Back in 1982 a movie called Tron was released. It was one of the first movies to feature computer graphics. Back in 1982 it was extremely rare to see CG used in movies. The computers simply were not powerful enough. The plot of the movie was specifically designed to help the viewer accept the primitive graphics. The CG was used to bring the viewer inside the computer. It was used to represent programs interacting as avatars. I was a junior in high-school when the movie came out. It influenced my decision to study computer engineering in college. At the time I entered Georgia Tech, there was no computer engineering degree program. So I majored in Electric Engineering with emphasis on computer engineering and high performance/parallel computing. To this day, 27 years later, I think of the movie almost every day. (Yes, I know that’s hard to believe, but it’s true.)
Even though Tron is relatively obscure today (except with computer nerds like me), it is a very significant movie for it’s use of CG and for incorporating computers, computer programs, and computer programmers and into the plot.
In 2010, Disney will be releasing Tron Legacy. It will star Jeff Bridges who will reprise his role (28 years later) as the lead character, Flynn.