Hacker

Hacker

Cyberchase character

photo_camera Gallery

category Species
Cyborg

cake Age
Adult

male Gender
Male

palette Favorite color
Puce

home Home
Northern Frontier

work Occupation
Assistant to Motherboard (formerly)

family_restroom Relatives
Dr. Marbles (creator)
Motherboard (mother)
Digit, Buzz, Delete (creations)
Harmony (niece)

sentiment_satisfied Allies
Buzz
Delete
Gigabyte

sentiment_extremely_dissatisfied Enemies
CyberSquad
Dr. Marbles
Ledge
Motherboard
Zusk

record_voice_over Voice actor
Christopher Lloyd (Cyberchase)
Thom Christopher (demo reel, Cyberchase: Carnival Chaos, Cyberchase: Castleblanca Quest)

skip_previous Debut
Unknown

“That's The Hacker to you.”
―Hacker's catchphrase

Hieronymous "The" Hacker is the main antagonist of Cyberchase, and the creator of Digit, Buzz, Delete, and Gigabyte. Hacker is the archnemesis of Motherboard and the CyberSquad who plans to seize control of Cyberspace. To this end, he has infected Motherboard with a virus.

Christopher Lloyd, Hacker's voice actor, has said that Hacker "could cause a lot of damage", but "he's harmless, really. You just have to figure out a little bit of math… you get the right equation going, and you can nail him every time."

History

Early life

A younger Hacker working for Motherboard, in a flashback from "A Piece of the Action"

Dr. Marbles created Hacker as an equally intelligent assistant for Motherboard, first booting him up on August 15 of an unknown year. Hacker later created Digit to be his assistant, in turn.

Hacker served Motherboard for some time. He claims that his designs and programs helped build Cyberspace. Hacker was initially eager to protect Motherboard and work on inventions for the common good. At one point, he saved Motherboard from a meteor made of magnetite.

However, Motherboard once grounded Hacker for illegal downloading; and, on another occasion, Hacker tried to double his gigabytes to crash a data storage center. These may have been early sources of strife between Hacker and Motherboard. In addition, Hacker feels that Motherboard was taking credit for his work.

By the time he was working alongside Coop on the Transformatron, Hacker insisted on using it to usurp Motherboard and take over Cyberspace. When Coop destroyed the blueprints, Hacker swore revenge. Hacker switched Coop's helmet for one made out of magnetite, which he wore a few days later. Its corrupting effects forced Coop into hiding for Slider and Motherboard's safety and to find a cure for magnetite.

Eventually, Hacker removed Motherboard's Encryptor Chip and locked it in a secret vault. Digit returned the Encryptor Chip, and Motherboard banished Hacker for his hostile actions, with Dr. Marbles draining Hacker's perpetual power supply in the process.

Banishment

Upon his arrival at the Northern Frontier, Hacker was trapped on Mount Wayupthere until the Flying Parallinis rescued him, not knowing who he was until it was too late.

Hacker had brought Digit against his will, having him build the Grim Wreaker. Hacker invented the Recharger Chair to temporarily restore his power, and purchased Build-A-Bot kits on Botopolis that he used to create Buzz and Delete.

However, a later flashback in "Hacker Hugs a Tree" shows Hacker arriving on the Northern Frontier alone and via portal.

Hacker began throwing cybersites into chaos, starting by blacking out Valussa. Digit restored Valussa's power, but Hacker caught and imprisoned him. Digit managed to escape and return to Control Central.

Return

Hacker eventually launched a plan to get revenge on Motherboard. He manipulates Inez, Jackie, and Matt into crashing a computerized library map in the real world, which creates a breach in the system while Motherboard's firewall is down during maintenance. Hacker uses this opening to infect Motherboard's circuits with a computer virus. In the time it takes Dr. Marbles to reload the firewall, Motherboard suffers partial damage. In response, Motherboard forms the CyberSquad from Digit and the Earth children who used the library map.

Hacker frequently engages in schemes to spread evil and chaos throughout Cyberspace. At first, some of these plans center around seizing and destroying the Encryptor Chip to prevent it from curing Motherboard's virus. However, Motherboard calls in the CyberSquad to thwart Hacker's schemes.

Rise to power

When Dr. Marbles finally locates the Encryptor Chip, Hacker kidnaps and imprisons him. He programs a fake Encryptor Chip to compress Motherboard into a ZIP file onboard internal storage, replace her with Hacker's likeness, and block attempted reboots so that restoring Motherboard through a backdoor will destroy the real Encryptor Chip. He then stages an auction for the hacked chip. The CyberSquad saves enough money to take the top bid and insert the chip into Motherboard, allowing Hacker to assume total control of Cyberspace. Hacker is foiled when the CyberSquad locates him, saves the real Encryptor Chip from destruction, and reinstalls Motherboard at the expense of the real chip.

