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'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 UA-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 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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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?
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.
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.
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 🤣
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?
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'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.
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.)
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 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!!!!
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.
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.
@@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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.🤙👍🕹🎮
I remember being a child, my mother took me into an marketing research place with a bunch of other kids. They refused to tell us anything about the the products, and all the other kids seemed to be fixated on the glove. The glove...it was easy to infer what it did. However, when I saw the U-force I knew intuitively just how freaking awesome it was and was kind of disgusted by the limited imagination of the other kids for not realizing it either. Only today, some 30 odd years later with the hand tracking in VR devices do we finally get what the technology was ready for when I was a child. It's such a loss.
Been watching Internet Historian since I first started watching UA-cam almost 12 years ago, still is one of my favorite channels. The quality only gets better and better.
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 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. 😢
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
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.
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!
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!! 😊😊
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 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 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.
This brings back memories. Not of ever having the thing, but being a little kid and seeing these peripherals advertised in flyers and catalogs. The things I wish I could have had back then, if only we had the money to buy them.
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 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.
I know when I watch one of your documentaries, it is going to be well thought out, very engaging, and of very high quality. Thank you for posting this video. I remember when this came out and I used it at a friends house. It was every bit as bad as you said it was. I remember I wanted the power glove so bad. I saw it at Kay-Bee and I thought it would make me the baddest 10 year old in town. Mom said no. 32 years of hindsight later proved her right.
Great video! I actually found a U-Force in box (missing some Styrofoam) at a Goodwill years ago. Never hooked it up, though; looked like a hassle. Time to finally give it a try!
@@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
@@ssaunders1122 no? Those things came out in the early 2000s. If you were a part of gen x and watching cartoons on a video now and listening to backstreet boys on a hitclip people would have been looking at you strangely. I'm 28 and grew up around those toys
@@ssaunders1122 Generation X - (born 1965-1980) Generation Y (Millennials) - (born 1981-1996) Generation Z (Zoomers) - (born 1997-2012) Generation Alpha - (born 2012-2020s) I'm surprised some people get us *Millennials* mixed up with the *Zoomers* when talking about us. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation#/media/File:Generation_timeline.svg
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. 😬
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.
The perma-receding hairline of Lars; the mustache and steel-eyed squint of James; and the long, blonde cascading back-locks of Dave (Mustaine) - this guy's got it all!
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.
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.
"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
I love the involvement of Rolfe in this video. I mean most of us know of the existence of the Uforce thanks to him, so it makes sense, it feels like closing a story
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.
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'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 UA-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 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
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
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
“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 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.
"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
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.
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.
Well I know I'm a game nerd when I recognize James Rolfe reading out some of the quotes.
9:53 that is such an epic mullet, I can't even wrap my mind around what I am witnessing. So rad
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.
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.
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!
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?
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.
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.
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.
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??
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 love how you give your videos the PBS feel, which make your videos more bearable to watch compared to other videos from other UA-camrs.
What PBS feel ❓
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.
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!
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 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.
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.
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 only knew about that controller because of the AVGN, never thought it would have such a history behind. Cool video, as always!
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.
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
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.
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.
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
"Gameplay is king."
Truer words will never be spoken.
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
absolutely unreal that this channel hasn't hit a million subs yet. GH makes some of the best retro gaming content available anywhere
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.
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
What I love about your videos is hearing from the actual people involved. It's so great to get that firsthand experience and perspective.
The production quality of your videos, and the amount of research you do never ceases to amaze me.
I've been following this channel since the early days and it continues to one of the absolute best on UA-cam.
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 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 ;)
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
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.
Worthwhile thumbnail update. Love it.
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.
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
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.
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.
I can’t get over the production and content quality here. Just gets better and better!
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?
This was fascinating, it’s so interesting to learn about the effort behind products like this, even the failed ones.
It's always cool when James Rolfe shows up in a video
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.🤙👍🕹🎮
I remember being a child, my mother took me into an marketing research place with a bunch of other kids. They refused to tell us anything about the the products, and all the other kids seemed to be fixated on the glove. The glove...it was easy to infer what it did. However, when I saw the U-force I knew intuitively just how freaking awesome it was and was kind of disgusted by the limited imagination of the other kids for not realizing it either. Only today, some 30 odd years later with the hand tracking in VR devices do we finally get what the technology was ready for when I was a child. It's such a loss.
The Uforce was actually pretty genius in it's design And believe it or not it actually worked really well
Been watching Internet Historian since I first started watching UA-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??
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.
yo I love this Dave Capper dude, the passion and love for his ideas/products is infectious
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.
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. 😢
Been waiting for this one 😘
Everyone’s been waiting he uploads 3 times a year
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
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.
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!
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!! 😊😊
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 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 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.
This brings back memories. Not of ever having the thing, but being a little kid and seeing these peripherals advertised in flyers and catalogs. The things I wish I could have had back then, if only we had the money to buy them.
I never heard of the U-Force before. Great episode Gaming Historian.
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
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!
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.
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.
The Gaming Historian uploads a video. Today is a good day.
Hitclips, tooth tunes, video now??? this dude is the goat
I know when I watch one of your documentaries, it is going to be well thought out, very engaging, and of very high quality. Thank you for posting this video. I remember when this came out and I used it at a friends house. It was every bit as bad as you said it was. I remember I wanted the power glove so bad. I saw it at Kay-Bee and I thought it would make me the baddest 10 year old in town. Mom said no. 32 years of hindsight later proved her right.
Great video! I actually found a U-Force in box (missing some Styrofoam) at a Goodwill years ago. Never hooked it up, though; looked like a hassle. Time to finally give it a try!
Let us know how it worked for you!
UPDATE: It stinks.
@@optigrabbingit I was afraid of that.
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
Really cool how many notable late 90's/early 2000's products this guy was behind as well. His resume must read like a millennial's nostalgic goldmine.
Right? Seeing Hit Clips and Video Now was like damn, the same guy was behind those?
I'd say it'd interest more gen x.
@@ssaunders1122 he’s had a lengthy career.
@@ssaunders1122 no? Those things came out in the early 2000s. If you were a part of gen x and watching cartoons on a video now and listening to backstreet boys on a hitclip people would have been looking at you strangely. I'm 28 and grew up around those toys
@@ssaunders1122
Generation X - (born 1965-1980)
Generation Y (Millennials) - (born 1981-1996)
Generation Z (Zoomers) - (born 1997-2012)
Generation Alpha - (born 2012-2020s)
I'm surprised some people get us *Millennials* mixed up with the *Zoomers* when talking about us.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation#/media/File:Generation_timeline.svg
Been gaming since before the NES and had NO idea this existed. Wow. Thanks for such a great video!
Always enjoy how consistently well made these videos are.
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. 😬
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.
09:55 you can't be more 80s than that hairstyle man, amazing!
The perma-receding hairline of Lars; the mustache and steel-eyed squint of James; and the long, blonde cascading back-locks of Dave (Mustaine) - this guy's got it all!
@@3rdEyeWide 😂 Its like that 3d pictures that you have to cross eye to see them, i can see him now with short hair and now with a mullet. 🤣
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.
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.
"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.
I love the involvement of Rolfe in this video. I mean most of us know of the existence of the Uforce thanks to him, so it makes sense, it feels like closing a story
It's Saturday and I have an almost 40 minute Gaming Historian video to watch, what could be better?
ending gave me optimistic chills, thanks for the research and great interview!