R.O.B: The Robotic Operating Buddy, or Family Robot as it was known in Japan, was a peripheral device released for the Nintendo Entertainment System or NES. The R.O.B was billed as an artificial video game buddy who would sit alongside the player and play against him or her. As it turned out, only two games, Gyromite which came with the R.O.B, and Stack-Up, which was sold separately, were ever made to support the device.
Using the R.O.B. was a bit clumsy, and the role it played, even in these two games, was rather sketchy. Historically, however, the R.O.B is much more important than it is in the hearts and minds of gamers everywhere.
Nintendo originally approached Atari and tried to have them market the machine in the United States. However, due to the great video game crash of the early 80s, no retail company was willing to stand behind anything video game related. Nintendo went forward with marketing it themselves. They used the R.O.B to persuade U.S. retailers that NES was something other than a video game. The ruse worked.
Nintendo ended up revitalizing the entire video game industry in the United States. And R.O.B… he’s probably being sold on eBay for WAY more than he’s worth.
R.O.B represents the beginning of a long Nintendo tradition of well-meaning but under-supported peripherals including, but not limited to the Power Pad, the Power Glove, and the NES Satellite.