Early Tron Prototype Arcade Marquee Found

Few 1980’s arcade game titles share the influence on the level of Tron. Thanks to its dual existence as both a film (now, film franchise) and arcade game, Tron carries a unique legacy as one of the first video games which jumped into multiple media formats. The original Tron’s iconic cyber futuristic imagery came from the talents of artists working both for Disney and Bally-Midway.

Tron the film (for those who have never seen it) is a 1982 science fiction adventure starring Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn, a hot shot video game programmer whos innovative programs are stolen by the evil Coroporate Vice President of the fictional Encom, Ed Dillinger (played by David Warner). Kevin convinces his friends who still work at Encom Alan and Lora (played by Bruce Boxleitner and Cindy Morgan) to break into Encom and hack into the MCP (Master Control Program) to produce evidence of Dillinger’s theft. Things get wacky when the MCP “sucks” Kevin into the digital world and forces him to play video games in the computer world. There Flynn meets digital avatar versions of his friends Alan=Tron, Lora=Yori) and foes (Dillinger=Sark) and a grand adventure takes place.

Flynn enters the grid in Tron (C) Walt Disney

Tron was innovative thanks to its early use of CGI special effects, digital music (from legendary synth goddess Wendy Carlos) and creative photography. Very little of the movie is actually composed of CGI effects despite its famous CGI sequences, the visuals mostly relied on rotoscoped animation. Tron did well in the theaters but was not the monster hit Disney was hoping for (aka they didn’t get Star Wars like box office returns).

Arcade game manufacturer Bally-Midway gave two different teams the task of developing the game early on. One team (outsourced to Nutting and Associates) pushed for a vector monitor based, 3-D combat style game which seemed like something in the vein of Atari’s Battlezone. The concept created by the in-house team of George Gomez and Bill Adams ended upbeing selected. Their version was based on using a more traditional raster monitor, and a game concept centered on mini-games. The four mini-games (which was originally meant to be five) centered around the Tron movie world and characters. The Gomez and Adams concept was favored for its simplicity since the game needed to be ready in time for the movie’s release.

Early Tron production artwork from the film (C) Disney

When playing the game, Tron's selection screen shows an overview of “The Grid", but originally this was proposed to be more circuit like rather than maze like. From this screen the player moves Tron into one of four areas to start a mini-game. The four games are: Light Cycles, Battle Tank, I/O Tower, and MCP Cone. Each of the games is rather simple in design, both the MCP Cone and I/O tower involve blasting away a barrier of some kind to enter an area before the end of the round. The Light Cycle game is a variation of the Atari 2600 game Surround, were a player avoids the trails left by the opposing players cycles. And Battle Tanks is a simple tank in a maze game, where the player avoids and attempts to destroy enemy tanks.

Tron film director Steve Lisberger shows BBC News host Frank Bough how to play Tron

The game was a large success for Bally-Midway. They would end up producing well over 10,000 cabinets and making somewhere between 30-50 million dollars depending on what trade magazines you read during the 1980’s. A sequel, Discs of Tron was released in 1983 based upon the missing fifth mini game. Although Discs of Tron was not as successful, it maintains a large following in the classic arcade game collecting community.

According to Romero, this prototype marquee was part of a series of art created during the earliest development of the game. The outside matches the themes of lighted circuitry seen in concept artwork for the film. The logo was originally designed by futurist Syd Mead but the metallic reflections and 3-d like edging came curiously of Richard Taylor. I was able to reach out to Chicago Gamespace which had recently hosted a Tron exhibit to parlay a conversation with George Lopez (who now works for Stern Pinball).

