Reboot, the TV Series, could be described as “What happens behind your Monitor”… The world of reboot occurs inside the inner world of a computer system known by its inhabitants as Mainframe. Especially in the first two seasons this was a decision that was deliberately chosen due to technological constraints at the time, as the fictional computer world allowed for blocky looking models and mechanical animation.

The first season (1994-1995) of ReBoot was highly episodic, with each installment being a self-contained episode. Most of the episodes established characters, locations, and story elements, such as the gigantic game cubes. The typical formal for an episode is that the User loads a game, which causes a game cube drops on a random location in Mainframe, sealing it off from the rest of the system and turning it into a gamescape. Bob frequently enters the games, reboots to become a game character, and fights the User’s character to save the sector. The conflict arises because if the User wins a game, the sector the cube fell in is destroyed, and the sprites and binomes who were caught within are turned into energy-draining, worm-like parasites called nulls. Within the series it is never clear if there is a “cure” or reversal for degrading to a “null”.

This formula changes in the last half of Season two, where the last 5 episodes establishes the setup for Season 3. The last half of Season two helps establish the darker setting for Season 3, and introduces us to the epic storyline that is the Web Wars.

Re-Occuring Characters

The main characters included:

• Bob – Guardian #452, acts as the guardian of Mainframe.
• Phong – The original COMMAND.COM of Mainframe, serves as a mentor and adviser to its inhabitants and works with Bob in defense of the system.
• Dot Matrix – Originally owned a local diner and many other “businesses” (as seen at the end of one episode in the first season). Took over as COMMAND.COM in the third season.
• Enzo Matrix – Dot’s younger brother who idolized Bob as a hero, later grows up to become the renegade simply known as Matrix. In keeping with the computer theme of the show, “ENZO” is an acronym of four common computer processor status register flags, (E)nable Interrupt + (N)egative + (Z)ero + (O)verflow
• Frisket – A dog that belongs to Enzo.
• AndrAIa – A game sprite and friend (and later girlfriend) of Enzo introduced in season two. The “AI” in her name refers to “Artificial Intelligence.”
• Megabyte – A “command and conquer, and infectious” computer virus, and the series’ main villain. He is the opposite of Hexadecimal, and is an “Order Virus.” Once came from the virus known as Killabyte. When merging with his sister Hexadecimal, they form an even more powerful virus called Gigabyte. Has an English accent.
• Hexadecimal – Megabyte’s twin sister (came from the same viral strand: Killabyte), a “chaotic” computer virus, whose face is represented by a series of masks, each portraying a different emotion. She is the opposite of Megabyte, and is a “Chaos Virus.”
• Mouse – A freelance Hacker who originally was mentioned briefly, then worked for Megabyte in a one-shot early in the season, but then later switched sides and joined Dot and Enzo to defend Mainframe when Bob was trapped in “The Web.” Speaks with a southern U.S. accent, and uses the word ‘sugah’ a lot as a term of endearment.
• Hack & Slash – The two most commonly seen Henchmen in Megabyte’s employ. Neither of them is very good at problem solving. During the 3rd season they switch sides and join the “command.com” of Mainframe.

As you can see, Reboot was well known for it’s Parody and Computer related Puns…

The Episodes

1×01 – THE TEARING

Bob, a guardian from the Super Computer, is being hassled by the nasty virus, Megabyte. Bob’s friends, Dot Matrix and her little over-enthusiastic brother, Enzo, convince Bob to visit the wise, old sprite, Phong, in the Principal Office to get some advice on how to handle the situation. After having to play a game of Pong in order to gain Phong’s respect and advice, Bob relays the situation to Phong – Megabyte wants a favour from the Guardian but won’t say what it is. Phong manages to give Bob some sound advice, but of course, being the all-out hero that he is, Bob decides to take on Megabyte by himself, rather than rely on his new friends. Megabyte soon reveals his plans – he has managed to capture an unstable Tear which leads to the Super Computer and wants Bob to use his key-tool, Glitch, to stabilise it into a portal so that Megabyte and his army can invade the Super Computer. Bob of course denies Megabyte his wish but when a game cube drops on Mainframe, thus stabilising the tear, Bob, with the help of Dot and a few other Mainframers, must stop Megabyte from gaining access to the now stable portal to the Super Computer

