Shell program

Who says "Asteroids" is not about life and death?

A shell program is a personality altering program that can be installed within a Transformer to change the way they act. A shell program can even compel a Transformer to behave in ways diametrically opposed to what they would do if it were not installed.

Fiction

Beast Wars cartoon

Upon the landing of each stasis pod, the Maximals and Predacons would both rush to the scene in hopes of recruiting the protoform inside to their team. The protoforms were Maximals by default, but the Predacons were able to turn some by implanting shell programs before waking the protoform up. Blackarachnia and Inferno joined the Predacons through this scheme. (Rampage and Quickstrike joined without being reprogrammed.) Rhinox's brief stint as a Predacon was not explicitly explained, but may have also been the result of a shell program. Dark Designs

Eventually, despite her shell program, Blackarachnia decided to side with the Maximals. When hidden code in her shell program began to threaten her life, the Maximals attempted to remove it entirely, a procedure which was very dangerous for her. Rhinox then conducted a strange kind of virtual, videogame-style "search and destroy" mission within Blackarachnia to accomplish this. Sadly, a safeguard that Tarantulas included in the program terminated her before Rhinox could finish the removal. (She was then revived "magically" by the Transmetal driver.) Crossing the Rubicon

Beast Machines cartoon

Megatron utilized the sparks of Silverbolt, Waspinator, and Rhinox to power shell programs giving life to the original three Vehicon generals.

Each of these programs seemed to have personalities the exact opposite of the spark (i.e. Thrust a dark, brooding type as opposed to Waspinator's wimpy personality, Tankor is a dumb brute as opposed to Rhinox's superior intelligence, and Jetstorm is a wise-cracking, cold-blooded, Joker-esque psychopath as opposed to Silverbolt's sincere chivalry). Obsidian and Strika, however, did not appear to be altered in this manner.

Ask Vector Prime

Megazarak was fond of using his Robo-Smasher to implant Predacon shell programs in Autobot combiners. Dominus Trannis and Devastator were among his victims. Ask Vector Prime

See also

• Destructicon chip
• Gene Key
• Neuro-control helmet
• Personality destabilizer device
• Robosmasher
• Transmuter (BW)