In the original Tron, the digital world was comprised of visual representations of actual computing components. Programs looked like their authors, there was an I/O tower for interacting with the real world, there are bits that only contain binary yes/no values, etc.

Tron 2.0 took everything established in the original Tron movie and expands on it. You get to visit the internet, a low-powered PDA, fight computer viruses, pull data off a hard drive that is in the process of being wiped, and a bunch of other stuff. Plus you can optimize your weapons by upgrading them from alpha quality, to beta, to the gold release. It all makes sense in-universe and the game is really fun.

I’m still annoyed that Tron: Legacy threw away everything in Tron 2.0 and, in my opinion, cheapened it. In Tron: Legacy, The Grid is nothing more than a video game Kevin Flynn made on his personal computer in his spare time. Now the digital world isn’t a visual representation of actual computers, it’s just a game. So now it can rain in the grid for no reason, and the city is populated by NPCs who don’t really serve a purpose, and having something not written by Flynn (the ISOs) are somehow magical.

I wish the Tron franchise had continued with the Tron 2.0 version of the story. Then it would’ve made sense in-universe for the graphics to improve, and we could’ve had quantum computers, virtual reality, and a vision of what the internet looks like now (rather than in 2003). But instead, if the next Tron movie follows the Tron: Legacy storyline where Flynn dies, then The Grid can’t change. Because no one is programming it to be different.

Anyway, Tron 2.0. It’s awesome. And I think it’s the best thing to come out of the Tron franchise.

Here’s a trailer. It’s available on Steam and GOG. I also recommend the Killer App Mod to get it running on modern systems.