TRON 2.0 News

LDSO Site Has Undergone Major Updates

2012-01-27T20:35:00.002-05:00

The LDSO site has just recently undergone some major updates. The old TRON 2.0 Chat Room has been resurrected. A new download section has been added. The forum software has been upgraded to the latest version. The site's front page has been revised to include, among other things, a new status display showing when the LDSO TRON 2.0: Killer App Mod multiplayer servers are online. (This status display can also now be seen at the top of every page on this site.)

And, finally, a new TRON 2.0 Wiki has been created. The TRON 2.0 Unofficial FAQ will be merged into this wiki over time, and in the process it will be revised: to bring it up to date. Some of the information in the FAQ is outdated.

The wiki is also meant to serve as a resource for mapping and modding tips and tutorials, for those who would still like to attempt creating content for the TRON 2.0 game. If you become a member at the LDSO message forum, you will automatically become a member of the wiki as well. Then, if you choose to, you can participate in contributing to wiki articles.

Simply visit the LDSO site, and check the left-hand side of the front page for links to these new additions. Hope to see you there!

System Reboot 2.0

2012-01-27T12:58:00.003-05:00

Despite the lack of updates, I just wanted to let everyone know that this site is not dead.

Other projects I'm doing (that I feel are more important) are leaving me with almost no time to spare. However, these endeavors are still related to TRON 2.0. Most notably: an updated version of User Error that self-installs and adds widescreen support, and an updated Killer App Mod, are in the pipeline. With the updated UE due shortly. (Yes, really this time.) Some of the other projects I've been working on, will be mentioned in another article that I'm posting today. If you want to see a full list of some of the things I've been up to, you can visit this page.

So, for now, this site is going on somewhat of a hiatus, and again focusing mainly on its original purpose: to act as a support resource for the PC and Mac versions of the game TRON 2.0. However, I will still continue to post articles about other more general TRON related news. Though on a less frequent basis. (I'm sure once the upcoming TRON Uprising animated series hits, I'll have plenty to say about it.)

As I said last time, in a similar article: Thank you again for visiting. I hope to provide TRON, TRON 2.0, and TRON Legacy fandom with continued useful information you may not find anywhere else.

TRON 2.0 Self-Installing Editing Tools

2011-07-08T18:05:00.009-04:00

Download it from here
The TRON 2.0 Editing Tools have always been a pain to install, especially for new users. For a long time, I've been wanting to do something about it. So recently I found some time to put together a program that installs the tools for you.

The program installs the Editing Tools, released Prefabs, and some extras like: additional documentation from other Monolith games (some useful info in them that isn't in the TRON 2.0 tools documentation), video tutorials made by me long ago to get you started, WinREZ LT Studio, XN Resource Editor, and some community-made prefabs.

During the installation, the program will extract game assets from TRON 2.0 that you'll need to do any editing. These assets take up about 2.5 GB on your hard drive, and they take a while to extract. Please be patient during the extraction process and WAIT until it's finished. You'll see several windows open and close during this time. Just let the program do its work without interruption.

You can decide whether you want to install WinREZ LT and XN Resource Editor or not, by either going through with their installation or canceling them at the start as each launches. I recommend you install both. But during the installation of WinREZ, choose a Custom install. When you get to choose the components to be installed, I recommend not picking ResEdit. Use XN Resource Editor instead.

Also, if you're using a 64-bit version of Windows, don't install the WinREZ Shell Extensions. They only work on 32-bit versions of Windows. So generally on XP you are fine, but on Vista and 7 you'll need to check to see if you're using a 64-bit version. If WinREZ wants to install to "C:\Program Files (x86)", then you are using a 64-bit version of Windows. If there's no "(x86)", you are using a 32-bit version.

XN Resource Editor is meant for editing the CRES.DLL file, which is where all the text for the game is kept. After you open the CRES.DLL file in XN, click the plus sign "+" beside "String Table" and then the plus beside each number to see a table of text which you can click on. Then you can either edit existing text, or add a new text line.

If you need assistance with editing TRON 2.0, please visit our message forum on the LDSO site.

November 11th, 2011 UPDATE: The TRON 2.0 Editing Tools has been updated to Version 1.1. The new version adds more documentation from another Monolith game, an extra tool and plugin, and some other minor changes.

Disney And Microsoft Team Up To Produce TRON Legacy Graphic Novel Using New HTML5 Technology

2011-06-03T13:57:00.008-04:00

Today, Disney and Microsoft - together with a team at Vectorform - revealed a newly redesigned site demonstrating what the future of comics and graphic novels will be.

The TRON Legacy Digital Book site features a TRON Legacy interactive comic: with animated, glowing panels that slide, scale, and feature highlights you can click on to reveal intel on characters like Sam Flynn and Rinzler. The site uses the new HTML5 spec and what's known as GPU or hardware acceleration in Internet Exlporer 9 to achieve the level of interactivity, smoothness, and responsiveness you'll experience when visiting the site. Hardware acceleration offloads the work of drawing the screen from your computer's CPU (processor), to the GPU (video card/chip).

The results are highly impressive, and what's even more impressive is that from start to finish the site only took approximately one month to complete. The site was created by first drawing traditional comic panels in Photoshop, then isolating elements so they could be treated with the added effects mentioned earlier. Then the team at Vectorform worked hard to reduce the bandwidth required for all the high resolution imagery, while keeping the quality and performance of the site high.

I was given an opportunity to chat with one of the creative leads at Disney and a senior director on the Internet Explorer team at Microsoft. During this Q&A, I asked who originated the idea of this new project (Disney), and whether the TRON Legacy filmmakers (Steven Lisberger, Joseph Kosinski, and the rest of the team) were involved in the project in any way (the answer was yes). It seems Disney really wanted to push the boundaries of what could be done with an interactive comic, and remain committed to the TRON franchise for the forseeable future.

If you visit the TRON Legacy Digital Book site, you'll need a browser that supports HTML5. All the latest versions of the most popular browsers now support this new standard, including: Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari, and of course IE9. But the site will be best experienced in Internet Explorer 9, which you can download from Microsoft's site.

The site is also promoting a new TRON Legacy interactive book application for the iPad, that you'll want to check out if you own one. The app presents the complete story presented on the web site in the same interactive format.

Below are a couple of videos: the first demonstrating the site in action, and the second going into the technical details of how the site was created. The second video is quite long, about 15 minutes.

The Original TRON and TRON Legacy Arrive On Blu-ray In 2011

2011-04-02T21:23:00.004-04:00

The original TRON is finally arriving on Blu-ray, along with TRON Legacy, on April 5th, 2011.

Yes, I am probably the last person in the world to report this. This has been known across the internet, as far back as January 2011. Sadly, though, I did correctly predict that the original TRON would not show up on Blu-ray in 2009 or 2010. It's been a long wait.

Here are links to the various releases of TRON and TRON Legacy you can purchase on Blu-ray.

The best value is probably the Five Disc set that isn't the Limited Collector's Edition. It includes everything ‒ TRON Legacy in 3-D Bluray, TRON Legacy in 2-D Blu-ray, TRON in Blu-ray, all the extra features ‒ minus the special light-up Light Disc holding case. An unboxing preview from IGN below, has put off a lot of people from buying the expensive Collector's Edition. (Thanks to mikezero on Tron-Sector for the tip.)

TRON Legacy and TRON Evolution: How Did They Do?

2011-04-02T18:15:00.014-04:00

With both TRON Legacy and the original TRON arriving on Blu-ray shortly, I thought I'd take a look back at how both TRON Legacy the film and TRON Evolution the game did.

TRON Legacy was still showing in theaters right up until mid-April, 2011. Though in a very limited number of theaters by this point.

During its 17 weeks in release, it earned a total of $400,062,763 ‒ just managing to pass the $400 million mark. Of that total, $172,062,763 was earned domestically (U.S. and Canada) while $228,000,000 was foreign earnings. These earnings figures are sourced from the site Box Office Mojo.

Previously, I predicted that TRON Legacy would be a box office smash. Whether that actually turned out to be the case, is debatable. With a production budget claimed to be $170 million and a marketing campaign rumored at an additional $100 million, for a total cost of approximately $270 million: earning about $400 million couldn't necessarily be considered a smash hit.

Still . . . it's not a flop, either. Though, to be honest, it's the foreign earnings that saved TRON Legacy from being a box office bomb. Earning roughly $170 million in domestic receipts is a poor showing. American audiences weren't really enthused about TRON Legacy, apparently. While international audiences as a whole were more receptive.

So what did I think of TRON Legacy? It was . . . okay.

Coming from something of a TRON fanatic, calling Legacy "okay" is akin to damning it with faint praise. I saw it in IMAX 3-D, and visually there is no question that it was impressive. (Though I still don't like the costumes for the programs in Legacy. They're uninspired and bland without the detailed circuitry patterns from the original costumes. Interesting then, that the preview for the upcoming TRON Uprising animated series seems to have addressed this complaint by adding back some detail. It can be seen starting at the 0:49 mark. Disney actually listening to the fans' feedback? :o )

Rather than type out a long diatribe about what I thought was wrong with Legacy and how it could have been better, I'll just direct you to watch Spoony's rant on TRON Legacy below. It sums up everything that I thought was wrong with the film, far more eloquently than I ever could. I'm not quite as down on the film as Spoony is, though. I at least liked it and thought it was decent. Just not great. Some of the things he took exception with in the story can be explained away, but on the whole he's telling it like it is.

Be warned, though, that the video is a very long rant at almost an hour long. It's also full of SPOILERS if you haven't seen the movie yet, and NSFW either due to language. Even if you intend to watch the entire thing, you might want to skip to the 4:09 mark because he doesn't really talk about TRON Legacy until then. If you want the "short version" where Spoony gets to the point ‒ and the part that really stood out for me, the part I wholeheartedly agree with ‒ then skip to the 44:18 mark.

For the TL;DR crowd, suffice to say that Legacy's story was its biggest flaw. "So much wasted potential."

So will there be another TRON sequel? A TRON 3, for lack of a better title? Rumors point to yes.

As I predicted would occur, TRON Evolution did not do very well. In fact, it was a massive bomb across all three platforms (PC, 360, PS3) doing even worse than I ever imagined. As a result, the Disney-owned developer of Evolution, Propaganda Games, was shut down this January.

Even Disney Interactive itself is in a state of disarray, thanks in part to the poor sales of Evolution. At least two executives at DI either resigned or were fired in the last year, alone. If you've been following this site for any length of time: then you know exactly what I've thought of Disney Interactive over the years, and all of this comes as absolutely no surprise to me. It's a sinking ship that won't be rescued any time soon.

So how did TRON Evolution do, exactly? It sold 190,755 copies worldwide on all three platforms (PC, 360, PS3), as of January 2011. This information was sourced from the L.A. Times.

Going back to one of my previous articles, which talked about how well the sales of TRON 2.0 did, we again have to look at expectations in today's marketplace.

Already, in 2003, sales of 100,000 (estimated) for TRON 2.0 on one platform (PC) was considered "okay" but disappointing. Fast forward 7-8 years, where expectations have essentially increased tenfold. Today, sales of 1 million are just "okay" and still disappointing. Meanwhile, Evolution didn't even reach one-fifth of that number across three platforms.

Then factor in the undoubtedly much larger development and marketing budgets for Evolution vs. TRON 2.0, and the fact that Evolution had the massive hype machine that is the film TRON Legacy behind it . . . and you begin to see that, by today's standards, Evolution essentially did even worse than TRON 2.0. Disney must be reeling in shock, especially after touting how they hoped Evolution would be a huge hit.

To put this in even better perspective, let's look at the sales of Amnesia: The Dark Descent. (A game I highly recommend, by the way.) It's a title made by an independent developer, PC only (at this time), with virtually no marketing behind it. Yet it sold the same number of copies as Evolution, if not more. (Yes, I realize it took a little longer at four months versus one month. But still!)

Ouch.

As for what I think of Evolution: my opinion of it hasn't really changed since I predicted what it would be like, based on the trailers and other previews. In fact, it turned out exactly the way I expected. Here's a summary of TRON Evolution written by a game critic that I fully agree with, as stated in this article under the "Unfortunate Disappointments" heading.

Tron Evolution: The Videogame was a far different kind of bad. This was a game that was creatively bankrupt when it came to gameplay. Looking at what Disney Interactive Studios put together is a game that is essentially a mod for a Prince of Persia game. You could put a Prince of Persia skin on this game and you would never know the difference. I love Tron, and the entire franchise. I am one of the few that has probably played Tron 2.0 at least a dozen times, and have enjoyed it each time. It was a fantastic journey and it felt like something associated with the Tron universe. This game ended up being an injustice to the Tron franchise and actually takes away from what is there from the prior games and movies.

- Joe Haygood, Aeropause Games

To sum up, in my view: TRON Legacy was at least decent if not exceptional, but TRON Evolution was a major disappointment.

June 3rd, 2011 UPDATE: I've updated the article due to the fact that TRON Legacy was still in theaters until a couple of weeks after this was first posted, and because Box Office Mojo has continued to adjust the earnings figures over the last couple of months. This article now reflects the current figures as of June 3rd.

GameStar Hungary Magazine Giving Away TRON 2.0 For Free

2010-12-15T13:13:00.006-05:00

The December 2010 issue of the Hungarian edition of GameStar magazine is including the full retail version of TRON 2.0, for free.

As can be seen in the image on the right, the top of the issue's front cover has the words ""Teljes Játék: TRON 2.0" which means "Full Game: TRON 2.0".

Also, if you visit the GameStar.hu site, you'll see another phrase saying: "Decemberi Tron-áradat: ajándék teljes játékunk minden idők legjobb Tron-játéka: a Tron 2.0, címlapon pedig a Tron: Evolution!" The Google translation result is: "December Tron-tide gift complete game of all time best-Tron game: Tron 2.0, while the front page of Tron: Evolution!"

Frankly, I'd like to know how GameStar's publisher IDG managed to convince Disney Interactive to let them give the game away for free. To me, this seems like a small miracle. Disney has yet to re-release TRON 2.0 in any form, and seems to pretend that it doesn't even exist. (Sure, it gets mentioned in their press releases now and then, but it's always downplayed and treated as unimportant now that Legacy and Evolution are here.)

Perhaps, then, there's some small hope for TRON 2.0 showing up in the not-too-distant future on a service like GOG.com (Good Old Games).

Preview of Limited Edition TRON Legacy Fandango Gift Cards

2010-12-01T19:31:00.004-05:00

Fandango has sent me some cool preview images of their upcoming Limited Edition TRON Legacy gift cards, that can be used to pay for movie tickets at any theater that accepts them. They'd make great gifts, or even collector's items to TRON fans.

I'd like to thank Fandango for giving me this exclusive first look at their TRON Legacy gift cards. I'll post more information in the future as I receive additional details about them.

TRON Evolution - Some Early Predictions

2010-11-25T23:29:00.019-05:00

If you've been reading this site for any length of time, you've probably noticed that I've said very little about TRON Evolution for the last year. Why is that, you might ask.

Out of fairness to the game, I've been waiting until the last possible moment prior to release, before forming an opinion. I think I've seen enough previews now, to draw an accurate conclusion about the quality of the title. Evolution is scheduled to be released tomorrow (November 26th, 2010) in the UK and possibly most of Europe. (I've found conflicting information as to whether it's just the UK, or a broader European release. So it's not clear at this point.) The North American release date is December 7th, 2010.

Frankly, I don't understand the reasoning behind the staggered release schedule because it's practically inviting people to pirate the game. In fact, the 360 version of Evolution was already pirated a couple of days ago. (So much for piracy only being a PC problem.)

There's also Battle Grids for the Wii, which is a completely different game from Evolution for the PC, Xbox 360, and PS3. And there are also DS and PSP versions, which are again different.

But let's now take a look at a couple of videos that preview Evolution.

After seeing that, you're probably thinking: "OMFG, this game is going to own!" Yeah, of course it looks awesome. It's a pre-rendered animation done by Digital Domain, who did the CGI on TRON Legacy. But it's not actual gameplay, so it's useless as a means to base any kind of informed opinion.

