I'm always blown away by how professional and deep your documentaries are. Gaming Historian truly stands out amongst the huge amount of video game content on TH-cam.
You've obviously have never watched PBS, which is exactly what he modeled his channel after, including the little "funding is provided for" thing at the end of every episode. It def makes it seem more professional.
I recall AVGN being really confused as to how the steering stick worked, as it just sits in a little groove with no connection to the device. Thanks for explaining how that worked, it’s fascinating.
I like this guy. He seems pretty genuine. Passionate about his work, and admits the mistakes made but learned from it. I guess enjoying people lighting up is the mark of a true toymaker.
Did he learn from it? His conclusion was that they should have concentrated on 1 game and straightened out the manufacturing issues. Not that the concept itself is bad. Which it is.
0:52 “If you’ve got hands, you can do this!” As opposed to all those game controllers that don’t use your hands. Too long have foot-controlled video games dominated the industry!
@@GamingHistorian I’d love to see that: someone trying to beat Super Mario Bros. or Punch-Out on a U-Force with their feet. That’s the true test of skill for any pro-gamer!
@@BenCol Zallard1 playing Punch-Out blindfolded, upside down, using a U-Force with his feet is probably the next logical progression. I mean, anyone can technically do it but he'll just take their WR lol.
23:43 "if I had the U-Force to do over again, I would've designed games just for it" watching this made me realize it never DID have any dedicated games like the power glove did, that probably would've been a good way to show the other companies how to make the device work! I guess we'll never know how much it would've really helped, though. I had no idea that there WERE any games for it! guess that one just never came out since it was too late
Yes. This is why I hate products like these. Like, how can you sell these stuff not realizing it's only good for certain types of games, they could just state that in the ads/marketing and it would have better reception
I had one too. Got it in 89. I shit my little pants when my dad got me that thing. Then we plugged it in. Thing was a giant piece of shit. Biggest let down ever
From looking at both products, and remembering what the 80s was like, I have a feeling that the reason the Power Glove was selling better was simply because it had a cooler name, and it looked cooler as a product (plus the whole being in a movie thing). If the U-force had a more badass name, and had edgy black finish with red highlights instead of that pale gray, it would have sold better.
It makes me wonder if they would have used the, "He touched my breast" scene from, "The Wizard", followed by an announcer playing the U Force. He turns to the camera and says, "There's no touching with this Force, The U-FORCE!". Lol Man, that would have been so stupid funny :) They also could have hooked up with Lucasfilm and made a commercial, featuring Luke, missing his first try at hitting the Death Star exhaust port. Then, out of nowhere, we here Obi-Wan... "Use the U-Force Luke!" Luke looks down at his X-Wing controls, but now, he sees...the U-Force instead...etc., logical conclusion. Lol What do you think sirs?
This youtube channel is the only one I just refuse to watch on my phone, because I need to watch this on a big TV screen. It's that good. Thanks again Norman. In hindsight, as the creator said himself, this device should have been launched with a killer app, maybe even bundled with it. In today's market, they can still try to relaunch this as a standalone classic console, with a few built in licensed games. Around 10 or more would do.
Yup, and they should have all the extra attachments unless they're needed for that game. Maybe even sell them as extras as use cases arise. This would lower production costs, allowing them to alleviate some of those build quality issues by bulking up the housing. If the product became a hit then they could further maximize profits by selling the extra gear to customers, possibly even tied into a new game.
Yup, and they should have all the extra attachments unless they're needed for that game. Maybe even sell them as extras as use cases arise. This would lower production costs, allowing them to alleviate some of those build quality issues by bulking up the housing. If the product became a hit then they could further maximize profits by selling the extra gear to customers, possibly even tied into a new game.
I'm really happy to see you include interviews with developers. I feel like when it comes to video game peripherals (especially older ones) people tend to write them all off as soulless cash grabs from corporations looking to make a quick buck from gimmicks (although there's no doubt that lot of them were indeed just that), but I really like the way this video and the mega man DOS video specifically reframes these kinds of products in a way that's more conducive to their actual histories as passion projects.
Huge AVGN fan here, somehow just found your channel. You put a ton of research and effort into your videos and the quality really shows. I am so happy I now have hours and hours of videos to watch on your channel, thank you!!
Fantastic video! I had one friend who had the U-force, but it was never used. Pretty similar experience to the Power Glove -- after you have one, you realize that it's not worth the trouble in trying to use it.
I had a friend that had one, and I thought it was so cool that I had to have one too. It was every bit as effective and fun as Gyromite with ROB. Looked cool, though. (Also like ROB.)
To paint a perspective: I was 8 years old when this thing came out, and I loved my Nintendo. But he's right, Mattel was a marketing juggernaut. The Power Glove was all we ever saw. We had no idea this thing even existed until many, many years later. Bummer.
@@j.d.6915 Being in the UK the 8-bit micros' were far more popular at the time these peripherals were released. Most of us had a ZX Spectrum, Commodore C64 or Amstrad etc, but we all had a mate who bucked the trend and owned (and who's parents were willing to shell out for) an NES or SMS. One of the lads in our little gang was spoilt rotten by his parents who had separated and thus spent his birthdays and Christmas's locked in a battle of one-upmanship to win his love lol I remember being absolutely astounded (and a little jealous) the Christmas he recieved the Power Glove from his Dad, but after a day of trying to actually use it to play Bad Street Brawler, Super Mario Bros and Topgun, I returned home and was far happier playing Airborne Ranger and Turrican with my Cheetah Annihilator joystick 🤣
23:02 Broderbund learned the hard way that "If you build it, they will come" DOES NOT work with new game platforms, and the U-Force was basically a new platform. If the platform holder wasn't willing to risk their own money to make a game for their platform, why in the WORLD did they expect someone else to risk their money to make a game for them as a favor? It took them so long to realize this that by the time they did something about it at 28:44, the U-Force Power Games game that should have been made in tandem with the U-Force got cancelled.
