- It would explain why Glitch was very reluctant to join with him after Dixon's death - the Keytool sensed Pixel's code in Bob. Bob has shown several times through the series he resists the Guardian code (because he's not really a proper Guardian). This is why Frisket (a dog) hates him (Pixel's a cat!) for no reason.
- Also Hexadecimal, for taking an instant liking to him, as she was somewhat a Crazy Cat Lady with Scuzzy in the beginning.
- If another Benign virus accidentally referred to Bob as 'Pixel', it would mortify Dot, and probably sadly scupper any plans to be married - she detests viruses, and the idea of being the wife to anyone who's viral.
This may have happened inadvertently while Phong is being tortured by Megabyte.
- Or, maybe it was the result of what Phong did to Dot? The device was supposed to send waves into the past and future. The past effects we saw, Dot hallucinating, but maybe this was the future waves? Maybe this is when the flash forward Dot was having would have actually taken place?
- You do realize that the user only experienced 2-3 days over the course of the show's entire run, right? And updates tend to be done automatically when the system is online.
- In that case, the User has been playing a metric ass-ton of games in that little a time. Maybe the game cubes represent flash games?
- Neither the updates nor flash games were popular when the series was made.
- As was mentioned above, ReBoot was made in the 90's—1994, to be exact. The series far and away predates the concept of automatic updates for mainstream operating systems. Windows 98 was the first Microsoft operating system to have a program that scanned for updates and notified the user if any were available. It wouldn't be until Windows Me, however, that this feature included the ability to automatically download updates and install them. It's only been since Windows 10 that these automatic updates have been taken completely out of the user's hands.
- In that case, the User has been playing a metric ass-ton of games in that little a time. Maybe the game cubes represent flash games?
- That explains why he couldn't move that tank in the beginning of "Identity Crisis, part 1". And the fact that it's an old game like Enzo said.
- Also, his parents probably upgrade for him. But the Mainframers don't know that, which is why they think he only upgrades occasionally.
- It's also possible that Mainframe is a public computer in a school or library that the patrons are using improperly.
- If the trailer for The Guardian Code is any indication, Mainframe is at least accessible from a high school computer lab.
- The name is very likely literal; the system may just be a mainframe computer. Such devices tend to use timesharing operating systems and all use of the system would be through terminal machines. Such systems are designed to remain operational constantly, and only require occasional maintenance from an administrator.
- I can't get over how many games the User seems to play that seem to star Villain Protagonists. Maybe that's just one — in my humble reading — troubled User among several.
- If the Twin City is another computer on a home LAN, and not a partitioned hard drive, then yes, there's probably a parent and child. One user doing work, and the other playing games on both those computers. Since Games keep downloading to Mainframe, it's likely the mother/father is extremely pissed their computer (Twin City) had a meltdown, and is purchasing a replacement.
- Mainframe also ended up making Beast Wars only a few years later in syndication, which helped popularize the idea of an all CGI animated series and led to the boom in CGI animation that persists to this day. With Beast Wars they still had Executive Meddling to deal with, but it seems almost kind and good-natured compared to some of the hoops Reboot had to go through, and most of that was because there was franchise history and continuity to deal with rather than outright censorship.
- Alternatively, The User IS Cthulhu, and Mainframe exists in an Eldritch Computer that follows a completely different set of rules that don't make sense to us, but make perfect sense for Cthulhu.
- Now there's a twist! But the games resembling our reality though do throw a spanner in the works with that theory. Unless we're dealing with highly evolved humans in the far future. Or maybe even aliens hijacking our Internet on their quantum computers for their own pleasure.
- Unless spreading chaos IS her function. It would explain why Gigabyte doesn't have the exact same function as Megabyte. Function: infect and conquer + spread chaos = destroy systems.
- There is another possibility not considered: most of the games are demos. In the time that the show was produced, computer game magazines like PC Gamer included CDs, which often included demos for various games. Since the show's run takes place within a two-day period, it's likely that the User purchased a PC gaming magazine and all the games featured are demos of actual games. This would account as to how quickly the User can play them (where multiple levels can be played in a short timeframe) and the overabundance of them in the show's run.
- Jossed. It's said explicitly in the show, the User is downloading the games from the Net (i.e. the Internet).
- AndrAIa wasn't teasing him, he actually had a lump on his forehead from where the ball hit him.
I mean, how can she make the closing narration if she's dead? In memory of Hexadecimal. Format - Virus: Savior of the Net.
- That's right. She's just stuck at TVTropes.
- His deleted partner kept on refering to him as Cadet, so it's pretty obvious that he didn't stay in Mainframe.
If I recall correctly, Mouse was stated to be a hacker. And if we assume that Reboot terminology is consistent with real life terminology, that would make Mouse a true hacker. (leap of logic goes to Trinity from The Matrix before she woke up?) As a result, she IS a user and her appearance is merely an avatar to prevent the denizens of Mainframe from effectively looking at an Eldrich Abomination.
- The disguise is nowhere near perfect. She has fangs, and her "hair" is red static.
- This interpretation would make her an avatar in the traditional Hindu sense of the word. Whoa.
- Alternatively, she could be a program created by a user for the purposes of hacking. Said user could then have moved on to other programs or methods, leaving her to her own devices and allowing her to become autonomous.
- Mouse originally helped Megabyte because she's only even inhabiting their dimension for the lolz and didn't think it would be a big deal. Then she started to care about the people in the computer.
- If the Guardian Code shows this to be true, she was created by the Sourcerer and originally did his bidding, until she rebelled against him.
Take a look at that fighting game, and tell me that Zaytan wasn't the final boss. Which would make Enzo managing to go all three rounds against him at that time all the more impressive.
