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Tron achievements bring back memories
Tron is something of a cult classic. Many of us remember the movie as one of the most compelling early instances of computer graphics in a film. Even today, it maintains that retro cool. Whether or not the actual game can stand the test of time remains to be seen. We imagine it will be like most retro XBLA games, which means you already know whether or not you plan on buying it. Still, the achievements revealed by X360A give us a sense of nostalgia. Aside from the Light Cycle acheivement, our favorite is probably the achievement for completing all twelve levels: "User."Yeah, that takes us back.
Video: new Tron tastes just like old Tron
Retro titles on Xbox Live Arcade generally have two flavors: original and enhanced. Above we have a video of Tron in its original state for the Xbox Live Arcade. After the break is a video of the "enhanced" version (find high res versions here). Now, we know Tron is a classic and many don't want it tampered with, but the enhanced version barely looks different at all. Honestly, we can hardly tell the difference. Sure, we play for the gameplay, but if this is all the "enhancement" that's being done it seems like a waste of developer resources. We put this question to our readers: if this passes for enhanced visuals, is it even worth it? Would you rather see developers enhance both visuals and gameplay, as Rare did with Jetpac Refuelled?
Two Tron titles confirmed for XBLA
It wasn't long ago that Discs of Tron was leaked as an Xbox Live Arcade title on the ESRB website. Disney has now stepped up to the plate and confirmed that Discs of Tron, along with Tron itself, is heading to Microsoft's download service. Both games will feature enhanced graphics and online multiplayer. The game is being developed by Backbone Entertainment, more commonly known on XBLA under the Digital Eclipse label. Given the age of these games, we hope that Backbone goes the extra mile and really enhances the gameplay rather than merely slapping on a fresh coat of pixels. Either way, we're looking forward to some serious light cycle matches on Xbox Live.
Two Tron games head to XBLA, we get depressed
Sure, you could be excited that Disney has announced arcade versions of Tron and Discs of Tron are coming to Xbox Live Arcade at some unspecified time this summer. You could be jazzed that Backbone is throwing in online multiplayer and updated graphics with the releases, but we just can't seem to get there. Maybe it's because these games come 25 years after Tron ignited the imaginations of 1982 cavemen who hadn't even heard of the internet and we've fallen woefully short in making their neon-drenched dreams reality.Think about it. It's been two-and-a-half decades now, and the closest we've come to being digitized by a radical laser, assigned an identity disc and being forced to compete in gladiator-style games that may or may not result in our termination is waving around a white stick. Forget the MCP, we haven't even reached the technological sophistication of the VR Troopers -- and they were awful. So go ahead, feel free to enjoy the games of the past. We'll be too busy feeling guilty that our present is also some 1982 movie goer's future.%Gallery-2940%
New 2.80 homebrew: Tron [Update 1]
The retro games just keep on coming. Mere moments after Tetris and Pong successfully appeared on the platform, homebrewers have crafted Tron for your enjoyment. Once again, it's fairly easy to install and launch: download the file and then place it in your PSP's PHOTO folder. Some users have expressed some problems with launching homebrew on their 2.80 firmware PSPs. Do you by any chance have TA-82 PSPs? I don't think it should interfere, but it's strange to notice the problems people seem to be having.[Via PSP 3D][Update 1: Corrected clear malfunction of the brain caused by sleep deprivation.]
Inside the world of Tron
Tom's Hardware Guide has gone behind the scenes of one of the first video game movies ever made, Disney's 1982 classic Tron. Those of us too young to have seen it first time round can now begin to appreciate the real vision behind the movie, and quite how advanced for its time it was.It seems that the special effects--and, in fact, the amount of technology in the film's plot--were just too far ahead to succeed back in the Eighties. You needed to be young and hip to appreciate them, playing video games "for hours on end" according to visual effects artist Harrison Ellenshaw. Tron's box office failure (and later cult success) may be a harbinger of things to come--recent video game movies haven't done so well either, so maybe we'll see them remembered fondly in twenty years' time. On the other hand...
