Mega Man (video game)

Mega Man, known as Rockman (ロックマン) in Japan, was the first Rockman/Mega Man game made. It was created by Keiji Inafune of Capcom in 1987 and debuted on the Famicom in Japan and the NES in North America and Europe in 1987-89.

North American Instruction Manual
"It's Mega Man versus the powerful leaders and fighting forces of Monsteropolis - that strange multi-faceted land of robot-like Humanoids."

Brilliant scientist Dr. Light conceived the construction of fully-operational human-like experimental robots to perform specific everyday duties. Dr. Light, and his assistant Dr. Wily, encouraged by their very first near-human robot - Mega Man - proceeded to develop six additional Humanoids, all programmed to perform prescribed rituals:

(the six industrial robots are shown)

But, with the exception of Mega Man, all of Dr. Light's near-human robot experimentation went awry. Assistant Dr. Wily turned disloyal, re-programming Dr. Light's Humanoids, now bent on destroying opposition so Dr. Wily could control the world and its resources.

Resisting re-programming, Mega Man is chosen the defender of the universe and its inhabitants. Mega Man dares to single-handedly penetrate seven separate empires of Monsteropolis, eliminating the leaders and followers of these sovereignties."

Note: Several elements in the NES manual were invented by the Capcom of America localization team and are not officially in the series continuity. These things include Dr. Light and Dr. Wily being partners, as well as the city of Monsteropolis, ignoring the Rock and Roll backstory completely, and Wily attempting to reprogram Rock / Mega Man and meeting resistance.

Actual Story
To understand the story of Mega Man, one must look back at the events which occur before the game takes place, and to do so, once can look to sources such as Rockman Perfect Memories which have taken the time to document the information reported by Capcom over the years in regards to the series:

The story of the Mega Man universe begins in the mid-20th century with the birth of Thomas Light and Albert W. Wily. These men would attend the same university, the Robert Institute of Technology, studying the field of electronics and eventually receiving PhDs. Some years later, Dr. Light formed Light Labs, with an ambition to use computer and electronic technology to benefit mankind in the coming era. Dr. Wily, meanwhile, tired of being one step behind Dr. Light, constructed a secret robot factory in the Pacific and began to plot a way to conquer the world.

Light Labs made its first leaps in the field of robotics, creating various robots to benefit mankind. Light realized the potential of his projects. He wanted to create robots that were human-like. He wanted to build robots that contained artificial intelligence within them. Thus, Dr. Light produced the first one of such robots - Proto Man. Proto Man was the base design of the Sniper Joe robots, but was instilled with an artificial intelligence unlike anything the world had ever seen. Yet, Proto possessed a true sense of independence, one that made him much like true human beings. When it came to light that Proto Man had a faulty power generator, Proto Man misunderstood his creator's intentions, thinking that repairing him would take away his individuality. Because of this he ran from the lab. (In the remake Mega Man Powered Up, Proto Man also seems to resent Dr. Light.)

Still, Light did not give up. Later he set to work on building a pair of robots, thinking that two would work together and overcome the independence issue. It was thus that Rock and Roll were born. Rock became the lab's new assistant and Roll became a housekeeper. With the success of this project, the good doctor went on to create six more robots, each for industrial assistance purposes: Cut Man, Guts Man, Ice Man, Bomb Man, Fire Man, and the prized Elec Man. (In Mega Man Powered Up, Oil Man and Time Man were added, although their canonicity is questionable.)

It was for the success of these projects that Dr. Thomas Light received the Nobel Prize for Robot Master Design later, sometime in 200X.

Soon, Dr. Albert W. Wily had finally had enough of living in the shadow of his colleague, Thomas Light. Light's reception of the Nobel Prize, as well as his winning the LIT Manual Design Contest drove him over the edge. Wily realized the potential of robots built with true A.I. - they could be used for other means.

Dr. Wily snuck into Dr. Light's lab, stealing and reprogramming all of the industrial robots. However, unwisely, he missed Rock and his "sister," Roll, as the helper robots did not suit his needs. Dr. Light soon discovered that his former colleague was to blame. With Wily on the loose with an army of intelligent and powerful robots, Dr. Light knew that the world's police forces and armies weren't ready to deal with this new challenge.

It was thus that Rock, the lab assistant, volunteered to be converted into a fighting robot. Rock had a strong sense of justice and couldn't sit by and watch his "father's" work be destroyed before his very eyes. As such, Light reluctantly converted the former lab assistant into a robot of unimaginable potential. Equipped with titanium armor and a plasma cannon, Rock became known as the fighting robot Mega Man and set out for Wily's new fortress to stop Wily from taking over the world.

Epilogue
"MEGAMAN HAS ENDED

THE EVIL DOMINATION

OF DR WILY

AND RESTORED

THE WORLD TO PEACE

HOWEVER, THE NEVER ENDING

BATTLE CONTINUES

UNTIL ALL DESTRUCTIVE FORCES

ARE DEFEATED.

FIGHT, MEGAMAN!

FOR EVERLASTING PEACE!"

