Tron 2.0 Game 98
Conspiracy_Of_Doves writes "Gamespot has an article about the new Tron 2.0 game in the works to accompany the movie. It looks like they are being very true to the original, the new light cycles are even being designed by Syd Mead, the same guy who designed the old ones. You will get to visit locations from the movie, as well as play around inside desktops and PDAs." IGN has another article on the game. Watch out for the gridbugs.
It's About Time (Score:2)
ah, the life of a bit: yes... no...
Re:It's About Time (Score:2)
imdb Tron 2.0 entry [imdb.com]
Re:It's About Time (Score:2)
Why, yes... um... it's even mentioned in the story header.
Cool. (Score:4, Funny)
with blinkenlights flashin' off/on
Bruce Boxleitner resisted,
Jeff Bridges assisted
Twas the triumph of brains over brawn
For a free alternative (Score:5, Informative)
(http://armagetron.sourceforge.net/)
j
Re:For a free alternative (Score:1)
Re:For a free alternative (Score:4, Informative)
Greetings programs! (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Greetings programs! (Score:1)
I for one would go for the functional yet apparently bland world where you could interact with other people rather than a small room where you alone could interact with such amazingly modelled items like a desk, a lamp, a vase, and the dust which collects on everything.
Use the mips for something fun, rather than a useless, yet realistically rendered, 10 by 12 room!
Re:Greetings programs! (Score:2)
I for one would go for the functional yet apparently bland world where you could interact with other people rather than a small room where you alone could interact with such amazingly modelled items like a desk, a lamp, a vase, and the dust which collects on everything.
Use the mips for something fun, rather than a useless, yet realistically rendered, 10 by 12 room!
Ah, but simple objects can be so much more in Cyberspace. A simple picture on the wall can be a doorway, a live viewing window, a slideshow, a control surface, etc...
A nice lamp could also take on exotic properties such as changing into a guard unit. If you have an enviromental alteration utility in the game world you could draw an object in mid-air and turn that glyph into a fuctional object. You could use the texture transform controls to convert a simple rug into a frictionless surface, a water well, a white-hot stove burner, etc. You could alter the object's mass, composition, movement variables, destruction fracture properties, location, etc.
Simply put, since the limitations of reality are no longer an issue and if there are proper memory usage optimization routines there is nothing beyond godhood that a person in control of the enviromental object properties can do. They can still squander system resources on infinite loops, complex math functions, and system consuming virals, fractals, and perfect rendering options. However a good Cyberspace would note when these things are occuring and choke the resources, memory consumption, and priorities available to bad processes so as not to slow the system to a bog. Only people with SuperUser priorities would be allowed to run these functions in a heavy-CPU tasking enviroment. It is not the rendering level that is key here, but what the story can say (and it is nice to see tidy animation once in a while without the boring steadycam single shot filmography of yesteryear in the rough birthing stages of 3D computer animation).
Linux? (Score:1)
Are they planning it?
Re:Linux? (Score:1)
Re:Linux? (Score:1)
Re:Linux? (Score:2)
It's being put out by Disney Interactive. It looks like it will have FPS elements in it, which will be weird coming from Disney (yay, MickeyHunter 3000!). Just what platforms does Disney usually develop for?
Hey, wait a minute, isn't Disney evil? Oh, that's right. Shiny.
Re:Linux? (Score:1)
Why wait for the light cycles (Score:1, Redundant)
Here. [gltron.org]
And with a version for just about every OS.
Tron is a Disney product... (Score:5, Insightful)
There are countless games out there worthy of your entertainment dollars/pounds/yen. Do the right thing, boycott Disney, and buy one of those other games instead.
If you have to buy this game for nostalgia reasons (hey, I have fond memories of wasting countless childhood hours playing the original Tron arcade machine too) then wait a month or so after the game's release and buy a second-hand copy.
Re:Tron is a Disney product... (Score:3, Interesting)
Just my $.02...
Re:Tron is a Disney product... (Score:1)
While Blood 2 was no doubt a stuff up, haven't Monolith since redemmed themselves with No One Lives For Ever and Aliens vs Predator 2? The former definitely was very fun to play and the latter was supported by a series of patchs and even a dedicated Linux server.
Re:Tron is a Disney product... (Score:2)
While normally I would agree if it had been simple incompetence behind the events of Blood 2 and its point release, the entire scenario practically screams "FUCK YOU!" to the fans. I mean... the final point release for the game is released half-broken, and Monolith leaves it like that, telling the fans if they want it fixed they can do it themselves using the released tools. Excuse me? This is EXACTLY like the time I called Venture (when it still existed) and asked for the price of an item, and the clerk shouted at me to get my own price because he was the only one in that section on duty. I never shopped at Venture again after that.
