Mead currently uses a PowerBook and a Power Mac as part of his daily routine. He relies on Adobe PhotoShop, Illustrator, and Premiere, as well as Final Cut Pro and PowerCADD software, to get his work done. Ironically, over two decades ago, some felt that the original Disney film’s visual effects crew “cheated” by using computers to create its unique technological world.
Given the ubiquity of such hardware today, however, a sequel of sorts to the original not only makes sense, but many of Tron’s ideas resonate more strongly now than they did then.
Tron: The Next Generation
“Tron lay dormant for 20 years after the release of the movie,” explains Cliff Kamida, executive producer of the game for Buena Vista Interactive, “so we felt pretty free to do what we wanted. For the development team, the main goal was to stay true to the essence of the film while taking it to the next level.”
End of the Line? This transport will look familiar to fans of the film.
The game picks up 20 years after a security program named Tron, which was created by programmer Alan Bradley, saved the world from the Master Control Program. Bradley now works for a company that is on the verge of a take-over by fCon, a corporation that has heard about his advances in artificial intelligence. His newest program, Ma3a, can not only hold a human being’s genetic code within its memory but also transfer people from the real world to the digital one.
“The Tron world is stylistic, based on sensibilities inherent in the electronic cliche. In that sense, that world is hyper-theatrical, using ‘unreal’ techniques to tell a story that hopefully resonates with the viewer.”
- Syd Mead, designer
When Alan mysteriously disappears one night, his son, a young programmer named Jet, sets out to find out what happened. Ma3a, knowing that Jet is the only one who can save his father, transfers him into fCon’s computer networks. Once inside, Jet learns that a program named Thorne is corrupting the company’s main server, which the head security program, Kernel, blames Jet for. Soon Jet has Thorne’s Z-Lots and the Kernel’s ICPs chasing him. Then a mysterious program named Mercury, whose user is someone known only as Guest, shows up to help Jet find his father.
Streams of Data. Everywhere you look you’ll see the data streams that power the Kernel’s servers.
The Electronic Cliché
Tron 2.0 retains the look and feel of the film’s environment, courtesy of the “glow effect” developed by graphic card maker Nvidia, but also introduces many of the technological advances of the past 20 years. While computing in the early 1980s was a comparatively primitive experience, one in which most computers had no access to networks or the Internet, today’s world is all about interconnectivity. The game deals with that reality by introducing servers that you can travel between as you try to stay one step ahead of the Kernel and Thorne’s minions.
The game also features many of the modern trappings of the digital life that we’re all used to now, such as version numbers, upgrades, corrupted files, security permissions, and more. Because Jet becomes a program, he can download sub-routines that he comes across in the digital world.
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One, for example, helps him jump higher while another gives him a more powerful weapon, and still another enhances his body armor. You can upgrade each sub-routine from Alpha state to Beta and finally to Gold, each step increasing the abilities it gives Jet.
The More Things Change
Another upgrade from the film occurred with the introduction of the super light cycle, which Kamida’s team brought in Mead to design. As the creator of the original, he knew how to approach a 21st century version.
“Tron 2.0 is really about how deeply computers and technology have infiltrated our lives. I think as technology advances, it has the equal potential to do both good and harm, and that we as a society need to be vigilant in this regard.”
- Cliff Kamida, executive producer
“The demands of design are the same as they were 27 years ago: understand the problem, design to the limitations, and keep in touch with who is doing the translation into final use form,” Mead explains. “I had to design a super cycle with presence, incorporating the iconic characteristics of what the ‘bike folk’ expect to see when presented with one. My main design thrust was to preserve the detached front wheel — this definitely makes it electronic, not real — and keep the design elements of the first bike with an overlay of new proportions.”
Nice Ride. The super light cycle brings an interesting wrinkle to the light cycle races.
Looking at the world of Tron compared to Blade Runner, another cult classic film he worked on, Mead acknowledges the thematic contrast between the two.
“The big difference,” he says, “was that Tron was a completely artificial construct linked to a classic story of netherworld/ID driven intent versus the ‘surface world’ of technical possibility and Blade Runner was an elaborate comment on where we could be going as a technically enhanced society struggling with matching human ambition, with ever-new tools than can either pervert or promise a possible future.”
Just Doing My Job. These Intrusion Countermeasure Programs (ICPs) carry out the orders of the IC Kernel, who thinks you’re responsible for the corruption on his servers. He directs them to eliminate you.
Those overarching themes in Tron the movie find their way into Tron 2.0 the game, Kamida acknowledges. Warnings about the influence of technology on our lives have been a mainstay in movies, books, TV shows, and computer games for years, and Kamida points out that Tron 2.0 is no different.
“Tron 2.0 is really about how deeply computers and technology have infiltrated our lives,” he says. “I think as technology advances, it has the equal potential to do both good and harm, and that we as a society need to be vigilant in this regard.”
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