Search
Search results
Tai Chi 24 & 48 Simplified Form
Health & Fitness and Lifestyle
App
Learn the most popular forms of Tai Chi in the world from a Grandmaster. • 2.5 hours of streaming...
SampleTank
Music and Photo & Video
App
***NEW AVAILABLE INSTRUMENT COLLECTIONS: ART DECO PIANO, NANOTUBE AND ELEKTRONIKA – MINIMAL*** ...
iHuman Books
Education and Book
App
We help kids fall in love with reading! iHuman Books presents a full package of engaging reading...
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Century: Golem Edition - An Endless World in Tabletop Games
May 5, 2021
If you’ve read our reviews on the first 2 games of the Century: Golem Edition games, then you will know that we are big fans. The art and theme really drew us in, and the gameplay is what keeps us coming back for more. Now that the third and final game has dropped, how does it fit in with its predecessors? Is it the finale we were hoping for? Or does it leave us yearning for the OG Century Golem? Keep reading to find out!
Disclaimer: This game comes with rules to incorporate any/all of the Century Golem games into one bigger game. In this review, I will only be discussing the stand-alone final game in the Century Golem trilogy. -L
Century: Golem Edition – An Endless World (referred to as just An Endless World for this review) is a game of set collection and worker placement in which players are trying to earn the most points by the end of the game. To setup the game, follow the instructions outlined in the rules, dependent upon your player count. Each player begins the game with 6 Trader meeples (or 7 in a 2-player game) in their supply, and a specified number/type of crystals. The game is now ready to begin!
On your turn, you will have 2 options: Work or Rest. To Work, you will first select a location square on the board. You may not choose a location where you already have Traders, or that has an Exploration tile. You will then place Traders from your supply onto the chosen location – the number of Traders required is printed on the location. If the location is unoccupied, simply place the required number of Traders. If the location is occupied by an opponent, you may place Traders there, but you must match the opponents Traders, plus an additional Trader, to take control of the location. Any opposing Traders ousted in this manner are returned to their players’ supply. Once you have placed Traders on a location, you can then perform the action listed on that location. Action options are: producing gems, upgrading gems, trading gems, or collecting Point cards/bonus tokens. If you cannot or do not want to use a location on your turn, you can Rest. To Rest, you will collect all of your Traders from the board and place them back into your supply.
Point cards can provide immediate, ongoing, or end-game benefits for players. Help cards allow you to place 1 fewer Trader than required on certain locations. Tool cards give players an additional gem of a specified color when they place Traders on corresponding locations. New Trader cards allow players to add either 1 or 2 more Traders to their supply, thus increasing their ability to play each ’round’ before needing to Rest. Finally, Exploration cards allow the player to select an Exploration token from the board. Any time an Exploration token is claimed, that location is now ‘uncovered’ and can be used for the remainder of the game. Bonus tokens grant end-game points based upon sets of icons collected, number of Traders in your supply, or simply straight-up points.
The game continues in this fashion, alternating turns, until a player has collected their 8th Point card. The current round is played out, and then points are counted. Points are earned through Point cards, bonus tiles, Exploration tiles, and any remaining gems in your supply. The player with the highest score wins!
One thing I really like about worker placement games is that the actual gameplay is pretty logical and straight-forward. Place your worker, perform action. And An Endless World is no exception to that. Of course, how you decide to play all comes down to your strategy, and again, An Endless World has tons of options for players. Maybe you want to just get 8 Point cards as quickly as possible and call it a day. Or perhaps you want to maximize your bonus tokens and eke out as many points from those as possible. Or maybe you even just want to keep your opponent(s) from achieving their goals. You can play this game so many different ways, and you can totally adapt and change strategy mid-game if you so choose. Each game feels unique and new, and I have yet to tire from this gameplay.
