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 released in 1984 in Japan as the Famicom Robot and in 1985 as R.O.B in North America. It had a short lifespan, only being supported with two games, but remains known today for the role it played in getting the Nintendo Entertainment System into stores in the United States.

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 his or her own 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, while 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 nonetheless 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 .

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

• 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 Sector X, 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, R.O.B. can be viewed for a few seconds, dancing on top of a small building.
• R.O.B. appears throughout the WarioWare, 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 an 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 R.O.B. It's tagged as "Robo $2.99."Also, there are gold colored robots with red arms (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. is seen on a picture frame in the Old Chateau from Pokémon Diamond and Pearl.
• R.O.B. is featured as a stage boss in the WarioWare: Smooth Moves "Star Fox" mini-game and is equipped with a NES Zapper light gun as a weapon.
• R.O.B is playable in Mario Kart DS, and appears in his Famicom colors in the Japanese version of the game.
• Several R.O.B.s play a role in the "Subspace Emissary" mode of the Wii game Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and R.O.B. is also an unlockable character. As R.O.B is known as Famicom Robot in Japan, he is called "Robot" in the Japanese version. He is able to fire Gyromite discs from his chest that can be powered up by spinning them. His Final Smash fires a short-ranged, conical laser beam from his eyes to damage nearby opponents. In "The Subspace Emissary", a group of R.O.B.s called the R.O.B. Squad serve as the Ancient Minister's personal body guards and help operate Subspace bombs which are needed to bring parts of the world to Subspace.

In the media

• 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 series.

• 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".

• IGN's weekly gaming podcast features a "R.O.B. the Robot" question & answer session called "R.O.B. The Robot In Your Kitchen." In this feature, R.O.B. is actually voiced by co-presenter Hilary Goldstein (using a vocoder effect to make his voice sound robotic), and portrayed as a washed up gaming icon.