1×02 – RACING THE CLOCK

Enzo decides that he wants to be just as successful in business as his big sister Dot. So he starts his own business called “Enzo’s Over Write Delivery Service”. While at first everything seems to be going a little slow, Enzo manages to snare his first customer – Megabyte. Of course this is just another devious plan by Megabyte – this time, however, it’s a time-delete bomb disguised as a mask for the other Mainframe viral, the chaotic Hexadecimal. Hex on the other hand has discovered his scheme and plots an unfriendly welcome for the unsuspecting delivery boy. Unfortunately, in his eagerness, Enzo accidentally mentions to Dot and Bob that he is delivering a package to Hexadecimal. Dot discourages Enzo and instead makes Bob make the delivery. Bob tries to give the mask to Hexadecimal, who in turn uses her powers to throw Bob out of her lair, sending him flying towards Megabyte’s Tor. Enzo, who followed Bob to Lost Angles (the home of Hexadecimal), overhears Hex speaking to her ‘pet’, Scuzzy, about the time-delete mask. Enzo in a mad panic races back to his sister’s Diner and tells her what happened. Before Dot and Enzo manage to get to Bob, a game cube drops in and Bob automatically heads for it. Now it’s a race against the clock as Enzo and Dot try desperately to warn Bob about the bomb he’s carrying!

1×03 – THE QUICK AND THE FED

When Bob thwarts Megabyte’s plan to create a portal to the net, he steals something that’s dangerous to everyone – a magnet. On arriving back at Dot’s Diner, Enzo looks over Bob’s keytool, Glitch, with curiosity. Bob let’s Enzo play with Glitch for a bit, until Enzo turns Glitch into a Jackhammer. Bob quickly stops Glitch, but it’s too late. The vibrations cause the box storing the magnet to fall off the counter and onto the floor, spilling its contents. The magnet suddenly attaches itself to the nearest sprite – Dot – and drains the bulk of her energy. Bob hastily retrieves the magnet but is it too late? Racing over to the Principal Office, Bob is once again forced into a game of Pong with Phong before he can get the old sprites advice. Phong tells him that the only way to cure Dot would be if she consumed some slow food. Bob returns to Dot’s side and tells her what he is going to do. Despite her protests, Bob heads to the seedy Level 31 and into Al’s Wait and Eat restaurant. Of course, that’s exactly what the diner turns out to be – wait to eat! Suddenly Hack and Slash turn up on the scene looking for Bob. Bob convinces Al’s waiter to give him some ‘slow’ food and in return he’d get rid of the muscles. Unfortunately on his way back to Dot’s Diner, a game cube drops, delaying his return and now he must fight the User and rescue Dot before she disappears forever!

1×04 – THE MEDUSA BUG

With Dot being the workaholic, Bob and Enzo decide to kidnap her and take her on a picnic. While Bob has car troubles, across the other side of town, Megabyte has just tricked Hexadecimal into giving up one of her toys… the Medusa. However, it turns out that Hexadecimal has tricked him. After he opens it up, he unleashes a virus which freezes everything in it’s path. Megabyte is helpless to stop it and soon it infects the entire Tor and begins spreading across the city. While Dot is finally relaxing and Bob is busy trying to fix his car, Enzo spots Frisket heading towards them, with something frightening chasing after him. Frisket is unable to out run the dreaded virus and is frozen in mid run. Bob, Dot and Enzo manage to escape and head towards the Principal Office. There Phong warns them of what will happen to anything frozen by the virus for a long time. With Bob being unaffected by the Medusa, it’s up to him to try and convince Hexadecimal to reverse the effects of her virus.

1×05 – THE TIFF

Dot is unimpressed with Bob’s carefree influence on Enzo. Bob expresses his disappointment by saying Dot doesn’t know how to relax and take things as they come. The two sprites end up having a big argument over who is a better (or worse) influence on young Enzo and they stop speaking to one another. Enzo isn’t too worried at first, but when things start to go wrong, and the two of them won’t cooperate, Enzo begins worrying that the System may be in danger! It’s up to him to try and sort these two bickering ‘children’ out before they really cause some damage to Mainframe… like losing a game!

1×06 – IN THE BELLY OF THE BEAST

While Megabyte’s goons, including Hack and Slash, are roughing up Mr ‘Old Man’ Pearson at his Data Dump, they discover that he has an old unformat command hidden somewhere in the dump. Megabyte orders his virals to search the dump and bring the command to him. Of course, they don’t count on Bob showing up! Bob causes all sorts of turmoil for the terrible twosome and the rest of the virals. In the meantime, Hack and Slash’s efforts to bring Megabyte the unformat command take a different turn of events when Frisket arrives on the scene and eats it up! Megabyte orders the two to kidnap Enzo, as he knows that Frisket will follow to try and rescue the young sprite. Frisket, however, is starting to feel a little worse for wear as the unformat command tries to unformat his stomach! Bob tries to help him a little but they realise there’s not much they can do but wait. Dot sends Frisket out to meet Enzo coming home from school. As Frisket bumps into Enzo, Hack and Slash turn up and kidnap him, forcing Frisket to follow along behind. With very little energy left, and still feeling pretty awful, Frisket finally arrives at the Tor, only to be captured himself! Megabyte tries to open up Frisket to get at the command before it’s completely digested, but Enzo manages to trick Hack and Slash and he and Frisket manage to escape. Now they have to find their way out of the Tor, without getting caught by Megabyte!

