Alan Turing was a pioneering English computer scientist, mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst and theoretical biologist. Turing is widely considered to be the father of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence, providing a formalization of the concepts of algorithm and computation with the Turing machine. During World War II, Turing worked at Bletchley Park, Britain’s codebreaking center. He devised a number of techniques for breaking German ciphers, including an electromechanical machine that could find settings for the Enigma machine. Turing played a pivotal role in cracking intercepted coded messages that enabled the Allies to defeat the Nazis in many crucial engagements, including the Battle of the Atlantic. After the war, he designed the ACE, among the first designs for a stored-program computer. In 1952, Turing was prosecuted for homosexual acts, when such behavior was still a criminal act in the UK. He accepted treatment with DES (chemical castration) as an alternative to prison. He was born on June 23, 1912 and died on June 7, 1954 from cyanide poisoning.
No. 1000. I finally hit four figures. Over the past five years, I have created an encyclopedia/journal of 1000 playable 8-bit characters for Mascot Mashup: Gorillas, my remake/mashup of the classic QBasic Gorillas artillery game. With this milestone reached—and with my second child due in less than three weeks—I will probably abandon my weekly schedule of primitive pixel art sometime this summer and reduce my commitment to whenever I feel like it. No matter what I do in the future, I am amazed that I stuck with this project for so long.
Beach Bear is a character in The Rock-afire Explosion, an animatronic robot band. He is a “surfer” polar bear who would make sarcastic comments or ask other characters questions to throw off their act, but never in mean spirit. The Rock-afire Explosion played shows in Showbiz Pizza Place from the restaurant chain’s founding in 1980 until the early 1990s, when the Showbiz brand was unified with Chuck E. Cheese’s and Chuck E. Cheese characters steadily replaced the band. The Rock-afire Explosion show was created and manufactured by noted inventor Aaron Fechter, through his company Creative Engineering, Inc. (also known for Whac-A-Mole) in Orlando, Florida; in addition to overseeing the production of the animatronics, Fechter also provided the voices for several characters.
Dook LaRue is a character in The Rock-afire Explosion, an animatronic robot band. A dog who aspired to space travel, his costume is an astronaut suit. His character, when set up properly, had the ability to play a four-piece drum kit in time with the music. A bit of a dimwit, Dook would often lose focus during shows and miss his cues. The Rock-afire Explosion played shows in Showbiz Pizza Place from the restaurant chain’s founding in 1980 until the early 1990s, when the Showbiz brand was unified with Chuck E. Cheese’s and Chuck E. Cheese characters steadily replaced the band. The Rock-afire Explosion show was created and manufactured by noted inventor Aaron Fechter, through his company Creative Engineering, Inc. (also known for Whac-A-Mole) in Orlando, Florida; in addition to overseeing the production of the animatronics, Fechter also provided the voices for several characters.
Mitzi Mozzarella is a character in The Rock-afire Explosion, an animatronic robot band. A mouse and teenage cheerleader, Mitzi is obsessed with gossip, boyfriends, pop music and (appropriate for the time) Michael Jackson. The Rock-afire Explosion played shows in Showbiz Pizza Place from the restaurant chain’s founding in 1980 until the early 1990s, when the Showbiz brand was unified with Chuck E. Cheese’s and Chuck E. Cheese characters steadily replaced the band. The Rock-afire Explosion show was created and manufactured by noted inventor Aaron Fechter, through his company Creative Engineering, Inc. (also known for Whac-A-Mole) in Orlando, Florida; in addition to overseeing the production of the animatronics, Fechter also provided the voices for several characters.
Billy Bob Brockali is a character in The Rock-afire Explosion, an animatronic robot band. A bear in overalls, Billy Bob was the mascot for Showbiz Pizza Place throughout its existence, and his image was on most of the chain’s merchandise. Sweet and naive, Billy Bob was usually a mediator to the band’s minor on-stage squabbles. The Rock-afire Explosion played shows in Showbiz Pizza Place from the restaurant chain’s founding in 1980 until the early 1990s, when the Showbiz brand was unified with Chuck E. Cheese’s and Chuck E. Cheese characters steadily replaced the band. The Rock-afire Explosion show was created and manufactured by noted inventor Aaron Fechter, through his company Creative Engineering, Inc. (also known for Whac-A-Mole) in Orlando, Florida; in addition to overseeing the production of the animatronics, Fechter also provided the voices for several characters.
Fatz Geronimo is a character in The Rock-afire Explosion, an animatronic robot band. A silverback gorilla who plays the keyboard, Fatz is a parody of real-life entertainers Fats Domino and Ray Charles. As the band’s unofficial front man, Fatz introduced most shows, ordered other band members around and had a tendency to ramble. The Rock-afire Explosion played shows in Showbiz Pizza Place from the restaurant chain’s founding in 1980 until the early 1990s, when the Showbiz brand was unified with Chuck E. Cheese’s and Chuck E. Cheese characters steadily replaced the band. The Rock-afire Explosion show was created and manufactured by noted inventor Aaron Fechter, through his company Creative Engineering, Inc. (also known for Whac-A-Mole) in Orlando, Florida; in addition to overseeing the production of the animatronics, Fechter also provided the voices for several characters.
