find him producing dance music and obsessing over his record collection to anyone who'll listen. You can follow Race on Twitter at @RLMJournalist