Tron Made for Awesome Arcade Game
Fans of arcades in the early 1980s will remember a game called Tron, based upon the Disney movie, that was awesome to play at the time. Not only did the Tron game have great graphics and awesome gameplay, but it was actually four games in one. What more could a retro nerd ask for?
In 1982, Walt Disney Productions released a movie about video games called Tron. Of course a movie about video games had to have video games about the movie, right?
To that end, over the next couple of years there were a half dozen or so Tron video games released, several for the Atari 2600 or Intellivision home video game systems, but a few for the arcades as well.
The arcade game Tron was the first to reach the arcades, released by Bally Midway in 1982, which would be followed up in 1983 with the arcade masterpiece Discs of Tron.
Tron was a popular game, so much so that Electronic Games magazine awarded it with Coin-Operated Game of the Year.
And why wouldn’t this game be popular? It had fantastic graphics, at least for the time, as well as solid sounds and bright coloring. The gameplay was awesome, some of the best of the time, with unique controls of a joystick with a firing button and a radial dial.
Perhaps best of all, Tron was actually four games in one. Each round, the player got to pick the order in which to play the four mini-games. In one of these sub-games, the onscreen character shot at electronic spiders. In another game, the character played a game somewhat similar to Breakout, here the character having to shoot away colored bars in a tower. In still another mini-game, the player controlled a tank that roamed a maze shooting at enemy tanks. And in the last game, the player drove a light cycle around the screen while leaving behind a wall in hopes of destroying an enemy, computer-controlled light cycle.
It was all great fun. And still is awesome today.
There were four styles of cabinets for the original Tron, with most gamers being familiar with the regular arcade version. There was also a smaller arcade version and a cocktail table version. Most rare, however, was a sit-down version that was something like climbing into a race car.
With the release of the new Tron: Legacy movie, hopefully these older arcade games will get a chance to shine again, because they deserve it.
Video game links
How many Tron video games have there been?
Tron Deadly Discs a great game on Atari 2600
Classic Video Gamers, a blog for old school gamers
It would indeed be nice to see a remake of the old games
Out of all of those Tron mini-games, the most famous by far was the light cycles, at least from what I saw. I had the most fun with it, at least. Personally, I don’t think any continuation of the first movie will quite revive the love for the old, at least not from younger viewers that may not have played the original games, or saw the first movie. From what I’ve seen, they’re bound to release a new game about Tron, if they haven’t already, but it will be nothing like what made the original great.
To it’s credit, I felt the newer movie was actually pretty entertaining, though filled with cliches and unanswerable questions.. For example: Storms foreshadowing a dramatic shift in plot (in the beginning), girl becomes entirely helpless so its up to the hero to save her, certain characters realize their true persona when it is almost too late, etc. Aside from these cliches, the movie was entertaining, and well worth the watch. Let’s just hope that any games that are made from this movie do not entirely destroy the image of the original game series. Good article mate
I would pay $2,000 easily for a tabletop version of the original Tron. Most of those who want this retro game are 40+ in age with the bucks to spend. I think if Bally made something like this, it would sell!
http://www.hammacher.com/Product/11237?promo=search
What do you think?!?
I would buy it in a heartbeat!