LGR Oddware - Novint Falcon Haptic Controller from 2007

Checking out the 2007 Novint Technologies Falcon on LGR Oddware! A combination of haptics and force feedback providing up to 2 pounds of force for everything from recoil, to impacts, to caressing balls. A fascinating input device that never got the userbase it arguably deserved.
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● Background music licensed from:
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00:00 An Oddware Introduction
00:33 The Novint Falcon
01:45 Novint Technologies
03:48 What happened
06:22 Controller and grips
09:54 Setup and testing
11:39 Ball demo
15:28 Bundled minigames
24:49 F-Gen Manager
28:09 Half-Life 2
31:58 Portal
34:14 Scripts & Crysis 2
36:32 Mouse passthrough
38:11 It deserved better
#LGR #retro #gaming #controller #oddware

[@sunderark]

I was like "oh man they made this thing work with newer games too" and then I remembered Portal was also from 2007.

[@Gafnitify]

Just to make you happy it takes just a couple more years before it is 20 years old.

[@BurritoVampire]

Queue the Matt Damon aging GIF.

[@Rutgerman95]

I recently realized there's just as much time between now and the release of Half-Life 2, as there is between Half-Life 2 and the release of Duck Hunt for the NES

[@monkeyman767]

​@@Rutgerman95 You stop that right now

[@baconpantsable]

You read this fact and all you hear is the spicy salsa music over the radio

[@PXAbstraction]

I love how in their launcher, there's a spot to just click and get their current stock price. That design decision didn't age well.

[@FractalShoggoth]

Oh wow. That's just asking the universe to smack you.

[@jameslawrence8734]

I feel it aged perfectly.

[@RadeonVega64]

@@jameslawrence8734 same

[@SnakeBush]

just like gamestop soon to be non existant

[@SwerveCityCrimes]

@@SnakeBushShill confirmed.

[@aaronbosen6743]

Another really weird but interesting bit of the history of the Novint Falcon is that it was actually the first hardware device you could buy via the steam store, and that Novint regularly tried to give them away as prizes as part of various game tournament events and that Valve actually has continued to make minute compatability updates for it in various games over the years, with the most recent of those updates happening in January of 2024. That's right. There's apparently still people actively using these things and people on Valve making them play a little better in their games.

[@LGR]

That’s awesome, I didn’t come across that!

[@aaronbosen6743]

Gordo, I'm guessing based off of the fact that you deleted your earlier comment you checked the update logs for about 16 different valve published games for this year.

[@neuronoc.7343]

Honestly, Gaben could just buy the abysmal stocks of Novint and just... Make official steam equivalents of the Falcon.

[@niaschim]

I want one...

[@niaschim]

...they should sell then integrated into desk cabinets, maybe for rich people even rotating flight simulator style cabinets🤩

[@craigunderhill3415]

Hey! I used to work with one of these: Bit of a story time. I worked for a Cyberpsycology lab, and we used all sorts of tech to help people with their phobias, conditions, etc, and I spoke with Novint about what we do, and they were stoked to send us a free Falcon to use. We used this thing to help people who have certain phobias when it came to textures, or even just touching physical objects (like say a Snake or Spider). From what I recall it worked really well for that purpose. Novint was awesome for sending us a device to use for medical purposes that were just starting to get off the ground.

[@kittydaddy2023]

no one needs to touch a snake or spider, what is wrong with you

[@andrewsneacker1256]

@@kittydaddy2023 you're not the sharpest tool in the shed, are ya?

[@jamesrosewell9081]

​@andrewsneacker1256 No he ain't, no he most definitely ain't. Lmao.

[@foodiusmaximus]

What technology do you use to get over fear of success?

[@julian-sark]

@@foodiusmaximus a cocaine dispenser? ;)

[@alfthai]

This device actually looks perfect for Surgeon Simulator

[@DrCorndog1]

Especially with the gun attachment.

[@zymosan99]

buy a real surgical one for it!

[@AniRaptor2001]

In college back around '07 I was on a team that was developing a very similar software as a project, using this thing as the input device. That application is what it was truly made for.

[@axallotofquestionsMusic]

A old age telephone operator simulator 😂

[@antonliakhovitch8306]

​@@AniRaptor2001I think Da Vinci has some really similar controllers for their robot

[@Vostok7]

Cons: "Dude, you're considering spending $190 on a game controller" Flight sim fans: "Yeah, haha, that's crazy..."

[@CherryPixelBun]

Fighting Game Players: "Haha yeah imagine paying like $200-300 on a controller haha"

[@MildMisanthropeMaybeMassive]

Mechanical keyboard fans: I just got this custom keycap for only $80.

[@hypercynic]

Which rigs are more pricey? The Flight Sim ones, or the insane rigs that people build for automotive sims? I've seen someone who literally cut a chunk of a car in half so they had a realistic front end to sit inside with screens wrapped the entire way around. Are there flight sim guys who've taken actual plane fuselage to create a sim? I need to look this up now.

