Chapter 81: Beamriders in the Sky

You and Tron have both suffered multiple crashes. The announcer calls out “THIS IS LOOKING PRETTY CLOSE FOLKS! BUT THE FIRST ONE TO TEN POINTS WILL BE THE NEW CHAMPION!” You then hear him make a side comment to someone near him. “Ten points? Is this arena rated for double digits?” Your cycle is going faster and faster and suddenly with a massive CRUNCH, Tron’s blue cycle crashes into the wall, blowing a hole in it! You get your tenth point! But… things aren’t right… the bright pink and green are replaced with dark, weird colors, and the announcer’s voice and crowd sounds trail off into weird echoes. But your cycle doesn’t stop, it’s heading straight toward the wall! You try to steer it, but the controls are frozen up! You are heading at the same spot where Tron crashed, and you go sailing right through hole in the wall, out of the arena, into a large, dark space.

“Melvin, what happened?” you ask.

“Stack overflow, I think,” says Melvin, looking back at the now eerie arena. “That place was never rated for two digits!”

“Well, where are we going?” you ask, as you race forward across what seems to be an endless blue grid.

“We have to get to the MCP,” says Melvin. “Look, there it is, in the distance!” He points to a huge structure on the horizon, and you steer the ship in its direction.

“This looks like smooth sailing,” you say.

“Don’t be too sure,” says Melvin. “Something is headed our way.” And he’s right… on the horizon, what look like digital flying saucers are coming your direction. Your screen starts flashing: ENTERING BEAMRIDER MODE. The light cycle starts to expand back into something much more like the original Proteus. Your handlebars are replaced with a flightstick with red fire buttons, and a loading chamber appears. It is a relief to have some space again – that light cycle was a little claustrophobic. You look at the distant saucers, and they seem to be closing in. The Proteus starts flashing from yellow to pink in a distressing way.

“How far is it to the MCP, Melvin?” you ask.

Melvin studies the “Beamrider Orientation Guide,” which has appeared on the screen. “Uh… about fourteen sectors,” he says, scanning for information.

“Will we have to fight those white saucers the whole way?” you ask nervously.

“Definitely not,” says Melvin.

“Oh, good,” you say.

“We’ll also have to deal with brown debris, yellow chirpers, green blockers, bounce craft, blue chargers, orange trackers…”

“Blue diamonds and purple horseshoes?” you ask sarcastically.

“No…” he says, still scanning, “but… red zig bombs or magnetic mines, for some reason… and there will be Sector Sentinels… save your torpedoes for those!”

“Oh, great,” you say, “to survive this, I’ll need to be part warrior, part astronaut, and part daredevil. How do we fight all these things?”

“With… LASER LARIATS!” shouts Melvin excitedly. A loading chamber has appeared, and he climbs in. “Give it a try!” his muffled voice calls from inside. You fire, and a red ring flies into the distance, blasting a white saucer. Melvin reappears in the chamber.

“That was awesome!” he shouts. “I am become the red ring of death!” he continues, and you wonder if he's ever been on other game consoles. “We’re going to have to shoot a lot of stuff,” he says, “because each ship you blow up will gives us energy units, and we’ll need 40,000 of them to stand any chance of getting into the MCP!”

You see a yellow craft appear in the distance. “Is that a… tweeter?” you ask.

“You mean chirper,” says Melvin, “and no… it’s a rejuvenator! Don’t shoot that, try to navigate to it!” But many white saucers are in front of it. “But shoot those first!” calls Melvin, climbing back into the chamber. “We’ll be at that MCP in no time!”

You fire away, and hope he’s right!

Place the Beamrider cartridge into your Atari 2600. Set the difficulty switches to b. Play until you get to sector 14, and have at least 40,000 points. Post a link to a video in the comments section of yourself completing the challenge.

Chapter 80: A Vicious Cycle

You’ve run through door after door, but each one has gray behind it, because each one leads back to the arena. You hurl Melvin and de-rez yet another warrior, and “WOW!” shouts the announcer, “THE CHALLENGER HAS AN UNBELIEVABLE 10,000 POINTS!” You duck another disk, and hurl Melvin at the door… is it more gray behind it? No! You see a glimpse of pink, and run for it! You leap through, and find yourself… somewhere else. The noise of the crowd and the announcer are gone. You are in a large arena with a glowing pink floor, and eerie green walls.