Norm, this video is a freaking masterpiece. Those 37 minutes flew by. The only downside is that I'm going to have the U-Force song stuck in my head all week now. Seriously man, fantastic work.
I remember wanting the U-Force so badly after seeing the commercials for it with Mike Tyson's Punch Out. I eventually got one for my birthday, and I spent more time pretending it was a futuristic laptop than an actual Nintendo peripheral lol.
I haven't been a "gamer" since the NES days. With that said, I am absolutely floored by the content of this channel! You're docs are BETTER than Network TV and I can't thank you enough!!!!
Nerdiest of nerdy corrections: Good Vibrations by The Beach Boys didn’t use the Theramin, because the band found it too difficult to play. It used an electro-theramin, ET’s use a knob to alter the frequency, rather than the placement of the musician’s hands.
That's cool, I was wondering when he was playing it about never having heard one with a higher or lower pitch. Can you scale that with the electro-theramin?
Amazing that you were able to get an interview with Dave Capper. Seeing all the products he had a hand in, this guy is a pop culture icon. A tremendous video as always, Norm.
In my opinion, most of the products he had a hand in were garbage. I grew up with a lot of the toys/gadgets shown in this video. A lot of them were poorly made and broke easily.
I've seen some people complaining on Patreon about long waits for videos. When you watch and see the production quality, full content and great narration, the wait is worth it.
Idk guys the U-Force would be like a vr accessory, I don't think it would be a great controller for casual players. It would make an amazing vr accessory if it were that small though.
Technology was kinda ready. Problem is that you have to heavily kneecap all these products to get them down to consumer level products. It was the same issue with a number of products back in the day, including the Power Glove and even VR and stuff like Virtual Boy. Still true today I feel.
Dear Norman. This is awesomely written, superbly produced and executed video! Congratulations. I can only imagine the time it went on getting the research for all the data, footage and interviews provided. Hands down the best channel about the videogame industry history.
Great video as always! Dave Capper seems like a really fun guy. He's passionate and his speech at the end was pretty inspiring. I wonder if he likes Nintendo's Toy-Con stuff.
@@countrystud1986 at 22:38 You can hear his voice. Then you hear some kind of sign off "Steven Isenburg. Analyst". That's very clearly James Rolfe, I'm not sure why the deception.
When you really think about it, this thing was basically the Kinect a good two decades before the actual Kinect (and didn’t require an HD camera for tracking). That’s kinda amazing in and of itself.
the ambition is ahead of it's time.... however having ambition ahead of time is not impressive at all, since like the powerglove, it doesn't really work but they flog it to kids anyway to recoup their loss
@@thetrophygamer3606 it's called sales bullshit if you ask me... anyone could have said a motion controller would be great... actually making one is different
Damn this was very very good, especially when you have one of the makers into the video, it really enhance the experience of this channel. Thank you Gaming Historian. what an eyeopener in a business perspective.
these documentaries are awesome. so glad every time you upload. i wait for months in anticipation and understand why they take so long, because you pour a lot into them and they're worth the wait everytime. thanks.
Loving this recent focus on the people behind the project. Seeing the history unfold is one thing, and always great to see. Hearing from the voices behind these things that may be lost to time otherwise makes it even better.
That's because hand-tracking in VR (assuming you're talking about controller-free hand-tracking here, and not regular VR motion controllers which have can have laser-precise tracking depending on what system is used) has always been experimental, often patched in as an afterthought. Can't really expect too much from something that's not the main focus.
I love this Dev, he's so pacionate, even If the product wasin't the best he tried his best to bring motion controls to console marketing in the 80s, and he didn't gave up after the Uforce failed
Just like the Power Glove this was a clearly case of trying to cram 100 pounds of shit into a 10 pound bag on top of all of the manufacturing shenanigans. Neither would replace a traditional controller and everyone but marketing knew this. In my mind the neither the Power Glove nor the UForce failed. The technology was clearly there; it just wasn't feasible to try and make it work for everything.
What a great insight Dave Capper gives at the end there, with many years of successful products now under his belt. It felt like a very satisfying end to the video and the story of this weird little accessory.
This was awesome! Can't believe how many awesome products Capper has had his hand in for his career. Dude is a legend! Also you and James Rolfe working together makes me very happy 😊 Would be very interested in learning more about how Sega dominated the UK! Great work as always!!
I think you and I may have different definitions of "awesome." In my opinion, most of the products he had a hand in were garbage. I grew up with a lot of the toys/gadgets shown in this video. A lot of them were poorly made and broke easily.
I'm so used to videos that dump on peripherals of old that didn't exactly win over consumers, so it's a breath of fresh air to see a cool-headed take on the U-Force. And getting James Rolfe to voice the quote about how a consumer would likely choose the new game over the new controller was a stroke of comedic genius.
As someone that actually had this as a kid, I can attest, this thing was a novelty item. It was frustrating to use. I always wound up unplugging it and plugging in my normal NES controller. Cool idea though.
This was my exact experience. I remember being mad at my parents for buying it for me and my brothers instead of a game. Watching this video, I'm sure my parents got it when it was $30, so not as bad, but still annoying to think about.
Another amazing video Norm! You’re honestly one of the few creators that I’ll always watch their video immediately even if it’s not a topic I know about or are interested in, because you know it’s gonna be an interesting and high quality video everytime!! 😊😊
Thank you Gaming Historian! As always A+ quality content! Thank you so much for putting so much effort into your documentaries. It's really the only thing out there like it. Also, that was pretty cool that you got James Rolfe as a voice over in there! Keep up the amazing work my friend!
