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  • - I'm pretty sure there's something wrong.

  • [laughs]

  • We're off to a great start.

  • [piano music]

  • Greetings and welcome to LGR Oddware,

  • where we're taking a look at hardware and software

  • that is odd, forgotten and obsolete.

  • And this time, we've got this right here.

  • This is the Essential Reality P5 Glove controller,

  • I guess you could call it,

  • and it's sort of a glorified mouse

  • input device type thing for PCs,

  • to let you control games and your computer desktop,

  • and whatever else, through the power of your fingers.

  • It's quite the experience,

  • and this was actually given to me,

  • and the Vintage Computer Festival Midwest 2019.

  • Forgive me, I didn't write down your name,

  • but he gave me this T-shirt as well.

  • I guess he's with Free Geek, Twin Cities.

  • They do some cool stuff with e-cycling and all that,

  • thank you for both of these things,

  • but yeah, he apparently got this dropped off there,

  • and thought of me, and it's like brand new and everything,

  • so here it is, thank you very much for giving this to me,

  • and yeah, let's take a look at the P5!

  • Alrighty, time to get hands-on with this thing.

  • This is the Essential Reality P5,

  • with P5 standing for power of five,

  • as in your five fingers.

  • It sold for $150 when it launched

  • in the latter half of 2002.

  • A price that immediately drew criticism.

  • Sure, it came packed with full versions

  • of the games, Operation Tiger Hunt and Hitman 2,

  • but 150 bucks?

  • That was the same price as a brand new

  • Nintendo GameCube console back then,

  • so it's little wonder that Essential Reality

  • quickly dropped the price to $99 for the P5

  • at the beginning of 2003.

  • "The future is at hand."

  • Ah geez, they couldn't resist a hand pun, huh?

  • On the other hand, you've got to hand it to them,

  • puns are hands down on the handiest ways

  • to get a grip on product marketing

  • without using under-handed business tactics.

  • So I give it two thumbs up.

  • Anyways, Essential Reality billed the P5

  • as the Ultimate 3D Virtual Controller,

  • providing six degrees of motion control,

  • the ability to detect gripping and finger movements.

  • It drew immediate comparisons to the Power Glove

  • for the NES among gamers,

  • but the mainstream media really latched onto the idea

  • of it being a kind of futuristic mouse replacement.

  • There were all kinds of ridiculous headlines like,

  • Are Mice Now Obsolete?

  • and The Mouse Faces Extinction.

  • Not to mention calling the P5

  • a device for hardcore video game players

  • that find joysticks and mice too confining.

  • [laughs] Because who hates playing games

  • with traditional controls more than hardcore gamers, right?

  • Now check out this mock-up of the modern day gamer

  • in 2002, complete with a CyMouse head tracker,

  • Olympus Eye-Trek display, and of course, the P5.

  • Fantastic!

  • The company also touted this as a potential

  • input device for 3D animation, CAD modeling,

  • and sports simulations, stating that

  • "there's a lot of people sick of the mouse.

  • It's a limited two-dimensional device.

  • We want to go above and beyond that."

  • Indeed, which is why companies like Spacetech IMC

  • sold their Spaceball devices

  • nearly a decade and a half before the P5.

  • Quite successfully too.

  • So yeah, they were correct that certain people

  • demanded mouse alternatives.

  • It's just that they were late to the party,

  • and professionals had long since decided

  • on using devices like the Spaceball,

  • which left the P5 for quote, hardcore gamers,

  • and their supposed hatred of mice and joysticks.

  • Unfortunate then, that game support was so abysmal.

  • Only five games were officially patched for it.

  • The afore-mentioned Hitman 2 and Tiger Hunt,

  • as well as Serious Sam II, Black and White,

  • Air Lock and a demo for Beach Head 2002.

  • Yeah!

  • Essential Reality promised more support in the future,

  • along with Playstation 2 and X-Box versions,

  • left-handed and smaller-sized models,

  • and even a fully wireless edition.

  • Of course, this never happened.

  • Beyond a software update in 2003,

  • Essential Reality soon stopped development on the P5,

  • and massively discounted gloves,

  • started littering store clearance sections.

  • As fate would have it, though this was when the P5

  • finally started forming a proper community

  • with $20 gloves ending up in the hands of hobbyists,

  • who saw the potential with its new low price point.

  • Custom drivers and a new API by Carl Kenner

  • were a popular upgrade,

  • soon being preferred by users

  • over the original Essential Reality software.

  • But yeah, even that's over 15 years old now.

  • By and large, what little community the P5 once boasted

  • has long since moved on,

  • with recent efforts to add P5 support

  • to OpenHMD having fizzled out.

  • However, on LGR Oddware, we're just getting started.

  • So, let's see how it was to use one fresh out of the box.

  • This is the special premiere edition from 2002,

  • bundled with unique P5 enabled CD-ROMs for Hitman 2,

  • Tiger Hunt and Beach Head 2002.

  • You also get some replacement plastic

  • finger-squeezing thingies,

  • and this towering motion tracker

  • they call the P5 Receptor.

  • Kind of looks like a slimline computer speaker

  • with a USB cable, but in reality,

  • it's an infrared receiver

  • that senses movement made by the P5 Glove.

  • So yeah, unlike the Power Glove's ultrasonic microphones,

  • this uses infrared.

  • Kind of like the Nintendo Wii sensor bar.

  • Finally, there's the glove itself,

  • held in place with far too many twisty-ties here,

  • but I guess they really wanted to show it off,

  • so they did what they had to,

  • but yeah, here it is!

  • It's a combination of plastic and rubber materials

  • that slides onto your right hand,

  • with eight infrared LEDs around the edges,

  • and four buttons on the top left hand side.

  • You know, the P5 Glove is really less of a glove,

  • and more of a hand harness

  • that hugs onto your fingers.

  • Actually, you know those jeweled bracelets

  • that extend to cover your whole hand?

  • Kind of like that but for obsolete hardware nerds.

  • Or perhaps the most ineffective Thanos cosplay,

  • just instead of Infinity Stones, you have infinity LEDs.

  • Anyway, the non-glove has a cable,

  • permanently attached to the rear right of the hand,

  • which connects to the front of the IR Receiver Tower.

  • And in return, the tower connects to your PC

  • via USB one point one.

  • As for where you place the receiver,

  • well that's a bit of a thing

  • that we'll get to soon enough,

  • but yeah, that's about it for setup.

  • The rest is all software found on this fourth CD-ROM

  • tucked away in the bottom of the box.

  • The documentation is pretty sparse.

  • All you get is this cheap foldout paperwork

  • that basically just says to plug it in

  • and install the software.

  • So enough of me talking, let's move on

  • over to more of me talking.

  • Ahh!

  • Okay, I've got the Windows XP build going right here,

  • and we have the thing plugged in.

  • All that kind of good stuff.

  • We've got the hand ready to go,

  • but right now, it is not turned on.

  • So, I was actually putting it on the wrong way

  • when I first got it.

  • Had to do some adjustments,

  • and actually those other plastic things

  • that it comes with are not only replacements,