“What is this place?” asks Melvin, who you are carrying, as he is still in disc form.

“I… don’t know,” you say. You look behind you, but the doorway that let you in seems to have sealed up. And… there don’t seem to be any obvious exits.

“Look! Over there!” calls Melvin, who pops out of your hands, and starts flying towards something yellow in the distance. A cube? No… wait...

“The Proteus!” you shout, chasing after him. You arrive at the yellow Proteus, and it seems to be fully intact. Melvin is whooping and hollering, and flying around and around it. “Come on, get in,” you say. You both climb in, jump into the comfortable leather seats, and power it up. “Now,” you say to Melvin, “which way out of here?”

A sinister voice crackles over the radio. “You’ll have to get by me first.” You and Melvin look at each other in alarm, and see in the distance something that looks like a glowing blue motorcycle. “Two programs enter, one program leaves. Those are the rules of the game grid,” continues the sinister voice, as you see and hear the motorcycle revving up.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, the announcer’s voice is back. “CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS FOLKS? OUR CHALLENGER WHO PERFORMED WHAT IS SURELY AN ILLEGAL EXIT HAS REAPPEARED HERE, READY TO GO UP AGAINST THE GREATEST LIGHT CYCLE CHAMPION OF ALL TIME: TRON!”

The screen of the Proteus starts flashing ENTERING LIGHT CYCLE MODE, and you find it shrinking around you. Soon, you too are mounted on a sort of motorcycle, and Melvin, still a disc, climbs on your back. “I thought Tron was a good guy!” says Melvin.

“He was…” you reply. “This… must be between the two movies?” you guess.

“They made a second Tron movie?” exclaims Melvin.

“Yeah, it’s a long story,” you explain.

“No time for that now!” shouts Melvin as your light cycle takes off, leaving a tall green wall behind it, which makes you think of your green lizard skin, and Tron’s cycle does the same.

“Prepare to be de-rezzed,” intones Tron’s steely voice over the radio.

“THERE THEY GO, FOLKS! FIRST ONE TO TEN POINTS WINS!” calls the announcer, and the crowd, watching you from somewhere, goes wild.

You always fantasized about being Tron… but battling against Tron? This just seems dangerous! But still – you are riding a light cycle! If only it didn’t keep speeding up!

“Slow down!” shouts Melvin. MEGATHRUST MODE is flashing on the screen.

“I can’t!” you shout back, but you aren’t sure he can hear you over the loud boobooboobooboo of your light cycle.

“WHAT?” he shouts. “It’s too loud! I’ve heard of surround sound, but this is ridiculous!”

Place the Surround cartridge into your Atari 2600. Use game select 4, and set difficulty switches to a. Play until you win with a score of ten points. Post a link to a video in the comments section of yourself completing the challenge.

Chapter 79: Ultimate Frisbee

After what seems like an endless tower of I/O Channels, you finally pop out into a place not swarming with grid bugs and recognizers, and you breathe a sigh of relief. That is, until you see where you are: in some kind of large arena with a slate gray floor, and dark purple walls. Thousands of programs are in the stands, cheering, and you hear the announcer say, “WHAT’S THIS? A NEW CHALLENGER? CHALLENGER, YOU HAVE NO COMBAT SUIT! NO DISC! ARE YOU SURE YOU ARE READY TO CHALLENGE OUR CHAMPIONS?” You stare into the blinding spotlight, not sure what to say, as you see several fierce warriors in light green combat suits standing near the walls. The voice waits, and the crowd starts booing. Just then, Melvin pops up from the I/O channel.

“Melvin,” you ask frantically, “what do I say?”

“Tell them you’re ready,” whispers Melvin.

“But I’m not!” you whisper back.

“You will be in a minute,” says Melvin.

“I am ready,” you say as boldly as you can muster, which isn’t very boldly at all.

