Why You've Never Heard Of Nintendo's U-Force

Kids of the 90s think the Power Glove was the coolest gaming peripheral of the time. We might have thought so too, until we heard about Don't Touch: The U-Force Story from [The Gaming Historian].

The device itself folded up like a laptop, and on both surfaces there were four pairs of LEDs/IR sensors. All of these combined would locate your fist in space to play Mike Tyson's Punch Out, or work with various other passive controller add-ons as a flight yoke to play Top Gun< /em> . (One of the coolest features is the flip-up IR reflectors triggered by the yoke buttons.)

Overall, the shot in the video is that a number of factors doomed U-Force to play second fiddle to the Power Glove. Fighting Mattel's marketing prowess is obvious, but other issues such as manufacturing issues due to bad hinges and inconsistent infrared sensors delayed the release and increased costs. In the end, however, [Dave Capper], the inventor of the U-Force, just boils it down to unconvincing gameplay. No hit game has used it to its full potential.

At the time, the U-Force used more IR LEDs than any other consumer electronic device.

We think there's some interesting hacking potential in a simple interface like this. Perhaps its biggest Achilles heel aside from the lack of a killer app was the fact that it required calibration. We can imagine all kinds of awesome interactions, and we're not afraid of a little adjustment. Or maybe we should update the sensors to something more modern, like these inexpensive time-of-flight distance units.

Thank you [Karl Koscher] for bringing this documentary to our attention in the comments on the equally interesting laser theremin project we featured last year. It definitely opened our eyes to an ancient interaction from the past that would seem no less magical today.