Between a Raccoon & a Hard Place

Nitcentral's Bulletin Brash Reflections: ReBoot: Season Three: Between a Raccoon & a Hard Place

Megabyte uses propaganda to turn the residents of Mainframe against their unproven guardian, Enzo Matrix. Mouse reconfigures AndrAIa's Icon so she can enter games to help Enzo defeat a rascally user and enhance his credibility as a guardian.
By D. Stuart, the ReBoot moderator on Sunday, June 20, 1999 - 8:33 pm:

My "nit-picks" are as numerically proceeds:
1) I never noticed black and white stripes on the back of Megabyte's neck. This is the second instance of a characteristic or feature that has otherwise gone unnoticed.
2) How does Enzo Matrix know there are only two remaining lives for the user after Enzo Matrix vanquishes him for the first time?
3) Is it my imagination or does that extra life token appear smaller in the Binome's hand than as previously suspended?
4) What is the significance of the initials K, S, J, and W on the manhole covers?
5) After the game is over and everyone is exuberating over their triumph, you can clearly see a Sailor Moon Binome. Furthermore, there are less Binomes present after the game than during, particularly a pair of Binomes consisting of a mother and son that apparently vanish.
6) Not truly a "nit-pick," but there is Star Trek reference with a red-shirted Binome who was consequently deleted after orally retaliating against Megabyte, as ordered by Megabyte himself. The statement "resistance is futile" was also uttered by Megabyte.
7) How would AndrAIa be capable of identifying herself as a biker babe upon rebooting if she hails from an underwater game?


By Mark Morgan on Sunday, June 20, 1999 - 10:35 pm:

The Jean-Luc Binome was great! But, wasn't he a zero in "AndrAIa"? Why is he a one now? Or are there two Jean-Luc binomes? (Aaah! Does that mean there is more then one Kirk binome? No! Make the singing madness stop!)

I suppose Enzo could have used Glitch to get the gamestats (including user lives)--but it would have been nice for them to show us that!

AndrAI's icon was reconfigured as a mainframe icon--which is why she rebooted as a mainframe sprite in the game.

What the *heck* did that binome flash at the user?

Great line: "Be vewwy, vewwy quiet, I'm huntin'....wacoons!"


By D. Stuart, the ReBoot moderator on Thursday, July 08, 1999 - 1:42 pm:

Mr. Morgan, I was referring to AndrAIa's knowledge of biker babes, not why she rebooted as such a character. AndrAIa was born and raised in a game that occurs entirely underwater, and the only transport vehicles of which AndrAIa could plausibly be aware are more along the lines of submersible craft (e.g., a submarine). Ergo, none of the females of her Sprite's species ever manned a motorcycle and thus never reached a point at which they could identify themselves as biker babes.


By Mark Morgan on Thursday, July 08, 1999 - 10:03 pm:

I get you. The way I figure it, she must have known the same way that Enzo knew how to fire the gun (or the flasher knew how to flash)--it downloaded into her when she rebooted, as a game skill.

I must admit, I'm a little fuzzy as to which game skills come along for the ride, and which ones they have to figure out. For example, after he reboots in the Evil Dead game, Enzo knows how to do the Michael Jackson moves (dodging bullets). But, in AndrAIa, Bob has to explain their powers to Dot.


By Matthew Patterson (Mpatterson) on Wednesday, August 11, 1999 - 2:33 pm:

Dontcha love the subtle humor in this series? Megabyte's speech was a parody of the Borg's opening speech, and the Jean-Luc Binome gives the immortal "line must be drawn here" line.


By Mike Konczewski on Thursday, August 12, 1999 - 6:31 am:

Other references:

Warner Bros. cartoons--almost too numerous to list. I think the CJ on the manhole cover was a reference to Chuck Jones, the animator and creator of the Roadrunner (among other characters).

Walter Lantz cartoons--Rabid Racoon reminded me of early Woody Woodpecker, right down to the high-pitched voice and tendency to commit mayhem.

"Fargo"--the Minnesota-accented binome was dressed like Frances McDormand's character in this movie.

Star Trek--apart from the ST:FC references, Megabyte's punishing armband was a reference to the TOS episode, "Spock's Brain."

Grant Wood's "American Gothic"--two binomes are dressed like the characters in this painting.

Couple of nits:
--Fong says that Bob was responsible for hiding Mainframe's location on the web in "Web World Wars." Actually, it was Mouse.

--Megabyte wants to wage a propaganda war against Enzo, to undermine his authority. So why do Hack and Slash stop Mike the TV from broadcasting a negative report on Enzo?


By D. Stuart, the ReBoot moderator on Sunday, October 15, 2000 - 4:44 pm:

My nitpicks are as numerically proceeds:
1) AndrAIa's reflection in the raccoon's eyes is different from how she previously appeared.
2) How did everyone witness the raccoon's initial demise if they were at such a far distance? That would be a time during which you would rely on Glitch.


By Peter Stoller on Saturday, February 02, 2002 - 11:38 am:

The animation is improved over earlier episodes.
Hard-edged shapes are more plastic; Hack, Slash and Mike squash, stretch and warp more than before.

There's a rectangular "Capt. Picard" binome playing a line from "First Contact". Megabyte responds with the familiar Borg phrase, "Resistance is futile." He is in addition to "Jean-Luc" and "Sir" who are spherical and also wear four little Starfleet Captain's rank dots.

AndrAIa wears her new rebootable icon inverted.

Another homage; number plate "28IF" from "Abbey Road" album cover.

When Enzo suggests, "We go that way!" to escape level one, it's not quite clear what we see next. It appears to be a bird's-eye shot of terraced cliffs. Perhaps they are not terraced but overlapping layers of levels, and we're seeing the edge of each subsequent level peeking out from beneath the higher ones. Supposedly they jump down to the next level.

This children's show features a flasher? And a loud moist "thud" results when he opens his overcoat!?!


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