An Endless World is a worker placement game, but there is one factor that I find extremely unique for the mechanic. Usually, in worker placement games, once a worker has occupied a location, it remains there until the player chooses to recover their workers. An Endless World offers players the chance to oust opponents from locations, by placing the same number plus 1 additional worker. I just think this is super neat, because it means that you can’t just ‘block’ a location from everyone. If someone really wants that location, and they have the workers, they can get to that location. Also, along those lines, since ousting a player from a location means you have to match their workers plus an additional worker, you have to decide if you want to risk dedicating that many workers to a single location. You might reaaaaally want to perform that action, but for the cost of 4 Traders, is it worth it at this moment? Could those workers better be used on different locations and you just snatch your desired location on a future turn? All part of your strategy for the game, and definitely keeps all players engaged.
Let me touch on components for a minute. As with the other Century Golem games, An Endless World is extremely well-produced. The gems are the same quality, the cards are nice, thick, and clear to read, and the cardboard tokens are nice and sturdy. Plan B Games has hit the mark on this trilogy of games, and they truly are a pleasure to play. Obviously, the artwork and theme consistency throughout the Century Golem trilogy has been really satisfying, but that also carries over into the gameplay. All 3 games use much of the same iconography, so honestly learning An Endless World was super fast and easy for me. That uniformity is extremely user-friendly and is a huge plus for me.
So I guess you can see from my score and from reading this review that I am a huge fan of An Endless World. The final game of this trilogy is a home run for me, and I just keep thinking about what strategy I want to try in my next game. That in and of itself is an indication of a great game – thinking about it even when you’re not playing it! I have yet to try the variants that include the other 2 Century Golem games, and I am very much looking forward to integrating them all into one giant and (hopefully) awesome Century Golem saga. Purple Phoenix Games gives this one an expansive 16 / 18. Give it a shot, even if you haven’t played the other Century Golem games!
Disclaimer: This game comes with rules to incorporate any/all of the Century Golem games into one bigger game. In this review, I will only be discussing the stand-alone final game in the Century Golem trilogy. -L
Century: Golem Edition – An Endless World (referred to as just An Endless World for this review) is a game of set collection and worker placement in which players are trying to earn the most points by the end of the game. To setup the game, follow the instructions outlined in the rules, dependent upon your player count. Each player begins the game with 6 Trader meeples (or 7 in a 2-player game) in their supply, and a specified number/type of crystals. The game is now ready to begin!
On your turn, you will have 2 options: Work or Rest. To Work, you will first select a location square on the board. You may not choose a location where you already have Traders, or that has an Exploration tile. You will then place Traders from your supply onto the chosen location – the number of Traders required is printed on the location. If the location is unoccupied, simply place the required number of Traders. If the location is occupied by an opponent, you may place Traders there, but you must match the opponents Traders, plus an additional Trader, to take control of the location. Any opposing Traders ousted in this manner are returned to their players’ supply. Once you have placed Traders on a location, you can then perform the action listed on that location. Action options are: producing gems, upgrading gems, trading gems, or collecting Point cards/bonus tokens. If you cannot or do not want to use a location on your turn, you can Rest. To Rest, you will collect all of your Traders from the board and place them back into your supply.
Point cards can provide immediate, ongoing, or end-game benefits for players. Help cards allow you to place 1 fewer Trader than required on certain locations. Tool cards give players an additional gem of a specified color when they place Traders on corresponding locations. New Trader cards allow players to add either 1 or 2 more Traders to their supply, thus increasing their ability to play each ’round’ before needing to Rest. Finally, Exploration cards allow the player to select an Exploration token from the board. Any time an Exploration token is claimed, that location is now ‘uncovered’ and can be used for the remainder of the game. Bonus tokens grant end-game points based upon sets of icons collected, number of Traders in your supply, or simply straight-up points.
The game continues in this fashion, alternating turns, until a player has collected their 8th Point card. The current round is played out, and then points are counted. Points are earned through Point cards, bonus tiles, Exploration tiles, and any remaining gems in your supply. The player with the highest score wins!
One thing I really like about worker placement games is that the actual gameplay is pretty logical and straight-forward. Place your worker, perform action. And An Endless World is no exception to that. Of course, how you decide to play all comes down to your strategy, and again, An Endless World has tons of options for players. Maybe you want to just get 8 Point cards as quickly as possible and call it a day. Or perhaps you want to maximize your bonus tokens and eke out as many points from those as possible. Or maybe you even just want to keep your opponent(s) from achieving their goals. You can play this game so many different ways, and you can totally adapt and change strategy mid-game if you so choose. Each game feels unique and new, and I have yet to tire from this gameplay.
