To celebrate Atari releasing its fifth incarnation of Haunted House
today on Steam (and pretty much every other platform under the sun), I thought
I'd take it back to the original 1982 version I played on the Atari 2600.
You can't talk about Haunted House without talking about the box art. How
great is this? Back in the day, this is what sold you on the game inside. The
box art went a long way helping your imagination connect with what you
actually saw on screen.
Here's a clip from the back of the box with a screenshot. If you're not
someone that grew up with Atari, you can see what I mean about the box art
selling the actual game.
Missile Command is the latest Atari classic to make the transition to mobile. The game play is essentially the same, but you can't bring a 40 year old game into the present without a few changes, right?
You'll notice right away one of the biggest changes are the graphics. Most everything is now rendered in a Tron-esque neon. I think this gives it a more retro feel than if it was replicating the original graphics. Somewhat lost under an annoying "soundtrack" are the original arcade sounds. It's not bad the first couple times you play but thankfully, it can be switched off.
To defend your cities, you still have 3 bases which now have unlimited
ammo but take time to reload before they can be fired again. Since you
direct shots by tapping the screen, you can't choose the base that
shoots. This can be challenging! It seems to use the closest base that
is ready to fire. It might not sound like much but it will be an
adjustment for veteran Commanders.
There are no longer attack waves to break up the assault, you are consistently under bombardment. It starts out slow, but of course things begin to get more intense the longer you play. Your cities don't rebuild, but destroyed bases will. At least if there is a point where you get extra cities I haven't hit it yet, my best so far is around 25k.
The incoming ordnance is also a bit different. Enemy missiles now come in three sizes (smart bombs in two!) with projectile speed increasing as they get smaller. Also in the skies will be the occasional "power-up" which...isn't quite the right word because it's not always something you want! Maybe environmental modifier? These can slow things down, speed them up, set off a bomb that will clear the screen, and more.
Another new feature is that you can improve your defenses as you play. Your score after a game translates to points to buy upgrades for missile speed, explosion size, and how quickly your bases can reload or rebuild themselves. I think these add a good incentive to play again other than beating your last score because you'll get higher scores the more you improve.
The game is free but unless you pay $2.99 you'll be stuck with limited replay, represented by a battery graphic that loses one of three bars per game played with one bar recharging every 20 minutes. The free version has all the features of the paid so it's worth checking out if you're an arcade fan.
This is a fun return to a classic but honestly I don't see myself playing it much once it gets to the point where I'll have to play 2 or 3 games just to improve one thing. I'll probably keep it around as a time filler for awhile.
I almost forgot, there is one more fun new thing they put in here: Augmented Reality. Now you can have a Missile Command cabinet wherever you go. You can get right up close to it and the image is super crisp. You can also access the game from here so it's almost like walking up to a machine to play.
Although the box appears to have encountered an ectoplasmic entity and got slimed, it's still going strong. If you've had the box, I'm still waiting on an update! :)
On to the Main Feature...
Atari: Game Over (2014, Netflix)
Great documentary not only about the search for the long rumored Atari cartridge dumping ground but also the collapse of the industry. The ending feels a bit too dramatically staged but that's a very minor complaint.
Rating: 9/10, but I'm severely biased being an Atari kid
Robocop (2014, Netflix)
I have to admit, I was expecting this to suck out loud but was pleasantly surprised. This is probably the best way to do a remake/reboot of a series; making it its own thing and a new take on the basic story. It's just too bad his connection to his family felt as emotionless.
Cool: I actually warmed up to the new look; a little more "thinking" sci-fi than expected Lame: Why would you keep one human hand? The reuse of lines from the original often fell flat. Rating: 7/10
Mortdecai (2015)
A second delight that wasn't as bad as I feared. It's not great but it was entertaining. Very Mr Bean meets James Bond.
Cool: I may complain about Depp being in everything, I can't deny he disappears into his characters. Lame: There's a much better non-comedic movie in here somewhere Rating: 5.5/10
Cowboys Vs Dinosaurs (2015) aka Jurassic Hunters
If the title didn't clue you in, this is the kind of trash you'd expect to find on SyFy. It's all here: horrendous acting, bad CGI gore and creatures, a crazy over the top climax, and if that wasn't enough...Eric Roberts.