During my 1980s childhood, I had a lot of good times at Showbiz Pizza and Chuck E. Cheese’s. For an entertaining history of singing animatronic robots in pizza parlors, I recommend watching The Rock-afire Explosion (2008), a documentary about Chris Thrash, Aaron Fechter and the remaining Rock-afire Explosion fan base.
Chuck E. Cheese is the mascot of Chuck E. Cheese’s, a chain of American family entertainment center restaurants. The brand derives its name from its main animatronic character Chuck E. Cheese, a comedic mouse who sings and interacts with guests. The establishment serves pizza and other menu items, complemented by arcade games, amusement rides and family-friendly animatronic displays. In 1977, Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza Time Theatre in San Jose, California, was the first location to open. The concept was authored by Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell, credited with bringing video games such as Pong to the mainstream. Pizza Time Theatre was the first family restaurant to integrate food, animated entertainment and an indoor arcade. The chain merged with competitor Showbiz Pizza Place in 1984. In the early 1990s, the company unified the two brands renaming every location to Chuck E. Cheese’s.
The Little Professor is a backwards calculator designed for children ages five to nine. Instead of providing the answer to a mathematical expression entered by the user, it generates unsolved expressions and prompts the user for the answer. The Little Professor was first released by Texas Instruments in 1976. As the first electronic educational toy, the Little Professor is a common item on calculator collectors’ lists. An emulator of the Little Professor for Android was published in 2012.
I still have my Little Professor calculator from the early 1980s in a box somewhere, as well as a couple of Tiger handheld games. I was quite fond of the robotic way the Little Professor spoke. If you play as the Little Professor in my retro artillery game, he throws money. In other money-throwing news, we officially closed on a new house today, and so the laborious process of moving across town begins. Keeping up with any of my hobbies is going to be difficult for a little while.
Major Motoko Kusanagi is the main protagonist in Masamune Shirow’s Ghost in the Shell anime and manga series. She is a cyborg employed as the squad leader of Public Security Section 9, a fictional intelligence department of the real Japanese National Public Safety Commission. Her counter-terrorist unit specializes in technological warfare against cyber-crime. Being strong-willed, physically powerful and highly intellectual, Kusanagi is known for her skills in deduction and hacking.
Cleatus the Robot is the official mascot of Fox NFL Sunday, named by a viewer during a contest in the winter of 2007 in which fans were able to submit entries as to what they thought the robot’s name should be. Cleatus made his first appearance during the 2005-2006 NFL season, but was not used regularly until the following season. Cleatus mainly appears during the intro sequence of the show as well as brief commercials for movies and TV shows. In these commercials he commonly gets attacked by a CGI character (including Iron Man and the Burger King) from whatever the advertisement is about. If a Thanksgiving NFL game is on Fox, Cleatus is usually replaced with a robot turkey.
Note: I don’t usually watch NFL games, but when I do, I remember that this annoying robot mascot exists. For nine years now. Happy Thanksgiving! No football for us. We’re headed back to Seattle and Orcas Island.
Tetsuo Shima is the main antagonist of the manga and 1988 anime movie Akira. One of the youngest members of a motorcycle gang in Neo-Tokyo, Tetsuo was once the best friend of leader Shotaro Kaneda. At the beginning of the story, Tetsuo is severely injured in a mysterious motorcycle accident, which causes him to display immense powers, including telekinesis, teleportation, mind-reading and a shield that allows him to breathe in space. Tetsuo’s mental instability increases with the manifestation of his powers. This ultimately drives him insane and destroys his friendship with Kaneda, who becomes his nemesis.
Note: I created 8-bit Tetsuo after the point in the story where he synthesizes an artificial, metal arm to replace his severed right arm. Also, today is 9/11. Last year on September 11, I published my 666th pixel art character, Nero. In 2012, I posted Augusto Pinochet on this day. That’s three villains in a row. But if you go back to 2011, on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, I published Captain America. Because, ‘Merica.
SpaceBear, created by artist Andy Helms, is a small black bear working as a bounty hunter (or, more accurately, bounty barber). He wields a pins-and-needles pistol and wears an orange robotic spacesuit, called a Xyber-Suit, which features a Xyber-Shield and Xyber-Snips (for cutting facial hair). In the animated short “SpaceBear,” SpaceBear saves Brobot and Frog Teen at a Gas-Teroid before facing off with his bearded wizard nemesis the Astro-Magus, Perplexulo. The cartoon, animated by Dave Ferguson, premiered on Cartoon Hangover one week ago, on August 14, 2014.
