“I love the Power Glove… it’s so bad.” – Lucas (Jackey Vinson) in The Wizard.
In 1989, ‘bad’ was slang for cool and there was nothing cooler than the Power Glove. At least, that’s what a generation who believed its marketing thought. Developed by Mattel as an alternative controller for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), the Power Glove promised to bridge the human-machine divide through early VR mechanics. Just slip on the glove to control your favourite NES games. Except it didn’t really work - well, not in the seamless way the Nintendo-produced movie The Wizard (1989) promised. The Power Glove’s prototype, the DataGlove, did work, but to be affordable for consumers it was simplified and ended up just… so bad.
The famous Power Glove scene from The Wizard. Video via VG Legacy's YouTube channel.
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On display until
16 February 2031
ACMI: Gallery 1
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The Story of the Moving Image → Moving Pictures → MI-08. Immersive Innovations → MI-08-C01