MegaGrams Archive

Hey Mandi. Great site, although it seems to be nomadic. ;) I was just wondering if you’ve ever noticed the disturbing trend Capcom is developing. They seem to be running out of weapon ideas, since Leaf Man’s sheild and Flash Man’s time stopper have been duplicated quite a bit. I do believe you were right about that sheild comment; I think there are only 3 or 4 games that don’t have a sheild. Heck, even the X series are picking up on the trend. Rolling Sheild, Speed Burner, Triad Thunder, Frost Tower.....
    - Greymore

Heh heh... well, the Nethosting thing was designed to help the nomadic problem. As for weapons, yes, in fact, I will be touching on that more in a future section of this site. Course, I don’t exactly blame them; I wouldn’t be very good at coming up with new original weapons either, and occasionally you do get one (such as Grab Buster or Aiming Laser).

Okay, I’ve managed to devise a story that somewhat explains the change from Wright to Right to Light. Consider it a bit of family background. First, there is the matter of Wily and Wright being cousins. Both would be German, as that seems to be Wily’s origin, and Wright, if I’m not mistaken, is a german name in origin. I’m guessing, sometime around World War II or shortly thereafter, the Wrights left Germany and went to England, thus accounting for the english accent, at least in the cartoon(I think...didn’t he have an accent there? :P ) Chronology hereon out is a bit fuzzy. Sometime after reaching England(or on arrival) they changed their name to Right, to escape their german roots(I wouldn’t think the English as being too friendly to Germans at the time). Later on down the line, for whatever reason, the name was changed to Light. Of course, they still kept with their relatives, the Wilys, obviously. I know this may not be too clear, but it’s the best I can do right off :P
    Also, I’ll mention that Capcom is covered whenever they call Wily “Dr. Willy”. If his name is Dr. William Albert Wily, then I suppose “Willy” is an acceptable substitute. Funny, but acceptable.
    - DX

“Right” to “Light” is easy; in Japan they use both interchangably (because L and R are the same thing to Japanese). As for Wily, his name is actually Albert W. Wily, not William Albert Wily, at least according to every official source that I’ve ever seen (including Japanese games).

I rejoice at finding your site again (I said this in the recent E-mail), but, after reading this section, I came upon a few questions:
    1. [Drs.] Albert [Wily] & [Thomas] Xavier [Light] are related?! I thought they just went to the same Grad School! (MIT, anyone? (If Monstrotown is New York & not Tokyo))
    2. Wily created Zero? I thought he was the last of Dr. <Cain’s> inventions. Makes sense though since...
    3. I think, both in the cartoons and the real game, Drs. Light & Wily constructed Proto Man. In the game, though, Wily also helps create Rock, Roll, and the First 6. Maybe Wily didn’t see any value in Rock at first [in the games]?
    4. If Wily created Zero, it was probably as a check on Bass.
    5. Roll as a biroid? If <that> happens, I’ll eat my... well, I’ll think of something...
    6. Finally, I would think Mega Man (and Break Man) have the <Capacity> to fall in love. (Here would be a spoiler about a human girl in books 0 & 16, BTW, is she a sort of perception of yourself, Mandi?) But, I don’t think they have the anatomical capacity to produce offspring. I mean, though they have feelings like humans, but their organs are mostly mechanical equivalents of ours, meaning they probably didn’t gain any new ones during their transformations.
    Post-Electron about Bass: I think Bass is the reason why Dr. Light had X in the capsule for 30 years. I mean, Bass obviously has free will, but it is debatable whether he has emotions. He is the robot warned against near the end of Book 13. But that begs many questions about Bass, Wily, and Zero and I am out of space...
    See ya next time! **Teleports Out**
    - Donnie Marco

    1) Capcom has not given any solid indication that they even know or care what countries Dr. Light and Dr. Wily are from. The German thing is purely a Mega show invention, and that was never spoken outright—everyone just gathered from the German accent Wily’s voice actor used. Likewise, there is nothing in the games that says whether Light and Wily are related. The games don’t say the are, don’t say they aren’t. They merely don’t specify. All we know is that they were, at one time, friends.
    2) Sigma says Zero is the last of a doctor’s creations; he doesn’t specify which one. At this point it appears as though he was referring to Wily.
    3) The games don’t really say whether Dr. Wily helped Dr. Light build Protoman, Rock, and Roll. You could go either way. All you’re told is that Wily was assisting Dr. Light, but not when or how. For my purposes, Wily only helped make the Robot Masters, but the games themselves don’t specify.
    4) Possibly, or perhaps just another attempt to get the best of Mega Man and Dr. Light.
    5) Heh.
    6) I tend to agree with you. Robots don’t have sexual organs, and they also don’t have something called hormones which are a major factor in sex drive. Robots that can feel emotions could logically also feel the emotion of love, but they would not feel the biological sensation of lust, and that would rather dampen things a bit.
    To answer your BTW: no, not really; I was never much of a party girl.