1×07 – THE CRIMSON BINOME

Mainframe comes under siege when a ship suddenly arrives in the docks and software pirates begin attacking the citizens and looting their booty. Dot first catches onto the problem when she discovers that Kit’s Sector is going off line, section by section as well as discovering that all links to the net are down. Her and Enzo race towards the docks to try and find out what the problems is. Meanwhile, Bob is at his apartment in Kit’s Sector, busily fixing his car and totally oblivious to what’s going on around him. Especially the gang of pirates who invade his home, snatch his car and Glitch and then disappear before he even knew they were there! He too heads down to the docks and discovers the pirates going about their dirty deeds. Angry about the loss of Glitch, he sets out to take back what rightfully belongs to him and Mainframe. He comes face to face with the captain of the vessel (the Saucy Mare) – Captain Capacitor, otherwise known as The Crimson Binome. But while Bob thinks he has the upper hand, he didn’t count on there being a large binome named Princess Bula, who snatches him up. As the pirates leave, Dot and Enzo are contacted by Phong who tells them that the pirates have kidnapped Bob. Dot takes charge of a rescue operation by first taking command of Mr Mitchell’s speedy boat. As they race off to rescue Bob, Bob is trying to use his charm and wits to outsmart the pirates. He manages to escape and cause the pirates no end of chaos, when finally Dot, Enzo and some CPU binomes arrive to help Bob out. But unfortunately they get cornered and Dot must use her business skills to get them out of it!

1×08 – ENZO THE SMART

Enzo’s tired of not being as smart as Bob and Dot and is determined to get smarter and faster anyway he can! When the opportunity arises for him to finally be smarter than anyone else, it backfires and instead makes everyone else.. dumber! And things get worse when a game cube drops in on Mainframe with the only sprite knowing how to defeat the User being Enzo!

1×09 – WIZARDS, WARRIORS & A WORD FROM OUR SPONSOR

Mike the TV is causing nothing but trouble with his constant ‘advertising’. No-one can seem to shut him up! When a game drops in, Bob, Dot, Enzo and Mike are all caught in the game. To Bob’s horror, he doesn’t reboot as the main hero, Mike does! They now have to rely on Mike to help them defeat the User and win the game!

1×10 – THE GREAT BRAIN ROBBERY

Megabyte hires the hacker sprite, Mouse, to try and get him inside Mainframe’s core. The deal is to shrink her down to a miniscule size and then somehow get her inside Bob’s brain so that Megabyte can take control of Bob’s actions. Unfortunately, Mouse ends up in Enzo’s brain instead but Megabyte doesn’t seem to care about it too much and ends up getting Enzo to head for the core. Bob’s only chance of helping save Enzo is to be shrunk down as well and injected inside Enzo’s brain!

1×11 – TALENT NIGHT

It’s Enzo’s birthday! Dot wants to put on a big concert for her little brother but wants Bob to make sure Enzo doesn’t know what’s going on. Bob tries everything to keep Enzo away from the concert staging area but soon finds it difficult to even keep this hyperactive sprite active! Dot in the meantime is having problems of her own in finding some decent acts for the show, while Megabyte is showing an interest in all the secrecy.

1×12 – IDENTITY CRISIS PART 1

Dot has the big job of trying to convince one sector that is under Megabyte’s rule, to give her their PID codes so that she and Phong can convert the sector back. Unfortunately, after the binomes and sprites have sent her the codes, the whole auditorium is suddenly invaded by Megabyte’s goons. Bob and Dot manage to escape but soon realise that they’ve been duped by Cyrus, one of the binomes who originally pledged allegiance to them, now seen as a spy and traitor working for Megabyte. Not only that, but Cyrus also manages to swipe all the PID data from Dot’s datapad!

1×13 – IDENTITY CRISIS PART 2

Dot feels like she has let everybody down after being tricked by Cyrus, who stole the PID codes of the binomes and sprites living in one of the sectors under Megabyte’s rule. When a game suddenly lands on her and Bob, it’s one of the games Bob has told her is the hardest one to win called “The Funhouse.” Bob tries to convince Dot of cheering up and helping him win the game but it seems that nothing can cheer Dot up. It’s not until Bob is caught in one of the traps, that Dot is shown the possible future of what will happen to Mainframe, should she just give up and let the User win the game.