Nintendo Unboxed: Family Computer Robot, R.O.B. (1985)

Nintendo released the Family Computer Robot in Japan for the Famicom in July of 1985 and 3 months later in the United States as the Robotic Operating Buddy (R.O.B) for the Nintendo Entertainment System.

The robot was a gimmicky peripheral that just barely managed to accomplish the tasks that it was advertised to do: play its library of only two games, Gyromite and Stack Up. However, the robot, R.O.B., specifically, had an additional and much more important task: to accomplish: get the Nintendo Entertainment System into the North American sales market by disguising it as a high tech gadget rather than a video game system.

Many do credit R.O.B. with getting the NES to sell outside of Japan, but I think that Super Mario Bros. (which would eventually replace R.O.B. and Gyromite as the pack-in software) had a much larger role in that feat.

Regardless, the Family Computer Robot and Robotic Operating Buddy are important pieces in Nintendo history. In this video, I unbox and discuss the robot hardware as well as its two games Robot Gyro (JP) / Gyromite (US) and Robot Block (JP) / Stack Up (US).