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Futurama: How Zoidberg Got His Name From a Game

blog.wired.com — Apple II geeks, listen up. Did you know that Futurama creator David X. Cohen named a character after an Apple II video game that he created? Or that he wants your help to get the game, called Zoid, up and running again?

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  • Error601, on 12/19/2007, -0/+62The horror of copy protection.
    • macweirdo42, on 12/19/2007, -2/+42Don't copy that floppy!
    • macaddct1984, on 12/19/2007, -0/+11Speaking of which, the Futurama theme song is actually a remixed version of Pierre Henry, "Psyché Rock" (1967), which Fatboy Slim also remixed. The creators of Futurama apparently wanted to use the original version, but couldn't get the license for it, so they just remixed it.

      Original 1967 song:
      http://www.youtube.com/v/TKz4qVmUz84
      • nallelcm, on 12/19/2007, -0/+7the one they remixed is better
      • gotterdammerung, on 12/19/2007, -1/+1It's also really similar to Jean-Jacques Perrey's 1970 song "E.V.A.," which Fatboy Slim also remixed. Most French psych-rock sounds the same (to me, at least).
      • Syphon8, on 12/20/2007, -0/+1I always thought it was a remix of Louie Louie.
    • randysouth, on 12/20/2007, -0/+1Surrender your mysteries to Zoidberg!
  • unicronband, on 12/19/2007, -0/+124So many memories, so many strange fluids gushing out of patient's bodies...
    • fkr3, on 12/19/2007, -1/+26I bet I've lost more patients than he's even treated!
    • kooft, on 12/19/2007, -0/+18Why always the fighting?
  • rjc5056, on 12/19/2007, -14/+39Best character on the show. Hands down. Big ups, Dr. Z.
    • Mastequila, on 12/19/2007, -4/+28I don't know about that one, Zap is a pretty amazing character as is Bender.
    • hypnotoad32, on 12/19/2007, -3/+74(о)(O) Who's the best character? (Θ)(o)
    • jothaxe, on 12/19/2007, -7/+8I couldn't agree less. Futurama has a few of my favorite cartoon characters (and voices) of all time, (Zap, Professor F., Bender, Fry) and Zoidberg is nothing like them. I would go so far as to say he is the only character on the show I really dont like or find funny.

      To each their own I suppose.
    • smrekar, on 12/19/2007, -1/+31Dr. Blue Zoidberg: So, tell me about yourself.
      Dr. Zoidberg: Well don't look into it, but i'm a respectful internal medicine doctor. Uuh.. a can!
      Dr. Blue Zoidberg: As for me i design mansions, then live in them. [Crying] I'm lying. I'm an apalling failure!
      Dr. Zoidberg: [Crying] Me too! A big fat one.
      Dr. Blue Zoidberg: And those co-workers, always looking down on us Zoidbergs. What are they? From Nobhill?
      Dr. Zoidberg: They're all like "Stop spraying me with ink Zoidberg!" "Put on pants Zoidberg!" "Don't touch our fancy box Zoidberg"!
      Dr. Blue Zoidberg: Uuh that box. Too good for us, is it?
      Dr. Zoidberg: Bah! Some day they'll watch, from down in the gutter they will, as King Zoidberg caresses their fancy box!
      Dr. Blue Zoidberg: You know, maybe a certain blue lobster saw where the Professor hid the box.
    • blackbeardtron, on 12/19/2007, -0/+20WHOOOP WHOOOP WHOOO WHOO WHOOOP *scuttles off*
    • Lanlost, on 12/19/2007, -7/+5Actually, Zoidberg gets my own personal award for most annoying character in a cartoon.. of all time. I really really hate him. It's not a love/hate relationship. He always says something completely random not pertaining to the situation at hand. There is something I hate about him that I've never found in any other character on any other show.
      That being said, the Professor is the greatest character ever...

      ever.
      • MrBone, on 12/19/2007, -0/+1Wow, I think you might be the anti-me!