Let's take a look at Giant Bomb's preview instead. It's a whole half-hour of real gameplay. But be warned that the preview spoils a fair bit of the game.

Let's go over certain points in the video.

00:20 - Disney/Propaganda decided to drop the "The Video Game" subtitle from TRON Evolution. Good call. Any game with "The Video Game" as part of its title sounds more than a little tacky.
03:26 - Watch as the employee from Disney Interactive tries to do the parkour moves in order to progress through the level. Is that supposed to be fun? Having to make jumps with fairly precise aim and timing, and then having to do them again and again when you don't manage, doesn't look all that fun to me. A lot of players grumbled about the jumping puzzles in TRON 2.0. Now they've taken the worst part of the previous game, and made that the main gameplay mechanic throughout the entire Single Player campaign.
3:43 - The game's director, Darren Hedges, reveals that there are around 9 levels in the game. (They're on Level 6 and he says they're roughly "two-thirds" of the way through.) Much later at the 17:54 mark, he mentions that total Single Player gameplay length is about 8 hours. This game is short.
5:57 - Hedges makes a point about the player having all sorts of choice in Evolution, and then explains how in a particular area you can either jump up and hit a switch or stay below to hit the switch. That's meant as a good example of choice? Whether to hit a switch from above or below? Sorry, but the level progression still looks very linear to me.
7:01 - Here we can see the other main game mechanic. Brawl style combat, from a third-person perspective. I prefer first-person, but could live with third-person if the gameplay makes up for it. Unfortunately, this brawling combat looks repetitive and boring. The AI seem like pushovers. Just mash the buttons, and beat the crap out of your opponents without having to think too much. The disc is auto-aim, so you have no fine control over it like you did in TRON 2.0. So not much skill or finesse required for disc combat. Also note the text hints on-screen. I hope there's an option to turn this hand-holding measure off.
9:14 - Hedges mentions persistent player progression, where the player can take his or her skill level and abilities from the Single Player game into Multiplayer, and vice-versa. While this sounds cool in theory, I have to wonder how well it will work in practice. The game had better do player matchmaking based on the players' levels, or else matches in Multiplayer will not be very fun.
15:30 - Here again, the Disney Interactive employee demoing the game falls to his death more than once. Jumping puzzles still aren't fun.
19:00 - Hedges mentions that the energy strips on the walls are supposed to keep you constantly moving and progressing rather than "just, basically, walking into a room, plowing your way through - you know - a bunch of bad dudes, and then going to the next room and just repeating it ad infinitum". Well, how does this "high mobility system" prevent that? What a load of bafflegab. It doesn't change anything.
22:33 - Hedges mentions how the PS3 version supports 3-D. What he neglects to mention is that the PC version also supports 3-D. But, honestly, how many people will have the 3-D TV or monitor and glasses, to take advantage of it? It's not a huge selling point at this time. It's really more of a marketing gimmick, than anything.
23:07 - Here, Single Player Light Cycle gameplay is demoed. And, again it looks boring. It's entirely an on-rails experience. You're only allowed to go down a guided track, while explosions go off around you and structures collapse. So all you do is just dodge things, with the occasional opponent Light Cycle showing up. If that's all there is to riding Light Cycles, then it's not really impressive.
25:08 - The DI employee mentions that 90 degree turns have been implemented for Light Cycles in Multiplayer. This was not originally the plan, and only because of fan protests did Propaganda add it at the last-minute. Kind of astonishing to believe they hadn't made it a priority earlier. Then they go on to gripe about how it was difficult to make it work with the physics middleware they're using, which is why they didn't do it sooner. They make it sound so difficult when it really isn't.
27:01 - Now we're shown the Light Tank. While this game mechanic is simplistic as well, at least it will give players an immense sense of satisfaction when they go around blowing away enemies. This is one of the few parts demoed that actually looks like it could be fun.

Finally, at the end of the preview at the 30:32 mark, Hedges is asked if he looked at what came before, when designing Evolution. He mentions TRON 2.0, shareware TRON games, and reading up on what fandom said they wanted.

Indeed, TRON Evolution looks like a game that made a shopping list of must-have features. Those features read pretty closely to a wish list I compiled years ago. But unfortunately, along with implementing what fans wished for: Propaganda also went shopping for what they thought were "cool" features in other current games and ripped them off, in an effort to be trendy and to create what they desperately hope is the recipe for a very successful game.

TRON is not Prince of Persia. TRON is not Mirror's Edge. TRON is not Assassin's Creed. TRON is not Spiderman: Shattered Dimensions. TRON is not Enter the Matrix.

TRON is TRON. Instead of focusing alone on the strengths of what makes TRON unique (Light Cycles, Recognizers, Tanks, pure Disc Combat), they crammed in all these other gameplay elements that fit uneasily into the TRON universe and instead seem forced.

I think Spoony summed up best in his video preview a lot of people's reactions (and certainly mine) when he essentially said: "Parkour? In TRON? No. Just . . . no." This isn't the first time Propaganda has blatantly ripped off other sources, as Yahtzee explains (video is NSFW). The developers try to justify these "borrowed" gameplay elements at the end of this article, but it sounds like they're really reaching when they come up with reasons as justification.

TRON Evolution doesn't look like it will be the kind of game that I'll enjoy much. It's all about being cool and edgy, with lots of sprawling combat and not much else. It has none of the charm or sense of wonder that TRON 2.0 had. The only positive things I can say are that the environments (graphics) look very good, the Light Tank sections look like they could be fun, and Multiplayer seems as if it could be promising. That's about it.

And I think a lot of fans will agree. Particularly those who like old-school TRON. Disney, naturally, is saying and hoping that Evolution will be a huge hit. Of course they would say that, what else would they say? But I'm going out on a limb to predict that Evolution won't be a great success.

Sure, it will probably sell decently. At least one million copies. Which seems to be the minimum required not to be a complete "failure" in today's market. It gets to ride on the coattails of TRON Legacy and has the massive marketing hype machine of the film behind it, after all. Something that TRON 2.0 didn't have, and it went under most people's radars unappreciated as a result.

Disney's Interactive division had some more management shake-ups and has been seeing losses for a long time. TRON Evolution won't change that. It won't be a big hit.

Meanwhile, the film itself - TRON Legacy - should be a box office smash.

November 26th, 2010 UPDATE: Disney Interactive has delayed the PC release of TRON Evolution in the UK until an unspecified date in December. (Scroll to the bottom of this article for the news.) I imagine it will be December 7th, the same date as the release in North America. Unless Disney pulls the same stunt here too, and delays it again. How did I know they would pull this crap? Thanks to fellow LDSO member Win3K for the news.

No Blu-ray TRON Release In 2010, Either

2010-11-25T22:29:00.003-05:00

Early last year, I predicted correctly that the Blu-ray remaster of TRON would not be released in 2009. And I think it's safe to say, that it won't be coming out in 2010, either.

The Blu-ray edition of TRON was originally supposed to appear either shortly before, or at, the release of TRON Legacy in theaters. But once we reached late October/early November with still no word of a Blu-ray release, Disney's silence on the matter was speaking volumes.

The reason for the change in plan, is apparently due to a screening of the film during the summer at Disneyland that Disney executives attended, as detailed over at Blue Sky Disney. The audience reaction was negative. People laughed at the film and thought it looked extremely dated.

I don't know that I agree with Disney's decision to hold back the Blu-ray release until 2011, particularly if they based their decision on a single screening. One negative reaction isn't really enough of a sample to be accurately representative of audiences as a whole. It comes across as a bit of a knee-jerk response.

But we will see the Blu-ray release eventually, which is all I guess really matters. It will now be released at the same time as TRON Legacy is released on Blu-ray. Steven Lisberger, director of the original TRON, has done work on the remaster and comments on it toward the middle of the following video from Collider.com.

TRON 2.0: Killer App Mod Help And Troubleshooting Guide

2010-11-20T07:56:00.025-05:00

I've been seeing a lot of people doing Google searches, trying to find help when they have problems with the Killer App Mod. (You would think they'd read the ModDB site page or the documentation that comes with the mod, that already has troubleshooting advice in it. Or try to contact the creators when they have difficulties. But I guess people are impatient.)

Anyway, rather than have troubleshooting advice scattered through various sites, I'm going to collect all the advice together into one concise article.

This article is a work in progress, and will be edited from time to time to update and/or improve the information contained within it.

LAST UPDATED June 22nd, 2011

Q: When I try to install the mod, I get a "TRON 2.0 has not been run before, you must run TRON 2.0 at least once" error. What's going on?

A: On Vista and Windows 7, User Account Control (UAC) is turned on and the user does not have Administrator account privileges by default, unlike XP. TRON 2.0 requires Administrator privileges to work 100% correctly. If the game is not run in Administrator mode, it will not create files that the mod needs for installation.

To remedy this situation, watch this video which shows how to run TRON 2.0 in Administrator mode and how to install the mod correctly. For Windows XP, all the installation steps are exactly the same as Vista/7, except you should not need to set the game to run with admin privileges.

When you are asked to "run the game once", this does not mean you need to play the game for any length of time. Just start the game, and then immediately quit again from the main menu.

The mod should work on all versions of Windows: 98/Me/2000/XP/Vista/7. It was certainly tested on XP/Vista/7.

Q: When I use the mod, widescreen doesn't work. How can I fix this?

A: First, before installing the mod, make sure you are correctly identifying the aspect ratio and resolution your monitor is capable of.

Popular aspect ratios and resolutions:

4:3 (640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x960, 1600x1200)
5:4 (1280x1024)
16:9 (1280x720 aka 720p, 1360x768, 1920x1080 aka 1080p)
16:10 (1200x800, 1440x900, 1680x1050, 1920x1200, 2560x1600)

Once you've determined your aspect ratio and desktop resolution, select them during the installation of the mod when it asks for this information.

After the mod has been installed and you run the game: if from the TRON 2.0 main menu you go to Options > Display, the game will reset the resolution back down to 640x480. You will not be able to select any resolution that isn't in 4:3 aspect ratio, because the game does not allow you to choose them.

If this happens, quit the game and simply run the Killer App Mod manager program (Start > All Programs > TRON 2.0 Killer App Mod > TRON 2.0 Killer App Mod Manager). The Mod Manager will reset the resolution back to what you chose during the installation of the mod. It edits the display.cfg file in your TRON 2.0 folder, where the resolution of the game is set.

If the game is still not correctly displaying in widescreen, you might need to alter your GPU Scaling settings in the Nvidia Forceware or AMD/ATI Catalyst control panel.

Here are links to guides on how to change your GPU Scaling settings:

Turning on Nvidia GPU scaling (change setting to Use NVIDIA scaling with fixed-aspect ratio)
Turning on AMD/ATI GPU scaling (change setting to Maintain aspect ratio)

In both cases, the selection you need to choose may be blanked out. To fix this, temporarily lower your desktop resolution at least one setting below your current one. Then when you go back to the control panel, the option should be selectable. After making the change, return to your original desktop resolution. The setting might not appear to stick, but it should still be working. This is a flaw in both Nvidia's and AMD/ATI's drivers.

It's also possible that your monitor has an aspect ratio setting. This feature is sometimes called 1:1 pixel mapping. If your video card is set to use GPU scaling, this monitor feature should be turned off. Or, if your video card isn't using GPU scaling, then you will probably want to turn this feature on. But don't have both on at the same time.

If none of the above has helped, be aware that recent Nvidia drivers have had problems with correctly displaying games without "black bars" even when the Use NVIDIA scaling with fixed-aspect ratio setting is used. Read this message topic to learn more details.

Q: After installing the game, when I run it: it either crashes or I can hear music but I'm getting a blank or black screen. What can I do to fix this?

A: Locate your TRON 2.0 folder in the Windows Explorer and go inside it. If you installed the game to the default location, it will be at:

C:\Program Files\Buena Vista Interactive\Tron 2.0
(Windows XP, Vista or 7 32-bit)

   OR

C:\Program Files (x86)\Buena Vista Interactive\Tron 2.0
(Vista or 7 64-bit)

In your TRON 2.0 folder, highlight Lithtech.exe, and click the right mouse button. Click Properties, choose the Compatibility tab, and select Windows 98 or XP compatibility. A few people have reported that this helps.

Another thing to try, is hitting the Esc key a few times. Sometimes the game will get "stuck" when displaying the introductory videos and hitting Esc will skip them. This might take you to the main menu. If you click the Options button in the TRON 2.0 game launcher, there is a setting called Disable Movies that allows you to turn off the introductory videos.

Before installing the Killer App Mod, you should install the Unofficial v1.042 Patch rather than the Official one. The Official Patch still uses copy protection that does a disc check, which doesn't work so well for some people on newer versions of Windows like Vista and 7. Note that the Killer App Mod adds Français/Deutsch/Italiano/Español language support to the Unofficial Patch.

DO NOT patch the game or use any kind of No-CD crack AFTER the Killer App Mod is installed. This will prevent the game from running at all. A No-CD crack is not necessary, because the Unofficial Patch recommended during the mod installation eliminates the disc check.

If none of the above works, visit this message topic. Download the file mentioned and run the registry script. But only do this as a last resort if the other suggestion didn't help. It forces TRON 2.0 to reset all its settings, and you will lose your preferences that you set in the game.

Q: I can't get the Killer App Mod to install at all. The installer crashes during installation. What can I do?

A: Try installing the mod in Windows Safe Mode. Restart the computer, and before the Windows bootup logo appears, hit the F8 key on the keyboard. This will bring up a menu. Choose Safe Mode. When you reach the desktop, run the installer again.

If the installer complains that a previous version of the mod is installed, you'll need to delete a folder on your hard drive. If TRON 2.0 was installed to the default location, it will be at:

C:\Program Files\Buena Vista Interactive\Tron 2.0\Custom\Mods\Retail
(Windows XP, Vista or 7 32-bit)

   OR

C:\Program Files (x86)\Buena Vista Interactive\Tron 2.0\Custom\Mods\Retail
(Vista or 7 64-bit)

Delete the Retail folder. The installer should now allow you to continue.

Note that the installer will require approximately 2.5GB of hard drive space in order to install the mod. (1.5GB for installed files, and 1GB temporary space during installation.)

Q: When I try to install the mod, I get a file copying error. Why is this happening?

A: Extract the folder from the .zip archive with ALL THE FILES inside it, not just the setup executable. The installer copies the documentation in the extracted folder to the mod's installation directory.

If you've extracted the folder with all its contents and are still getting a copying error, then the download may not have completed properly and the .zip is corrupt. Download the .zip again.

Q: When I try to install the mod, my anti-virus quarantines or deletes some or all of the Killer App Mod installer files. (This may also happen silently, without the anti-virus notifying you.) Should I be worried?

A: No, the Killer App Mod installer absolutely does not contain any kind of virus. Your anti-virus program is giving you what's known as a false positive. Some anti-viruses are overzealous and incorrectly identify the compression used on the installer, or its patching activities, as suspicious.

Here are links to two online virus scan sites, to which the Killer App Mod installer runtime was submitted for scanning. Both sites reported the setup program as being clean.

Setup - Virustotal result
Setup - Jotti's malware scan result

Q: I noticed that while the gameplay, menus, etc. are working properly in widescreen, the cutscenes are not. What's wrong?

A: See the previous answer. Your anti-virus may have quarantined or deleted the part of the installer responsible for patching the game, so that the cutscenes would display correctly. You will probably need to uninstall the mod and then reinstall it again. When you reinstall, temporarily disable your anti-virus.

If you are concerned about disabling your anti-virus, look at the links in the previous answer to online virus scans. They reported the mod installer runtime as being clean.

Q: The game used to work with the mod installed, but now it keeps crashing. Why has it suddenly stopped working?

A: Unfortunately, a bug has been discovered in the Mod Manager. When it edits the game's configuration files, it sometimes removes a space or newline by mistake. Entries in the config files then get mashed together, and the game doesn't do error checking so it just crashes with either Error copying file cres.dll or a Client MFC error.

If you see the message Error copying file cres.dll then just use the TRON 2.0 game launcher to run the game instead. This will solve the problem.