Cool: Ok, the dinos aren't that bad when they're not moving. If this movie did nothing else for me, it makes me really want to finally see Valley of the Gwangi. Lame: Pretty much covered it all up there. Rating: 3/10, could have been a good bad movie but they try to put too much story in it.
Jurassic World (2015)
While a whole lot of it seemed to be ringing the nostalgia bell for JP, I loved it. Well, 99% of it. Seeing the park open was amazing and delightful. It's a solid monster movie and I'd just about call it a horror movie due to the intensity of some scenes.
Cool: Tons of callbacks and Easter eggs Lame: My big problem with this is how the big fight ends. It had me 10 year old me laughing with joy and adult me rolling his eyes because it felt like they wrote themselves into a corner and said "Well, this will work." Rating: 8/10
Monsters (2010, Netflix)
This is like the polar opposite of Jurassic World. It's all about the characters and you barely see the creatures, but in a good way.
Cool: The director created the effects using off the shelf software! Lame: The ending feels a little silly in the world they've built up. Rating: 6.5/10
Deathstalker IV: Match of Titans (1990)
So glad to be done with this series that continues to drop in quality. Imagine Game of Thrones produced by your local cable access channel.
Cool: The original Deathstalker is back Lame: This movie Rating: 2/10 Gone Girl (2014)
If I were to draw you a Venn diagram of critically acclaimed movies and the movies I watch, there would be a very small overlap. You read this blog, you know I lean more to genre flicks, that's just me. But man, am I glad I saw this movie without having any of it spoiled in advance! Cool: Fantastic performances all around; Darkly awesome! Lame: The ending might leave you a little uneasy...but that's why I like it Rating: 8/10
Disclaimer: Loot Crate provides their product to me every month in exchange for a review and general promotion on social media.
Let's see what they brought to the table this month...
The booklet this month has an article on why co-op gaming is good for you and this very cool history of gaming controllers. I'd love to have this as a full size poster!
Being an Atari kid, I have a small gripe that they left out the 2600 paddle and the 5200 controller. But if you have to pick only one to represent Atari, that is THE one. Also missing is the controller from the Magnavox Odyssey which came out three years before Atari's home Pong console. And where is the NES light gun?!
Here we have a "blank" Munny figure that the artistically inclined can customize. I'm am not so inclined but if I were, I'd submit my design to the custom contest that Loot Crate is having. There's also a Hex Bug ant. I don't really "get" these things but I'm not exactly the target audience either. I bet any young lad would be thrilled with a robo-insect! On the back of the Firefly postcard is a promo code to unlock an exclusive ship in the MMO when it goes live.
This is probably the one thing I'm most excited about this month! When I first read the book, I checked it out of the library so I'm glad to have my very own copy now. I can count on my fingers the number of books I've re-read in my life and I plan to add this to that exclusive list.
This 100 card Superfight deck is a Loot Crate exclusive. Superfight is a party-type game where players create crazy fighters and argue the case as to why their fighter would win. Players get three white and black cards and pick one of each to make their fighter. Black cards are characters and the white cards are enhancements. Blue (locations) and purple (situations) are optional. A typical round might look a little something like this...
My money's on the derby girl. What about you?
We also got a 9"x13" Wacka-Wacka poster by Manny Peters. I wasn't able to get a good photo of it but I did want to mention it because it's classic video gaming and Atari related!
Lastly, your cat isn't the only one that can have fun playing with this month's Loot Crate box!
That's right, the Crate itself unfolds into a game board! The booklet has punch out player pieces and tokens representing the five different items they have to collect to be the first to pack a Loot Crate. What's next, a game about sweatshop workers making knockoff purses? Kidding! You move around the board using the exclusive rock-paper-scissors dice.
And you can also toss the RPS dice in their velveteen bag to carry around in case the urge to play strikes you. Of course playing with dice removes the psychological aspect of the game, but if you're uber lazy I guess this is the way to do it.