Been watching Internet Historian since I first started watching TH-cam almost 12 years ago, still is one of my favorite channels. The quality only gets better and better.
Man I love your videos. Nice to see AVGN was part of this too. I'm from the UK (and in my 40's) and don't remember the U-Force but great to see it made it over her, albeit briefly.
Shoutout to Norm. This channel is so consistent. Never ceases to amaze me how intresting these seemingly bland topics become when funneled through the lens of The Gaming Historian. Another Gem. Thanks for the entertainment. Today was a rough one for me, and this gave me 30mins of escape and joy ✌❤💯
I never even heard of the U-Force as a kid growing up with an NES. The first time I was aware of it was the AVGN video of the various NES accessories. I think I saw the power glove advertised in Nintendo Power or maybe I saw it in the Wizard. I got a power glove for Christmas in ‘89 but my parents returned it when they saw the glove was too big for my hand. 😢
I just bought a U Force off of Ebay for $45.00 yesterday. I always wanted it as a kid but couldn't afford it. I'm excited to try it out. I'm a dork I know lmao.🤙👍🕹🎮
Truly I’m glad the U Force is getting the respect it deserves. Power glove was interesting. But I find myself more invested the U Force and it’s history. Good job Norman
I had a feeling yesterday that there might be a new 'Gaming Historian' episode. I looked and was disappointed so this was an awesome surprise today. I've never been a hardcore gamer but I grew up with a Super Nintendo.. I was even one of the few "lucky" ones who got a Virtual Boy for Christmas that fateful year. The only game I ever really enjoyed playing on it at all was 'Mario's Tennis', but it was always an uncomfortable experience in various ways. Sadly it was destroyed in a basement flooding incident.. I find early gaming history to be endlessly fascinating for some reason and your documentaries are my favorite by far. Looking forward to more big-episode like this in the future. Headed over to Patreon now 🥰👍🙏🙌🔥🍄😃👋
I just wanted to say a couple things, now that I've seen a number of these Video Game Historian videos over the years. As a kid, the game industry was full of mystery to me, there was so much innovation going on and things would just kind of appear. We naively never thought about ourselves as consumers back then, we just wanted to be a part of what everyone else was doing. New games and controllers were exciting and when someone at school talked about something they just got for their Birthday, it was alot different than the days of pre-orders and all that which we have now. Now that I'm an adult and have worked for a few companies, what fascinates me about these documentaries is that it really just shows all these game companies and developers were just doing their jobs, often struggling with the same problems we have with our own jobs and responsibilities/goals today. This isn't to say that it de-mystifies anything for me, but it's humbling to see the inner-workings of this industry often parallel some of the problems we face as a part of any company. It's a treasure to get to hear from the developers themselves how they went about doing all this.
"Making a game dedicated to an expensive controller could be risky..." Steel Battalion: Hold my 40 button twin stick controller I would love to see a docu on that thing and how it came to be...
I think a major difference is that it was largely proven technology. Just joysticks, throttle, and pedals with a number of additional buttons. All stuff that existed and worked well for flight simulators. In addition to that, the Battletech Centers had already shown that there was interest in a mech simulator and several games (e.g. the Mechwarrior series, Armored Core, Heavy Gear) on PC and consoles. So yeah, it was expensive, but it was also selling a proven control system in a proven genre. Price is the biggest issue and expensive flight sim setups have sold for years.
I agree, a documentary on the most over the top gaming accessory ever would be great, as someone who owned one for a time, it was the best but it was clearly a bad idea to market and that would make for a interesting video
@@stuporman I remember when Xbox bragged about how you could use Kinect to control your tv and DVD menus. It was fun for like a minute, then you realized how janky it was.
Modern VR controllers are actually _really_ good (particularly ones that use lighthouse tracking), you should give them a try if you haven't. Much better than the wii's waggle wands
I hope you take this as a compliment but I have to be careful when your videos come on cause I find them absolutely enthralling. I usually have youtube videos on in the background while I'm doing other things. I adore your videos but if they sneak into my autoplay it's pretty much GG for my ability to focus on anything else.
I actually owned this peripheral and we basically didn't know how to use it. I remember trying it on a few games and it not really working well and it just sat there. And the way the joystick just sat in that notch was very confusing
Excellent retrospective on a niche product. Indeed, the potential was there. Had it been tighter during R&D and manufacturing and bundled a game to work exclusively with it, I think the gaming world would've been a bit different today.
I remember some years ago Stuttering Craig and Handsome Tom gave the U-Force a ripping in one of their ScrewAttack! vids. Thing is, James Rolfe briefly appeared in the video as the Nerd and when he tried out the U-Force about a year later in one of his own videos, he was ironically somewhat kinder to it. Go fig.
Thank you for this U Force documentary. The first time I meet this product was in James Rolfe AVGN episode. He explained how it worked or did not work. Now he is in this episode. Thank you for making this type of programs. Yo should offer this to history channel or media distributors to jump to the next level. The quality of your productions are improving every year.
The “U” in U Force stood for underwhelming. I had it upon release and was frustrated by it. I respect the idea behind and now in retrospect we see how the technology behind it paved the way for modern systems. But yeah, back in 1990 we really just needed a basic controller and we were good to go.
Even if this and the Power Glove had worked perfectly I still think they were not very practical for most of the games out at the time. Like platformers for example. However it would have been intriguing to see more games developed with them in mind.
14:51 Hah! I had one of those "MEGA" controllers. 😄 I remember wanting a U-Force so bad... It looked cool as heck, but it ended up being just one more of those things which languished on the store shelf, the box literally decaying with wear from all the times it'd been taken off the shelf for a closer look then put back... Price tags like ten deep, with a final clearance price of like $10.99 or something. 😬
Always a welcome surprise to see Gaming Historian in my notos. Just like the Power Glove, it was so close, yet the tech (at least in an affordable form) just wasnt there yet. Its takes things like these to get to that next step.
