Tron Revolution

1
Tron Revolution
Because they already used Wii

• By Matthew Carlin

A Project for CS 378 Game Technology Spring
2006 www.bugsby.net/TronRevolution
Tron Revolution is the phoenix from the ashes of
my previous game project, Hammer Calamity. I
started that as a big collaborative project for
CS378, but my whole team quit the class. I almost
quit myself, and, thinking I should just move on,
I whipped up this game, mostly in one weekend,
from the remains of the previous one. Big thanks
to Okan, our, TA Paul Navrátil, my advisor, Roger
Priebe, and of course my friends and roommates,
Cameron Gibbs and Joey Carlin, for their
playtesting and input.
If you've ever seen Tron or played the light
cycle game, you have a decent idea of how this
works. All I've done is programmed the bikes to
turn freely. Gone are the rigid lines of the old
game, replaced by harmonious curves. I think of
it as Tai Chi Vertigo on bikes. If you've never
seen or played Tron, the idea of the light cycles
game is this two or more players drive
motorcycles in a big low-res virtual room. Each
bike creates a trail of light behind it. The
object of the game is to force your opponents to
crash into the light walls. You win if you are
the last survivor. There is some crappy AI, but
it isnt worth more than a mention.
I also added a "Grand Prix" mode (really more of
a simple vs mode) where you can race one other
player on a track. This mode is heavily modelled
after F-Zero 64 and Extreme-G. Sadly it's in a
very unfinished state. After this class I hope
to improve on the imitation, with looping,
corking tracks and cameras that don't jitter like
crazy when they follow. A lot of the difference
right now is simple math I didn't have time to
add. I calculate bike and camera angles based on
some hack interpolations instead of properly
examining the local track.
Many pieces of this project are not mine. Credit
for them is given in the source. However, I would
like to specifically credit http//www.ultimatega
meprogramming.com http//nehe.gamedev.net
http//www.gltron.org http//www.red3d.com http
//www.fmod.org
End Bosses
Prof. Okan Arikan
Paul Navrátil