Tron Legacy Exposed

KingofGnG writes "Disney has chosen the San Diego Comic-Con International to present its new sci-fi project: the sequel to Tron. The classic movie from 1982 dealt with video games, virtual reality and 3D graphics when none of those things were widely popular. The new movie has got an official title and synopsis now, and they've released the very first trailer from the movie (this time without silly censorship) together with some concept art and the teaser poster." No matter how silly the movie is, they'll at least get my money for sheer nostalgia.

Comments

Videogames in 1982?

[winkydink]

Videogames weren't popular in 1982? Let me guess: in 1982, you were still a
Hershey bar in your dad's back pocket.

One word: Pacman

Re:Videogames in 1982?

[American Expat]

There were some pretty good 3D games in 1982, but they were vector-based. Battlezone (a tank game), Red Baron (a dogfight game), and Tempest (too bizarre to describe) were all out in 1980/81, the wonderful Star Wars arcade game came out in 1982 IIRC. There were others as well, but these were the "biggies".

Re:Videogames in 1982?

[AKAImBatman]

Wasn't Wolfenstein, released in 1992 the first game with 3D graphics?

Not even close. Wolfenstein wasn't even the first raycaster game. It was preceded by Catacombs 3D (also by Id) which itself was preceded by Hovertank (also by Id).

Before those were even a twinkle in Carmack's eye, we had MIDI Maze (1987) and Star Wars Arcade (1983), just to name a few. There were tons of attempts at 3D games before Carmack. He merely popularized the First Person Shooter genre and made 3D Graphics the standard.

Re:Videogames in 1982?

[UncleTogie]

Well said. After all, are there any current games that have caused a Yen shortage?

Re:Videogames in 1982?

[timeOday]

He didn't "merely popularize" them in the sense of using star power or deep pockets to get people hooked (since he had neither). Rather, he made 3d (or 3d-ish) games that could run well and look good (better than the competition) on PC-compatible hardware in the pre-acceleration days. This brought 3d to critical mass where it was worth developing 3d acceleration products for the masses. You could look at any of the previous innovators in 3d gaming, including all the ones you mentioned, and say they merely did this or that, since there was no single breakthrough that defined gaming as we know it. But his contribution - his technical contribution - was larger than most.

Re:Videogames in 1982?

[Anonymous Coward]

You forgot one:

*Slashdot's text encoding

Re:Videogames in 1982?

[corbettw]

ÃoeGoinÃ(TM) BerzerkÃ

Yep, that one's a classic, alright! Who could ever forget ÃoeGoinÃ(TM) BerzerkÃ?

Re:Videogames in 1982?

[pilgrim23]

For Technical contributions Honorable Mention should be given to Ken Silverman: Walkan, Ken's Labyrinth, Build Engine for Duke Nukem 3d, etc Ken was a brilliant young programmer who we all love but never knew. You rock Ken!

Re:Videogames in 1982?

[xant]

> still a Hershey bar in your dad's back pocket.

Wait. Wait, wait, what? We're just going to let this pass unremarked? What the fuck does that mean? What bizarre creation myth did your parents tell you led to your existence? I cannot think of any rational way this is a metaphor for meeting and/or fucking your future wife.

C

Re:Videogames in 1982?

[Sponge Bath]

Laurie Anderson's song "Smoke Rings"

When I was a Hershey bar
In my father's back pocket.
Hey look! Over there!
It's Frank Sinatra
Sitting in a chair.

Possibly something to do with the WW2 cliche of GIs offering candy for sexual favors?

TR2N?

[Culture20]

I'll miss trying to pronounce the working title. Trihtoon, Tratoowon, The movie concept formerly known as Tron 2.

Re:TR2N?

[gEvil (beta)]

TR2N: 3l3C7R1C B0064100

Disney pah

[Plunky]

No matter how silly the movie is they'll at least get my money for sheer nostalgia.

Do not give Disney your money, they will only use it to steal your culture

Re:Disney pah

[mcfatboy93]

What culture?

Re:Disney pah

[Etrias]

Say what you want about Disney (I'm no fan, myself), but they will get my money for Tron.

You should see the trailer for Legacy: It's here.

Re:Disney pah

[Tetsujin]

What culture?

PROTOCULTURE!

1982

[arizwebfoot]

Had lots of Atari games in 1982 - like Asteroids.

Wow, those were the days.

Before that, like in the late 70's we had Pong, which I could play for hours - depleting my entire savings of quarters.

