R.O.B.

For other uses of "R.O.B.", see Rob.

The Robotic Operating Buddy.

R.O.B. (Robotic Operating Buddy) is an accessory for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was used in the Robot series. It was released in 1984 in Japan as the Famicom Robot and in 1985 as R.O.B in North America. It had a short lifespan, with support for only two games, but remains known today for the role it played in getting the Nintendo Entertainment System into stores in the United States.

History

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. In Japan, the Famicom Robot was sold with Stack-Up. Though it was only compatible with Gyromite and Stack-up, 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 because of huge losses they incurred during the crash, were willing to stock R.O.B. with the NES as a "robot toy." It worked, as retailers stocked the NES, giving Nintendo its first major foothold in the western market.

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. 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 the controller to indicate when R.O.B. completes a task. While the Robot games were among the most complex of their time, they were reliant upon the honor system in that players could simply press the buttons on the controller themselves without involving R.O.B. at all.

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), 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.

Playable appearances

R.O.B first made his playable reappearance in Mario Kart DS as a playable secret character, and is one of the two heaviest characters in the game (Bowser is the other joint-heavyweight).

Multiple R.O.B.s are featured in the upcoming Super Smash Bros. Brawl as members of the Subspace Army. Known as the R.O.B squad, they are enemy characters encountered throughout the story. Two R.O.Bs must be sacrificed in order to detonate a Subspace Bomb. They are led by the Ancient Minister, who is really the original R.O.B in disguise. This R.O.B (whose red color is found in the Famicom Robot) is playable and joins the player’s party after he defects from the Subspace Army. He is the only playable character who did not originate from a video game, and the only non-organic one.

Though not exactly a "playable" role, an R.O.B. appears in Star Fox 64 as the pilot of the Great Fox when the team is on a mission. He has a different design in this game.

Reception

The creation and use of R.O.B. as a "Trojan horse" was named the fifth in GameSpy's top twenty five smartest moves in gaming history. It has also been named one of the top fifty robots by Wired.