“THE CHALLENGER IS READY!” booms the voice, and crowd starts cheering wildly.

“Grab me with both hands,” says Melvin. You do so, and suddenly you have a strange feeling, like electricity coursing through you. You look down and notice you are turning blue.

“Melvin, what’s happening?” you ask, alarmed.

“I’m reprogramming your wardrobe. This blue combat suit will protect you if you get hit. With each hit, it will change colors. If it turns red, look out!” The warriors are starting to circle you, and hurl their discs your way. “Okay, done!” says Melvin. “You are good to go! Throw me towards the warriors to knock them out.”

You narrowly duck a light green disc. “Melvin, why are we doing this?” you whisper.

“Because we have to get to the light cycle grid. That’s where the Proteus is. Chuck me at those doors when you get a chance. One of them will lead there… but… probably not until you score 10,000 points… it’s some kind of bug in the fifth digit that a bit told me about.” Another disc whizzes past your ear. You’re scared, but you can’t help smiling. You look at the warriors, the arena, your glowing blue outfit, and as you hurl Melvin, who is now a blue disc, at the line of digital warriors, you think, “I always wondered what it would be like to be Tron! I guess I’ll find out today!”

Place the Tron: Deadly Discs game into your Atari 2600. Set the left difficulty switch to b. Play until you score 10,000 points. Post a link to a video in the comments section of yourself completing the challenge.

Chapter 78: A Bit of a Problem

FINALLY particles stop emitting from the reactor core. That weird buzzing music has faded away, and all is quiet. Even the static has stopped emitting from your radio. You are shaken and exhausted from slamming the Proteus around like a pinball, and collapse back into your seat, panting.

Melvin is panting too. “Do… do you think it’s over?”

You both jump at hearing the radio. “I think you did it!” says the mildly excited Doctor’s voice, echoing through your ship and the hollow, silent reactor core.

“Great, Doc,” replies Melvin. “Now how do we get out of here?”

“In the back of one of those corner bonus rooms, you will find a hatch… now that the reactor is shut down, it should open when you approach.”

Having (mostly) collected yourself, you fly to the nearer bonus room, being careful not to collide with the walls of the narrow opening. Just like the Doctor said, there is a hatch on the far side, and as you slowly approach, it slides open. It is just big enough for the ship to fit through, and you cautiously guide the ship through it into the dark space beyond.

“Okay, Doc, we’re through,” you say into the radio.

“I’m going to extract you now.” You grip the console tightly as the ship tumbles through the now familiar swirling into the syringe. Things get brighter around you, and then brighter still. You feel the shaking that tells you that he’s running. He sounds almost jubilant. “Now that you have stopped both reactors, all that remains is to battle the super virus, and the city, perhaps the world, will be saved!”

“Sounds good, Doc,” you say through your exhaustion, while you examine your glowing green hands. “Melvin, was I glowing like this before?”

“No way. I think all the radiation from those reactors is getting to you.”

“Yeah. I… sure hope when the Doctor grows me back that I can return to normal.”

“Yeah…” says Melvin. “You sure have been a lot of animals today… a frog, a bear, a mouse, some kind of bug, and now a lizard.”

“Yeah.” The shaking has stopped, but everything is still very bright. You wonder what is taking the Doctor so long, and you pick up the radio. “Hey Doc, everything okay up there?”

His voice is no longer jubilant. “I… can’t get into Building 4.”

“What? Why not?” asks Melvin, irritated. “You got into the other three buildings okay.”

You hear beeping and booping sounds, followed by the harsh buzz of failed password entry. “I knew the supervirus would need the strongest security, so I hired ENCOM to make sure no one but me could get in. Since you cured my blood clots, my face now looks more normal, and I with both reactors shutdown, the system seems to realize the virus is in danger, and I can’t override the facial recognition system,” explains the Doctor.

You remember the Doctor’s terrifyingly swollen red face, and you wonder what he looks like now. “So… what do we do, Doc?”

“I… don’t know. Climbing the building won’t work… the roof entrance will have the same security. Every door and window is sealed up tight. Curse my passion for high security!”

“Ha, too bad you can’t inject us into the security system!” jokes Melvin.