FPS from 1980

[tepples]

But, though pacman was popular, were 3D graphics even in existance? Wasn't Wolfenstein, released in 1992 the first game with 3D graphics?

The early arcade first-person shooter Battlezone was released in 1980, and it might not even be the first.

Re:FPS from 1980

[localman57]

The Atari 2600 had a 3d game called "Tunnel Runner". Think Wolfenstein with no nazis, guns, dogs, furnature or artwork... There was a ghost-thingie, though http://www.atariage.com/screenshot_page.html?SoftwareLabelID=2339

Re:FPS from 1980

[Smivs]

1972 Pong. Up/down, Left/right, Time. 3 dimensions!

Re:FPS from 1980

[klui]

Night Driver was not a shooter.

Tail Gunner, on the other hand, was released in 1979 as opposed to Battlezone in 1980.

Re:FPS from 1980

[knarfling]

I remember a 3D maze game in the early 80's for the TRS-80. It was a frustrating game that I never won because my torch always ran out. There was an extra torch in a one room, but as soon as you entered the wall closed in behind you and you couldn't get out. I never did solve it, and I haven't been able to find it or even the name of it since so that I can go back to it. But it was my first introduction to the 3D maze/adventure games, and I loved it. It took Dungeon Master for the Atari ST before I found another 3D Maze/Adventure game that I liked.

Re:FPS from 1980

[sconeu]

Not an FPS, but a 3D wireframe: Tempest.

Re:FPS from 1980

[Abreu]

> what is a grue?

The grue is a sinister, lurking presence in the dark places of the earth. Its favorite diet is adventurers, but its insatiable appetite is tempered by its fear of light. No grue has ever been seen by the light of day, and few have survived its fearsome jaws to tell the tale.

What Plunky is talking about

[tepples]

Do not give Disney your money, they will only use it to steal your culture

Before you mod Plunky's post all the way to -1, consider that The Walt Disney Company was one of the two biggest advocates of the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 (the other being the Gershwin estate).

Re:What Plunky is talking about

[srmalloy]

When you create something under copyright, you are making a contract with the government; the government establishes your legal right to control copying of that work (and the profits thereof) for a specified period of time, during which the government will enforce penalties for infringement of your copyright, after which the work becomes freely available to all. You agreed to that contract when you filed the copyright. Now you come back, seventy years later, and claim that -- even though you already agreed that your work would fall into the public domain five years from now -- you deserve to have the terms of that contract changed, and should be allowed to continue to profit from and control distribution of that work. You already got the term of protection you agreed to, and you're arguing that you shouldn't have to be required to carry out your end of the agreement.

Yes, Disney still makes money off Mickey Mouse, both as copyrighted cartoons and as a trademark. However, the work "Steamboat Willie" was created and copyrighted for a specific period of time, which would have by now expired, making the cartoon public domain. Disney went back to Congress and lobbied successfully to get the term of copyright changed retroactively. And that is what the "huge issue" is. I don't think that people would have had a problem with the Copyright Term Extension Act if its effect were to amend the term of copyright so that any copyrights granted after it took effect had a longer term. What is objectionable about the Act is that it went back and changed the terms of copyrights that already existed -- and I fully expect Disney to keep going back, as the extended copyrights come up on expiration, to go back to Congress again and again, attempting to keep control of their creations in perpetuity, rather than being required to comply with their obligation to release them into the public domain.

Disney...

[noundi]

No matter how silly the movie is, they'll at least get my money for sheer nostalgia.

Oops, you just defined the source to 90% of Disney's revenue.

Re:Disney...

[Capt.DrumkenBum]

I see the other 10% of their revenue coming from the new game "LightCycles 3D"
Which I sadly will probably buy a copy of.

Re:Disney...

[JCSoRocks]

Yeah, and the reason that George Lucas continues to crap all over Star Wars. :(

Kinda weird mashup

[Ryvar]

Somebody already mashed this trailer up with Michael Jackson's "Beat It" - it works disturbingly well.

--Ryv

Screw TRON

[localman57]

Along with "War Games" TRON gave an unrealistic expectation of what computers could do which continues to perplex Ludites to this day.

On an offtopic note, this reminds me of one time when I went to a school auction. A couple of idiots felt that they got a really good deal, because they got the largest piece of computing equipment (A DEC computer of some sort) for less than what the Commodore PET computers were going for. I couldn't help but smile when I heard one say to the other "This part's the brains."