If you get a Client MFC error, look for the following files in the Windows Explorer if you installed the game to the default location:

C:\Program Files\Buena Vista Interactive\Tron 2.0\Profiles\ProfileName.txt
C:\Program Files\Buena Vista Interactive\Tron 2.0\Profiles\_ProfileName.txt
(Windows XP, Vista or 7 32-bit)

   OR

C:\Program Files (x86)\Buena Vista Interactive\Tron 2.0\Profiles\ProfileName.txt
C:\Program Files (x86)\Buena Vista Interactive\Tron 2.0\Profiles\_ProfileName.txt
(Vista or 7 64-bit)

Where ProfileName is the name of the current player profile you are using in the game. The defaults will be Player.txt and _Player.txt.

Load both files into a text editor, and look for the following entries in both the ProfileName.txt and _ProfileName.txt files:

PlayerModel = xxPlayerName = "PlayerName"

Change them to this, and save the changes in both files:

PlayerModel = xx
PlayerName = "PlayerName"

By separating the entries on to different lines, the game will no longer crash. The xx represents a number you will see in the files, and PlayerName represents the player name that you have chosen for yourself.

This issue with the Mod Manager will be fixed in the next version of the Killer App Mod.

Q: When I try to load my saved games with the mod active, the game crashes. What's happening?

A: The Killer App Mod updates and patches the game enough, so that older saved game files won't work any more. You need to start over with a new game. The mod fixes some problems with the Single Player missions and adds some minor enhancements, so you will probably want to start over anyway to enjoy the improved experience.

Q: In the Single Player Light Cycle section of the game, I can't access all of the Light Cycle colors. The original colors are locked, and it seems as though the new colors added by the mod are locked as well. How can I access them?

A: By default, the mod locks the original Light Cycle colors and provides new Light Cycle colors that are unlocked. When you go to choose your color, it might seem as if all the colors are locked. But if you click the left arrow to loop to the end of the color selections, you'll see that there are actually colors that are selectable. They just aren't at the start of the list.

If all the colors are actually locked, then something has gone wrong. Try running the Killer App Mod manager and make sure that the program shows New Light Cycles Unlocked. If not, place an X in the box beside it.

If you change your Player Profile name after the mod is installed, it will cause the Light Cycles to become locked again and you will get the error message The player profile PlayerName.txt could not be found. Where PlayerName is the name of your current profile. If you want to change your profile name, do it before installing the mod. If you change your profile back to the default Player, the error message will stop appearing and the Light Cycles will be unlocked again.

Note that this does not affect Multiplayer. All Light Cycle colors, both original and new, are always available there.

Q: I'm getting all sorts of graphical glitches, such as transparent or missing items (like the Light Cycle floor grid) or corrupted geometry. Is the mod causing this?

A: No.

On AMD/ATI cards, an anti-aliasing setting can cause geometry to become transparent when it shouldn't be, or even disappear altogether. While with Nvidia cards, recent Forceware drivers are not always working well with TRON 2.0. The graphic anomalies on Nvidia cards are confirmed both by myself, and independently verified by Stevedroid in this topic, to happen whether or not the Killer App Mod is installed and active.

If you own an AMD/ATI card
Change the Anti-Aliasing type from Adaptive to one of the others in the Catalyst control panel. This will cure transparent or missing geometry.

If you own an Nvidia card
There is currently nothing you can do to prevent the graphic anomalies except hit Alt-Tab to leave the game and then hit Alt-Tab again to come back. This resets the game's renderer and should clear up the glitches.

Changing the Power management mode (under Manage 3D settings) in the Nvidia control panel to Prefer maximum performance, seems to help a little to improve loading times and slightly decrease the occurrence of glitches.

Also, be sure that your graphics card is not overheating. Download and install a utility like MSI Afterburner to check your video card's temperature. On average, a video card should not go above 80° degrees Celsius, though some cards can go as high as 100° degrees while continuing to operate normally. Check around to see what temperature is normal for your video card while operating under full load playing games.

Q: I'm getting some other strange glitches. For example, on the Primary Docking Port level, an E-mail Archive Bin or I/O Node is far above or below where I can reach it. Or in the later fCon themed levels, particularly Command Module, the game sometimes crashes. Is the mod causing this?

A: Once again, the answer is no. These also happen without the mod, and are game bugs that were not fixed in the last v1.042 patch for TRON 2.0.

The problem with an E-mail Archive Bin or I/O Node being too high or low occurs quite rarely. If it does, loading the Autosave for the current level or an earlier save from the previous level, and playing through the game again until you reach the same point should eliminate it.

As for the crashing on later fCon themed levels, it seems to happen most often when fighting DataWraiths. There is really nothing you can do about it, except save often and reload after the game crashes, so you can try to get past the crashes and finish the game.

Q: I'm stuck on the third level (Program Integration). I used the Gold cheat, and Byte is now asking me to optimize a subroutine. I can't continue without optimizing, but it seems that all the subroutines are gold. What do I do now?

A: Even if you used the Gold cheat, one subroutine was deliberately left in Beta form. Precisely to prevent you from getting stuck at this point. Look for the Prankster Bit subroutine in the top subroutine library. This subroutine can be optimized and will allow you to continue.

Q: With the mod installed and active, I'm not able to connect to any servers in Multiplayer. Why is that happening?

A: Everyone must be using the mod in order to play together online. Even the server hosting the game must have the mod enabled.

If you have the mod but someone else does not, you will not be able to play against that person until you disable the mod or they download, install, and enable the mod.

LDSO does run Killer App Mod servers, but only on weekends. Every Friday evening to Sunday evening.

If there are no servers running the mod at the time you want to play: you will need to contact server operators and request that they start using the Killer App Mod, or host your own server. When setting up a server using the mod, you should add a KAMod tag to the name of your server so that players can differentiate between those either using or not using the mod.

Here is some contact info for a couple of the TRON 2.0 Server operators:

EN12-82.net
Tron-20.net

Vote In The 2010 ModDB Mod Of The Year Awards

2010-11-15T06:11:00.003-05:00

The ModDB Mod of the Year awards are back again. If you're a member at ModDB, then vote for the Killer App Mod and User Error mods for the PC game TRON 2.0 if you liked them. Or even if you're not a member, vote anyway! We appreciate everyone's feedback on both mods so far. :)

Scroll down until you see the horizontal voting bar, and click the green button, on these pages:

http://www.moddb.com/mods/killer-app

http://www.moddb.com/mods/user-error

Just as a FYI: the long awaited update for User Error to add proper widescreen support is due soon. It should be done and released before the TRON Evolution game and TRON Legacy sequel are out.

TRON 2.0 On Mac OSX Leopard Now Possible

2010-10-14T14:37:00.005-04:00

I've recently discovered that TRON 2.0 can now be played on Mac OSX Leopard (10.5) and Snow Leopard (10.6). I'm not sure when this first became possible, but I believe it's only happened within the last four months. (I could be wrong.)

However, there are certain conditions that must be met:

You must own a Mac with an Intel processor, not a PowerPC processor.

You must own the Windows PC version of TRON 2.0, not the PowerPC version by MacPlay.

If you own an Intel Mac and manage to grab a copy of the Windows PC version of TRON 2.0, then you will be able to play the game in Leopard/Snow Leopard by using an emulator (also known as a "wrapper") called CXZ, rather than needing to use Windows with Boot Camp like before. This wrapper uses WINE as its basis, but it has been specifically redone and tailored to work well on OSX. The wrapper translates the Windows API calls from the PC version of the game to their Mac OSX equivalents.

Below is a video showing TRON 2.0 running with CiderX on Snow Leopard. You could argue that CiderX is another code "fork" of CXZ, though that's oversimplifying things. I won't discuss CiderX any further, its legality is dubious since it relies on you obtaining Transgaming's Cider, which is a commercial product. While CXZ is free and open source. I just wanted to show an example of the game actually running on Leopard.

The video author states that the problems with the sound were the result of recording it to make the video, and that it actually works perfectly on CiderX. My understanding is that TRON 2.0 also works well on CXZ.

Being able to run the Windows PC version of the game, opens all sorts of possibilities in terms of mod content for the Mac. It might actually be possible to use the Killer App Mod, User Error, and the Complete Map Pack.

Unfortunately, I don't own a Mac so I can't try this out for myself and I can't give advice to anyone on how to get TRON 2.0 working with CXZ. However, there's a section on the Porting Team forum where you can get some instructions and help if you join their site.

If anyone manages to get TRON 2.0 running on Leopard - specifically if they're able to get any of the maps and mods working - please let me know so I can share it with the rest of the community. Thanks!

LDSO Now On Facebook And Twitter

2010-10-14T14:04:00.003-04:00

For those of you who don't know it: LDSO is a TRON gaming clan dedicated to the further development of the TRON 2.0 (and the much anticipated TRON Evolution) PC games, including the creation of maps, mods, expansion packs, and tools.

I'm a member (TronFAQ) of LDSO, and the rest of our team consists of members Xistence, Mor.Evil-1, Load"*",8,1, Win3K, and Zook_One.

Our web site address is: http://www.ldso.net/

Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/LDSO/153033314732559

Twitter page: http://twitter.com/_LDSO_

If you're already a member on Facebook or Twitter, come check out our pages and share them with your friends!

New Electronic Cave Derez Map Released

2010-10-07T23:38:00.014-04:00

It's been quite some time since a new custom Multiplayer map was released for TRON 2.0. But today marks the release of Electronic Cave, a Derez map by fellow LDSO member Zook_One. This incredible map re-creates the scene in the original TRON film where Flynn, TRON, and Ram find a cave with an energy pool which they use to recharge themselves.

Video trailer of Electronic Cave

This map has specifically been designed to take advantage of a feature that the Killer App Mod adds to the game: a fully working Energy Claw powerup. Something that the unmodded version of the game doesn't provide.

This new map will be hosted on a TRON 2.0 server starting this Friday evening (October 8th, 2010), and continue to be hosted through the weekend. The server will be running the Killer App Mod, so you will need to download and install it if you want to join the server.

The map can be downloaded individually, but it's also part of a new Complete Map Pack that offers every map ever released in one download. This new Complete Map Pack is self-installing, so it now makes it very easy to install custom maps. All it takes is a few mouse clicks. (This map pack is large however, at 748 MB.) Though if you want to download the individual map file, you can still use REZ Handler to make that easier as well.

I'd just like to congratulate Zook_One on such an amazingly accurate and well done map. It truly is a remarkable achievement. Also be sure to look for the really cool Easter Egg in this map!

TRON 2.0 Complete Map Pack (Containing All Multiplayer Maps) Now Available

2010-10-07T23:23:00.032-04:00

After a lot of deliberation: I've made the decision to stop offering all the Multiplayer custom maps as a collection of several files, that either require you to use REZ Handler or manual intervention to install. Instead, all the maps are now contained in one self-installing map pack executable (for the PC version of TRON 2.0; Mac map packs will continue to be offered and will be updated ASAP).

There are many pros and cons to going this route. The main cons are the large file size and longer download time. The map pack is quite large, at 748 MB. But I believe the simplicity of installation and the fact that you get all the maps in one download, more than outweighs the drawbacks.

The setup program has a list of all the maps that are installed (in the scrolling text box), but it's important to know that there are brand new maps included amongst all the older ones. These include Zook_One's new Electronic Cave Derez map, and new Light Cycle maps named T.Basic and T.Corrupt by Tailmister.

As new maps continue to appear, this Complete Map Pack will be updated to include them. But for those who already have all the previously released maps and don't want to have to download the entire thing all over again, new maps will also be made available individually and can be installed using REZ Handler.

After the Map Pack setup program is finished installing, you will end up with four map pack files in .REZ form that are installed in TRON 2.0. The game has a limit on how many of these .REZ files it can handle, and in this new Complete installer several of the earlier map packs have been consolidated down to four in order to avoid any limit problems. Though if you have any trouble, you can use REZ Handler to temporarily disable map packs. Or you can even merge them using the "Combine selected .REZ files" feature to bring the number down.

Here is a guide to what the older map packs used to be named and how many there were, compared to what they're named now and how they've been merged to reduce their number.

Old Name	New Name
LC_Pack_1.REZ	LC_Pack.REZ
LC_Pack_2.REZ	LC_Pack.REZ
LC_Pack_3.REZ	LC_Pack.REZ
LC_Pack_4.REZ	LC_Pack.REZ
LC_Pack_5.REZ	LC_Pack.REZ
DA_Pack_1.REZ	DA_Pack.REZ
DM_Pack_1.REZ	DM_Pack.REZ
DM_Pack_2.REZ	DM_Pack.REZ
DSO.REZ	LDSO.REZ

Changes in Light Cycle (LC) Map Pack
T.Basic (T.BASIC) ADDED
T.Corrupt (T.CORRUPT) ADDED

Changes in Derez (DM) Map Pack
Electronic Cave (Z_CAVE_V1.0) ADDED

I recommend that everyone (especially server operators) update their map pack files, as soon as possible.

The Complete Map Pack, as well as the new maps on their own as individual files, are available from the All TRON 2.0 Files page.

TRON 2.0 Master Server Is Down (Again)

2010-08-26T10:24:00.009-04:00

Just a quick site update to let people know that the master server for TRON 2.0 at Gamespy is down right now. You won't be able to find or join any online Multiplayer servers for the moment. A number of other games are affected, too. So if you've noticed that you suddenly can't play TRON 2.0 online: don't worry, it's not your end. The problem is at Gamespy. I've left a message on their support forum asking them to look into it.

But don't forget that you need to install the v1.042 Patch to play online. Otherwise, even when Gamespy fix their problem you still won't see any servers because you're running an older version of the game. (You might also want to check out the Killer App Mod while you're at it.)

This is like, what? The third time in the last year they've gone down? Their service has become pretty spotty the last couple of years. Lots of downtime, and their server has often been slow to respond when you want to get a list of TRON 2.0 servers.

Today is the seventh anniversary of the game's release, no less. TRON 2.0 was released on August 26th, 2003. Great timing on Gamespy's part. :p

I'll update this article as soon as I find out the problem has been fixed.

August 27th, 2010 UPDATE: Gamespy's service still isn't working 100% correctly, but at least servers show up most of the time if you try to Join an Internet Game from within the TRON 2.0 game itself. Try refreshing the server list a few times. The down time and ongoing difficulties have been the result of Gamespy moving their servers to a new location.

August 31st, 2010 UPDATE: As of today, Gamespy's service seems to be fully working again for TRON 2.0.

Interview With TRON 2.0 Team Member Dan Miller

2010-05-19T07:46:00.033-04:00

Shortly after the release of the TRON 2.0: Killer App Mod, I received an e-mail from Dan Miller congratulating the teams who worked on the Killer App Mod and User Error.

He now works at Bungie, but back in 2003 Dan worked on TRON 2.0 at Monolith. He was responsible for designing and implementing the Disc Arena Multiplayer mode in the game.

After receiving his e-mail, I replied and asked if he would be willing to do an interview with me. He said yes, so here is the resultant interview that I carried out with him, again by e-mail.

FAQ: Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? How you became interested in working in the game industry?

Dan: I got my start at Monolith in Public Relations when I joined there in 1999 as an Intern. After a year or so, they moved me around and finally into design, since I happened to be working with the toolset on my off hours and more design manpower was desperately needed. I’ve always loved games but never thought I’d actually be developing them. Call it a lucky break. Monolith was awesome to work for and I credit them for helping me get my start.

FAQ: How did you come to join the team at Monolith working on TRON 2.0? Is working on TRON 2.0 something you specifically wanted to do (i.e. are you a fan), or were you given the task to work on it? If you were not a fan before, did you become one?

Dan: I started in design on Aliens vs. Predator 2. Once I was done with that, they moved me to No One Lives Forever 2 and then after ship, they put me on TRON 2.0 Multiplayer. I really enjoyed the movie and it was an awesome opportunity to work in a fresh universe. Because I had experience working with the AI systems from previous games, I also helped out polishing up some of the AI stuff in the single player game. My task from the outset was Multiplayer and trying to figure out the best way to build it with the resources I was allotted (one engineer, one artist).

FAQ: When did development of TRON 2.0 start at Monolith? (There is evidence that suggests it started some time around 2000 or 2001.)

