The following TRON 2.0 Multiplayer custom map packs have either been updated, or created:

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Changes in LC Map Pack 3
Crash Land (CRASHLAND) ADDED
TRON LightCycles (TRON LIGHTCYCLE) ADDED

You can delete the following files if you have them (they've been merged with this map pack):
CRASHLAND.REZ
TRON_LC.REZ

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Changes in DA Map Pack 1
Disc Golf of TRON (DISC_GOLF_V1.0) ADDED

You can delete the following file if you have it (it's been merged with this map pack):
DISC_GOLF_V1.0.REZ

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Changes in DM Map Pack 1
Hub (VMAN_HUB) ADDED

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

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New DSO Map Pack
Disc Arena
Ancient Rebound (DSODA-AS-REBOUND) ADDED
Disc Blue (DSODA-BS-DISC) ADDED
Ring Blue (DSODA-BS-RING) ADDED
Tetra Rhomboid (DSODA-TRS-RHOMBOID) ADDED
Tetra Trigonal (DSODA-TRS-TETRA) ADDED
Tube Coliseum (DSODA-COLLOSEUM) ADDED
Derez
Fragmented (DSODM-TS-FRAGMENT) ADDED
Hover (DSODM-HOVER) ADDED
Ancient 4 vs. 1 (DSODM-AS-4V1) ADDED

If you've already downloaded and run both dso_mp_setup.exe and dso_mp_patch1-1.exe, you do not need this map pack. It's simply being offered as a new alternative, that only requires you to download one file instead of two. This is the .REZ file that is created after running both programs.

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New DM Map Pack 2
DM-1.5A (MORS-DM-1.5A) ADDED
DM-2.5 (DM-2.5) ADDED
DM-2.5A (MORS-DM-2.5A) ADDED
DM-2.5B (MORS-DM-2.5B) ADDED
DM Ladder 01 (DM-01LADR) ADDED
DM Ladder 02 (DM-02LADR) ADDED
DM Ladder 03 (DM-03LADR) ADDED
Mor's Map (MORSMAP) ADDED

This new map pack collects previously separate maps, into one convenient to download file.

You can delete the following files if you have them (they've been merged into this map pack):
MORS-DM-1.5A.REZ
DM-2.5.REZ
MORS-DM-2.5A.REZ
MORS-DM-2.5B.REZ
DM-O1LADR.REZ
DM-02LADR.REZ
DM-03LADR.REZ
MorsMap.REZ

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Changes in Mac LC Map Pack
Crash Land (CRASHLAND) ADDED
TRON LightCycles (TRON LIGHTCYCLE) ADDED

Changes in Mac DA/DM Map Pack
Disc Golf of TRON (DISC_GOLF_V1.0) ADDED
Hub (VMAN_HUB) ADDED

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In the process of updating these map packs, I also decided to give some of the .REZ files new, more logical names. One of the changes made is that I have done away with the "Part" and "Full" suffixes, because they made the filenames longer and a bit more confusing than they needed to be.

The renaming of these files may create some initial confusion in the short term, but I think it will be beneficial in the long run.

Old Name	New Name
Suspect_A_Full.REZ	LC_Pack_1.REZ
Suspect_B_Full.REZ	LC_Pack_2.REZ
Suspect_C_Part.REZ	LC_Pack_3.REZ
Suspect_D_Full.REZ	LC_Pack_4.REZ
Suspect_E_Part.REZ	LC_Pack_5.REZ
DA_Pack1_Part.REZ	DA_Pack_1.REZ
DM_Pack1_Part.REZ	DM_Pack_1.REZ

I've also added some new file mirror links, so that in case one site goes down: there is a good chance that file can still be downloaded from another site. I'll continue to add file mirrors over time.

I recommend that everyone (especially server operators) update their DA Pack 1, DM Pack 1, and LC Pack 3 files, and add DM Pack 2, 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.

I've been saving some items for slow news periods, as we seem to be in right now. This is one of those items. A very interesting essay about TRON the film and its games.

A number of passages within the article really struck me, because they echo similar thoughts that I have, on the same issues. Particularly when it comes to video games.

