Stack-Up retrospective: Blech demo | NES Works

Gyromite's companion release constitutes the only other game ever officially designed for R.O.B.... and, frankly, we'd all have been better off if R.O.B.'s library had begun and ended with Gyromite. Seemingly rushed to production (the game evidently hit Japanese store shelves a mere month after completion), Stack-Up makes poor use of R.O.B, of the NES, and of players' time and money. At least the music is catchy.

[@moshingsafely]

I think I'm the world's biggest Stack Up fan. I just love the programming mode for some reason. It's like other people do Sudoku puzzles, like comfort food for the part of their brain they like to use. Strangely, I never liked Gyromite very much! Luckily I managed to actually snag a copy of Stack Up from a Toys R Us in the dying days of the NES, and it's really funny to me that it's going for like $400 now. I mean, it's fun but not THAT fun.

[@KuraIthys]

mmh. When I saw that mode my immediate thought was LOGO. That's a programming language of sorts from the 70's and 80's designed to control a small robot that draws pictures. (Logo refers to the robot as a 'turtle') Most people only experienced it in a virtual form, with an icon onscreen representing the robot. But, both the virtual form and actual robot follow the exact same instructions, and barring the robot maybe not being entirely accurate, both should produce the same result. This reminded me of a simpler form of that idea. Actually, it occurs to me that within certain bounds, ROB would have been capable of a logo-like concept. Admittedly not the actual LOGO... But look at what the underlying capabilities of ROB are. It has essentially a single robot arm (presented as two arms, but mechanically it's a single arm) with two axis control, one being the height of the arm, and the other being it's rotation around the robot's axis. The third control the robot has is being able to grip and release objects. I don't know how limited the internal control system of ROB actually is, but in theory, if you made it hold a pen, and placed paper on a curved stand around the outside of the device, you could use it to draw pictures, similar to the way the LOGO turtle was used to do such things... Of course, the required accessories for this would be... Exceptionally cumbersome (the pen surface would need a very strong backing, so you'd get a very large, solid object), and it'd likely need a grip adapter that can convert the open-close motion of the robot into a motion akin to pushing a pen mounted horizontally towards or away from the paper mounted around the machine... But still. It might've been possible, and it could have been moderately amusing.

[@SirSmuggler]

I'm the same, I loved the memory mode of Stack Up, Gyromite though I found very boring. I would love to se a modern taken on ROB and Stack Up.

[@inkajoo]

What's weird about this is you don't *need* feedback from the R.O.B. unit to make these games work properly, the CPU could keep track of the blocks in memory and simulate the outcome on its own. They must have just run out of time.

[@xenxander]

Yeah stack-up would work as its on independent puzzle game with those game mechanics, or even some new ones. It 'could' have been a decent puzzle game - just remove ROB from the equation.

[@HydraSavior]

I won't say I want anything to do with Nintendo's Trojan Horse into the American gaming market, because both games seem infuriatingly slow, and the hardware's price would have been better spent on other games, but having watched both your reviews I am more enamored with Stack Up's concept than Gyromite's. My thinking is that Gyromite is a game that moves a function that could be accomplished with the controller to the outside world, while Stack Up's game is the actual arrangement of the physical objects. Stack Up's "real world" portion seems more fun and unique than Gyromite's layer of abstraction for pressing the A and B buttons. Anyways, thanks for the review of both--this is the first time I've seen thoughtful coverage on the maligned peripheral.

[@RT55J]

You could say, perhaps, that this game doesn't quite stack up.

[@RubyRed64]

Lol that is funny!

[@wjscottiii]

best reply ever

[@josephattwell1006]

Ehhh... GET. OUT.

[@McCoy-00]

That’s a knee slapper

[@221b]

I'm surprised Nintendo never tried to revisit this type of technology. With modern consoles having wireless communication built-in something like ROB would actually be substantially easier to produce now than it was in the 1980s, since they would be able to just stick a Bluetooth chip in there instead of screwing around with complicated light sensors and button-pushers.