- The Game is a reference to Mortal Kombat, and several of the games from that series have their final bosses as freely playable. Zaytan seems to be a reference to Satan, in Mortal Kombat Shinnok plays that role, he was playable as a regular character in his debut game and started things off by killing off a few heavenly characters. Perhaps unintentional but it fits pretty well.
- Very capable in physical combat, far beyond any other character except perhaps AndrAIa
- Possesses extreme skills in specific areas far beyond any other character
- Has physical traits not shared by any other character (her static hair and fangs)
- Similar icon form to AndrAIa until she changes it
- She was performing her skills with no clear motivation (hacking, etc.) or goal in mind and latched onto people she found as friends.
- Never mentions actually being from anywhere and shows no surprise or distrust of AndrAIa
- During the system restore at the end of season 3, the sister city was not restored, nor were its inhabitants. Further, the last remaining part of the sister city, Lost Angles, was also not restored.
- It echoes Real Life: A surprisingly large number of computer users do not start using a backup system until they've already lost something important.
Null creature body and voice just isn't glorious enough to be all it did. When the time is right, little Enzo will go viral and save the day as a virus.
Note that the inhabitants are different from ordinary people often seen in the series (Spectrals instead of Sprite and Binomes) so the way that system operates isn't like the others. Then note that it isn't used games, so some of the inhabitants needed to go further than normal to adapt.
She's an amphibious game sprite. There was probably a level in the game she came from where the User encounters her on land, and she's a biker babe there. Either that, or Mouse did it.
This is actually supported by the show, and a basic knowledge of binary. In Talent Night it's said to be Enzo's 1st birthday, but his shirt already reads "01" (1). Flashbacks in My Two Bobs show Enzo wearing a shirt with with "00" on it. He compiles to "10" (2) in the episode mentioned, and in season 3 Turbo mentions he should only be "11" (3). So it was Enzo's first birthday in Mainframe.
Because she was registered as a virus, she will return as a virus.
Hexadecimal was an equal match for Daemon, and he has many useful powers that she lacks, such as generating portals. Gigabyte was only ever shown in a severely weakened state and with an energy parasite (the web creature) strapped to his back. At full power he was likely more dangerous than Daemon, at least 1 on 1, and if he ever got to full strength it might be impossible to stop him.
- Hexadecimal was empowered empowered by the Core of Mainframe at the time. Granted, Gigabyte + Mainframe Core would probably wipe the floor with Daemon, though Daemon's powers seem more well purposed for massive widespread destruction than Gigabyte would be.
- Does he even know about Hexadecimal's gift? Considering with his ability to infect multiple people at once (yes, the tentacles can be blocked), that just seems like overkill if he does. Not that he's beneath that or anything.
- Conversely the copy of Medusa is Daemon. Megabyte said Hexadecimal's Medusa is quite inferior to his so it's likely he designed it to infect Guardians and by the time its infection followed Bob into the Super Computer it mutated into Daemon and skipped the stone part and went straight to waiting until time runs out to delete everything(which Medusa does after turning things to stone: it waits for a time before it deletes the object).
- Or, they could go the MegaMan NT Warrior route. The world of users could build giant Dimensional Areas note And Cross Fusion along the way. Which is the global form of the Dimensional Area Generator that are installed and utilizes satellite dishes and orbital reflectors turning the entire globe into a giant Dimensional Area where Sprites and Humans can co-exist.
Shortly after the mission to Chulak, Carter hooked up her mainframe computer to the Internet, figuring that it would prove to be useful in their line of work, which while prophetic, nevertheless had the unintended side effect of downloading a virus into the system from German hackers who had uploaded a VIRDEM variant into the computers of the Pentagon in an effort to thwart US and NATO-allied installations and facilities. While the plan failed, VIRDEM split into the variants 792 and 824, or Megabyte and Hexadecimal. The process of downloading the virus crashed the system and was responsible for purging the second hard drive of Mainframe, resulting in the Twin City Disaster.
Acting quickly, Captain Carter downloaded most essential OS to the secondary hard drive, though most of the program and system files were deleted, so as added precaution, she downloaded the Angry Bob program, which was an antivirus program on loan and routed through the Pentagon supercomputer. When the Angry Bob was uploaded into the SGC's main computer database, she repartitioned important drivers off the Dot Matrix printer to write new programming language for the SGC's mainframe, and given the importance of the Stargate Program and the information which she had stored, Carter was unable to requisition a replacement, and so she merely allowed the Angry Bob to fulfill its function and keep the viral infection at bay, though never completely erased.
Occasionally, other members of SG-1 would take turns playing games on the SGC mainframe. Which explains why the Game Cubes appear so frequently. The User who beat Enzo in Immortal Konflict? Teal'c chose the role of Zaytan and landed the finishing blow that took out a young Enzo's eye, leaving him scarred and making for delicious karmic irony due to his history as Apophis's First Prime.
The system from "Icons" is a personal PC that downloaded Matrix and AndrAIa off a floppy disk delivered to it.
The system from "Where No Sprite Has Gone Before" is the computer to a foreign center of government, similar to the Pentagon. The Hero Selective is antivirus software routed through that country's military HQ, same as the Pentagon is for the Guardian Collective of the SGC.
The system from "Number 7" is the UN, more specifically for a seat of power to a foreign ambassador, also routed through an antivirus company, which is how Matrix and AndrAIa were able to enter the system in the first place.
The Desert Port System is an Ethernet hub, which explains how Matrix and AndrAIa were finally able to find ports to the Net. That said, the Y2K infection, Daemon, was already ensuring that system errors meant the two could not find a way back to Mainframe.