IMO, they killed Tron by attempting to turn it into a merchandising vehicle, with toys and other shiny objects, just like they do with their other movies. When the bonanza didn't happen, they just wiped it from the face of the earth, 400+ million in BO receipts be damned. Tron fans just aren't hyper-consuming drones, and the movies just don't lend themselves well to merchandising toys and other things. We waited 28 years for the sequel, and it was definitely worth the wait.
"As a merchandising tie-in, the video game was much more appropriate to the source material than toys would be. Tron is much more conceptual than Star Wars or He-Man."
You said it much better than I could in my pre-coffee state. Spot on. Thanks fren.
There was another Tron arcade game from the 80s ... Discs of Tron ... That one was excellent. The first one was Ok at best ... It was an awesome looking cabinet all lit up though. Discs of Tron was released when arcades were shitting the bed in the early 80s ... Not many were made ... One version of it was a big ass cabinet you literally walked into ... I wish that one would have come out first.
The Atari Tron games sucked. The Intellivision Tron Deadly Discs game was great though. They also had a Tron Solar Sailor game for the Intellivision Intellivoice that was pretty slick for the era.
The pinball machine that came out with Tron Legacy is a masterpiece. Even people that dislike pinball love that game.
Interesting review Fren! My (still) friend managed an arcade and I’d hangout there endlessly. He’d give me sacks of tokens & I’d play for hours & hours. It was a huge arcade too & we’d dig-in to the guts of the games & pinball machines to fix them. (Both being ex-USAF electronics guys). I remember Discs of Tron and it was excellent.
IMO, they killed Tron by attempting to turn it into a merchandising vehicle, with toys and other shiny objects, just like they do with their other movies. When the bonanza didn't happen, they just wiped it from the face of the earth, 400+ million in BO receipts be damned. Tron fans just aren't hyper-consuming drones, and the movies just don't lend themselves well to merchandising toys and other things. We waited 28 years for the sequel, and it was definitely worth the wait.
Again, this is all just my opinion.
"As a merchandising tie-in, the video game was much more appropriate to the source material than toys would be. Tron is much more conceptual than Star Wars or He-Man."
You said it much better than I could in my pre-coffee state. Spot on. Thanks fren.
There was another Tron arcade game from the 80s ... Discs of Tron ... That one was excellent. The first one was Ok at best ... It was an awesome looking cabinet all lit up though. Discs of Tron was released when arcades were shitting the bed in the early 80s ... Not many were made ... One version of it was a big ass cabinet you literally walked into ... I wish that one would have come out first.
The Atari Tron games sucked. The Intellivision Tron Deadly Discs game was great though. They also had a Tron Solar Sailor game for the Intellivision Intellivoice that was pretty slick for the era.
The pinball machine that came out with Tron Legacy is a masterpiece. Even people that dislike pinball love that game.
Interesting review Fren! My (still) friend managed an arcade and I’d hangout there endlessly. He’d give me sacks of tokens & I’d play for hours & hours. It was a huge arcade too & we’d dig-in to the guts of the games & pinball machines to fix them. (Both being ex-USAF electronics guys). I remember Discs of Tron and it was excellent.
“We waited 28 years for the sequel, and it was definitely worth the wait.”
Tron Legacy could’ve been a lot more pozzed so I was relieved that it was ok. Still, the best thing about it is Daft Punk’s soundtrack.
I was listening to that soundtrack yesterday.
Really goes with the vibe of the times.
Makes sense. I mean the first one couldn’t have had a market for a long time IMO. Too far over the heads of people.
That second one I expected to be terrible. Was pleasantly surprised