[@RubyRed64]

221b ikr

[@KuraIthys]

Yeah, but the expectations would be higher now, and the functionality would need to be improved to keep up. Plus, ROB doesn't really seem to have much going for it. But, if you want to consider the very broad idea (I realise your comment is 2 years old, so you wouldn't have been aware of this), the Switch got a different, yet similar concept, in that it got a 'game' built around cardboard peripherals.

[@samcawley7608]

Labo is a rob sequel

[@dowingba]

If the game knows the blocks' initial positions, and it knows what moves you've told Rob to perform, it *should* know when you accomplish the goal.

[@KingCrimson82]

yeah "if" how should this work? sensors in the plastik cups, rudimentary rob that just moves with the simulation of himself? first forget it too pricey second, forget it not enough space ont he cardridge. Of course you had to be honest playing it but such an electronic interactivity back then must have been mind boggeling. For the second option there is another problem, if rob pushed the cubs over etc. and you still win in the virtual game it would be more immersion braking than the other way around, as it was you either make it or you betray yourself rather then make it in the game while rob doesnt manage to move the cups.

[@JodyBruchon]

​@@KingCrimson82It's a state machine. It's not rocket science. Every movement moves the robot into a different fixed state.

[@necrotick]

In your Gyromite video, you stated R.O.B. was not an accessory to play Gyromite. Rather Gyromite was an accessory to play R.O.B. That looks like the case with Stack Up, as well.

[@timf7413]

While I agree it's odd that the game has no feedback mechanism for Rob, I also have to admit that I do think it underscores what you said in the Gyromite video in that it's not intended to be so much using Rob to play with the video game so much as it is using the video game to play Rob. It's basically a piece of software designed to make Rob do things as opposed to a proper game in its own right.

[@AVUltra]

Honestly ROB just looked like an old robotic robot card dealer or chip sorter, kidified.

[@brentjamesonparker]

You did it!!! You got that channel layout looking real nice! Great vid as always :)

[@mario64remix]

Every time a new video appears I instantly drop everything to watch it.

[@JeremyParish]

+mario64remix You... are a good person.

[@THEmuteKi]

I'm surprised the NES didn't have a way of internally representing the stacks; you interface with ROB to reveal the representation of those stacks hiding in NES memory. Actually doing the check to see that everything works right should be easy assuming you've actually started with the correct configuration for ROB. Given that there's otherwise not very much to the game, I'm surprised they didn't bother to do that much. The fact that you can just press start to move onto the next level is...strange indeed. Surely they can spare ~10 bytes of RAM for internal representation of the stacks ROB is manipulating. Great, now a part of me wants to learn NES programming just so I can make a version of this game that actually works... I guess you could say that Stack Up doesn't stac-- erm, doesn't cut the mustard.

[@jonothanthrace1530]

That would require the buttons to be more than just on/off switches.

[@active_ate9183]

Thanks for making the investment for capture HQ video of the game and ROB at work.

[@azforu29]

Man, this hurts. The things I recall when it comes to games. Companies, dates, developers, the memory chips used, all fading into darkness the older I get. I've seen the industry form from Intellivision to PS 5 , and I forsee creative dark days ahead. I hope I'm wrong. It's too important to me.

[@graywhit9710]

Love the show, Jeremy. Was Nintendo Info the original name for Good Nintentions?

[@JeremyParish]

That was the Japanese title of the series when it debuted there, three years before Good Nintentions reached America.

[@MaxW-er1hm]

Lol. Change the name from the Japanese release-(which is IN english)to ANOTHER English title....that's still wrong/diff. from the box's name, beauty, eh?

[@ArcaneAzmadi]

I don't get why the game couldn't track your progress in Direct mode regardless of what you were actually doing- it knew what commands you were sending to ROB, so it should have been able to track ROB's movements, and consequently where all the blocks are at based on where they'd started. After all, all the game is doing is displaying the results of your commands in the real world with the stacked blocks rather than displaying them on the screen. And all the puzzles in Memory mode would have had legitimite "correct" answers that the game should have been able to recognise and tell from incorrect ones. Maybe that would have taken up too much memory, or maybe they just didn't care?

