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About TRON
TRON was a ground-breaking blockbuster film, released
in 1980 and starring Jeff Bridges (Starman), Bruce Boxlietner (Babylon
5) and David Warner (Star Trek V, Star Trek VI). TRON was one of the
first feature length films to extensively use computer animation, and that's
something the makers, Disney, deliberately
avoided reminding the public of, when promoting Toy Story (1995), 15 years
later!
The plot behind TRON was Jeff's character, a computer
programming genius of greater proportions than Bill Gates [not hard!], was electronically trans-located (zapped) by/into an arrogant
supercomputer for elimination, while simultaneously hell-bent on world domination. While inside the supercomputer , he must play some fatal games
to prove his worth as a 'program'. One of these games, which includes some of its best known scenes, is a game of 'light-cycles'. Herein lies the
future of the TRON game.
After the film was released, almost every early computer and console had a version of the light-cycles game. There even
was a version for the Acorn platform developed many years ago, but the version we have developed is far superior.
The aim of the TRON game is to out-run, out-manoevre, corner or cut-up your opponents within the set play area. Run into your
trail - you die. Run into someone else's trail - you die. Run into the wall - well, you've got the picture! All you have on your side is 60 turbo
points and your quick reactions and skill, that is, if you have any.
You can have between two and four players on screen at once, how you all fit around the keyboard is your problem. You can redefine
your keys & reset the scores, something more inferior versions were seriously lacking. Other versions don't even have turbos - HA!
You don't think it's gonna be like the film?
Then I suggest you see the film and THEN play the game, before passing
judgement.
The TRON authors
Well, what can I say? We're a sad and sorry bunch,
what did you expect? All but miniscule amounts of programming were done
by David Knight, and
I assisted under his worthy supervision (Matthew J. Gardner). I have done
some of the layout, and all of documentation - I had to, Knight's too spaced
out to do anything that would make sense to Earthlings (In who's opinion?..
Dave).
Further developments
The current version of TRON (version 3.0) is showing a 100% speed increase! May '97
This extra speed will allow for extra features
such as the explosion routine that I initially intended to add when a cycle
crashes!
TRON is now Freeware! April '98
As of April '98 TRON is free to all*. The current version (3.0) still contains shareware messages, but these will be removed if plans for TRON4 go ahead.
* Please note: we still retain copyrights for this game. The game may not be redistributed in anything but its original form.
PC Version of TRON in development! July '98
A new version of TRON is currently in development, although it may not be ready for a few months yet. However a DOS beta version will be available from this website
within the next couple of weeks, as this website undergoes a complete facelift - ready to support both versions.
Other projects:
TRON page (c)1996,1997
Knight Industries
and Matthew J. Gardner
