GLtron

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GLtron
Light cycle and trail
Developer(s)	GLtron.org
Publisher(s)	GLtron.org
Designer(s)	Andreas Umbach
Latest version	0.70
Release date(s)
Genre(s)	light cycle game
Mode(s)
Platform(s)	Mac OS X, Mac OS 9 (unsupported), Linux, Windows
Media	free download

GLtron is an open source computer game based on the light cycle portion of the movie Tron. It is released under the GNU General Public License (GPL) and is available on multiple platforms.

The aim of the game is to be the last player riding. Cycles can be boosted with a limited turbo and the game artificial intelligence is hard, with the harder difficulty settings tough to win. There are various gameplay styles that the options menu lets you control, including switching the gamplay from "booster" to "wall ride" to "both". "Booster" has an extra button for boosting, in addition to the standard left, right, glance left, glance right buttons, while "Wall ride" increases your light cycles speed automatically depending on how close you are to an opponent's wall. "Both" is self-explanatory in that it incorporates both options for increasing your light cycles speed.

There are several arena sizes that can be selected, from "tiny" (which is best for two players on normal speed or people practicing their reflexes with 3 "mcp himself" difficulty-level bots on "crazy" speed) to vast, which is excellent for 4 player matches on "crazy" speed.

The game plays using the keyboard to control the vehicle and the mouse to control the camera position, players can out ride competitors across the geometric grid.

There is also a large range of arena styles available for download throughout the internet that change the background your light cycles ride on.

It is also possible with enough programming know-how to change the function that determines how fast your light cycle gains speed from wall riding, for interesting games that change the general strategy from trying to stay close to someone's wall without them being able to shake you off in order for you to easily overcome and outmaneuver them to trying to stay away from everyone else to avoid being boosted out of control.

There are a large range of screen resolutions to choose from so that the game can be played on slow computers and take advantage of faster machines.

The game's soundtrack features the track Revenge of the Cats, which was composed and performed by Finnish musician Peter Hajba, who is also known by his demoscene nickname Skaven.

Unlike other versions of Tron gaming, GLtron does not have Internet play (although the website states that it is planned for future releases), and is considerably less diverse than other variations.