Le Geek - Retrogaming Reviews

Rating
Graphics:	2.5
Sound:	2
Control:	3
Depth:	2
Overall:	2.5

Adventures of Tron

By: M Network
Released: 1982

Geeks of a certain age have a special place in their hearts for 1982’s Tron. While bombing at the box office, the movie later found its audience on home video and gained a cult following. Equally preposterous and visionary, the idea of a world inside computers was ample fodder for a sci-fi yarn, and the look of the film was unlike anything else, before or since. It didn’t hurt that Bally Midway created two successful arcade games based on sequences from the movie. Mattel later released two Tron games for the Atari 2600 via their M Network label, a port of Tron: Deadly Discs—originally on the Intellivision, and an original title, Adventures of Tron.

Adventures of Tron manages to incorporate many elements from the film into a single screen game. As the titular hero, your task is to collect 7 Bits spread out over four different floors, open up the I/O Beam and then jump into the beam to travel to the next board. You avoid Grid Bugs, Recognizers and Tanks, and even the Solar Sailer makes an appearance. Beyond collecting items and avoiding enemies, you need to jump over the I/O Beam to enable the elevators each time you want to move to an upper level.

If you are a Tron fan, this is a decent game that belongs in your collection. Take away that nostalgia and Adventures of Tron is still fun, but a bit under par to be recommended. Either way, the fancy color cycling title screen is pretty cool and worth a look.

- Ben Langberg

Only the LEFT Difficulty Switch makes any difference in game play. In "B" position, all the various levels of play go SLOWER. (Game gets harder - cannon-firing tanks appear as more points are scored.) /

"A" Difficulty position is for experienced players ONLY. Everything speeds up dramatically in position "A". (Tanks appear at once and everything comes in from different sides.)