![30 ชั่วโมงคนเดียว บนรถไฟชั้น 3 โซเวียต [Around The World Ep. 2]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/MlE9boAVqDA/mqdefault.jpg)
With this video, I have completed the holy trinity of NES controllers: Power Glove, Roll & Rocker, and now U-Force. What's next?
Gameboy sewing machine
Power Pad.
Or the Laserscope...
All 3 of them were ahead of their time. And Nintendo never forgets.
Possibly move on to the SNES...and the exercise bike
The holy trinity is the NES Max, NES Advantage and the Powerpad.
“You mean you have to use your hands?” “That’s like a baby’s toy!”
I'll never understand the 80s obsession with hating controllers. Lol
@@MLBlue30 it was when they were invented; with trial and error; error mostly... ;P
@@MLBlue30 You never had to deal with shitty controllers. Controller-less gaming was to the 80’s what driverless cars are to us today.
I love bttf
@@benayers8622 so do i; maybe in 40 years they'll do a remake/sequel/reboot...
I'm always blown away by how professional and deep your documentaries are. Gaming Historian truly stands out amongst the huge amount of video game content on TH-cam.
Absolutely True
Check out his earliest videos. Night and day my friend
You've obviously have never watched PBS, which is exactly what he modeled his channel after, including the little "funding is provided for" thing at the end of every episode. It def makes it seem more professional.
@@mikeworkman3593 Not from USA, don't think PBS is a thing here. If it is, you are correct, I haven't seen it.
@@mikeworkman3593 I never made the connection with the old PBS docs! Now that you mentioned it, it's so obvious lol
I recall AVGN being really confused as to how the steering stick worked, as it just sits in a little groove with no connection to the device. Thanks for explaining how that worked, it’s fascinating.
Exactly! Very cool!
Exactly what I had in my mind during that scene.
Ditto mate. And Adam in your pic... Legend! 👍
Yall do realize avgn is playing a character blinded by rage and anger. You are so frustrated you don't see what's easy and clearly in your face.
What's awesome is James (or AVGN) voices the quote at about 23 minutes
It’s always fascinating when you can contact the actual developer and hear their stories directly from them. Great job
I like this guy. He seems pretty genuine. Passionate about his work, and admits the mistakes made but learned from it. I guess enjoying people lighting up is the mark of a true toymaker.
Did he learn from it? His conclusion was that they should have concentrated on 1 game and straightened out the manufacturing issues. Not that the concept itself is bad. Which it is.
Care to explain why it is inherenrly bad, especially if there was specialized software that could take advantage of it? @@spacecube3514
A bad day instantly turns into a great day when the Gaming Historian brings us a new episode!
Thanks! I appreciate that.
You’re among friends here. Hope your day gets better
Couldn't agree more
but fails to give credit where credit's due
0:52 “If you’ve got hands, you can do this!”
As opposed to all those game controllers that don’t use your hands. Too long have foot-controlled video games dominated the industry!
Only DDR mats and the NES Power Pad existed before this :)
And technically, you could play the U-Force with your feet!
@@GamingHistorian I’d love to see that: someone trying to beat Super Mario Bros. or Punch-Out on a U-Force with their feet. That’s the true test of skill for any pro-gamer!
@@GamingHistorian well, technically, you can use any controller with your feet lol. Look at those dudes with no arms who do archery.
@@BenCol Zallard1 playing Punch-Out blindfolded, upside down, using a U-Force with his feet is probably the next logical progression. I mean, anyone can technically do it but he'll just take their WR lol.
23:43 "if I had the U-Force to do over again, I would've designed games just for it" watching this made me realize it never DID have any dedicated games like the power glove did, that probably would've been a good way to show the other companies how to make the device work! I guess we'll never know how much it would've really helped, though. I had no idea that there WERE any games for it! guess that one just never came out since it was too late
Yes. This is why I hate products like these. Like, how can you sell these stuff not realizing it's only good for certain types of games, they could just state that in the ads/marketing and it would have better reception
Like, what part of gaming is good where you have to punch the air to jump on Super Mario Bros.
Power glove had like 3 games for it and they all sucked .
@@azrael6280 absolutely. Just be UP FRONT in the marketing.
I saw one of these at KMart and almost bought it but too many unknowns.
I had one too. Got it in 89. I shit my little pants when my dad got me that thing. Then we plugged it in. Thing was a giant piece of shit. Biggest let down ever
"We've GOT to beat the Powerglove." is the funniest statement ever.
I don't know, that Lucas guy is kind of scary.
From looking at both products, and remembering what the 80s was like, I have a feeling that the reason the Power Glove was selling better was simply because it had a cooler name, and it looked cooler as a product (plus the whole being in a movie thing). If the U-force had a more badass name, and had edgy black finish with red highlights instead of that pale gray, it would have sold better.
Yes
I love the powerglove. It's so bad!
@Shoenheim No one told Nintendo lol
In an alternate universe,
We’re all familiar with the phrase:
“I love the U-Force… Its so bad”
lol, i get it
"Yeah, well, uh, just keep your U-forces off her, pal, huh?!"
I understand that reference
It makes me wonder if they would have used the, "He touched my breast" scene from, "The Wizard", followed by an announcer playing the U Force.
He turns to the camera and says, "There's no touching with this Force, The U-FORCE!".
Lol Man, that would have been so stupid funny :)
They also could have hooked up with Lucasfilm and made a commercial, featuring Luke, missing his first try at hitting the Death Star exhaust port.
Then, out of nowhere, we here Obi-Wan...