        I love Zoidberg for the exact reasons you hate him, and I think the professor is the most annoying character ever...... Hope we don't have to be arch enemies or anything ;)
  • kton25, on 12/19/2007, -0/+84He's a great character he is. What's not to like?
    • thcobbs, on 12/19/2007, -20/+2This exact phrase: "whooorb whoorb whooooorb"
      • nuclearpenguins, on 12/20/2007, -0/+1I take it you're not a fan of the Three Stooges then.
  • smurfz, on 12/19/2007, -1/+58Sad that Adult Swim is going to stop showing Futurama sometime in January I do believe =[
    • KaiUno, on 12/19/2007, -2/+42Oh come on, do the show a favor and buy the season sets already. And don't forget to put Bender's Big Score in your basket as well.

      Futurama needs YOU to survive!
      • NJank, on 12/19/2007, -20/+1haha... shows relying on charity to survive. yippee internet culture.
        • KaiUno, on 12/20/2007, -0/+1It's not charity, it's business... And you don't get commercials with the show that way. (Not real ones anyway.)
      • Tenlow, on 12/19/2007, -0/+5I didn't even know it had been released yet. Did they do no promotions at all on the movie?
        • prophetpimp, on 12/19/2007, -2/+9it went straight to DVD unfortunately. If they did the hype the simpsons had it would have beat it hands down. Furturama was way more better then both the family guy and simpsons movie. It actually felt like a movie rather then a glorified 90 minute episode.
      • jasepower, on 12/19/2007, -0/+14Best quote from the article: Oh, and to everyone who loves the show—buy the new DVD Bender’s Big Score already. It’s very funny, and the special features are terrific, and they won’t make any more episodes if you meatbags just swipe it off of Bittorrent.

        Meatbags.
        • diversionmary, on 12/19/2007, -0/+1Negative, bossy meat creature.
      • illegalcortex, on 12/20/2007, -0/+1Actually, I do have all the season sets, as well as the new movie. But it is nice to be on the road and catch it on the hotel TV. Or when you're visiting family and you're bored. I find that I can watch just about any episode an unlimited number of times. Even the ones I was less thrilled with (the superheroes one springs to mind) have grown on me.
    • abandonnship, on 12/19/2007, -5/+2never mind me, someone down there said what I was going to
    • Anth, on 12/19/2007, -0/+29Thats because Comedy Central now has the contract starting Jan 1, so CC should be showing the episodes.
      • mooninite, on 12/19/2007, -1/+20CC will insert more commercials. I don't mind the 15 min. between commercial breaks of AS, but I'm sure CC will stick to the normal network every 5 minutes commercial break mentality. It will be hard to watch.
        • ZombieKiss, on 12/19/2007, -1/+5Plus they'll use it to peddle their horrible original programming like drawn together, sarah silverman show, carlos mencia, etc etc...
        • xOpifex, on 12/19/2007, -4/+1I like Drawn Together, although most other original Comedy Central shows suck.
        • Crosshare, on 12/19/2007, -1/+1It's called a DVR also commonly called a TiVo, google it.
      • iRaachie, on 12/19/2007, -2/+0Seriously? UGH! I'm boycotting Comedy Central for continuing to air "Mind of Mencia" (well...with the exception of South Park and now I guess Futurama..)
        • nuclearpenguins, on 12/20/2007, -0/+1That's some boycott then. Way to stick it to 'em.
      • jake8689, on 12/20/2007, -0/+1but were getting new episodes on CC
  • kilworth, on 12/19/2007, -18/+1"He's still got the original Apple II diskette, but ..."
    Is this how you spell it in English? That's kind of German.. ^^
    • admdrew, on 12/19/2007, -0/+18They were called (and many labeled as) diskettes back then ;)
    • kilworth, on 12/19/2007, -0/+10Funny, over here in Germany when somebody wants to be "cool" and use the English word for a diskette he says floppy ^^
    • incubusnb, on 12/19/2007, -4/+10Disk is short for Diskette, Disc is the bastardization of Disk that's used to refer to CD/DVD formats
      • thebusdriver, on 12/19/2007, -0/+2Theres are the actual floppies hes talking about to. 5 inch ones.
      • aposter, on 12/19/2007, -2/+2No, back in those days a disk was a thing the size of a small washing machine that hald a megabyte or two of data and cost $20k or more. A diskette was a small portable data storage medium that held a few dozen to a few hundred kB of data depending on the model. Diskette would mean small disk.
    • FredFredrickson, on 12/19/2007, -0/+2How else would you spell diskette?
  • motdidr, on 12/19/2007, -13/+2"Sad that Adult Swim is going to stop showing Futurama sometime in January I do believe =["
    Yeah because comedy central now has the rights?
    • MrMacMan, on 12/19/2007, -2/+23Reply button works more effectively.
      (also yes, comedy central owns the right now)
    • dgblackout, on 12/20/2007, -0/+1if it doesn't work for you, torrent it.
  • AlMightyBob90, on 12/19/2007, -6/+59Dugg for Futurama. Now I'm gonna read the article.
  • GoatRoper, on 12/19/2007, -1/+79"Stop! Stop! If you interrupt the mating dance the male will become enraged and maul us with his fearsome gonad!" - Zoidberg
  • samanathon, on 12/19/2007, -3/+86"(Oh, and to everyone who loves the show—buy the new DVD Bender’s Big Score already. It’s very funny, and the special features are terrific, and they won’t make any more episodes if you meatbags just swipe it off of Bittorrent.)"