Overall, I'd say this month was just ok for me. I'm thrilled to have Ready Player One and the Pac-Man poster, Superfight seems like it could be fun, and they continue to inovate with the box interiors. The rest I could take or leave but I'm definitely looking forward to March when Loot Crate goes COVERT with the promise of an exclusive SHIELD item (see right sidebar).
If you want to check out Loot Crate and get a surprise box o' stuff, head yourself on over to Loot Crate and enter promo code AEIOUwhy for 10% off.
This week the League of Extraordinary Bloggers has been tasked to hold their ultimate dinner party. Invited guests can be living, dead, and/or fictional.
I was good up until the fictional part. It's hard enough putting together just five people from real life people, never mind all of literature, TV, movies, and video games! So I'm thinking this may call for some creative interpretation, also known as cheating the topic.
For starters, here's my real world guest list. Not to be confused with the Real World, although it could be interesting to see these people living in a house together.
If you know me at all, it's no surprise that Vincent Price is numero uno on my guest list. I'm pretty sure I'd have no problem with him being my only guest for the evening! His daughter is coming to Salem in October and I'm hoping really hard that I"ll be able to attend her lecture. It'll be the next best thing to being able to actually meet him.
Second is Roger Corman, King of the B Movies! Not only do I love B movies, but he's worked with so many people during his career, he's got to have some fantastic stories.
The next two gentlemen should need no introduction. I'd love to pick Walt's brain about theme park design and attractions. Maybe even ask him to design his version of a Star Wars ride, after showing him the movie of course!
Jim and Kermit are a package deal. I wouldn't make Jim perform, technically. I mean, if I'm bringing people back from the dead, I'm sure there's some magic way Jim could "be" Kermit without having to be under the table, right? I don't even know where I'd start with them. Sesame Street and The Muppet Show have had such an impact on me. I'd probably be more star struck and tongue tied trying to talk to Kermit.
My last guest does need an introduction and his name is Howard Scott Warshaw. Maybe you've heard the name, maybe not. But if you owned an Atari 2600 as a kid, chances are you're familiar with at least one of his games: Yar's Revenge, Raiders of the Lost Ark, or E.T. Yar's is one of my favorite video games ever and the Atari was a big part of my childhood.
I promise not to bring up E.T.
Now we come to the fictional party list!
Right off the top, it has to be The Doctor, but which one? Maybe he'd start at 1 and regenerate into each version as the night wears on. Or he could just randomly rotate between 4, 9, 10, and 11 all night. Wouldn't that be fun? Or some (or all) could show up at once, not like that hasn't happened before.
Next is probably my most loved character in printed fiction, Tasslehoff Burrfoot from the DragonLance novels. He's like a halfling with ADHD and has a habit of "borrowing" things that aren't nailed down. He's pretty much fearless and if there's trouble to be found, he'll won't just find it, he'll find it and poke it with a stick!
From Marvel comics, a pair of distinctly different doctors: Doom and Strange. When it comes to comic characters, I tend toward the more mystically inclined. Doom might try to steal the TARDIS, but I'd bet Tasslehoff would be stowed away in there and drive him crazy. And Strange I've been a fan of almost as long as I've been reading comics. I'm much more into his extra-dimensional adventures than the Earth-bound ones.
I was going to put Rocket Raccoon in the last chair. But as much as I'm into Guardians of the Galaxy right now, I have to put Adventure Time's Finn as my final fictional guest. He knows how to party but if Tas isn't plundering the depths of the TARDIS, he and Finn will probably run off to find adventure somewhere. There's so much doctor going on at this party, I had to use this particular image of Finn, even though he's not a doctor.
For this week's League of Extraordinary Bloggers assignment, we're going shopping again!
Go on a fictional shopping spree at Hake’s current auction #209 to make your collection a little more amazing.
Surprisingly, I didn't find a lot to get excited about this time around. Sure, I wouldn't say no to any of the vintage Star Wars toys, especially that Early Bird Kit with the double-telescoping Luke figure (it's not as dirty as it sounds, really!), but those would be more for displaying in their sealed glory than anything else.
If I'm adding to the collection, it has to be something special.
This assignment from the League of Extraordinary Bloggers may be my toughest yet...
You’ve decided to build an addition onto your house, a rec room
that will feature your very own fantasy video arcade. What games are on
your shopping list?