[@ratscavenger]

Truck sim fans sweating

[@milesmccollough5507]

@@hypercynic there’s a guy who’s ground-up built an exact replica of a 747 cockpit with functional control panels to play MSFS.

[@lupinzar]

A few minutes into this video I remarked "I bet this was a high-end product for serious applications cost reduced to a game controller." Poor Novint learned the hard way that for consumer hardware you also have to have killer software and support to be successful.

[@SeanHH1986]

its insane how long youve been showcasing cool stuff and all these years later, theres still something as crazy and unique as this

[@LGR]

Right? The well of oddities is practically bottomless!

[@Kitteh.B]

​@@LGRwill you upload the bottomless oddities to patreon? 😜

[@takochiba9151]

"The Falcon is the predator of the mouse". That is so stupid and I love it.

[@blakksheep736]

Such confidence.

[@omarsabeur9039]

Gun companies have been doing this lately , the CZ Skorpion has a competitor called the B&T Grasshopper Mouse ... Which is a mouse that eats scorpions lol.

[@GTChucker86]

Same as the guy who marketed and led the production of the Chevy Camaro. "Camaro is an animal that eats Mustangs"

[@shawndavis7249]

"I love the Falcon. It's so bad."

[@GeneralPadron]

Falcons do not eat mice. They attack and eat other birds exclusively. That is why the Peregrine Falcon is the US Air Force mascot.

[@deliriumzer0]

HOLY CRAP this is a blast from my past personally! I worked for Novint briefly in about 2007-2008 or so? Half-Life 2 was genuinely so fun with this thing, I was really spoiled by it. It definitely needed a few more cycles of testing & adjustment but it really added so much to the gameplay experience. The texture demo (with the orb that changes material) was mind-blowing on its own, nevermind how much more fun shooters were with the proper kick from firing & impact from enemies. I wish Novint had had just a TINY bit more success, just enough for development to lead to something more usable, because the haptic precision was really something special. Combine these haptics with the feel of the Wii, you get something incredible tbh. (From what I could feel in 1-2-Switch, Nintendo has some incredible haptics in the Switch that have gone massively underutilized, but still nothing as bonkers as what was in the Falcon). It's really no joke that to be sold on it you had to try it, because it was hard to get anyone to check it out at the mall kiosk where I worked, but everyone who tried it was really enthusiastic about it... shame the price & its physical size were both just too much for how little game support it had. The fact that I had to re-calibrate the particular test Falcon I had EVERY TIME I used it? Hard to make me enthusiastic about selling it. (The later models were less problematic in this regard, but it tickled me to see you complain about the calibration because boy was that a common issue lol) (In the end I was fired from Novint because I essentially gave up trying to sell devices at that kiosk and just socialized with other people working at that mall. Actually selling the thing successfully would have involved being dishonest and I just can't do that lol. I work in user experience now, so now I can help improve products rather than sugar-coating them, which is much more for me I think! Honestly I wish I'd been able to do user testing for them back then & get EXACTLY the sort of feedback you're giving in this video, it might have genuinely helped so much.)

[@MadMinstrel]

Rather than just doing games, I wish you had gotten the Pixologic, Pilgway or Blender guys to support this for sculpting. That would have been something artists would legitimately pay for.

[@hoilst265]

Dude, there's one thing they needed to do to make this successful. One simple tricke: Market it to perverts.

[@michaelkolano8686]

I feel like this device would honestly just be useful as an input for 3D drafting and modeling for amateurs or even small buisnesses.

[@monad_tcp]

those things must be really hard in PID control to program, no wonder game devs can't easily figure it out, like just buying a library and plugging it in.

[@sovo1212]

WDYM "being dishonest"? From what I seen, the device works great as it is, as long as you play a first person shooter. Those horrible minigames were a mistake, clearly, because it makes no sense to use the Falcon for these kind of games to begin with, let alone how terribly they were coded. But I can see it could have been successful, had it been marketed as a device for FPS games only, same as racing wheels are exclusively for... racing games. Today it could be great for 3DOF VR as well.

[@wutzerface77]

“Anyways our ‘toy’ is working perfectly” i love the careful choice of words

[@kookaafa]

Love how he just casually has a red dot ready to slap onto the pistol grip attachment. Truly, a man of many disciplines.

[@danieltulk9311]

Giggity intro.

[@getyerspn]

Ha I had exactly the same reaction 👍

[@testshietchannel]

Who else but Quagmire? 🤷

[@pedazodeboludo]

It’s a “personal massager” folks 😊

[@dan_loeb]

definitely remember seeing threads online about people buying these second hand in the mid-late 2010's and making custom "end plates" and code for these to drive them like that.

[@klax001]

Maybe they could have saved their company if someone had come up with a fleshlight attachment for it 😂

[@megan_alnico]

This thing would be fantastic for a surgeon simulator VR game. " You can really feel that liver!"