Re:Screw TRON

[Toonol]

There was NO CGI in Tron.

I see you've been modded down to -1, so there's no that much point in responding, but I might as well: Yes there was. It contained a mix of practical and CGI effects. Certainly more CGI than in any prior film. The light cycles (partially), tanks, ships, landscapes... most were computer generated.

Re:Screw TRON

[NormalVisual]

MAGI/Synthavision certainly would be surprised to learn that, after all the time they spent creating/rendering the light cycle race, among other scenes.

Tron 2.0 Videogame - No Longer Cannon?

[StaticEngine]

I really enjoyed the PC game Tron 2.0, put out by Monolith a few years back. It's actually quite clever (some good jokes, and of course the Musak version of the Tron theme plays in "the real world"), and the graphical style makes it almost timeless: it doesn't require high poly count video cards, it's all about that Tron look. The negatives, of course, were that most of the weapons past the disc were superfluous, and the multiplayer lightcycle races grew tiresome after a few rounds. It also had Bruce Boxleitner and Cindy Morgan providing voice talent.

I'm excited about a new film, but I'm also torn about what this might do to the story. Still, it's nice to see an interesting IP still has some life in it.

less slashdotted trailer link

[ChrisCampbell47]

http://www.complex.com/blogs/2009/07/27/wake-n-watch-tron-legacy-teaser-trailer/

Armagetron Advanced

[tepples]

I see the other 10% of their revenue coming from the new game "LightCycles 3D"
Which I sadly will probably buy a copy of.

A video game published by Disney probably won't run on Linux, unlike Armagetron Advanced.

Could not care less.

[Seumas]

I'll get downed for the fanboys, but whatever:

I couldn't possibly care less about a Tron sequel. The original was enjoyable when you were a kid, but watching it as an adult, you just realize what boring and uninteresting crap it is. It isn't even watchable in stretches longer than about fifteen minutes. So anyone who has finally realized what crap it is won't care about a sequel and kids today who are the age that we were when we liked the first one won't care because they weren't around for the first one.

I could almost understand a remake and doing it right this time. But a sequel suggests that they thought the original was actually good. The only people who will care about this are those who are suffering a heavy bout of nostalgia and haven't watched it recently so still mistakenly believe it's AWESOME.

It's like Knight Rider. I'm sure a lot of us remember how cool Knight Rider was when we were kids. Then watched a couple episodes as adults and realized how stupid and terrible and uninteresting it is.

Instead of this shameless money-grab, they should... you know... do something new.

Re:Could not care less.

[fprintf]

But, but, but... we are Generation X, long forgotten in between the baby boomers and their annoying offspring, the GenY'ers. Now that the old fogeys are retiring it is our turn in charge, and we are going to create nostalgia for our youth era gone by. No longer do we have to relive the 1960s and 1970s... nooooo, that is only for the baby boomers. Now instead we get to relive bad hair, metal, band-aid, the dawn of personal computing and video games. We get to recreate Atari 2600 games and make them into movies. We get to mandate any new pop stars create hits "remaking" the hits of our generation... hopefully we'll do better than Phil Collins did with that Supremes remake. This way we'll get to like the current popular music. And g'damn it you are going to sit through it and like it. Maybe in time you too will get sick of it and create your own grunge movement. Rap doesn't count.

To all those GenY'ers who might complain, I say you guys have nothing to bitch about for quite some time. We GenX'ers after all have sat through countless replays of Beatles and Mama's and Papa's songs on the radio, umpteen recollections of what a tragedy it was when losing John Lennon, television show after show on JFK Jr., and that god-awful mess that "the Cuba crisis" was about. About the time you have listened to Nirvana's Teen Spirit for the 10,000th time, and have your own stars go tits up (and I mean beyond that dude who played the Joker in Batman) like Kurt Cobain, well then you can complain.

Now get off my lawn.

Re:Could not care less.

[kannibal_klown]

'll get downed for the fanboys, but whatever:

I couldn't possibly care less about a Tron sequel. The original was enjoyable when you were a kid, but watching it as an adult, you just realize what boring and uninteresting crap it is. It isn't even watchable in stretches longer than about fifteen minutes.

I feel that away about a lof of things I used to watch. The old Transformers cartoon, Knight Rider, even some films.. Back when I was a kid these shows were awesome and now I have to stop after just a few minutes. And while I love the Star Wars universe and it's characters, I've seen the original trilogy so many times I cannot sit through any of them anymore (but that's probably from seeing it too many times).