An Endless World is a worker placement game, but there is one factor that I find extremely unique for the mechanic. Usually, in worker placement games, once a worker has occupied a location, it remains there until the player chooses to recover their workers. An Endless World offers players the chance to oust opponents from locations, by placing the same number plus 1 additional worker. I just think this is super neat, because it means that you can’t just ‘block’ a location from everyone. If someone really wants that location, and they have the workers, they can get to that location. Also, along those lines, since ousting a player from a location means you have to match their workers plus an additional worker, you have to decide if you want to risk dedicating that many workers to a single location. You might reaaaaally want to perform that action, but for the cost of 4 Traders, is it worth it at this moment? Could those workers better be used on different locations and you just snatch your desired location on a future turn? All part of your strategy for the game, and definitely keeps all players engaged.
Let me touch on components for a minute. As with the other Century Golem games, An Endless World is extremely well-produced. The gems are the same quality, the cards are nice, thick, and clear to read, and the cardboard tokens are nice and sturdy. Plan B Games has hit the mark on this trilogy of games, and they truly are a pleasure to play. Obviously, the artwork and theme consistency throughout the Century Golem trilogy has been really satisfying, but that also carries over into the gameplay. All 3 games use much of the same iconography, so honestly learning An Endless World was super fast and easy for me. That uniformity is extremely user-friendly and is a huge plus for me.
So I guess you can see from my score and from reading this review that I am a huge fan of An Endless World. The final game of this trilogy is a home run for me, and I just keep thinking about what strategy I want to try in my next game. That in and of itself is an indication of a great game – thinking about it even when you’re not playing it! I have yet to try the variants that include the other 2 Century Golem games, and I am very much looking forward to integrating them all into one giant and (hopefully) awesome Century Golem saga. Purple Phoenix Games gives this one an expansive 16 / 18. Give it a shot, even if you haven’t played the other Century Golem games!
Natalia (73 KP) rated Detroit: Become Human in Video Games
Dec 17, 2018
Story (4 more)
Characters
Art direction
Soundtrack
Controls
More Than Just a Video Game
I'll admit that hearing the initial premise of Detroit, it seemed to me cliche: a future in which technology has advanced to the point that androids exist, and how these androids themselves gain sentience. This, sprinkled in with messages of how we must improve how we treat the planet, and how we need to have a more consistent moral compass. All this I had expected from the game, but it ended up being so much more than that.
While the messages weaved into the game may not be ones people wanted or enjoyed, it can't be denied that the high-risk choices and the way we see glimpses into a wider world around these certainly engage any player. All of your choices seem high stake. Choices you make are timed, and there's no telling if they will have a completely unexpected outcome in the long-run of the story, and even if they don't, at the moment they feel like the most important choices you will ever make. Sure, some choices end up being, ultimately, pointless, but that seems to be a way that reflects life - you will make choices that seem incredibly important, but in the end, have no major result.
The game also follows three separate storylines - all of which do cross at some point within the game - and each has its charms. The most known story is the one following Connor, an android working in the DPD, but the other two focus on characters of seemingly varying importance: Kara, an android in charge of taking care of her owns daughter Alice, and Markus, an android who is charged with helping an elderly man live his day-to-day life as an artist. Within the game, however, these characters hold a similar kind of importance, perhaps due to the fact you play from their perspectives, or perhaps because you will personally gain an attachment to each characters bonds, motivations and lives as androids in a pivotal point in time for this fictional universe.
It's virtually impossible for me to review this game without mentioning the artistic efforts that went into it. Primarily, I mean the art direction and soundtrack. I'm a fan of 2D Indie games as much as the next person, just as I am a fan of the stylized graphics of the Borderlands universe and the art styles of visual novels, but something about how Detroit teeters on the edge of the uncanny valley in the best way possible speaks to how it's trying to reflect the real world. The depth of field in the game is fantastic, and small details are given their deserved attention to make a player feel as though they are watching a real-world story going on in front of them as they play. The music is certainly something that never fails for me in video games (looking at the Sonic games for influencing my love for video game music) but it completely excels in Detroit. Each story has its own collection of songs and a theme - musical loops that repeat throughout the majority of the songs in their sections to boot - and this truly helps with the experience. The way the music helps create an atmosphere, and how it fits almost perfectly into the actions going on, moves you. I don't know how else I can say this, really. Tempo changes, intensity and volume all come together to immerse you into what is happening on screen and have yet to jar me at all from my experience.