[@stevethepocket]

From what I've read, professional-grade training tools for surgeons was indeed one of the things that this got used for.

[@gregh378]

When I was doing my PhD part of my project used a Novint Falcon. We collaborated with a dentist on building a dental training simulator and we met with a doctor for surgery, but it couldn't get the feeling between the different layers of tissue correct.

[@niklashegg]

@@stevethepocketit’s in the video

[@MikeC-ud1ne]

I'll bet a few pervs out there thought of tons of weird applications for it 😅

[@RogerAlan]

Dear Algorithm, it’s been so long since you recommended an LGR video, please show me more.

[@ParallelSyntax]

Damn rare to see Clint outright losing it . The last time I remember he was this much in hysterics was an ancient Train Simulator gameplay video.

[@GoldSrc_]

There was a time when he was reviewing something else, and while watching some videos, the XP screensaver popped up with the word "Penis" or something lol.

[@rommix0]

or that more recent Photoshop neural filters video from 2020 (on his Blerbs channel).

[@Zarnubius]

bro completely sold me on a 20 year old piece of obscure hardware, I love that HL2 has always been the medium for groundbreaking hardware. The first proto-VR controls, 3D and haptic tech all used HL2 as a showcase. What a wonderful game and wonderful time. We had no idea how good we had it.

[@jr2904]

It's only 17 years, it has not been 20 years since I graduated from highschool lol

[@user-bm1zk9qj6p]

And HL2 on VR is fucking great too

[@ravenclause]

the force feedback jostick is some 30 years old

[@No_True_Scotsman]

Remeber when there were big budget single player games 😭

[@Trashboat4444]

​@@No_True_Scotsman Have you been living under a rock? There has been a bunch of big single player games in recent times.

[@larrymantic2635]

You know you’ve made a bad bowling game when your bowling ball gains sentience and exits its digital confinement.

[@praeamble]

Or the greatest bowling game of all time.

[@absalomdraconis]

Portal 3 when? "Oh. Hello again Chelle. Could you go fetch me a pin from that pin straightener machine? It seems to have malfunctioned because of a former test participant."

[@JackWse]

They do that in real life too.. like seriously they just up and go through the window for like no reason.. there's not even windows in the alley..

[@DoctorNemmo]

I'm thinking that maybe the controller needed to be upright to play it? It would make more sense.

[@BloopsyBloop]

These kinds of Oddware videos are the best, someone really went to great lengths of effort to make this thing and maybe in some universe it took off. Here we are still stuck with our dinky mice, when we could have the FALCON

[@BullsEye3333]

23:39 Clint wins the world record for the best reaction to getting a strike.

[@claycook9475]

Penumbra came with my Falcon, it's a first person survival horror game by the makers of Amnesia. It's mostly pitch black and you have to use the Falcon to feel around in the darkness to find things and figure out what you're touching. Was super cool and one of the best haptic experiences outside of FPS games.

[@alexio1942]

i played the entire penumbra series and i cant imagine how much harder it would've been , combat was not the best even for mouse.....those damn hounds

[@H1bbe]

You wouldn't happen to still have the files would you? I would love to add it to the preservation bundle. I contacted frictional a few years ago, but they weren't able to give me the files because of a third party.

[@ohokcool]

That’s wild! Penumbra and the rest of the amnesia series are the best games I’ve played in horror

[@havocking9224]

Penumbra with this? Wow 👌🏻👌🏻 Now my brain is trying to imagine it with Amnesia: Bunker 🤔🤔🤔🤔

[@ShiningRosarium]

I think this would've been a better thing to sell to a big theme park or arcade as a novelty than a "at home" kinda deal

[@LGR]

Definitely could see some use cases in an amusement center setting

[@rommix0]

@@LGR Well... It was most definitely "amusing" to watch

[@Zanpaa]

Oh true! Definitely would play half an hour of shooting games at an arcade with this.

[@Alfred-Neuman]

If it came with a fake silicone mouth accessory I'd be interested in buying one.

[@cubeflinger]

Super monkey ball

[@user-nj7lg4sy4d]

The nostalgia i felt when you opened the tutorial software almost made me cry it was so intense. That 2000's "we know youre in a dark room" vibe. God i miss it man, everything today is so bright and mood-less.

[@davidmorin2818]

Didn't expect to see a live bear on LGR

[@OriginalPiMan]

The falcon/mouse analogy goes several steps further than they originally considered. A falcon is more exciting to look at, but there are far fewer out in the wild and they are far more expensive to acquire for yourself. And this particular falcon is extinct in the wild and almost so in captivity.

[@AgentTasmania]

Also falcons are generally associated more with air to air predation

[@Stoney3K]

@@AgentTasmania Isn't that just the F-16 Fighting Falcon? Or does that also apply to actual falcons?