“Needless to say, robots can’t reproduce”. Thats your comment from the last MegaGrams, but did you really put much thought into that? Ok, it may sound totally dumb for Mega Man and a female robot(that is, a robot emulated with typical female aspects, etc..), to have a child, it is possible. I’m not going to go into detail about it, but a female robot built with a reproduction system of some sort inside of her, is just as possible as a living machine, if not more. How would the baby grow then? Well, through enhancement. The same way that when Mega Man supposedly went through his transformation into Mega Man X, Dr. Light (or Dr. Cain, whichever of the two gave X his full enhancements), gave him a taller body. It is an interesting idea, and reploids no doubt have the idea to reproduce, but that works to a disadvantage for Mega Man X since so many Mavericks can appear if reploids can reproduce.
    Especially since pregnancy would no doubt be a quicker period in the body of a reploid. Anyway, its possible........and don’t think I’m some sicko who loves to think about Mega Man and some nameless female robot having children!! I’m just saying that robots can reproduce.
    Your site is awesome, and it rules. But I’m sure you hear that a bit too much, so thank you for your time, and goodbye.
    - Dr. Wily

Stop and think about what you’re saying here. Robots are not metal humans. They are machines. Ordinary machines built by ordinary humans, like a car or an oven or, most accurately, like a computer. In order for a “female” robot to have a “baby” robot, she’d have to have a little production factory built inside her stomach. Do you really think they’d fit one in there, and even if they did, why bother, when you can build a building to accomplish the same thing? Either way, it wouldn’t be reproduction. Sex would be unnecessary since there’s no need for a sperm and an egg as there is for an organic creature. Yes you could build little “baby” robots but that is not reproduction. That’s just building more robots. A robot could be programmed to build other robots, but that’s still not reproduction. Do you call an automobile assembly line “reproduction”? Case in point.

Dear Megagrams,
    If you think about it for a second I’m sure you will agree with what I have to say. If a character is neutral, then he won’t be on any side in particular. He would go by his own agenda. That is why I think that Protoman is neutral and not on any of the sides. Although he dislikes Wily and his forces, he will not actually take him on because he doesn’t have to. Protoman might just be a character that wants to be left alone and survive by himself, only appearing when needed by Megaman. He will also challenge Megaman time by time as in what he did in Megaman 7.
    I could sort of understand why Bass would have attacked Wily i some of the games. In Rockman & Forte, Bass just goes against King. Probably not knowing that it was really Wily. Just think what you would do if your creator put your life under risk for no good reason. What he/she could have told you and saved you a lot of trouble. Thats probably why Bass would have gone all the way and destroyed Wily. In the Arcade versions he would have done it for some strange reason like proving himself..
    Now, I have a few questions. I am making a CD Cover for my CD which has a collection of Megaman Games. Most of them. Would you be able to draw a cover for me which would suit it the best? The cover I have now is pretty crummy.
    - Cyclops

    1) I was referring to people who make him beyond neutral and have him running around helping Wily and Mega Man and anyone else he can find. The games are more as you describe: he’s good, but a non-involver (usually, although this doesn’t explain why he kept trying to take out King all by himself).
    2) Yeah, well, if I discovered that my creator had made a new robot and pitted me against him without even telling me, I’d probably be annoyed too.
    3) I don’t have time to do requests, I’m afraid.

Capcom is finally making N64 games! Maybe now we can see Marvel VS Capcom and Mega Man 64 (it should be 2D, because the good way to make a classic series worthless is to make it 3D). I always knew Capcom was smart not to stick with playstation.
    - Ultra Man

*laughs* Well, I think that’s a matter of opinion, but people say the N64 needs Capcom. I’m not sure if a puzzle game is what they had in mind though...

Dear -insert webmaster-,
    I noticed in Mandi’s books that the Game Boy wasn’t ever part of the N-Team. Is it because he wasn’t an original member, or he never stars in a game?
    Thanks,
    - Break Man

He just wasn’t there, for whatever reasons. I was never one to write characters into a plot if they weren’t in it to begin with, just like it’s hard to take them out if they were there. If Game Boy turns out to be a popular character, maybe I’ll throw him into the HTML interactive book.

