R.O.B.

R.O.B. (Robotic Operating Buddy) was an accessory for the NES sold starting in 1985. It only played two games, Gyromite and Stack-Up. The games required that the other controller be put into a special place on R.O.B.; it would perceive gameplay through the use of light flashes on the screen (like the light gun). Because it was slow to react, the games were not sufficiently challenging, and it was rather expensive, it was soon discontinued.

He could swivel from side to side, and grab small objects with his platform-grip hands. The player of the game would use an NES controller to tell ROB to do something, and his actions would affect the on-screen movements. R.O.B.'s most famous game was Stack-Up and it involved stacking blocks.

R.O.B. was never considered anything more than a novelty and saw rather poor sales. One theory is that R.O.B. was merely an attempt by Nintendo to show toy retailers, possibly still afraid after the great video game crash, that NES was not just a "video game" – and as soon as NES had started selling well, the R.O.B. was abandoned.

R.O.B. has made cameo appearances (almost as a joke) in other Nintendo products, such as Port Town: Aero Dive level of F-Zero GX, where a giant construction robot that looks almost exactly like R.O.B. can be seen on the background. ROB 64 of Star Fox series is named after R.O.B., and he's also known to drop powerups and vehicles into the field. R.O.B. also appears in Wario Ware, Inc. series, in 9-Volt's classic games. Nintendo Power magazine featured it in the 15-year anniversary issue.