R.O.B.

For other uses, see R.O.B. (disambiguation).

The Robotic Operating Buddy

R.O.B. (Robotic Operating Buddy) was an accessory for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was released in 1984 in Japan as the "Famicom Robot" and in 1985 as R.O.B in North America.

Operation

The R.O.B. functions by receiving commands via optical flashes from a television screen. With the head pointed always at the screen, the arms move left, right, up, and down, and the hands pinch together and separate to manipulate objects on fixtures attached to the base.

Gamers without experience might wonder how R.O.B. relays data back to the NES, and in fact there is no direct way to do so. In Gyromite, one of R.O.B.'s base attachments holds and pushes buttons on an ordinary controller. In Stack-Up the player is supposed to press a button on his or her own controller to indicate when R.O.B. completes a task. While the Robot Series games were among the most complex of its time, they were reliant upon the honor system.

Specifications

R.O.B. equipped for Gyromite

• Height: 24cm/9.5in
• Arm movement range: 300° left/right (five stopping points), 7cm/2.75in up/down (six stopping points, Gyromite uses only the 1st, 3rd, and 5th from the top), 7cm/2.75in between hands when open. Though R.O.B. is mostly receptive to unpowered manipulation, the rotational axis should only be operated electrically.
• Head movement range: 45° tilt, horizontally centered. This joint is one of the most commonly broken areas on pre-owned R.O.B.s.
• Five accessory slots around the hexagonal base (numbered clockwise, starting at the left rear) and notches on the hands allow for specialized parts to be attached depending on the game.
• Red LED on top of head indicates a state of readiness.
• Runs on 4 AA batteries.
• Optional tinted filter could be attached over the eyes to compensate for use with overly bright televisions.
• The original "Famicom Robot" was white with maroon arms to match the Famicom; R.O.B. was colored in two shades of gray to match the NES.

Compatible games

• Gyromite — Included with every R.O.B.
• Stack-Up — Sold separately.

History

File:Stack Up ROB.jpg

R.O.B. equipped for Stack-Up

In Japan, the Famicom Robot was sold with Robot Block (a.k.a. Stack-Up).

The Robotic Operating Buddy was sold in two packages. One was the NES Deluxe Set, which featured a control deck, the NES Zapper, two controllers, and two games (Duck Hunt and Gyromite). The other package only included R.O.B. and Gyromite.

While in production, R.O.B. was not widely accepted. The reason why it is not exceedingly rare today is due to its brief inclusion in the NES Deluxe Set. It was compatible with only two games, neither of which were simple enough for a game market that, at the time, was composed almost entirely of younger children.

Its most successful use was as a "trojan horse" to garner interest following the video game crash of 1983. Retailers, reluctant to stock video games, were successfully tricked when Nintendo snuck the NES in with R.O.B. as a "robot toy" instead of a video game. It worked, as retailers stocked the NES, giving Nintendo its first major foothold in the western market .

On the other hand, some consumers saw R.O.B. only as a novelty. The slow pace with which R.O.B. performed its movements was a source of frustration, since cheating at Gyromite was far easier to set up and play than controlling the game in its intended fashion.

Appearances

Cameos

• The first known cameo was in StarTropics, where a submarine has a navigational robot named Nav-Com that resembles R.O.B.
• The Game Boy Camera contains a secret image of R.O.B., unlocked in the B album after scoring 500 points in the "Ball" minigame.
• Kirby's Dreamland 3 features R.O.B. as well as Professor Hector from Gyromite and Stack-Up. The player brings two arms, a body and a head to Professor Hector, who assembles them and gives the player a heart star.
• ROB 64 of Star Fox 64 is named after R.O.B. As the pilot of the Great Fox (much like Nav-Com from StarTropics), he brings powerups, vehicles and cover fire into the field. His name was shortened to ROB in later Star Fox games. Also in Star Fox 64, Spyborg, the boss of the Sector X level resembles R.O.B., and derives its Japanese name from Famicom Robot's serial number.
• In the Port Town circuits of F-Zero GX and F-Zero AX, a giant construction robot that looks like R.O.B. in Famicom colors can be seen in the background. Also, in Aeropolis: Metropolis, another F-Zero GX course, a secret R.O.B. can be viewed for a few seconds. Boost from the starting line, hit the jump, turn right between two skyscrapers, and go straight. As you begin to fall, you will see a dancing R.O.B. on top of a small building.
• R.O.B. appears throughout the Wario Ware, Inc. series, in some of 9-Volt's character movies and "classic" genre microgames.
• In Pikmin 2, near-perfect models of R.O.B.'s head (named "Remembered Old Buddy") and the 5 Stack-Up blocks (erroneously named "Gyro Blocks", perhaps intentionally due to the naming convention of other items in the same game) are treasures that players can find in the game.
• In the Animal Crossing series, the "Robo" furniture series is a homage to R.O.B. It includes a lamp, a bed, a couch, a chair, a clock and other items with R.O.B.-like details.
• Tetris DS does not feature R.O.B., but there is an appearance by Professor Hector of Gyromite and Stack-Up. He walks back and forth on the top screen of the main menu.
• In the manual and on the back of the game box for Viewtiful Joe, there is a toy that looks very similar to the Famicom ROB. It's tagged as "Robo $2.99."Also, there are gold colored robots with red arms (the colors of the Famicom) that are spread across the first part of the final level. These robots look very similar to R.O.B.
• R.O.B. also makes a cameo as a stage boss in WarioWare: Smooth Moves, shooting a NES Zapper in a Star Fox themed mini-game. The user pilots their spacecraft with the Wii remote and must destroy R.O.B. at the end of the course.
• R.O.B. appears in WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$, and the player controls R.O.B. playing Stack-Up
• R.O.B. also appears in the PSP hit game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories : which takes place in 1984 - In the mission Domo Arigato Domestoboto, Domestobot looks almost exactly identical to Nintendo's R.O.B. for the Nintendo Entertainment System. The mission name also derives from the popular catchphrase "domo arigato, Mr. Roboto."
• R.O.B. appears in Starfox:Command as the pilot of the Great Fox.