Decline of reputation

In the wake of innumerable defeats, Hacker is publicly viewed as a joke and no longer feared. Among Hacker's current goals is to rescue his evil image.

A fan of Hacker's, Ledge, creates and deploys a Hacker-themed brainwashing machine to impress him. Hacker casts Ledge away when Inez manages to deactivate the machine, prompting Ledge to become a potent rival to Hacker and the CyberSquad alike. This forces Hacker to work with the CyberSquad to thwart Ledge's plans, to his chagrin. He is for the most part, very confident in himself. However, he is always stopped by the kids and he has been outsmarted by other villains such as Wicked, Ledge, and Zusk.

Physical appearance

Hacker is a tall cyborg with green skin, a pointy nose and chin, and an extreme, protruding jawline. His upper body is large and well-developed, but his legs and feet are considered small, especially by comparison. Hacker wears a wig that curls at both ends, which he uses wig gel to style.

Hacker's main outfit consists of a purple cape, tied with a black polygonal bow, over a white shirt with a pocket protector containing three pens (blue, yellow, and red). He wears a purple belt with a round yellow buckle, and black pants and pointed shoes.

Internal anatomy

Hacker's X-ray

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Please add information to improve its coverage and accuracy.

The interior of Hacker's body is shown in "Inside Hacker".

This is later contradicted by an X-ray gag in "Face-Off", which depicts him with a humanoid skeleton.

Personality

Hacker as seen in The Quest

“He wants all the power he can take on, and he wants ultimate control of everything. He wants to have the authority to make anything happen and make people do what he wants to do. He wants it all, and he doesn't give a hoot who he tramples on on the way.”
―Christopher Lloyd

Hacker is manipulative, sadistic, cynical, and has what has been described as a planet-sized ego. He is so conceited that he insists on being called "The Hacker".

Hacker is convinced that he is the "genius of all geniuses" and "the most attractive, sexiest, handsomest man in the world". Christopher Lloyd, Hacker's voice actor, called the character "sort of a monster". Lloyd believes that child viewers "see right through [Hacker]; that this guy is a jerk." MetroFocus host Jack Ford describes Hacker as "delightfully villainous".

Hacker hates order. His skills include scheming and creating chaos. Although he loves and care for his henchmen, he treats them like slaves.

Having a vain self-image, Hacker often admires himself and uses wig gel obsessively. His pet peeves include getting dirty and losing his wig.

Despite his reliance on henchmen, Hacker sees himself as a lone wolf and refuses to let any partner share his power. He hates being bested and is a sore loser. When he fails to get what he wants, he will take matters into his own hands and go to the extremes to achieve it, and sometimes, he'll try to work hard to get at his goal. One instance is seen when he enrolls in wizard school and tries to work hard so that he can become the most powerful wizard in Cyberspace. Another instance was when he used a device (voiced by John Larkin) to lure cyborgs into allowing Hacker to take over Cyberspace.

Throughout the series, Hacker has suffered strong cases of arachnophobia and phasmophobia. His foes have taken advantage of this to thwart his scheme, such as when Digit used an inflatable balloon of Ivanka to frighten Hacker away from EcoHaven.

Relationships

Hacker sees being feared and hated by all as a goal and compliment. His only attempts to forge friendships are in acts of deceit, exploitation, or desperation. Most of those who have associated with him only do so for the work. Even so, Hacker frequently berates his henchmen and occasional teammates.

Motherboard and Dr. Marbles

When Hacker was younger, he liked working alongside his "father", Dr. Marbles, for Motherboard, but after he decided to take over Cyberspace for his benefit, he made himself an enemy of them. Motherboard has a deep, strong dislike for Hacker because of his betrayal, although she also considers him a pet peeve. When Hacker comes to Control Central to falsely ask for forgiveness, Motherboard almost immediately rejects him and makes it clear that he could never be welcomed there. While Motherboard has a strong dislike for Hacker, Dr. Marbles hates Hacker to no end. In a flashback in the episode, "A Day at the Spa", it is revealed that even though Dr. Marbles could have deleted him after his betrayal, he chose instead to drain his power supply and banish him to the Northern Frontier. Because of his loss of power, Hacker has developed a strong hatred for him, likewise. It has come to the point that Hacker has used Marbles for many of his early schemes from the first three seasons. After Hacker took over Cyberspace in season three, Dr. Marbles had to destroy the Encryptor Chip to defeat him, he went into hiding to find an alternative to destroying Hacker's virus. After not being mentioned since Season 4, Hacker finally found him in "Step by Step" and tried to use Marbles' discovery of the Magmulux against him and Motherboard. An interesting point made here is that when Marbles created Hacker, he gave him brainpower equal to his, a decision Marbles had come to regret.

