1. raspberrypi.org/magpi24 May 2015
Projects SHOWCASE
The infamous NES peripheral, the Power Glove, has been the butt of
many jokes and centre of a lot of nostalgia. What happens when you
don’t need the rose-tinted glasses any more?
et’s face it, once you take
off your rose-tinted glasses
and forget the quotes and
memes surrounding cult 8 s
ad er-film The Wizard, you re left
with a arely functional peripheral
that is ery much a product of its
time. he ower Glo e was a no elty
and, while it captured the minds of
many young children, it ne er quite
li ed up to its promise at the time.
pparently, it s this e act reason
that got Cory ennedy moti ated.
“ he wnGlo e was a pro ect
rooted in the desire to uild
the memory my -year-old
self was depri ed of, thanks to
the marketing genius ehind
ower Glo e s capa ilities,
Cory e plains to us. “ saw other
people doing all sorts of pro ects
with ower Glo es and thought
it would e a perfect match to pair
it with retro N S gameplay.
t was originally created for
Cory s information security
meetup s acker Show-off
Contest , where he had
minutes to wow the crowd with
his in ention. lthough the focus
was information security, Cory
wanted to try something else
“ wanted to do something
different, mainly ecause where
am today professionally is rooted
in tinkering not only with
computers at a young age, ut also
ideogames... wanted to e the
kid from the now you re playing
with power ad. hich is e actly
why added the Neo i el array.
s well as eing a pretty good
fit for the inside of the ower
Glo e, the asp erry i came
in ery handy for ena ling
CORY KENNEDY
A family man and a cyber defence
professional, who is also the
co-founder of Kansas City’s premier
information security meetup, SecKC.
imgur.com/a/9JXbT
> It took seven
days from
conception to
presentation
> Cory’s son
helped with
the soldering
> The Power
Glove was
an official
Nintendo
licensed
product
> It accepts two
Wii Remotes as
controllers
> It was created
as part of a
‘show-off’
meetup
Quick
Facts
Play on your own or with
a friend via the screen
on your wrist, using a Wii
Remote, the control pad,
or your fingers
PWNGLOVE
Some of the original PCB
had to be cut away to allow
the Arduino to fit inside, but
most buttons stillwork
L
t’s noticeably di erent
from the original Power
Glove – Cory felt he
achieved a DeLorean feel
with the result

2. raspberrypi.org/magpi 25May 2015
ProjectsPWNGLOVE
luetooth, rduino interaction,
and access to the actual games.
“ he odywork was tough,
mainly trying to resist the urge to
take away from the original look
too much, Cory says, regarding
actually getting e erything into
and around the glo e. “ say
that, ut then take a look at the
monstrosity it has ecome and
ha e to say... t now reminds me of
the Back to the Future De orean.
e did try to use as much of the
original parts as possi le, though.
>STEP-01
Konami coding
To get into the PwnGlove, you need
to use the password. This is entered
using a special sequence of keys:
Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left,
Right, B,A, Start. 30 extra lives await.
>STEP-02
Choose your game
The RetroPie interface comes
up, enabling you to select any
compatible game from your library.
It’s best to use the buttons on the
pad to select one.
>STEP-03
Team up with a bad dude
Throw a Wii Remote to a friend
and you can then rescue the
president, save the princess,
fight the Red Falcons, or swear at
Battletoads together.
“ t le erages all the original
components, modified physically
a it to cut out the non-essential
C , to allow for room for new
components. here are four
original end sensors thum ,
inde , middle, and ring , which
connect to an analogue multiple er
li ing in the palm housing,
which sends that data ack to the
rduino. his is all piped o er
luetooth ack to the asp erry i.
he wrist pad uttons are mostly
intact programming uttons
As well as being a pretty good fit for the inside of the
Power Glove, the Raspberry Pi came in very handy
for enabling Bluetooth and Arduino interaction
Above The lights
on the glove
are supposed
to pay homage
to advertising
material for the
Power Glove
aren t working , and they are set
up now to do things like allowing
the onami code and switching the
colour and pattern sequence on the
Neo i el array.
Cory is fore er making tweaks
to his wnGlo e, impro ing it in
minor ways to sol e what he sees
as pro lems, ut admits that most
people don t e en notice.
“ o e honest, the reactions
it gets from people, especially
kids, certainly makes those
imperfections disappear.
START PLAYING WITH POWER
Above Left An
Arduino can be
found in the
original circuit
compartment,
plus a screen and
Raspberry Pi on
the wrist