The Power Glove Lives! - Alternate Game Control Schemes

Thanks to Armchair Arcade for its article discussing alternate videogame control schemes from the '80s to the present day, particularly concentrating on "a consumer VR glove called the P5", which takes a cue from "the legendary [Nintendo] Power Glove." However, the author comments "One thing you will quickly notice when playing [P5-compatible] games is how tired they make your arm... When I was in elementary school, I had a teacher who would punish students by making them stand with their arm over their head for five minutes. At the end of the ordeal, your hands are cold from lack of circulation and your muscles are fatigued. It's the same thing here." Armchair Arcade also has a number of other new articles online, including a look at intellectual property and videogame history, and a discussion of FPS games vs. 2D platformers.

Comments

VR helmets?

[Donimo]

So, where are we with decent 3D goggles or helmets these days? Donimo

Re:VR helmets?

[SuperMo0]

There's one arcade game that I know of where you stick your head in a helmet, and a LCD screen inside (I realize that this isn't quite VR, but the way it's designed is quite cool) basically serves as the view of the game. You are a stationary turret shooting tanks, soldiers and planes, and you turn and aim by moving the helmet (i.e. turning around in a circle and tilting your head up and down). You don't end up dizzy because it does not require much rotation, and because dizziness results from not having a point of reference. The graphics aren't amazing, but the game is fun to play because of the immersiveness of the whole thing.

P5 doesn't live up to the hype

[Scottarius]

I recently bought a P5 off of ebay and was pretty excited to start playing with it. It's fun to mess with, but doesn't work nearly as well as they claim. It's by far not accurate enough to play a serious FPS with and very touchy. If you get off center with your hand it's hard to get it back to where it's usable since it just keeps tracking your hand no matter where it is, and it's very difficult to turn completely around with the thing because then your hand it way off to the side somewhere. After about 10 minutes I just put it down in frustration and started using the mouse again, and now it's just sitting on my desk like a neglected toy.

Interface

[Lord_Dweomer]

I'd love to see some tactile interface integrated. As well as an "air mouse" type input where you can point your finger at the screen to do things.

An interesting idea?

[SuperMo0]

The FogScreen (previously mentioned on /., if I recall correctly) might be an idea for large arcades or ehibitions (like anime cons)... can you imagine someone playing DDR right under the arrows, essentially replacing the ingame dancers?

Re:An interesting idea?

[shadowcabbit]

DDR on a huge blurry screen would suck... accuracy would go right out the window. I admit it's a cool concept-- and if you had an LCD monitor for the dancers to use, it would look hella cool-- but unless it's a little sharper I probably wouldn't want to use FogScreen for anything that requires a whole lot of pinpoint precision.

I came very close to picking up EyeToy Groove the other night (decided on Mario vs. DK and Viewtiful Joe instead) simply because I love the challenge of something totally different from what I expect to think of when I hear "video game". It's part of what attracted me to DDR in the first place; I'm particularly fond of gun games, and the recent crop of motion-capture games to come out of Konami (Police 911, MoCap Boxing/Golf) are certainly welcome in any arcade. If games want to continue to be successful they cannot be afraid to bend or break existing control paradigms. Give it a couple more months, maybe a year, and we'll start seeing a few of the more obscure Bemani games come to the US-- and following those, more games with unique cabinets and unique controls.

To go off on a tangent, anyone who says that arcades are dying because home consoles can do things better than an arcade cabinet has obviously not been to an arcade recently. Here in Erie, we have two major arcades (plus the occasional machine in shops here and there). Each of these is filled with games with highly-specialized cabinets. One arcade (Splash Lagoon, if you find yourself on I-90 one afternoon with a few bucks to burn) has DDR, Warzaid (Vietnam-looking 4-player gun game w/ rifles), Mechwarrior (with full-motion cockpit-- hella fun), about half a dozen more gun games, and MoCap Boxing, Golf and Police 911 2. Aside from DDR, show me any of the home versions of these. Arcade game manufacturers need to focus a little bit more on creating new games that simply can't be done economically on a home console. Spend a few extra bucks on a specialized cabinet and I can guarantee you that if the game doesn't suck, you will make that money back.

