Tron (arcade game)

Infobox VG|width= 280px
title= Tron


caption= Screenshot of Light Cycles subgame
developer= Bally Midway
publisher=
distributor= Bally Midway
designer=
series=
engine=
version=
released= 1982
genre= Arcade video game
modes= Single player or 2 players alternating
ratings=
platforms= Arcade game, Xbox Live Arcade, TRS-80 Color Computer
media=
requirements=
input= 8-way, 1-button Joystick and rotary dial; Xbox Gamepad
cabinet= Standard upright, mini upright, cocktail
arcade system= Midway MCR-II
cpu= main: Zilog Z80 @ 2.5 MHz
sound: Zilog Z80 @ 2 MHzcite web | last = | first = | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = Tron Arcade | work = | publisher = [http://www.3gcs.com www.3gcs.com] | date = | url = http://www.3gcs.com/tron/games/tron/index.htm | format = Web | doi = | accessdate = 2007-09-15 | quote = Information about technical specifications, cabinets, gameplay, level keywords.]
sound= 2 x AY-3-8910
unamplified stereo
display= Resolution 512 x 480

"Tron" is a coin-operated arcade video game manufactured and distributed by Bally Midway in 1982. It is based on the Walt Disney Productions motion picture "Tron" released in the same year. Events from this science fiction film were the inspirations for four subgames of which the game consists. It features some characters and equipment known from the film, eg the Light Cycles, battle tanks, the Input/Output Tower. The game earned more than the film's initial releasecite web | last = | first = | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = Trivia for TRON | work = | publisher = [http://www.imdb.com www.imdb.com] | date = | url = http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084827/trivia | format = Web | doi = | accessdate = 2007-09-15 ] .

In 1983, Midway released the sequel arcade game "Discs of Tron", which was inspired by the disc throwing combat sequence of the film. Another sequel followed in 2003 with the computer game "Tron 2.0". On January 10, 2008 the game was released for Xbox Live Arcade.

Description

Arcade cabinet

"Tron" was distributed in three types of cabinets: the standard upright, the mini upright, and the cocktail (table) version. The upright cabinet is designed as movie tie-in. It has, as a special feature, two blacklights and fluorescent lines painted on, resembling the blue, red etc. circuit lines from the film "Tron". In a darkened room or arcade the lines glow.

All cabinets feature an 8-way joystick for moving, with one button for firing or speed control, and a rotary dial for controlling the direction of the fire (a setup also used in Kozmik Krooz'r another Midway game). The game can be played by one player or by two alternating players as the controls are made for only one player at a time.

Gameplay

The player in the role of Tron has to beat four subgames, each at 12 increasingly difficult levels. All four segments of one level must be completed before continuing with the next level.

I/O Tower

This segment of the game mimicks Tron's quest to enter the Input/Output tower from the motion picture. In the arcade game, the player must destroy large numbers of Grid Bugs with Tron's disc and clear a path to the flashing circle, which must be entered before a timer runs out to complete the section.

MCP Cone

This area imitates Tron's final battle against the MCP. The game's interpretation has the player destroying a multicolored wall in front of the MCP cone and getting by the wall, into the cone. A 1000 point bonus is awarded for completing the level, and an additional 1000 points is given for destroying all blocks of the wall.

Battle Tanks

The Battle Tanks subgame is not strictly based on film events, but the tanks are taken from there. The player must guide Tron's red tank through a maze and destroy several blue tanks or red recognizers controlled by the computer. This must be done without taking any hits from enemies. If the player drives into the purple diamond in the center of the maze, the tank is warped to a random area of the maze. A bug in the game results in a cheat option. When the player's tank is not touching the white line in the corridors, it can not be hit by the enemy's fire, but it can still be rammed by enemy tanks.

Light Cycles

This game is well known and associated with the "Tron" franchise. The player must guide a blue Light Cycle in an arena, while avoiding the walls and trails (walls of light) created by his/her Light Cycle and that of his/her opponent. The player must maneuver quickly to force opponents to run into walls. The enemy cycles have a fixed behavior pattern for each level and the player can find a pattern which will defeat them every time on this level. The Light Cycle colors from the film are reversed in the game, where the player drives the blue cycle and the enemy the yellow cycle. In the film, the protagonists' cycles are yellow, orange, and red, and the enemies' are blue.

Recognizers

These floating vehicles, colloquially referred to by the public as "stompers" for quite some time (the designation "recognizers" was used very, very sparingly in the film and many viewers might have therefore been unaware of the proper name) take the place of the tanks at higher levels in the tanks game.(In the movie, the Recognizers were the vehicles that attempted to stop the light cycles from escaping the game grid by "stomping" on them, and one of these vehicles was also the type of machine that Flynn "resurrected" with his user powers.)

Recognizers do not fire at the player's tank at all but move a high speed, relentlessly converge on the player's location, and each still require three shots to destroy them.

