[PIGMI] TRON the game

[George]

On 23/12/2010 12:04 PM, Simon Wittber wrote:
> On Thu, Dec 23, 2010 at 11:37 AM, George<gt at crunchyfrog.com.au>  wrote:
>> Would you buy the Tron Movie Soundtrack? If not, why not?
> Yep, I plan to, it is already bookmarked in iTunes.

That surprises me! But you are putting your money where your mouth is, 
so...good on you :)

>> However this is a quarter of a billion dollar production - why not subject
>> it to scrutiny or judgement?
> I'm talking about scrutiny from the programmer/technical point of
> view, with our special knowledge. Eg, If programs are defeated in
> games, won't some user miss them? Why do programs need light cycles to
> get around? Why do they all play the same game? How can an old
> sun/unix machine run those hundreds of thousands of programs all the
> same time? Surely that old hardware couldn't have enough RAM! :-) If
> someone made a film about computer life forms and stuck to reality...
> gee that would be fun.

For sure. RAM usage and so forth never entered my mind. Realism is not a 
benchmark for films like these, nor should they be. Internal consistency 
is the key, where the story makes sense within the framework introduced 
by the movie itself.  Even though I would not describe "Die Hard" as an 
exercise in realism, it would still be jarring if John Mclaine suddenly 
pulled a bazooka out of his pocket like bugs bunny :)

With regards to Tron, as I mentioned earlier there was potential for 
exploring a heap of philosophical issues. Just one for example - you 
make a virtual clone of yourself (KLU) - and he effectively turns into a 
genocidal maniac. What does that say about you? No attempt is even made 
to look into this in the film.

> I don't believe Tron is a great movie simply because of it's
> soundtrack. The sum of its parts make for a great experience.
>
> Perhaps we should just agree to disagree. :-)

By all means :)  I used to run a movie review website (strictly 
small-time, for use with a circle of about 12 friends) and I very much 
enjoy discussing the merits (or lack of) of movies. I can rant about the 
awesomeness of some films just as well as I rant about the lameness of 
others ;)

-- 
   George