Day One. New York City. Ballroom "B" of the Grand Hyatt Hotel. The Tron Tournament. Video game history in the making. The first officially tabulated national competition ever. Anywhere.
16 competitors are being briefed. Two rounds of competition today. Finals tomorrow kicked off by a Celebrity Competition. The lure of celebrity contact ... "We're expecting Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, and Diana Ross. Remember, these people want to meet you." Eight silent Tron machines stand waiting; eight players in identical blue Tron t-shirts man their machines. Anxious parents peer from behind. Kid standing by scoreboard smiles and points to brother's name while Mom snaps picture. The competition begins.
Eight Tron machines rev up. Sounds like some weird futuristic soundtrack. Each machine has two video screens. One for them, one for us. Sixteen screens! The players make it look easy.
Deceptively so. Contestant #8 — 18-year-old Sterling Ouchi from Torrence, CA — chokes at under 50,000 points. And he scored over a million points in the Regionals. Not as easy as it looks, guys. Lots of pressure. Scott MacDonald — 17-year-old video cowboy from Houston — takes this half of the first round with a respectable 294,358 points.
Three hours. Ross is still going strong and he's still got two men left! He sips some water, stretches some leg. No other signs of fatigue. Ross annoyed with photographer (from the venerable New York Times and the only photographer allowed into the playing area). He's going for broke.
Join others for lunch in adjoining Ballroom "C." Watching one guy play Tron for over 3 hours is monotonous. Impressive spread. Thirty plus feet of everything — seafood salad, fresh kiwi, chocolate mousse. Other players, some wearing Pac-Man antennae (this summer's tourist rage) growing restless and a little nervous. No lack of healthy competition, though. "I'm going to have to cut that guy's hand off," quips MacDonald.
Finally — after an amazing four hours and 22 minutes — Ross goes out with a whopping 1 ,830,044 points. He's hot after the prize ($4,000 Commodore Home Computer and a Tron Video Game valued at $2,500). According to Ross, "The game falls into a predictable pattern. After the #7 Tank it's simply a matter of memorization." (And endurance!)
The second round gives Ouchi a chance to recoup his losses. He plays well: 331 ,669 points. MacDonald bombs out with 59,891. His machine (#7) had a "fuzzy screen and a sticky joystick." Yeah, sure. And here comes Scott Katkin — 1 9 years old from E. Greenwich, Rl — racking up a healthy 1,052,592. But then there's Ross, true to form, playing another four hours. Taking a combined score of 3,399,980 points into the Finals. And that's not even counting the 40,000 points lost when a photographer (not the Times) tripped over the cord!
Day Two. The Finals. Madison Square Garden's Felt Forum. Special press badges. Today is different. Today is the Celebrity Competition. Lots of press here, so keep smiling (but why are we here?). A photo from Associated Press (cameras nearly, but not quite, covering his racetrack plaid sport jacket) leads us to Hank Aaron. And Willie Mays. And they're practicing their Tron techniques. And so is Doug McKeon ("On Golden Pond") and Robin Leach with his "Entertainment Tonight" crew, and David Warner and Cindy Morgan from the Disney movie. Warner wearing a racy pair of leather driving gloves (maybe helps his game?) saying something about not having anything against video games, "As long as people continue to do other things like read books." Rumor: Bianca Jagger and Robert Duvall are supposed to show. But Diana hasn't shown. And if Bob and Bianca do I'd be surprised. This is fun.
Attention focused on celebs. Competitors fading into the background. That is, most of them. Not MacDonald. Ever the ham, he coaches Cindy Morgan on the subtleties of the game. Tron. "Scott taught me everything I know about Tron," says Cindy. Scott Katkin coaches soap actress Melinda Fee ("Days of Our Lives"). Fat photographer yells at Katkin (get out of the way!). Then fatty does some coaching himself ("Melinda, could you look this way? David, over here").
Everyone milling about banquet table. Hungry, but not wanting to eat. Today's luncheon disappointing. Food service. Chicken Chow Mein, wilted salad, cardboard cake. Suddenly, there's a commotion at the entrance. Someone has arrived. Could it be . . . everyone rushes towards the door. And in pops . . . Barbara Eden! Cameras clicking and she's smiling away. Looks great. Short pink skirt (no harem pants) and she's still got great legs. Accompanied by bodyguard and assistants. She approaches a Tron machine. Barbara needs coaching. Lots of coaching. She needs the best. She needs — Richard Ross.
The first round of Celebrity Competition begins. For each winner, Disney will donate $2,000 to the charity of their choice. Doug McKeon beats Hank Aaron 9,268 to 3,826. He donates to the American Cancer Society. Melinda Fee tops Willie Mays 1 ,975 to 278. Great baseball does not a video pro make. Two Disney people, a special effects man Harrison Ellenshaw and producer Don Kushner reap impressive scores — 11,280 and 13,126 respectively. Barbara signs autographs.
At last, to the strains of the "Tron" soundtrack (very ethereal, heavenly choir type stuff) the three real pros — Ouchi, Katkin, and Ross — make their bid for video fame. Ouchi and Katkin give it their all. Ouchi goes out with a final total of 1,158,085, earning him third place. A slight twist: Ross goes down before Katkin (we secretly hoped this wouldn't be another marathon play). Ross has it in the bag, but Katkin still tries. He's a trooper. He finally goes down with a total of 2,731,770. Cheers. Katkin manages a weak smile. It's been an exhausting two days of Tron. More pictures, more questions. Ouchi's favorite game: Centipede. Highest score: 3.500,000. Will they continue to play Tron? Not for a long time. Group shot of the winners shaking hands closes another chapter for the chronicles of video history. And we're off to the "Tron" preview.
