ROB - Like A Little Robot That Saved NES

2023 Author: Sheila Hailey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-08-25 04:29

The plastic buddy ROB (short form of "Robotic Operating Buddy") is Nintendo's very own, Trojan horse. At least from a marketing perspective. (More on that later.) He boosted sales of the NES in the United States. And that was sorely needed.

In 1983, Nintendo dominated the Japanese console market with its Famicom. Now the company wanted to expand - to North America. But Atari dominated the market there. This rule was soon to collapse: In the same year, the big video game crash occurred. Since Atari, unlike Nintendo, had no control over which games appeared for their console, the game market was flooded with a flood of trash titles. The range of bad titles was so large that good games simply went under. The result: Atari lost over $ 500 million in 1983 alone and had to file for bankruptcy. Large companies such as Hasbro and Mattel also had high financial losses - so they and other game companies no longer wanted to have anything to do with video games. Some games were even so bad that they never even came on the market. The best-known example of this is the game for the cult film ET - The Alien. It was so grumpy that several thousand copies were buried in the New Mexico desert.

Clear the stage for Nintendo

Nintendo saw his chance. The youth continued to be drawn to the arcade arcades. So it was about bringing the arcade feeling into your own four walls. Competitors such as the Atari 2600 or the Atari 7800, considered by its own manufacturers to be superior, were out of the market. With the Famicom, Nintendo had a powerful console on offer, which was sold in Japanese shops as quickly as it could be produced. The only hurdle: thanks to the major failures, no one in North America wanted to support the video game industry financially. The toy store owners also refused to include video games and consoles in their range.

In 1984, Nintendo presented its console at the Winter Consumer Electrics Show in Las Vegas. Even then with a state-of-the-art development: a light pistol. We know them today as the NES zapper (see picture), the plastic ratchet for games like Duck Hunt. There was a lot of hustle and bustle at the booth. Many people lined up to shoot virtual pixel poultry. But nobody ordered the Famicom for its stores. The console was just too expensive. In addition, it offered no other functions besides the games. Even then, the aspiring home computer contested the market for the consoles. In addition to the daddelies, this could also be used for "more meaningful" purposes.

A new development with a new image was needed

The year of the plastic buddy

In July 1985 the Family Computer Robot for the Famicom came onto the market. However, it gained its popularity under a different name.

In October this year, the Nintendo headquarters in North America received a package from Japan. The robotic operating buddy was in it. Howard Phillips, then press officer for Nintendo, commented on the little robot buddy:

That was the main problem with ROB: It was a high-tech product for its time, but it was incredibly slow and bulky to use. That made it difficult to present him cleverly in front of an audience. Nevertheless, it was presented at the 1985 Summer Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago. The Nintendo booth was well attended again, but orders were still missing.

Nevertheless, our robot friend came into the trade. Why? - It fit perfectly into the pop culture of that time. Robots like the Terminator, number 5 or the Transformers were the order of the day. Nintendo wanted to create their very own image with ROB and the NES zapper of their new console. The Nintendo Entertainment System was not a game console, but a toy. That is why the little robot was also established as a central element of all marketing campaigns. The word "video game" was not mentioned in one word. Likewise, no artwork was shown on the game packaging, but actual game graphics from NES games. The robot's job should be to make people aware of the consoleand get them to buy. The NES itself should then convince with its good games.

Nintendo took a big risk

As already mentioned, due to the ongoing crisis, no shop wanted to add video games to its own range. Nintendo's marketing department decided to put everything on one card. The then largest American city, New York City, was chosen as the test market. At the beginning of October 1985, the shop owners were offered the following deal: Nintendo employees would set up a test station free of charge, which presents the NES Deluxe Set. The store operators are supplied with the deluxe set free of charge for 90 days. You only have to pay Nintendo for the sets that are sold. You can return any remaining stock free of charge.

Since the risk was largely on the side of Nintendo, over 500 branches agreed. The shopkeepers received a pre-made script of how to present the NES Deluxe Set. The set included an NES, two controllers, a NES zapper, ROB and the games Duck-Hunt and Gyromite.

The NES was officially released a week later. Despite many invitations, not one press representative came to the launch party. The new console nevertheless attracted attention. On October 18, 1985, the NES Deluxe Set went on sale for $ 139.99. In addition to the console, a total of 17 games were available - two of them for ROB.