“Hi Cassandra, I reached out to George Gomez and he said this was from very early in the development of Tron and that Richard Taylor, the FX director for the film, was enamored with the glow of very tight vector lines and pushed George and the team in the direction of the radiograph line work structures on the cabinet based on the graphics that they had developed for the film. He said that the circuit artwork for your marquee came from the concept art that George did for the game, attached. Interesting right? “

I also got this from the grapevine from a fellow KLOV/VAPS member

“I showed this image to George Gomez (my boss at Stern) and he verified it was was a real early prototype design when they didn't have much and he barely remembered it! He said it was inspired by his original sketch for the opening scene where you selected a "chip" to start the game. They were going to do "circuits" everywhere.”

Prototype game concept from George Gomez via Chicago Gamespace

The marquee also matches the early concept art mock-up for game play with incorporates the original circuit design selection screen. The finalized arcade art comes across perhaps more corporate and predictable, especially with the side art which is a montage of stills from the film. The cabinet however as a whole is quite beautiful with amazing interior details which react to the black light and MCP mural above the CRT monitor. The overall look of the cabinet is one of the most striking of the classic era. Paul Niemeyer was the final artist for the arcade game cabinet and relayed via a conversation on the Video Arcade Preservation Society forms about the prototype marquee that Disney did not give Midway much creative license around the Tron artwork

“…he said, back then, Disney hand fed them art. there was no ‘lets try this’, it was more a ‘do this’”.

So where was this thing since its original creation? The best information I have able to gather is that someone years go sold a number of arcade marquees to an antique shop in the Chicago area where Bally-Midway was based. It is possible according to the seller, that the antique shop itself also owned a small arcade in the past. A reseller bought the entire lot of marquees for resale from the antique store including the Tron prototype which, at the time, had an unknown provenance. The other marquees were mostly Bally-Midway products but were production versions of no special interest. This collection of marquees could have also possibly been the previous collection of a former Bally-Midway employee who cleaned out their garage in the past, who knows… it’s really impossible to tell at this point.

This would have been more vibrant in 1982

The prototype marquee is constructed in an interesting fashion as it is drawn on multiple layers of heavy stock paper adhered together. The grid framing around the main logo lays on top of the background piece, with the Tron logo carefully cut into the background. The overall technical detail of the piece is quite impressive. The details of the color variation in the lettering and background are obviously the product of someone who was a professional graphic designer.

The entire piece appears to have been drawn using a number of media types; likely PrismaColor style art markers, technical pens, and gouache paints. The Midway logo along with copyright information is cut from a Xerox, while the Bally logo is very skillfully drawn onto the background. The oddly centered release date notice near the top of the marquee seems to have been made with some sort of Letraset style font materials which would have been the norm of the era.

Two sheets of pexi protected the delicate hand draw art over the decades

Overall considering the age and unknown way in which this item has been stored over the years, it is in remarkably good condition. The lower left hand corner of the marquee shows the most wear, and the entire piece shows a bit of fading along with some slight rippling which could be moisture damage. The light brown outlining the circuit grid framing would have likely originally been black, and the entire marquee was at one time likely much more vibrant in color. The marquee came with a custom cut thin plexiglass cover (front and back) which no doubt helped with its survival over the years. This could also likely indicate the marquee was on an arcade game prototype at some point.

It's hard to see, but the letters have been cut out and then cut into the background art

This marquee I believe is an important piece of video game history. Surviving prototype artwork is uncommon due to a number of factors including that designers of classic games “back in the day” probably didn’t know if their work would have the cultural impact it did. My next step will be getting the marquee framed in an acid-free museum appropriate case or frame of some kind. After that, it will likely be loaned out to a gaming museum of some kind for others to enjoy. I am also planning on getting a high quality scan of the marquee and offering it free for others to download and do with what the desire. I think it would be neat if someone out there would redraw this marquee design in a finished manner to see what might have been if this concept had reached the final stages.

Cassandra Chiles

The Vintage Arcade Gal

Proto vs Squished Repo

Thanks to:

George Gomez

Paul Niemeyer

Bill Esquivel (From KLOV/VAPS)

MXV (From KLOV/VAPS)

Chicago Gamespace

Walt Disney Archives