I've already mentioned the effect of the music on your mood, but what links well into this is the representation in the game - literally and symbolically. Literally, you see a diverse cast of characters that, despite most of them being androids, provide more proportional race-representation than actual films. Symbolically though, there is a much deeper idea of the past, present and future shown in the game. Perhaps this is me digging a whole lot further than necessary. I wouldn't be surprised. To avoid making this reviews very much filled with spoilers I'll have to talk in a vaguely cryptic way. Throughout Kara's story, there is a sense of being attached to the past, and this is amplified by the tracks that pair with the gameplay, truly making me cry no matter how many times I've seen a similar scene play out before me in a previous run of the game. This same link is shown with Connor and Markus, who link into the present and the past respectively. Unless I want to give away major plot points, I'll have to end my exploration of that little theory there, but if you are planning on playing through, or perhaps doing it again, it may be a good idea to look out for these themes. When you keep them in mind, they seem to pop up all over.
I know plenty of people have a problem with the pacing of the game, which can be quite understandable. Some scenes are long, some bursts of action seem unnecessary and stick around for a while longer than you may want them to, but this doesn't put as much of a damper on playing as it would seem. Pacing is an issue plenty of games have, and it seems perfectly fine to me in Detroit.
This is certainly turning into a much longer review than I had expected to give. I think to wrap this all up I can say that I have an overwhelmingly positive view of this game. Certainly, if you have enough interest in the game to be looking at reviews, this game is for you. I would recommend this for anyone looking for a unique gaming experience.
While the messages weaved into the game may not be ones people wanted or enjoyed, it can't be denied that the high-risk choices and the way we see glimpses into a wider world around these certainly engage any player. All of your choices seem high stake. Choices you make are timed, and there's no telling if they will have a completely unexpected outcome in the long-run of the story, and even if they don't, at the moment they feel like the most important choices you will ever make. Sure, some choices end up being, ultimately, pointless, but that seems to be a way that reflects life - you will make choices that seem incredibly important, but in the end, have no major result.
The game also follows three separate storylines - all of which do cross at some point within the game - and each has its charms. The most known story is the one following Connor, an android working in the DPD, but the other two focus on characters of seemingly varying importance: Kara, an android in charge of taking care of her owns daughter Alice, and Markus, an android who is charged with helping an elderly man live his day-to-day life as an artist. Within the game, however, these characters hold a similar kind of importance, perhaps due to the fact you play from their perspectives, or perhaps because you will personally gain an attachment to each characters bonds, motivations and lives as androids in a pivotal point in time for this fictional universe.
It's virtually impossible for me to review this game without mentioning the artistic efforts that went into it. Primarily, I mean the art direction and soundtrack. I'm a fan of 2D Indie games as much as the next person, just as I am a fan of the stylized graphics of the Borderlands universe and the art styles of visual novels, but something about how Detroit teeters on the edge of the uncanny valley in the best way possible speaks to how it's trying to reflect the real world. The depth of field in the game is fantastic, and small details are given their deserved attention to make a player feel as though they are watching a real-world story going on in front of them as they play. The music is certainly something that never fails for me in video games (looking at the Sonic games for influencing my love for video game music) but it completely excels in Detroit. Each story has its own collection of songs and a theme - musical loops that repeat throughout the majority of the songs in their sections to boot - and this truly helps with the experience. The way the music helps create an atmosphere, and how it fits almost perfectly into the actions going on, moves you. I don't know how else I can say this, really. Tempo changes, intensity and volume all come together to immerse you into what is happening on screen and have yet to jar me at all from my experience.