“I know,” says the Doctor, “I mean, I have a portable digitizer, but for your matter to be digitizable, your ship would have to be less than 540 nanometers... and… and oh! Wait, it is!”

“Wait… what?” you shout, suddenly nervous.

“Yes… yes, this can work!” says the Doctor with quiet excitement. “Player, we don’t have much time. Defeating the Supervirus won’t be easy, and with the security lockdown, I’m pretty sure the system is going to deploy the virus into the atmosphere by midnight. The only way in is if you can break the security.”

“But… Doc, I don’t know anything about hacking,” you say.

“When you are digitized, it won’t seem like hacking. It will seem more like a… space mission. I will digitize you and the ship, and all you need to do is find the three security cores of the MCP, and shut them down.”

“What?” you say, bewildered.

“It’ll be like shutting down the reactor. I’m sure you can do it. Prepare to digitize,” he says.

“Wait, like Tron?” you exclaim, concerned.

“No, it’s nothing like Tron,” he replies as you and your ship are suddenly flooded with a blue light, and a scanning laser deconstructs your atoms, row by row.

Suddenly you awake, and things look very different. The ship is now bright yellow, and everything looks… digital. You aren’t in water any more, you seem to be flying. You are whizzing down some kind of digital highway made out of neon blue lines. Melvin, next to you, looks pretty much the same though, just a digital square. “Melvin,” you say, “this is just like Tron.”

“Is it?” asks Melvin, squinting out the window. “I don’t really remember that movie.” He looks at you. “Nice hat, though.”

You in the glint off of the windshield of the digitized Proteus, you catch your reflection. Your green skin still glows… but differently now, more evenly. Somehow you are wearing a purple shirt and yellow hat. You don’t remember those from Tron… maybe Melvin’s right… maybe this is nothing like Tron. You look into the distance, and see a massive structure. “Melvin, is that the MCP?”

“How would I know?” asks Melvin. He is looking in the rear view screen now. “But I do know the guys behind us look like trouble.” You glance at it and see two red and huge ships that look sort of like the letter M. A buzzing digital voice shakes your ship. “THIS TRANSPORT IS UNAUTHORIZED. STOP IMMEDIATELY OR FACE DERESOLUTION.” You seem to be in the grip of some kind of tractor beam. “Melvin, what do we do?” you ask as Melvin flits around desperately. Seeing no option, you bring the Proteus to a stop.

“EXIT IMMEDIATELY.” Says the voice.

You and Melvin hesitantly step out of the vehicle, and find yourself faced with four guards in red neon hockey equipment and carrying some kind of cattle prods. “THIS VEHICLE WILL BE CONFISCATED FOR THE GAME GRID,” says one. You step forward to object, and one of them stabs at your chest with the cattle prod, and you fall backwards into a deep pit, as you hear Melvin call “Noooooooooooo!”

Things go black… for a long time.

“Player… are you there? Hello?” you hear Melvin’s voice, and open your eyes to see a blurry smudge hanging in the air in front of you. “Come on, Player, wake up, we have things to do.” You groggily blink your eyes, and see Melvin in front of you. You seem to be in the bottom of a deep pit. Everything aches. “Melvin, where are we?”

“I’ve been flying around,” he says. “Everyone thinks I’m a ‘bit,’ and I’ve met lots of other bits who seem happy to answer my questions. That thing we saw was definitely the MCP. But we can’t get there on foot, we have to get the Proteus back.”

“How do we do that?” you ask, blearily.

“Well, first we have to get you out of this pit.” You look around, and the walls of the pit seem perfectly smooth. “Can we climb out?” you ask.

“No, but there’s an I/O channel not far from here, through this access panel,” says Melvin, indicating a small rectangle on the wall.

“Are you sure this isn’t Tron?” you ask.

“I’m positive,” says Melvin. You open the panel, and it seems to open into a large empty space. “Climb in,” says Melvin.

“I’ll fall!” you reply with some concern.

“You can’t die from falling here,” says Melvin. “Besides, it’s not too far, I don’t think.”

