Helldivers 2 is at present the recent “must-play” online game and Leif Theden was battling it out within the wasteland when he seen one thing fascinating: participant avatars punch in codes on a wrist pc that bears a powerful resemblance to the Nintendo Energy Glove. Thus, an concept was born and Theden turned a Energy Glove right into a controller to be used with Helldivers 2.
When you aren’t acquainted, the Energy Glove is arguably essentially the most notorious online game console accent in historical past. Launched in 1989 for the NES and Famicom, it was a wearable controller within the type of an excellent dope glove. It grew to become well-known after being worn by Fred Savage in 1989’s The Wizard, creating excessive expectations that it by no means lived as much as. Solely a few video games had been created with the Energy Glove in thoughts and so it was by no means very profitable.
On the wrist of the Energy Glove, there have been a number of management buttons and the participant might merely press these like a standard NES controller. However the Energy Glove might additionally obtain enter from sensors in 4 of glove’s fingers (every of which might detect 4 finger positions), in addition to place knowledge from ultrasonic audio system and microphones. The glove had ultrasonic audio system that might emit pulses and microphones locations across the TV would time these to detect the glove’s place and its yall/roll.
Theden doesn’t personal the microphones, so he might solely make the most of the bodily inputs. He selected to reap the benefits of the D-pad and tied these buttons to W, A, S, and D. Contracting all 4 fingers sends the CTRL key, so the participant can enter codes by making a fist and “typing” on the D-pad.
That is potential as a result of an Arduino Leonardo improvement board is performing as an adapter. It reads the inputs from the glove via the usual controller cable, then sends a corresponding key press to the pc through USB. The Leonardo’s Microchip ATmega32U4 microcontroller might be configured as a regular USB HID, so the pc simply sees the enter as coming from an everyday previous USB keyboard. The participant can use that alongside their regular mouse and keyboard whereas gaming.
I’d usually write one thing about this rising immersion or no matter. However actually, everyone knows the reality: this can be a foolish mission that Theden did for giggles and that’s what makes it so enjoyable.