Characters

 * Mega Man: The main protagonist.
 * Doctor Thomas Right/Light: A brilliant roboticist that created many robots, including Mega Man and Roll.
 * Doctor Albert W. Wily: The main antagonist of the series, a scientist that wants to conquer the world.
 * Roll: Mega Man's "sister."

Fortress Bosses
 Wily's robot factory: 

Stage 1:
 * Yellow Devil

Stage 2:
 * Cut Man
 * Elec Man
 * Copy Robot

Stage 3:
 * The seven CWU-01P(s)

Final Stage:
 * Bomb Man
 * Fire Man
 * Ice Man
 * Guts Man
 * Wily Machine No. 1 (Two forms)

Weapons

 * Plasma Cannon (P), Mega Man's main weapon.
 * Magnet Beam (M), An item used to create platforms. Found in Elec Man's stage.
 * Rolling Cutter (C), Cut Man's weapon.
 * Super Arm (G), Guts Man's weapon.
 * Ice Slasher (I), Ice Man's weapon.
 * Hyper Bomb (B), Bomb Man's weapon.
 * Fire Storm (F), Fire Man's weapon.
 * Thunder Beam (E), Elec Man's weapon.

The Pause Trick
Mega Man featured two pause buttons, the Start button, which would pause the game and bring up the weapon selection menu, and the Select button, which would pause the movements of everything on screen. However, the Select button would not pause certain timers, namely the timer used for the temporary post-damage invincibility experienced by Mega Man and the bosses. As such, the player could fire a shot at a boss, pause the game when the shot hits the boss, wait about 1-2 seconds, unpause the game, and the boss would take damage again from the same shot (the game can be paused and unpaused again until the boss dies). This trick is notably easier with the Thunder Beam and Rolling Cutter, as shots from those weapons do not disappear after hitting an enemy (the trick IS possible with weapons like the Mega Buster, but the player must have precise timing to pause the game before the shot disappears). This trick allows for the easy defeat of difficult bosses such as the Yellow Devil in a matter of seconds.

To avoid this glitch in others games, it's no longer possible to pause the game with the Select button in Mega Man 2 and later games. This glitch was also fixed in remakes of Mega Man.

Trivia

 * This is the only Mega Man game with a score system.
 * Mega Man almost never existed. The first Rockman game was originally intended to be the official video game of the popular Japanese franchise Astro Boy. Apparently, the owners of "Astro Boy" backed out of the deal with Capcom while the game was still in its early stages of production. Instead of dumping the project, Capcom and Keiji Inafune gave it a completely new flavor and created the Rockman character. The game was a hit on the Nintendo Famicom (The NES's title in Japan) and was imported to America and Europe, re-christened with the title "Mega Man".
 * The American box art was completely different from the actual Mega Man concept. The reason for this was that the Capcom's American game developers thought that the cuteness of the character would not be attractive in the eyes of the U.S.A's public. That was also the reasoning behind changing "Rock" to "Mega" and "Rockman" to "Mega Man" - an attempt to make it sound more "western". However, the designer of the cover was asked to create it with little to no time before the game was released and had never viewed any of the source material or seen the game, thus creating a cover that almost has nothing to do with the game. It is also rated as one of the worst box art covers in video game history.
 * The American box art appears in the game Mega Man ZX Advent as the Secret Disk "Legendary Hero", given as reward for completing a sidequest. Description of the disk: A collection of rare digital photographs of Legendary Heroes that the Hunter Chris wanted. These Legendary Heroes look more like coalminers in colorful outfits.
 * Rock, Roll and Dr. Right go unnamed throughout the whole game; they're only seen at the end. (Rock goes unnamed; NOT Rockman.) The Yellow Devil, the Copy Robot, and the seven CWU-01P(s) are also unnamed in the game, although the Copy Robot can just as well be referred to as Mega Man; it's an exact copy. Dr. Wily is the only part of his name given; there's no "Albert W." The weapons are not given names either. (M stands for Magnet, and P may stand for Plasma or Power.)
 * The names Rock and Roll are a pun, named after the musical genre.
 * Many people believe that Elec Man's stage music was inspired by the song "Faithfully" by Journey, from their classic 1983 album "Frontiers". The songs do sound very similar to each other and are even played in the same key signature, but nobody from Capcom USA or Japan has confirmed this yet. It also sounds extremely similar to R.E.M.'s "All The Right Friends".
 * Switching to the Magnet Beam or Super Arm during the battle with the Copy Robot causes the Copy Robot to run around. It won't attack, and will only jump when the attack button is pressed by the player.
 * Mega Man 1 was the only NES Mega Man game to not have any Robot Masters on the box art. They are on the Famicom cover, however.
 * This is the only Mega Man game in which spikes, Mega Man's eternal weakness, can still kill him if he is flashing in temporary post-damage invincibility. This is also the only game in which buoyancy is unaffected in the water. Mega Man: The Wily Wars fixed both of these issues, although Mega Man Powered Up ignored the latter.
 * This is the only Mega Man game on the NES, which doesn't feature the Wily Castle Map. However, it does feature the Dr. Wily getting into his capsule, blinking his eyebrows, and floating to his castle.
 * This is the only Mega Man game to have hazards in the corridor before the Robot Master.
 * This is the only Mega Man game where the stage doesn't automatically end when the Robot Master disintegrates.