[@ERMediaOfficial]

There are flash games out there that are pretty much Stack Up's Robot Programming game, but those come with a virtual robot and incredibly complex sequences which makes it quite fun. So the biggest flaw here was that the game had no digital memory. If the game remembered your commands and checked them against a set of pre-defined commands, you couldn't have cheated and the game would have been better^^

[@JeremyParish]

+EzekielRageTV There's a lot of things that could have made this game better, but I think they worked on it for as long as they could before the production schedule forced them to ship what they had, even if it wasn't quite a game yet.

[@ERMediaOfficial]

It did do the trick, after all, the NES became a huge success :)

[@Damaniel3]

6:30 Assuming that the player had placed the pieces in the correct starting configuration, the game should have been able to tell (at least with a minimal degree of accuracy) the current arrangement of the blocks based solely on the movements made, at least in this mode. Even if they had just tracked that, it could have checked for completion and made the whole thing slightly more interactive. It still wouldn't have been a great game, but it wouldn't have felt quite as hollow.

[@RubyRed64]

If they wanted to make this game extremely expensive, rhey could've put weight sensors on the pedestals to detect weight of a certain amount of blocks

[@thrawthingalbyeblathingal370]

*I played the FUCK out of this game for 18 years of my life, I spent SO many hours perfecting this game!*

[@shortcat]

Bingo mode looks like fun to me. And you didn't even show us how it turns out with 2 players!

[@jonothanthrace1530]

Honestly, the ROB setup reminds me strongly of the Magnavox Odyssey, especially here.

[@LBOOGIEDAMANN]

Just so happened to watch this the week of Christmas, perfect ending to the season.

[@SuperNorstShow]

With how long it takes for a new Chrontendo episode to come out, its refreshing to see a competing series that takes an in depth look at every game on this console. I am an avid fan of the NES, it is my favorite console, and I currently own about 160 games for it. Content like this is excellent as it points us to great games that are worth taking a look at, while also giving us an honest opinion on what to avoid. Excellent Work dude.

[@JeremyParish]

Thanks, but this isn't a "competing" series to Chrontendo. It's just a different take on the topic.

[@sarowie]

This game could have worked, when it simulated Rob. Speak: Executing the command on the real ROB and a virtual one. The memory mode in particular lends it self to that idea. Sure, the simulation of a ROB would make the real ROB pointless, but I can imagine that it could be a cool tool teaching tool for "entry to entry" level programming. (see the game "Human Resource Machine" for referemce)

[@JamieJoseph88]

You're gonna have to update the release dates because R.O.B. was released in Australia

[@unoclay]

Such an excellent overview!!! Do you happen to know if the famicom version of the ROB 'arms' and discs fit into a USA ROB? Ive long wanted to buy a set of the famicom discs/arms but not sure if it's worth it if they wont slot into my USA ROB.

[@JeremyParish]

They're totally identical and interchangeable! If you look carefully, you might notice the color mismatch for some of the elements on the R.O.B. in the video. I mostly used Famicom parts, because they were much cheaper to get ahold of.

[@unoclay]

Excellent. I plan to either buy some on my trip to Japan later this year or just do the ebay thing since famicom parts are so much cheaper. I'd even explored getting 3D fabrication of the parts with a friend/toymaker until i realized this was a possibility.

[@theshellacstation78]

Anybody know where I could get a NA copy of this game with original NA pieces? I can't find a copy for NTSC nes, and finding the original parts (I don't want Japanese or 3d printed) is ridiculously difficult. If anybody has any ideas or would be extremely appreciated, thank you.

[@JeremyParish]

The complete U.S. version of this game has been selling for $1000+ for the better part of a decade, I'm afraid.

[@theshellacstation78]

@@JeremyParish No idea why, but I felt I should tell you I managed to purchase a copy of the game today. (With original parts)

[@theshellacstation78]

@wargent99 Well, I ended up paying about $700 all together. However, you could probably get it for less if you want to wait for a good deal. I bought a PAL version from a guy in Australia, so the parts were the same, but the game wouldn't work. I sold the game to a guy off in the UK, and bought a NTSC version with the money from the PAL version (the PAL cartridge is actually worth slightly more).

