tronarchive

[tronarchive]

Tron Deadly Discs

Greetings Programs!

Today we'll be taking a look at the first of 3 Mattel video games published the same year as the original Tron movie: Tron: Deadly Discs. Originally released for the Intellivision console, it was also made for the Atari 2600 (under Mattel's M Network label) and the Mattel Aquarius (although this was actually ported in 1983). Each version has different aspects that will be covered in a bullet list down below. 

The Intellivision version was programmed by Don Daglow and Steven Sents. I couldn't find much on Sents unfortunately. Daglow, however, programmed notable games like "Utopia" and "Dungeon" and even went on to found the now defunct studio Stormfront Studios Inc. They were responsible for games such as Neverwind Nights and several Tony La Russa baseball games. The Intellivision version came with the cartridge, an instruction manual, 2 overlays for the controller, and a nifty little flyer with deals for the movie.

As far as I can find, the Atari 2600 came with just a cartridge and an instruction manual. The Aquarius version came with the cartridge, instruction manual, 2 controller overlays, and a keyboard overlay. 

All three games follow the same premise: you play as Tron, locked in the game grid and forced to fight against endless waves of enemies. Intellivision Master managed to get 19 million points, which I believe is the current world record! The enemies will appear through doors around the edge of the arena and you can keep them "jammed" open by throwing your disc at them. You can use said doors to travel to the opposite side of the map if there's a corresponding door. Basic enemies will attack by throwing their own disc; they're not harmful if Tron touches the enemies themselves (an exception would be the Guards in Intellivision and Intellidiscs). You have the ability to recall your disc in mid-fight, but it'll be rendered harmless as it returns.   

During my research I stumbled upon Intellidiscs- a fan conversion of the Intellivision version for the Atari 8-bit/5200. It was published by Phaser Cat Games in May 2021 and programmed by Ryan Whitman, with sounds by Bobby Clark. At the initial release, you could actually purchase a physical cartridge that came in a custom box with an instruction manual and custom controller overlay. Wired-Up Retro has a great unboxing and playing of it. According to the site, this cartridge could be played on North America and NTSC TV sets. Don't worry, you can download the ROM for free from their site as well! This version also features battle mods, where you can battle up to 4 players. The enemies follow the same format as the Intellivision (shown below, just with different names). There are developer diaries if you wish to see some behind the scenes -> here.

What’re your thoughts? Were you able to play it during its glory days?

Here's link for a side by side comparison of gameplay for each version!

Want to try it out? Here you can download a ROM of the Intellivsion or Atari 2600 version, or try the Intellivision version out on archive.org!

Intellivision (review with gameplay)

Distinct enemies, each with own abilities: 

Warriors- light blue, 1 hitpoint 

Leaders- appear after 10,000 points, dark blue, special disks, 1hp, can increase other warriors' skills. Introduces brown (double damage) and white discs (lock-on)

Bulldogs- purple, move slower, 2 hitpoints, less accurate

Guards- orange, white paralyzing sticks to immediately end the game, 4hp, appear after 1 million points

Recognizers: will take out the usable doors in between waves after a certain amount of doors are jammed, 1 touch is instant death, will fire a stun attack to freeze Tron for duration of knocking out doors, can disable it by attacking the "eye" when it turns white causing it to leave at the bottom offscreen. Exclusive to this version. 

3 different speeds for the disc   

To play, you can use both of the controllers- one for disc direction, other to move Tron around. Otherwise the typical controller would be with one controller and the number pad would control the disc direction [insert pic of instruction manual] 

Start out with 3 hitpoints, 1 life, move slower if got hit, restart at each wave

Progression- 20,000: increase HP to 4, 100,000: increase HP to 5 

Warrior point value increases with your score 

Tron is red for some reason 

Features 16 directions (very fancy for the time)

Atari 2600 (review with gameplay)

No recognizers

Doors close after 1 use

Enemies only have difference in color and each color is assigned a specific point amount (for instance, the basic light green warrior is worth 10 points, while the gold warriors are worth 800 points) 

Everything controlled with joystick

Once a warrior is defeated, another will spawn in 10 seconds unless you defeat the last warrior of that wave

Have 5 hp, regained at the end of each wave. Only 1 life

Mattel Aquarius (gameplay)

Similar gameplay as the previous- tossing disc to derezz 3 enemy soldiers at a time in waves

No recognizers

Doors situated in specific spots that can be left open if you attack them, will close once you use them 

Tron can gain a shield- can use 10pts to gain it (from what I can tell based on gameplay)

Enemies worth 50pts, only one type (red colored) 

Atari 8-bit/5200 fan game

Published under the name "Intellidiscs" by Phaser Cat Games

A fan conversion of the Intellivision released in May 2021, for North America and NTSC TV sets according to their site. 

Can download the ROM for free and used to be able to buy the cartridge (came with instruction manual, custom overlay for controller, actual cartridge) -> here on their official website 

Complete with a 4 person battle mode 

Programming by Ryan Whitmer, Music/SFX by Bobby Clark

Game plays similar to original Intellivision version- recognizer (identifier in this one) takes out the doors, can go through door multiple times, different colored enemies with different abilities

Can block/crouch 

Difficulty ramp (enemies come faster) 

References under the cut!

