Affiliations: Alan Bradley (programmer), Kevin Flynn, Yori, Dumont, Ram
Enemies: Master Control Programme; Sark
Known Relatives: Alan Bradley (programmer, hence "father", kind of)
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: The System
First Appearance: Tron (movie, Walt Disney)
Powers/Abilities: Within the computer's virtual reality, Tron is exceptionally agile and strong compared to other programmes. He is also smarter than average. Other abilities depend largely on what his programmer Alan Bradley gives him; for instance, he temporarily was given the ability to destroy the MCP.
History: Tron was a Digital Control Programme created by computer genius Alan Bradley, designed to monitor other programmes and prevent any abuses of the system. Unknown to Alex, within the system the programmes took on lives of their own, taking on appearances resembling their creators and living out virtual lives. Also unknown to Alan, his boss' Master Control Programme had usurped control of the system, and was dominating the other programmes like a tyrant, derezzing (killing/deleting) any who opposed it and absorbing any useful data or abilities they had. Tron soon became counted as a rebel, and was imprisoned. In captivity, he encountered Kevin Flynn, a human programmer and ally of Alan, who had run foul of the MCP in the real world, and been digitised and brought into the virtual one.
The MCP's subordinate, Sark, took delight in making captive programmes fight to the death against one another within computer games. When Flynn and Tron were placed in a racing game, they managed to break free, and together they helped Tron re-establish contact with Alan, who provided Tron with the weapons necessary to destroy the MCP. Flynn's unique status gave him powers that programmes lacked, and using these, he and Tron were able to reach the MCP's isolated centre of control, where Tron brought his rule to an abrupt end.
Based on the most computerized movie of its era, the Tron arcade game puts you in the role of the eponymous video warrior in a variety of contests. In the Grid Bug game, you must eliminate as many grid bugs (who are naturally deadly to the touch) as possible and enter the I/O tower safely before the fast-moving timer hits zero.
The maddening Light Cycle game was the only portion of the Tron arcade game to directly correspond with the movie. You and your opponent face off in super-fast Light Cycles, which leave solid walls in their wake. You must not collide with the computer's Light Cycle, its solid trail, or the walls of the arena. To win, you must trap the other Light Cycle(s) (in later stages, you face three opponents) within the solid wake of your own vehicle.
The MCP game was basically a simple version of Breakout, but the wall of colors rotated counter-clockwise, threatening to trap you if you made a run for it through a small gap.
The Tank game was a tricky little chase through a twisty maze, where you try to blast opposing tank(s) three times each...while they need to score only one hit on your tank to put you out of commission. (Bally/Midway, 1982)
Okay, granted, so there really isn't much correlation between Tron the game and Tron the movie, but in this case, it doesn't matter. The game, with its awesome backlit cabinet graphics of special effects stills from the movie successfully, stole just enough of the movie's millieu to be a successful tie-in - and let's not forget the awesome polyphonic recreation of Wendy Carlos' cool synthesized score from the movie, which was heard mainly during the Grid Bug game.
Some people, rather unjustly, think the game was better than the movie. I disagree. I thought they were both incredibly cool.
Anime Secrets is hosting the second annual Halloween Cosplay Contest! Also returning to help us pull off this event is Funimation, who were our sponsors last year, and provided boxsets to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners. The contest is fairly simple. Email you in your cosplay no later then November 15th, 2009, and wait for results. You have nothing to lose but everything to gain!
We've put together a free ebook that shows the major mistakes people make when they're trying to promote themselves online. We're giving this information out to pretty much everybody we can find so if you want to keep up with the same info then please have a free download on us but be quick, the free download expires in a couple days.
Anime Secrets is hosting the second annual Halloween Cosplay Contest! Also returning to help us pull off this event is Funimation, who were our sponsors last year, and provided boxsets to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners. The contest is fairly simple. Email you in your cosplay no later then November 6th, 2009, and wait for results. You have nothing to lose but everything to gain!
Tickets SELLING FAST! £7 adv avaliable from (more on the door): wegottickets.com seetickets.com Ticketline Picadilly Records
Grouper (US) has her latest – Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill – of three albums on Type Records. She has also been involved in collaborative releases, contributing a track to Xiu Xiu’s Remixed & Covered and four tracks to a split release with Inca Ore. Her other contemporaries are Belong, Growing, Tim Hecker, Windy & Carl and Atlas Sound.
Jasper TX (Sweden), with a hefty back-catalogue of releases on labels such as Miasmah, and collaborations with buddy Machinefabriek, is an essential domestic appliance in the household of conceptual music. He is comparable to artists Fennesz, Sigur Ros, Múm and Tape.
Intricate and atmospheric songsmith, Danny Saul (UK) performs with different combinations of musicians, making each gig a unique event. His forthcoming release is "Harsh, Final", and he also performs with Greg Haines as Liondialer.
Fieldhead (UK) music delights in tape hiss, bleak landscapes and decaying analogue loops. He is also a member of The Declining Winter and Glissando. His debut album, "They Shook Hands for Hours" is released soon on Home Assembly.