Icons are small symbols that every individual has. They contain a person's PID and allows them to reboot when caught in a Game Cube. A person can change clothes by downloading new outfits into their icon. Everyone has to keep a close eye on their icon; if they lose it and someone finds it they can use the PID on it to control its owner.

The back of an icon is covered with detailed circuitry. This contains the PID, all the information that makes up the individual that owns the icon. This information can be copied and downloaded into portable devices, such as Dot's Organizer, for transfer to databases in places like the Principal Office, to be registered there.

Guardians' icons are gold and black in color. Regular sprites and binomes have white and black icons. Phong's icon is a yin-yang symbol, rather than the diamond symbol.

Viruses do not have icons and are incapable of rebooting, although most viruses do have a symbol to represent themselves. Hexadecimal was given an icon only after Bob begged Phong to register her with the Principal Office so she would be backed up when the system restarted. When Megabyte infected binomes their icons turned green and blue in color. When Hexadecimal left to save the Net, Little Enzo didn't want her to leave. The powerful virus was touched by the young sprite's feelings, and gave him a gift, touching his icon and turning it red and black with a gold outline, like herself.

Game Sprites do not have icons. They have a triangle shaped symbol called a Back-up. The Game Sprite AndrAIa did not want to leave Enzo Matrix and she figured out that if she attached her Back-up onto his icon then she might be able to leave with him. Her plan worked; when the Game Cube left it did not take AndrAIa with it, leaving her in Mainframe. A Game Sprite's icon is very unique, as it links them to the Game they are in.

Mainframe's leaders also discovered that icons can change from a standard icon into a Game Sprite Back-up and back again. If this is done while inside a Cube and the Game leaves, it will take the sprite with it thinking they are a Game Sprite. If they change their icon back when they are loaded into a new Game, once the Game leaves, they will be left in the system the Cube was in.

Hackers and Search Engines have icons, but they are only used for their own reformatting. Their icons are not the traditional diamond shape, each seems to have a unique look. If they are caught in a Game, the Cube will read them as a Game Sprite since they are not System Sprites, and the Game will take Hackers and Search Engines with it, win or lose. Because of this, Hackers and Search Engines avoid Games if they can.

Spectrals also do not have icons, however they do not possess back-ups like Game Sprites have. Because of their inability to reboot, the spectrals reformatted some of their people to be sprites so that they would have icons and could reboot in the Games.

Code Masters do not have icons either. They are very rare, especially on the Net. They have had little experience with Game Cubes, so they do not need to reboot. Code Masters are not linked to systems like sprites and binomes, but unlike Game Sprites and Hackers, they will not be removed from a system when the Game Cube leaves. If a system crashes, a sprite's PID is on file and can be backed-up; if a Code Master sees the system crashing, they will leave the system.

Icon Commands

Special Commands can be given from Icon to Icon.

"Command line. Icon. Download Guardian protocol to version 1.0." Bob giving Enzo a field commission as Guardian Cadet. (Web World Wars)

Reboot: The Guardian Code

Users who enter cyberspace as Guardians have their own Icons, identical in appearance to Bob's Guardian Icon, embedded within their cyber suits. However, the Icon as of yet appears to be purely cosmetic as it cannot be used to reboot inside of a Game Cube. (Mainframe Mayhem)

Gallery

Standard sprite icon

Guardian icon

Icon for Megabyte's virals

Cecil's icon, based on a Macintosh Apple

Jean-Luc's icon

Medical icon

Captain Capacitor's icon

Mr. Mitchell's icon

Phong's yin-yang-inspired icon

References

• The episode Talent Night had a sequence that explained the origin of the icon design. A band called the Primitives consisting of a cube, a sphere and a cone were playing music and to conclude their piece, arranged themselves in a 2-D design, the sphere being the circle, the cube being the diamond in the center and the cone covering half the cube. In computer animation, primitives are the basic shapes of the sphere, cube and cone.
• It was revealed that the Enzo's viral icon had the ability to restore Welman Matrix's ability to talk and interact with his family and friends.