Powerglove is a 2010 stream pack made by Zaia of the power metal band Powerglove and their 2010 album, Saturday Morning Apocalypse. It was released on the (now-defunct) Australian-based Revolution Street forums.
The band is named after the Power Glove, a 1980s controller accessory for the Nintendo Entertainment System.
| Pack Director | Zaia |
| Stepartists | Zaia (as Snow) |
| BPM | 114-240 |
| Songcount | 10 |
| Blocks | 14-16 |
| Type | Stream |
| Format | Singles |
| Release Date | November 30, 2010 |
¶ Structure
This pack contains singles-expert charts for every song. Some charts have 24th bursts, and some have half-tempo slowdowns.
The description fields of the charts contain the stepartist name.
Information from the Guide.txt file contained with the pack:
-//-- Powerglove Difficulty Ratings --\\-
// 13
(MEDIUM)
> The Simpsons (Feat Tony Kakko) - Long streams at 175bpm, with some more complex patterns and a 24th trill near the end.
(HARD)
> Gotta Catch Em All/Gotta Catch Em All (Feat Tony Kakko) - Easiest song in the pack. Decent-sized streams and not many candles. Easy patterns and gimmicks are easy to read.
// 14
(EASY)
> Transformers - Slow song but long and the few 24th streams add to its difficulty. This song has the hardest gimmicks to read in the pack. Footswitches are hard to predict and the chart requires concentration for the entire length of the song
(MEDIUM)
> The Flintstones - Longer 190 streams and triplet patterns. The song's difficulty is derived from its length and lack of any major rest sections
(HARD)
> X-Men - Streams are not too long and footswitches are easy to predict. No tempo gimmicks and straightforward patterns. Not many hands
// 15
(EASY)
> Inspector Gadget - This song is the harder brother of Flintstones, but flows in a similar manner. Song runs at 200bpm for the whole song and 8th sections are not really straightforward and some are full of jumps
(MEDIUM)
> Heffalumps and Woozles (Winnie The Pooh) - Long streams and speed gimmicks make this chart one of the harder songs in the pack. The constant switching between 12ths and 16ths requires more focus than normal
> Batman - Longest song in the pack, and several long 24th streams and one massive 24th steam with tiring patterns make this easily the hardest 15. The last 15% of the song speeds up to 175bpm (from 140) but contains no 24th streams.
// 16
(EASY)
¶ Development
I discovered this band on a digital jukebox in the main Brisbane city arcade Timezone around Q3 2010. This pack was conceived with a specific intent to step a single artist, which is not something I had done before.
Learning from the thematic failure of Nothing is Sound 3 months earlier, this pack was to be more focused on a different set of criteria that were more consistent. Charts were all designed to fit into a moderately tight difficulty range (SX13-15), a similar tempo range (175-210) and similar chart structure and pacing.
Interestingly, the writing style is not based on Dragonforce, despite the many other similarities. The patterning was made to be functional and more focused on playability, rather than with a specific artistic goal. My sense for stepping streams was still undeveloped and in its infancy, so most artistic value in the patterning is mostly incidental, but there were a few moments of purposeful design at the macro level. They're most evident where trills and boxes are involved. Most charts showed very limited candle sense, but there was occasionally enough to differentiate them artistically from non-candle patterns. Many charts use artistic mines.
Chart production took place throughout October and November of 2010. This was the first pack I developed that I was able to pad-test as I stepped it, travelling to my friend B1uEM4oM4o's house to playtest charts.
¶ Artistic Influences and Chart Design
Being power metal, the biggest simfile influence on this pack was undoubtedly the Dragonforce pack, by TheCosmicPope. Like that pack, Powerglove is an artist-specific pack, featuring single-difficulty charts. Other simfile influences included This Calling (C0m37's Originals, unknown release year), Corrosion (Subluminal, 2010) and Isolation CV (Causality Violation, 2011).
¶ Graphics
This was my first pack to feature individual graphics for every simfile. They were all made in Adobe Photoshop CS3 using background art that was related to the source sample for each song in some way. Most were found on DeviantArt, but are uncredited, despite the Credits + Instructions.txt file saying otherwise:
Graphics have been made by myself from images I took from DeviantArt and altered using Photoshop CS3. All due credit is given where it is deserved.
There are no instructions in this .txt file, and nor is any credit for the artwork given anywhere.
Borrowing from the way the Dragonforce pack stylized the artist logo on each graphic (unique colors and shading for each one), Powerglove did the same. The graphics were also augmented using the Photoshop Brush tool, using a custom brush set I had at the time to add copious effects to each graphic.
¶ Songlist
Powerglove contains 10 songs.
| Song | Artist | BPM | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Batman | Powerglove | 140-175 | |
| Gotta Catch Em All | Powerglove | 180 | |
| Gotta Catch Em All(Feat Tony Kakko) | Powerglove | 180 | Vocal version of the same song Identical chart |
| Heffalumps and Woozles | Powerglove | 140 | |
| Inspector Gadget | Powerglove | 190 | |
| The Flintstones | Powerglove | 200 | |
| The Simpsons(feat Tony Kakko) | Powerglove | 175 | |
| This Is Halloween | Powerglove | 200-240 | |
| Transformers | Powerglove | 80-160 | |
| X-Men | Powerglove | 140 |
¶ Reception and Retrospect
This pack released on r21freak to a muted reception. I don't recall anyone playing it so there isn't any feedback I can note here, but there was a pretty sick comment from TheCosmicPope on the X-Men video! That's honestly all the positive feedback I need to feel like the pack was a success
SerenadeSnow: Snȱw - Gotta Catch Em All POWERGLOVE - 94.39
SerenadeSnow: Snȱw - Transformers POWERGLOVE 95.32
SerenadeSnow: Snȱw - X-Men POWERGLOVE 91.14
¶ Trivia
- Being my first artist-themed pack, this pack was the precursor to a number of future projects that would incorporate similar design ideals:
- The Helblinde packs are another series that are artist-specific, themed around a consistent music genre, uses source samples, and has similar tempo, musical structure and chart difficulty
- Since this pack immediately succeeded Nothing is Sound, there are a few instances of unmarked footswitches (FS).
- Powerglove was my first pack that was 100% completed to its initial design specifications, making it my first "finished" pack.
- TheCosmicPope commented on my X-Men video, which was pretty sick