(Don't mod either of these offtopic, please-- DDR is pretty much the textbook definition of "alternate control schemes". ^_^)

P5 & Black & White

[Zarks]

I was think of getting a P5 after I heard that Black & White supported it. Since you only have a hand to control the world with (no menus) being able to do it with your real hand would be cool. Couple that with a VR helmet and it would be totally immersive.

Unfortunatly the actual gameplay of B&W wasn't that good but it had some great ideas and I'm looking forward to the sequel.

Re:P5 & Black & White

[Minna Kirai]

I was think of getting a P5 after I heard that Black & White supported it.

P5 + B&W = not too good.

Although B&W says it uses a "hand" to control everything, that's really just a different looking mouse cursor. B&W's interface is highly optimized towards use with a regular mouse (gestures and everything), so you wouldn't gain anything from having 5 fingers to bend. Although it would give a new meaning to gorilla arm... ("I got gorilla arm from slapping my monkey too much")

(But then again, my P5 is really too inaccurate to use for anything. Even clicking desktop icons is a challenge)

Garbage positional data...

[TheSwink]

A friend of mine picked a P5 up on a whim (and for a very reasonable $20!). Being a sharp and sprightly lad he created a Virtools BB that exposed the various variables the P5 outputs, for to tinker with: http://devlab.flashbangstudios.biz/article.php?sto ry=20031104014626613#comments -scroll down a bit for the exact post. Unfortunately, his prognosis was that while the finger bending data was simple enough and had the fidelity to be applicable, the positional data is unusable garbage. Because the desktop P5 positional sensor looks at a series of reflectors on the top of the glove to determine 3d position, the 'actual' position of the glove (as far as the sensor is concerned) leaps around in the most annoying manner imaginable if even one if the sensors becomes obscured. If you've seen the glove, you can see how easily that might happen while trying to play a game with it. For my part, I played with it for awhile and found it to be well-designed and aesthetically pleasing, if not practical. For $20 it would make a good centerpiece for a Halloween costume ;).

Re:It must come with the console first

[The Only Druid]

Wow, you missed here on a pretty obvious point, demonstrating that you didn't read the article, nor are you familiar with the device. The p5 is for the PC, and has been out for at least two years or so.

Other peripherals - for example the multitude of light guns for every system, or the DDR pad for home versions - have all sold quite well, despite not coming with a system. Some light-gun games have even sold for $99 or so instead of $50 because they include a gun (i.e. no real savings, you just get a branded gun).

The real question is...

[KoopaTroopa]

How bad does Lucas think it is?

Virtusphere

[CoreyGH]

http://www.virtusphere.com/ It's basicaly a human sized version of those small plastic spheres you could put your hampster in to let them run around on the floor. The virtusphere apears to sit on top of some wheels. This is where we need to go with VR. I want a game that lets me: 1) walk/run to control character movement 2) Move my head to control view point and 3) Move a gun or other pointer device to control reticle movement. I want to be able to run forward while looking left and at the same time, shoot behind me. Imagine arcades with, say, six of these virtusphere things as well as modded versions of Battlefield 1942 or Counterstrike hooked up to them.

xbox compliant?

[Anubis350]

from the article:
Future editions of the P5 will be compatible with popular game consoles such as PS2 and Xbox.

I dont know about ps2, but the xbox uses a proprietary USB plug, a few minutes with USB extension cable, a connector from an xbox controller cable, and a soldering iron could easily make this xbox compliant. Having done it I can honestly say it takes maybe 5 mins. Now, finding games to play with it might be a little harder....

If there are any linux games that use it though you can linux your xbox (xbox-linux.org) and then use it. Though in that case I guess you could just plug it into your reg computer..... It is cool though... anyways,

Just a comment.
--Aaron