Version History Nintendo Power Glove: I love it. It's so bad.
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Dec 28, 2025 
This podcast features Chris Grant, a gaming writer known for his insights into hardware and culture, alongside Stephen Totilo from GameFile.news, who provides in-depth historical context. The conversation focuses on the quirky Power Glove, exploring its ambitious yet flawed design and how it paved the way for future motion control technology. They recount personal experiences with the glove, its infamous adoption hurdles, and its surprising cultural impact, including its role in 'The Wizard' movie. The discussion wraps up with its lasting legacy and potential nostalgia-driven comebacks.
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Patent Sparked Hand-Tracking Revolution
- Thomas Zimmerman's 1982 flex-sensor patent seeded decades of hand-tracking work that led to VPL's data glove and VR experiments.
- Simple light-and-photo setups evolved into fiber optics and ultrasonic/magnetic tracking for real 3D hand input.
Data Glove Was A Research-Grade Product
- VPL's expensive data glove sold to NASA and research labs used fiber optics and magnets for accurate tracking at roughly $10,000 a unit.
- The device worked well for professional VR but was far too costly for consumer markets.
Early VR Prototypes Predicted Modern VR
- Early VR demos like Reality Built For Two showed immersive ideas decades before consumer tech could deliver them.
- Those prototypes contained many design patterns later reused in modern VR and the metaverse conversation.