    More truer word could not have been spoken.
    • KaiUno, on 12/19/2007, -0/+16You've watched the extras, now you're spouting Futurama propaganda. The Hypnotoad's work here is done.
    • NJank, on 12/19/2007, -2/+7and this is what it comes down to. Internet culture at its best. Copyrighted media has to basically panhandle for survival. nice.
      • prophetpimp, on 12/19/2007, -2/+4if it weren't for the huge number of downloads for futurama episodes seen on bit torrent they would not have revived the movie. they knew that there was a big audience for this.
    • Pilot85, on 12/19/2007, -0/+32We here at Digg do not advocate the cool crime of robbery.
    • Fratm, on 12/19/2007, -18/+4Actually, the DVD was a big waste of money, it was no where near as good as the series, and it felt like it was just slapped together for the sake of releasing something.. A Major disappointment.

      -Fratm
      • wattznext, on 12/19/2007, -1/+20Your user name automatically displays above your comment
    • disabled4diggin, on 12/19/2007, -0/+2I was also dissappointed. I usually have a real laugh on avg once every 2-3 minutes with the TV shows, but in the middle part of the dvd I was just getting bored. It seems like they had plenty of story, just not enough laughs to back it up with. I will still love Futurama either way, but this DVD was disappointing.
    • illegalcortex, on 12/20/2007, -0/+1Another vote for disappointment over the movie. I would have bought it even if I'd know ahead of time, though. Gotta support such a great series in hopes of more future goodness. I think it worked much better as a 30 minute show. It really forced them to tighten up the script and keep the jokes coming nonstop. By about halfway through the movie I was just wanting it to end.

      Also, it had the jaggies. I don't know what the deal with that is. This was the DVD, not a download or anything. My original season DVDs look spotless. But I was constantly noticing the jaggies, even on my fuzzy 32" CRT TV.
  • PistolSO, on 12/19/2007, -5/+14Good article..now pass the Slurm(TM)
    • smrekar, on 12/19/2007, -0/+7i didn't have time to read the article, i was watching blurn ball.
      I think people dugg you down because slurm is from a giant worms butt.
      • coyote1284, on 12/19/2007, -0/+2At least it doesn't contain HFCS
      • nreynolds, on 12/19/2007, -0/+2You're watching the game to? It's so intense. For those of you not watching, the score is 2 blurns to 4 blurns. The blurns are loaded and it's the bottom of the blurn. The count is 3 blurns and 2 anti-blurns and the infield blurn rule is in effect.

