Although retro gaming is more popular than ever, there are some classic hardware worth forgetting. The Power Glove was one of Nintendo's most disappointing accessories, but that didn't deter Niles Mitchell from resurrecting it and making it work with the Switch and Mario Kart Live.
Mitchell's favorite pastime is an uncommon one, but it often makes for compelling videos on their YouTube channel, Will It Work? In the past, they have figured out how to connect an Iomega Zip Drive to the Apple Watch, and even got an original 1977 Atari joystick to work with the Nintendo Switch.
Mitchell returns to the Switch with a neat hack that kids in 1989 probably wish they had, as it makes the Nintendo Power Glove actually usable. The Power Glove looked like a futuristic cyberpunk accessory and promised motion controls on the NES decades before the Wii would arrive. The Power Glove hardware was able to triangulate its location and movements with the help of the player's TV. The controller exhibited terrible lag because sound and electrical signals travel down a wire at 670,616,629 MPH. It never stood a chance with only two NES games compatible with the Power Glove motion controls.
Asking why someone would want to make the Power Glove work with a modern console is not the right question. The right question is asking how Mitchell was able to pull this off, and it comes down to two pieces of hardware: the RetroPort v2 and the Titan One.
Mitchell had to build a wooden frame to mount the Power Glove's sensors in front of his screen because modern TVs are too thin. While the wristband worked well with games like Pokémon, even supporting the varied sensitivity of an analog joystick, watching the glove steer one of the RC racers from Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit with a wave of the arm to the left or right almost makes it seem like