[@CptJistuce]

@@Stoney3K It very much applies to real falcons too. The peregrine falcon is the fastest bird in the world, reaching speeds in excess of 200 miles an hour when diving on prey. With said prey mostly consisting of other birds, which it takes out in flight. It is basically a cruise missile made of meat.

[@WarriorTier]

I had one of these and regret selling it to this day! It was so far ahead of its time and the feedback was insane. HL2 and Crysis were so fun on it. Only issue… after heavy use, your right shoulder starts to hurt like crazy. Novint Falcon for life 🤙

[@GreenBlueWalkthrough]

Yeah I remember seeing the option for it in Battlefeild 2 always wondered what is was.

[@volvo09]

I was sitting here thinking what a terrible device with no real use case.... Then when he fired up HL2 and Portal I was shocked at how cool that feedback must feel in a supported game!

[@afti03]

I could definitely see how your right shoulder would be totally exhausted after holding it like that

[@modsandendsGG-3883]

I still have mine and it's the main drawback. A mouse is way more ergonomic. This is a workout to use. You have to hold your arm up the whole time and then you're not only moving your whole arm to aim, but you're also fighting the force feedback. But that's the whole point, so you get the amazing force feedback experience, but you also get an arm workout, haha.

[@modsandendsGG-3883]

@@volvo09 They made a huge mistake marketing it as a mouse replacement. It had one amazing use case, fps games. Maybe some other games could have been made specifically for it, like a point and click adventure with lots of weird stuff you could "feel", but that seems like an expensive pipe dream.

[@Darxide23]

The plague of 90s and 00s Oddware is that some great ideas were come up with, but nobody knew how to use them. Just some of the spitball ideas at the end of this video were probably beyond what devs 15 and 20 years ago were thinking about. Those minigames are a prime example. They had no idea how to properly utilize this thing. Force feedback in a shooter is cool and all, but an exploration game where feeling an object in realtime could help you solve a puzzle is a prime use case for this thing. Imagine a VR game where you could feel the texture of an object you were holding. That's not something we're even close to emulating right now and if this thing could somehow, someway be incorporated into a VR setup, how great could things be? (I know, it's probably far too bulky to ever work, it's just a thought experiment.)

[@CptJistuce]

This also happened to land at the rise of the keyboard and mouse mafia. Suddenly, like almost overnight, a lot of PC gamers were very militant about how a keyboard and mouse was the perfect input device and no one had ever used anything else and stop trying to turn their computers into dumb Nintendo toys. It was a very strange and very abrupt shift in the market. A lot of neat input devices died, even well-established ones, as they fell in the sights of the "real men only use mice" gang. Even the venerable joystick went from a common peripheral to persona non grata quite rapidly. Tangentally, this is actually considered the main reason that Freespace 2 bombed horribly, despite how popular Freespace had been. Freespace 1 had given a lot of sticks a good workout, and then suddenly no one had a joystick(or anything but disdain for one). The game played like warm poop without one, because flying a space ship with a mouse sucks.

[@strakhovandrri]

​@@CptJistuceit may be connected with two things; firstly, it's the development of hardware, which led to better visuals which led to popularity of FPS genre and, in general, action games from first and third person (to think of it, there was a time when epic and cool games were RTS, like C&C!..), and secondly, a trend of those FPS getting more and more competitive.

[@CptJistuce]

@@strakhovandrri The FPS had already exploded. And that had led to the birth of Descent, which was very much a joystick-first game. And Freespace rode in on Descent's reputation(initially being titled "Descent: Freespace")

[@dk709SGT]

I just love how he just has a RED DOT chillin in the background to test fit to the pistol grip

[@BobDunlock]

26:49 might be the reason why.

[@Ev1lHaX0r]

I laughed for five minutes after the bowling ball exited. Thank you.

[@bewilderbeestie]

I _think_ a physics glitch caused it to bounce sideways and then it fell off the collision mesh. The game then softlocked waiting for it to reach the bowling pins, except the ball was accelerating straight down at 1g.

[@colonthree]

@@bewilderbeestie This is why you have cutoff-checks to ensure the physics objects are within bounds. This is one of the simplest things to implement with a simple box collider/trigger surrounding the playable area...

[@mopspear]

We had a haptics lab in my university in 2007. We were shown a similar device that allowed you to practice giving someone a needle in a 3D arm on the nearby monitor. As you pushed down, you felt the resistance of the imaginary arm. I tried quickly moving the needle in a stabbing motion and made a joke about it being an "OJ Simpson simulator" but no one laughed.

[@paladinkhan]

Damn they all thought you were out of your mind bro, sometimes i say autistic shit and realize "maybe that wasnt the right way to put that, or maybe i shouldnt have expressed that thought at all" It is an oj sim though. Also am autistic so i can say that

[@BigMcLargeChungus]

It is a good joke though.

[@cal2127]

bunch of tight asses

[@GANONdork123]

At the very least, Norm MacDonald probably would have gotten a laugh out of it.

