Robots are a major feature in the Ratchet & Clank series. Robots are found throughout the universe, with Clank being the most notable, and come in various different forms.
While a lot of robots have simple programming, many are sapient and have personalities, genders, and emotions. Some sapient robots are also known to eat or drink. Sapient robots can also have souls, including Clank who has a Zoni soul, and space pirates which have appeared in undead ghost forms. Sapient robots play different roles in society based on their design and type, with many being civilians with jobs, while others are more specialized soldiers built to wage wars or for use as a security force.
Robots appear to live in harmony with organic lifeforms. The one exception to this was in Up Your Arsenal, in which mad scientist Dr. Nefarious declared a war against organic lifeforms with the goal was of robot domination. During this time, he led an army of robots, and also had some supporters, including the famous pop star, Courtney Gears.
History[]
Before Ratchet & Clank[]
The Boltaire Museum in Secret Agent Clank has exhibits for a robotic caveman, who evolved from ball bearings and springs. The first robot hands lacked articulation, causing a permanent thumbs up, though this made it easier to achieve peace among their neighbors. The robotic cavemen etched ancient writings with silicone containing 10 million transistors (considered primitive by the time of Secret Agent Clank). They used primitive weaponry prior to laser weapons, in what was known as the "Monster Truck Era", including stone axes with laser sights in them, seen as an example of robots "improving on organic technology and yet somehow still missing the point".[1]
The early "dipping bird" robot led to many advances for robot kind, such as zen meditation and perpetual motion. A pair of Extermibot twins—one good, one evil—independently made advancements, one inventing the first robotic puppies, the other telemarketing.[1]
In the Solana Galaxy, the Galactic Court Killbot Flamemaster 9000 vs. the Marshmallow-Planet Board of Education defined the scope of robot armament freedoms.[2]
In the Polaris Galaxy, the decadroid[a] space pirates were engineered by Percival Tachyon when he was just a child, to scavenge materials to be used for the drophyd's nanotech combat armor for Tachyon's Imperial Army.[5][6] When the army was completed, the pirates were abandoned on Praxus VII.[5] The pirates led by Captain Angstrom Darkwater until Captain Romulus Slag committed mutiny against him,[7] while some pirates traveled to Solana, led by Captain Blackstar, until they were defeated by Qwark.[b]
Ratchet & Clank[]
In the original Ratchet & Clank, infobots were very common throughout the Solana Galaxy during this time, containing recorded videos such as news broadcasts or transmissions. Additionally, many engineers owned roboshacks which repaired and provided upgrades for robots. Big Al had a roboshack in Metropolis, Kerwan, while Bob had a roboshack in the Jowai Resort, Pokitaru, and Edwina had a roboshack on Hoven.
Many blargian robots were used by Drek Industries' forces during the development of Drek's new planet, with many led by the Robot Lieutenant. On Quartu, a major robot factory manufactured sentry-bots, used for blarg security forces. This factory developed a defect, Clank, who fled Chairman Drek after an infobot revealed his plan to attack Novalis. Clank crash landed on Veldin, where he met Ratchet. The factory had a computer, which was Clank's mother.
On the Gadgetron site, Kalebo III, several test dummy robots used by Gadgetron fought Ratchet and Clank, which wielded Gadgetron's weapons. Clank also commanded several Gadgetron robots, known as Gadge-Bots, in the Blarg Tactical Research Station, Nebula G34, and in the Kogor Refinery, Orxon.
Ratchet and Clank also encountered several robots throughout their adventure to defeat Chairman Drek that were not hostile. A Qwark bot greeted them in Captain Qwark's fitness course in Metropolis, and completing the course introduced them to Qwark's fitness trainer, Helga von Streissenburgen, who sold the Swingshot. The two saw robot reporter Darla Gratch on two broadcasts, one for planet Rilgar, and another for Oltanis. Finally, they encountered the HelpDesk Girl in the Gadgetron site.
Re-imagined[]
In Qwark's version of events and the holo-film, Drek Industries deployed its own army of warbots, built in a factory in Skorg City, Quartu, created by Dr. Nefarious and led by Victor Von Ion. This factory produced a warbot defect, Clank, who Victor Von Ion failed to destroy, but managed to damage his ship and cause him to crash land on Veldin, where he was picked up by Qwark.
