It was announced today that the TRON Light Cycle / Run roller coaster would be opening Spring 2023 (no specific date given) at the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World Florida, and a web page for the attraction has now gone live.

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/attractions/magic-kingdom/tron-lightcycle-run/


This announcement brings to a close a 6 year journey; when I first learned there was the possibility of the coaster opening in the Magic Kingdom, back in 2016. Though the original concepts for the coaster were quite different from what we ended up with.

Disney announced a new TRON game today as part of their D23 2022 Expo, named TRON: Identity, which will be a "Visual Novel" or "Adventure" style of game.

It's being made by Bithell Games (the studio of Mike Bithell, who did Thomas Was Alone, Subsurface Circular, and John Wick Hex, among others) and will be released some time in 2023 on PC and consoles.

You can wishlist it on Steam right now:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2109430/Tron_Identity/

And here's the page for TRON: Identity on the Bithell Games site with lots of screenshots:
https://www.bithellgames.com/tron-identity


Looks like the new TRON: Identity game has trees. So does that mean trees are "canon" now?

We (LDSO) always felt simulations of trees and plants should exist in the electronic world of TRON, so they appear in our User Error 2 and upcoming User Error 3 fan mission expansions for TRON 2.0.


TRON:Identity


User Error 2


User Error 3

For the 19th Anniversary of TRON 2.0 (released August 26, 2003 in North America), I thought I'd discuss the potential lifetime number of copies sold. Both digital and physical. (This is only going to cover the PC version, not the Xbox and GBA versions.)

Back in 2017, when I stopped covering SteamSpy's reporting of the ownership numbers of TRON 2.0 on Steam: The most optimistic number placed total sales at approximately 48,000 copies, since the game was released on Steam in late 2014.

GOG started selling TRON 2.0 in late 2016, but unfortunately I'm not aware of any resource that could estimate the number of copies sold there. So I can't account for that.




https://steamspy.com/app/327740
SteamSpy no longer provides numbers for free, and now only reports a range. At the time I visited this page, the site reported a minimum of 200,000 copies of TRON 2.0 sold on Steam. But depending on when you visit, this fluctuates, and I've seen the range start at 100,000.

Much as I'd love it to be true, I don't believe the 200,000 estimate is correct. So I'm going with the more realistic minimum of 100,000 copies of TRON 2.0 sold on Steam. I could see the number of copies sold increasing from 48,000 to 100,000 between 2017 and 2022.

Aside from being unable to account for the number of copies sold on GOG, there's also the fact that people who bought TRON RUN/r during its Early Access phase on Steam, each received a copy of TRON 2.0 for free.

The TRON RUN/r Early Access period ran from late 2015 to early 2016, and based on SteamSpy data from the time, the most optimistic number of owners of TRON RUN/r on Steam — before the 2016 Steam Summer Sale — was approximately 13,000.

So while there probably weren't 13,000 people who bought TRON RUN/r during its Early Access phase on Steam: It gives us a ballpark idea of the number of copies of TRON 2.0 that were given to TRON RUN/r owners for free.


https://web.archive.org/web/20130711054926/http://www.gamespot.com/news/npd-weekly-pc-game-sales-chart-6074916
In terms of the number of physical copies of TRON 2.0 sold, no official sales number was ever released publicly, that I'm aware of. What we do know, is that TRON 2.0 debuted at #2 on the NPD PC Sales chart during the week of August 24-30, 2003.

Even without an official number for the physical sales of TRON 2.0 on PC, I would think that — in terms of lifetime sales, by this point in 2022 — approximately another 100,000 copies sold would be a reasonable estimate. My guess of 100,000 is based on the game debuting in the top ten, and the Producer of TRON 2.0 at BVI/Disney saying it sold reasonably well in a message forum.

So, optimistically, if we add roughly 100,000 digital sales and 100,000 physical sales, we're probably looking at close to 200,000 copies of TRON 2.0 sold as of the game's 19th Anniversary.

Since no public sales figure was released for the number of physical copies of TRON 2.0 sold on PC (that I'm aware of) . . . I pinged Kevin Lambert (the Lead Programmer of TRON 2.0 when he was at Monolith Productions) on the 19th Anniversary of TRON 2.0, and asked if he could provide any insight.


https://twitter.com/kevinlambert/status/1563023603477925889
Unfortunately, Kevin wasn’t able to provide any additional information. But I really appreciate him taking the time to respond!