You may not be able to die, but your whole body, especially your head, are still throbbing from falling down that pit. You push yourself into the access panel, and fall down about thirty feet into a large, hollow room, landing on your feet. It is completely dark. Melvin flies down after you, and you see his glow from above. “See?” he says, “That wasn’t so bad. Now, across this room is an opening to the I/O channel.”

You face Melvin. “Are you sure this isn’t Tron? All the neon? The recognizers? The MCP? The ‘game grid?’ and now an I/O channel?”

Melvin rolls his eyes, not that he has any. “For the last time, this isn’t Tron! If this was Tron, one of those bits would have said something!”

You sigh, and take a step forward, and suddenly an enormous billboard lights up, blinding you with pulsing spectronium letters thirty feet tall reading…

TRON

Melvin blinks, and says “Then, on the other hand…”

“What is this billboard for?” you ask, shielding your eyes from the intense glare of the spectronium in the dark.

“Check the fine print,” says Melvin, and he’s right. On the lower part of the billboard, in smaller letters, it reads “This cycle only! See the amazing TRON battle challengers in the game grid!”

“That’s where we’re going,” says Melvin.

“What?” you say, surprised. “I thought we had to get to the MCP?”

“We do,” says Melvin, “but we can’t get there without the Proteus, and right now, the Proteus is in the game grid. But, come on, we can’t hang around here,” he says, heading over to the panel under the billboard.

You open it, and see the I/O Channel in front of you, surrounded by all kinds of weird digital entities, some sliding, some rolling, some flying. It’s a lot to take in.

“This is the way to the game grid,” explains Melvin. “See, each segment of the I/O channel is protected by a seven-bit key. If you can collect all seven bits, those flying star things, the channel will open for you, and you can fly up.”

“To the game grid?” you say excitedly.

“Eventually,” says Melvin. “But it’s many sectors away. I hope you like chasing bits!”

“How can I get up to the higher bits?” you ask.

“There are elevators,” says Melvin.

“That’s convenient,” you say optimistically.

“No, it really isn’t,” admits Melvin. “They only go up one floor, and then you have to cross the I/O channel to use the one on the other side.”

“What?” you say, confused. “Why?”

“I don’t know,” says Melvin. “Security, maybe? Anyway, go get ‘em! I’ll hang out here and watch for tanks.”

“Tanks?!” you say with some alarm.

“You're welcome. Anyway, good luck, and I’ll follow you up.” He looks at you. “Hey, with that yellow painter’s cap, this reminds me of that time we visited Dr. Frankenstein… but this time, you’re carrying bits instead of bricks!”

Place the Adventures of Tron cartridge into your Atari 2600. Set the left difficulty switch to b. Play until you score 30,000 points. Post a link to a video in the comments section of yourself completing the challenge.

Chapter 77: Do Me a Solid

Just when you think that the multiplying viruses are going to completely overwhelm you, suddenly they all disintegrate! “Yahoo!” shouts Melvin, as the screen flashes VIRUS DEFEATED – ENTERING PROTEUS MODE.

You breathe a sigh of relief, and pick up the microphone. “Doc, we did it… I think!” you shout.

“Indeed you did, Player! Your sharpshooting wore them down, and they had no energy left to replicate!” replies the Doctor. “You have saved the city from certain doom!”

You and Melvin start shouting and singing in celebration.  “Okay, Doc, whew! That was NOT easy. So… NOW can you make us big again?” You look over your weird green lizard body, and start to worry that if you don’t get enlarged soon, maybe you’ll be stuck this way forever.

“I… wish it were that simple,” says the Doctor, as you feel the familiar vortex of swirling water that happens every time he pulls you into or out of his syringe. Again, you sense he is running. “You see,” he explains between pants, “I’ve always been a great believer in backups. Even when I was out of my mind, I knew that two viruses would be better than one.”

“So… we have to defeat another virus?” you ask nervously.

“Yes,” he admits with shame. “But… before that, you have to shut down another reactor.”

“TWO nuclear reactors, Doc?” shouts Melvin. “I’ve heard of the belt and suspenders approach, but this is ridiculous!”