Throughout the galaxy, many civilian robots were seen with the same model as Gadgetron test dummies. These appeared in the Jowai Resort in the Pokitaru Tiki Longue and Karaoke Bar, as well as in the crowds for hoverboard racing on Rilgar and on Kalebo III. A female robot reporter, Juanita Alvaro, reported on events throughout the galaxy, along with Dallas Wanamaker.
Several robots fought alongside the Galactic Rangers on Aleero City, Kerwan. Clank also made use of gadgebots, on Quartu, in the Blarg Tactical Research Station, and on board the Starship Phoenix.
Going Commando[]
In Going Commando, throughout the Bogon Galaxy, many robots appeared as normal civilians. This was apparent during the tour of the Megacorp Armory of planet Todano with many robot tourists following a robotic replica of Abercrombie Fizzwidget, and also in Allgon City, Damosel, with many robot consumers of the Protopet seen running around the city in terror after the Protopets began to attack them. These civilian robots were also seen in many commercials, and appear to make up a large portion of Bogon's population.
Megacorp also used a large number of robot soldiers for its security forces, which Ratchet and Clank fought throughout their adventure. Clank also commanded Megacorp's microbots in Megapolis, Endako, and in the flying lab, Aranos.
Clank also had a girlfriend, a female infobot, who was repaired by the end of the adventure.
Up Your Arsenal[]
In Up Your Arsenal, Dr. Nefarious waged a war on organic lifeforms in the Solana Galaxy, using both his tyhrranoid army and a robot force to wage his wars. Nefarious claimed his war to be fought for the cause of liberating, who had suffered under the "bigotry" and "stupidity" of organic lifeforms.[13] However, there is little evidence of tensions between robots and organic lifeforms even during the war, suggesting Nefarious' prejudice came only from himself.
The Galactic Rangers, itself a robotic force affiliated with the Solana galactic government, were deployed by President Phyronix to combat Nefarious. Captain Qwark, appointed by the president,[14] led the Q-Force against them, of which Ratchet and Clank were members. On Nefarious' side, he had many robotic allies to his cause, including Courtney Gears, a famous hotbot pop star who produced propaganda for him in the form of a pop music song "Robots of the Galaxy" that called for the extermination of organic lifeforms,[15] and Lawrence, his butler. Nefarious also created Klunk, an evil robot clone of Clank made to take his place.
Nefarious built the Biobliterator, a superweapon capable of transforming organic lifeforms to robots, with the goal of transforming all life in the galaxy planet-by-planet into robots.[16] Biobliterator technology was tested by Courtney Gears on Skidd McMarx, though Al developed a way to reverse the process.[17] This successfully transformed the population of Metropolis to robots, including the tyhrranoids that were turned into robonoids.[18] President Phyronix became half-robot on his own in order to appeal to the new electorate, though this only lasted one interview.
A popular holo-vision series, Secret Agent Clank, starring Clank in the main role, featured robots as the majority of cast members. This included Secret Agent Clank, his nemesis Maximillian, the gadgebots he commanded, and several female hotbot robots in the casino. Clank also commanded Gadgebots in Nefarious' base on Aquatos, and in Qwark's hideout on the Thran Asteroid Belt.
The first issue of the Qwark vid-comics, Booty is in the Eye of the Beholder, depicts Qwark fighting the decadroid robotic pirate ghosts led by Captain Blackstar,[b] which he defeated. In other vid-comics, Qwark fought robotic henchmen for Nefarious, and in Deja Q All Over Again, Qwark fought robotic insects known as insectoids that were deployed to attack Metropolis.
Deadlocked[]
During the events of Deadlocked, Ratchet too part in the illegal combat sport DreadZone, and was allied with two combat bots, Merc and Green, veterans of past wars. DreadZone also deployed many robot gladiators created by Vox Industries to fight against contestants. This included two of the Exterminators, namely Shellshock and Reactor. A few orange robots were used as DreadZone staff assisting Gleeman Vox, and one of the two reporters for Vox News was a female robot, Juanita Alvaro, who worked alongside Dallas Wanamaker. Outside of the Exterminators and combat bots, no hero contestants in the tournament appeared to be robots.