ROB and the NES zapper are just the start! Here are more bizarre developments for Nintendo consoles:

Start photo gallery (18 photos)

But what could ROB do?

With ROB, which was supposed to be called OTTO, you could and can only play two games: Gyromite and Stack-Up. The former was included in the deluxe version. The platformer Gyromite (original title: Robot Gyro) is about Professor Hector, who is caught in a labyrinth. The player is supposed to help him escape. The task of the second player (ROB) is to move the columns that block Professor Hector's way at the right moment. To play Gyromite, you have to convert the robot first. It has two brackets for two associated gyros, so-called gyros (no, not the meat! The majority of "gyro"!) And a motor to make them rotate.

For each gyro there is a lever on which it could be placed - one with a red and one with a blue button. These are connected to a holder for a NES controller. If a gyroscope is placed at the end of a lever, either the A or B button on the controller is pressed. So that the said gyro remains on the lever, it is rotated beforehand (see picture on the left). It all sounds a lot more complicated than it actually is, so just watch this video:

If you didn't believe me before, you know it now: ROB is a very relaxed guy. Nintendo's marketing director at the time, Gail Tilden, described the game process as something so interesting

Nevertheless, ROB was considered high-tech. Finally, it worked completely wirelessly, it only needed four AA batteries and a D battery for the gyro motor to operate. Then how does it communicate with the console?

As you may have noticed in the video, the TV screen flickers at regular intervals. What looks like a couple of eyes at ROB is actually the same light sensor that is built into the NES zapper. This is used to convert the screen flickering into a command. Incidentally, this no longer works with modern HD screens.

But ROB also had a second game on offer: Stack-Up. Here, however, it does not act as an input device. The game runs much more on a kind of "trust basis". Before the game starts, five ring-shaped holders must be attached to ROB, on which five colored chips are distributed as shown on the screen (see picture on the right). Stack-Up's goal is to help Professor Hector sort the color chips as he specifies them on the screen - in as few moves as possible. Forward thinking is required. These game ideas were new and unique, but quickly lost their appeal. The four other games planned for ROB were never released.

ROB did his job anyway

ROB's goal was to get the NES into the hands of buyers. And he did it: by the end of 1985, the business target of 50,000 units sold had been reached, which led to the nationwide release of the console. In the same year, 200 NES owners were asked whether they would recommend the console to their friends. Depending on the age group, almost 80 to 90 percent of those questioned answered this with a clear “yes”. When asked what was the main reason for buying the NES, most adults replied: " My child asked about it ". Why did the children ask about it? The most common reason was the Robotic Operating Buddy.

The triumphal march of the NES continued, until 4 million consoles were sold until 1986. The main selling points, however, were games like Mario Bros. or Duck Hunt that broke one sales record after another. ROB had had its day and in 1988 "retired" with the cessation of production and sales. Today ROB is no more than an expensive collector's item - in some cases it is traded for three-digit amounts. If that's too expensive, you can use the Amiibo version. But they can't dance to 8-bit Christmas music like the original robo buddy:

He still lives on

Nevertheless, ROB remains unforgettable. He has made numerous appearances in Nintendo games over the years. In Mario Kart DS, he curves around in his ROB-BLS, which is strongly reminiscent of stack-up setup, in Wario Ware: Apparently Smooth Moves for the Wii he has gone completely crazy and shoots the players with a NES zapper. Most will know him from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate or its predecessors. The YouTube channel Shiromi has summarized all games with robo presence in this video:

The different colors of ROB are quickly explained. It appeared for the NES and the Famicom, each in a matching color. If you used a white-red color for the Famicom, the NES appeared in futuristic space gray.

… to get back on the horse

What did he want to tell us at the beginning with this wooden horse !?

Well, ROB is also a Trojan horse. At least in the area of marketing. Nintendo wanted to enter a new, difficult market and brought out the rickety plastic comrade as the main selling point for their new console. He looked cool, hit the nerve with the times, but was ultimately a rather boring, sluggish playmate. Once you bought it, you were immersed in the great new world of NES games and titles like Duck Hunt or Mario Bros. ultimately justified the purchase. After ROB's retirement, these and other successful titles should henceforth carry the console and their success.

What games do you associate with the NES? Feel free to write it in the comments! This white box almost directly under the text!