#reboot mainframe

[totallyhextra]

People? In MY computer?? It's more likely than you think!

The following is a fanvertisment and is not connected to the show. ****Yet.*** *Also yes, this is the fourth time I'm posting this because TUMBLR WONT LET ME EDIT SPELLING MISTAKES!

ANYWAY,

Once upon a time, back in 1987, Dire Straits put out this music video for “Money for Nothing”, which, as you know, was a song about wanting my MTV. 

The video was made by two guys (Gavin Blair and Ian Pearson) on a very moody computer. After the video went out, these two guys went to a pub:

Ian: “Hey, we should make a whole show like this!”

Gavin: “Dude, making three minutes almost killed us.”

And so it was decided!🎉

The two guys were joined by two other guys (Phil Mitchell and John Grace) and created the Hub, which then became Mainframe Entertainment. They got even more people, and then they all holed up in this hotel.

They were mad lads with a dream: a whole cgi animated show, and they made it happen a whole year before Toy Story!

Behold! ReBoot!

(Yes that fever dream was real)

Now before I get any of this:

Let me lay this down. If you can’t with the animation of the first season because it was CUTTING EDGE IN 1994, you can close your eyes and listen to it. ReBoot wasn’t just a CGI gimmick. The characters are fully developed, the voice actors are peerless, the plot is sharp, and there’s so many easter eggs that you’ll never find them all.

Never

(And yes the episode "Bad Bob" was the actual catalyst for Fury Road. Look it up)

ReBoot is about what life is like in a computer (in the 90s, because it was the 90s) called Mainframe (because of course it is). People are sprites, the guys that look like 1s and 0s are binomes (which represent 1s and 0s). Bad guys are viruses, and the good guy is a Guardian named Bob, who is a certified cinnamon roll.

In the first season the eps are light and self-contained, mainly because there was constant friction between the Mainframe studios and the Board of Standards and Practices.

They still got away with some pretty dark stuff, like Megabyte (virus) making Enzo (the kid) watch his dog get sliced open (dog got away, obviously) , Dot (sprite) have a hallucinatory breakdown, and the fridge horror of realizing the thousands of worm things (nulls) that plunged off a bridge to their death were actually people.

And Hex's (virus

best girl) scary face single-handedly traumatized an entire generation. 🙂

But busting through a window was a no go, because WhAt If tHe cHiLdReN dID iT tOo?

Anyway, halfway through the second season, ABC cut them loose, so they were like, fuck it, we’re going to start going hard. The story shifted from episodic to arcs and things start to get serious.

Third season the show moved to YTV in Canada, which gave no fucks about shielding the innocent children.

So it got DARK

How dark?

The UK refused to show the entire season, so the audience there had to wait until pirated copies made it across the pond to see how it ended.

Also by 1997, the animation was gorgeous. (Best example of third season animation I could think of that didn't have spoilers)

The show was green-lit for a fourth season on Cartoon Network, but halfway through production Warner Bros took over and the same fucking thing happened.

Because Mainframe was halfway done, they decided not to scrap all of it, but knowing they wouldn't be able to finish it correctly, Mainframe stripped anything that would hint at Season Four's true ending, then left what remained on a cliff-hanger of angst.

FOR 22 YEARS

(It's also why the last four eps of season four seem to make no sense)

And so it was.

Other crap happened, the soul left Mainframe, and its animated corpse spat out “The Guardian Code” in 2018. 

But never say die! The year is (almost) 2024, 30 years later. ReBoot shall rise from the dead, because here come the documentary!!

Do you dare see what you’ve been missing?

What the (UK) government doesn’t want you to know?? 

Then come on down to ReBoot!

We got:

Magnificent bastards with sexy voices!

(Tony Jay at his best)

Kickass women who could probably crush your head with their thighs and you’d enjoy it!

Innuendos in a kid's show!

💗 This adorable cinnamon roll!! 💗

Insane third season glow-ups!

YOUR NEW GOD

These guys!

(Gay roller-skating binome is my boi. I named him Jerry)

Nonstop cultural refs (You'll never find them all. Never.)

(There are literally videos dedicated to trying)

So many computer puns!

Body Horror!

Existential Crisis!

HAVE I MENTIONED YOUR NEW GOD?

This is it, folks! The real thing, the gem hidden in the moose-filled forests of Canadia!🌲🌲🌲

Take a trip inside a mid-90’s computer!

See the World Wide Web! (omg):

Witness the original purple Gamecubes that randomly fall from the sky when the owner of the computer (OUR GOOD LORD THE USER) wants to play a game. If it lands on people and they lose, they dissolve into mindless energy leeches, fated to tormented by their former bretheren for all of eternity.

Just like in real life! 🙃

So watch the eps! They on YouTube!

I think they're on Pluto, Hulu, Sling, and Tubi too! Also DVDs for people who have the patience to wait for them!