I've already mentioned the effect of the music on your mood, but what links well into this is the representation in the game - literally and symbolically. Literally, you see a diverse cast of characters that, despite most of them being androids, provide more proportional race-representation than actual films. Symbolically though, there is a much deeper idea of the past, present and future shown in the game. Perhaps this is me digging a whole lot further than necessary. I wouldn't be surprised. To avoid making this reviews very much filled with spoilers I'll have to talk in a vaguely cryptic way. Throughout Kara's story, there is a sense of being attached to the past, and this is amplified by the tracks that pair with the gameplay, truly making me cry no matter how many times I've seen a similar scene play out before me in a previous run of the game. This same link is shown with Connor and Markus, who link into the present and the past respectively. Unless I want to give away major plot points, I'll have to end my exploration of that little theory there, but if you are planning on playing through, or perhaps doing it again, it may be a good idea to look out for these themes. When you keep them in mind, they seem to pop up all over.
I know plenty of people have a problem with the pacing of the game, which can be quite understandable. Some scenes are long, some bursts of action seem unnecessary and stick around for a while longer than you may want them to, but this doesn't put as much of a damper on playing as it would seem. Pacing is an issue plenty of games have, and it seems perfectly fine to me in Detroit.
This is certainly turning into a much longer review than I had expected to give. I think to wrap this all up I can say that I have an overwhelmingly positive view of this game. Certainly, if you have enough interest in the game to be looking at reviews, this game is for you. I would recommend this for anyone looking for a unique gaming experience.
BankofMarquis (1832 KP) rated Dumbo (2019) in Movies
Apr 5, 2019
In a word...bland
There are many words that you can use to describe films by Tim Burton: Gothic, Bizarre, Dark, Interesting, SteamPunk, Unique, Visual.
With the live action DUMBO, you can add another word to describe a Tim Burton film: Bland.
Based on the 1941 animated classic character of Walt Disney, DUMBO tells the tale of an animal, shamed for having a deformity...over-large ears...but when the young elephant discovers that these ears can save the circus he is in - and will help reunite him with his mother - a journey to redemption begins.
Sounds like a pretty good premise for a film, right? Unfortunately, this isn't really the theme of this film. Unlike other Disney "live action" versions of classic animated films (BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, the upcoming ALADDIN and THE LION KING), DUMBO is a live action remake only in the fact that Director Burton uses the baby elephant, separated from his mother, with over large ears who can fly. This film shows no signs of the earlier, beloved, children's film. It eliminates the songs (except as background music) and it tacks on a family drama of a returning army veteran (who's wife died while he was away) and his 2 children and a rival circus trying to steal the famed flying elephant.
Is it a children's movie? Is it a Tim Burton eerie, scary, visual delight? Well...yes...and no...on both parts and that's the problem of this film. Burton straddles a line between the two, never committing to a fun, stylistic children's film (like PADDINGTON 2) or an eerie, bizarre Tim Burton film (many, many to name but the closest I can come is BIG FISH). He restrains himself to the bland middle and it shows.
He has assembled a strong ensemble of actors to populate this world - Colin Farrell, Danny DeVito, Eva Green, Michael Keaton and Alan Arkin are all in this film - and are all bland. While, at times, this film felt every minute of it's 1 hour and 52 minute run time, I was longing for more from each of these characters, fleshing out what was the BEGINNING of interesting characters, but never getting past that. Each one of these characters are bland, bland, bland and you can see each actor trying harder and harder to push some sort of character to the screen, but never succeeding.
The only interesting characters, ironically enough, is that of Dumbo and his mother, Mrs. Jumbo. These are 2 CGI, non-speaking characters but they say more in facial expressions and movements than all of the human characters combined.
And that's the other problem with this film. Much like another Disney Live Action film, TOMORROWLAND, a large part of this film is given to showing the world that is lavishly made by the Director, Production Designer, Art Director and Cinematographer - and it is impressive indeed - but the action and characters inhabiting this world are...well...bland and that makes for a lackluster film.
One thing to note - this film is not scary, nor is it overly sad (things that I heard that this film was), so I'd be interested to hear if you have younger children (ages 7-10, say) and they saw the film - did they enjoy it? I think they just might.
I didn't, I thought this film was bland.