Hey I just want to say your site is great.and I have a few questions:
    1)when will people stop critisizing the megaman series and just be glad its still even here after all these years?!(I.e:protoman is taller than megaman!!the artwork is squashy!megaman’s voice is the much like a girl’s!!)to hese people I have only one thing to say:WHA!!!!!Get over it!!
    2)I would like to know if Rockman&Forte is coming to america?
    3)megaman WAS going to kill wily in megaman7.
    4)Is megaman the power fighters and the power battle coming to home system?
    5)did you play rockman 8?did you see the prevue for superAdventure Rockman?ok now.....Did you see rockman’s forearm morph?...then he cocked his arm up like a shogun...and low and behold...his hand went into his forearm!!nuff said.
    - Turian X

    1) Hey, I happen to love the series. I wouldn’t if its merits didn’t outweigh its faults. =)
    2) I don’t know for sure, but I rather doubt it unless it is ported, since the SNES is kinda dead over here.
    3) That’s touched upon elsewhere, so I won’t waste space here. End result is, if Mega Man had wanted to kill Wily, Wily would be dead. Period.
    4) They might be ported to, say, PlayStation; however, I have no definite news at this time.
    5) Forget the preview; I own Superadventure.

Hey Mandi,
    Been bored, I had a look at you Megagrams, and I disagree with a few things.
    1.) When Megamans hand turns into his Megabuster, you couldn’t use a morphing technique. Morphing would use up a LOT of energy because it is actually altering a physical item.
    2.) It is posible that Megamans hand can go into him lower arm to form his Megabuster. This would make the Megabuster as long as him lower arm, which it is when you look at some cut scenes in MM8. The into is a good one where Bass gets his Bass Buster caught in the Elevator cables. It is posible that the hand might go into his lower arm and morph into the parts required for the Megabuster. Using less energy then completly morphing the arm.
    3.) In the MM8 hints area, you have dismissed the Auto fire as useless. I found it a very useful weapon. You can still fire shots when its uncharged. But its even better with the Hyper Charger and the Shooting part.
    4.) In your MMX4 page, you say that Black Zero is only something novell and doesn’t have a purpose. Well, he can now slash longer with his Zero Sabre and can also jump higher..
    - Gidders

    1) The idea is to turn matter into energy; matter stores an amazing amount of energy and energy is more easily reshaped.
    2) Official art shows Mega Man’s cannon as being significantly longer (and wider) than his lower arm (except in the newest art which super-stretches his lower arm so much, it’s bigger than his body); therefore no matter how you cut it, some sort of transformation must take place to result in a larger cannon. What exactly happens is up to you to decide.
    3) Auto-fire special part, or rapid-fire? If you want rapid-fire, use a turbo controller. You don’t have to charge up, and you can disengage it at any time. Anyway, I never said the part was useless. If you like it, use it. =)
    4) That’s what people claim, but I did a comparison and Zero dashed and jumped exactly the same number of pixels whether he was black or red. I did not, however, test the length or power of his beam sabre nor the damage he takes from enemy strikes. Although they appeared to be the same, there could be a slight difference. Keep in mind, however, that X’s change does not become apparent until you get the Ultimate Armor. Since Zero cannot get capsules, it could be that something else triggers the change.

Dear Mandi,
    Great page! I’ve just got a few things I’d like to say. The Robot Master Sheet said that Ice Man’s power was 51 (correct me if I’m wrong), but I’ve found that, in Mega Man (1), he can destroy you with three hits! Are you going to correct this or was that rating from Capcom? Second, on the Mega Man X4 hints page, you said that Zero’s black armor had no noticeable advantages. My freind noticed that with it, you can have infinite Giga Attacks, like the way X gets infinite Nova Strikes with his special armor. We also verified that you can save the armors.
    And finally, a comment on the Rockman and Forte Robot Masters (Dynamo Man, Cold Man, etc....excluding Tengu Man and Astro Man)( this is probably more of a poll for anyone reading this) Do you think we can expect to see them in Mega Man 9 (which knowing the Mega Man series, we know they’ll come out with) along with two other Robot Masters, or were they rejected to be in any other games? (Most of them had stupid names [in my opinion], Pirate Man’s weapon didn’t fit him, and Magic Man just plain looked goofy.) And although Rockman and Forte may have little hope of coming to North America, does Rockman and Forte 2 seem likely? (I wouldn’t doubt it.) Well, what’s everyone think? This is why I disclosed my e-mail address!
    - Paul

    1) Hmm, I must have miscounted when I was fighting Ice Man. I’ll look into it. (No, the ratings are purely my own, so I can change them if I feel like it.)
    2) Infinite Rakuhouhas? Now there’s a possibility. I’ll check into that.
    3) Personally? I figure Mega Man 9 will have totally new robots, since that has been the trend for the other eight games in that series. It has only been spin-off games, such as Game Boy games and odd-ball ones like Rockman & Forte which have re-featured Robot Masters. Also, I don’t know that Capcom will bother with a Rockman & Forte 2; however, they may make a similar game and call it something different.