The origin of ROB the Robot

[Mikazume]

R.O.B
First Appearance: Hardware Accessory, NES, 1985

R.O.B. (Robotic Operating Buddy) is an accessory for the Nintendo Entertainment System. He was used in the Robot series. He was released in July 1985 in Japan as the Famicom Robot and later that year as R.O.B. in North America. He had a short lifespan, with support for only two games. R.O.B. was released with the intention of portraying the Nintendo Entertainment System as something novel in order to alleviate retail fears following the video game crash of 1983



Appearances in Video Games

R.O.B. has appeared as a cameo character in various video games, such as Kirby's Dreamland 3, the WarioWare series, the Star Fox series and the F-Zero series. R.O.B. is also featured as a playable character in Mario Kart DS and Super Smash Bros. Brawl. In Brawl, one acts as the game's primary antagonist, the Ancient Minister, for part the game's single player mode. He controls the Subspace army under the orders of Ganondorf and also controls a small R.O.B. army. However, he redeems himself in the end when he turns on his superiors.


Reception

The creation and marketing of R.O.B. as a "Trojan horse" after the video game market saturation of 1983 was named the fifth in GameSpy's top twenty-five smartest moves in gaming history.Screwattack put R.O.B in 5th worst in their list of top 5 best and worst Gaming Peripherals
The album R.O.B. by Bochum Welt is in dedication to R.O.B., including the songs "Robotic Operating Buddy", "Family Computer Robot", and "Gyromite".


Confirmed for Brawl: March 6, 2008
First arriving on the scene not as an in-game character but rather as an NES hardware accessory, R.O.B. the Robotic Operating Buddy later made the jump to cameo roles in a variety of Nintendo games, and later became a playable driver in Mario Kart DS. Now his rebirth is further fueled – R.O.B. is now a fully playable fighter in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.


We didn't think he'd make the cut, originally. After all, R.O.B. robots were confirmed early on to be a standard, common enemy in Brawl's Subspace Emissary adventure mode – why would a common foe be playable? But sure enough he is, and he's got a more dynamic and capable moveset than you might think.

[Thousandfootwii-mote]

But what did he do back in the day? I wasn't born back then. Much less a gamer.

[Shooterman]

Originally Posted by thousandfootwii-mote

But what did he do back in the day? I wasn't born back then. Much less a gamer.

He was made to make the NES seem more like a toy robot than a true video game. He stacked and tossed disks, and that's about it.

[Reizo_PR]

Cool. And thanx , I always wanted to know where Rob came from.

[Mikazume]

Lol, to tell you the truth, ROB was a piece of crap according to most people...

-He was too noisy
-Wasted alot of batteries
-SLOOOOOOOOOW
-Only had 2 games.....Which were very frusterating

Try playing a game with that much background noise and a slow robot friend who makes the game frusterating

[Shooterman]

Yeah, but I'd buy one off of Ebay or something just for the sake of owning one. He's arguably my best guy in Brawl, so it would be kind of a neat thing to have displayed on my entertainment center.