HR-8177

HR-8177 is the stage 4 boss and midboss of Star Wrecker. After being defeated, he follows and help the protagonists in the later stages as well as the extra stage. After the events of Star Wrecker, he received a medal for helping during the Drasilta Incident and later become a new member of Star Wrecker. He comes back as playable character in Star Wrecker 2.

Name
HR-8177 is named after H.R. Giger, who was also a loose influence for HR-8177's character design.

His serial number, 8177, comes from B-8177 (or 8-bitt) which was the character's original name before it was changed to HR-8177.

Design
In all games he appears in, HR is depected with a body composed of an oval-ish mechanical base with his face attached to it. Above this base, there is what appears to be a brain under a dome of glass, with a spine attached to said dome, going from the front the back, where it extends below. HR also have mechanical arms coming from below the base.

While his design remained the same overall, HR's color scheme changed toward a more purple one, replacing the grey from his Star Wrecker design.

HR's body shape makes him look like a UFO. Whether it is intentionnal or simply coincidental has not been confirmed yet.

The spine on HR's design most likely finds it's origin in H.R. Giger's work, whose art practice was molded from an early fascination with “skulls and mummies and things like that”.

Additional Information

 * While HR is often refered to with masculine pronouns, he is actually genderless
 * HR is officially the first boss of the franchise as he first appeared in Star Wrecker Pre-Demo Demo where he is the only boss.