I have to try and restrain myself to just a few all time favorites and I'll no doubt think of others after the list has been posted and wonder why I didn't include them.
When I was in middle school, the mall across from my school had a handful of games and I'd stop by on the way home. The local corner store had a couple too. That's where I cut my teeth on Donkey Kong, Asteroids, Centipede, Karate Champ and Jungle King. I also swiped some quarters from mom's change jar. Sorry about that!
My dad would take me to the local bowling alley/arcade just about every Friday night and it was a common location within biking distance where I could meet friends. Once someone got a license, we'd visit other arcades at the area malls to scope out different games. To say I spent a lot of time in arcades would still be an understatement!
It's ridiculous how many 80s games I can name by sound.
Thanks to the recent League of Extraordinary Bloggers post where we all put up stuff for trade, I got more than I bargained for. Literally!
I set up a trade with Jboy from Revenge of the Cosmic Ark to get a couple of LEGO minifigs and one of the new Battle Beasts figures. What did I get?
A box full of frickin awesome is what!
Just look at all that goodness! To start, he sent the two Atari Hot Wheels that I've been hunting all over for to finish the set. My wife recently went out to CO and I had her looking out there too. The Secret Saturdays was a favorite cartoon of mine since it debuted so it was cool to get this little set. The figures are neat considering they're only a couple inches.
I don't know if this Corps figure is a pilot, astronaut or some kind of android but he can pop and lock like nobody's business!
I might open this and see if the battery still works.
As a first gen Atari kid, it's cool to have for the Activision artwork alone.
These guys are from the latest incarnation of one my childhood favorite toy lines, Battle Beasts. I was very against the idea of these from the start because they were so different from the toys I collected. Also, I just don't like Mini-Mates as much as LEGO and Playmobil. Both of these guys have holes in their back so they can wear their weapons, which is a genius idea.
The snake is by far the better of the pair, he succeeds in all areas where the walrus fails. The walrus is an odd shape and that means using a Mini-Mates base body and putting custom pieces on them. I seriously cannot pick this figure up without at least one part coming off. I don't understand why they think he needs all that articulation if it means body parts falling off constantly.
Anyway, a huge thanks to Jboy for hooking me up with all this!
You can see what I sent him on his blog.
Way back in late 2011, I found out about the Kickstarter for what sounded like an amazing book: Atari Inc. - Business is Fun. It tells the history of Atari from its beginnings, explosion into coin-op machines, home consoles and computers to its near self-destruction during the video game crash. What was going to set this apart from other Atari histories (of which I've read none) were interviews with the people that worked for Atari during those times.
Being born in 1970, I've been able to experience the evolution of video games. Before I got my 2600 I remember going to a friend's to play Pong. Yes kids, there was a time when Pong was a home console. That's all it did. It let you play Pong on your TV. This particular version didn't even have wired controllers so you had sit right next to your opponent.
After getting my 2600, it made me an Atari kid for life. I spent hours playing Combat (which I think counts as the first home video game deathmatch) Adventure, Yar's Revenge and so many others. Yes, even the bad ones! I remember going to the corner store, the mall and even the YMCA where my middle school did PE classes and having to put my quarter on the screen for next game. Excuse me for getting a bit off track! My point is, I've loved video games since there have been video games, so this book was something I couldn't pass up!
As I said, I pledged in late 2011 and the book was scheduled for July 2012 release. The actual release was November 2012 on Amazon. I just got my Kickstarer copy last month, February 2013. The authors were good about sending progress updates but there were people that were curious why it took so long for supporters to get their books and why we paid $15 more than the Amazon price. The answer about the price is that we were helping fund the last bit of the project costs to help get it published and the book was a reward for pledging.
My experience with other projects has been getting the product for retail, if not less than, as a pledge incentive. In all honesty, if I'd realized I could have pre-ordered for retail I would have but after finishing the book, I'm glad I could help make it happen.
That's my first completed "physical item" Kickstarter experience and doesn't change how I feel about the book: I love it! This thing is a beast at 796 pages. They deliver on what they promised and more. Marty Goldberg and Curt Vendel have spent over 8 years putting this together. And what a couple of guys. Goldberg has been writing about gaming for 13 years and Vendel is the founder of the Atari Museum.