Size Matters[]
In Size Matters, the technomites used their own robot forces which Ratchet and Clank fought. Otto Destruct still wished to replace them with Ratchet clones, because even his most powerful robots were no match for Ratchet.[19] The technomites also operated robots themselves from the inside, as seen with Luna, a robot that was designed to lure Ratchet and Clank into a trap. A notable technomite robot was the Robotic Control Unit, or R.C.U., which were spider-like robots that could move around independently or operate either the guard torso and technomite heavy trooper robot frames. They could also commandeer and control gun turrets.
During Clank Challenges, Clank fought many competitor robots in arenas. In the temple on Ryllus and the challenges, Clank also commanded gadgebots once again.
Secret Agent Clank[]
During the events of Secret Agent Clank, many of the characters Clank interacted with were robots. The Countess's villa on Glaciara, and Le Paradis Des Tricheurs Casino, were both made up entirely of robot guests, while Clank fought several robotic security guards and villains during his adventure. This included Klunk, who was the mastermind behind the plan. Qwark also told stories about robots he had allegedly fought to Barney, who was writing his biography.
The Agency also had robots as most of its staff. This included Ms. Cute Anastasia Bot, who gave Clank orders and briefings, and the Gadgebot mk.IIs which helped with infiltration.
Clank also explored the Boltaire Museum, where he learned about robot history. Here, the evil twins display for two Megacorp Rivet Bots spoke of "glowing red eyes and metallic goatees" being used to identify an evil robot twin,[1] as a reference to Klunk.
Tools of Destruction and Quest for Booty[]
During Tools of Destruction and Quest for Booty, taking place in the Polaris Galaxy, Ratchet and Clank encountered the decadroid space pirates[a] in many space battles, and across their outposts and their pirate base on Ardolis. In Tools of Destruction, the pirates competed with Ratchet for the Dimensionator, and in Quest for Booty, after Clank was kidnapped by the Zoni, Ratchet and Talwyn Apogee traveled to Merdegraw for Darkwater, who had communicated with the Zoni. There, Slag's former mate Rusty Pete triggered the Darkwater curse that brought them back as undead ghost pirates, which they fought and onvce again defeated.
Ratchet's ally, Talwyn Apogee, had two robot companions, Cronk and Zephyr, ancient warbots which had fought in the Great War. Cronk and Zephyr accompanied the two on many battles. Ratchet also found Aphelion, an old lombax spaceship, which appeared to be robotic as it was sentient. Additionally, civilian robots, known as consumer bots,[20] appeared on many planets, including Metropolis, the spaceports of Cobalia and Rykan V, and the plaza of Mukow.
A Crack in Time[]
In A Crack in Time, fewer civilian robots were found, as Ratchet mostly encountered native organic lifeforms. Dr. Nefarious led Nefarious Troopers, an entirely new army of robots repurposed from other menial machines such as drive-through menus,[21] and allied with the valkyries, a faction of robots from Vapedia. Nefarious broadly dropped his vendetta against organic lifeforms during his campaign to take over the Great Clock, but planned to reestablish it after doing so.[22]
A notable robot was the Junior Caretaker of the Great Clock, Sigmund. After the adventure, Clank gave Sigmund the Chronoscepter, and promoted him to Senior Caretaker to take Clank's place. Beyond Sigmund, a new form of smaller robots appeared named battery bots, miniature robots used by vullards and others to power machinery, but which under vullards' harsh working conditions often went on strike.[23][24]
Comic series[]
Artemis Zogg had several robots in his forces, which Ratchet and Clank fought, including several Mr. Zurkon synthenoids. Ratchet and Clank also teamed up with old robot allies, Cronk and Zephyr, as well as the Galactic Rangers.
Types[]
There are several common types of robots that are found throughout the universe. These do not necessarily have the same manufacturers, but have a similar role and model.
Civilians[]
Civilian robots appear throughout the Solana, Bogon, and Polaris galaxies. They tend to have humanoid forms with moving spheres for legs, and participate entirely in society. Ratchet and Clank rarely interacted with these robots, but could encounter them on planets they visited.
