24th February 2015, 2:00 PM
ROB (or should I say "Robot", which is what he was called in Japan) was designed by Gunpei Yokoi, by Nintendo of Japan. It's history did have something to do with trying to reignite a western interest in video games after the crash, but it wasn't designed by NOA the way the "VCR" style NES was. However, I should note it wasn't actually very successful. The NES did reignite interest, but ROB played basically no part in that. Not a single kid I know actually owned one. It only was included with the most expensive NES sets, and most kids only got the less expensive ones. That is, it still came with two controllers and the Zapper (plus Super Mario Bros and Duck Hunt), but not ROB. I got very lucky in that I got a used NES from a garage sale back in the mid 90's. Mind you, I already had an NES as a kid, but that one at the garage sale was being sold by an elderly couple for $15 and included EVERYTHING that came with that special "ROB" edition. A very nice set indeed, and it actually became my "go to" NES. (It was missing a gyro, but I eventually bought a second one off eBay years later, for the same cost as the entire rest of the set.)
For most of us, ROB was more of a weird icon than something we actually owned. We knew it existed from things like Nintendo Power, but it's status was more like a legend, something you'd hear about now and again. Word quickly spread that it wasn't very fun though, probably another factor into why the more expensive NES bundle didn't sell very well. It also goes a long way towards explaning why Gyromite (the ROB Pack in) is so much easier to find than Stack Up (which you had to make a conscious choice to buy separately after having tried ROB out, and hence why no one actually bothered to buy it). Gunpei Yokoi got a lot of well deserved fame from both Metroid and the Gameboy, but he's had a pile of stinkers in his wake as well, and ROB is just another among them. To be fair, at least Nintendo has fun with that failure. I'd love to see them stick Virtual Boy into a few of their games as a character, just for funsies.
Anyway, yeah, ROB actually got released in Japan before it came out in the US, in spite of the intent. It always did have a very "Japanese" thing going for it, probably because, well, it is a robot after all.
For most of us, ROB was more of a weird icon than something we actually owned. We knew it existed from things like Nintendo Power, but it's status was more like a legend, something you'd hear about now and again. Word quickly spread that it wasn't very fun though, probably another factor into why the more expensive NES bundle didn't sell very well. It also goes a long way towards explaning why Gyromite (the ROB Pack in) is so much easier to find than Stack Up (which you had to make a conscious choice to buy separately after having tried ROB out, and hence why no one actually bothered to buy it). Gunpei Yokoi got a lot of well deserved fame from both Metroid and the Gameboy, but he's had a pile of stinkers in his wake as well, and ROB is just another among them. To be fair, at least Nintendo has fun with that failure. I'd love to see them stick Virtual Boy into a few of their games as a character, just for funsies.
Anyway, yeah, ROB actually got released in Japan before it came out in the US, in spite of the intent. It always did have a very "Japanese" thing going for it, probably because, well, it is a robot after all.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)