Dan: To be honest, I don’t fully recall when we started on TRON. I came onto the project late and it was already in full production mode. Maybe 2001?

FAQ: The original title of the game was apparently going to be TRON: Killer App. (As evidenced in the TRON 20th Anniversary DVD promo for the game.) When did the title change to TRON 2.0? Do you know what the process was, that led to the decision responsible for changing the name?

Dan: I don’t recall when they changed the name of the game, I think it was pretty early in production. I don’t know why either. I think TRON 2.0 is a good name because it feels more like an official part of the universe than a side story-esque name. Plus, I’m not exactly sure if most casual/average players knew what a "Killer App" was at the time.

FAQ: What was the reason for the delay of the release of TRON 2.0? It was originally supposed to have been released in March 2003, but it was delayed to August 2003. (There's a rumor suggesting it had something to do with making Light Cycles playable over the internet, because focus testers were demanding it. When the plan had originally been for Light Cycles to be LAN only.)

Dan: Like all games, there are always a number of factors in delaying a game, ranging from more polish time needed to added features. I don’t know or remember what the exact reason was- but I do remember that Disney was very positive about it and resulted in a better game.

FAQ: Can you recall any features, items, or moments earlier in development, that were cut for the final version of TRON 2.0? (Apparently, some beta testers claim that certain cutscenes were trimmed. Also, there is ample evidence in the game's files that numerous small features were dropped. Such as: Disc Arena was going to be playable in Single Player with AI bot opponents; Build Notes were apparently going to contain messages (from Flynn?); there were additional subroutines, including a Disguise subroutine to steal other programs' colors; there was an attempt at flashing wheel spokes and gradient trails on the classic Light Cycles, something the Killer App Mod restored.)

Dan: Hmm. Production is one of those things where things are cut/morphed into other features constantly. Sometimes things just don’t work the way you envisioned them, so it is cut or changed. I do know that Disc Arena was never meant to be playable with bot opponents. It never was even planned because it would’ve been far too complicated and bots just can’t pose a threat. Features in games require a great amount of bang-for-buck and if you couldn’t do something well, then it might as well not be in the game at all- bots are one of those things that require a dedicated programmer to do. TRON was one of those few games where actually more things were added near the end than cut- but then again I wasn’t a part of the beginning, so maybe there were a lot of things cut that I didn’t know about.

FAQ: Outside of the original TRON film, is there anywhere else you and the rest of the team drew inspiration for the all of the levels in the game (both Single Player and Multiplayer)? How about the Disc Arena levels you worked on, in particular?

Dan: I really enjoyed Quake Rocket Arena, the Quake 1 mod back in the day, and drew the multi-tiered/observation room layouts from that game. Visually, I drew inspiration from the single-player levels. It worked really well, because I basically built all of the levels save for the ring levels with very simple concepts. I originally had like 15 separate levels to test a number of combat strategies with the disc. I ended up boiling those down and matching them together so that each Disc Arena level consisted of four sub-arenas. After that, we tried to match them up with a single player environment and bam, Disc Arena was born.

FAQ: Did you ever consider doing a Jai Alai or "Pong" mode for Multiplayer: like the moment in the film where Flynn plays against Crom, using the scoop and energy ball on the rings?

Dan: That was discussed, but we had to focus on one game mode and I felt that Disc Arena was similar to the original arcade game and at the same time unique amongst all of the other multiplayer offerings. I really didn’t want Deathmatch with new textures- that wasn’t a very interesting concept to me.

FAQ: Why were there no free-roaming areas in Single Player, involving vehicles? A lot of fans wanted to ride a Tank, Recognizer, Solar Sailer, or Light Cycle across a landscape. No One Lives Forever had free-roaming sections where you could ride a motorcycle: why didn't TRON 2.0?

Dan: I wasn’t there at the outset of the project, so I wasn’t in on those conversations. I worked on the No One Lives Forever 2 free-roaming sections with the Snowmobile and I always felt that it was very hard to pace those out and make them feel interesting. Free-roaming always sounds cool and there have been a few games that have done it somewhat well, but it takes a lot of resources and you almost have to build the entire game around that concept- yet, I’m not sure how much bang-for-buck you can get with the concept- especially with teaching navigation and making our AI work with that concept.

FAQ: Are there any secret areas or easter eggs in any of the Single or Multiplayer maps, that you are aware of? (It would seem not, except perhaps that the DISCARENA01 map appears to have rings arranged in a fashion to represent a Mickey Mouse head?)

Dan: Hahah ... I did notice this one night when I was working on it, but it wasn’t intended. I don’t have any stories of easter eggs, sorry.

FAQ: Have you ever played TRON 2.0 online in Multiplayer with the public? Even anonymously? Did anyone at Monolith ever take a look at the maps, mods, and other content that the fan community produced for the game? Were they aware at how disappointed the fans were with Disney's attitude toward modding the game, or even their attitude toward the game as a whole? (The editing toolkit was in very rough shape which made it extremely difficult to do anything, plus Disney claimed that any maps or mods uploaded to the official TRON 2.0 site would become Disney's property. And pretty much all of the constructive criticism was ignored. This drove everyone away.)

Dan: I played the multiplayer demo a ton and the full game anonymously. I even came back after a bit when I had some down time. I got owned. I followed the game for quite some time, but it's hard working on game after game after game and at the same time keeping up with previous games. When you are crunching, other games sort of fade away. Monolith was only signed up to do TRON so I don’t recall many conversations, but then again, I left Monolith in Fall of 2004, about a year after TRON shipped.

FAQ: Was there ever talk about an expansion pack for TRON 2.0 on the PC, to further improve the game? For Single Player or Multiplayer? The Xbox version - called TRON 2.0: Killer App - received some new Multiplayer game modes and maps, but the PC never got those. A lot of fans were greatly disappointed by this. (And now that Microsoft shut down Xbox Live for the original Xbox, no one will be playing those new Multiplayer modes any more. A tragic waste.) Also, why didn't Monolith develop Killer App on the Xbox? Were Monolith themselves disappointed to not be involved?

Dan: I don’t recall talks regarding an expansion pack. If I recall at the time, Monolith was absolutely booked with other deals ranging from The Matrix Online to Condemned, Contract JACK, and FEAR. Doing an Xbox version was not possible. When you develop games for another company, it’s definitely a very contractual relationship. If there isn’t an agreement written up to do X or Y far in advance, then it most likely won’t happen. People need paychecks and it’s not a smart business practice to not have this stuff signed up far in advance.

FAQ: Are you disappointed, now, to not be involved in the development of the new TRON Evolution game? (A lot of fans were hoping Monolith would do it, but I could see it would never happen: Monolith is now owned by Warner, a competing studio.)

Dan: I’m super happy with my work on TRON 2.0. TRON 2.0 was easily one of my favorite games I’ve ever worked on. It was just so imaginative and fresh and the team clicked pretty well from what I recall. I have other things that I’m working on now. TRON 2.0 was a great experience also because there was no modern movie or book or media riding along side that we had to emulate or confer with. It was its own thing and a chance to take the TRON universe in whatever direction we thought was cool and applicable to the time. I’m still very proud of what we did with TRON.

To conclude, I'd just like to thank Dan for graciously agreeing to do this interview and taking the time to answer the many questions that fans, and myself, had. I also know that everyone on the LDSO team, felt very fortunate and flattered to hear praise from a team member who had worked on TRON 2.0.

In addition, I'd like to thank the following fans who submitted questions: Load"*",8,1, Daddyo, Win3K, tronman63304, Jizaboz, Zook_One, TRON.dll, and Jademz.

Threadless TRON-inspired Clothing - A Review

2010-04-21T21:02:00.029-04:00

Recently, I was sent an item from Threadless' new TRON-inspired line of clothing: which consists of a T-Shirt (available in both Men's and Women's) and Hoodie, with a TRON-like design called "My Other Ride Is a Light Cycle". Sizes range from Extra Small (XS) to Double Extra Large (2XL).

The product page can be found here. The Tee costs $20 U.S., while the Hoodie is $45 U.S. (This is before shipping. The shipping varies depending on where you live.)

The design was chosen in a contest as a winner, designed by Rolf Nelson. A designer from Texas, he stated his inspiration for the design as being: "A few years ago I found an old, working Tron machine at a concert venue, and remembered how awesome the movie was. After hearing about the sequel I figured it would be the right time to try unite other Tron fanatics by designing something they could sport all the time."

The Tee is a Light Blue while the Hoodie is an Aquamarine color. Those seem to be the only colors available at this time. Both use glow in the dark ink for their designs, a nice touch.

I was sent a Hoodie for review. I wear a Large size, and the sweater and hood fit snugly. It's very light and comfortable. The material is 100% cotton, so you will have to be a bit delicate with it when you wash it. There's a drawstring in white for the hood.

The zipper is metal, which I think is great and very important. Nylon zippers can easily get stuck or break. Metal is far better and lasts much longer. Kudos to Threadless for making the zipper metal and not cheaping out here.

I tried to see the "glow in the dark" effect, and it was there . . . but very faint. It's probably because the hoodie hasn't been exposed to enough direct sunlight yet. The weather where I live has been overcast lately. If it glows more strongly with enough light exposure, then the effect is going to be very cool and draw a lot of attention.

All in all, I like the hoodie very much. The metal zipper is a big plus in my book. It's too bad there isn't more color selection available, but the Aquamarine does fit the TRON-inspired look they're going for. The circuit pattern looks great, exactly what you expect if you're a fan of the film. Recommended.

Thanks to everyone at, or working with, Threadless for the chance to review one of their products. :)

TRON 2.0: Killer App Mod v1.1 Released

2010-04-16T15:50:00.086-04:00

A project that can trace its origins back almost five years: the TRON 2.0: Killer App Mod is releasing today.

Download link Mirrors

Video guide on how to install the mod
on Vista and Windows 7

April 20th, 2010 UPDATE: Everybody hold off on User Error. The current version (that was released a couple of years ago) doesn't work properly together with the Killer App Mod in widescreen yet. We're releasing an updated version of UE soon. We just wanted to announce User Error in widescreen as coming soon. Also, User Error 2 = User Error. They are the same thing. User Error 2 is just the updated version. No additional levels since the last release.

Also releasing soon is an updated version of the Single Player expansion User Error 2. The new version will now work in widescreen (with the KA Mod installed first), and it fixes some bugs. If you've already played User Error, then the only reason to obtain the new version would be for widescreen support. The gameplay experience is otherwise not significantly different than before.

These fan-made modifications are for the PC game TRON 2.0, released by Buena Vista Interactive (now known as Disney Interactive Studios) and Monolith Productions. (The Killer App Mod will not work on the Mac OSX version of TRON 2.0, or the PC demo version.)

Visit the Killer App Mod and User Error 2 pages on ModDB for further information, screenshots, and download links. And visit the following TRON fan sites for the same information and downloads.

http://www.ldso.net/
http://www.tron-sector.com/

Note that if you have not played TRON 2.0 or User Error 2 before: there are some SPOILERS in the trailer below, so you may not want to watch.

Due to the sheer number of updates that the mod will make to the game, from the most minor to the major: the mod has been released as an Open Beta. This will allow for testing by a broad range of users, to help discover any problems that may crop up. These issues will be dealt with in another future and final version, based on everyone's feedback.

If you just did a fresh install of TRON 2.0 on Vista or Windows 7, make sure you are running the game in Administrator mode. Otherwise, the game will not create certain files the mod needs to install. You will get a "TRON 2.0 has not been run before" error when attempting to install the mod.

To prevent this: Right click the TRON 2.0 shortcut icon, choose Properties, go to the Compatibility tab, and put a checkmark in the "Run this program as an administrator" box. Then run the game at least once.

The game may also crash with a "Client MFC" error after the mod has been installed if Administrator mode is not enabled.

Note that the Killer App Mod allows you to choose Français, Deutsch, Italiano, and Español text for use in the game if you use the Unofficial v1.042 Patch. In other words: if you download and install the Unofficial Patch, you can change the language from English. The mod also fixes the missing sounds issue when you host a Dedicated Server with the Unofficial Patch. Therefore, there is really no reason to use the Official Patch any more.

Also note that if you want to use Xistence's Ancient Disc Mod, you must download and install it first before you install the Killer App Mod.

When using Single Player with the Killer App Mod, older saved games will not work and loading them will cause the game to crash. You must either disable the mod to load old saved games, or start a new game. Since the mod fixes a few issues and adds some things: you will probably want to enjoy the new improved experience in Single Player from the beginning, anyway.

When using Multiplayer with the mod, EVERYONE must be using the mod in order to access the new features when playing together. This inculdes the host (server) and all players (clients). This new version 1.1 of the mod is not compatible in Multiplayer with the old version 1.0. (If you have the old version, you must uninstall it first.)

If you try to join a Multiplayer server not running the mod, you will be kicked off and the game will let you know why. If you cannot find any servers running the mod at the time that you want to play online, the mod can be completely disabled to allow you to play with others who do not have it.

If there are no servers running the mod: you will need to contact the server operators and request that they start using the Killer App Mod, or host your own server. When setting up a server using the mod, you should add a KAMod tag to the name of your server so that players can differentiate between those either using or not using the mod.

Please leave any comments or feedback here on this site, on ModDB in the comments section, or the forum of one of the TRON fan sites. Do not use the "Send Message" link on ModDB, otherwise your feedback may not be read for a long time.

Thanks from LDSO and the Killer App Mod team (KA Mod); LDSO and Meatsack (UE2).

Final TRON 2.0: KILLER APP Mod Update

2010-02-11T07:38:00.008-05:00

April 16th, 2010 UPDATE: This article is out of date. The Killer App Mod v1.1 has been released.

This will be the final news update about the Killer App Mod before its return. Below you will also find the final pre-release preview trailer. No more trailers will be posted until after the mod becomes available.

This trailer shows, for the first time, 1280x720 widescreen in the 16:9 aspect ratio. Not only that: it shows corrected widescreen menus, and the new Derez 3-D Powerups. Note that this is still WORK IN PROGRESS, but the mod is finally nearly complete and will probably go into private testing within a couple of weeks. Then it will become publically available shortly thereafter. The release is close now.

It's best to watch the trailer in higher quality HD so you can see the details better.

In case anyone is wondering, the map seen in the trailer is a custom map called IO-ERROR by Nunyas. It's not something that's included with the mod, but can be downloaded separately.

Due to the sheer number of updates that the mod will make to the game, from the most minor to the major, and because not all the planned features may end up in the upcoming release: the next version of the mod will likely be released as an Open Beta. This will allow for the fact that not all features may be complete, and also to allow testing by a broad range of users, to help discover any problems that may crop up. These issues will be dealt with in another future and final version, based on everyone's feedback.

Thanks from the LDSO and Killer App Mod teams.

For earlier updates, please read this previous article. More information can also be found on the ModDB KILLER APP Mod page.

March 20th UPDATE: The Killer App Mod v1.1 is finished and in testing.

New TRON Legacy Game Full Length Trailer

2009-12-12T21:30:00.011-05:00

The full length trailer for the TRON Legacy game was shown tonight on the 2009 Spike TV VGA Awards. Surprisingly, the new trailer contained very little content from the previous brief one. So the screenshots I took in a previous article are still some of the only clues as to what we can expect in the game.

Even more surprisingly, the game is going to be called TRON Evolution instead of the more logical and expected TRON Legacy: The Game.

The trailer has confirmed that Disney's Propaganda Games division is working on the game. Something that's been long suspected. ~~But still no commitment to platforms~~.

Notice that the trailer contains the phrase "Before the Legacy starts". This implies the events of the game probably take place just before the movie sequel.

~~If I find a source for a higher quality version of the video in the future, I'll update this article.~~ Thanks still go out to Tocen for the original video on YouTube, and HooDooMan for finding it.

UPDATE 1: The inevitable high quality version of the trailer has appeared on GameTrailers.com and I've embedded it above. Platforms have now been confirmed. PC, 360, and PS3. Just like I said in this previous article.

Now as long as Disney and Propaganda don't hand off the PC version to be ported by a terrible studio such as Aspyr (like they did with the awful PC version of Turok), maybe there's hope yet.