A common type of civilian robot was the space tourists, seen both in Going Commando and Secret Agent Clank. These robots had a humanoid form, with builds resembling clothing, a sphere for movement in place of legs, and a single green eye.
In Tools of Destruction, several civilians, known as consumer bots,[20] appeared in Metropolis. This is likely due to Nefarious' use of the Biobliterator a few years prior, which had turned the entire city into robots. These civilian robots were identical to those later found in the Polaris Galaxy in the spaceports of Cobalia and Rykan V and the Mukow plaza, and had large, round shapes with vaguely humanoid upper bodies, otherwise somewhat resembling those found in Bogon outside of their lack of clothing.
Infobots[]
Infobots are small robots that contain video recordings and often coordinates to the planet of the recordings' origin. They first appeared in Ratchet & Clank, in which they were required to obtain coordinates to each planet, and these types of infoboxes appeared again in Tools of Destruction and Into the Nexus in a smaller capacity. In Going Commando, a female infobot, Clank's admirer, was introduced.
Warbots[]
Warbot is a name used to describe robots built for the purpose of combat, serving as soldiers for robotic armed forces. Ratchet and Clank fought many warbots throughout their adventures, including those used by Drek Industries and Dr. Nefarious, the Omega Series warbot Shellshock,[25] Artemis Zogg's army, and the collector minions' Commander Spog. However, Ratchet and Clank have also fought alongside two old warbots as allies: Cronk and Zephyr.
A similar term "combat bot" is also used to describe certain robots: Ratchet's two combat bots assisting him in DreadZone, Merc and Green are allied examples, while the search and destroy combat robot megaliths is an enemy.[26]
Warbots and combat bots came in many different builds depending on their manufacturer, and often either carried their own weapons or had weapons built into their make already. Warbot and combat bot veterans also appeared to replace many of their parts after combat, as seen with both Merc and Green replacing their legs with hovering thrusters, as well as Cronk and Zephyr replacing many of their parts over time.
Warbots also exist in Rivet's dimension as part of the Nefarious Empire, Kit is the most notable of these, having been built as Emperor Nefarious' ultimate weapon.
Security robots[]
Several robots are used primarily as security forces, including those deployed by Drek Industries and Megacorp. These robots are similar to warbots, but are used instead to keep out intruders rather than to lead invasion forces on their own. They are often similarly deadly, though some, such as the blargian security-bots, are capable of activating nearby alarms upon detecting intruders to defeat them quickly. Security robots tended to have even more varied models than warbots.
Many security robots had unique forms. For instance, Captain Qwark employed Qwark bot replicas of himself to defend his hideout. Other security bots were deployed by city administrations to deal with infestations, such as the extermibots deployed defend against the amoeboids in Blackwater City.
Gladiator robots[]
Gladiator robots were fought during various arena combat challenges that Ratchet and Clank fought in. Many of these were generic robot gladiators fought, as Megacorp's arena battles included its own security bots, while the Annihilation Nation included robot ninjas, and DreadZone used many different robots manufactured by Vox Industries during its challenges.
Several of these gladiators were much larger robotic enemies. In the Galactic Gladiators in the Maktar Resort, Ratchet fought the B2 Brawler, a robot with an organic brain from planet Cerebella, and in the Megacorp Games on Joba, Ratchet fought two gladiator robots based on insects: the Arachnoid and the Megapede. In the Annihilation Nation, Ratchet fought Gary and Helen, two large robots with heavy weaponry, and also Scorpio, a remodeled B2 Brawler. In DreadZone, two of the Exterminators were robots: Shellshock and Reactor. Later, in the Destructapalooza ran by Thugs-4-Less, both the large bosses fought were large robots.
Small helper bots[]
Small helper bots are found throughout planets in the Solana and Bogon Galaxy to be commanded. These include Gadgetron's Gadge-Bots and Megacorp's Microbots, both of which can be commanded by Clank. These robots are very small, with metal bodies, have small torsos with legs but no arms, and large heads used to attack enemies by biting them. Some microbots instead had different, larger variations to perform different tasks, such as the Bridge Bot, Hammer Bot, and Lifter Bot. Clank commanded these to activate machinery and help him traverse areas.