"Use the U-Force Luke!" Luke looks down at his X-Wing controls, but now, he sees...the U-Force instead...etc., logical conclusion. Lol
What do you think sirs?
Is that quote from the movie “The Warlock” starring Ed Ravage?
It was a pleasant surprise to hear James Rolf in this.
As soon the episode began, I was hoping to hear him do a read. Wish granted!
22:37 too 😃
You mean the angry nintendo nerd, or James 'The "AVGN" Nerd' Rolfe?
@@criznittle968 It was James, just not in character.
@Alex Garner cut him some slack. It was almost 5:40.
This youtube channel is the only one I just refuse to watch on my phone, because I need to watch this on a big TV screen. It's that good. Thanks again Norman.
In hindsight, as the creator said himself, this device should have been launched with a killer app, maybe even bundled with it.
In today's market, they can still try to relaunch this as a standalone classic console, with a few built in licensed games. Around 10 or more would do.
Yup, and they should have all the extra attachments unless they're needed for that game. Maybe even sell them as extras as use cases arise. This would lower production costs, allowing them to alleviate some of those build quality issues by bulking up the housing. If the product became a hit then they could further maximize profits by selling the extra gear to customers, possibly even tied into a new game.
Yup, and they should have all the extra attachments unless they're needed for that game. Maybe even sell them as extras as use cases arise. This would lower production costs, allowing them to alleviate some of those build quality issues by bulking up the housing. If the product became a hit then they could further maximize profits by selling the extra gear to customers, possibly even tied into a new game.
I'm really happy to see you include interviews with developers. I feel like when it comes to video game peripherals (especially older ones) people tend to write them all off as soulless cash grabs from corporations looking to make a quick buck from gimmicks (although there's no doubt that lot of them were indeed just that), but I really like the way this video and the mega man DOS video specifically reframes these kinds of products in a way that's more conducive to their actual histories as passion projects.
Huge AVGN fan here, somehow just found your channel. You put a ton of research and effort into your videos and the quality really shows. I am so happy I now have hours and hours of videos to watch on your channel, thank you!!
I saw "AVGN" and thought this was the comment that talked about him doing a bit of narration about 22 minutes in. NEAT.
Fantastic video! I had one friend who had the U-force, but it was never used. Pretty similar experience to the Power Glove -- after you have one, you realize that it's not worth the trouble in trying to use it.
Patrick! Pick up the phone! ;-)
One of the least surprising people to see here.
I had a friend that had one, and I thought it was so cool that I had to have one too. It was every bit as effective and fun as Gyromite with ROB.
Looked cool, though. (Also like ROB.)
I love your Chanel from fan in Thailand
Hey Pat. You still think people who voiced their dislike of Diablo Immortal are "babies", lmao?
Suck it down!
James Rolfe really did a great job voicing on this video, As well as Dave Capper the Inventor! I was really impressed with the Controller.
To paint a perspective: I was 8 years old when this thing came out, and I loved my Nintendo. But he's right, Mattel was a marketing juggernaut. The Power Glove was all we ever saw. We had no idea this thing even existed until many, many years later. Bummer.
Additionally, Power Glove was in The Wizard, which was a huuuuge marketing bonanza.
Yep, I was about the same age then. I had a power glove, never even heard of the u-force until now.
And it was bad, so bad! 😎
@@j.d.6915
Being in the UK the 8-bit micros' were far more popular at the time these peripherals were released. Most of us had a ZX Spectrum, Commodore C64 or Amstrad etc, but we all had a mate who bucked the trend and owned (and who's parents were willing to shell out for) an NES or SMS.
One of the lads in our little gang was spoilt rotten by his parents who had separated and thus spent his birthdays and Christmas's locked in a battle of one-upmanship to win his love lol I remember being absolutely astounded (and a little jealous) the Christmas he recieved the Power Glove from his Dad, but after a day of trying to actually use it to play Bad Street Brawler, Super Mario Bros and Topgun, I returned home and was far happier playing Airborne Ranger and Turrican with my Cheetah Annihilator joystick 🤣
@@residentelect Oh yes, I had a friend that had a power glove too, and it was a POS.
23:02 Broderbund learned the hard way that "If you build it, they will come" DOES NOT work with new game platforms, and the U-Force was basically a new platform. If the platform holder wasn't willing to risk their own money to make a game for their platform, why in the WORLD did they expect someone else to risk their money to make a game for them as a favor? It took them so long to realize this that by the time they did something about it at 28:44, the U-Force Power Games game that should have been made in tandem with the U-Force got cancelled.
Norm, this video is a freaking masterpiece. Those 37 minutes flew by. The only downside is that I'm going to have the U-Force song stuck in my head all week now. Seriously man, fantastic work.
I remember wanting the U-Force so badly after seeing the commercials for it with Mike Tyson's Punch Out. I eventually got one for my birthday, and I spent more time pretending it was a futuristic laptop than an actual Nintendo peripheral lol.
Amazing!
hey nice profile picture you've got there!
I haven't been a "gamer" since the NES days. With that said, I am absolutely floored by the content of this channel! You're docs are BETTER than Network TV and I can't thank you enough!!!!
Most modern docs are second hand trash, this channel is impressive.
Nerdiest of nerdy corrections: Good Vibrations by The Beach Boys didn’t use the Theramin, because the band found it too difficult to play. It used an electro-theramin, ET’s use a knob to alter the frequency, rather than the placement of the musician’s hands.
Came here to say this. :D a common misconception though.
That's cool, I was wondering when he was playing it about never having heard one with a higher or lower pitch. Can you scale that with the electro-theramin?
@@MMallon425 A friend of mine has a theramin that she can pitch control with a pedal.
The controls for theremins can be varied and diverse. I've seen foot pedals, knobs, etc. Basically, anything with a potentiometer.