- https://www.myabandonware.com/game/tron-deadly-discs-eah

https://archive.org/details/intv_TRON_Deadly_Discs_1981_Mattel

https://thecoverproject.net/ (covers for both games) 

https://www.mobygames.com/game/8889/tron-deadly-discs/screenshots/ (in-game screenshots)

https://intvfunhouse.com/games/disc.php (box manual, overlay, flyer)  

https://videogamevariations.com/AtariCompanies/MNetworkGames/TronDDManuals/trondd_manualA.htm M Network manual 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopia_(video_game) Utopia 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeon_(video_game) Dungeon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nowS8TypH94 side by side comparison of all games

https://www.gamesdatabase.org/Media/SYSTEM/Mattel_Intellivision/Manual/formated/Tron-_Deadly_Discs_-_1982_-_Mattel_Electronics.pdf intellivision instruction manual 

https://forums.atariage.com/topic/320634-intellidiscs-now-available-for-the-5200/ forum with box art

https://www.deviantart.com/atariboy2600/art/Atari-5200-Intellidiscs-921972194 official art from the instruction manual 

[tronarchive]

Quick Update

Hi Programs! I just wanted to give a quick update on the next post.

It's finished, but I'm still finishing up the image descriptors. Between balancing a new job and suddenly getting sick this weekend, it's definitely halted work ;_;

Plan is to hopefully get it up by this coming weekend!

[tronarchive]

Tron Pop-Up Book

I figured we could start off with something simple to get into the grove of things! Today we’re looking at a companion book that was released for children, a pop-up book. The book summarizes the 1982 Tron movie in about 12 pages, with movable figures and well, pop-up pieces. The one with the I/O tower is probably my favorite, but multi-colored MCP is a close second.

It was released in 1982 by Little Simon, a part of the Simon & Schuster publishing company. Honestly not a lot can be found about this book; I know it was released in English and French, but I was unable to find any other languages. It’s possible they do exist, but because of how rare the book is, I couldn’t find anything.

For collectors out there, the price of the book varies greatly. It seems to range between $20 to $200. It honestly depends on who you’re buying it from. I’ve seen it listed on collector sites, but also on Ebay and Abebooks.

I’ve included image descriptions for all of the photos presented. Please let me know if I need to adjust the way I do them, this is my first time haha.

Links for references are listed below!

https://www.amazon.com/TRON-Pop-up-WALT-DISNEY-Productions/dp/B000K0B8YM (MCP)

https://collectibleentertainment.com/product/tron-pop-up-book-hardcover/ (Front and back covers)

https://www.ebay.com/itm/226259528662?epid=28038428464&itmmeta=01J4A7K12ZJDEA9FSB4CYAZB5D&hash=item34ae1e6bd6:g:bo4AAOSwHXFmocR0&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAAwMmCo%2BLGXVkSlLiCareX3WAhSc5I3jPYznsp53jZI9N%2FoFn162gINAcnhtubqhZ%2Bfb0vUw8kMSuCzQf4KXbC32c%2FnCUDllpWaf4whWfUSNAwEAOva6wzaKXow7XoGoEdNcpKiIG2nIr9tpKeG7KawDUZ0TqSD2cMtaUI0RrAhKlSB%2BI1iP5Ytfkt%2B%2F9VlDj7f5QeUWj0eho4WcR0rHkOGjhHAIza7FGNDaP5EVOaJkrwCxFlmXgMlkIPulzWKHhXrg%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR8qRzMeiZA (Interior pages)

https://www.lulu-berlu.com/tron-pop-up-book-fernand-nathan-1982-a35406-en.html (interior up position)

[tronarchive]

Greetings Programs!

I’m Rie-Eleven, the User of this project. I intend to keep a record of most, if not all, Tron media. I believe keeping archives like this is important, it’s always a tragedy when stuff becomes lost. I'm also working on a wordpress account (for those off of tumblr) and twitter account (just for update notifications, I promise).

This post will contain links to the post of each media as I research them. This will be a slow process, but I’m glad you’re here with me!

See that I’m missing something? Let me know and I’ll gladly look into it!

Videos

Tron (1982)

Tron: The Next Day

Tron Uprising

Tron Legacy

Books

Tron Novelization

The Making of Tron

Tron Pop-Up Book

Tron comic adaptation

Tron Ghost in the Machine

Tron Uprising Junior Novel

The Art of Tron Legacy

TL Junior Novelization

TL Betrayal

TL Complete Story

TL Movie Magazine

TL It’s Your Call

TL comic adaptation

Games

Tron Deadly Discs

Tron Maze-a-tron

Tron Solar Sailor

Adventures of Tron

Tron 2.0 (PC)

Tron 2.0 Killer App (Game-boy Advance)

Tron 2.0 Killer App (XBOX)

Tron Evolution Xbox (360/PS3)

Tron Evolution (PSP)

Tron Evolution (DS)

Tron Evolution Battle Grids (Wii)

Tron Run/r

Tron Identity

Featured In: Kingdom Hearts 2, KH DDD, Disney Heroes, Disney Mirrorverse

Arcade Cabinets: Tron, Discs of Tron

Soundtracks

Tron (1982)

Tron Legacy

Tron Legacy Reconfigured

Tron Uprising

Tron Run/r

Tron Identity

Tron Lightcycle Run: Shanghi, Disney World

Fanworks: End of Line, Return to the Grid, 8-bit Tribute

Misc.

Tron Lightcycle Run

Tron 1982 Trading Cards

Flynn Lives Campaign