I knew something was up when I kept seeing hits to this site, with the search term "TRON 2010". My immediate thought was, where are people getting this from? How do they know to expect the film in 2010?

Well, now I have my answer. IMDB has added a listing for the sequel, as being released in 2010. A little further off than I was expecting.

That is, if this project gets off the ground at all. A listing on IMDB does not automatically mean a sequel is definite. A lot of speculative projects appear on IMDB, only to disappear again just as quickly.

Anyone out there with IMDB Pro access, that would care to drop me a line? Are any more details available on the Pro site? :)

Over the next few days, I will be experimenting with updates for this site. I'm going to try and improve the functionality, while at the same time reduce the visual clutter. I'll also be doing some other updates as well, and may even take a crack at giving the site more of a TRON visual theme (but no promises).

Please bear with me as I experiment with updates. My experimentation may cause some links to become broken, or make a mess of the site's visual presentation. I'll eventually get everything sorted out. Hopefully you will find the updates a welcome improvement.

It's been just a couple of days since I stated that a TRON sequel would not be coming "any time soon" or "at least not one directed by Lisberger". It seems that I may not be correct about the former, but was correct about the latter?

According to the Hollywood Reporter, newcomer director Joseph Kosinski is "in final negotiations" to direct a new TRON sequel for Disney. (Newcomer, in the sense that until now he has mainly done television commercials.) Sean Bailey and Steven Lisberger are producing. Lost writers Eddie Kitsis and Adam Horowitz are writing the story.

Since I'm not familiar with the work of anyone on this project other than Lisberger, I can't make a judgment call at this time. But I will say that I am glad Disney has apparently decided to give up its plans for a remake, and is interested in a sequel instead. I imagine that when fans met the news of a remake a couple of years ago with much derision, that Disney quickly realized it was not a good idea to pursue that route.

Now after having said all that . . . this news gives me some hope, but I'm going to treat this as an "I'll believe it when I see it" item.

Big thanks to Avi for the news!

Back a few months ago, when it was announced that Jeff Bridges would be taking part in the upcoming Iron Man film, it was then that I knew there was no hope of a TRON sequel in time for the 25th Anniversary.

Now, it's been announced that Steven Lisberger (the Director of TRON) has written a script that he's going to direct, called Soul Code. The premise of this film sounds a lot like the film Brainstorm, with a dash of TRON thrown in.

While I'm happy for Mr. Lisberger and look forward to seeing Soul Code, this also means that a TRON sequel is not coming any time soon. At least, not one directed by Lisberger. But perhaps, if Soul Code is a success, Disney will wake from its stupor and finally give Steven the chance to make that TRON sequel almost everyone has been waiting for.

As an interesting aside, the Variety article that is the original source of this news, mentions that: "A 2003 videogame tie-in, however, sold extremely well". Really? Again, judging by the lack of support or even mention of TRON 2.0 on Disney Interactive's site, you sure as hell wouldn't know it.

Thanks to Steve at TRON-Sector for the news tip.

I think it's safe to say, that Boxhat is gone for good. The site has been down for over a month, and I've had no contact from Bigred.

Luckily, I created mirrors for most of the TRON 2.0 files that were hosted on Boxhat, in anticipation of temporary or even permanent downtime. For the few links that are now broken on the All Files page, I will see about trying to create mirrors for those files as well.

I'd just like to say thanks to Bigred for keeping the site going as long as he did. I have good memories from the early days on the site. But toward the end, the spark was gone.

Both TRON-Sector and and LDSO will now carry on with TRON and TRON 2.0 discussion, but we won't ever forget Boxhat.

As you all know, I haven't posted any updates for a month. Suffice to say that a combination of work, other interests, and needing a break, all contributed to the lack of updates. Working on the best (worst?) kept secret project for TRON 2.0 has also been a contributing factor, which I'm not ready to announce here until it's completely finished. (Though you can find details on it if you know where to look.)

But I felt it was time to stop neglecting this site, and to catch up on various TRON news items. So over the next few days, I will be doing my best to make up for lost time. Expect to see several updates, including my long overdue review of issue #4 of the TRON comic.

I'll also be doing at least a couple of off-topic posts, that hopefully you will all still find interesting. If not, you can always just ignore them. The majority of posts will always remain TRON related, no need to worry there.

LDSO member Xistence has brought back his personal site: where he talks about the projects he is working on, including the upcoming The Digital Messiah or TDM for short.

You can visit the site by clicking on the now active link in the grey sidebar on the right.

