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Peripherals on Parade: Part 1

posted by nikki at 2:43 pm.

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I usually find that gimicky peripherals, at best, add very little to the overall gaming experience, and at worst are completely and utterly useless. But they can still be pretty snazzy looking, and every once in awhile you come across something that’s actually entertaining. So today, lets look at some add-ons and alternative-style controllers, past, present, and future.

Part 1: The Past

Power Glove - I suppose this could be considered the precursor to the Wii Remote. The Power Glove was a wearable controller that allowed the player to control the game through a combination of a control pad mounted on the glove and physical movement. The only problem was that it kind of sucked. A lot. The motion-sensing was limited (and occasionally unresponsive), and holding your arm out in front of you for more than 20 minutes at a time did not make for a fun experience. On the bright side, the Power Glove was featured in 1989’s The Wizard. Suckosity aside, to this day I still can’t bear to part with mine.

R.O.B. - Looking an awful lot like Number 5 from Short Circuit (does anyone besides me actually remember that movie?), Nintendo’s “Robotic Operating Buddy” was a cute little guy that reacted to oncreen light flashes and moved around accordingly. Granted, he was only compatible with Gyromite and Stack-Up… but that was enough to earn him a major roll in 2008’s Super Smash Bros Brawl.

Miracle Piano Teaching System - This was a piano keyboard that plugged into your NES and came with a “game” that taught you how to play piano. How effective was it? I actually used to own one of these… I still can’t play anything other than Mary Had a Little Lamb.

The Zapper and the Super Scope - What list would be complete without a nod to the Zapper and it’s bastard child, the Super Scope? Yes, the zapper… so “realistic” that Nintendo decided to change it’s color from shades of grey to a blinding florescent orange. And let’s not forget that it was the weapon of choice for Captain N (again, does anyone else actually remember this?). The Super Scope, on the other hand was a bazooka-shaped battery hog, measuring a whopping 2 feet long (making storage tedious at best).

The Power Pad - Another classic not-so-useful creation, the Power Pad strove to incorporate exercise into the gaming experience. Nearly all of the handful of games developed for it involved running in place (or beating wildly on the pad with your hands, which was far more effective, in my opinion). Probably the most well-remembered game was World Class Track Meet, which was included as part of a bundle with the NES console in the late 80s.

XBAND - I’ve found that very few people remember/have ever heard of this one. XBAND was the infant stage of online gaming. Designed for the SNES and Sega Genesis, it allowed players to go head-to-head on games like Super Mario Kart, Mortal Kombat 2 and 3, and Madden NFL 96. Unfortunately, having been released in 1994, it was limited to the crawling speeds of dial-up, and many compatible games experienced severe lag during online play. It wasn’t exactly cheap, either, operating on a subscription basis, and charging for long distance if you played against someone outside of your local calling area.

Coming up next: Peripherals of the Present

Nikki Blight: is still trying to find that damn princess... when she's not writing fresh code for the217.com.