Then again, aside from the usual stupid and lame comments you'd expect to find on GameTrailers: one stood out that got my attention.

I'm proud to say I have a friend that's doing effective work on this game. I'm actually curious to see how this'll turn out in the end. (yes, they're outsourcing graphics work to Romania studios...imagine that)
- Comment from user SlaveZero on GameTrailers.com

Hmm, not sure what to make of that. I'll take it with a grain of salt, but sounds like they're outsourcing to shave costs already. Not necessarily a good sign for a PC version (done on the cheap), or the game as a whole regardless of version.

UPDATE 2: Disney Interactive issued a press release today (December 14th, 2009) about the game. I read "Holiday 2010" as being around Thanksgiving time (late November to early December).

December 14, 2009 06:00 AM Eastern Time

The Game Grid Awaits New Combatants -- Disney Interactive Studios Announces TRON: Evolution, the Video Game

Video Game Will Provide One of the Keys to Unlocking TRON Mythology before the Opening of Major 2010 Action Adventure Film – “TRON: Legacy”

BURBANK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The digital world of TRON is awaiting a new participant. Disney Interactive Studios today announced the development of TRON: Evolution, the video game. TRON: Evolution is an action/adventure game being created for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system and Windows PC. Developed by Propaganda Games, Disney Interactive Studios’ action and role-playing game studio in Vancouver, British Columbia, TRON: Evolution is scheduled for release in Holiday 2010 before the “TRON: Legacy” film arrives in theaters.

Set during the era between the two TRON films, TRON: Evolution conveys the story of significant events within the TRON mythology. The game features an epic adventure across a massive digital world filled with high-mobility disc-based combat and advanced light cycles.

TRON: Evolution is one of the keys to unlocking the TRON mythology. The game’s story takes place before the “TRON: Legacy” events and provides insight into the film’s past. As an integrated entertainment experience, the film will reference elements of the game’s story. Fans will want to play the game to learn more about the TRON mythology seen in the film, but each entertainment experience will stand on its own.

“We expect TRON: Evolution to be a premier action-focused game that both stands on its own and supplements a major event film,” said Dan Tudge, vice president and general manager, Propaganda Games. “Because Propaganda Games is based in Vancouver, which was the site of the film’s principal photography, we were able to leverage the proximity to continuously collaborate with the filmmakers and ensure authenticity between the two projects.”

“TRON: Legacy” film director Joseph Kosinski consulted on the vision for the debut video game trailer, which includes computer graphics that were created by the same company that will provide the film’s CG animations. Kosinski will advise on the game’s vision during 2010 to ensure accuracy with the film. In addition to directing “TRON: Legacy,” Kosinski is renowned in the video games industry as having directed prolific feature film-quality game trailers for major product releases.

“The collaboration between the video game development studio and the film creators is exceptional,” said Sean Bailey, producer, “TRON: Legacy.” “From the ongoing discussions between the filmmakers and the game developers, TRON: Evolution should enhance and expand the mythology and the world of ‘TRON: Legacy.’”

As part of the connection between the game and film, actress Olivia Wilde stars as Quorra in TRON: Evolution. Wilde’s voice and likeness as Quorra will provide players with another direct link to the film as they discover how earlier events within the world of TRON shape her character’s future.

“TRON is the most revered video game-inspired film property of all time,” said Craig Relyea, senior vice president of global marketing, Disney Interactive Studios. “TRON: Evolution, the video game, will enhance the TRON experience for existing fans of the franchise as well as an entirely new audience.”

TRON: Evolution and “TRON: Legacy” are brand new entries in the TRON franchise, updating the unique world for this millennium. The cross-platform franchise being created around the “TRON: Legacy” film will transcend media platforms throughout Disney. The revolutionary 1982 film “TRON” catapulted video games into mainstream consciousness and contributed to the industry’s rapid growth and global success. The original film inspired arcade games and video game releases, making TRON a highly successful multi-format franchise.

TRON: Evolution is Rating Pending from the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB).

About “TRON: Legacy”
“TRON: Legacy” is a 3D high-tech adventure set in a digital world that’s unlike anything ever captured on the big screen. Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund), the tech-savvy 27-year-old son of Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges), looks into his father’s disappearance and finds himself pulled into the digital world of TRON where his father has been living for 25 years. Along with Kevin’s loyal confidant Quorra (Olivia Wilde), father and son embark on a life-and-death journey of escape across a visually-stunning cyber universe that has become far more advanced and exceedingly dangerous. “TRON: Legacy” is scheduled to arrive in theaters on December 17, 2010.

About Propaganda Games
Propaganda Games is Disney Interactive Studios’ premier action and role-playing game developer. Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Propaganda specializes in great stories, immersive worlds and meaningful choices. Propaganda created the platinum-selling 2008 game Turok and is currently developing two major releases slated for 2010: Pirates of the Caribbean: Armada of the Damned and TRON: Evolution. Propaganda was founded in 2005 and acquired by Disney the same year. For more information, log on to http://www.propagandagames.com.

About Disney Interactive Studios
Disney Interactive Studios, part of Disney Interactive Media Group, is the interactive entertainment affiliate of The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS). Disney Interactive Studios self publishes and distributes a broad portfolio of multi-platform video games, mobile games and interactive entertainment worldwide. The company also licenses properties and works directly with other interactive game publishers to bring products for all ages to market. Disney Interactive Studios is based in Glendale, California, and has internal development studios around the world. For more information, log on to http://www.disneyinteractivestudios.com.

© Disney. Product name, release date and features may be subject to change.

UPDATE 3: A couple of screenshots were also distributed to the media, along with the press release.

Thanks to Mr. Sinistar for finding them.

Brief Video Preview of the Upcoming TRON Legacy Game

2009-11-24T19:30:00.016-05:00

GameTrailers.com has just posted a brief video teaser for the upcoming TRON Legacy game.

TRON Video Game to Premiere at Video Game Awards 2009!
| SpikeTV | SPIKE.com

The full trailer will be shown on the 2009 Spike TV Video Game Awards show, which will be aired on December 12th at 8 PM Eastern.

I've taken a bunch of screenshots from the teaser, because it's incredibly brief and things flash by so fast you hardly have time to process them.

It's way too early and this teaser is way too brief, for me to get excited over this. A split-second trailer doesn't really tell me anything. Pre-release hype for games doesn't work on me any more. I've been disappointed too many times. Now I wait for a game to be released and read user reviews, not magazine/site reviews which often take payola for high scores.

And there's no confirmation of platforms at this time. Though the rumor is that it's coming to the PC, 360, and PS3 and will be an Unreal engine game made by Propaganda Games, which is owned by Disney Interactive. You can read a bit more about early rumors regarding the game, in a previous article.

Based on Disney's past support and customer relations, I don't hold out a lot of hope for the PC version of the game. If there is one at all. If they farm it out to Aspyr to be ported, like they did with Turok, then I'm not interested. Come on game industry, don't disappoint me. Do a decent PC version of a game for a change and stop dicking PC gamers around. We're talking about TRON here. How sad would it be to have a game about entering into personal computers and mainframes, and then the game isn't even on the PC.





If there's anything positive I have to say about this teaser, it's that the graphics remind me a lot of TRON 2.0. Notice how the virus programs look a lot like the z-Lots and Rector Scripts, the Red programs with staffs look like ICPs and MCP Guards, and how the programs (which seem to be doing Disc combat) look like they're in a Disc Arena.

Thanks to ShadowDragon1 for finding this, and thanks to Tron Wiki for the MCP Guard image.

System Reboot

2009-11-24T19:08:00.003-05:00

As you can tell, I haven't updated this site since August. There are a lot of reasons for that. One of which has to do with trying to get the TRON 2.0: Killer App Mod done before the end of the year. I won't bore you with all the excuses, though.

I'll be posting one news item today, and I'll try to catch up on all the TRON Legacy sequel news over the next month or so. I'll also try not to let my updates on the sequel lapse again for so long, as well as post some other newsworthy items. I apologize to all of you who have sent me news items that I never got around to looking at. I will follow up on as many of them as I can. But this site now takes a lower priority until the work on the TRON 2.0 mod is done and some other events going on in my life are less hectic.

Thank you to everyone who has visited this site in the past, and who may still be visiting. It started off mainly as a site to support the TRON 2.0 PC game, since Disney couldn't be bothered to support it themselves after a short time. Seems that no matter how good a game is: if it doesn't sell millions of copies within a couple of months of release these days, it gets chucked in the rubbish bin and forgotten. Disgusting, really.

Then this site gradually expanded to cover all aspects of TRON entertainment and fandom. Including the TRON Legacy sequel, of course. For a while, I like to think that with the help of the fans, I was keeping the most up to date news on the film of almost any site. I'd like to try and regain that position in the coming weeks, and hopefully stay on top of things from then on.

Thanks again for visiting. I hope to provide TRON fandom with continued useful information you may not find anywhere else.

TRON Sequel News Updates

2009-07-22T10:06:00.136-04:00

LAST YEAR'S TEST CONCEPT FOOTAGE TRAILER
HAS FINALLY BEEN RELEASED IN HIGH QUALITY!

CLICK HERE TO WATCH OR DOWNLOAD IT!

LAST UPDATED August 4th at 5:49 PM ET: See the latest update.

For older updates, please visit this previous article.

UPDATE 1: At the time I'm writing this, it's July 22nd, 2009. The day before the second trailer for the TRON sequel is rumored to be shown at the 2009 San Diego Comicon.

There has been an absolute flood of new information today, which I expect to continue over the next several days. I'll do my best to cover every bit of news that I can find. But as I do this in my spare time, it can be difficult keeping up with it all. It's sometimes hard to compete with the more established news sites. I think you'll find, though, that fan sites — like this one — tend to find and cover news and rumors about the TRON sequel that the larger sites don't.

There's so much news, that it's difficult to know where to start. Well, before I begin with all the latest news, I want to share some information I've been withholding for close to a year.

The following portion of this update has been removed. Perhaps one day, long down the road, the information this update contained can be spoken of once again.

UPDATE 2: Over at the MTV Movies Blog they interview Sean Bailey, one of the producers on the sequel. Here's a quote from the most notable part of the article.

That visual test showed off a high-tech clip of a lightcycle race—a take on one of the many iconic scenes from the original film—and the crowd went wild. Cut to 2009: with the “Tron” shoot having wrapped in Vancouver just a week ago, the task for filmmakers is both the same and quite different: everyone is well aware of a new “Tron” and there’s not a ton of complete footage available to show off.

No matter though! Bailey promises new looks, surprise appearances and—fingers crossed!—a peek at the 3-D visuals of the new flick.

“We just don’t have that much finished stuff available,” Bailey explained. “We hope to have a trick or two up our sleeves that will make the panel worth attending and have a few new things to let people know about. We might be seeing some 3-D.”

It's not only that the movie finished filming mere days ago. This new "Tron" is also just incredibly CG-oriented, and the digital post-production process won’t be finished for another year, Bailey said.

- Eric Ditzian, from MTV Movies Blog article where he interviews TRON sequel co-producer Sean Bailey

So according to the article, there's the possibility that unannounced guests and other surprises may be in store during the Disney panel at the 2009 San Diego Comicon. So far, only Sean Bailey and TRON director Steven Lisberger have been confirmed as guests.

Bailey is also asked about the sequel's title, and comments: “I think we’ll be clearing that up pretty soon”. Is it possible then, that the final title of the sequel will be announced at Comicon. Let's hope so.

According to rumor, the title might finally end up as TRON 2. Apparently, Bruce Boxleitner was seen at a recent London film and comic convention wearing a shirt with TRON 2 logos on it. It's possible this may have just been another placeholder title used at the time the shirt was made, though.

This would be a laugh, considering all the variations that have been gone through. That they'd end up going with what was the obvious choice, right from the start! TR2N and TRON 2.0 also would be good choices, though. Meanwhile, simply TRON (leading to confusion with the original film), TRON: Insert-Subtitle-here, and TRZ are awful.

Thanks to deadly_cookie and rustiswordz for the tips.

UPDATE 3: Yesterday (July 21st, 2009), Disney began a viral marketing and ARG campaign in advance of the TRON presentation at the San Diego Comicon.

The sites SlashFilm, Collider.com, IGN, UGO, Film School Rejects, Coming Soon, First Showing, and JoBlo.com have all stated that they received mysterious packages containing new Flynn's Arcade tokens, and USB flash drives with pictures stored on them that contained some kind of code. Each site was randomly sent one of 5 pictures that all needed to be pieced together in order to help decipher the code. The pictures can be seen below.

And over on the UGO Movie Blog, Jordan Hoffman created a video where he talks about and shows himself holding one of the Flynn's Arcade tokens.

The following part of this update contains massive spoilers, so you may want to stop reading here!

After deciphering the code, it was discovered that it contained the message "Flynn Lives". If you visit the URL www.flynnlives.com, here's what you'll find.

Click each picture to view a larger version
The site includes a timeline of events in Kevin Flynn's life, and some fictional articles from various press sources, that explain what happened to Flynn after the original TRON film.

1989 -- Kevin Flynn alleged to "disappear." Initial facts raise many questions. Many of us were suspicious.

1990 -- Sightings of Kevin Flynn by ordinary citizens, including high-credibility "Level 3" sightings of Flynn in NYC's Central Park during a Shakespeare Festival, on the fringes of a San Francisco street fair, and the notorious "Elvira" sighting of Kevin Flynn at Halloween celebrations in West Hollywood, California. Unfortunately, these initial sightings display certain characteristics true to this day -- nothing has been confirmed and photographic evidence has been lacking.

1992 -- Sightings continue. Several of us make contact thru Usenet and begin correspondence.

1994 -- First Flynn Lives! meet-up in Dayton, Ohio. We resolve to continue our efforts to find out the facts behind the mysterious disappearance.

1998 -- Letter from Kevin Flynn to a founding member of the group gains media attention, then debunked. Founding member (now ex-member) checks into a mental hospital for observations.

2001 -- A $5,000 award is offered to anybody who can prove Kevin Flynn is alive. By December 31st, alas, nobody had satisfied our jury and the money was spent on a great party for all of the "Troniacs" we know and love!

2002 - 2005 -- An era of low visibility for our group. Sightings drop off, and interest seems to slacken. Thank heavens that is over!

2007 -- Interest picks up as the "Albino Cow" Flynn sighting in southern New Jersey energizes a new generation of activists.

Click each picture to view a larger version

1985 -- Kevin Flynn retires from ENCOM to create "a digital frontier which will reshape the human condition."

1989 -- Kevin Flynn disappears. Since that time, ENCOM has grown to become the largest computer technology company in the world, but its creative heart is missing.

Widowed since 1985, Flynn has kept his romantic life out of the press ever since.

Since his [Flynn's] infamous departure, no one has filled the void, but the EnCom corporation has subsisted on a backlog of ideas, sketches, and programs rifled from Flynn's personal files.

When COO Alan Bradley stepped down in protest of this practice - what he characterized as "grave robbing" - skeptics again theorized that it would be the end of EnCom.

In 1989, Kevin Flynn disappeared. For those of you following previous updates, this is nothing new. The general plot of the sequel has been known for months. But the timeline and fictional articles do reveal some new specific details about what happened to Flynn, Alan, and Encom, between the end of the film and now.

If you click on the moving spider (from the TRON Arcade game) at the bottom of the site, it opens a window with a timer counting down to 9:30 PM Pacific Time on January 23rd, 2009. A message there states "Meet us at the cul de sac near the corner of 1st and J when the numbers run out. You’ll know who we are."

Many believe what will happen, is that people who show up at a certain location tomorrow near the San Diego convention center, will be led to what possibly turns out to be a real life version of Flynn's Arcade to help promote the sequel. The Terms of Use page on the site, lists an address that is near to the convention center and the meeting location. Could this be where the potential Flynn's Arcade will be located? Whatever it turns out to be, it will be interesting to find out.

On one of the Flynn's Arcade tokens, it has the phrase "Home of TRON" imprinted on it. As it turns out, if you visit the URL www.homeoftron.com, you'll find another site.

Click each picture to view a larger version
On this page, they have mockup images of a Space Paranoids arcade cabinet, and a screenshot from Flynn's game "Vice Squad" which we never saw in the original TRON film. Very nice.

