I was a bit older (in my mid-to late teens) when it came out, so I never understood the allure of Nintendo's failed peripheral, The Power Glove. It seems the people of Gen Y who were kids when it came out are simply fascinated by this thing that barely worked on a very, very good day.
Well, it seems that one of those kids who is now an adult has taken his obsession with the Power Glove to the next level. Dillon Markey is an animator for Adult Swim's hysterical stop-motion animation show "Robot Chicken." Markey uses a specially modified Power Glove to wirelessly control his animation software. His jerry-rigged controller is the subject of a short video by LA filmmaker Ava Benjamin, which you can check out below.
Several years ago, Markey was working on a scene, moving from one side of the stage to the other, walking from the stage to his computer and back again. "I remember thinking, carrying this USB-attached numeric keypad all around the stage with me, 'Why don't I just have this on my arm?'" he said. Suddenly, a light went off and for Markey, a childhood Power Glove devotee, the solution was obvious as Mario stomping on a Goomba.
According to Wired, Markey enlisted the aid of a buddy and together they rigged up a glove that serves as a wireless controller for his animation software of choice, allowing him to do his animation thing without the tedious walking back and forth to his computer thing. He also equipped the glove with a nifty set of retractable tweezers and secured magnets, which he uses to fine-tune the expressions on his characters' tiny faces. Tres cool.
All this awesomeness makes one wonder when some industrious soul will turn the Sega Meancer into a real weapon, or find a way to make a Wii remote move actual objects around in the real world.
Hey, it could happen...just ask Dillon Markey.