        "But how many robot managers are there?"
        "eleven?"
        "zero!"
    • Jereso, on 12/19/2007, -1/+6It's Highly Addictive!
    • AC130Spectre, on 12/20/2007, -0/+0I was watching hypnotoad... and still am
  • gordonp, on 12/19/2007, -4/+2Details below.
  • RyanB18, on 12/19/2007, -1/+48Look at me, Dr. Zoidberg, homeowner! Whoop whoop whoop whoop whoop!
    • kooft, on 12/19/2007, -0/+12Best line ever:
      "Aha! Once again the conservative, sangwich heavy portfolio pays off for the hungry investor! *sluuurp* Oh! I'm ruined! Waahaaha... Why?!?! Why?!?!"
      • johnson67th, on 12/19/2007, -0/+8My favorite line is where he buys 8 of the same Cd's and he remarks how much of a crafty consumer he is. Classic
  • steppen79, on 12/19/2007, -2/+107Hooray, people are paying attention to me!- Zoidberg
  • dudefather, on 12/19/2007, -1/+2remember hearing about this in the DVD commentaries (which happen to be hilarious)

    heres hoping for bender's big score R2 Release soon
  • mlvassallo, on 12/19/2007, -5/+6If you are a HUGE nerd like I am and watch the Futurama commentaries on the DVD's he talks about Zoid and the naming of the character Zoidberg in homage to the game. So I've know this little nugget for a while... :/
  • raceit, on 12/19/2007, -1/+8What would the robit do?

  • givinupthefight, on 12/19/2007, -1/+50ALL HAIL ZOIDBERG! THE ONE WITH THE BOX!
    • smrekar, on 12/19/2007, -3/+4posted above, but fits here too
      Dr. Blue Zoidberg: So, tell me about yourself.
      Dr. Zoidberg: Well don't look into it, but i'm a respectful internal medicine doctor. Uuh.. a can!
      Dr. Blue Zoidberg: As for me i design mansions, then live in them. [Crying] I'm lying. I'm an apalling failure!
      Dr. Zoidberg: [Crying] Me too! A big fat one.
      Dr. Blue Zoidberg: And those co-workers, always looking down on us Zoidbergs. What are they? From Nobhill?
      Dr. Zoidberg: They're all like "Stop spraying me with ink Zoidberg!" "Put on pants Zoidberg!" "Don't touch our fancy box Zoidberg"!
      Dr. Blue Zoidberg: Uuh that box. Too good for us, is it?
      Dr. Zoidberg: Bah! Some day they'll watch, from down in the gutter they will, as King Zoidberg caresses their fancy box!
      Dr. Blue Zoidberg: You know, maybe a certain blue lobster saw where the Professor hid the box.

  • anewlevel1024, on 12/19/2007, -1/+7I have a copy of Zoid on 5 1/4 floppies, anyone got a 5 1/4 floppy drive? :)
    • smrekar, on 12/19/2007, -0/+3nope just an 8" here on my old mainframe. Got a downsizing conversion disk?
    • ackack, on 12/19/2007, -0/+4I have a few drives and 2 complete working Apple II's in storage. But it's probably a hopeless cause. About 5 years ago I tried to make images of all my favorite Apple games. Only about 1 disk in 10 could even be read and those that were readable were the 2nd or 3rd disk of a multi-disk game. The first disk of each set was used a lot more and wore out faster.

      Somewhere in a box I've also got a cassette version of the original flight simulator for the Apple II and an 8080 emulator that I used to write code for a SCADA system back in the late 70's/early 80's. The Apple emulator actually worked better than the 8080 system we were using at the time. Accidentally executing certain unimplemented instructions on the 8080 could lock it up and damage the processor, but the emulator just kicked out an error message. We'd find the bug, fix it and restart the emulator. The worst part about it was that there was no way to burn EPROMs directly from the Apple, we'd have to print out the hex code (on an Epson MX-80) and then enter it by hand into the EPROM programmer. Those were the days.
    • diversionmary, on 12/19/2007, -0/+2Yes, I do have a 5.25" drive.
  • amawg9, on 12/19/2007, -1/+15gumbercules? I love that guy!
  • bjs3171, on 12/19/2007, -13/+10i loved Futurama, but the latest movie i think it's Bender's Big Score, about the time traveling, really wasn't that good. Good, well done plot, that was amazingly consistent and lacking in plot holes, but it just really wasn't that funny. i know Futurama was never the show you had gut busting laughs at every 5 minutes, but i barely even chuckled that much. digg me down if you completely disagree.
    • drwatson, on 12/19/2007, -6/+2I digg you up because I completely agree.
    • prophetpimp, on 12/19/2007, -1/+13You know whats funny

