R.O.B. (short for Robot Operating Buddy) was a marketing gimmick devised by Nintendo, and accompanied the original Nintendo Entertainment System in its first year of sales. Its design was pretty much a rip-off of Johnny-5, the large eyed robot with a heart of gold from the Short Circuit movies. It looked pretty freaking cool, actually, but was ridiculously difficult to play with, and quickly R.O.B. was taken off the market.