ReBoot/Mythology

Mainframe: On Location

The city of Mainframe, where most of the series takes place, is based on an understanding of computers that seems dated only a decade later. As the PC revolution accelerated the miniaturization of computers for everyday use, the paradigm shifted away from the notion of many terminals tied to a central machine. But during the time of Reboot's production, that was still the norm for large business (and computer animation companies!)

It can be deduced from in-show comments that Mainframe is not located on a single person's PC. Rather, it is a local network. In the episode Firewall, for example, the characters make a plan to trap Megabyte by completely surrounding the corrupted areas with a firewall. This would not be possible were Mainframe located on a single machine.

Although Mainframe appears relatively large, especially compared to other systems the characters encounter, Bob regards it as somewhat of a small-town backwater. This is not everyone's view, but it's especially common to the characters who hail from the Supercomputer.

Citizenry

The main characters of the series are sprites. They are files developed enough to represent with unique forms which are usually humanoid. (Not always, though. Phong and Mike the TV are two exceptions.)

The majority of Mainframe's citizenry are binomes, smaller beings who are shaped like ones or zeros. They still have individual personalities and idiosyncratic behavior, varying in temperment, clothing, hairstyle, etc. The ones and zeros are not divided by gender (that is, neither group is comprised solely of males or females). The one-binomes have a body comprised of three squarish segments stacked one atop another, with the top segment having a single large eye, the middle segment sprouting arms, and the bottom legs. The zeroes are a single spherical segment with two small eyes near the top, one arm on either side and two legs at the bottom of the sphere. Binomes are about half as tall as sprites.

Games

When the User sends a game down to Mainframe, the people react as though a catatrophe was coming, and flee from its descent. Games are represented as giant purple cubes falling from the sky, which land at random places in the system, and no wall or shield can prevent them. As a Game descends, it envelopes all buildings, sprites or binomes who are in it's path.

Once the game has landed, the binomes and sprites trapped within can "reboot" themselves by tapping the icon on their chests. This reboots them as characters within the Game, who can now interact with and compete against the user. With each game being different, the objective of the Game varies: defeat the User in combat, find something before the User, race the User to a finish line, etc. If the sprites win, the cube ascends back into the sky without incident. If ther User wins, then when the Game departs, all the buildings trapped within it are severely damaged or obliterated, and all the sprites or binomes are turned into "Nulls" - mindless worm-like parasites.

If the User wins too often, a system can become severly damaged, and possibly crash entirely.

Tears

A tear is a disruption in the system, which appears as a cloud of chaotic energy. Tears can appear naturally, and are the result of accidental or deliberate destruction in a system. When a tear is unstable, it can destroy any person or thing that gets to close. Guardians have the ability to stablize or shutdown these tears using their key tool.

When a Guardian stabilizes a tear, it becomes an instant portal out of the system. The Guardian cannot control where the tear leads, but can detect the location ahead of time with the key tool.

Guardians

Guardians are assigned from the Supercomputer to the systems. Their key tools are multi-purpose, highly adaptible devices which have partial personalities of their own. (Bob's key tool is named Glitch.) The Guardian's motto is "To mend and defend." That is, he or she must mend tears before they damage the system, and defend the sytem by stepping into every Game to defeat the User, risking Nullification.

The User

While the residents of Mainframe understand that they live a digital life inside a computer, they do not appear to have any inkling of what a computer actually is - that is, a construction by flesh-and-blood beings. The digital life is their universe, and their only understanding of what lies outside that universe comes from the Games. The User is therefore looked upon as a capricious deity.

In his opening monologue, Bob says that he intends to find out why the User sends the Games, but more immediate concerns sidetrack him. The User never interacts with or appears to the people of Mainframe outside the Games, except [SPOILER - hover to reveal] in the Season Three finale, where the User saves Mainframe with a complete System Restart.