“Yes… I know…” he says. “But… if I was going to destroy the world, I wanted to, you know, do it right. Ah, here we are, Building 3.” The shaking stops.

“So, Doc,” says Melvin, “this is like that last Spectran reactor? We have to gather up all those particles again in BVD mode, or whatever?”

Done panting, he sighs. “Sadly… no. I was dissatisfied with the power output of the Spectran reactor, and so I engineered one that is… much more powerful. The last reactor was liquid core… this one is solid core.” Things go from light to dark around you as he injects you into the system. Your ship again starts transforming into… some kind of blue pulsing spider. ENTERING REPULSOR MODE flashes on the screen. Weird buzzing sounds, almost like music, seem to come from everywhere.

His voice on the radio is staticky now. “There will be… intense radiation… you may not be able to hear me… repulse the particles… kill walls… control rods will… expanding core… use your decoy…” and everything fades off into static, as you see some greenish high energy particles approaching. “Melvin, what is all this? Where’s the robot arm?” you ask frantically. You still have a control stick, and just one button reading “DECOY.”

Melvin is scanning around the manual. “I’m… not sure? I think this is different…” just then a particle slams into you, bounces off, and explodes against the wall. More particles are coming. Melvin speaks up. “Oh, I get this! It’s like a demolition derby… or… bumper cars! Slam those particles into the wall… but… don’t crash us!”

You try it, and it works. Melvin is still reading… “Uh… there are also control rods… and… bonus rooms? This is going to take a while to figure out.” You look down at your green lizard skin, and realize that is pulsing with bright green light. “We better hurry, Melvin… you’re made of energy, but I don’t know how much more of this radiation I can take…”

“Don’t lose hope,” says Melvin. “We’ve been through a lot… I’ll get you out of this!”

You hope so… but you can see the solid core pulsing and growing in sync with the pulsing of your green skin, and you want to get out of here. “I trust you, Melvin,” you say, speeding toward a positron, “but let’s hurry!”

Place the Reactor cartridge into your Atari 2600. Use game select 1. Set the left difficulty switch to a or b as you prefer. Play until you score 35,000 points. Post a link to a video in the comments section of yourself completing the challenge.

Chapter 76: They Look Just Like Asteroids

The “ALL CLEAR” alert sounds, and your ship starts transforming back into its initial submarine form. The Doctor’s voice comes over the radio. “Incredible! You’ve calmed the reactor, and starved out all the power to Building 2. I’m extracting your ship back into my syringe…”

You feel turbulence all around you, as things go from dark to a kind of twilight brightness. Again things are shaking. “So, with no power, that means we win, right? Can you make us big now?”

You hear the Doctor’s panting voice. “Oh no… draining power from Building 2 is only a temporary victory. It gives us a narrow window of time where the X-6 virus can be destroyed.” He’s panting. Is he running? “I’m taking you to the replicator in Building 2. I will inject you into the system, and the Proteus will enter megathrust mode.”

“Megathrust mode? What’s that?” you ask, nervously, but you just hear the Doctor say “I’m injecting you into the master replicator.” Things swirl and go from light to dark to… red.  The large red area you are suddenly in seems to be crawling with all kinds of strange entities. Some are tiny rings, others are like little snakes, and others seem to be huge colonies.

“VIRUS ALERT” screams the screen. “ENTERING MEGATHRUST MODE.”

“What is Megathrust Mode?” asks Melvin in a panic.

You see your throttle moving ahead, beyond your control, and the ship rockets forward toward the viruses.

“I think it’s this!” You shout, frantically steering to avoid a collision.

“How is this helping?” shouts back Melvin. “We’re going too fast!”

A panel opens revealing an “A/B” switch. A lighted panel says:

A: SINGLE TORPEDOES
B: SALVOES

“At least we have a choice!” shouts Melvin, hopping into the loading chamber as viruses swirl all around you, wondering if you, or the world, can possibly survive.

Place the Supercharger into your Atari 2600, and press play on the Suicide Mission cassette. Use game select to choose “HARD” mode. Set the difficulty switches to a or b, your choice. Play until you score 25,000 points. Post a link to a video in the comments section of yourself completing the challenge.