WATCH! BELIEVE! SUFFER THE SOUL-CRUSHING RAGE OF THE SEASON 4 CLIFF-HANGER!* (come on, its fun!)*

HYPE THE DOC!

The more people hype, the better the chances of actually getting it finished.

NOW SHARE THIS WITH EVERYONE!

And now I will leave you with this screenshot from the ep "Painted Windows", where dicks can clearly be seen drawn upon the wall behind the fleeing anthropomorphized television.

(PS: If you heard the clown pic at the top of the page in your head, you're welcome)

IMPORTANT UPDATE

This message is now approved by Gavin Blair! He's an awesome guy. Show him some love on TWITTER (fuck you musk) at @TheRealMrSweary Also, if you want to share this with non-tumblr friends, here is my attempt at a webpage version:

theseventhstarprojects.com/REBOOT.html

[zeenovosdrawings]

ReBootober sketches? Yes. 👌🏼 If you haven’t yet watched ReBoot Rewind (a documentary on the making of ReBoot!!!!) on Telus Optik TV or the Story Hive YouTube channel, WHAT ARE YOU DOING???? Also, you should be checking out HazelGeek’s marvellous ReBoot merch offerings.

[jenniferstolzer]

Just Finished Reboot Rewind

man I wanna cry

I'm telling you guys, watching old eps and this documentary series. Maybe Reboot has to become part of my current bullshit again.

Also true to form in the documentary Ray also got completely ignored. Sigh... always a bridesmaid.

[gooeykit]

finished a sketch from a few months ago. NOT my hand or toy

[sabsleung]

The next 3D thing I do will be Hexadecimal from Reboot!

I grew up watching this show, and it really holds up even now. Hex terrified me as a kid, but I fully appreciate her character arc now. If only the series didn't end on that massive cliffhanger...

(Do not speak to me about any recent addition to the franchise. It does not exist.)

[ectonuritez]

Strategy meeting 🟢🐭🤨🏳️‍🌈?

ID: A digital drawing of Dot and Mouse from ReBoot (1994). Mouse has crowded Dot up against a wall, the latter looking coyly over her datapad at her. Several speech bubbles read: MOUSE: Hiya, sugar. DOT: Mouse, I’m busy. I need to get this report done. MOUSE: Aw, can’t spare even a few minutes for yer second in command? DOT: Well… End ID

ID: Two variations of the previous image. The first is without the speech bubbles. The second is the black and white inks. End ID.

[pppapaya]

This is not a drill. The upscaled Reboot is now on YT

[therobotmonster]

I'm bringing Hexy back.

Good visual reference on Hexadecimal (And Reboot in general) is shockingly hard to find, so when I found a guy who had done 4k upscales of the series on YT, it was time for some screencaps.

It's a pity the first(ish?) truly all-CG cartoon was probably not preserved in a state that would let it be re-rendered at higher resolution. What was at the time a massive technological undertaking could be rendered real-time on a mid-tier computer now.

Her whole mask-swapping gimmick was, itself, a way of turning tech limitations into an interesting feature. Save time on facial animation and lip synch while making her more memorable.

Every action cartoon series needs a villainous femme fatale, and Hex dispenses with most of the subtlety. She's a dominatrix-witch with a, uh, sprite-tight red leather bodysuit and latex or possibly black painted metal gloves and thigh-boots.

None of us should have been surprised by Blackarachnia is all I'm saying.

And like any good villainess, she's got a full on murder-mode.

And this is going to take more than one post.

Hexadecimal, from Reboot (1994, season 1, Mainframe Entertainment)

[ben-talks-art]

Mainframe Entertainment

I feel dumb now for not realizing all of these were made by the same people.

[sciencefiction-and-comics]

Mainframe Studios have posted episode 1 of Reboot (1994) to their YouTube channel! Is there more to come??

[zeenovosdrawings]

…….

I did more. Oops.

Just some doodles with my new Sailor pen that has a fude nib 💛 Oh and here’s a better pic of the Leo doodle. The ink I’m using is Troublemaker’s Petrichor

[nizaen]

i cant believe this is real and official

[gooeykit]

merry something

[dykwdlo68wm4]

Feather McGraw Appear in CGI!!! 🗣️🐧

[jurijurijurious]

Another drawing for #ReBootober. I cheated a little and combined prompts 2 and 4 - "Icon" and "Weapon". I think it covers both bases. Let's gooooo Team Megabyte!

[jenniferstolzer]

Left-handed drawings from tonight since my right hand is currently in a brace. I learned a lot from this exercise. Mostly that I have a long way to go before I call myself ambidextrous. The circles were the hardest part and the animaniacs were the hardest characters because it was difficult to do all their round shapes and also to color in their black bodies because my left hand does not have the muscle control that my right hand does. I think Peter turned out the best of the whole set but part of that might be because I had such joy that someone actually wanted to see one of my @threadcaster characters! (Thanks @editoress !) I need to work on the sequel maybe I will do that while my arm is inoperable.