There are several games in the word of ‘Tron’, but it’s the lightcycle race that’s the most memorable. It’s not meant t be futuristic, so any datedness in its look is irrelevant: it’s here that the editing and pacing really hits its mark in the wat that the rest of the film doesn’t have such a grip on. Of course, there’s the question that a crash of pixels allows a hole in the game grid for Flynn to escape, which doesn’t truly make sense: surely crashing opponents into walls is the point of the game, a built-in move rather than a flaw? But for a moment, in the 80s, it felt we were really getting a p.o.v. ride inside a game.
There's some of that in the Wachowskis' 'Speed Racer' too. The race in the ‘Speed Racer’ is a natural descendant of the ‘Tron’ lightcycle race, although where ‘Tron’ is tense in its limitations and the threat of straight lines, ‘Speed Racer’ is instead chaotic and colourful and overpacked in a way that reflects how gaming design has progressed. Of course, it’s not meant to be set in a virtual world, and it is perhaps more comic book than game, but its influences and context are obvious.
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