However a couple of months ago I caught an airing of Tron and still enjoyed it. Granted in my life I've probably only seen it 2 or 3 times, but I still enjoyed it.

War Games as well, though I'm starting to reach the point where (like StarWars) I've seen it too many times to enjoy it.

Sure, we remember some of these shows either through rose-colored glasses or through memories of a child that didn't take as much to entertain. But some childhood favorites are still valid.

Lightcycles only do straight lines!

[Anonymous Coward]

Is nothing sacred? Lightcycles going around curves. How could you... *sob*

Re:Lightcycles only do straight lines!

[EmagGeek]

Easy... the world figured out floating point arithmetic and partial derivative vector processing...

Re:Lightcycles only do straight lines!

[NormalVisual]

Lightcycles could navigate curves in the original movie, and were clearly shown doing so during their escape from the game grid. When I get home tonight I'll pop the DVD in and give you a timestamp to look for.

Re:Lightcycles only do straight lines!

[Svenne]

Seriously. Dude. We believe you.

Re:Lightcycles only do straight lines!

[Stormwatch]

That's not true. They only left straight walls behind, yes. Once they escaped from the game grid, they did all sorts of chicanes and s-curves when fleeing the army of Flynn's tank programs he'd created before he left Encom. They even "slid" sideways.

They still got it wrong. Choose: free movement OR wall-trails, not both at once.

Have I got this right?

[Tetsujin]

If I remember correctly the premise of the sequel is that Enzo and Andraia get lost on the web for a while and grow up to be badasses - and then return to Mainframe for the final battle with Megabyte?

Introducing new characters...

[Temujin_12]

New characters/themes to bring Tron into the 21st century:

1) Qubit - flies around saying, "Yes", "no", and "maybe"
2) Tron-troll - Any scene involving communication between more than two characters is constantly interrupted by the local Tron-troll
3) Anonymous - suddenly hordes of identical looking drones appear to aid the main character in his/her quest then dissipate feeling good about themselves
4) Users - rather than only having sparse information about the users, characters in Tron know everything about the users and are constantly interrupted by the user's incessant communications about what they are currently doing or their asking Tron characters to fill out quizzes which have nothing to do with the plot of the movie
5) DRM - weapons, vehicles, and entire structures suddenly stop working at the whim of the MCP

I wonder

[Dunbal]

If the title of this movie will be "Troff"?

Screw the Ludites!

[KGBear]

They'll have an unrealistic expectation of any expression of technology, by definition. All the while War Games and Tron were inspiring a whole generation (myself included) to learn what it's all about. We knew very well the expectations in both movies were unrealistic, but that was never the point. I had no hope of making my Sinclair ZX81 do anything remotely close to what Tron showed me but I got to fell like Flynn when I hacked a reset button for it (pin 13 to ground on the Z80). (Good) sci-fi is about inspiration, not reality. If it were realistic it would be a documentary and in 1982 a very boring one...

Re:Tron Available on YouTube

[Yvan256]

It's only four minutes long? What a rip-off.

It won't stand out anymore

[gilesjuk]

Back when video games were a fairly new thing and CGI was amazing they made Tron. The visual style was impressive, especially given the use of hand tinting and other post processing effects. These days it's all too easy using CGI and other computer gadgetry.

There simply isn't any way that this sequel can stand out compared to all the other CGI fx laden films around. Unless of course they go for rotoscoping or similar as used in A Scanner Darkly.

The sign of the beast

[ral]

Here's a bit of odd trivia. The original Tron movie was created (in part) on a clone of the Digital PDP-10 computer. The PDP-10 includes an instruction called TRON (Test Right-halfword Ones and skip if Not masked). The opcode in octal (which is the convention on the PDP-10) is 666.

I doubt Disney will actively publicize this.

(I still fondly remember working for years with this odd but elegant 36-bit machine.)

I wish Sark was in this.

[Sark666]

I'm excited as hell for this movie, but I wish they brought back David Warner as Sark. You might say he's too old, but I've seen him in something recently and he still looks good. He's truly an underrated actor and makes a great villain.

A little pointless trivia, he was also the voice of the MCP.

Next up for a redo: The Black Hole

[kindbud]

This time it's blacker and deeper than ever!

First Disney movie with that tagline!

SEX is more fun

[S-100]

Less esoteric was the SEX (sign extend X) opcode of the 6809, which we tried to use at every opportunity.