There were also variants of these robots in the form of the Agents of Doom, deployed from a DoomEgg thrown by Gadgetron's Glove of Doom. These had a similar design, but after being deployed would seek out and destroy nearby enemies by self destructing into them. Upgrading them could also expand their ability set.
Decadroids[]
Space pirates are decadroids,[a] fully sentient robots forming part of a larger crew led by a captain, encountered both in Solana in the Qwark vid-comic Booty is in the Eye of the Beholder led by Captain Blackstar,[b] and in Polaris in Tools of Destruction and Quest for Booty led by Captain Slag and Captain Darkwater. They pillaged and plundered ships. Though they fought using relatively primitive weapons such as swords and cannonballs, they were deadly due to their durability and melee attacks.
Space pirates have personalities of their own and enjoy drinking grog and singing pirate folk songs. They appear loyal to their captain, aside from when committing a mutiny. Space pirates notably have ghosts which can fight when undead, including both in the Qwark vid-comic and in Captain Darkwater's crew on Merdegraw in Quest for Booty.
Hotbots[]
Hotbots[27][28] are a recurring type of robot with a notably feminine humanoid form. They have feminine features, and their models resemble outfits normally consisting of a crop top and miniskirt.
The most notable hotbots encountered are the HelpDesk Girl, employed by Gadgetron, and Courtney Gears, a pop star who produced propaganda for Dr. Nefarious, along with her backup dancers. Clank was also offered a hotbot providing a robotic masseuse along with his job and apartment and Megacorp,[29] and several hotbots appeared during the Secret Agent Clank series. Juanita Alvaro, reporter for DreadZone, vaguely resembles a hotbot due to her hourglass figure and metal skin.
Hotbots also feature in a magazine, simply titled HotBots, which features the HelpDesk Girl on the front cover.[28]
The player can use a hotbot skin in the multiplayer of Up Your Arsenal titled 'Hotbot', as well as the multiplayer of Size Matters.
Valkyries[]
Another form of female robots, valkyries have large bodies and appear to be strong fighters. The most notable valkyrie was Helga von Streissenburgen,[30][31] Qwark's personal fitness trainer, though many valkyries allied with Dr. Nefarious, including Cassiopeia, Carina, and Libra. These valkyries had lost their colony, and appeared to reside on Vapedia afterwards.
Ultra-Mechs[]
Ultra-Mech robots are giant robots enlarged with the Ultra-Mech Pads built by the Ultra-Mech Scientist on Quartu, who created the first pad unaware that Chairman Drek was involved.[32] Clank can also enlarge to an Ultra-Mech form himself, Giant Clank, by stepping on such a pad, which allows him to fly in space and to combat much larger threats.
Synthenoids[]
Synthenoids are small, flying robots with a weapon for a hand and slightly humanoid appearances. They are deployed as bodyguards to protect their user by firing at nearby enemies. Ratchet used both Megacorp's own Synthenoids, as well as the more common synthenoid, Mr. Zurkon and the Zurkon family.
In Up Your Arsenal multiplayer, the player can use drone bots as synthenoids. Once summoned, the drone bots follow the player and fire at enemies, they can also be ordered to guard a specific area.
Maintenance robots[]
Maintenance robots are used to perform cleaning or repairs. These robots come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes depending on the task being formed, and appear to provide no other service. In many cases they are unable to distinguish between Ratchet and dirt to be cleaned, such as in Megapolis, Endako, where they attack Ratchet after wrongly identifying him.
Single purpose robots[]
Small, single purpose robots can also be found. Infobots used to play back video recordings did not appear capable of performing any other functions or of individual thought, with the exception of the Clank's admirer that was briefly Clank's girlfriend. The eye-bot 3000 was a robot on display at the Boltaire Museum, all it would do was post pictures and comments to social media. Battery bots likewise did not appear to have a function outside of operating machinery.
Behind the scenes[]
Civilian robots were created for the tech demo of Tools of Destruction. In the tech demo they appeared in Metropolis. Though they were not in the final game they did appear in the Insomniac Museum of the 2016 reboot.