[@Broken_robot1986]

​@@GANONdork123Norm would have knocked it out of the park.

[@pip5528]

Clint has such a contagious laugh. That bowling ball really did ascend to a higher plane of existence!

[@f.k.b.16]

This thing is miles ahead of what I was expecting. It would be awesome in an arcade.

[@shaider1982]

The journalist from gamespot went full Beavis and Butthead whem asked where this device will be most useful for🤣 seriously, being able to feel feel fur is quite amazing.

[@Volsung24]

I mean it was the 2000s kinda par for the course with gaming journalism.

[@k0lpA]

I thought one of the demos would have fur.. probably would have been furry balls though

[@MarkDell]

That was Tor Thorson. He was an absolute legend and sadly died 3 years ago

[@shaider1982]

@@MarkDellohh, RIP to him.

[@shaider1982]

@@k0lpAsame here

[@jasonjackson216]

The screen swooping into full screen was a very cool subtle effect. Really enjoyed that. Thanks LGR :)

[@falllenshadow]

Very nice very clean

[@redpup112]

Yeah, I think he always does that when there needs to be a transition from camera to video capture, but I didn't notice it until your comment.

[@Kitteh.B]

11:54 was smooth AF, loved that. Also loved the laughing while playing with the settings before that, and the little nods to some firearms knowledge. Clint, you're like the cool older brother I always wanted 🤣

[@KarlBaron]

At my university one of the labs had one of pen-style controllers you show in the beginning. That demo has always stuck around with me - squishing the rubber ball and writing on different kinds of paper/plastic felt so amazingly realistic.

[@metacob]

This kept happening all through the 90s and 00s: Someone comes up with a weird peripheral device that's interesting enough to make it into some news shows and magazines. Some early adopter types buy it. The device, at best, works okay with the supplied demo software and maybe one or two games whose developers agreed to add support for it, however it's an afterthought at best. And that's it. If it's a really good idea, the technology gets bought and integrated into something that has nothing to do with the PC enthusiast market.

[@slicknicdwyer]

I mean, that never really stopped happening. That stupid GameScent device only came out a few months ago

[@QWERTYCommander]

And if they get popular enough for a cult following then they live on with aftermarket mods.

[@whatr0]

I'm getting flashbacks to the Razer Wii knockoff motion controllers

[@Ozzianman]

​@@slicknicdwyerThe idea has been reused? I remember reading about something like that in the late 2000s.

[@Thomas1984.]

I bet my mother would love this device. She would use it in all sort of ways. No more dishwashing by hand!

[@Nobody-Nowhere]

Freud would be interest hearing more about your fantasies concerning your mother.

[@Keirnoth]

There's a "your mom" joke here somewhere...

[@cannabiscomet4410]

ways.....:)

[@DE-GEN-ART]

no more wrist cramps while masterbaiting

[@TheObsesedAnimeFreaks]

i mean... if you attached a T product to it.... you could use it too. lol.

[@MarkTheMorose]

Haven't heard that LGR laugh since the 'Photoshop Neural Filters' episode. Which I shall now watch again... thanks, I needed that.

[@remakeyourself]

You really had me in the first half, man. I followed this thing like CRAZY back in the day - There was a huge belief that the "Nintendo Revolution" would use some sort of input like this for a while. So glad someone made a great video about how this worked. Thanks and thanks to the person who let you make a video with theirs!

[@mode7games]

Awesome video! We were lucky enough to get to work with Novint on a few projects in around 2007. They were absolutely lovely people who took a chance on us as a young inexperienced company - I'll be forever grateful to them for that. The Falcon was a unique thing and always got comments from people who walked into our office! If any Novint folks come across this video then I hope you're all doing well.

[@davidromeroblaya7920]

Watching Clint leading a feudal host at gunpoint is hilarious.

[@javidaderson]

It feels like a product that would exist within the portal universe.

[@DrakeVideos]

This may be one of the best responses to a product ive ever seen from you. seems like a genuine product that had real potential

[@alexanderthomas2660]

No big surprise that Valve was the only company putting actual effort in making this work so well with their game, down to all the smallest details.

[@Nereosis16]

Until they turned to shit. Half life alyx is awesome but that's all for the last decade. Seriously, it goes Portal 2 - Alyx with only shit inbetween. Valve is dead.

[@WildBeret]

@@Nereosis16 fu them they the made a game for VR only , it's a joke it is like making game for smarpthones only

[@Nereosis16]

@@WildBeret if you ever get to play it you will see why it's VR only. It's a masterpiece.

[@obeseperson]

@@WildBeretthey do make games for smartphones only, numbnuts

[@Zanpaa]

​@@Nereosis16they "turned to shit" by making a "masterpiece"? Get your story straight.

[@Zayfod]

to paraphrase, "If I had a penny for every time a CAD input device got reworked into a gaming controller, I'd have tuppence; which isn't much, but it's weird that it happened twice."