However, it is somewhat sad news to learn that he has decided to no longer create TDM as a total conversion for TRON 2.0, but rather as a conversion for Unreal instead. But I can understand his frustration in working with the poorly documented and supported Lithtech engine, that TRON 2.0 uses. Creating any significant modifications for TRON 2.0 is an enormous challenge. There are severe limitations in what you can do, unless you have the source code. It's just better to move to a well supported game engine.

It's a shame because TRON 2.0 is so well suited to the concept of TDM, and there's a pre-existing audience there who would be instantly attracted to TDM's virtual world. Not to mention, TRON 2.0 can use all the help it can get. But I still look forward to playing TDM on Unreal, once it's released. :)

Since I last searched the web for articles or pages mentioning the 25th Anniversary of TRON, a number of them have popped up. Out of them all though, only two are significant.

The first article has snippets of a new interview done with Steven Lisberger, for a book that's coming out.

The second is an interview with John Knoll at the site Computerworld, about CGI during the last 25 years in general, and TRON specifically. Knoll did not have anything to do with TRON as far as I'm aware, but he is the Visual Effects Supervisor at ILM (Industrial Light and Magic) which certainly makes him qualified to speak about the subject.


While searching for any other significant 25th Anniversary stories, I did happen to stumble on to a couple of others that I found interesting. They don't have anything to do with the 25th Anniversary, but they are about TRON and I thought were worth sharing.

One of the articles is about the TRON remake rumor that circulated a couple of years ago. The author puts into words what I believe most TRON fans were thinking. "God no, not a remake. Please Disney, don't screw up TRON!"

The other one compares TRON to William Gibson's Neuromancer. I hadn't really given this notion much thought over the years, particularly since I haven't read Neuromancer and because TRON was released before the novel was published. But I can see how the two could be compared directly.

What was particularly interesting to me, is that in reading the article, it suddenly became obvious that: while Neromancer couldn't have influenced TRON, Neuromancer could have influenced TRON 2.0. And there is definitely some evidence to prove this. In early concept art for the game, the DataWraiths were called NetRunners. And it was by reading this article, that I realized Neuromancer and the series of Gibson novels that followed, had originally coined the name NetRunner. I'm guessing though, that Disney and Monolith dropped the NetRunner name, to avoid any potential legal action by Gibson or his publisher.

I'd be interested to hear from anyone who has both read William Gibson's novels and played TRON 2.0, if you think there are any more similarities between the two.


Props go out to TRON-Sector member Sketch, who originally found the two 25th Anniversary article links.

Something that no one has been been able to answer, is when the TRON Live Arcade games are going to be released. If you visit the various major gaming sites, all you'll get is a vague "Summer" or "Q3 2007" release date for the TRON Arcade and Discs of TRON remakes. The site 1UP.com lists Release Date: 06/15/07, but this is obviously incorrect since the games have yet to show themselves.

However, I believe I have uncovered the actual release dates of the games. Which can be found HERE and HERE.

And just in case this information gets pulled, I've taken screenshots of the pages. They come from the MSN Games site. Seeing as these pages are hosted by Microsoft's MSN service, I'd say the chance of these dates being legit is very high.

  
And the release date for both games is (drum roll please) . . . September 30th, 2007.

Wow. Far later than I ever would have guessed. Not even close to the 25th Anniversary date, which just passed by a few days ago (July 9th). It's no wonder a lot of sites have stopped quoting "Summer" and switched to "Q3 2007" instead. And the games will just barely squeak by, under the definition of a Q3 release, at that.

There's a small chance that this information is incorrect, of course. But if Disney Interactive was going to release these games soon, wouldn't they have announced this at the recent E3 2007? Instead, it appears they said absolutely nothing about them. This lends credence to my conclusion, that these dates are correct and the games are not coming out as soon as we all might have expected.

LDSO member Mor.Evil-1 has made a new Disc Arena map called DA-7982 based on the Discs of TRON arcade game, to celebrate the 25th Anniversary!

Sample screenshots of DA-7982 by Mor.Evil-1

You can download the map 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.

July 21st UPDATE: A problem with the map was discovered, so Mor.Evil-1 has released an updated version to fix the issue. Please delete any older version that you have, and re-download the map to get the latest version.

It was 25 years ago today, that TRON premiered in theaters on July 9th, 1982. I won't go into a long speech about how great I think the film is. By now, everyone reading this site should know I think the film is a classic. And today's news post at TRON-Sector expresses the same kind of sentiment that I would only repeat in a slightly different way. So I'll just let that post speak for me. (Especially since, I helped out a little in writing it. But the main credit goes to TheReelTodd.)


