Editing HorizonVirtual:Inspiration

This page is the home for any "inspirational" material for your ''Horizon: Virtual'' game, from books to music to TV series, movies and games. If you think it'll help you and others get a handle on the "feel" of a ''Virtual'' session, post it here.

=Movies=

==[http://disney.go.com/vault/archives/movies/tron/tron.html ''TRON'']==

One of the first films to use computer generated imagery, and definitely the first to use it so extensively, ''TRON'' is the film that probably inspired a generation of cyberpunk writers to create and explore the realm dubbed "cyberspace" (''Virtual'' also includes a couple of nods to it in the form of the Discus and the Code Bike). Although every program in ''TRON'' is portrayed as being a waker, and no User can "enter" the Program Space of ''Virtual'', it's highly recommended viewing for GMs who want to show their players what Program Space is like,  especially if they're trying to give Program Space a "computerised" look-and-feel. The MCP also makes for a fairly natty progenitor virus, although he's locked within Encom's mainframe.

Also worth checking out is the fan-site [http://www.tron-sector.com/ TRON Sector].

=TV Shows=

==[http://www.reboot.com/ ''ReBoot'']==
An entirely CGI kids' cartoon show produced by Canadian outfit Mainframe Entertainment gives more of a "waker's eye view" of life in Program Space. The city of Mainframe is closer to the general feel of Program Space given by ''Virtual''. ''ReBoot's'' viruses behave more like crime bosses and less like the dragons and demons that ''Virtual's'' progenitor viruses are (at least, not until ''ReBoot'' Series 4). The User's Games are more potentially destructive.

=Computer and Video Games=

==[http://www.tron20.net/ ''TRON 2.0''] / [http://www.tronkillerapp.com/ ''Killer App'']==

The official sequel to ''TRON'' in game form, the PC first-person shooter ''TRON 2.0'' and its Xbox port ''TRON 2.0: Killer App'' take us back inside the Electronic World and shows us what today's mainframes, PDAs and Internet look like from the inside. Although not an outstanding game, ''TRON'' fans with decent PCs or an Xbox owe it to themselves to add it to their collection. ''Virtual'' GMs and players will find it worthwhile for its good examples of semi-comic waker lingo ("The Kernel will never retreat, and neither will I! Drive C: forever!"), the Coderipper-like weapons that the game avatar gets to use and the villain Thorne, who is a very close portrayal of a ''Virtual'' progenitor virus (although he's actually an incorrectly-digitised User), right down to his microvirus-infected "Z-Lot" razor programs.

If you're a hardcore ''TRON'' fan, you will be glad to know that the GameBoy Advance version of ''TRON 2.0: Killer App'' includes a port of the old ''TRON'' and ''Discs of TRON'' arcade games from the 1980s!