[@h8GW]

It's enough to feed those flying rats

[@NeoTechni]

what's the other one?

[@Zayfod]

@@NeoTechni the SpaceOrb

[@Aeduo]

But they're always intentionally bad because they need to make something that people will actually buy but just useless enough not to compete with their professional product with ultra-wide margins. Although this looks mostly OK, but suffers all of the usual problems. Poor drivers/software, no public SDK or code or documentation and nobody ends up using it.

[@CycahhaCepreebha]

I use my SpaceMouse for games like Elite Dangerous, and that basically just works out of the box. You have to either set the joystick axis manually or copy a config someone else made off a forum, but it works wonderfully when you do. Got the idea from The Expanse, in the TV series they use a spacemouse as the control stick in the cockpit.

[@tarkhan15]

Despite knowing full well that Clint has a high end PC for editing and modern gaming aside, it still feels like whiplash to see it on this channel :)

[@ShinoSarna]

It was ahead of its time. This would be killer for sitting in VR

[@nakit_muusilla]

That actually looks usable, unlike so many other oddware things

[@mysticmarble94]

Seeing your comment during the mini-games section had me like 👁👄👁

[@octane613]

It was a genuinely really good piece of hardware for the time. It came out during the 08 recession, and wasn't marketed well at all.

[@Shadow50001]

Glad this finally got its moment to shine. I'm surprised the mouse pad didn't work better for you but I suppose I always had it on a grippier desk. Never thought to tape it down lol.

[@LGR]

Yeah I was surprised how much it moved around honestly, ideally I'd have just had it bumped right up against the monitor or something. Thanks again for sending this over for me to check out, it's a shockingly fun device!

[@KIRA666790]

The haptics are why I'm loving the PS5 controller. Cyberpunk's mod added support is amazing.

[@LGR]

Heck yes, love the PS5 controller when it’s well supported

[@Bwethhh]

This is why I love this channel. I have no idea what this is and when I saw the thumbnail my jaw actually dropped in shock, and in awe

[@fen4554]

32:51 I think this is the most joy I've seen you get out of an Oddware. Almost like something briefly lived up to the hype in our minds when we see stuff like this in PCGamer and just dream.

[@georgetazberik6834]

That's because the hardware was shockingly good, it's just the implementation was lacking. It needs well made software to take full advantage of it AND it needs a better mounting solution.

[@Jezee213]

It's like they designed the product around the ball demo. It's such a specific use case.

[@leftyfourguns]

You can see in the beginning of the video what this tech is for. Medical and engineering industries. They just attempted to adapt it to the video game market

[@internettoon]

its like the power glove all over again

[@brulsmurf]

you can feel textures. i can only think of nsfw usecases

[@Jezee213]

@@brulsmurf YUP!

[@Jezee213]

@@leftyfourguns True, good point. it looks very enterprise!

[@addisonchrystie2057]

When I worked as an engineer for a design firm in 1999 I actually tested out that Phantom Haptic Interface using an early 3D sculpting app similar to what Z-Brush eventually became. The idea was to use it for industrial design and make the process of interfacing with the computer more "natural" to create 3D models. It was early, and obviously had it's clunks, and given the price, the company didn't adopt it, but it was cool to see.

[@Anamnesis]

Had one of these back in the day to experiment with on Source games. Interesting idea, but also a prime example of “be careful what you wish for” . Even though it added an interesting tactile experience for shooters, it made games like HL2 significantly more difficult even on easy mode, because the ability to have precise mouse-like accuracy was almost nonexistent.

[@waverazor]

I played doom 3 on it, and it was extremely immersive.. I don't think I can even play doom 3 without my no vint.. Imagine no vint + vr headset

[@jakematchey4376]

Never would have suspected a guy reviewing retro computer accessories might be mauled by a bear at some point.

[@rommix0]

It's better not to think about it. I would rather not mama bear maul our favorite reviewer.

[@timjim58]

Thank you LGR for featuring this!!! I was in my late teens when I actually walked into a MicroCenter in Cincinnati and found one of these on display, I had no idea the make / model. All I knew, they had it attached to gaming PC with some titles that were compatible, and I thought it was pretty cool! Granted, this pricetag for me at the time would've been way too high to consider, but I did enjoy the hour or so I spent on that demo PC. Ah, this one hits me right in the nostalgia. Thanks again LGR

[@SaltyFrenchFries]

I was reminded of a bit in Freeman's Mind where Gordon first uses the gravity gun launch and it was such an amusing reaction as he felt like he got punched in the gut. I was sad not to see the gravity gun tested in the video but it was funny how the portal gun had such strong recoil.

[@TheLexikitty]

I swear I saw Jamie from Mythbusters using something like this in his office for 3d modeling.

[@DasGanon]

I remember that! It wasn't Jamie but it was one of the M5 employees who was using it to model Kari's behind for the mold for the airplane toilet suction one. It was basically one of the pilots.

