Friday Flyers...Tron Edition.

Kevin Flynn: Look, just so I can tell my friends what this dream is about, okay, where am I?
Ram: You're a... guest of the Master Control Program.
Kevin Flynn: Oh, great.
Ram: They're going to make you play video games.
Kevin Flynn: No sweat. I play video games better than anybody.

Well, yesterday was a pretty great day for all of us Tron fans. The Flynn Lives countdown reached zero and unlocked a new puzzle, a new achievement to crow about once it was solved, and then we had the new trailer to scour for information frame by frame.

Speaking of the trailer from yesterday's post, make sure to check out the 17 second mark for a confirmation of how loyal Joseph Kosinski is being to the first movie. Just in case you can't watch it, I'll tell you, it is Flynn's handheld game that he was playing while explaining to Alan and Lora what he was doing hacking into the Encom mainframe. When Sam is in the secret room at Flynn's we see a notebook drawing/sketch of the Tron arcade game. Also Sam after being digitized says almost the exact same thing his father did when he arrived in the digital world.

So about today's post. I've never had the fortune to play a sit-down version of Discs of Tron, when I was a young man our local University had an upright cabinet in the community hall that I would constantly plug quarters into while waiting for a good friend to get off of work. I really love Discs of Tron but I still hold the original Tron game in higher esteem.

Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive - Andrew Sisters & Bing Crosby

It Must Be Thursday...Encom Edition!

With just two mintues to go on the countdown I received these wonderful gifts from Encom through the mail, a set of all 7 Encom postcards advertising their wonderful games. These are going on one of the walls of the Victory Pellet Vault, just need to find a way to frame them or something.

The countdown by the way just completed a few minutes ago...Twitter advises to "Keep your fingers on the digital pulse - stay connected to this data stream throughout the day. Instructions to come."

So...it looks like I'll be glued to this chair for the day! Click on the pics above of course so that you can actually read what it says about the games.

Flynn's Arcade Tokens!

Okay. Normally this is Box Art Wednesday. But as for some reason I can barely stay awake...probably something to do with the oppressive humidity or it might very well be that my Radium Chimps have begun to poison my tea in the morning I've decided to make it a simpler post.

What you see in the picture above is from Flynn Lives, these are the tokens that will most probably be handed out as swag at the San Diego Comic-Con starting...tonight. So, dear readers, this is where I go down on one knee with hat in hand and make a plea to you, if you happen to be attending the Comic-Con and are able to get photos, a handful of coins, posters, t-shirts, and are willing to share then please contact me and we can talk about a fair price.

Of course if you are at Comic-Con and happen to receive one of the excellent Walking Dead posters by the master, Drew Struzan, then please grab me one of those as well, I will give you a good price for it.

Enough of the begging. Thank you for your patience in this small matter.

Ain't Too Proud To Beg - The Temptations

"They haven't built a circuit that could hold you!"

"Games? You want games? I'll give you games. I'll..."

I've never been subject to digitization but I believe that with how my brain felt last night after completing the 32 levels of Circuit Cycles I may have a better understanding of what it must feel like.

Flynn Lives has started up their excellent viral marketing diversions once again, just in time for the San Diego Comic-Con, and after completing the fun but mentally grueling game I was led to a new site: www.flynnlives.com/identityraid/

Which now tells us as I type this that we have 1 day, 18 hours, and 37 minutes until...something...probably the new Tron: Legacy trailer but the countdown ends exactly at the same time as the Comic-Con panel begins so let's hope they do something incredible and let we fans that are unable to attend see what is going down.

If you feel the need to give Circuit Cycles a go for yourself then head over to: http://encomgames.jp/circuitcycles/

If you get a second make sure to head over to the Retroist site and take a look at all of the game reviews posted there along with a ton of other great retro related goodness, join the forums and join the fun.

www.retroist.com

Sea Of Simulation - Tron (Wendy Carlos)

Exciting weekend for Encom.

The gaming world has been abuzz since Encom announced two weeks ago that Alan Bradley himself would deliver some exciting news about a new product in the pipeline. Last Friday evening, Mr. Bradley who was joined by his wife Lora, announced the soon to be online version of the classic Kevin Flynn programmed Space Paranoids game. He even went so far as to describe the amount of effort he had to work at to keep Space Paranoids from being an updated remake, that is correct, we will get to play the original like we remembered it. Although Bradley mentioned he made sure the programmers added 15 additional levels that came from Kevin Flynn's own workstation.

Of course the big moment came when the press conference was interrupted by the public group known as Flynn Lives, this was made easier as an Encom helicopter soared overhead and a parachutist swooped down over the crowd, landing and jumping into a waiting vehicle nearby. Most of the attendees, both Encom employees and Flynn Lives members think that it was Sam Flynn himself who parachuted down.

Moments later a spokeswoman for Encom apologized for the interruption and shut down the conference since things had gone so far out of control.

I for one wish I could have been in the audience myself but while the Radium Chimp training went well we had a massive cooling leak from one of the main reactors. Luckily everything is fixed and I am able to report that only three henchmen lost their lives controlling the leak. So a pretty exciting weekend all around.

A big thanks to the Blue Parrot for the photos above!

Listening:
Angela - Bob James

Friday Flyers...Interrupted for Flynn Lives!

Today is the day. At the Justin Herman Plaza in San Francisco the Flynn Lives group is going to gatecrash the Encom press conference. I only wish I wasn't scheduled to train my latest batch of Radium Chimps this weekend....otherwise I would hop on my hover craft and head down there to attend myself.

Make sure to hop on over to www.Flynnlives.com for more details.

Last Night-The Traveling Wilburys

Friday Flyers break for Alan Bradley.

Alan Bradley at IGN.com

Wow! Thanks to IGN for taking the time to interview one of the greatest men in the history of Encom. I know you probably aren't reading this blog, Mr. Bradley, but if you happen to stumble upon it through a link or some such...just know that there are many, many of us that are supporters of your and Kevin Flynn's dream.