The point I'm making here is that while incompetence and mistakes can be forgiven, I will NOT forgive rudeness or deliberate mistreatment. Monolith permanently lost me as a customer after that fiasco, and there is very little they can do to change that.
Just my $.02...
Re:Tron is a Disney product... (Score:1)
Tron - not as good as you remember (Score:2)
Syd Mead is the vision of the future... (Score:2)
Re:Syd Mead is the vision of the future... (Score:2)
Re:Syd Mead is the vision of the future... (Score:2)
I'm not discounting previous efforts at all (and as an aside, I just picked up Metropolis on DVD the other day), but what we currently think of "futuristic" these days I believe is in large part because of Syd Mead's artwork. Let's face it "Metropolis" is stunning cinematography, but the future never looked like that and never will.
It was funny going to Tomorrowland in Disneyworld in the late 1980's and seeing how dated and goofy it looked. "Futuristic" changes with the times. Things never really looked like Tomorrowland, and while it was a good crack at "futuristic" circa 1972, it turns out "futuristic" is as much a product current pop culture as anything else.
Of course, Disney got smart and remodelled Tomorrowland in a classic "30's futuristic" look, which will always be cool (although I've never seen it in person). Something can only look "futuristic" (as in what things might actually look like) for a few years. Then it just looks kinda sad.
I think there are a few exceptions to that trend of old futuristic looking dated. To me, "Blade Runner" looks as fresh today as it did in 198-wherever-it-came-out. "2001" with its look of spartan utility is still very convincing.
Heck, I even consider "Forbidden Planet" (minus Robby the Robot) or the old Soviet-bloc classic "First Spaceship on Venus" from about 1960 as pretty timeless looking, but the first couple Star Trek movies (especially the first) look stylistically dated, not even bothering to mention the original series which screamed "1960's" at you in loud paisley letters.
Re:Syd Mead is the vision of the future... (Score:2)
I'd love to see "First Spaceship to Venus" - the only Soviet science-fiction I could find on DVD was Aelita, Queen of Mars. Is it available anywhere?
Tron? In A Game? (Score:1)
1. Man goes into evil computer
2. Man fights evil computer's minions & evil computer itself
3. Man wins
Of course, there was cool CGI while that was going on, but the movie itself did not seem to be very long (at least, to me), and the "cool graphics" defense might not fly with this game anymore. Does anyone know whether they will be adding extra features or levels to enhance the playability? Not to say I won't play it, extras or no, but I think it might be better to have the game's plot diverge a bit more.
Re:Tron? In A Game? (Score:1)
So you've never seen/played the Tron [klov.com] or Discs of Tron [klov.com] arcade games?
It's not about the quality of graphics in the original game (they were much better in the Discs game -- some pretty nifty (for the time) 3D effects). The fact that you could play the games from the movie was cool enough for me.
Oh you skeptic... (Score:1)
(a) Man shoots Lots of Badasses
(b) Rinse
(c) Repeat
Re:Tron? In A Game? (Score:2)
1. Man goes into evil computer
2. Man fights evil computer's minions & evil computer itself
3. Man wins"
That's 2 more sentences than the typical movie/game.
Let's try, shall we?
" 1. Unsinkable Ship Sinks" (Titanic)
" 1. Ugly chick removes glasses, gets the guy" (50% teen movies)
" 1. Guy tries to get beautiful girl, ends up with girl next door after realizing beautiful girl is ugly on the inside" (the other 50%.. 100% if the girl next door removes glasses)
" 1. Kill monsters" (All Quake games)
" 1. Kill nazis" (Wolfenstein)
" 1. Kill aliens" (Alien1-3, Predator 1-2, AvP)
" 1. Drive fast" (GT1-3)
" 1. Drive fast in a stolen car" (GTA1-3)
So I think a 3 line plot isn't too bad.
Re:Tron? In A Game? (Score:1)
Dad, the textures suck! (Score:1)
No, son, it is supposed to look that way. Big blank surfaces rendered in at least 1600x1200 32 bit colors on a GF4. Note 2ghz P4 reguired.
Just look at how many shades of grey(heh) and blue they have crammed into this game.
Interesting gameplay (Score:1)
However there is one let down to date, and that will be lack of light cycles in multiplayer (refer to quote) but in all it should pretty exciting and innovative. I definitely recommend reading the article, it lays down the premise of the very well.
One thing we won't see at this point are lightcycle multiplayer games however. This is something they really wanted to do right from the start, but have found that the current networking technology available just wouldn't be able to handle the mode. Lag issues would just cause havoc in a game that would need extremely fast reaction times from all parties.
Re:Interesting gameplay (Score:1)
The Armagetron guys seem to know what they're doing, so I suspect multiplayer lightcycles won't be possible in the commercial TRON 2 or any other tron game for a while.