Level keywords

Each of the 12 difficulty levels has a different keyword. They all relate in some way to computing, and most of them are programming languages. The keywords are, from lowest difficulty to highest: RPG, COBOL, BASIC, FORTRAN, SNOBOL, PL1, PASCAL, ALGOL, ASSEMBLY, OS, JCL, USER.

Development

The lead programmer was Bill Adamscite web | last = | first = | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = About the technology author(s) | work = IBM Multimodal Annotation Tool | publisher = [http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com www.alphaworks.ibm.com] | date = 2002-08-09 | url = http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/multimodalannotation | format = Web | doi = | accessdate = 2007-09-15 ] . The original high score in all of the games was programmed with his initials "BA". He also included his children's initials.Fact|date=April 2007

Reception and criticism

"Tron" was awarded "Coin-Operated Game of the Year" by Electronic Games Magazine.

Legacy

Sequels

* "Discs of Tron" (1983): arcade game which was originally intended as a fifth segment of "Tron" but was left out because programming was not finished in time. In it, the player engages in disc throwing combat, similar to the film sequence.
* "Tron 2.0" (2003): first-person shooter computer game sequel with a new Light Cycle design by Syd Mead who had also designed them for the film.
** "Tron 2.0 Killer App" (2004): a port of "Tron 2.0" as videogame to Xbox and Game Boy Advance with significant changes to the game. The Xbox version features new multiplayer modes. In the Game Boy Advance version there are "Tron" and "Discs of Tron" included.

Other

* Videogame series for Mattel's Intellivision console:
** "" (1982): based on the disc throwing combat in the film "Tron". Has also been released for Atari 2600cite web | last = | first = | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = Tron: Deadly Discs | work = | publisher = [http://www.mobygames.com www.mobygames.com] | date = | url = http://www.mobygames.com/game/tron-deadly-discs/ | format = Web | doi = | accessdate = 2007-09-15] .
** "Tron Maze-a-Tron"
** "Tron Solar Sailer"
* Open-source computer games released under GNU General Public License via download for multiple platforms:
** "Armagetron Advanced": based on the Light Cycle game from the film "Tron".
** "GLtron": based on the Light Cycle game from the film "Tron".
** "KTron": another game based on the Light Cycle game from the film "Tron". KTron is one of the KDE Games distributed as part of the K Desktop Environment (KDE).

In popular culture

* In "Tron 2.0", Jet is playing the coin-op arcade game in the opening video. In emails found later, the player finds out Kevin Flynn had based the arcade game on his experiences inside the Encom mainframe.
* "Kingdom Hearts II", a Playstation 2 game which includes Disney characters, has a Tron-based worldcite web | last = | first = | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = The Cylon Alliance - Tron | work = | publisher = [http://www.cylon.org www.cylon.org] | date = | url = http://www.cylon.org/films/Tron/Tron-games-01.html | format = Web | doi = | accessdate = 2007-09-15] .
* Erik Hermansen, creator of the little known but well-liked puzzle game "DROD" (or "Deadly Rooms of Death") included a tribute to "Tron" in one of the rooms in Level seven, using Serpents as the Light Cycles.
* The Light Cycle game was featured in the cartoon "Family Guy". Peter is shown driving a light cycle, and recognizing the enemy as a friend from high school. His friend then takes a right and cuts Peter off, ending the game.
* In an episode of the stop-motion comedy "Robot Chicken", a teenager goes to buy his first car, and winds up with a light cycle instead. He is shown zipping around town, with various people colliding into the trail he leaves. The teen then winds up performing the classic mistake of spiraling inward, trapping himself in his own wall until he crashes, resetting the trail. Afterwards, a young nerd approaches the same auto dealer and is then seen piloting a Recognizer, only to crash it into a building.
*In the xkcd comic [http://xkcd.com/453/ Upcoming Hurricanes] , author Randall Munroe references both the movie and the video game in his depictions of 'Hurricane Blue' and 'Hurricane Red'.
* Tron references were also made in the cartoon "The Simpsons". Homer is sucked into a world which reminds him of "Twilight Zone". Later on people come to help Homer get out of this world, and is asked "What does it look like?" Homer than asks everyone if they had seen the movie "Tron", where everyone then replies with the anwser No, (With the Exception of "Police Chief Wiggum")

References

External links

*
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* [http://www.csh.rit.edu/~jerry/arcade/tron/ "Tron" - homage site with descriptions of the game]
* [http://www.gameroommagazine.com/index.php?main_page=infopages&pages_id=64 "Coin-op Classic ... Box-office Bomb!" - article covering the development and release of the game]
* [http://tron.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_websites_supporting_the_Tron_community Tron 2.0 - Community Links]
* [http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/t/tronxboxlivearcade/ "Tron"] on Xbox Live Arcade