Buzz and Delete

Hacker is a bad boss to Buzz and Delete, usually condescending and quick to anger when they don't carry out his plans perfectly, yelling insults such as "duncebuckets" and "tinwits". He is usually only understanding to them to get them back on his side.

CyberSquad

“[He is constantly being confounded b]y these kids, these kids who have the audacity to allow mathematics and arithmetic to destroy Hacker's world. And, I mean, some people may think that's nice, commendable… but not The Hacker.”
―Christopher Lloyd

Hacker loathes Digit, Inez, Jackie, Matt, and Slider for ruining his plans. He particularly hates Digit for defecting to Motherboard's side. He refers to the Earth children as "Earthbrats", "the goody-goody gang", and "terrestrial termites"; and to Digit as a "tin turkey". He has also teased Inez for her height, taking advantage of her insecurities. However, he can also cover up these feelings effectively when trying to trick them into thinking he's reformed.

Assistants

Hacker's other assistants include Baskerville, Cyclops, Olga, Scratch, Tonga, and Trashinator.

Wicked

Though Hacker and Wicked had romantic interests in each other, they are prone to conflict, and their shared plan to be the sole ruler of Cyberspace drives them apart.

Throughout Seasons 2 and 3, they would often work together to destroy Motherboard. When their plans failed, they would argue, and Wicked would cast a spell on him to change his size or attitude. In season 3, when Wicked jumped at the opportunity to become co-ruler of Cyberspace with Hacker, he initially rejected her, which prompted Wicked to use extreme measures to convince him, a plan that works. After Wicked overdoes Control Central's new look and overspends Hacker's money once she is finally in power, Hacker kicks her out, leaving an angry Wicked to double-cross him by spoiling his plans to the CyberSquad. Most of the episodes involving their relationship after season 3 have been either trying to make Wicked jealous, trying to impress her, or trying to upstage her. Wicked is aware of all of these things and will either take advantage of the situation, or she will let him know that she is not interested and wants nothing to do with him. Whenever she beats him at anything, she will not refrain from bragging.

Harmony

He is shown to deeply care about her, and he doesn’t want her to know he hates the cyber squad, who she likes.

Character bios

"Meet the CyberSquad" bio (2001)

A pompous and power-hungry scoundrel- and don't under any circumstances, mess up his hair! He's primped and primed to take over the cyberworld- and he's not about to let anyone ruin his plan.

Favorite Book: “The Prince,” by Machiavelli

Hobbies: Collecting pens, costumes, caviar and cheating (at anything)

Pet Peeves: Jackie, Matt and Inez. Being called Hacker instead of The Hacker

Favorite Phrases: I often use the pet name “duncebuckets” when referring to my assistants

Favorite Color: Puce

Favorite Music: Elvis Presley (would you like to hear my rendition of 'Hound Dog?')

Favorite Movie: “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” He especially liked the wonderful Judge Doom guy

Trading card bio

Age: He's not telling

Favorite Color: Puce

Favorite Line: "That's THE Hacker to you."

Other Faves: Wig gel, Elvis, The Wicked Witch

Pet Peeves: Those pesky Earth kids, getting dirty, losing

Great At: Creating chaos, scheming

Skwakopedia entry (Cyberchase: The Quest)

The meanest, greenest cyborg in all of Cyberspace. Wants to get rid of Motherboard and be in charge of Cyberspace. Loves to cause chaos and do mean things.

"CyberSquad" bio (2012)

Hacker, a pretentious cyborg, wants to rule cyberspace. Aboard the Grim Wreaker in the Northern Frontier, he schemes new ways to overthrow Motherboard. Buzz and Delete, his two henchbots, work for him. He hates dirt and is afraid of ghosts. Signature line: “That’s THE Hacker to you.”

List of Hacker's inventions

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Please add information to improve its coverage and accuracy.

The following are gadgets that Hacker has made; however, not all of them worked accordingly.

