“”On the other side of the screen, it all looks so easy.” – Kevin Flynn, TRON (1982)
I grew up going to arcades or playing games after being at the water park, pizza place, or bowling alley. My favorite game of all time was TRON. I remember even getting to play it a few times at Disneyland’s arcade. Thanks, Grandma!!
I took a “construction for film” class (prop building) class for the second time for fun and the great instructor. Part of the class is to figure out your own project. I don’t know what hit me specifically but for some reason I decided this was going to be one of my projects.
It’s made of mostly 1/4″ MDF and sweat and tears. It’s got a few black light LEDs as well as white LEDs for the header and waist pieces as well as the coin slot lights.
Lots of testing involved trying to get everything sorted out. This also involved a TON of graphic design to reproduce the side panels and header/waist pieces. They were printed on two sheets of acetate layered together to make the black dark enough to keep the light from going through.
The inner shroud was scratch built from styrene (as was the coin slot door and joystick) and then a silicone mold was made.
The joystick was carved by hand and then resin cast in clear blue just like the real one.
The screen is a small photo frame loaded with screenshots from the game as it idles. Looks really convincing! The first thing people ask if it’s playable.. sadly no but really who would want to try to play on such a small screen?