It was Friday night and I had heard rumor of a physical
Flynn’s Arcade setup in the Gaslamp District
of San Diego. After hours of searching for the fabled “Flynn’s Arcade” (which no one attending Comic-Con seemed to know
about), I finally found it through some digging on Foursquare and my phones
GPS. It was just a few blocks down from where I was. Much to my surprise, after
all my searching, the Arcade was shut off to a
private event and I was unable to get in, but I now knew its location.
Saturday morning had rolled around and I was ready to try
again. First I headed over to the Disney booth in the convention center to take
a look at PDP’s line of Tron accessories. Our Special Edition Tron Controllers,
iPad/iPhone Cases were in a case, but the demo controllers were no where to be
found. I talked to a few people from Disney and found out that the Tron
controllers were indeed being used for the new Tron Evolution game demo inside
Flynn’s. I acquired tickets (which consisted of a voucher and some Tron glow
sticks) then raced over to the Arcade, this
time I had no problem getting inside.
Upon walking into the magnificent aged Arcade,
I noticed it was set up with notable arcade cabinets from the original film,
air hockey, foosball, and LCD screens featuring the brand new Tron Evolution
game. Surrounded by the sounds of a retro arcade, I noticed our Collectors
Edition Tron Controllers being demoed with Tron Evolution for the Xbox 360,
PS3, and Wii all along the left wall.
Later I walked towards the opening behind the old Flynn’s
Tron game cabinet to find myself placed into a lab of sorts. Walking forward I
found a corridor with a spotlight shining at me that ultimately revealed the
“End of the Line” club straight out of a scene in Tron: Legacy. I was very
happy to hear some of the new Daft Punk soundtrack playing within the club and
noticed cases of Tron: Legacy merchandise along the walls. Again I found myself
looking at another set of Tron Controllers for each system. Shortly after a
woman at a bar offered me a Coke Zero and I sat down on one of the club couches
just in time for the entire room to light up with the newest trailer for the
movie. Lights and sound flowed all around me with the beat of the trailer as I
sat in awe wishing that I didn’t have to wait till November for its
magnificence.
If you didn’t get to check out Flynn’s Arcade
over the weekend be sure to check out my videos and photos below. It was
something that had to be seen to be believed.