Video games, too, were more futuristic in the early '80s than they are now. Looking at the popular games of today, one says "oh, look, football" or "oh, look, crime." A movie based on the modern video game aesthetic would look like an hour and a half of ESPN, or in the case of the crime games, an hour and a half of... well, I guess that'd be ESPN again. Right now we're in an unfortunate phase in which game designers aim for photorealism but fall short: it's the worst of both worlds, as the results are both unconvincing and ugly. But when I was a kid, game designers knew very well that they didn't have a prayer of achieving photorealism and so didn't try. If today's games try to crawl as far as they can into the "representation" corner of Scott McCloud's famous pyramid, 1980s games staked out their territory over on the right, on the "iconic" side, and in the case of works like Qix and Tempest and Vectron, up into the realm of abstraction as well. McCloud points out that iconic forms can be much more involving than more realistic ones, and that was certainly my experience: I spent much of my youth in the cool, clean, colorful world of pixels and vectors. So Tron's geometric citadels and abstract landscapes felt like home to me.

This is exactly why I feel such a connection to TRON and TRON 2.0, and what I believe is wrong with the video game industry today. It's become all about graphic realism at the expense of everything else. What's wrong with playing a game that isn't ultra-realistic? Maybe we could all use a little more abstraction, and not less? More games should take us away from the real world for a time. Not attempt to be an exact mirror of it.

I'm not saying realism in games should go away. Rather, that this obsession with improving graphics needs to relax a bit, with both developers and consumers. Focus some more on those little things called story and gameplay, that are being reduced to almost an afterthought during game development.

It seems the author got his wish, by the way. He wanted to see Discs of TRON on a console, and now we've got it.

Special thanks goes out to 9VoltChicken for pointing me to this essay.

The most recent issue of LA CityBeat (at this time, cover is pictured at left) has an article about the 25th Anniversary of TRON.

In it, the author goes into some of the details concerning how the special effects for the film were created, and how TRON was ahead of its time. Perhaps a little too far ahead of its time, as summed up by this quotation from the article.

Lisberger’s enthusiasm and love for Tron is still going strong 25 years later. Unfortunately, audiences back then didn’t reflect his enthusiasm, and Tron failed to meet its box office expectations. Chalk it up to poor timing or mismanaged marketing – it opened one month following E.T. – but perhaps the message of the film was a bit anachronistic.

And in another quote from Steven Lisberger, I think he sums up the current situation regarding the possibility of a sequel very succinctly.

“These are not the times for what we were talking about,” Lisberger ponders. “If anything embodies the times we live in, it’s Johnny Depp’s character in Pirates of the Caribbean. He’s ready to take every chance on any fly-by-night scheme to get rich.”

Also mentioned in the article, is that a film festival called Greatest Geek Movie Year Ever! will be showing TRON and other memorable films released in 1982, at the Aero Theater in Santa Monica, California through June 15-17, 2007.

May 30th UPDATE: TRON will be part of a double bill along with Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan on Sunday June 17th at 5:00 PM. If you'd like to order advance tickets, they can be obtained from HERE.

Thanks to TRON-Sector and Troff for the news.

The Visual Effects Society (an organization that brings together Visual Effects professionals from all different entertainment markets) recently released a "50 Most Influential Visual Effects Films of All Time" list, as first reported in a thread on the TRON-Sector site.

The list is available for download in Adobe PDF format, HERE.

I'll save you the trouble of downloading it, if you're only interested in where TRON placed on the list, by revealing the top ten.

10. The Abyss (1989)
  9. Alien (1979)
  8. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
  7. King Kong (1933)
  6. Tron (1982)
  5. Jurassic Park (1993)
  3. The Matrix (1999)
  3. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
  2. Blade Runner (1982)
  1. Star Wars (1977)

As you can see, TRON placed 6th on the list . . . closely behind such classics as 2001, Blade Runner, and Star Wars. This is actually a very impressive showing. Being considered worthy to be in the company of films like these, is no small feat.

Director Joaquin Montalvan's documentary Visual Futurist: The Art & Life of Syd Mead, which chronicles the life and career of the legendary artist — and won an award at the 2006 Dances with Films festival for achieving the highest audience appreciation rating in the festival's history — is now available for sale directly from Syd Mead's site itself.