Roy Batty is the main antagonist of the 1982 American science-fiction film Blade Runner. The film is loosely based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick. Batty, portrayed by Rutger Hauer, is the leader of the renegade Nexus-6 replicants. He is intelligent, fast and skilled at combat, but still learning how to deal with developing emotions.
P.S. “All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.” – Roy Batty
The evil robot seductress from Metropolis, a 1927 German expressionist science-fiction film by Fritz Lang. Metropolis is set in a futuristic urban dystopia, and follows the attempts of activists Freder and Maria (Brigitte Helm) to overcome the class divide separating the wealthy intellectuals and working class. In this bizarre labor-relations parable, Rotwang the scientist creates a robotic double of Maria to generate chaos and discredit her.
Note: Maria is basically the great-grandmother of C-3PO.
The 45th Vice President of the United States (1993-2001), under President Bill Clinton, and the Democratic candidate in the 2000 U.S. presidential election. Gore is also an environmental activist who wrote An Inconvenient Truth. He has founded several nonprofits including the Alliance for Climate Protection, and received a Nobel Peace Prize for his work in climate change activism. A well-known animatronic human, Gore was “born” tomorrow in 1948.
I’m pretty tired of creating 8-bit versions of famous white dudes in suits, so this character is based on a Futurama version of Al Gore (plus his South Park superhero cape). In the 31st century, Gore is First Emperor of the Moon. You guys, I’m serial. I’m super-serial. Lockbox.
C-3PO is a protocol droid and major character in all six Star Wars films. Along with his droid companion R2-D2, he joins or supports Anakin Skywalker, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and Obi-Wan Kenobi throughout the saga. He first appeared in the original Star Wars in 1977 and is one of only four characters to appear in all six Star Wars films.
R2-D2 is an astromech droid and major character in all six Star Wars films. Along with his droid companion C-3PO, he joins or supports Anakin Skywalker, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and Obi-Wan Kenobi throughout the saga. He first appeared in the original Star Wars in 1977 and is one of only four characters to appear in all six Star Wars films.
Darth Vader (born Anakin Skywalker) is a central character in the Star Wars saga, appearing as one of the main antagonists of the original trilogy and as the main protagonist of the prequel trilogy. This dark cyborg character was created by George Lucas and first appeared in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope in 1977.
After successfully completing a full year’s worth of other 8-bit characters on Mascot Mashup, I have lifted my self-imposed ban on Star Wars characters. Many iconic Star Wars personalities are inevitably coming soon, because, as we all know, the Internet is in desperate need of more Star Wars remixes and fan art.
An artificial intelligence in Arthur C. Clarke’s science fiction Space Odyssey saga and the primary antagonist in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. HAL (Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer) is visually represented as a red television-camera eye located on equipment panels throughout the Discovery One spaceship.
A friend received a small Japanese plush toy as a gift. We later discovered that this red refrigerator-dog character is named Wanzouko. It is one of 24 hypercute zoomorphic inanimate objects (mostly furniture and housewares) in San-X’s Wanroom line. Sewn inside this refrigerator-puppy is a shelf and a chicken leg. Velcro holds its door closed.
Seeing Wanzouko next to a red camera from the OptiTrack motion capture line (especially the old FLEX:C120 model) reveals amusing similarities in color, shape and size. All the camera needs are some floppy brown ears. Or, perhaps what the mocap industry needs are adorable Wanroom carrying cases for their OptiTrack cameras. I think the current Wanzouko toy might actually work as a soft camera case, if not for the sewn-in refrigerator shelf and chicken leg. Pity.
Alan Turing – No. 1000
Alan Turing was a pioneering English computer scientist, mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst and theoretical biologist. Turing is widely considered to be the father of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence, providing a formalization of the concepts of algorithm and computation with the Turing machine. During World War II, Turing worked at Bletchley Park, Britain’s codebreaking center. He devised a number of techniques for breaking German ciphers, including an electromechanical machine that could find settings for the Enigma machine. Turing played a pivotal role in cracking intercepted coded messages that enabled the Allies to defeat the Nazis in many crucial engagements, including the Battle of the Atlantic. After the war, he designed the ACE, among the first designs for a stored-program computer. In 1952, Turing was prosecuted for homosexual acts, when such behavior was still a criminal act in the UK. He accepted treatment with DES (chemical castration) as an alternative to prison. He was born on June 23, 1912 and died on June 7, 1954 from cyanide poisoning.
No. 1000. I finally hit four figures. Over the past five years, I have created an encyclopedia/journal of 1000 playable 8-bit characters for Mascot Mashup: Gorillas, my remake/mashup of the classic QBasic Gorillas artillery game. With this milestone reached—and with my second child due in less than three weeks—I will probably abandon my weekly schedule of primitive pixel art sometime this summer and reduce my commitment to whenever I feel like it. No matter what I do in the future, I am amazed that I stuck with this project for so long.