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Tron: Ares was never going to succeed at the box office (lemmy.zip)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/cyberpunk@lemmy.zip
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[–] 12 points 1 year ago (4 children)

The original Tron was pretty groundbreaking as a movie released in 1982, at least from the visual perspective.

It spawned a bunch of derivative works - the animated show Reboot, the Matrix franchise, games like the CCG "Netrunner", books like Neuromancer and Ready Player One.

Nevermind all the technical hurdles they had to accomplish in order to generate these effects. No way you get to Toy Story or the Marvel franchises without the entry-level effort of Information International, Inc. or Mathematical Applications Group.

Surface level, sure. It was your standard "Computers Ate My Dad" silly Disney story. But it mainlined a certain flavor of SciFi/Fantasy and popularized animation techniques that have matured substantially since then.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    Unless the 3rd book I have yet to read is about being inside a computer system, Neuromancer is so far from being derivative of Tron, I don't know how it ended up on your list. 🤨

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago* (2 children)

    Neuromancer is so far from being derivative of Tron

    Wintermute and Neuromancer, as superintelligent computers orchestrating an evil business empire, strike me as direct parallels to the CPU in Tron.

    And the Cowboys, jacking in to outwit these AIs from within their own digital landscape, echo the Tron heroes combating evil computer minions in gladiatorial games.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

    You have it the wrong way around if anything.

    If you read Burning Chrome, you can see all the Gibsonian cyberspace elements where already there in something that was FINISHED IN 1981.

    The first outline of Neuromancer, titled "Jacked In" is from the same year.

    Gibson had no idea about what he was talking about and that's why his work is not derivative in any way of other sci-fi work on the subject.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    If you read Burning Chrome, you can see all the Gibsonian cyberspace elements where already there in something that was FINISHED IN 1981.

    Lisberger, Tron's creator, was shopping around the idea for the movie as early as '78.

    But sure, these ideas weren't strictly concurrent. They both came out of real life computer and Internet development inspiring the themes within the media.

    Point being, Tron popularized an idea that catapulted similar media.

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