      Your wiener
    • neko, on 12/19/2007, -1/+2I'm not digging you up or down - I still think Bender's Big Score was cool, but it does have a different feel to it than the TV series. Basically, I think that with the larger time budget, some of the less funny scenes that would have been dropped for TV weren't. In fact they mention that on one of the commentaries for Anthology of Interest - they were basically trying to cram three full length stories into 22 minutes, so they really had to trim the timings down, and as a result, that episode was incredibly fast-paced and punchy. Which made it awesome.

      The movie length gave them room for a little more padding than they (and we) were used to. That's all. It's still great to have Futurama back!
    • Fratm, on 12/19/2007, -5/+5I agree with you, and like everyone else who agrees with you, I will be dugg down.. Sad.
    • xTRUMANx, on 12/19/2007, -2/+3Usually, I don't digg down people for expressing their opinions, but I totally disagree and you did ask for it.
    • kinseyincanada, on 12/19/2007, -1/+3the movie was brilliant, how can any movie that has a full half hour of hypnotoad be bad?
    • illegalcortex, on 12/20/2007, -0/+1Agreed on the disappointment. I'd really much rather have new 30 minute episodes.
  • techlyc, on 12/19/2007, -1/+25You got fleeced... I would have settled for a hard roll with ketchup inside...
    • Arcesius, on 12/19/2007, -0/+7"The sandwich heavy portfolio pays off for the hungry investor!" *gobble gobble gobble* "Oh, no! I'm ruined!!"
  • Zippo, on 12/19/2007, -3/+26ALL GLORY TO THE HYPNOTOAD
    • Arcesius, on 12/19/2007, -0/+13I have no idea how hypnotoad got brought into this, but... *shrugs shoulders and diggs*
      • sharkd, on 12/19/2007, -0/+6Everybody Loves Hypnotoad! -- It's America's most popular show (but it's gone downhill since season 3).
  • cromulent742, on 12/19/2007, -1/+18"Which one is the one people like to hug?"
    "Gutsy question, you're a shark."
    • Arcesius, on 12/19/2007, -0/+12"Don't you worry about Planet Express, let me worry about blank."
      • cromulent742, on 12/19/2007, -0/+2" My only regret... is that I had... bonitis"
        • bondman007, on 02/13/2008, -0/+0just watched that last night... again. great episode
  • dafragsta, on 12/19/2007, -2/+3Are you a robot?
    • prophetpimp, on 12/19/2007, -1/+9No i am a meat Popsicle.
    • Vorin, on 12/19/2007, -1/+1...or is that some cheesy new year's costume?
      b: Bite my shiny metal ass.
      f: Doesn't look too shiny to me..
      b: Shinier than your, meatbag.
  • themoose, on 12/19/2007, -1/+2In response to the last comment about Bender's Big Score, I would buy it if it was ***** for sale in the UK - not even a release date yet.
  • ZoidX, on 12/19/2007, -1/+0I am not a lobster.
  • Arcesius, on 12/19/2007, -3/+16*asks pleadingly of Kevin Rose* Can we just have a whole Futurama section? and possibly a hypnotoad subsection?...
  • Goobernutz, on 12/19/2007, -8/+3Hey we got this crab/squid/alien guy who needs a name. How about Zoid? No, that's too boring. Zoidski? No, too polish. How about Zoidomatopoeia. Nah, too bookish. Zoidburger? Nope, might get sued by McDonald's. Zoidbucks? Uh uh, same problem. Ok, what about Zoidstein? Too jewey. Zoidfeld. Not jewey enough. I got it! Zoidberg!
    Right then. Now we got this robot and he bends stuff. Just call him Bender, you bender. I'm off to the pub....
  • redrighthand, on 12/19/2007, -0/+1Anybody else see that horrendous ad thing on Wireds page?
    http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q319/dklimke/SP ...
  • Intenseboredom, on 12/19/2007, -0/+3i got the urge to change my middle name to "X"
  • cambob76, on 12/19/2007, -0/+1Isn't there a huge chance that the disk is unusable given its age?
  • rodgerdodger5, on 12/19/2007, -0/+1The disk should still work depending on how it was stored. I have several disks that old and even older that still work. I loaded up a CP/M disk with an original copy of Microsoft Basic (from Microsoft) for the Zenith S-100 computer about a year ago. This computer pre-dated the Apple II and this was a 5 1/4 floppy. MS BASIC loaded right up and was able to get a BASIC prompt. The binder for this has the older MircoSoft Logo and was probably from before the company became quite such a behemoth. It still has the product registration card in the folder and I am thinking of sending it in just to mess with Microsoft.