Instead, I'd like to focus on a couple of things.

First, doing a quick search of the internet: I ended up discovering that while everyone is talking about the upcoming Xbox Live TRON arcade game remakes and the (very uninspiring) Anniversary pin, nobody is currently talking about the film itself or asking "where on earth is a sequel". Well, again, except for TRON-Sector and the LDSO site. There was the LA CityBeat article about the Anniversary, but that was published back in May.

Although not entirely unexpected (I've become very cynical about it all), it's still a bit disappointing to see no real discussion about the film itself. I guess people just can't be bothered to remember. We'll have to wait for the games to be released on Xbox Live before the majority will even discover that the 25th Anniversary has arrived, I imagine.


Second, and more importantly . . . I'm betting a lot of you have been wondering for a long time, what's up with that petition in the grey sidebar on the right. The one about TRON 2.0. "Is it ever going anywhere?" you might ask. "Will it do any good? Why should I sign it?"

Well, I would like to thank everyone who took the time to sign the petition. Because as I write this, several hard-copies are making their way to Disney right now. If there was any time to bring the future of TRON to the attention of the staff at Disney: it's now, at the film's 25th Anniversary.

While the petition was mainly intended to persuade Disney Interactive Studios to bring back support for TRON 2.0 on the PC (and Mac), and even create an update or expansion for it, it also serves as an example of fan interest in a sequel TRON film. I mean, who on that list that want more new TRON games, would also not want a new film? The two go hand-in-hand. That's why copies have been sent to Disney Film Studios as well, accompanied by a letter explaining this very logic.

Will the petition work? I don't know. But it can't be said that myself, and those who signed it, didn't try their best. That's all we can do.

Even though hard-copies have been sent, the petition will remain open and continue to accept signatures. Also, keep your eyes open over at TRON-Sector for some more information about this petition and what more you can do to help. The hope is that people within Disney will keep an eye on the petition as the number of signatures continues to grow. There's no reason to stop, until a new game or a sequel film is announced. The more people sign, the more Disney will realize people are interested in more new TRON items.

I'd like to thank the following people for their cooperation and assistance, and for helping to bring the petition to the attention of the right people at Disney. DaveTRON (for his advice), Sketch (for providing the beautiful cover to the petition, which is also available as a wallpaper on TRON-Sector), and TheReelTodd (for motivation and for the great 25th Anniversary news article on the front page). Thanks also go out to LDSO member Load"*",8,1 for the link to the Anniversary pin on the Disney site.


P.S. Curious, that today of all days, this site is about to reach 30,000 hits, after being in existence for about 18 months. It took my TRON 2.0 Unofficial FAQ site 4 years to reach about the same number of hits. The TRON 2.0 News site will overtake it any time now. What a coincidence to have that fall on the same day as the Anniversary date. :)

A while back I purchased the DVD Visual Futurist: The Art & Life of Syd Mead. I thought I would write a review of it so that people could get a taste of what it's like, and determine if it's worth buying. So I decided to sit down and write this: giving my honest opinion on the documentary itself, the features of the DVD, its packaging, and its overall presentation.

When first playing the DVD, you are greeted with a very simple and bare-bones menu that either allows you to play the documentary, or go to a screen with a chapter list that lets you jump to various points in the feature. There are no extras: such as any behind-the-scenes vignettes that show what went into the production of the documentary, director commentary, or footage from the screening at the Dances with Films festival where it premiered with Syd Mead himself attending. Which is a shame. However, Director Joaquin Montalvan has posted such clips online. So I encourage everyone to check them out. They're called Visual Futurist Q&A Video and Syd Mead Candid Video Footage.

The documentary itself starts off by showing a montage of Syd's work, and it isn't until almost three minutes into the feature that the documentary proper begins. It's an interesting choice to start Visual Futurist this way. If there's one thing that can be said, it's that the man's artwork certainly speaks for itself. It's easy to just sit there and watch, drawing in the detail and richness of each work, and letting your mind wander off into these realities. Realities that are extremely functional and realistic in appearance. Some people might find this section a bit boring, but I didn't mind it at all.

Then Syd Mead himself appears, in what can only be described as his "workshop". Sitting at a table, drawing, he begins to tell you about his background. As you listen, he makes no bones about the fact that he is very confident, considers himself very intelligent, and he enjoys his success. Who can blame him, really? For someone like me, who isn't that familiar with Syd's background or early career: this section of the documentary is very enlightening. It takes us from his earliest days as a professional industrial designer, all the way to his film design career. I gather that most of the public, like me, will also only be familiar with the latter — his work on Blade Runner being the most notable, followed by TRON. And it's his credit in the film Blade Runner, for which this documentary is named. Visual Futurist.

