There's been all sorts of unconventional promotion at Comic-Con -- just ask poor, neglected Fandango -- but the most imaginative was surely Flynn's Arcade, which Disney built to tout Tron Legacy. The carefully scheduled, surprise-filled warehouse was one of the most talked-about places at the Con, so let me give you a tour!
The arcade is meant to resemble a pivotal setting from the Tron sequel: the place where protagonist Sean (Garrett Hedlund) goes searching for his long-missing father, Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges). Naturally, in a nod to the nostalgia Disney hopes to mine from aging geek-hipsters, the Comic-Con warehouse (located just a few blocks away from the convention center) was filled with 1980s arcade games.
As "She Blinded Me with Science" and other retro pop played, a skinny twentysomething playing Super Off-Road with me quivered with delight. "I know all these songs, it's so weird!" he said.
Also, air hockey! Wait, is that a man in a sock monkey hat playing Space Paranoids in the background?
It is.
At the back of the room was a Tron arcade machine. I can safely say the game made almost no sense, but the man playing it seemed to be doing well.
"He was, like, a champion at this game when it first came out," said the pretty woman next to me, adding, "He's my boyfriend."
Then, after fifteen minutes of game-playing, the lights started to flicker and the 80s music dropped out, replaced by a throbbing Daft Punk theme. As teased in the Tron Legacy clip showed at Comic-Con, the Tron arcade machine was pushed aside, leaving a hole the guests could walk through.
As we walked through the hall, we found ourselves in a hallway filled with Light Cycle concept art.
Like so.
At the end of the hallway? A brand-new Light Cycle from the new film.
Purty.
Here's video of the reveal, as well as some of the Daft Punk theme. It's Daft Punk all right!