This is something I personally have long been waiting for! Ever since I first became aware of the documentary two years ago, I've been anxiously awaiting the news of a DVD release. Well, it's finally here! This is the kind of 25th Anniversary gift to the fans, that every die-hard TRON fan really wants.

The price of the DVD is $29.99 U.S., plus an additional $7.50-$10.00 U.S. shipping depending on where you live. The order form states that delivery to most (though not all) European countries is possible.

Below is a sample clip of the documentary, which includes moments with TRON Director Steven Lisberger and TRON Computer Graphics supervisor Richard Taylor. A higher quality version of the clip is available on Syd's site (requires QuickTime).

For those of you that don't know (and I expect there to be very few): Syd was one of the main conceptual artists for TRON, along with Jean "Moebius" Giraud, Andy Probert, and Peter Lloyd.

Sample clip of Visual Futurist

Well, we finally have concrete proof that TRON and Discs of TRON are being released for the Xbox 360 on Xbox Live Arcade. Disney Interactive Studios has released screenshots and a press release, with some details about the two titles. The games have been developed by a studio named Backbone Charlottetown. (Never heard of them.)

Both games will indeed feature enhanced graphics modes (as well as "classic" unenhanced modes), and will also have online multiplayer. There is still no exact release date or price yet, though. (The release is said to be in the "summer". I'm guessing it will be around July 9th, which is the date of the film's release in 1982.)

So it seems this is the extent to which Disney will acknowledge the 25th Anniversary of TRON. No HD DVD or Blu-Ray release of the film, and no sequel. A bit disappointing. The fact that these games are going to be enhanced updates of the classics are nice, but I personally was hoping for something more. (And as long as they remain Xbox 360 exclusives, I won't be buying them.)

But I'll at least give DI credit for being smart enough to enhance the games. I was actually expecting them to just be straight ports. Which would not have made them a compelling buy for most people, I'm certain.


TRON Light Cycles: Classic (left) and Enhanced (right)
  

TRON Tanks: Classic (left) and Enhanced (right)
  

TRON MCP: Classic (left) and Enhanced (right)
  

TRON I/O Tower: Classic (left) and Enhanced (right)
  

Discs of TRON: Classic (left) and Enhanced (right)
  

UPDATE: Here are links to a couple of videos, showing TRON and Discs of TRON in action. Thanks to MChilds for these links.

May 4th UPDATE: It turns out Backbone Charlottetown is a division of Backbone Entertainment, aka Digital Eclipse. Now it all makes sense. Digital Eclipse did TRON 2.0: Killer App for the Gameboy Advance. I wish these game companies would stop changing their names practically every year.

Seems that Issue #4 of TRON: The Ghost In the Machine by SLG Publishing, has now slipped to June.

Sigh.

Well, this is getting interesting. Now there is a rumor of another TRON title that's going to appear on the 360.

There are no other details available at this time. I'm betting Disney Interactive Studios probably isn't too happy that the public is finding out so quickly about these, before they're even announced.

From the little information that is available, it looks like the original TRON Arcade game will also be appearing on Xbox Live Arcade for the 360.

I think it would be foolish to not make these new TRON games cross-platform, and keep them Xbox 360 only. If they're really serious about going through with these, then at least fight fire with fire by enhancing them and releasing them on as many platforms as possible. Including the one where the most people are playing the originals using MAME, the PC. Make it available on Games for Windows Live. And how about the Wii, taking advantage of the Wiimotes?

April 26th UPDATE: It seems DI has confirmed that TRON and Discs of TRON are coming, in a sly way.

Thanks again to MChilds for this latest news tip.

Unfortunately, I won't be "ready" to combat Sark if he's going to appear on the Xbox 360 only. In fact, let's have a couple of polls . . . to see what platforms people want to see these games appear on, and what they expect out of the games.

December 6th, 2008 UPDATE: These polls are now closed. Please see this article for the results. Thank you to everyone who participated in the polls!

Disney Interactive Studios will apparently be releasing the arcade classic Discs of TRON for the Xbox 360, on Xbox Live Arcade.

While this is a commendable move and I wish DI the best of success with this release . . . why anyone would want to pay for Discs of TRON when they can play it for free on any one of the various ports of MAME, I really couldn't tell you. Of course, obtaining the ROM files for the game without actually owning the arcade machine is technically illegal. But do any of you honestly believe that the vast majority of people playing DOT on MAME, actually own the machine?