[@vladyslavsmirnov1875]

I recall a pen-like device they used to model a butt for the "sucked to an airplane toilet" myth, is that the one you were referring to?

[@DustyGamma]

Oh hi Lexi! What're you doing here at this computer hardware related video? Sarcasm!

[@chinsta00]

Good memory! It was being sucked into the airplane toilet seat myth. They took a 3D scan of Kari Byron's bum, then Kari used the 3D mouse to build up the size of her bum for making a rubber casting mold. Probably used by Jamie in another episode, but I remember Kari's bum well!

[@jorgeroman2058]

I think there's a lot of these kind of weird input devices in ealy CGI, like the dinosaur input device from Jurassik Park

[@Logovanni]

Hell yeah. I have one of these. Bought it in 2013. I have the ball and the pistol grip. The haptic feedback really blew me away with Half-Life 2. I was in college at the time and I brought it to my microcomputer maintenance class and showed it off. The recoil impulse would change with different weapons, picking up different objects felt like you were holding something with relatively similar substance. The grip is modeled after a Walther P99. That is why it is so comfortable. One thing that was really interesting was doing 3D modeling. I think 3DS max supported it and it was really intuitive to use.

[@MrYancakes]

Love hearing when you get legitimately excited about things, it's a delight to experience it vicariously.

[@RetroPC]

This is easily one of the coolest pieces of oddware I've ever seen on this channel. So glad you got to review one of these! I didn't even know they existed until right now. 🤯

[@ashtonsretrocomputerroom]

When those basketballs were flying everywhere all I could think of is “BOMBARDMENT!”

[@javascript546]

OH MAN I REMEMBER THESE! I’m so glad you’re doing a review. Teenage me was furious he couldn’t afford one.

[@TheTrueFool]

I always really appreciate the historical aspects of these videos. LGR Tech Tales light.

[@ninjacat230]

this needed a petting zoo type thing for it

[@LGR]

Oh that would’ve been a nice demonstration

[@ninjacat230]

@@LGR Imagine kinektimals, but with one of these. instant system seller.

[@mousasha-]

would've been an insanely smart demo. I love Ball Fondling Simulator 2007 as much as the next person but the haptics being used to let u pet a virtual cat would've been awesome

[@V4nh4K3ttu]

@@mousasha- I bet you could have made it so that cat moves and feedback is still realistic.

[@rommix0]

Yeah. Just don't pet the bears though.

[@Conradlovesjoy]

I like the transition from monitor view to capture view! Nice touch!

[@GarnetCrow]

Clint has a red dot, knows how to grip a pistol and can make a comparison of force to something like a .32 pistol. I think Clint has other hobbies, that I'd be interested in seeing.

[@toastrytoaster]

Putting the G in LGR. Clint is packing, he has to protect all that hardware from the retro perverts.

[@equinoxe3d]

And he has bears attacking his bird feeders, gotta scare them off somehow

[@V4nh4K3ttu]

Yeah, at the moment I saw thumbs go inline behind each other I knew that he has shot some real guns.

[@strawmanfallacy]

Wait until you find out how "cool" The 8-Bit Guy is...

[@mylifematter]

I still got 2 of these sitting at home, collecting dust. Hope this video brings a revival to the device.

[@IsaardP]

The bowling ball accelerating down the tiny gutter slope and leaving 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@mrpoepoe]

Netscape dad hat goes hard

[@flexarnn]

I was at a gameconvention in Sweden ages ago where there was a booth where they had VR podracing game using two of these for the controlls.

[@Graylord88]

I was a 3d modeling student back when 3d sculpting started becoming a ting, and I distinctly remember drooling over similar devices, not for gaming, but for sculpting.

[@juankid8802]

Wow thanks for looking at such a crazy device. I remember seeing this at Tiger Direct eons ago and every few years the concept of it would pop back in my brain, but could never figure out what the device was, leading me to believe it was something I had imagined as a kid.

[@TheDarkestPhoenix]

This feels like it might have been a few years too early. VR would be pretty neat with this.

[@Cooe.]

Wrong. It would be TERRIBLE for VR as its action is confined to a TINY position of 3D space on a desk. 🤷 A 6DOF VR controller with high end LIM haptics like Meta's Touch Pro controllers is a better VR control solution than something like this in basically every way imaginable. What you lose in force feedback you gain in proper wide area 6DOF maneuverability (unlike the MINISCULE like 6" area of 6DOF control a Novint Falcon provides).

[@childofcascadia]

@Cooe Calm down.

[@GoldSrc_]

@@Cooe. You haven't seen those hentai VR games it seems lol.

[@Cooe.]

@@GoldSrc_ Those games would still be infinitely better with some kind of 6DOF haptic gloves than anything like this. This must be stationary on a desk w/ very limited range of motion technology simply doesn't make sense for VR. 🤷

[@MaxDunk]

This is one of those devices that lives or dies on it's implementation, and Valve did it masterfully with HL2. Knew these existed, but never knew how cool the HL2 implementation was.

