#5 - Discs of TronReleased 1983 as an arcade cabinet
This is not the 1982 arcade game
Tron, which featured four mini games: Light Cycles, Tanks, MCP, and I/O Tower. However this game was meant to be a fifth section of that original, but programming was not complete in time for the release. Similar to the original
Tron it uses the same "fighter jet" joystick to move Tron, coupled with a spinning rotary knob to aim your disc throws left, right, up and down (by pulling up or pushing down on the knob).
This game is a mash-up of the Jai alai and disc battle sequences in the original Tron film. I should also state here that I LOVE that movie. It's one of the first movies I can ever remember seeing (E.T., released one month prior to Tron, was the first movie I can remember seeing in the theater). The lighting, the sound effects, Bit, the Light Cycles, and that awesome opening sequence. Simply magical for my 5 year old eyes and imagination. Oh yeah, and that ridiculously big door. Now THAT is a big door!
Anyway, to start the game, you are on a single platform playing against Sark, also on a single platform, throwing up to three discs at a time. The objective is to either hit the opponent directly with a disc or force them off their platform into the abyss below. As the game goes on, the platform configuration changes in number and in height. In some stages there is also an electric barrier that passes between the players and they must first knock out "windows" in the barrier before they can hit their opponent. Sark has a couple of nasty tricks up his sleeve in the form of chasers and bombs that he throws at you in addition to his discs. I always loved the sounds effects in this game as well. The soundtrack was sparse, so you really got the full effect of the cracking explosion of the discs if they collided in mid air, and the bouncy thud as you moved from platform to platform.
Simple? Yes. But I had the ability to actually BE Tron and knock the crap out of that smarmy Sark with my identity disc. That, my friends, was simply awesome. And I paid quarter after quarter for that experience.