Discs of TRON is also available as an unlockable on TRON 2.0: Killer App for the Gameboy Advance, and is a decent (if not incredible) emulation of the game. A used GBA and Killer App cartridge could probably be picked up at a reasonable enough price, to be another compelling alternative to the release on Xbox Live Arcade. Especially due to the fact that you'd be getting multiple games in one. (If you can find the cart, that is.)

It's possible the game may be updated with new gameplay or graphics for Live Arcade, but I highly suspect it will just be a straight port with minimal enhancements (if any). We'll see, I guess.

Thanks to MChilds for the tip!

The Boxhat site has been down for almost 24 hours now. If you visit the site, you'll simply get a blank page. I'm not sure what the situation is, but if I find out before the site goes back up: I'll update this article to mention the reason.

I suspect this downtime may have something to do with Bigred's (the site owner's) attempt to move the site to a new host, to help put an end to the downtime once and for all. But at present, I don't know the actual cause for certain.

April 21st UPDATE: Boxhat has come back online some time within the last 2-3 hours, as of the time of this writing. This also means that the download links that were temporarily broken, will be working again. Still, I intend to start adding file mirrors in case any more downtime occurs again in the future.

I prefer to keep any articles I post strictly related to news, and other items that are of interest or entertaining to TRON fans. But once in a while, something really important will come up that involves the community itself and the state it's in. This is one of those times. And I feel it's important people are made aware of it.

Every gaming community has its dramas . . . and the TRON 2.0 community is certainly not immune to it, despite its small size.

If you're playing TRON 2.0 Multiplayer right now, I think you should read Avi's latest post on his new MySpace blog. Avi is a very active member of the community, who I also think deserves a lot of kudos for his efforts to help bring life back to TRON 2.0 Multiplayer.

Some of the language in his post is a bit strong, but I believe his message is important and everyone playing the game should definitely read it.

Somehow, I completely missed this. Big thanks to Avi for letting me know about it.

An example of a good April Fool's joke is this year's joke at TRON-Sector, which can still be seen as the first news article on the front page at the time of this writing. (TRON-Sector Going Retro.) Nice work, TheReelTodd! :)

However, there was also a bad April Fool's joke (bad, as in it could really fool and scare people) that seems to have originated on the site Kuro5hin. For those of you who don't know: Kuro5hin is a news site, of sorts. One that lets its users write the stories. The problem is, anyone can write anything they want, whether it's true or not.

Here is the link to the fake story on Kuro5hin:
Homeland Security Classifies TRON as "Sensitive"

Of course, the author wrote this fake story early (on March 29th) in an attempt to add legitimacy. A lot of April Fool's pranksters release their jokes early to try and create a greater impact, because most people will think that they won't have a prank pulled on them until the day in question arrives.

Here is why this story is obviously fake and an April Fool's joke:

1. As mentioned in the comments for this "story", the name of the FBI agent mentioned is "Lirpa Sloof".  April Fool's spelled backwards.
   
2. If that's not enough, then look at the top of the article.  Written by "ewhac" in "Fiction".  Busted!  Fiction, not fact.

I have to give the writer credit though, for creating a fairly plausible story that probably could fool quite a lot of people. Nice work. But it's important that everyone realizes it's just a prank and not to take it seriously.

Oh, and while an HD-DVD release of TRON would be nice: again, there's no evidence so far that Disney is planning to do an HD-DVD or Blu-Ray release of TRON. On the other hand, I guess it's nice to see this fake story mention TRON 2.0. There are still a lot of people who don't know it exists, and I see proof of that all the time.

As can be seen on the Release Schedule page of the SLG Publishing site, Issue #4 of TRON: The Ghost In the Machine has been delayed until May.

Below you will find download links to TRON: The Ultimate Video Radio Special.

TRON: The Ultimate Video Radio Special Part 1 - 4.3 MB, 24m 59s
TRON: The Ultimate Video Radio Special Part 2 - 4.9 MB, 28m 16s

According to the file authoring information, these MP3s originally came from The Unofficial TRON Page in 1998, which is no longer around. The files are low quality (24 kbps) but are still clearly understandable.

