Tron is a coin-operatedarcade video game manufactured and distributed by Bally Midway in 1982. The game consists of four subgames inspired by the events of the Walt Disney Productions motion picture Tron released in the same year. The lead programmer was Bill Adams. Tron was followed by the 1983 sequel, Discs of Tron, which was not as successful as the original. A number of other licensed Tron games were released for home systems, but these were based directly on elements of the movie and not the arcade game; the arcade game was not ported to any contemporary systems. Tomy released their own game based on the film for the Tomy Tutorhome computer. However, this game was only released as a Tron game in Japan, and in the USA the game featured the title Hyperspace.
Gameplay
Tron consists of four sub-games based on events and characters in the movie. In general, the player controls Tron, either in human form or piloting a vehicle, using an eight-way joystick for movement, a trigger button on the stick to fire, and a rotary dial for aiming. The goal of the game is to score points and advance through the game's twelve levels by completing each of the sub-games. Most of the 12 levels are named after programming languages: RPG, COBOL, BASIC, FORTRAN, SNOBOL, PL1, PASCAL, ALGOL, ASSEMBLY, OS, JCL, USER. The game supports two players alternating. At the start of each level, the player is taken to a "Game Grid" selection screen with four quadrants. The player must choose between four quadrants, each one corresponding to one of the sub-games. The sub-game in each quadrant is not known to the player until it is selected - if the player fails the game and loses a life, he/she is taken back to this selection screen and an icon representing that game is now visible. The sub-games are as follows: ;I/O Tower The player must guide Tron to the flashing circle of an Input/Output tower within a set time limit while avoiding or destroying Grid Bugs. This game is based on the I/O Tower scene in the film, while adding the Grid Bugs as enemies. ;MCP Cone The player must break through a rotating shield wall protecting the MCP cone and enter the cone without touching any of the shield blocks. This game is based on Tron's final battle with the MCP in the film, but changes the nature of the MCP's shield. ;Light Cycles In a player-vs-AI variant of the Snake game concept, the player guides Tron's blue Light Cycle in an arena against one or more yellow opponents. The objective is to force the enemy light cycles into walls and jet trails, while simultaneously avoiding them. This game is based on the Light Cycle Arena sequence in the film, though the colors of the friendly and enemy characters are reversed. This is the only sub-game in Tron to not use the rotary dial. ;Battle Tanks The player must guide Tron's red battle tank through a maze and destroy all of the opposing blue enemy tanks by hitting each of them three times. The tank can warp to a random location in the maze by moving into a diamond in the center. In higher difficulty levels, the enemy tanks are replaced by red Recognizers that are much faster and attempt to collide with the player instead of shooting at him/her. This game is not based on any particular scene, but is rather based on Tank Program elements, including Clu's failed intrusion into the ENCOM mainframe and the "Space Paranoids" game featured at the beginning of the film.
Reception
Tron was awarded "Coin-Operated Game of the Year" by Electronic Games magazine. The New York Times reported that 800 arcade cabinets were sold by 1982. The book The naked computer reported that Tron made $45,000,000 by 1983. In USgamer's estimation 10,000 cabinets were sold and the game made more than $30,000,000 of revenue by 1983.
Discs of Tron is an arcade game which was originally intended as a fifth segment of Tron but was left out because programming was not finished in time. In it, the player engages in disc throwing combat, similar to the film sequence. Discs of Tron was not widely released. The light cycles segment of Tron has led to snake games sometimes being called "Light Cycles" games, despite the concept dating from 1976. Some post-Tron snake games use themes or terminology from the film. On January 10, 2008, Tron was released for Xbox Live Arcade, ported by Digital Eclipse and branded by Disney Interactive. A miniature Tronarcade cabinet showing a looping video of the game's attract screens is featured as a toy in the Tron Legacy pinball machine, released in 2011 by Stern Pinball.