This is the first in a planned trilogy of Atari histories and covers Atari's birth up to the industry crash in 1984. The book is packed with b&w photos of employees at work and play, product ads and images, and assorted documents. The chapters are setup so that the images come at the end as a sort of visual recap. I think it makes the narrative flow well in that respect so I'm not getting distracted while reading.
I can't even begin to go on about how much is in this book, but here's a few cool things:
Nolan Bushnell went on to create Chuck E Cheese after leaving Atari.
Steve Jobs & Steve Wozniak designed the original prototype for Breakout.
One of my favorite games, Yar's Revenge, was created in response to a proposed port of the arcade game Star Castle. I can't believe I never connected them.
Atari had a communications division called AtariTel that created a video phone.
One complaint I've seen is there is no index in the book, which is something essential for an almost 800 page book! The authors have addressed this on the Kickstarter page and in reply to an Amazon review. This was due to the publishing restrictions at Amazon so they're putting together a downloadable pdf with the help of some crowd sourcing.
Anyway, to stop this before I go on too long, I'd recommend this book for 3 types of people:
1 - The Atari Kid: Anyone that grew up in the 70s/80s playing Atari at home or in the arcade and wants to know more about the company that made their favorite games.
2 - The Video Game/Arcade Historian: If you want to see where the roots of gaming began to grow, this is a great place to start.
3 - Future Contestant on a Nerd Competition Show: So that you don't look silly after boasting to know all about video game history and then incorrectly give the creators of Pong as the guys from King of Kong, losing the challenge. And also so that you realize video games started way before PlayStation.
I've been making my way through the mammoth book Atari Inc.: Business is Fun, which I'll be posting more about when I finish it. It's gotten me very nostalgic for the golden age of arcades. Then I started thinking how some of my internet pals are around a decade younger than me. Those few years make the difference between experiencing the birth of home consoles along with the height of the coin-op arcade and growing up with a home console.
Now I know you youngins have likely been to some kind of arcade but to me the arcades of the early 80s are something I'm gratful to have experienced first hand. It was a time before they were mostly filled with multi-player driving, dancing, and fighting games and despite the limits of technology, there was an incredible variety from game to game.
My dad often took me to a local bowling alley called Capeway that had a decent sized arcade area with video games and pinball. To get this thing back on track, I wanted to share a particular pinball machine that you may not know about: Atari's Hercules. For me pinball is all about the licensing or it's got to have a great gimmick. This time, size matters!
Look at that thing! To give you a better idea of its size it uses a pool cue ball instead of the standard size pinball! Atari tried their hand at pinball for a few years ultimately getting seven machines out. Hercules was their final one and what a way to go out!
This video gives a comparison of Hercules against a standard sized pinball machine.
There's a bit of under the hood stuff as well for you electronics nerds.
If you want to see game play, skip to about 3:14 mark.
I think this is one of the few exceptions where something you remember as being huge when you're a kid actually is. If I had weighted wristlets at the time, I would no doubt have felt compelled to wear them to play this beast of a machine.
Write a stream of conscious post listing the things you love and hold dear.
The length of this post vs how long it actually takes me to write it will probably be way out of proportion as I try to self-edit and keep myself from going on and on and on...
My parents and wife! They've been amazing as long as I've known them.
You, yes you there reading this! I had no idea how starting a silly little blog would change the way I interact with the internet and introduce me to so many great people.
Comments! I can see how many page hits a post gets but seeing comments gives me a little more validation that someone's interested in what I'm writing.
Star Wars! (even some parts of the prequels) Being able to escape to another place I know so well whether through movies, TV, games, music or other audio things...
Music! Oh my god, there is sooo much music I love. Stuff that's been with me forever and takes me back (Pac-Man Fever album), stuff that I listen to when I'm down (Trans-Formers soundtrack got me through some tough times), stuff that I blast when I'm pissed at the world (Calabrese, Zombina and the Skeletones and tons of other punk & metal) and stuff I put on to zone out to (anything relating to Tron).
Tron! If you've been reading for a bit, you know how much I love this franchise.