Mario Kart DS

File:Robkart.jpg

Official Mario Kart DS artwork of R.O.B.

R.O.B made a reappearance in Mario Kart DS. In this game, R.O.B. is a playable character, unlocked after finishing either of the two Mirror classes (either Nitro or Retro) with Gold Trophies on all four cups. He is one of the two heaviest characters in the game (Bowser is the other joint-heavyweight).

R.O.B.'s personal icon, seen on any kart he drives (in the absence of a user-created icon), is an image of an NES D-pad. A victory image depicting him with the other characters shows R.O.B. towering over the other racers, but in play he is average in size. During online Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection play, the original Famicom/NES difference is preserved; Japanese players will race a white Famicom Robot, while North American and European players will use a grey R.O.B. In all worldwide versions of the game, Famicom Robot is the unlockable staff ghost of the Desert Hills course: discernable from R.O.B. by coloring.

R.O.B. has two unique karts, the ROB-BLS and the ROB-LGS. Both are very fast and heavy but have wider handling. The ROB-BLS kart is an adaptation of R.O.B.'s base equipped with the Stack-Up accessory set, a steering wheel and four very small tires. The ROB-LGS is a tall set of stylistically matched legs with one large tire in back and two small tires in front.

R.O.B. is the fourth non-Mario-related character to appear in a Mario Kart game; the first three were Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, and Blinky in Mario Kart Arcade GP.

Popular culture

• Nintendo Power magazine devoted an entire article to R.O.B. in its 10th anniversary issue. With tongue in cheek, they related that, in 1985, he had been stricken with wanderlust, resigned from the company, and went off to explore the world. In the intervening years he had gone to Antarctica, attended the Berlin Wall's destruction, acted as the T-1000's stunt double in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, worked for NASA, and became the first robot on the moon (the mission was top-secret, of course). By 1995, he had moved to the Midwest, married, settled down, and started a family.

• In the style of "Where Are They Now?", X-Play humorously described R.O.B's descent into a world of robot sex and drug addiction after being ignored by the gaming public. In a later episode, R.O.B was a villain called "Memory Card" and was a parody of Billy the Jigsaw Puppet from the Saw film trilogy.

• In GameSpy's Top 25 Smartest Moves in Gaming History, Nintendo's decision to use R.O.B. as a "trojan horse" to convince retailers to stock the NES was chosen as the #5 smartest move.

• As an April Fools' gag in 2005, IGN claimed that a 1/4 scale R.O.B., with a Game Boy Advance version of Gyromite, would be coming out in the NES Classics Series. In the article was a black-and-white product image from a fictional newspaper.

• In the January 2006 issue of Wired, R.O.B. placed at 45 in the list of "50 Best Bots Ever".

• In Grand Theft Auto Vice City Stories for the Playstation Portable (PSP) the so called "Domestobot" is akin to a R.O.B. [1]

• In the webcomic VG Cats R.O.B. appears as a doctor for the ailing Nintendo Gamecube in the strip Operating Buddy but fails to save Gamecube's life due to his slow maneuvering.

External links

• Video of R.O.B. in action at Powet.tv
• Repairing your broken R.O.B. at Nintendo Gadgets
• R.O.B. at the Gamers Graveyard
• R.O.B. at NES World
• R.O.B. The Robot Myspace Music Page featuring music from the R.O.B. games