Notes[]
Annotations[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Captain Darkwater refers to Slag as a "no-good decadroid".[3] "Decadroid" is also the name of the pirate language.[4]
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 The story of Captain Blackstar is somewhat ambiguous. The narrator of the vid-comics questioned his existence, believing Qwark's story to be ridiculous.[8][9] However, the presence of the Blackstar armor[10][11] and the Blackstar Memorial Radio Tower[12] confirms that the captain was real. Additionally, other stories in the Qwark vid-comics, including Dr. Nefarious' invasion of Metropolis in Deja Q All Over Again, and Qwark's hideout in The Shaming of the Q, suggests that Qwark's battle with him did occur (although it was likely embellished), and Captain Darkwater's ghost pirates seen on Merdegraw confirms that ghost pirates exist.
Citations[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Secret Agent Clank script § "Not The Guided Tour (gameplay)"
- ↑ Secret Agent Clank script § "High Risk vs. High Stakes (gameplay)"
- ↑ Quest for Booty script § "Find the body of Captain Darkwater (gameplay)"
- ↑ Quest for Booty script § "Find a Translator (gameplay)"
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Tools of Destruction script § "IRIS Questions and Answers"
- ↑ Tools of Destruction script § "Infiltrate Slag's Fleet (gameplay)"
- ↑ Quest for Booty script § "Explore Hoolefar Island (gameplay)"
- ↑ Up Your Arsenal script § "Qwark Comic Introduction"
- ↑ Up Your Arsenal script § "Qwark Has a Big Heart"
- ↑ Tools of Destruction script § "Armor"
- ↑ Tools of Destruction menu § "Blackstar armor"
- ↑ Tools of Destruction script § "Catch up to Talwyn (gameplay)"
- ↑ Up Your Arsenal script § "Meet Dr. Nefarious"
- ↑ Up Your Arsenal script § "Captain Qwark Returns"
- ↑ Up Your Arsenal script § "Courtney Gears Music Video"
- ↑ Up Your Arsenal script § "Get to the bridge (gameplay)"
- ↑ Up Your Arsenal script § "Take Datadisk to Big Al (gameplay)"
- ↑ Up Your Arsenal script § "Defeat Giant Klunk (gameplay)"
- ↑ Size Matters script § "Plot Thickens"
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 Tools of Destruction script § "Hitch a Ride with the Smuggler (gameplay)"
- ↑ A Crack in Time script § "Rendezvous at Neurox Plaza (gameplay)"
- ↑ A Crack in Time script § "Scan Dr. Nefarious (gameplay)"
- ↑ A Crack in Time script § "Travel to the Hollow (gameplay)"
- ↑ A Crack in Time script § "Tow the Junk Hauler Home (gameplay)"
- ↑ Deadlocked script § "Shellshock Returns! (gameplay)"
- ↑ Secret Agent Clank, Holo-Monocle
- ↑ Up Your Arsenal, multiplayer skin name
- ↑ 28.0 28.1 Ratchet & Clank (2002 game), Goodies § "Epilogue"
- ↑ Going Commando script § "Behind the Hero, Part I"
- ↑ The Art of Ratchet & Clank, p. 183
- ↑ Stevenson, Price 2017 45:00
- ↑ Ratchet & Clank (2002 game) script § "Hmm... was it pi over infinity or...?"
References[]
- Video games
- Insomniac Games (2002). Ratchet & Clank [Game]. Sony Computer Entertainment. PlayStation 2.
- Insomniac Games (2003). Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando [Game]. Sony Computer Entertainment. PlayStation 2.
- Insomniac Games (2004). Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal [Game]. PlayStation 2.
- Insomniac Games (2005). Ratchet: Deadlocked [Game]. Sony Computer Entertainment. PlayStation 2.
- Insomniac Games (2007). Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction [Game]. Sony Computer Entertainment. PlayStation 3.
- Insomniac Games (2009). Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time [Game]. Sony Computer Entertainment. PlayStation 3.
- Insomniac Games (2016). Ratchet & Clank [Game]. Sony Interactive Entertainment. PlayStation 4.
- Bibliograhpy
- Sony Interactive Entertainment (2018). The Art of Ratchet & Clank [Book]. Dark Horse Comics. ISBN 978-1506705729.
- Videos
- Stevenson, James; Price, Ted [Games @Insomniac Games] (2017, November 7). Insomniac Live - Ratchet & Clank [Video]. YouTube.