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10. The Power Glove – NES – 1989
To start off our list, we have the greatest glove peripheral to ever adorn wrists the world over. Okay, sorry, this first entry is a joke. The Power Glove by Mattel for NES was a joke. It was featured in the film (or 90 minute-long Nintendo commercial) The Wizard in 1989. The Power Glove was a precision glove that would put the power of a controller right into your hand. The end product was a clunky affair that required several TV sensors, and the unresponsive glove only substituted standard control inputs for vague hand gestures. But hey, it set the stage for the Wii Remote, yeah? Now, onto the REAL list.
Technical nitpick: The NES Zapper doesn’t need a curved CRT, just a sufficiently bright and fast (fast being the sticking point with modern TVs) display. Pull the trigger and the screen goes black, with a bright box covering one “hit” zone, for one 60th of a second per on-screen target. Some games let you aim at a light bulb and win, if it wasn’t checking for dark during the surrounding frames.
The Super Scope was even crazier; its hit or miss mechanism was actually based on the timing of when individual pixels were being lit on the screen within that 1/60th of a second timeslice. (Notice how no Super Scope game ever used very dark colors?)
We might someday build a plasma or LCD bright and fast enough to work with the Zapper, but the Super Scope has almost no chance. :^)
I’m kind of sad that the power pad for NES didn’t make the list even as an honorable mention. I remember hours spent playing World Class Track Meet with that thing and trying to figure out how long I could jump off the mat before jumping back on to get insane scores. Of course, it always ended up being me and my sister kneeling next to the mat slapping the run buttons as fast as we could… Good times.
Also, where were the good peripherals for SNES. I honestly can’t think of any besides the Super Game Boy.
The rumble pak was great for one reason… The video tape that Nintendo Power sent in the mail advertising Star Fox 64 and the rumble pak.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgEZJt911Qw