To whichever marketing team came up with this viral campaign: I salute you. It remains very true to the spirit of the original TRON film, and shows that someone did their homework when they researched the history of both the film, and events in the field of technology since the film appeared in theaters. Comparing Flynn to industry leaders like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, and likening Encom to be as big or even bigger than Microsoft, is sure to warm the hearts of technology geeks everywhere.

I'm not sure that TRON fans would refer to themselves as "Troniacs" or "Tron-heads", though. ;)

Just for fun, I snooped through the code of both sites looking for any hidden surprises. The only thing I could find when I checked earlier, is that there's some javascript code for handling video that currently isn't being used. So it's possible that some videos, or perhaps even the new Comicon 2009 TRON sequel trailer, may appear on the Flynn Lives site.

Doing a domain name lookup for both www.flynnlives.com and www.homeoftron.com leads to disappointment, as both sites have been registered by proxy. Meaning, that either Disney or their marketing company don't want you to know who exactly was responsible for these sites. However, one curious thing to note is that both sites are hosted by Amazon.com. Amazon does provide backend services such as cloud computing and hosting, though. So this makes some sense.

UPDATE 4: I'm going to pack several smaller news items into this update.

G4TV will be covering some of the events at the 2009 San Diego Comicon, and broadcasting them on their channel. So there is a possibility that what goes on at the Disney panel may be shown, including any TRON related news.

It's been rumored that the TRON sequel trailer shown at Comicon tomorrow, will also be shown together with James Cameron's Avatar when it debuts in December of this year. Avatar will be another 3-D CGI extravaganza of a film, so it makes a lot of sense to attach a TRON trailer to be presented before the film's opening credits. Let's just hope we don't have to wait until Avatar to see the TRON trailer again . . .

Over at Aint-it-Cool News, they have a picture of Jeff Bridges doing his impression of "The Dude" from The Big Lebowski, doing his impersonation of CLU in TRON. Or, something like that. It's one hillarious picture. :)

Thanks to Maxiekat for all of the above tips.

UPDATE 5: The MTV Movies Blog has another interview with TRON producer Sean Bailey.

In the interview, Bailey states that the film is a sequel but it's "stand-alone". Meaning that you won't need to have seen the first film, in order to follow along in the sequel. It will be mostly self-contained. But he goes on to reassure that the film will "honor the original" by featuring (updated) versions of the Light Cycles, Tanks, and more. This is the first time Tanks have been confirmed to be in the film.

. . . producer Sean Bailey confirmed to MTV News, will honor the roots of the original—lightcycles, tanks and more—while acting as what he termed a “stand-alone sequel.”

“You don’t have to know the ’82 movie to come in and appreciate and enjoy this one,” he explained. “That said, we accept what happened in the ’82 movie happened in ’82. Our movie is set in 2010. We built a mythology that spans the intervening 28 years of, ‘Here’s what we think happened with Kevin Flynn and with [nefarious software corporation] ENCOM and all those principle characters. Here’s what we think happened inside the Tron universe and in the real world.”

In this mythology, Flynn disappeared in 1989. While there are a lot of theories as to what happened to him, no trace of the former computer programmer has been found. His son Sam (Garrett Hedlund)—a gifted tech geek himself—grows up never knowing what happened to his father.

“At the beginning of the movie, [Sam is] given a clue or a prompt and starts to investigate, which leads him into the Tron universe,” Bailey said. “And things have really changed.”

Of course, much has remained the same. Lightcyles, tanks and other vehicles—souped-up, cutting-edge versions of course—play important roles in the film. Bailey also said fans can expect the appearance of some completely new vehicles.

Bruce Boxleitner, who played ENCOM employee Alan Bradley and—within the electronic world—Tron himself, also figures prominently into the story. While the story kicks off in the real world, the majority of the film takes place in the Tron universe.

“It’s a darker universe than the original, and there’s a lot of intensity,” said Bailey. “It is a Disney movie. I think most likely we’re on the harder edge of PG. [But] our ambition was to make a movie that [adults] were as excited to see as an eight-year-old boy.”

- Eric Ditzian, from MTV Movies Blog article where he interviews TRON sequel co-producer Sean Bailey

The mention that Encom is a "nefarious software corporation" has my interest piqued. Also, it seems that the name of Garrett Hedlund's character is indeed "Sam" Flynn now, instead of "Sean" Flynn. Too bad. Though, I suppose I'll get used to it.

The mention that Bruce Boxleitner "figures prominently into the story" is interesting. According to rumor, Bruce himself has said that he only had a "small part" compared to TRON alumnus and sequel co-star, Jeff Bridges. This rumor makes it sound like Bruce will only be playing Alan Bradley, and not TRON at all. This jibes with an earlier update I posted.

Thanks again to Maxiekat, and nick-meredith, for the latter info about the Bruce Boxleitner rumor.

UPDATE 6: Cinema Blend is reporting that executives at IMAX, are hoping to bring the TRON sequel to IMAX screens. The article doesn't state whether this will be in regular IMAX, or IMAX 3D. One would hope the latter!

And I completely forgot to mention, that there is a rumor that the TRON sequel is confirmed for a Christmas 2010 release by Bruce Boxleitner.

Thanks to Maxiekat and nick-meredith for the tip about the Christmas 2010 release.

UPDATE 7: In addition to covering the 2009 San Diego Comicon on television, G4TV will also be covering various events on their web site with streaming videos.

Fortunately, one of those events is the Disney 3D panel where the TRON sequel trailer will be shown, and where Sean Bailey and TRON director Steven Lisberger will be talking. And who knows what other surprise guests may show up . . .

The Disney panel stream will start at 10:45 AM Pacific Time, which is 1:45 PM Eastern Time. I don't think G4's video stream of the Disney panel will show the trailer. It will probably be limited to the speeches. Still, it's definitely something to look forward to!

Thanks to TRON.dll for the tip.

UPDATE 8: Thanks to some detective work by Neuromancer, it's pretty much confirmed now that the mysterious "Meet us at the cul de sac near the corner of 1st and J when the numbers run out. You’ll know who we are." message on the www.flynnlives.com site (mentioned in a previous update) will lead the people who gather there to a re-creation of Flynn's Arcade.

Near the address on the Terms of Use page on the Flynn Lives site, is a building that looks very similar to the building used as Flynn's Arcade in the original TRON film.


Thanks again to Neuromancer for his excellent sleuthing skills.

UPDATE 9: The www.flynnlives.com site has been updated. There's a new message there with a link to a map, showing exactly where to meet tonight for the Flynn's Arcade event. I guess the marketing team realized their instructions were a bit . . . cryptic.

Thanks to Overmind for the tip.

UPDATE 10: The title of the sequel is TRON Legacy! Here are all the best photos I was able to find in my various searches.















Thanks to Mr. Sinistar and Maxiekat for finding or providing tips about photos; Movieline, Ain't-it-Cool News, and JoBlo.com as photo sources.

UPDATE 11: IGN has a video interview with TRON Legacy producer Sean Bailey and director Joseph Kosinski.

And IGN has posted a second video where they interview Jeff Bridges, Olivia Wilde, and Garrett Hedlund.

Olivia again mentions a December 2010 release date for the sequel, which backs up Bruce Boxleitner's earlier statement.

Thanks to Alan1 for the tip about the first video.

UPDATE 12: Mr. Sinistar has found a bootleg video of the 2009 San Diego Comicon TRON Legacy panel. Many thanks to him for this score!

Watch the video now, before Disney swoops in and has it pulled. If you want to save and keep it, use a plug-in like DownloadHelper in Firefox.

As for the "Flynn Lives" viral get together, so far it sounds nowhere near as exciting as everyone thought. It's some kind of scavenger hunt, where people need to shine black light on special posters, to make invisible ink glow to find clues. What those clues will lead to, I don't think anyone knows yet. (I'm writing this at just after 10:00 PM Pacific Time, so the viral get together has only been going on for about half an hour.)

It might lead to a re-created Flynn's Arcade, or it might not, judging by this snapshot of one of the posters on the right.



Yes, the Flynn's Arcade re-creation is real! I feel glad for all the people who went, because I was beginning to get a bit worried that maybe they were wasting their time chasing around easter eggs that lead to nothing.

And what's this . . . a Space Paranoids machine, specially made for the event?



More pictures and videos! They had a life-sized model of a Light Cycle in the Arcade! Holy crap.

Thanks to Simbeau and Mr. Sinistar for the tips regarding the pictures, videos, and what the viral meet up was all about. And to davecobb for providing the videos; kateyrich, mrbosslady, and First Showing for providing the photos!

You know that music in the third video where the Light Cycle is revealed at the Flynn's Arcade? Sounds like it could be Daft Punk, right? Well, the same music can be heard faintly in the bootleg TRON Legacy panel video. This strongly suggests it is, indeed, music from Daft Punk that's going to be in the film.

UPDATE 13: I have three more videos of the Flynn's Arcade viral event, plus two brief bootleg excerpts of Jeff Bridges and Olivia Wilde speaking at the TRON Legacy panel. A couple of these videos have profanity in them, so they would probably not be considered safe for work.

Thanks to devincf and supercoolgeek11 for posting these videos, and to Mr. Sinistar for the tip that lead to finding one of them.

UPDATE 14: I found some more pictures from the Flynn's Arcade viral event.



Thanks to Mr. Sinistar for the tip on where to find them, and saturnine for providing them.

Later, I might be able to post some high resolution close-up photos of the Light Cycle if I can get permission from a friend.

UPDATE 15: Last night at the Flynn's Arcade viral event (July 23rd, 2009), it was discovered if you shone a black light on to the back of Flynn's Arcade T-shirts that were being given away, there was invisible ink with what turned out to be a web site URL.

Visiting that URL took you to a new section of the www.flynnlives.com site, where you were greeted with a page asking for unlock codes.

People playing the specially created Space Paranoids game at the event, would apparently see codes on the screen if they played long enough, as seen on the right.

As of the time I'm writing this, 4 of the 5 unlock codes have been found. The unlocks provide differently scrambled pictures, that when pieced together will reveal a high resolution picture of the new Light Cycle. There are also sound clips from the character of Flynn. Once all 5 codes have been found, I'll post the Light Cycle picture and all the sound clips.

The Flynn's Arcade will apparently at least be open until Saturday July 25th, and an update as seen on the right from the www.flynnlives.com site states that the Arcade will be open again tonight (July 24th) starting at 9:00 PM Pacific Time.

Thanks to Mr. Sinistar, VRAM, and Tron 3.0 for their tips, and thebruce0 for providing two of the pictures.

UPDATE 16: The official TRON Legacy web site has recently gone live! See it for yourself.

The site has a survey you can take to let them know whether or not you like the site, and a way to sign up for news updates.

Thanks to VRAM for the tip.

UPDATE 17: The test footage concept trailer from last year, and shown again this year at the TRON panel at the 2009 San Diego Comicon, is the unlock reward for finding all the Space Paranoids codes from the Flynn's Arcade viral event!

WATCH OR DOWNLOAD THE TRAILER HERE!

DOWNLOAD LINK TO
HIGHEST QUALITY VERSION - 1920x800 244MB
Finally, no more crappy bootleg of last year's trailer! And the trailer positively confirms a 2010 release date.

Thanks to Fygee for the tip!

UPDATE 18: Since all 5 unlock codes were found for the Flynn Lives Derez page — which is how the test footage concept trailer from last year became available — I've created a video that lets you see the completed Light Cycle picture that was made from the scrambled ones, and listen to all of the audio clips from Kevin Flynn.

You can download the completed high resolution picture from this link.

Thanks go out to Chris Carlozzi (aka Elev8tor) for completing the Light Cycle image from the scrambled ones.

And just for the record, here's what the completely unlocked Derez page and trailer page look like.


UPDATE 19: JoBlo.com has a fantastic interview with TRON Legacy producer Sean Bailey and director Joseph Kosinski, that's almost 10 minutes long.

Highlights of the interview are a remark from Kosinski saying that the Light Cycle race in the concept footage trailer is just a "sliver" of what to expect in the final film, and Bailey confirms that Jeff Bridges plays a dual role. (Namely, Flynn and CLU.)

MTV Movies Blog also has a video interview, with cast members Jeff Bridges, Olivia Wilde, and Garrett Hedlund. But you need to be a U.S. resident in order to view it. International fans are out of luck. Lame! (Of course, there are ways around the IP check they do to determine if you're in the U.S.)

UPDATE 20: Two more video interviews from Wired and Olivia Wilde Fan's YouTube channel.

UPDATE 21: Here's a brief video showing the start of the 2009 San Diego Comicon TRON panel, with Jeff Bridges.

Thanks to SnuggleBubble05 for the video.

UPDATE 22: Fellow LDSO member and friend zook_one has provided me with some of his photos from Flynn's Arcade on Thursday night. Below are the high resolution photos of the Light Cycle that I mentioned I might be able to post, in a previous update.

Zook_one has taken some of the clearest, highest quality, most detailed close-up photos of the Light Cycle that I've seen anywhere. I'm very thankful to him for providing me with them!

Please visit zook_one's personal web site, or drop by the forum on the LDSO site and say thanks!












UPDATE 23: The www.flynnlives.com site has been updated yet again. It mentions how the arcade will be open tonight once more (July 25th, 2009), and there's also a button you can click to sign up for news updates. These updates will probably be similar to — if not the same as — the updates you'll get by signing up at the TRON Legacy film web site.

Thanks to TechFalcon for the tip.

UPDATE 24: Hope you're not sick of pictures and videos of Flynn's Arcade, because I still have more! But this will probably be the last update regarding the arcade. Unless I find out when it closes, or if it's going to stay open a while longer.

The first few photos are some celeb pictures, of the cast and crew in the Arcade. They must have visited there for a photo session, before heading over to the San Diego convention center.















Thanks to Cinema Blend and io9 as sources for the majority of the pictures, Daddyo for more pictures and two of the videos, and GeekFilterNet for one of them.

UPDATE 25: G4TV has a brief video interview with Jeff Bridges and Olivia Wilde. The TRON segment begins at the 2:24 mark. You may want to skip the first two minutes though, as it might not be considered safe for work.

UPDATE 26: Over at UGO, they've confirmed that Flynn's Arcade opened for the last time on Saturday July 25th, 2009. The arcade is now closed. Too bad it couldn't have stayed open to promote TRON Legacy until it hits theaters, but it was to be expected. Disney must have dropped a bundle even to just keep it open for these three short days.

  As an example of attention to detail, notice that the Space Paranoids game is copyrighted "© 1989 ENCOM". A nice touch.

And as it turned out, the building that contained Flynn's Arcade was not the one mentioned in a previous update. The building did not resemble the one in the film at all, though it looks like they tried to make the exterior's style at least look a little like the original. The fact that there was another building nearby that looked so similar to the one in the film is one heck of a coincidence, though.

Many sites have posted coverage with additional details of what the experience in the arcade was like, if you care to read them. Early visitors to the arcade received Flynn's Arcade tokens, and a lot of people walked away with Flynn Lives posters, Flynn Lives shirts, and Flynn's Arcade shirts.

Cinemablend Flynn's Arcade coverage
Collider.com Flynn's Arcade coverage
Slashfilm Flynn's Arcade coverage
io9 Flynn's Arcade coverage
Sci-Fi Wire Flynn's Arcade coverage
First Showing Flynn's Arcade coverage - Part 1
First Showing Flynn's Arcade coverage - Part 2
UGO Flynn's Arcade coverage

Thanks to Elle for one of the links.

Meanwhile, the Associated Press has recently released a brief video Interview with Jeff Bridges.

And an artist going by the name of Cryda Luv' has done a really nice reworking of the Daft Punk theme, heard when the Light Cycle was revealed at Flynn's Arcade.

UPDATE 27: Retrorandy has some photos that were taken when Cindy Morgan (who played Lora and Yori in the original TRON) visited Flynn's Arcade. I have to say, Cindy still looks stunning today.

To see the rest of the photos, please visit this page.