Letter Grade: B- (for the interesting visuals put up on the screen)
6 stars (out of 10) and you can take that to the Bank(ofMarquis)
With the live action DUMBO, you can add another word to describe a Tim Burton film: Bland.
Based on the 1941 animated classic character of Walt Disney, DUMBO tells the tale of an animal, shamed for having a deformity...over-large ears...but when the young elephant discovers that these ears can save the circus he is in - and will help reunite him with his mother - a journey to redemption begins.
Sounds like a pretty good premise for a film, right? Unfortunately, this isn't really the theme of this film. Unlike other Disney "live action" versions of classic animated films (BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, the upcoming ALADDIN and THE LION KING), DUMBO is a live action remake only in the fact that Director Burton uses the baby elephant, separated from his mother, with over large ears who can fly. This film shows no signs of the earlier, beloved, children's film. It eliminates the songs (except as background music) and it tacks on a family drama of a returning army veteran (who's wife died while he was away) and his 2 children and a rival circus trying to steal the famed flying elephant.
Is it a children's movie? Is it a Tim Burton eerie, scary, visual delight? Well...yes...and no...on both parts and that's the problem of this film. Burton straddles a line between the two, never committing to a fun, stylistic children's film (like PADDINGTON 2) or an eerie, bizarre Tim Burton film (many, many to name but the closest I can come is BIG FISH). He restrains himself to the bland middle and it shows.
He has assembled a strong ensemble of actors to populate this world - Colin Farrell, Danny DeVito, Eva Green, Michael Keaton and Alan Arkin are all in this film - and are all bland. While, at times, this film felt every minute of it's 1 hour and 52 minute run time, I was longing for more from each of these characters, fleshing out what was the BEGINNING of interesting characters, but never getting past that. Each one of these characters are bland, bland, bland and you can see each actor trying harder and harder to push some sort of character to the screen, but never succeeding.
The only interesting characters, ironically enough, is that of Dumbo and his mother, Mrs. Jumbo. These are 2 CGI, non-speaking characters but they say more in facial expressions and movements than all of the human characters combined.
And that's the other problem with this film. Much like another Disney Live Action film, TOMORROWLAND, a large part of this film is given to showing the world that is lavishly made by the Director, Production Designer, Art Director and Cinematographer - and it is impressive indeed - but the action and characters inhabiting this world are...well...bland and that makes for a lackluster film.
One thing to note - this film is not scary, nor is it overly sad (things that I heard that this film was), so I'd be interested to hear if you have younger children (ages 7-10, say) and they saw the film - did they enjoy it? I think they just might.
I didn't, I thought this film was bland.
Letter Grade: B- (for the interesting visuals put up on the screen)
6 stars (out of 10) and you can take that to the Bank(ofMarquis)
Flower Arranger
Lifestyle and Magazines & Newspapers
App
The Flower Arranger is the world’s leading magazine for flower arrangers featuring step-by-step...
Jesters_folly (230 KP) rated TRON (1982) in Movies
Nov 17, 2020
Before Player One, before Ralph and Neo and even before the Lawnmower Man there was Tron. Tron covers a lot of ground, some of which was quite advanced for a film from 1983, we have hackers, corporate espionage, teleportation experiments, A.I. and what we would now call Cyberspace.
Basically Ed Dillinger is the boss of an evil corporation, Encom, (yes IT corporations were evil as far back as the 1980s) who got to where he was by stealing the programs of five arcade games from Flynn. Ed is being blackmailed by the 'Master Control Program' or 'MCP' for short, a rouge A.I. that believes it can rule the world better than humans.
Alan works at Encom and is trying to create a Data monitoring program called Tron. Alan is also dating Flynn's ex, Lora who also works at Encom, in a department that is developing a way of digitising mater and transporting it down a laser beam to a new destination. The three team up to help Flynn find the proof of the theft but the MCP digitises Flynn who finds himself used as a gladiator in the program. When Flynn meets the Tron program they team up to bring the MCP down.
First off the whole thing could have been stopped if Encom had proper health and safety, the computer that Flynn was using was the same one that operated the digitising laser and the laser was set up right behind the screen with barriers or other safety measures.