Halloween! The movies are ok but I'm talking about the holiday and the fall season. Bringing out the Salem Creep every year and scaring the pants off people. Having Trick or Treaters come to the door, especially when they're Star Wars or something else pop culture related.
Photography! There are few things I enjoy more than going to a cemetery alone, wandering the stones and taking pictures. I do like taking photos of other things too, as you might have seen. But, gravestones don't move around and try to be funny in pictures...usually.
Movies! Oh so many to list but I have a spot in my heart for the horror/scifi of the 50s, 60s and 70s. In particular if it features Vincent Price or something being a lot bigger /smaller than it naturally should be, I'm there!
Cartoons and Saturday mornings! Adventure Time, Regular Show, Gravity Falls, the Aquabats Super Show. Being able to revisit stuff I haven't seen in ages like Battle of the Planets (and the original Gatchaman), Thundarr the Barbarian, StarBlazers and StarCade.
Games of all kinds: board, card and video! As far as we've come tech-wise I still love the hell out of old school arcade and vintage games, especially my Atari 2600 favorite: Yar's Revenge.
And I'm going to wrap with toys! I always feared as a kid that I'd get too old for toys. Glad I was wrong! LEGO minifigs, action figures, capsule toys from vending machines, Halloween themed Playmobil figures.
A few weeks ago, I posted about TRON turning 30 and my various experiences with aspects of that universe and merchandising. I mentioned I never had any of the Tron toys when they were originally released. So I decided to see what the going rate was, figuring if I couldn't afford an original from the '80s maybe I could snag one of the NECA rereleases from the early '00s inexpensively. I was thrilled I was able to score an original Tron for $10!
The disc glows in the dark!
Tron has the standard 5 points of articulation, the height of early '80s action figure design. But what really makes this line stand out is that they're molded in transclucent plastic. You can't tell from these photos, but he does have molded facial features they're just not painted which kind of gives him an anonymous robot look. The sleek line graphics and the translucency aren't like anything else that was being done with figures at the time so it really gives it that little something extra.
Tron vs Rinzler
Another neat feature I've discovered from online research is that the three figures that came with discs were able to wear them on their backs thanks to a tiny connecter. My figure didn't come with one of these, but that's ok. You wouldn't be able to see the disc when the figure's on display that way.
Much easier when you're not actually in the lightcycle
There were only four figures released in this line and a couple of ripcord powered lightcycles. I'll probably track the rest of the figures down at some point to have a complete set.
...or whatever you call it when a new program is created. Since derezzing is the end, would initialization or rezzing be the start of electronic life? Anyway! 30 years (and two days) ago, TRON was released in just under 1100 theaters in the US.
I don't remember seeing it in theaters but it's been a presence in my pop culture consciousness for a very long time. As a young geek, I got to experience Pong as a home video game console. A console that only played a single game with no cartridges, can you imagine?
It was around '82/'83 when I got my first computer, a TI-99/4a. 256k RAM, baby! I bought computer magazines so I could manually copy line upon line of BASIC code to play games. I learned about hexdecimal code and sprites so I could change the ships in a Space Invaders knockoff to look like ships from Star Wars. There was just something about computers that grabbed me at an early age. Not to mention, computers were the "it" thing in the '80s.
If you think about it, computers were to '80s cinema what the atom age was to '50s cinema...the next big thing that could destroy the world!
I never had any of the toys. Maybe I was just too into Star Wars collecting at the time. I remember seeing the ads for the Tron figures and lightcycles and wanting to get them but for whatever reason I never did. Maybe they were hard to find?
I remember creating a Tron-inspired game that I played with a friend. It was similar to Disc Wars but the goal was to get a Frisbee past your opponent, and not hit them with it! Each player had a plastic tube that was used to deflect/stop the disc from going past them. I also remember trying to teach myself to throw a Frisbee like they do in the movie...not so much success there. It would be another year until Return of the Jedi's speederbikes became the pretend vehicle of choice when riding bikes, but until then it was lightcycles all the way!