Meanwhile, at Apple's trailer site they've added a page for the TRON Legacy concept trailer. Note that the trailers on Apple's site are lower quality than the ones released on the Flynn Lives site. So don't bother downloading the Apple versions. Get them from the Flynn Lives site instead.

And two more videos from Comicon have appeared. One is courtesy of IFC that covers some speeches at the actual TRON Legacy panel, while the other covers a conference which was held afterward. Unfortunately, this second video of the conference has poor audio and it's difficult to make out what's being said. Also, be warned that this second video is almost 28 minutes long!

Thanks to Mr. Sinistar and SuperScooby for their tips, and Olivia Wilde Fan and CollectionDX for providing the videos.

UPDATE 28: Collider.com has an interview with Jeff Bridges, Olivia Wilde, and Garrett Hedlund.

The only new piece of info mentioned by Garrett, is that their scenes with the Light Cycles haven't actually been filmed yet. They're going back in September to do motion capture sessions for the Light Cycle scenes. The part about practical sets (instead of just using bluescreen) when filming the electronic world scenes, has already been known for close to a year if you've been following the updates on this site.

The site Direto de Hollywood has another interview with Jeff Bridges and Olivia Wilde. Unfortunately (or fortunately, if you speak Portuguese), the interviewer dubs over each of them as they speak to translate what they have to say. Which makes it hard to hear what the actors had to say in English.

And on the details page for TRON Legacy on Apple's trailer web site, the cast listing mentions James Frain again. This confirms that he's in the film, something we pretty much knew about already for months.

UPDATE 29: JoBlo.com has just found confirmation that Michael Sheen will also be appearing in TRON Legacy. This is something that, again, has been suspected for months.

A possible spoiler follows, so you may want to stop reading here.

For anyone wondering who Richard Brautigan is, mentioned in one of the audio clips on the Flynn Lives site (see this update to listen), you can read up about him in this wikipedia article. He published a book of poetry called All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace, which "envisions a world where cybernetics has advanced to a stage where it allows a return to the balance of nature and an elimination of the need for human labor."

This gives us a clue as to why Flynn went back into the electronic world, and what he's attempting to do there. His eventual plan is probably something along the lines of trying to bridge the two worlds permanently.

UPDATE 30: Access Hollywood has a nice four minute long interview with Jeff Bridges, Olivia Wilde, and Garrett Hedlund. Thanks to ohnotheydidnt for finding it.

UPDATE 31: Latino Review has a video interview with TRON Legacy director Joseph Kosinski and producer Sean Bailey. I can't embed the video, so you'll have to visit the site to see it. A lot of direct questions are asked, most of which the two evade.

Spoilers follow, so you may want to stop reading here.

Kosinski does, however, reveal that the character of TRON is going to be in the film. I'd already heard this from a couple of sources, but hearing it straight from Kosinski seals the deal.

And when asked whether the MCP will appear in the film, both don't confirm it but don't deny it either. So you can pretty much take that as a "yes", the MCP is also in the film. This is something that's been suspected for quite a while.

Thanks to ZootCatchy for finding the video.

UPDATE 32: The site MoviesOnline.ca has a lengthy interview with several of the cast and crew of TRON Legacy, including Steven Lisberger, Joseph Kosinski, and Jeff Bridges.

Be warned that this interview contains a few spoilers.

Thanks again to ZootCatchy for the tip.

UPDATE 33: High quality videos of the entire 2009 San Diego Comicon TRON Legacy panel (excepting the movie trailer footage that was shown) have appeared online, even including the question and answer (Q&A) session. Altogether, the videos add up to about 18 minutes of coverage. Thanks to HallHCoverage for making them available.

In an interview on the site Coming Soon, Disney films studio exec Oren Aviv has a bold claim stating that "the stuff you saw last year is bad compared to what it's gonna be in the movie. The tipping point for me was Joe Kosinski, his vision for the movie".

And one final video about Flynn's Arcade. G4TV has a nice chronicle of events leading up to the discovery of the Flynn's Arcade re-creation. The whole Flynn Lives and Flynn's Arcade ARG/viral was done by 42 Entertainment.

Please check back later today for another update. Even though the entire panel is now available in video form, I'll still be posting my summary of what happened at the 2009 San Diego Comicon TRON panel.

TRON Trade Paperback (Graphic Novel) Now Available

2009-07-19T12:10:00.004-04:00

SLG Publishing has finally released the graphic novel mentioned in a previous article, that collects all 6 issues of the TRON: The Ghost in the Machine comic.

The graphic novel is available from several sources. It can be ordered directly from SLG Publishing themelves. It can be ordered from Amazon for $13.57 U.S. at a discounted price. Or you can order it from your local comic book store.

I will be purchasing the graphic novel and reviewing it, to compare it with the original 6 issue comic print run. According to co-writer Landry Walker, Steven Lisberger has written an afterword especially for this release that was not in any of the original issues.

You can read my reviews of the original #1, #2, and #3 issues in previous articles. I'll be posting reviews of the remaining 3 issues first, which will then be followed up by a review of the graphic novel.

TRON Videos: Parodies, And Something Special

2009-07-19T07:48:00.007-04:00

With new information and a new trailer from the TRON sequel imminent at this year's San Diego 2009 Comicon: a sudden wave of TRON mania has been hitting filmmakers, who are now releasing parodies based on the original film.

First up, is TRON Reboot. Two episodes have been released, so far. They feature a light-hearted sense of humor, and seem like fond homages that are meant to score geek cred with the fans.

This article will be updated with the next two episodes of TRON Reboot, when they become available.

Next up, is Cheech and Chong's trippy, psychadelic mashup of TRON. Yes, that's right, Cheech and Chong! Needless to say, their parody of TRON is R-rated and not safe for work. So don't watch if you find Cheech and Chong's type of humor offensive. You've been warned!

There are two versions of the video. One is an edited, cut down version that debuted on MSN Video.

Edited Cheech and Chong TRON parody on MSN's Cinemash

The other is the full, unedited version which is quite a bit longer and has some extra behind-the-scenes footage revealing how the video was made.

Also available is an interview with Cheech and Chong: discussing various things, including what they're up to these days, and how Cheech is a fan of the original TRON.

Cheech and Chong Interview on MSN's Cinemash

Finally, a rare interview with Harrison Ellenshaw has appeared on YouTube. Harrison was one of the people who helped supervise special effects on the film, and worked on some of the background paintings. (Yes, TRON used a lot of traditional special effects like paintings and hand drawn animation. It wasn't all done on the computer!)

The majority of the discussion is about TRON, where Harrison is asked what he thinks about the chances of a sequel and how long it will take to be made. Remember that this interview was done 27 years ago! If only Harrison had known how long a sequel would actually take . . .

Thanks to aldul and Mr. Sinistar for their tips.

Another TRON 2.0: KILLER APP Mod Update

2009-07-17T01:57:00.008-04:00

April 16th, 2010 UPDATE: This article is out of date. The Killer App Mod v1.1 has been released.

It's been a long time since the last update, but here is the first of a series of short videos (and possibly screenshots) showing some of the new features that will be in the next version of the mod. More videos are to come, at a later time.

Download a high quality version of the trailer here
This video demonstrates the cutscenes, in-game geometry, and HUD, all in the proper dimensions and aspect ratios for a widescreen display at 1680x1050 resolution. It also shows a Gold cheat integrated directly into the first level of the game . . . now for some real user power!

Due to the sheer number of updates that the mod will make to the game, from the most minor to the major, and because not all the planned features may end up in the upcoming release: the next version of the mod will likely be released as an Open Beta. This will allow for the fact that not all features may be complete, and also to allow testing by a broad range of users, to help discover any problems that may crop up. These issues will be dealt with in another future and final version, based on everyone's feedback.

The release of the Open Beta is tentatively scheduled to occur in the Fall of 2009. As before, no promises are made. But we will do our best to have the next version completed by the expected timeframe.

Thanks from the LDSO and Killer App Mod teams.

For earlier updates, please read this previous article. More information can also be found on the ModDB KILLER APP Mod page.

TRON 2.0 Map Packs Updated, File Links Fixed

2009-07-06T19:31:00.005-04:00

The last 3-4 months have been quite frustrating, due to issues with the main file host I've been using to host all the TRON 2.0 files. That host is Filefront.

For those who may not know, Filefront nearly shut down at the end of March. The previous owners, Ziff-Davis Media, are nearly bankrupt and were looking to shed assets in a bid to remain afloat. But at the last minute, the original owners and founders of Filefront bought back the site.

During that transition period, there were endless problems at Filefront. Files disappearing, features broken, you name it. Only now are things beginning to settle down and return to normal. Now I've finally been able to properly fix the broken file links here, and not have to worry about them becoming broken again only a week or two later.

Still, despite the fact that things have returned to normal (for now), in the future I plan not to rely on Filefront as my primary host for TRON 2.0 files. Instead, over at the LDSO site we are working toward having our own fully featured download section. Some time in the not too distant future, the LDSO site will be receiving another update to add a download section and some other new features.

But in the meantime, I'm hoping that the continual problems have at least ended for the moment.

The following TRON 2.0 Multiplayer custom map packs have been updated:

Changes in Light Cycle (LC) Map Pack 5
EN12-82 (EN12-82) ADDED
EN12-82-1 (EN12-82-1) ADDED
EN12-82-2 (EN12-82-2) ADDED

You can delete the following file if you have it (it's been merged with this map pack):
EN12-82.REZ

Changes in Disc Arena (DA) Map Pack 1
DA-7982 (DA-7982) ADDED

You can delete the following file if you have it (it's been merged with this map pack):
DA-7982.REZ

Changes in Mac Light Cycle (LC) Map Pack
EN12-82 (EN12-82) ADDED
EN12-82-1 (EN12-82-1) ADDED
EN12-82-2 (EN12-82-2) ADDED

Changes in Mac Disc Arena/Derez (DA/DM) Map Pack
DA-7982 (DA-7982) ADDED

I recommend that everyone (especially server operators) update their DA Pack 1 and LC Pack 5 files, as soon as possible. Replace any individual map .REZ files with these map packs.

These updated map packs are also available from the All TRON 2.0 Files page.

TRON April Fool's 2009 Joke Roundup

2009-07-06T17:46:00.009-04:00

A little later this time . . . but here's a roundup of all the TRON-related April Fool's jokes for 2009, like the one I did last year.

First, there was the Uwe Boll to direct TRON sequel joke at TRON-Sector. Several of the admins at TRON-Sector conspired to come up with this one, including: TheReelTodd, Mr. Sinistar, and TronFAQ (myself).

If you clicked on the link that was supposed to take you to Uwe Boll's blog, you'd be greeted with this!

Mr. Sinistar created a custom TRON themed Rick Roll just for our April Fool's joke this year, with music and animation.

A lot of people fell for this Uwe Boll joke, so . . . mission accomplished. :)

Second, was the Dan Shor takes over TRON Wiki joke by Mr. Sinistar, who is the admin of the wiki.

Not sure how many fell for this one, but it was definitely an imaginative and unique prank. And you can never have too much Dan Shor. Re-rezz RAM!

Third, was my own Jeff Bridges No Longer Working On TRON Sequel joke.

At first, I wasn't sure I wanted to do this, because I thought it might be in bad taste. But, I couldn't resist the temptation. So I went ahead and did it.

A lot of people fell for this one, because I was careful to make sure the joke wasn't obvious right from the start. With the other jokes, you might have guessed they were fake since they were a bit ridiculous to begin with. Or, they at least had clues in the text that kind of gave it away.

But with this one: unless you clicked the link at the end, you really couldn't be sure. Of course, since Mr. Sinistar had provided us with such a great Rick Roll, I felt compelled to use it again for the link that revealed the truth. :)

Finally, we had the TRON will fight Skynet joke over at the site GiantFreakinRobot.

The joke was that a secret scene would be shown after the end credits of Terminator Salvation, where TRON would fight Skynet. Because . . . Skynet was really the MCP. This secret scene was supposed to kick start the relaunch of the TRON franchise.

TRON. Fighting Skynet. Because it's really the MCP. I kid you not, that was the joke.

I mean, it's like the author didn't even try. At least, with the other jokes this year . . . even if they were a bit silly, they at least sounded somewhat believable. You might have fallen for them. But the whole idea of this TRON vs. Skynet joke is so ludicrous, that practically no one would fall for it. I'd be very surprised if anyone did.

That's all the TRON-related April Fool's jokes that I noticed for this year. If anyone else has any to share, please let us all know by leaving a comment.

TRON Comics On Sale

2009-04-16T16:40:00.002-04:00

SLG Publishing is having a sale, with a 30% discount on all the TRON: The Ghost in the Machine comics.

There are 6 issues, and I've reviewed the first three here on this site. Links to #1, #2, and #3 reviews here. (Reviews of the last three are still forthcoming. Yes, I know I've been saying this forever. But they are coming at some point, I swear.)

Visit this page on SLG's site to peruse their store, and be able to purchase the issues. At the last step when you're about to checkout your purchase, be sure to use the code taxtime09 to receive your discount.

For those of you still holding back, waiting for the trade paperback: the last I heard was that its fate was still up in the air, and its release is not guaranteed. So don't wait for it, because you could be in for a very long wait, if it shows up at all. With this discount, the price difference between the individual issues and the paperback should be negligible. In fact, you might even save money by buying now.

Cindy Morgan Petition

2009-04-16T16:09:00.007-04:00

A group of TRON fans have rallied and gotten together to create a petition, regarding their desire to see Cindy Morgan return for the TRON sequel. I support this petition, and hope it might have some impact.

Even though filming for the sequel has already started, it may not be too late for Cindy to make an appearance in the film. Also, in a news update from not too long ago, I mentioned the possibility that Cindy Morgan may still appear. A fourth, unknown actress is said to be appearing in the film.

Please take the time to sign the petition, and let's hope that Disney is paying attention.

If you think petitions don't work, then let me point you to my article from a couple of years back, when I mailed a hard copy of my petition to Disney on the 25th Anniversary of TRON. Along with several copies of the petition mailed to various people within Disney, I included a letter mentioning that all the people who signed were eagerly awaiting a TRON sequel.

Then, a couple of months later, Disney announced that a TRON sequel would be made.

Now, I don't pretend to have moved mountains here. In fact, I never heard back from anyone at Disney. So I don't know what impact the petition had, if any. But if it was a pebble that helped along an imminent avalanche, then it was worth it.

LDSO Site Issues

2009-04-10T16:07:00.004-04:00

The LDSO site has been experiencing some server issues for the last couple of days. The site is currently down as I write this, and there may be further intermittent disruptions when the site comes back up.

Site admin and fellow LDSO member Load"*",8,1 has informed me that there's been a hardware failure, and while our host works to fix this, their servers are currently being overloaded. Hopefully, all will be straightened out within the next couple of days.

Jeff Bridges No Longer Working On TRON Sequel?

2009-04-01T03:48:00.005-04:00

Rumors currently circulating the internet suggest that Jeff Bridges — who played the lead character in the original TRON film, hacker extraordinaire Kevin Flynn — will no longer appear in the sequel. No reason was given for his departure.

Word is that the film's producers are now scrambling to find a replacement for Jeff, and that their leading pick to replace him is none other than his own brother, Beau Bridges.

If true, this news definitely comes as something of a disappointment. Now, if anyone could replace Jeff, it would be Beau. They're both great actors. But it just won't be quite the same, if it isn't the wise-cracking Flynn played by Jeff that we all knew and quoted endlessly throughout our childhoods.

Until the rumors can be verified, I won't be adding this news to the massive TRON sequel news post that I'm keeping up to date.

UPDATE: Thanks go out to Mr. Sinistar, for finding what is apparently the original source of these rumors.

New TRON-Inspired Cell Phone Commercial

2009-02-19T13:18:00.009-05:00

I'd recently heard whispers about a new commercial for the Kyocera Neo cell phone, that was supposed to feature vehicles inspired by the Light Cycles in TRON.

After a while of searching, I came across an online source for the commercial and decided to share, because it's just too cool to miss. :)

Click here to watch the commercial (QuickTime required)
Apparently, the commercial aired during this year's Superbowl and caused a lot of people to initially think it was another teaser for the TRON sequel. A deliberate ploy on the part of Kyocera's ad agency? To cash in on the buzz surrounding the sequel? I certainly think so.