• Digit
• Recharger Chair
• Buzz
• Delete
• Transformatron (designed alongside Coop)
• Gigabyte
• Stormerator: exclusive to Quest 4: Stop the Stormerator, did not complete in time (destroyed by the protagonist)
• Reconfiguratron: used to change anything to cybercode
• Bluebird of Zappiness: Motherboard believed that this could be helped to restore her memory when in reality it could be used to destroy her. She hid it in a secret place and gave hidden clues to where to find them. It was lost and destroyed after desperate fighting between Ledge, Inez and Hacker.
• Program Proliferator (designed alongside Dr. Marbles)

Name origin

A hacker is a computer expert who uses technical knowledge to overcome a problem. In popular culture, this is synonymous with the term "security hacker", someone who uses bugs or exploits to break into computer systems, gain unauthorized access to data, or carry out malicious attacks.

Appearances

• "Lost My Marbles"
• "Castleblanca"
• "R-Fair City"
• "Snow Day To Be Exact"
• "Sensible Flats"
• "Zeus on the Loose"
• "The Poddleville Case"
• "And They Counted Happily Ever After"
• "Clock Like an Egyptian"
• "The Secrets of Symmetria"
• "A Day at the Spa"
• "Of All the Luck"
• "Eureeka"
• "Cool It"
• "Find Those Gleamers!"
• "Codename: Icky'
• "Return to Sensible Flats"
• "Problem Solving in Shangri-La"
• "Send in the Clones"
• "Trading Places"
• "Less Than Zero"
• "Model Behavior"
• "Fortress of Attitude"
• "Size Me Up"
• "A Battle of Equals"
• "Out of Sync"
• "Hugs and Witches"
• "Totally Rad"
• "Harriet Hippo and the Mean Green"
• "True Colors"
• "All the Right Angles"
• "Mother's Day"
• "The Eye of Rom"
• "A Whale of a Tale"
• "Double Trouble"
• "Raising the Bar"
• "The Wedding Scammer"
• "The Guilty Party"
• "A Time to Cook"
• "Trick or Treat"
• "EcoHaven CSE"
• "The Borg of the Ring"
• "A World Without Zero"
• "A Piece of the Action"
• "The Creech Who Would Be Crowned"
• "The Grapes Of Plath"
• "A Perfect Fit"
• "Be Reasonable"
• "The Snelfu Snafu: Part 1"
• "The Snelfu Snafu: Part 2"
• "Shari Spotter and the Cosmic Crumpets"
• "Starlight Night"
• "Balancing Act"
• "The Icky Factor"
• "Penguin Tears"
• "Past Perfect Prediction"
• "Measure for Measure"
• "A Change of Art"
• "The Case of the Missing Memory"
• "A Crinkle in Time"
• "A Broom of One's Own"
• "A Tikiville Turkey Day"
• "The Halloween Howl"
• "A Clean Sweep"
• "Designing Mr. Perfect"
• "EcoHaven Ooze"
• "The Fairy Borg Father"
• "The Flying Parallinis"
• "Crystal Clear"
• "Inside Hacker"
• "On the Line"
• "A Fraction of a Chance"
• "Digit's B-Day Surprise"
• "When Penguins Fly"
• "Unhappily Ever After"
• "Escape from Merlin's Maze"
• "Step by Step"
• "Team Spirit"
• "Jimaya Jam"
• "Chaos as Usual"
• "Spheres of Fears"
• "Gone With the Fog"
• "The Emperor Has Snow Clothes"
• "The X-Factor"
• "Blowin' in the Wind"
• "Father's Day"
• "The Deedle Beast"
• "Spellbound"
• "The Hacker's Challenge"
• "Face-Off"
• "Peace, Love, and Hackerness"
• "Hackerized"
• "The Bluebird of Zappiness"

Gallery

Main article: Hacker/gallery

Lower-quality version from "Who's Who Document"

Show picker image on the PBS Kids Website.

Buzz, Hacker, and Delete (from left to right)

Hacker and Wicked's engagement photo in "The Wedding Scammer"

Hacker after using the Transformatron in "Measure for Measure"

Hacker transformed into a rabbit in "The Fairy Borg Father"

Buzz, Delete, and Hacker in a ship

Valentine's Day Cards (2020 series)

Show picker image on the PBS Kids Video app and website during Halloween.

Show picker image on the PBS Kids Video app and website during winter.

Trivia

Early concept sketches of Hacker

• Hacker may be an example of the Luciferian archetype, wherein a heavenly being striving for the highest seat of heaven is cast down to Earth or the underworld. This could align with Hacker's rebellion against the ruler of Cyberspace and his subsequent banishment to the Northern Frontier.
• Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog fans have also noted various similarities between its main villain, Dr. Robotnik, and Hacker.
• He is older than most of the people he competes against, such as the kids who are 9-12 and ledge who is around 15-18, however they outsmart him multiple times.
• He is hinted to have a romantic interest in Wicked, which is now unrequited.