And the video games! I was an Atari kid but there were few times when I wanted an Intellivision so I could play the Tron games. Never had the one cart released for Atari. I played the arcade games a lot. I remember getting out of middle school and going to the mall across the street to play the Tron game. There was a tiny room near the back entrance that was about 10' across but it was long enough that they had five or six games in there. One local arcade had the step-in version of Discs of Tron which was awesome.
Bee-yoo-ti-ful!
Arcade games were often rotated out to make way for the latest and greatest. Soon, the last connection to Tron was gone and it moved on to that place in my brain that holds on to special things.
In 1994, ReBoot premiered on Saturday mornings and rezzed up memories from over 10 years ago. Ever since then, I'd always wondered why Tron was never made as an all CGI cartoon. In my mind, it was the perfect way to tell stories set in the same digital world. ReBoot ended in 2002 and still has a strong fan following today.
A 20th Anniversary edition of Tron was released on DVD in 2002. I devoured the special features which were previously only available on LaserDisc. New segments included peaks at the artwork for following year's PC game Tron 2.0. They also hinted at the possibilty of a true movie sequel. New Tron material after 20 years!
The PC game Tron 2.0, was considered to be a cannonical sequel until production for Tron: Legacy started. The game had a great story line although the hero was Alan's son instead of Flynn's. A series of four figures were released based on the game. There was a follow-up sequel done in comic book form called Tron: Ghost in the Machine, which is a sector of Tron lore I'd gladly reformat.
The teaser trailer for TR2N was shown at Comic Con in 2008. It was a similar to the first Phantom Menace trailer: I had to find a bootleg version online and I watched it a whole lot!
I followed, and played along, with the Alternate Reality Game online. I won a few pins, a couple of postcard ads featuring Encom video games and an Encom employee photo ID badge complete with lanyard.
In October, our local AMC theater participated in a free 23 minute preview in IMAX 3D. There weren't a ton of people there but it what I saw got me even more excited for the premiere. Also, Marvel Comics released a two issue prequel titled Tron: Betrayal. It made a lot more sense after seeing the movie and having the proper context to place the new story.
I got the soundtrack when it was released and instantly fell in love with it. Daft Punk's melding of electronica and orchestra was just as unique as Wendy Carlos' original Tron score. It's a perfect album to put on to zone out or while working at a computer...which are not mutually exclusive. There was a remix album released a bit later and seemingly endless unlicensed fan remixes.
Legacy opened on December 17th. My parents were taking us to DisneyWorld for Christmas that year and amdist the hubaballo of getting ready for a week long trip, I made my wife go with me before the trip because there was no way I was missing this in IMAX 3D! I loved the movie. I wish they'd been able to explore Tron a little more and it would've been great to see Cindy Morgan back.
This year brings us Tron: Uprising. Finally an animated series! The show takes place prior to Legacy with Tron training a young program to take his place in the revolution. The show is scored by Joseph Trapanese who worked with Daft Punk for two years on the Legacy film score. Until I found this out, I had no idea it wasn't Daft Punk. I need a soundtrack from the show!
And that brings us up to right now. Word has it a new movie is being worked on but no details have come out yet. Maybe something will be revealed at Comic Con this week...
If you're still reading, I applaud you! I really didn't mean to go on at such length, this was really just going to be a Happy 30th. But as you can probably tell, Tron is one of my favorite movie franchises of all time. There's two Holy Grail's out there for me: the original board game and Kevin Flynn's White Identity Disc
This week, the League of Extraordinary Bloggers wants to take you out to the ballgame!
America’s past time has been prominently featured in pop culture for over a century, so this week, we’re talking baseball in an open-ended way!
In my years in the corporate world, I've worked for a few different help desks. On occasion, someone will ask where I'm located and when I mention the Boston area the usual conversation goes like this:
"Oh, so you're a Red Sox fan, eh?"
"No."
"Patriots?"
"No, I don't follow sports."
"Wow you don't follow sports and you live near Boston?!"
That's right! I am one of the least sports-centric people you'll ever run into. Something my wife and I happily share. About the only sports I enjoy watching are volleyball and skateboarding. I never go out of my way to find them, these are the things I will not suffer through if they happen to be on.
Anyway, my extent of baseball experience as a kid was racked up on my Atari 2600, and not even the RealSports version...