[@liquidchato]

Man I replayed half life 2 so many times, but playing half life 2 with the novint falcoln was something else

[@t9h3m]

Feels really analogous to VR in general. Incredibly impressive demos, obvious wealth of potential, but very very few games/apps that properly utilize it.

[@CptJistuce]

Clint, I really appreciate that you were willing to let your PC go Bruce Lee on you for our entertainment. I think all of us were going to wonder "can the Novint Falcon punch someone" if you hadn't. Also, while my mom doesn't give a crap about electronics, I got her in here to watch the bear pop up. She loved it.

[@ion_force]

@4:14 "I know what you're thinking about you can use this for, why don't you tell us?" *nervous laughter* "No!" Comedy gold.

[@aner_bda]

Man, this thing SCREAMS 00s computer tech.

[@MolecularMachine]

Exactly the type of stuff you'd drool over at the Sharper Image

[@tbdaemon]

I think this is the first time I've seen Cliff let slip his firearms interest in an LGR video.

[@cal2127]

hes from the south. its burned into us here

[@tbdaemon]

@@cal2127 I thought he was from NC. Wait, is NC part of "the South"? I dunno, I'm not an American.

[@jr2904]

​@@tbdaemon yes, it is part of the south east

[@vasheal]

​@@cal2127not everyone.

[@samuelmarak2327]

it crazy to believe that i have watched you for 7 years now. i have my second job and remember your earlier videos like cozy childhood videos.

[@acomingextinction]

"They named it Falcon, because Falcons eat mice." hilariously, they don't. falcons are avivores which means they hunt and eat other birds.

[@Danferplus]

I hope that one day LGR will review the "UNION REALITY HEAD MASTER" one of the most obscure and strange PC gaming controllers ever, which used the same technology as the wiimote years before the wiimote

[@tiagobelo4965]

Seems like a plug-and-play version of stuff like trackIR, neat!

[@Metal_Maxine]

That looks like a one-way ticket to neck injury.

[@stevethepocket]

That's a heck of a combination of words to name it.

[@brandonbarnes2580]

[chuckle of immaturity]

[@FellowHuman137]

[Tut of disappointment]

[@rogero8443]

before I even get into this, I've never been more excited for a duke nukem attempt

[@FroyourHistory]

This is a technology that should be revisited

[@mingzhezhang2992]

"If you wanna touch some other balls, you can do that. There are a lot of balls!" lol. No comment.

[@ihatemax206]

I respect the amount of research you do for these videos, you uncover so much depth for such odd items.

[@shocktnc]

Totally agree, I love how much depth he gets into.

[@MisiekCentralny]

I’ve had a pleasure of playing with this thing and touching different textures once. It was very cool

[@Rexdrinkredbull]

I like how the Gamespot clip is supposed to imply "oh he's gonna use the controller to touch hot video game women hahaha" but my immediate first thought was "oh is he a furry or something?" because of the mention of "touching real fur"

[@WolfCoder]

Now that you're doing Oddware on a device I actually had to use in motion planning research at work, I can tell how much effort you put into researching the background of your Oddware videos. It's very impressive! Keep up the good work. We used it for consumer-grade (it doesn't cost 20,000+USD) interactive molecular docking simulations on a business-tier laptop and demoed it at a few places.

[@splatter_proto]

Wow this brought back some memories! I had the pleasure of playing the ball demo and HL2 at Gen Con in the late aughts, it really is a cool piece of tech. I distinctly remember the molasses/sandpaper part of the ball demo. It's a real shame the tech never took off, it'd pair so well with VR today.

[@KenMrKLC]

Really Cool, I love these Oddware segments, So interesting to see all this stuff

[@valliantsteed]

Hey Clint, play Infra with this, it's based on portal 2's version of the source engine. It is a first person adeventure game from 2015/16 made by finnish developers. It's theme is urbax, abandones places, tech-y puzzles and cold war cloak and dagger stuff.

[@smugshrug]

seeing the controller bounce when you dropped the companion cube was pretty cool.

[@joshspence4353]

Was waiting for a "I've got Balls of FEEL." In Duke's voice

[@Tibasu]

I completely forgot about this thing until you started doing the touch demos, then I got hit with crazy nostalgia as I remember seeing this on TV

[@Volothos]

I remember this! Arma, Crysis, and so many other games went so far as to explicitly add support for this neat little tool. I remember really wanting one, but could never find one in my area :C

[@clamsauce6239]

I have one of these! I won it in a trivia contest run by the company - the one time retaining a bunch of otherwise-useless video game knowledge has done me any good. Sorry to say that I played with it for about a week before putting it away and it's just been collecting dust on a shelf since. As cool as it is, it's just not practical and I found using it for extended periods really strained my hand and arm.