[@VibeVixen02]

It would be neat if someone came up with a game that utilizes ROB again. I just ran into a project where they wrote a game to use the Power Pad as a board for bean bags

[@RICHUNCLEPENNYBAGS77]

You wouldn't really need to weigh the blocks... you could just keep track of what commands were issued and use this to determine where the blocks were (assuming that the player actually set them up properly).

[@TipsterLIVE]

This is an awesome series. Thanks for sharing! I subbed!!!

[@RubyRed64]

By the way, Stack up is not a piece of garbage.

[@RaposaCadela]

This game really is so simple it could probably have been included inside the Gyromite rom with it! Repurpose some sprites and cut some corners, cuz it really is just the other Direct mode from that with a few extra steps

[@shwanbrusso7626]

I was always curious about this "game". Thanks for the episode. :)

[@theshellacstation78]

You know it's expensive when he uses the more common Japanese version.

[@julescab]

I had the deluxe kit as a kid, and just seeing it work again, is a blast!

[@demonhanzohattori]

I remember playing this game with the neighborhood homie when I was 6 or 7. He played the old man running and I controlled the columns, I remember squishing the shit out of him and it was so funny.

[@Ubylmoen]

There is an alternate way to look at the two Rob games, as a sort of test for the market. Gyromite is a game thats played with a toy, and Stack Up is a toy thats played with a game. If Stack Up had been more popular, then that might have been the overall feel that video games took, companions to real life toys. Instead the interest was in the interactive game aspect of Gyromite, so video games won.

[@elvistwatty]

Where do you get that Rob candle holder?

[@sonicmario64]

Does anybody else find the Blocks that came with "Stack Up" to be something that you can chew on like gum? ;)

[@marcusfridh8489]

i would say that stack up would rather be seen as a beginners guide to computer programing as you choose the commando on the screen for r o b to do irl.

[@lordofthecats6397]

I think stack-up might have had an important effect on Nintendo's developers. Later you see games which probally started as tech demos, but became memorable and fun games (F-Zero, Pilotwings, Wii sports)

[@MisterDrBob]

I can't believe it never occurred to me that R.O.B. had no way to communicate with the NES in this one. Kind of stresses the definition of a game.

[@RetroPowerUp]

It's a shame there was only ever one good game to use with R.O.B.

[@tsvtsvtsv]

12:47 seems to me the more obvious solution would be to implement a virtual version of the real life interface within the game's code. either on screen, so the player can be sure ROB's movements are tracking accurately, or hidden from view, which would likely result in more bugs but might be more exciting for the player once they've completed a level

[@johneymute]

WoooW did nintendo not even bother to fix the title stack up for the pal version either? Considering they already didn’t consider to fix the title of the ntsc version, am mean What a shame because only the japanese version should,ve been called robot block not those western versionS.

[@JeremyParish]

I don't believe ROB and those two games shipped officially in Europe?

[@johneymute]

Yes they did😁

[@rubberwoody]

Stack up was more important than most other black box games. It was Nintendo's most convincing argument to retailers that the NES was, in fact, not a video game console.

[@jamesricardo8067]

I feel like with updated motors, rob could be faster

[@PotbellyPunch]

This is almost certainly the worst most valuable game for the nes.

[@JeremyParish]

+PotbellyPunch That's some stiff competition, honestly. The Panesian trilogy and Cheetahmen II have it beat, I think!

[@kevinbowyer7205]

Educational as always!

[@Renzor004]

omg @ the final scene with all the robs lmao

[@VibeVixen02]

This review makes me glad I finished collecting for Gyromite

[@MissAshley42]

I haven't started the video yet, but I had to give a like just for the subtitle.

[@jamesmoss3424]

That is a odd game.

[@Poever]

Like they say, "It's Game Boy World, and this is hot garbage!"

[@RubyRed64]

I prefer Stack up over Gyromite. Even though I don't have either game or a R.O.B., but based on what I see, it looks more fun. I see it harder to play an adventure game like gyromite with a slow robot than a puzzle game.

[@highstimulation2497]

so negative, yo. I LOVED this game.

[@highstimulation2497]

THe hell with that, I LOVED this game!

[@highstimulation2497]

you can't be the syncopation in that intro