Return of a tech cultural phenomenon (Score:2)
--CTH
The name of the sequel has been leaked out! (Score:3, Funny)
...Specialist from the Visual Basic department at Microsoft didn't want to respond on the announcement on slashdot.
Re:The name of the sequel has been leaked out! (Score:1)
I suppose I should've looked it up in the manual, given that DOS 3.0 and "Advanced Basic" had honest-to-god, binder-style manuals.
Re:The name of the sequel has been leaked out! (Score:1)
tron 2.0 movie (Score:1)
--tzan
Movie Website still active, also (Score:1)
Discs of Tron (Score:5, Interesting)
Discs of Tron was basically taken from the movie scene with Tron fighting Sark in the arena with balls of energy. They each stood on discs of energy and the goal was to knock your opponent off.
Some called it 'the frisbee game'.
The arcade game was amazing. First, the controls. On the right (or was it left?) you had a joystick with a trigger button and a thumb button. Trigger throws an energy ball, button goes into blocking mode.
On the left, you had a twisty knob that spun freely and used an optical sensor to detect motion. It could also be pulled up and pushed down. It was used to aim your energy ball throw.
Aiming was incredibly precise. Combining the two, you could do strafing shots unlike anything possible in a FPS -- by spinning the knob in time with moving the joystick, you could set up a set of three energy balls in the air that crossed sark's disc in a gridded fashion.
You could also set up amazing rebound shots off the wall and, in later levels, the ceiling. As well, in later levels the discs would move and, if hit by a blob, disappear.
The whole implementation of the game was freakin' perfect. It was so well done.
There were 1,000 of what was called the 'environmental unit' configuration of the cabinets made.
You literally stood inside the environmental unit. It had six channel surround sound-- stereo front, stereo rear, a center channel near the control deck and a bass channel in the rear of the cabinet that you were leaning against.
Totally immersive, especially for 1985 or so.
The implementation was interesting; two Z80s + a totally custom TTL based video computer to handle the 3D vector style (it wasn't truly vector and not everything was vectorized--- there were filled areas) graphics.
Totally kicked ass.
Re:Discs of Tron (Score:3, Informative)
It's amazing how well the twisting joystick transfers to mouse/keybord controls.
And yes, it's still fun.
I spent many a quarter on Discs of Tron (Score:2)
I had some trouble getting it to work with MAME last time I tried, maybe it's time to try again.
Re:Discs of Tron (Score:2)
Re:Discs of Tron (Score:2)
Totally immersive, especially for 1985 or so.
Yup, the environmental DoT as that unit was called was very impressive. There was also a "regular" machine style of the game, which is far more rare. Both are pictured here [klov.com]. I know someone that managed to score a beautifal enviro version of DoT about 6 years ago, for around $1500. Then some asses robbed his house one night...it wasn't enough to just rob him, they had to trash the place too. They couldn't very well leave with the behemouth of a machine, so they knocked it over, smashed it to shreds, etc.
For classic game collectors, such as myself, it's hurts knowing these things are so limited, and when they are found, idiots just trash them
But DoT is a very cool game, as is the regular Tron game (which I own). It will be interesting to see Tron 2.0. It will also be interesting to see the movie when it finally gets released. For now, we have to subsist on the 20th anniversary dvd that just came out of the original :)
No fucking way (Score:1)
I love Tron as it was one of my most favorite movies while growing up (and still is) but Tron 2.0, either as a game or a movie, doesn't exist to me.
Re:No fucking way (Score:1)
At last.. (Score:1)
Re:At last.. (Score:2)
We're getting DAMN close.
[From this website]
http://www.netlib.org/benchmark/top500/reports/re
1.1.2 The Cray Y-MP T90 (Triton)
Machine type: Shared-memory multi-vectorprocessor.
Models: Y-MP T90.
Operating system: UNICOS (Cray Unix variant).
Compilers: Fortran, C, C++, Pascal, ADA.
System parameters:
Model Cray Y-MP T90
Clock cycle 2.2 ns
Theor. peak performance:
Per processor 1.818 Gflop/s
Maximal 58.2Gflop/s
Main memory 8 GB
Memory bandwidth:
Single proc. bandwidth 21.8 GB/s
No. of processors 2-32
Performance:
19.5 Gflop/s
28.8 Gflop/s
Note: The and values as given above stem from a 16 processor T90 (T916).
The T90 is the successor of the the Cray Y-MP C90 and in almost all respects the machines are similar. As in the C90, the number of arithmetic vector pipe sets is four. The performance of a full T90 CPU is slightly less than four-fold that of a maximal C90 system. This is brought about by lowering the clock cycle from 4.1 to 2.2 ns and by doubling the number of CPUs from 16 to 32.
