ALPHANUMERIC!
One of the greatest animation series in television history is set to return! ReBoot, the world’s very first fully computer animated series is coming back after almost ten years. Rainmaker, the studio currently involved in making a theatrical movie from the Ratchet and Clank Universe, is in active development of an set of episodes from the TV series. Whether it is an entire reboot from the beginning or a continuation remains to be seen. However, over the years, since its Season four cliffhanger ending, there has been a small but ferociously dedicated fanbase. (myself included) They have been beckoning for a continuation of the TV series.   A movie was in development but we are still waiting for any word on where it is heading at this time. Also, an online digital comic was created and , mostly, closes out Season four.  Of course, you must be reading this and thinking “ Dual Pixels is about video games. Why and how does this pertain to the world of video games!?†Well, read on and I’ll tell you.
I want you to imagine yourself on planet Earth in the year 1994. Before HD, fiber optics, Wi-Fi, and Netflix. Â When many of the technologies that we take for granted seemed to either be for the very rich or were nonexistent due to it being incredibly unimaginable. In the gaming world, there were the bit wars. SEGA and Nintendo were taking public jabs at each other for control of the console market between the SEGA Genesis and the Super Nintendo. These systems were powered by wallet-sized cartridges and could produce 16-bit graphics with MIDI format sounds. Compact discs were just getting pushed into gaming and into the audio world.
Creating a full realized three-dimensional world with animation wasn’t easy. It required precision, time, dedication, and a lot of trial and error. Animation is relatively easy today thanks to programs like Autodesk Maya. But in 1994, these programs did not exist. Enter Canadian-based  Mainframe Entertainment, a studio about to do what has never been done before: Create the world’s first animated series using fully animated 3D graphics.  The result was ReBoot.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuEJWmxWkKw
ReBoot took place inside the very world of a PC. At this time, computers and the internet were a bright, vibrant, space of imagination and creativity. (Before it became swamped with drama, filth, and cats)
In the world of MainFrame, the citizens come and go about their processes and applications. Many of their functions , of course, being very similar to the real world. But there are dastardly villains out there! Viruses, like MegaByte, have come from the Net to corrupt and conquer. The user (people like you and me) drops in games for pleasure. If the user wins, entire sectors get nullified. It’s up to Bob the Guardian, Enzo, Dot, Phong, and Frisket to save the day.
He series had a pulse for the computer/video game world and featured a lot of nods and inspirations from many popular games at the time, including Metal Gear Solid, Daytona USA, and even James Bond. Also, there were nods to big shows at the time, including Power Rangers. Its fantastic animation, solid story, fun moments, and great music left a very memorable impression for many gamers.  In addition, there was a PSone action shooter released, simply titled “ReBoot.†As Bob the Guardian in what is seen as the prologue episodes, your task is to take down the viruses that plague MainFrame with Glitch, your trusty mod tool, and a an assortment of anti-viral weapons.
The series’ first ran on ABC television before the big buyout from Disney. Following ownership, the first season ended and the series was cancelled from ABC in favors of The New Adventures of Doug, Recess, and Buzz Lightyear of Star Command. The show was on hiatus but still in development for about two years, searching for a network to be picked up. Cartoon Netowrk and TOONAMI picked it up some time later and brought us Seasons 2, 3, and 4. It won several Emmy’s and allowed the team to grow into the development of Beast Wars: transformers. Season 4 ended on a cliffhanger and the show was cancelled.
With this fantastic news, there is a new found hope of television animation quality.  It’s still searching for a network and it is unknown where it’ll go. Hopefully, it’ll return to Cartoon Network as Disney will likely decimate it like Tron Uprising and Motorcity. I highly encourage all of you to watch this fantastic series on Amazon Prime and order the entire series from SHOUT! Factory.
Stay Frosty everyone !