You some kinda *geek* or wot??
9:53 that is such an epic mullet, I can't even wrap my mind around what I am witnessing. So rad
I love how you give your videos the PBS feel, which make your videos more bearable to watch compared to other videos from other TH-camrs.
What PBS feel ❓
Amazing that you were able to get an interview with Dave Capper. Seeing all the products he had a hand in, this guy is a pop culture icon. A tremendous video as always, Norm.
Dave struck me as the kind of guy who never misses an opportunity to brag.
In my opinion, most of the products he had a hand in were garbage. I grew up with a lot of the toys/gadgets shown in this video. A lot of them were poorly made and broke easily.
I only knew about that controller because of the AVGN, never thought it would have such a history behind. Cool video, as always!
Well I know I'm a game nerd when I recognize James Rolfe reading out some of the quotes.
This is such a gem of a channel, can't believe I've never heard of it until now. These videos are wildly professional.
I've seen some people complaining on Patreon about long waits for videos. When you watch and see the production quality, full content and great narration, the wait is worth it.
I love when you upload and I have to double take.
"Is this a new video!?!?"
>checks upload date
Glad I can alter your sense of reality!
I do the Exact same dude hahahshsha
Always the story with these NES era accessories: they were too early and the technology wasn’t ready
I'm curios what will those be when them where made now
Exactly. If the U-Force was made today with games made of it, it would sell really well.
Idk guys the U-Force would be like a vr accessory, I don't think it would be a great controller for casual players. It would make an amazing vr accessory if it were that small though.
“History never repeats itself, but it does often rhyme.” - Mark Twain
Technology was kinda ready. Problem is that you have to heavily kneecap all these products to get them down to consumer level products. It was the same issue with a number of products back in the day, including the Power Glove and even VR and stuff like Virtual Boy. Still true today I feel.
"Gameplay is king."
Truer words will never be spoken.
Dear Norman. This is awesomely written, superbly produced and executed video! Congratulations. I can only imagine the time it went on getting the research for all the data, footage and interviews provided. Hands down the best channel about the videogame industry history.
Great video as always!
Dave Capper seems like a really fun guy. He's passionate and his speech at the end was pretty inspiring. I wonder if he likes Nintendo's Toy-Con stuff.
Loved hearing James! I was thinking about him throughout the episode, since he introduced me to both the power glove and U Force on AVGN
What? James isn't anywhere in this episode. What the hell are you talking about?
@@countrystud1986 at 22:38 You can hear his voice. Then you hear some kind of sign off "Steven Isenburg. Analyst". That's very clearly James Rolfe, I'm not sure why the deception.
@@Mortalitor he's reading a quote from Steven Isenberg.
@@countrystud1986 he's literally thanked in the description for contributing his voice to the video
@@Mortalitor He was just reading a quote, goofball lol
When you really think about it, this thing was basically the Kinect a good two decades before the actual Kinect (and didn’t require an HD camera for tracking).
That’s kinda amazing in and of itself.
The xbox one Kinect was quite the evolution in motion tracking as well, and the kinect Azure may very well be a path for 3d roomspace tracking.
the ambition is ahead of it's time.... however having ambition ahead of time is not impressive at all, since like the powerglove, it doesn't really work but they flog it to kids anyway to recoup their loss
@@DarkShroom yup. It’s called being so far ahead of the curve you can’t take advantage of it
@@thetrophygamer3606 it's called sales bullshit if you ask me... anyone could have said a motion controller would be great... actually making one is different
The Uforce blew my mind but I never had one. As an adult, I bought a Kinect just to bring my younger self's dream to life!
I didn't like it.
When I was a teacher, we had an Xbox 360 + Kinect that classrooms could rent out. I don't think anyone ever touched it.
you didn't miss anything
@@GamingHistorian I'm surprised you had one available! But not surprised that no one used it.
@@GamingHistorianin the end it found most of use in robot developement ;)
Damn this was very very good, especially when you have one of the makers into the video, it really enhance the experience of this channel. Thank you Gaming Historian. what an eyeopener in a business perspective.
these documentaries are awesome. so glad every time you upload. i wait for months in anticipation and understand why they take so long, because you pour a lot into them and they're worth the wait everytime. thanks.
Been waiting for this one 😘
Everyone’s been waiting he uploads 3 times a year
What I love about your videos is hearing from the actual people involved. It's so great to get that firsthand experience and perspective.
Loving this recent focus on the people behind the project. Seeing the history unfold is one thing, and always great to see. Hearing from the voices behind these things that may be lost to time otherwise makes it even better.
The production quality of your videos, and the amount of research you do never ceases to amaze me.
I can’t get over the production and content quality here. Just gets better and better!
I wonder if Josh kept to his word and never went back to a normal controller. Can see him now playing GTA5 with his U-Force.
I'd love to see a current interview with him
I wonder if he still rocks a sweet mullet
Unironically, it could somewhat work
Realistically he probably died of a drug od like 10 years ago
@@FluffyBunniesOnFire grownups called the NES pad a joystick, it’s nbd
Something about AVGN having his voice in this has some delicious irony to it lol
I remember it working well for him, for the most part. Still couldn't land in Top Gun, however.
He never really said anything bad about the U-Force. He kind of just showed it working.
@@Chaos89P **flashbacks at the Power glove episode where he MANAGED to land the plane on Top Gun**
@@KirbyVanPelt Lol I'll never forget the look on his face when he pulled that off
@@davoid96 or when he beat the final boss in Zelda 2 with the power glove
To this day, hand tracking in VR is still expensive and imperfect. While this isn't the most intuitive of concepts, it was certainly ahead of its time
It's pretty good, just incredibly expensive.