As the documentary progresses, we cover his careers at Ford, U.S. Steel, Philips, and many other companies. Eventually we're told about how Syd found himself without a job at one point, and decided to start his own company. Then in the late seventies, Hollywood entered a phase where they sought out designers to become attached to films, and this is how Syd entered the movie industry. His first work was on Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and from there he entered a whirlwind period where he designed for picture after picture. Blade Runner, TRON, 2010: The Year We Make Contact, Aliens, Short Circuit, Mission to Mars . . . the list goes on and on.

The lengthiest segments pertaining to the films he worked on are for Blade Runner and TRON, as you might expect. Steven Lisberger (the Director of TRON) and Richard Taylor (Visual Effects and Computer Graphics Supervisor for TRON) appear throughout the documentary, commenting on various facets of Syd's career and not singularly on TRON. While all of the people in the documentary have interesting and intelligent things to say — including Mead himself — I found Lisberger's comments to be the most entertaining and eloquent. You literally can see the gears turning in his mind like an intricate and precise machine, with his thoughts and their enunciation coming at a rapid-fire pace.

Since this is a TRON-based site, I will keep the coverage of the documentary focused on the TRON portion. But I can tell you without hesitation that I enjoyed all the segments. Especially the one regarding Blade Runner. Blade Runner is definitely another one of my favorite films, and I can't wait for it to finally be released on DVD this year. It's been a long time coming.

The TRON segment of the documentary shows how Syd is responsible in large part for the look of the TRON electronic world, and is completely responsible for items such as Sark's Carrier, the Tanks, the Light Cycles, the MCP, the prison cells, and Yori's apartment. He also designed the TRON font, and even had some influence on the costumes. We are shown many of his concept sketches that resulted in the final look in the film, while Lisberger and Taylor comment throughout. Lisberger felt that Mead's work was "cutting edge" and exactly what they were looking for. And Syd himself states that his work in the film and the film itself, had an enormous impact on the youth watching it at the time. That most of the people in the computer graphics industry today, credit his work and the film TRON as being responsible for leading them into their profession.

A notable aspect of the documentary is its soundtrack, presented in Dolby 5.1. Throughout the film we hear composer Richard Souther's themes, that he specifically composed for Visual Futurist. Souther's ethereal compositions often evoke memories of Vangelis' score for the film Blade Runner, and they are a clear homage to that film. Thus, the music fits the subject matter and the tone of the documentary perfectly. In fact, the music is so good that I would recommend purchasing the separately available soundtrack CD wholeheartedly.


With regard to the aesthetics of the packaging itself, the DVD comes in an Amaray keepcase with a somewhat bland wraparound label. The design is quite minimalist, and perhaps even unexciting for a DVD featuring a documentary about one of the world's foremost artists. And I don't know if it's intentional or not, but the type on the label and the insert booklet has a blurred effect that makes it a bit hard to read. You can't pick it up in the scans above, but it is there. Considering the price for the DVD itself ($29.99 U.S.) and the shipping (anywhere from about $7-$10 U.S.), I was personally hoping for a bit more of a refined looking package than what I got.

Still, in the end, it's the documentary itself that matters most. And in this area, the DVD does not disappoint. The transfer quality of the film seems very good. Clocking in at approximately one hour and forty-five minutes, it quite extensively covers Syd Mead's career and shows us an incredible number of his works. The film never becomes slow or boring (except perhaps at the very beginning, as I stated earlier) and is a fascinating look at a fascinating man. It's no wonder the film won an award for audience appreciation when it premiered at the Dances with Films festival.

Highly recommended.

April 16th, 2010 UPDATE: If you are looking for information about playing TRON 2.0 in widescreen, the FAQ is currently out of date.

See this article regarding the widescreen fixes in the TRON 2.0: Killer App Mod instead.


I've been meaning to do it for months, but I finally got around to updating the TRON 2.0 Unofficial FAQ.

Updates include screenshots and descriptions for the latest custom maps, a guide on how to install and use these maps (which was duplicated from a page already on this site), the best way to play TRON 2.0 on a widescreen monitor, and more.

I've also added answers to some common questions in the "Top FAQs" section, such as: does TRON 2.0 run on Windows Vista, can the onscreen HUD be turned off (for screenshots), and will TRON 2.0: Killer App for the Xbox work on the Xbox 360.