The machines from Cray Research Inc. are at this moment the only ones with a memory bandwidth as seems optimal for vector processors: two operands can be loaded and one result can be stored in one cycle for each pipe set. For the C90 this meant that the relative bandwidth to the CPUs had to be doubled from 24 to 48 bytes/cycle. This has indeed been accomplished and observed results indicate that for the C90 the performance scales up with the clock cycle and the number of functional units.
The Cray Y-MP T90, C90, and M90 systems do not have separate scalar processors but scalar- and vector code have to share the same functional units. Theoretically, the absence of separate scalar processors might impair the throughput speed, however, in practice the drawbacks seem rather limited.
[end of line]
The interesting thing was CRAY was selling a "CRAY on a chip" back in 1988.
Intel 860 (1988). 'Cray-on-a-chip'. Scary!
http://www3.sk.sympatico.ca/jbayko/cpu5.html#Sec5
Yah. tron 2. yah (Score:1)
Video games is my life. I want some 3d light cycle action.
3d light cycles I hope.
Tron and Robotech were the shit after transformers.
Oh sweet irony (Score:3, Interesting)
An Opportunity, not a Penalty (Score:1)
Because they do not have to worry about making the most detailed drawing of every area, they are free to show VAST DISTANCES, and put more energy into cool texture effects and vaster worlds.
In short, this limitation does not relly limit anything... it merely changes the focus from what is 'normal' in todays games (high detail, realistic graphics) to something completely different (vast panoramas, unreal graphics)
Anyone remember Windjammers? (Score:1)
How about that... (Score:1)
No Mention of the Sequel (Score:2)
I Can't Believe It! (Score:1)
More on Syd Mead... (Score:2, Interesting)
2003! (Score:2)
2003 is going to be a kick-ass year for geek movies.
Re:2003! (Score:1, Offtopic)
A Simpsons quote: (Score:1)
"No"
"No"
"No"
"No"
"No"
"Yes... er I mean no"
Really cool Tron games (Score:3, Interesting)
Tron Deadly Discs [intellivisionlives.com] was my favourite. It wasn't like the arcade game Discs of Tron, instead you and the enemies ran around a playfield throwing discs at each other. Eventually the Recognizer would come and you'd have to hit it in just the right spot to disable it. It was pretty easy but still lots of fun.
Tron Solar Sailer [intellivisionlives.com] was the coolest Intellivoice game. It was a pretty weird concept that I can't really describe too well, but it actually had quite a bit to do with the movie.
There was another game, Tron Maze-A-Tron [intellivisionlives.com] which I didn't think was very good. Basically you just ran around a maze doing stuff.
Of course the arcade games were a lot of fun too but for a youngster with very little money it was a lot nicer to have something to play at home.
Re:Really cool Tron games (Score:1)
Ah, I wouldn't like to say how many hours I wasted playing that game. The noise that the Recognizer made as it moved across the screen used to freak me out; I even ended up dreaming I was being chased by Recognizers when I was younger....
Poor Light Cycle Re-creation (Score:2)
The light cycle portion is about 1:30 in.
What is the point? (Score:1, Interesting)
Seriously... Tron was a movie that predicted, essentially, the first-person shooter. Wow! Whaddya know? Those predictions came true! Except what it didn't predict was the balance of technological advances that would occur in the process of making computer games. Graphics rendering obviously is much more advanced than they predicted. My desktop computer can render almost photorealistic scenes in real-time, whereas the TRON supercomputer had to render everything as blue-and-white lines.
And a technology that they greatly overestimated was the human-computer interface. The people in TRON are in a true virtual-reality environment, while gamers now (including those who will play this game) are still stuck using WASD and a mouse.
So my question is, what's the point of taking a step backwards in graphics, and failing to take a step forward in HCI? I think it would be more "faithful" to the spirit of TRON to bring the story up-to-date, with modern graphics, and just pretend to have a better interface. For the same reason Sam Raimi (rightly) brought Spider-Man up-to-date with biological web-shooters etc. There's no reason to accentuate the miscalculations of the past in a modern adaptation of an old tale.
Re:What is the point? (Score:1)
Your desktop can render things photorealistic, but if you get sucked into the computer, you'll see everything represented as blue and white lines and mostly simple shapes. Graphics technology has nothing to do with it. In the the computer's internal fantasy world, everything's platonic. The graphics system is just for output to the humans on the outside! When compound interest programs are slaughtered by strategic air command programs on the game grid, they don't use the graphics system for anything.
Go ahead and hook one of those disintigrating laser thingies (the SCSI versions are more reliable than the USB ones) to your PC, download the Linux drivers from sourceforge, go in and see yourself. Then you'll understand.