Ok in all seriousness the concepts in Tron were quite advanced, baring in mind that this was out in 1983, a time when home P.C.s were just beginning to become popular and the internet wasn't really around (there were networked computers but really only in offices) Tron brought us a concept of Cyberspace (although it wasn't called that in the film), a world where the computer programs live and the games are real. Not only that but everything is linked together, there weren't any networked games back then any you had to go to an arcade to play most of the games that existed.
By todays standards the Cyberspace world wouldn't feel right. It is a lineal landscape with fractural crystals coloured in greys, red and blues, a far cry from Wreck-it Ralph's advert filled, brightly coloured internet. Again this is due to when it was made, no internet, no advertising and, of course the computers of the time had slightly less memory than the ones today, with the ZX81 being released that year with a massive 16 or 48 Kb of memory, yes kiddies that's Kilo-bites, not even one meg so the games that were available were quite basic (compared to what we have today) an, of course, outside of an arcade those games would have been stored on floppy disk or cassette tape.
The action in Tron is muted, mainly kept to bike crashes and people throwing Frisbees at each other but this is because Tron is; 1) a kids film and 2) a Disney film. The muted action doesn't take away from the film though, it's still an enjoyable adventure film whose influence can be seen even now with films like Wreck-it Ralph.
For a film that is mostly early 80's CGI (or even just early CGI) Tron hasn't aged too badly and the story could easily have been written now, especially with the recent advent of LitRGP books and 'Isekai' anime such as 'Sword Art Online'.
Basically Ed Dillinger is the boss of an evil corporation, Encom, (yes IT corporations were evil as far back as the 1980s) who got to where he was by stealing the programs of five arcade games from Flynn. Ed is being blackmailed by the 'Master Control Program' or 'MCP' for short, a rouge A.I. that believes it can rule the world better than humans.
Alan works at Encom and is trying to create a Data monitoring program called Tron. Alan is also dating Flynn's ex, Lora who also works at Encom, in a department that is developing a way of digitising mater and transporting it down a laser beam to a new destination. The three team up to help Flynn find the proof of the theft but the MCP digitises Flynn who finds himself used as a gladiator in the program. When Flynn meets the Tron program they team up to bring the MCP down.
First off the whole thing could have been stopped if Encom had proper health and safety, the computer that Flynn was using was the same one that operated the digitising laser and the laser was set up right behind the screen with barriers or other safety measures.
Ok in all seriousness the concepts in Tron were quite advanced, baring in mind that this was out in 1983, a time when home P.C.s were just beginning to become popular and the internet wasn't really around (there were networked computers but really only in offices) Tron brought us a concept of Cyberspace (although it wasn't called that in the film), a world where the computer programs live and the games are real. Not only that but everything is linked together, there weren't any networked games back then any you had to go to an arcade to play most of the games that existed.
By todays standards the Cyberspace world wouldn't feel right. It is a lineal landscape with fractural crystals coloured in greys, red and blues, a far cry from Wreck-it Ralph's advert filled, brightly coloured internet. Again this is due to when it was made, no internet, no advertising and, of course the computers of the time had slightly less memory than the ones today, with the ZX81 being released that year with a massive 16 or 48 Kb of memory, yes kiddies that's Kilo-bites, not even one meg so the games that were available were quite basic (compared to what we have today) an, of course, outside of an arcade those games would have been stored on floppy disk or cassette tape.
The action in Tron is muted, mainly kept to bike crashes and people throwing Frisbees at each other but this is because Tron is; 1) a kids film and 2) a Disney film. The muted action doesn't take away from the film though, it's still an enjoyable adventure film whose influence can be seen even now with films like Wreck-it Ralph.
For a film that is mostly early 80's CGI (or even just early CGI) Tron hasn't aged too badly and the story could easily have been written now, especially with the recent advent of LitRGP books and 'Isekai' anime such as 'Sword Art Online'.
Pokémon GO
Games and Health & Fitness
7.6
Rate It
App Watch
Join Trainers across the globe who are discovering Pokémon as they explore the world around them....
ELSA Speak - Accent Reduction
Education and Games
App
Learn to speak English doesn’t have to be scary and lonely anymore. With ELSA - your English...