At this time, I don't personally use Windows Vista and have avoided it completely. I will eventually get around to installing and using it later this year, when I upgrade my computer. Once I do, you can expect many updates to the FAQ with specific advice for running the game on Vista.

It hasn't been announced yet on SLG Publishing's site, but I'm calling it. It's obvious that Issue #4 won't be released this month. If the release schedule still hasn't been updated this far into June, and TRON #4 doesn't appear on Diamond Comics' next two shipping lists . . . it's a fait accompli. There was a remote chance it could have shipped on the 27th and this had yet to be announced, but the shipping lists prove otherwise.



Now, I hate to be all gloom and doom. But I have a couple of things to say that fall into that category.

First off, I hope SLG understands that all these delays must be killing interest in the comic. I've seen evidence on the message boards of various comic sites, where people became fed up with waiting for each issue's release. Not everyone is as patient as a long-time fan like me. More to the point, why are these tremendous delays continuing? Has SLG bitten off more than it can chew, with regards to the Disney licenses? I think so. It's been over a year since the release of the first issue, and we still don't have Issue #4 in our hands.

Second, co-writer Landry Walker has posted a message recently stating that despite earlier aspirations for a long run and spin-off projects, it looks like the run of TRON comics will end with Issue #6.

It's all rather disappointing news.

July 5th UPDATE: I've just found out that Issue #4 has been sent to be printed. So it shouldn't be much longer, before it finally becomes available in comic stores.

July 9th UPDATE: SLG's release schedule has been updated to show that Issue #4 will finally be released on Wednesday, July 25th!

While recently browsing the web, I came across some items of interest regarding TRON and Discs of TRON for Xbox Live Arcade.



First up, is that there are now some higher-quality videos of both games in action.

TRON Videos
Discs of TRON Videos

1Up.com seems to think that the games were released on June 15th, if you look at both of those pages carefully. (Notice Release Date: 06/15/07.) That's news to me. If they were already out, I think I would've heard of it by now and it would be plastered all over the internet game sites.

I also found this article on the site Destructoid, where the author slams the TRON Arcade game on Live. I would slam it too, but for a different reason. Not because I think the games won't be any good (I'm sure they will be), but because I feel they're a weak offering from Disney to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of TRON. Rather than make something new, they just re-release the old arcade games in new packaging. Big whoop. But that's just my personal opinion.

What's really amusing about this article, is that the author is bitching about the TRON Arcade game because he thought it was going to be a total revamp that featured online 3-D Multiplayer Light Cycle racing. Hey pal, here's a tip. Your wish was granted long ago. It's called TRON 2.0! This is what I'm always talking about . . . the cluelessness with regards to the release of TRON 2.0. People still don't know about this game, even years after release. It's really sad.

What's even more sad, is that Disney Interactive has recently added pages to their site to advertise TRON Arcade and Discs of TRON. Yet TRON 2.0 is completely absent now. How screwed up is that?

Anyhow, as soon as I find out when the games are being released on Xbox Live, I'll report it and fill you all in on the details. Unfortunately though, since they will strictly be available for the Xbox 360: I won't be buying or playing them. I don't want to buy a 360, thanks Disney and Microsoft. So I won't be able to review them first hand, and will have to rely on second hand reviews.

TRON-Sector member DaveTRON has posted photos from the Aero Theater screening of TRON, on his Dave's TRON Archive site.

The event was hosted by American Cinemathique and Geek Monthly magazine on Sunday June 17th, at the Aero Theater in Santa Monica, California. TRON was presented, together with Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, as part of a double bill feature.

In attendance were Steven Lisberger, Richard Taylor, Harrison Ellenshaw, Bill Kroyer, Syd Mead, Bruce Boxleitner, and Dan Shor.

Would have loved to have been there, but these events always take place in California. If I lived in the area, you can bet I would have been present. But I'm not so lucky.

June 20th UPDATE: TRON-Sector member johntron1 has posted a summary of the Q&A panel discussion that took place after TRON was screened.

According to this Reuters press release, Disney Interactive Studios will have its budget increased by $30 million this year ($130 million, up from $100 million). And within the next five years, it will ramp up to $350 million per year.


Let's hope for their sake that they devote some of that new funding to better customer support, and making more innovative games. Who knows, maybe there's a chance we'll see another new TRON game some day after all. (And maybe another TRON film, too.)

Some day when we're all old and grey, that is.

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.