    • rodgerdodger5, on 12/19/2007, -0/+1Just checked this folder for Microsoft BASIC 80. Copyright Microsoft 1979 Zenith Heath 1981.
    • wattznext, on 12/19/2007, -0/+2Wait, Microsoft Basic is from Microsoft?
  • graemee, on 12/19/2007, -0/+1I remember playing Ziods on the Atari ST. I was think that was the game, until I saw Apple II.
  • arjie, on 12/19/2007, -0/+8Z(oidb)erg Rush?
    • jnosanov, on 12/19/2007, -0/+6Someone needs to make a starcraft mod right now to let us do a zoidberg rush.
  • flangepiece, on 12/19/2007, -0/+6I know this ain't b3ta.com, nor is it Blue Peter, but here's one I made earlier...
    http://brainstuff.co.uk/images/stories/mgv/whoopi. ...

    ps I'm with the Hypnotoad crew. If only for that god-damned excellent noise it makes.
  • MaxMWood, on 12/19/2007, -3/+3BLARGLWARGLELARGLEWARGLEBARGLLEGL!
  • deejqu1k, on 12/19/2007, -1/+3Enough, Enough with the digging already maybe how come.
  • DaMaul, on 12/19/2007, -3/+0Insert Futurama quote here
  • geoff1210, on 12/19/2007, -2/+3"The sandwich heavy portfolio pays off! --eats sandwich-- I'm ruined!"
  • BrokenVisage, on 12/19/2007, -10/+1Good character, overrated show.
  • Jaxtheripper, on 12/19/2007, -1/+1easy there zoidberg, leave some for the enemy to kill.
  • scoottie, on 12/19/2007, -4/+2Screw your useless game and start making new episodes of Futurama
  • WoWBits, on 12/19/2007, -0/+5Help! A guinea pig tricked me!
  • bleakslut, on 12/19/2007, -0/+5And I'm his friend Jesus!
    • illegalcortex, on 12/20/2007, -0/+2I help those who help themselves!
  • darthtofu, on 12/19/2007, -0/+1oh man I used to have Qix on my original gameboy - fun game.
  • Zoidberg, on 12/20/2007, -0/+2Hey, I was napping in the other room. What's this all about?
  • lemur, on 12/20/2007, -0/+1Why doesn't he just rewrite it? The original author must retain some memory of the methods he used to construct the game. Sure, it won't come out exactly the same, but it will probably be improved. Every time I wrote a program more than once, the second iteration was much better designed.
  • sark666, on 12/20/2007, -0/+1Copy protection really erks me and has got in the way of various emulation projects, not to mention it's technically illegal to circumvent any copy protection even for fair use (I assume an exception would be permission from the author though).

    So even though I and many others would love to see this, maybe it's his own damn fault for having implemented copy protection in the first place.
  • OMGLINUXWOAH, on 12/20/2007, -0/+1I love zoidberg. Broke jewish lobster humanoids are awesome.




    and really don't like apple because of the fandom and the shoddy products they make
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