Some more sad news today, on a more personal note. I just found out about the passing of a friend I used to play against in TRON 2.0 Multiplayer, going by the alias TRS-Eighty.

TRS-Eighty was a great presence in the game and I enjoyed my matches with him. He will be missed.

Thanks go out to Tomzer for letting me know.

Just found out David Warner has passed away at the age of 80. I'll never forget his memorable performances as Ed Dillinger, Sark, and the MCP in the original TRON film. RIP Mr. Warner.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/jul/25/veteran-british-actor-david-warner-star-of-the-omen-and-tron-dies-aged-80

Do TRON 2.0, TRON Evolution, and TRON RUN/r work on Windows 11 (releasing today Oct. 5, 2021)?


TRON 2.0 still working fine on Windows 11 (Version 21H2, Build 22000).

You can play Multiplayer if you install the current version 1.1a of the Killer App Mod on your Retail Disc/Steam/GOG copy.

http://tronfaq.blogspot.com/2006/02/all-tron-20-files-in-one-place.html#killerappmod

This video also serves as another short preview of Killer App Mod v1.2. Any differences in the game you may notice are still works-in-progress, and might not be final.


TRON Evolution works fine on Windows 11 (Version 21H2, Build 22000) despite the SecuROM situation. It's possible to bypass the DRM and still play the game.

Games for Windows Live works and you can play Multiplayer. (You play against bots until people join.)

If you need help getting TRON Evolution to run on Windows, visit this discussion topic on the Steam forum and send a friend request to P4R4D0X and politely ask for his assistance: https://steamcommunity.com/app/315440/discussions/0/2733047810439073181/


TRON RUN/r still working fine on Windows 11 (Version 21H2, Build 22000).

September 22, 2022 UPDATE: TRON 2.0, TRON Evolution, and TRON RUN/r all continue to work fine on the Windows 11 2022 Update (Version 22H2, Build 22621).

I had no idea G4 made a special about TRON 2.0. Apparently it might only have been shown at GDC 2004, and not aired on G4TV, so that's why I wasn't aware of it until now.

It's a really great retrospective on both TRON and the making of TRON 2.0.

It also basically confirms a rumor I'd heard, as to why TRON 2.0 was delayed from early 2003 to August 2003.

Thanks to ENunn on YouTube for sharing this!

For the 18th Anniversary of TRON 2.0 (released August 26, 2003 in North America) I responded to a challenge from the Lead Programmer of TRON 2.0 (when he was at Monolith Productions), Kevin Lambert.

Time stamps of note:

• 00:02 - TRON 2.0 Lead Programmer Kevin Lambert's TRON Maze Challenge
• 00:47 - Response
• 01:29 - A trace of this idea left in the game
• 01:39 - Light Cycle improvements in Killer App Mod v1.2

If you want to see Killer App Mod v1.2 progress updates between video uploads to the LDSO YouTube channel, visit here:

https://twitter.com/i/events/1106632744799535105


Kevin asked if anyone could add a concept that was left out of the final game: Placing the player in a claustrophobic Light Cycle maze like the one seen in the original TRON film, with prompts appearing to let the player know when to turn (somewhat like how the game Dragon's Lair prompted the player when to move).

A fourth Killer App Mod v1.2 Single Player fixes trailer is still forthcoming. Consider this to be a "Preview Trailer 10.5". 🙂

Killer App Mod v1.2 will now include what's needed so you can make your own custom maps/levels to prompt the player to turn when riding a Light Cycle. And we'll most likely end up using this concept in User Error 3, LDSO's upcoming follow-up to the previous User Error 1 and 2 Single Player expansions.


https://twitter.com/kevinlambert/status/1431076108301049856
And Kevin did reply to me on Twitter! He was pleased with the response to his challenge to do a Light Cycle "TRON Maze" in TRON 2.0. 😊

Light Cycle mazes with "turn prompts" were something meant to be in the final game, but the TRON 2.0 development team at Monolith Productions didn't have enough time to put them in.

P.S. I do plan to ask Kevin about some things, but I want to give him a bit of space and not come across as too pushy or demanding. So please don't anyone bother him too much, or else he might get annoyed and it will end up doing more harm than good. I believe he works for Microsoft now, so he's probably super busy a lot of the time.

August 31st, 2021 UPDATE:

https://twitter.com/MonolithDev/status/1432767099592601602
Monolith retweeted the TRON Maze challenge response video. Honored that they thought it was worth sharing on their Twitter account! 😃