That's because hand-tracking in VR (assuming you're talking about controller-free hand-tracking here, and not regular VR motion controllers which have can have laser-precise tracking depending on what system is used) has always been experimental, often patched in as an afterthought. Can't really expect too much from something that's not the main focus.
You don't understand how insane it is that they got this to work. Like it's literal physics lab tech in a fucking nes controller lol
I've been following this channel since the early days and it continues to one of the absolute best on TH-cam.
absolutely unreal that this channel hasn't hit a million subs yet. GH makes some of the best retro gaming content available anywhere
I love this Dev, he's so pacionate, even If the product wasin't the best he tried his best to bring motion controls to console marketing in the 80s, and he didn't gave up after the Uforce failed
Just like the Power Glove this was a clearly case of trying to cram 100 pounds of shit into a 10 pound bag on top of all of the manufacturing shenanigans.
Neither would replace a traditional controller and everyone but marketing knew this. In my mind the neither the Power Glove nor the UForce failed. The technology was clearly there; it just wasn't feasible to try and make it work for everything.
@@clblanchard08 Technology was there, but probably not for the NES. Especially how the powerglove was dumbed down a lot.
@@Assimandeli Kramer?
What a great insight Dave Capper gives at the end there, with many years of successful products now under his belt. It felt like a very satisfying end to the video and the story of this weird little accessory.
This was awesome! Can't believe how many awesome products Capper has had his hand in for his career. Dude is a legend! Also you and James Rolfe working together makes me very happy 😊 Would be very interested in learning more about how Sega dominated the UK! Great work as always!!
I think you and I may have different definitions of "awesome." In my opinion, most of the products he had a hand in were garbage. I grew up with a lot of the toys/gadgets shown in this video. A lot of them were poorly made and broke easily.
I'm so used to videos that dump on peripherals of old that didn't exactly win over consumers, so it's a breath of fresh air to see a cool-headed take on the U-Force.
And getting James Rolfe to voice the quote about how a consumer would likely choose the new game over the new controller was a stroke of comedic genius.
Excellent video as always!
I love it that James Rolff read some stuff. It really adds to the feeling of "youtube one big family". Great touch.
As someone that actually had this as a kid, I can attest, this thing was a novelty item. It was frustrating to use. I always wound up unplugging it and plugging in my normal NES controller. Cool idea though.
I feel like that describes motion controls in general.
no one wanted a 'novel' controller. That's the problem with all of these crap ideas.. fads.
This was my exact experience. I remember being mad at my parents for buying it for me and my brothers instead of a game. Watching this video, I'm sure my parents got it when it was $30, so not as bad, but still annoying to think about.
Another amazing video Norm! You’re honestly one of the few creators that I’ll always watch their video immediately even if it’s not a topic I know about or are interested in, because you know it’s gonna be an interesting and high quality video everytime!! 😊😊
The Uforce was actually pretty genius in it's design And believe it or not it actually worked really well
Thank you Gaming Historian! As always A+ quality content! Thank you so much for putting so much effort into your documentaries. It's really the only thing out there like it. Also, that was pretty cool that you got James Rolfe as a voice over in there! Keep up the amazing work my friend!
Worthwhile thumbnail update. Love it.
This was fascinating, it’s so interesting to learn about the effort behind products like this, even the failed ones.
Been watching Internet Historian since I first started watching TH-cam almost 12 years ago, still is one of my favorite channels. The quality only gets better and better.
It's Gaming Historian :)
You mean gaming historian??
22:37 I love that you got James Rolfe to say this quote, it sounds like something the AVGN would say (just with less swearing)
I thought that voice sounded familiar
Man I love your videos. Nice to see AVGN was part of this too. I'm from the UK (and in my 40's) and don't remember the U-Force but great to see it made it over her, albeit briefly.
Let's just say the NES in the UK was a very different story compared to the US and Japan.
yo I love this Dave Capper dude, the passion and love for his ideas/products is infectious
It's always cool when James Rolfe shows up in a video
Shoutout to Norm. This channel is so consistent. Never ceases to amaze me how intresting these seemingly bland topics become when funneled through the lens of The Gaming Historian. Another Gem. Thanks for the entertainment. Today was a rough one for me, and this gave me 30mins of escape and joy ✌❤💯
I never even heard of the U-Force as a kid growing up with an NES. The first time I was aware of it was the AVGN video of the various NES accessories.
I think I saw the power glove advertised in Nintendo Power or maybe I saw it in the Wizard. I got a power glove for Christmas in ‘89 but my parents returned it when they saw the glove was too big for my hand. 😢
I just bought a U Force off of Ebay for $45.00 yesterday. I always wanted it as a kid but couldn't afford it. I'm excited to try it out. I'm a dork I know lmao.🤙👍🕹🎮
Always enjoy how consistently well made these videos are.
Truly I’m glad the U Force is getting the respect it deserves. Power glove was interesting. But I find myself more invested the U Force and it’s history. Good job Norman
I had a feeling yesterday that there might be a new 'Gaming Historian' episode. I looked and was disappointed so this was an awesome surprise today. I've never been a hardcore gamer but I grew up with a Super Nintendo.. I was even one of the few "lucky" ones who got a Virtual Boy for Christmas that fateful year. The only game I ever really enjoyed playing on it at all was 'Mario's Tennis', but it was always an uncomfortable experience in various ways. Sadly it was destroyed in a basement flooding incident.. I find early gaming history to be endlessly fascinating for some reason and your documentaries are my favorite by far. Looking forward to more big-episode like this in the future. Headed over to Patreon now 🥰👍🙏🙌🔥🍄😃👋
I've always thought that U-Force was a Konami product, hence the Top Gun "stearing stick" addon ;-) Interesting vid, thx!
i think konami made the head-set voice controlled zapper
The U-Force logo kind of looks like Ultra's, which was Konami's shell company.