Disney Interactive Beginning Work On New TRON Game

2009-01-31T19:01:00.017-05:00

Variety reports that Disney Interactive is beginning to make plans for a new TRON game, to tie in with the upcoming movie sequel.

This news follows up on an earlier report: where it was revealed that Disney Interactive has laid off staff, and the sequel to their critically-panned shooter Turok has been cancelled due to disappointing sales.

To say that the release of another TRON game to tie in with the sequel is a "no-brainer", as mentioned in the Variety article, is definitely an understatement. As soon as it was known that the movie sequel had become a reality, it was mind-numbingly obvious that a game announcement would follow. Hell, TRON pioneered the idea of the game tie-in to go with a movie.

The only thing that does surprise me, is mention that DI is "talking to developers". Considering that Disney has gone out of its way to acquire or build-up its own game development studios . . . to hear that they're seeking outside help on this, is somewhat surprising.

Then again, the same could be said of the fact that Digital Domain will be handling the CGI work on the TRON sequel. Considering that Disney also has Pixar: who you think could, and would, want to handle that project, as well. I can only guess that in both cases, these internal Disney studios have their plates full already and can't take on the film and game projects. Or, perhaps, because of the current economic climate, it's more economical to let another development house handle the game.

It's currently unknown what form the game will take. But based on speculation and some prior inside knowledge I have, it will probably end up being similar to the cancelled TRON 3.0 game project. What was TRON 3.0? A game that was to be based on the Unreal Engine, and would involve the electronic and real worlds crossing over. Where the threat of a virus from the computer entering the real world, became a possibility.

Even though I know this will probably fall on deaf ears, here's a plea from a fan dedicated to both TRON and the previous TRON game. Disney, this is your chance to make or break yourselves in the world of video game publishing. Based on your past actions, your previous track record in this area is quite abysmal.

I'm begging you . . . try harder this time. Make sure that not only is the game the best that it can possibly be, but give it the first-class support it deserves and work with the fans this time. Make sure they know the game exists, and make them happy customers. Allow them to properly create maps and mods for the game. If you don't, you'll only end up hurting your reputation again: like you did the last time, with TRON 2.0.

If you are shopping around for a developer, perhaps bringing Monolith back to do the next TRON game wouldn't be a bad idea. Despite their being owned by a competing studio (Warner Bros.) now. Since their execution on TRON 2.0 was so well done. The only thing that held back that game, was poor marketing, support, and relations with the customer base. You shot yourselves in the foot, not us.

Thanks to TRON.dll for the tip!

February 3rd UPDATE: Conflicting information from Joystiq now states that Disney Interactive's Propaganda Games studio, may be responsible for developing the next TRON game after all.

While this seems like a more sensible business decision, you'll forgive me if I don't jump for joy if it turns out that Propaganda is indeed working on the game. Since Turok was a less-than-spectacular game, that received an even worse PC port. I, personally, will not buy the next TRON game if there is no PC version or if it's a poor PC port.

In fact, I'm already prepared for the fact that there will probably be no support for editing the game at all, this time around. Meaning, that it will be extremely difficult to create maps and mods again. Though, if the game will be based on the Unreal Engine — like I suspect, if the game is indeed in Propaganda's hands — then there is some small hope, as there is a wealth of knowledge out there about modding Unreal engine games.

Thanks again to TRON.dll for the tip.

TRON Sound Designer Frank Serafine Interview

2009-01-28T21:21:00.004-05:00

The TRON Wiki has a new interview with Frank Serafine, who created virtually all of the sound effects for the original TRON film.

In the interview, Serafine reveals exactly how he created the sound effects for the Light Cycles, Recognizers, Identity Discs, Tanks, and more. He also shares a few tantalizing tidbits about the upcoming TRON sequel. (To read what Serafine revealed, and for plenty of other news about the sequel: please visit this previous article.)

Congratulations to TRON Wiki founder Mr. Sinistar for scoring this great interview with Mr. Serafine.

TRON 2.0 Ranked Third On Top 10 Sci-Fi Games List

2009-01-09T12:33:00.012-05:00

On the new sister site to Sci-Fi Wire, called Fidgit, the game TRON 2.0 has been ranked third in a list of titles that "redefine science-fiction" in gaming.

The author of the article (Tom Chick, a well-known and popular games journalist) states that "Monolith's under-appreciated 2003 TRON 2.0 did a superlative job recreating the world of the movie". Damn right, it did. It's truly an under-appreciated gem of a game that flew under most people's radar, thanks to poor promotion and support from its publisher.

There also seemed to be a resentment among a significant number of fans, that it wasn't exactly the same as the movie and instead chose to update the world of TRON. They wanted TRON: The Arcade Game, Next Gen Edition. Which I thought was grossly unfair. The game is very respectful in its new take on the original source material, paying great homage to the film despite the changes made. One can only hope that the TRON sequel film will be as thoughtful in its treatment of the first film, as the game has been. (TRON 2.0: Killer App's pointless alterations, notwithstanding.)

TRON 2.0 did very well on the list, even managing to top such classic titles as Multiwinia (an obviously TRON-inspired game, if there ever was one), Myst, Out of this World (a classic that I still love to this day), and Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri.

And it's right behind the Fallout series and Bioshock, no less. (Bioshock, frankly, does not deserve to occupy that top spot, IMHO. I was so looking forward to Bioshock as a title that would uphold ~~Irrational's~~ 2K Boston's tradition of producing intelligent games. What we got, instead, was a mediocre title: with fantastic visual and audio production, decent storytelling, but poor gameplay. Anyway, I digress . . .)

No Blu-ray TRON Release In 2009

2009-01-07T14:44:00.007-05:00

As I had already suspected, TRON will likely not see a Blu-ray release for 2009. RopeofSilicon has an article featuring a press release by Disney, listing all of their known Blu-ray releases for 2009. TRON isn't among them.

While purely speculation on my part, I am certain that we won't see TRON on Blu-ray until shortly before the release of the TRON sequel. Probably no more than six months prior to the release of the sequel in theaters. (You can find up-to-date news about the progress of the sequel, in this previous article.) This makes perfect "marketing" sense, despite how much TRON fans will probably remain disappointed and impatiently await a newer, high-definition release.

You have to wonder, though, how much additional expense and effort will be made for a Blu-ray release of TRON. One would think that Disney will pull out all the stops, of course. Let's hope so.

TRON Places Ninth On Top 50 Movie Special Effects List

2009-01-07T14:31:00.003-05:00

The site Den of Geek has listed TRON in ninth place, for its Top 50 Movie Special Effects list. The choice was made, based on the Solar Sailer escape sequence in the film.

TRON managed to place higher than other classic special effects laden films, such as: Metropolis, Return of the Jedi, The Last Starfighter, The Ten Commandments, Terminator 3, Aliens, Forbidden Planet, Blade Runner, 2001: A Space Oddyssey, and many more.

Thanks to LDSO member Load "*",8,1 for the tip!

New Poll: TR2N or TRZ?

2008-12-09T20:22:00.014-05:00

After hearing the news about the TRON sequel's title changing from TR2N to TRZ — whether it turns out to be true, or not — I decided I would create a new poll about it.

What do you think? Was TR2N an acceptable title? Better than TRZ? About the same? Don't care? Let Disney know, by participating in the poll.

TRON Sequel Poll and Others Closed, Results

2008-12-09T19:24:00.009-05:00

I've closed all of the older polls that I created, dating back the last year or so. Thank you to everyone who participated in the polls. Here are the results.

I think it's safe to say, at this point, that the next TRON film is going to be a sequel. Not a remake. Jeff Bridges is confirmed as reprising his role of Flynn. That news pretty much clinches it. Thank the Users it's a sequel, and not a needless remake.

The results haven't changed a lot since the last time I took a look at them. The majority of poll participants have always overwhelmingly preferred a sequel.

There's been an increase in the number of poll participants who said they weren't interested in the TRON comic. Which is disappointing. But the majority have always responded that they were interested.

To find out more about the comic, visit my articles where I reviewed issues #1, #2, and #3. My reviews of #4, #5, and #6 are still forthcoming. For additional news and information on the comic, just use the "Search TRON 2.0 News" box in the upper right corner of this site.

There hasn't been a lot of change here since last time, either. The majority of poll participants liked the comic.

The results of this poll come as no surprise to me. The number one preferred platform, that poll participants would like to see the XBOX Live Arcade versions of TRON Arcade and Discs of TRON migrate to, is the PC.

Now that Microsoft's Games for Windows Live offers a Marketplace: how about it, Disney Interactive? Porting those two games to the PC would be incredibly easy to do. But let's hope, at the same time, they'd take the time to address the complaints about the original XBOX versions.

The second most desired platform, the Wii, also comes as no surprise. The Wii controllers and a TRON game were made for each other.

TRON 2.0: KILLER APP Mod Update

2008-11-23T11:48:00.010-05:00

April 16th, 2010 UPDATE: This article is out of date. The Killer App Mod v1.1 has been released.

A lot of people have been asking what's up with the KILLER APP Mod for the PC version of TRON 2.0 lately, so I thought I'd post an update.

First off . . . no, the project isn't dead. There were problems with the first release (it was released back in March), and it was withdrawn. A new version is still being worked on. As soon as we have any reasonable estimate as to when the new version will be completed, we'll post another update.

It would have been easy to just fix the issues with the first release and re-release it. If we'd done that, you would have already seen a new version by now. Instead, we're going to take the time to add additional improvements to the mod.

We apologize for the delay and lack of updates, up until now. Progress has been slow, due to the difficult and ambitious nature of some of the new features we're attempting to add. There have also been disagreements within the team, and some members have had real-life issues impact the time they could devote to the project. To try and avoid future issues, the next version of the mod will be thoroughly tested by every contributor, and more volunteers, in the next round of beta testing.

Here are some planned features for the new version of the mod. We can't promise that they'll all make it in, but we'll do our best.

Higher quality and resolution multiplayer character skins
One additional new character added to multiplayer
Derez powerups in proper 3-D, to match their Light Cycle counterparts
New, different first-person POV arms for characters in multiplayer
Proper widescreen support

We hope that you will be patient, and that you'll find the additional wait worth the results.

Thanks from the LDSO and KILLER APP Mod teams.

This has also been posted to the ModDB KILLER APP Mod page, and the LDSO forum. If you would like to find out more about the KILLER APP Mod and see a preview video, please see this previous article.

New TRON 2.0 Light Cycle Maps

2008-10-11T10:18:00.011-04:00

I'm very pleased to be able to announce that Void — who runs the EN12-82 TRON 2.0 multiplayer servers — has released three new multiplayer Light Cycle maps for players to enjoy.

They're called EN12-82, EN12-82-1, and EN12-82-2.

I'm very impressed with these maps (particularly the first one, EN12-82), considering that they are Void's first. Though he did have a little help, from yours truly. ;)

It's possible that he may update these maps, some time in the future. But for now, he considers them all to be in a complete enough state to be released.

Sample screenshots of EN12-82 by Void

Sample screenshots of EN12-82-1 by Void

Sample screenshots of EN12-82-2 by Void

You can download the maps from HERE. If you don't know how to use custom maps in TRON 2.0, I suggest reading this guide to help you out.

Upcoming Conference Features TR2N Director Joseph Kosinski

2008-09-25T23:13:00.007-04:00

The 5D: The Future of Immersive Design conference being held on October 4th and 5th, 2008 at California State University, in Long Beach, California, will feature TR2N Director Joseph Kosinski as a guest. He will be attending the Narrating Space panel, which will discuss the future of technologies used in creating science fiction entertainment. Walt Disney Imagineering is also attending the conference.

If any news about TR2N comes out of this event: I'll be sure to follow up and update this article, or the previous TRON 2 Sequel article.

TRON 2.0 GameSpy Master Server Is Currently Down

2008-09-17T00:37:00.017-04:00

As I write this, the GameSpy Master Server for TRON 2.0 is currently down.

What does this mean? It means that you won't be able to find any servers when you try to Join an Internet Game from the Multiplayer menu. Effectively, you can't play online any more. (Yes, I'm aware it's still possible . . . but it's become a lot more difficult.) This affects both the PC and Mac versions of the game.

Now, this situation is more than likely temporary. It's happened before to other games that use GameSpy's services. And plenty of games older than TRON 2.0 are still supported by GameSpy.

I wouldn't be panicking yet. But I wanted to post this article, in case the situation continues for any serious length of time.

If the Master Server isn't back up within the next couple of days, I will be sure to investigate what is going on and report it here.

Thanks to TRON.dll and Daddyo for letting me know.

UPDATE 1: I've discovered evidence in the GameSpy forums that other games are affected as well. A moderator in the forums says that GameSpy is aware of the problem, and is working on fixing it.

UPDATE 2: I don't know exactly when the TRON 2.0 Master Server went back up, but as of 7:25 PM EST today (when I'm writing this update): the server is working again. Crisis averted. :)

UPDATE 3: And now the TRON 2.0 Master Server is down again, as of Sept. 18th at 6:35 PM EST. It was working last night, and earlier this morning. Sigh . . . c'mon GameSpy! Fix this issue properly.

UPDATE 4: I'm not sure when the TRON 2.0 Master Server went back up. But as of 4:25 PM EST on Sept. 21st, the server is working again.

However, not very many TRON 2.0 servers are being listed. I don't know whether that's because some server operators took their servers down temporarily, or if GameSpy still needs to sort things out. On the GameSpy forums, some people have suggested that server operators may need to restart their servers in order for them to appear.

TRON Comic Issue 6 Release Date

2008-08-26T14:49:00.004-04:00

According to Diamond Comics, issue #6 of TRON: The Ghost in the Machine by SLG Publishing will be released ~~next week Thursday, September 4th, 2008.~~

September 4th UPDATE: Diamond Comics has screwed up the release date for the second time in a row. TRON #6 is now scheduled for a September 10th release. Apologies for the error. But, trust me. I'm just as annoyed by the shifting dates, as you are. :p

Issue #6 will be the final issue. There is also the previously announced trade paperback that collects all the issues into one book, but the latest word on its release is that it won't be out until around Christmas.

TRON Comic Issue 6 Preview Videos

2008-08-25T13:04:00.004-04:00

SLG Publishing and TRON: The Ghost in the Machine co-writer Landry Walker, have both recently released videos that contain preview images for issue #6 of the comic. Needless to say, the previews shown are spoilers. So if you don't want to spoil yourself, you may not want to watch the videos.

However, for those who do: here are the two videos. The first is an interview with co-writers Landry Walker and Eric Jones, containing a few preview images. The other is strictly a preview of all the issues of the comic, including some artwork from issue #6.

I also posted some vague spoilers in a previous article, based on a preview copy of issue #6, for the spoiler junkies out there. :)

Interview with TRON Comic
co-writers Landry Walker (left) and Eric Jones (right)

All issues Preview, including some images from issue #6

While I'm at it: I thought I'd include a video released back a couple of years ago, from when the comic debuted.

Early Interview from the time the comic debuted

MacPlay Is No More

2008-08-25T12:30:00.002-04:00

A short time ago, I discovered that MacPlay no longer exists. Or, at least, not in its original form any more.

The company now calls itself MumboJumbo Premium Casual Games. Attempting to visit the old MacPlay site URL redirects you to the new site. They now create casual games for all platforms, rather than specializing in Mac titles.

Fortunately, patch files for all their older games are still available from their site. This includes the PowerPC Mac OSX version of TRON 2.0.

However, this does inevitably mean that no further patches for the Mac version of TRON 2.0 will be developed. Any bugs will not be fixed (such as the Dedicated Server not working on OSX 10.4 Tiger), and no new patch will be created to make the game work on OSX 10.5 Leopard.

It's sad to see TRON 2.0 being abandoned by MacPlay, but at least they have a slightly better track record than BVG/DIS. (Four years of being prominently listed on their site, versus less than two years at BVG.)

Which title do you prefer for the TRON Sequel?
	TR2N
	TRZ
	I hate them both. Disney needs to come up with a better title!
	I don't care, as long as the sequel is good!

Free polls from Pollhost.com