The first part doesn't contain too much of interest, but the second part certainly does. Not only do we hear from Steven Lisberger (writer and director of TRON), but also David Warner (who played the parts of Dillinger, Sark, and the MCP). I have never heard David being interviewed about TRON before, so it was a treat to hear him talking about it. And to boot, there is also some deleted dialogue from the film I've never heard before.

This dialogue is not anywhere on the 20th Anniversary DVD as an extra. It features programs from the MCP's faction, who talk about Flynn after he first appears in the electronic world. (It can be found at approximately the 15:50 mark of Part 2.) This definitely made the show worth listening to!

There are also a couple of other noteworthy things that can be heard in the special as a whole: such as the fact that Ron Howard admitted he was a video game nut, and that the special is littered with excerpts of songs from the album Pac-Man Fever by Buckner and Garcia. (Which I still have somewhere, from when I was a kid.)

Many thanks to LDSO member 9VoltChicken, for providing me with both the files themselves and the inspiration for this article.

Here are some recent concept sketches by LDSO member Xistence, from his The Digital Messiah total conversion for TRON 2.0.

I held off posting about this in the hope that the downtime would be short (and thus not worth mentioning), but Boxhat is still down after about 48 hours. Bigred (the site owner) stated that he was hoping to have it back up this morning, but obviously it's not.

Bigred is working on the site problem, and it might come back as early as today. But I think these problems will continue until he permanently changes hosts. His current host has become completely unreliable. However, they're not making to easy for him to switch (being unresponsive to his requests).

March 28th UPDATE: Boxhat is back online. But some recent message posts have unfortunately been lost, due to restoration from a backup.

Just when you think it's a slow news period and there's nothing much to talk about, along comes something "cool" out of the blue.

As mentioned on TRON-Sector, Moriarty and Harry from Ain't-It-Cool News are doing a series of articles reminiscing about several films from 1982, one of them including TRON.

My favorite quote from the article is this . . .

HARRY: I think it is amazing that Steve Lisburger (sic) hasn’t had Disney begging him to make a sequel to this film.

Even Harry is wondering the same damn thing we are. Twenty-fifth Anniversary, anyone? Hello? Anybody home at Disney?

Here are some news "bits", to tide things over during another slow news period. (Get it? Bits? Oh, never mind.)




TRON: The Ghost In the Machine co-author Landry Walker has posted another artwork preview from the upcoming Issue #4 (due out next month). The Light Cycles look pretty nice. Can't wait to see what they look like when they're done, in full color.

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Ever since Buena Vista Games (BVG) announced they were changing their name to Disney Interactive Studios (DIS or simply DI), I was wondering how they were going to handle their "mature" titles. Based on their past history, it didn't seem likely they would publish any potentially "controversial" titles under the Disney name. (Controversial because they contained slightly more mature themes, or depicted mild violence. Gasp.)

Well, now we have the answer. Mature titles will be released, either under the "Touchstone" name (you remember Touchstone Films, don't you?) or under the "ABC" name. Somehow, I just don't see how those names fit for video game releases. They're way too strongly associated with film and television entertainment. But I guess rather than invent new names, Disney chose to use existing ones.

Can you picture someone saying something like "Did you pick up the latest Touchstone game that came out?" or "Did you check out that new game from ABC?". They both sound pretty weird to me.

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On a disappointing note: I discovered that the Abyss Single Player mission by Johnny LaRue I mentioned in a previous article, has been postponed indefinitely. Here's hoping it does get finished, some day.

October 31st, 2012 UPDATE: This article is out of date. User Error has been available for quite some time.

Another one of several projects by LDSO has just been recently revealed, User Error 2 (UE2). This Single Player expansion mod is being worked on by Mor.Evil-1, win3k, and Zook_One.

This expansion picks up where the original User Error (UE1) expansion by Meatsack left off, with Jeremy Powers continuing his adventures.

Here are some sample screenshots of the mod-in-progress.

LDSO member Xistence's new site is temporarily down. Until it returns, I thought I would present all the screenshots he's released for The Digital Messiah (TDM), his Single Player total conversion for TRON 2.0.

Disclaimer: Some of these concepts may be out of date, and may no longer appear in TDM.

Enjoy.