Amazing production and editorial quality. The attention to research and detail is commendable, Keep up the great work!
dude your videos always blow me away, you put so much work and effort into your videos you deserve the success you've gotten!
I never heard of the U-Force before. Great episode Gaming Historian.
I just wanted to say a couple things, now that I've seen a number of these Video Game Historian videos over the years.
As a kid, the game industry was full of mystery to me, there was so much innovation going on and things would just kind of appear. We naively never thought about ourselves as consumers back then, we just wanted to be a part of what everyone else was doing. New games and controllers were exciting and when someone at school talked about something they just got for their Birthday, it was alot different than the days of pre-orders and all that which we have now.
Now that I'm an adult and have worked for a few companies, what fascinates me about these documentaries is that it really just shows all these game companies and developers were just doing their jobs, often struggling with the same problems we have with our own jobs and responsibilities/goals today. This isn't to say that it de-mystifies anything for me, but it's humbling to see the inner-workings of this industry often parallel some of the problems we face as a part of any company.
It's a treasure to get to hear from the developers themselves how they went about doing all this.
"Making a game dedicated to an expensive controller could be risky..."
Steel Battalion: Hold my 40 button twin stick controller
I would love to see a docu on that thing and how it came to be...
I think a major difference is that it was largely proven technology. Just joysticks, throttle, and pedals with a number of additional buttons. All stuff that existed and worked well for flight simulators. In addition to that, the Battletech Centers had already shown that there was interest in a mech simulator and several games (e.g. the Mechwarrior series, Armored Core, Heavy Gear) on PC and consoles.
So yeah, it was expensive, but it was also selling a proven control system in a proven genre. Price is the biggest issue and expensive flight sim setups have sold for years.
I agree, a documentary on the most over the top gaming accessory ever would be great, as someone who owned one for a time, it was the best but it was clearly a bad idea to market and that would make for a interesting video
Steel Battalion happens when the finance people don't show up to a pitch meeting.
My buddy growing up had one. He spent the time to get it set up and dialed in. It was amazing to watch him play, he was really good with it.
Also, this may be your best production so far. Awesome work Sir.
GH videos are so good 😀
-No "later in the episode" bullshit
-no stupid intro bullshit
-no cringe editing bullshit
Just pure history blizz 😀
Amazing how "handless" controllers are still dodgy as hell, right up until today's times.
@@stuporman I remember when Xbox bragged about how you could use Kinect to control your tv and DVD menus. It was fun for like a minute, then you realized how janky it was.
@@stuporman You got me thinking of the game, "Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor". Pretty much all of the reviews tore into the bad controls (Kinect).
U-Force crawled so that Wii and Kinect could walk.
Modern VR controllers are actually _really_ good (particularly ones that use lighthouse tracking), you should give them a try if you haven't. Much better than the wii's waggle wands
The Gaming Historian uploads a video. Today is a good day.
22:36
... Okay, I didn't read the description so hearing this guy was a fantastic suprise.
Awesome video, as always.
ending gave me optimistic chills, thanks for the research and great interview!
I hope you take this as a compliment but I have to be careful when your videos come on cause I find them absolutely enthralling. I usually have youtube videos on in the background while I'm doing other things. I adore your videos but if they sneak into my autoplay it's pretty much GG for my ability to focus on anything else.
"This is the most radical change in controllers since video gaming was invented"
Nintendo 64: hold my beer
I actually owned this peripheral and we basically didn't know how to use it. I remember trying it on a few games and it not really working well and it just sat there. And the way the joystick just sat in that notch was very confusing
Lol noob
This video needs more views. Thanks for a great moment.
Love that the AVGN - James Rolfe helped reading quotes/ narrating
Excellent retrospective on a niche product. Indeed, the potential was there. Had it been tighter during R&D and manufacturing and bundled a game to work exclusively with it, I think the gaming world would've been a bit different today.
Lol, "we've got to beat Power Glove." The idea of U Force and Power Glove in serious competition is just hilarious to me.
I remember some years ago Stuttering Craig and Handsome Tom gave the U-Force a ripping in one of their ScrewAttack! vids. Thing is, James Rolfe briefly appeared in the video as the Nerd and when he tried out the U-Force about a year later in one of his own videos, he was ironically somewhat kinder to it. Go fig.
Now those are names I haven't heard in a long time...a long time.
Thank you for this U Force documentary. The first time I meet this product was in James Rolfe AVGN episode. He explained how it worked or did not work. Now he is in this episode. Thank you for making this type of programs. Yo should offer this to history channel or media distributors to jump to the next level. The quality of your productions are improving every year.
So very glad to see you're still making videos, norm! I'd started getting nervous, it had been so long!
The “U” in U Force stood for underwhelming. I had it upon release and was frustrated by it. I respect the idea behind and now in retrospect we see how the technology behind it paved the way for modern systems. But yeah, back in 1990 we really just needed a basic controller and we were good to go.
Or unworkable. Just like the Power Glove, it simply didn't work or do anything it claimed to do.
Even if this and the Power Glove had worked perfectly I still think they were not very practical for most of the games out at the time. Like platformers for example. However it would have been intriguing to see more games developed with them in mind.
14:51 Hah! I had one of those "MEGA" controllers. 😄 I remember wanting a U-Force so bad... It looked cool as heck, but it ended up being just one more of those things which languished on the store shelf, the box literally decaying with wear from all the times it'd been taken off the shelf for a closer look then put back... Price tags like ten deep, with a final clearance price of like $10.99 or something. 😬
Always a welcome surprise to see Gaming Historian in my notos. Just like the Power Glove, it was so close, yet the tech (at least in an affordable form) just wasnt there yet. Its takes things like these to get to that next step.
Hitclips, tooth tunes, video now??? this dude is the goat