U-Force

The U-Force is a game controller made by Brøderbund for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It employs a pair of perpendicular consumer IR sensor panels to translate the user's hand movements into controller signals.

From a print advertisement circa 1989:^[1]

Introducing U-Force, the revolutionary controller for your Nintendo Entertainment System. So hot, no one can touch it. Now you can feel the power without touching a thing. It's U-FORCE from Broderbund - the first and only video game controller that, without touching anything, electronically senses your every move, and reacts. There's nothing to hold, nothing to jump on, nothing to wear, U-Force creates a power field that responds to your every command--making you the controller. It's the most amazing accessory in video game history - and it will change the way you play video games forever. It's the challenge of the future. U-Force. Now nothing comes between you and the game.

Reception

The U-Force was ranked the eighth worst video game controller by IGN editor Craig Harris.^[2] MSN listed it as one of the top 10 worst game peripherals, writing "Second only to the Sega Activator in terms of all-out crappiness, the U-Force also used infrared sensors to create a truly nightmarish controller...'Don’t Touch' said the adverts for the device, in a rare example of an advertising campaign that got it spot on."^[3]

See also

• Freedom Stick and Supersonic the Joystick, contemporaneous joysticks for the NES that also used IR technology

References