AL: Street Racing (May-11)
Title: Street Racing
Prompt:
003. "All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Character: Sam Flynn
Fandom: Tron: Legacy
Word Count: 761
Rating: PG
Warnings None?
Disclaimer Steven Lisberger, Bonnie MacBird and Disney own Tron and all things associated. I'm just having fun in their sandbox.
Summary: Sam plays on his Grid...
Author's Notes: I suppose you'd need to read previous prompts to understand things, but meh. If you're reading this I assume you've been keeping up and this isn't an issue.
---
Sam loved the light cycles. This was why he spent a little more time developing them than any other game on the Grid. In addition to the standard arena used for elimination matches, Sam went and developed a part of the main city for street races, along with an Outlands-esque environment for off-road biking. The cycles used in the standard arena were much like the 5th generation cycles used on his father's system. The off-road cycles resembled their Real World counter-parts, and the single-person matches were stylistic challenges of complex jumps and aerials, with points being given for difficulty, jump height and use of the light ribbon. Both arena and off-road games were fairly standard; with the street-racing set, Sam introduced a different element all together: customization.
For the first time on any Grid, programs were encouraged to personalize and modify their light cycles in ways that reflected them as individuals. Sam gave them access to a simple interface that allowed them to tweak parts to their heart's content before digitizing it into being. Sam taught the first four programs how to digitize the parts using the interface and then build the cycles from them, as opposed to Sam simply creating each bike fully-formed. His four initiates - Stix, Sab, Linx, and Tether - took to the cycle-building the same way Sam had taken to it in the Real World when he'd decided to fix up Flynn's old Ducati. It was amazing to watch them take the basic Gen-5 blueprints, make personal modifications, obtain the parts and then put them together.
Sam worked alongside them, building a cycle that was a little more Real World racing cycle than true light cycle. When Stix asked about the design model Sam was using, the program's eyes went wide; a combination of Sam's and Flynn's bikes in the Real World mixed with the vintage 2nd-Gen Flynn had built and the current Gen-5 pattern, the projected result was interesting, to say the least. What was even more interesting was how it had inspired first Stix and then the others. The four programs grew frustrated with the limitations posed by their lack of knowledge of motorcycles and the various models outside of Sam's blueprints; they felt it was unfair that Sam had access to an entire realm of bikes and they didn't. Sam promised them he'd fix that in the next Grid update, and his next stint in the Real World was spent compiling all he could about the world of motorcycles.
With the new information, it didn't take long for the programs to revamp their Gen-5 modifications to include elements from the Real World. As the cycles neared completion, Sam wondered what Alan would say if he asked his friend and mentor to look into possible licensing options from the manufacturers so Sam could turn this experiment into a marketable game. This thought led to another, and with the next update Sam had added a complete vehicle database, recruited four more programs to his cause and expanded the light cycle street racing to encompass a light runner/sports car category.
As Linx, Stix, Sab and Tether began test-runs, the newbies - Askey, Daisy, Doc, and Scuzzy - began work on their own vehicles. It took an entire cycle for both groups to make it to a point where they could actually begin racing each other. Sam installed all the information he could find on street racing culture, taught his eight disciples how to read, and from there the entire thing took on a life of its own. Stix and his crew taught Askey and her group how to design and build the bikes; Askey and the others taught Stix's group the finer points of building a car. And from there, it began to spread by word-of-mouth, until it was just as popular as the standard light cycle grid.
The initial group of eight turned into sixteen, and sixteen quickly turned into thirty-six. Nine teams of four set up race schedules and used a map of the area to form different races; soon a solid set of circuits and point-to-points were formed and named, and the rules from lap-knock-outs to timed runs to straight-up races had been agreed upon and documented.
As Sam straddled his cycle, revving the engine as he waited for the green flag to indicate the start of the race, he had to smile. The user-program collaboration of a section of the Game Grid had turned out well, and as far as experiments went, it was definitely one of the more fun ones.
Prompt:
003. "All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Character: Sam Flynn
Fandom: Tron: Legacy
Word Count: 761
Rating: PG
Warnings None?
Disclaimer Steven Lisberger, Bonnie MacBird and Disney own Tron and all things associated. I'm just having fun in their sandbox.
Summary: Sam plays on his Grid...
Author's Notes: I suppose you'd need to read previous prompts to understand things, but meh. If you're reading this I assume you've been keeping up and this isn't an issue.
---
Sam loved the light cycles. This was why he spent a little more time developing them than any other game on the Grid. In addition to the standard arena used for elimination matches, Sam went and developed a part of the main city for street races, along with an Outlands-esque environment for off-road biking. The cycles used in the standard arena were much like the 5th generation cycles used on his father's system. The off-road cycles resembled their Real World counter-parts, and the single-person matches were stylistic challenges of complex jumps and aerials, with points being given for difficulty, jump height and use of the light ribbon. Both arena and off-road games were fairly standard; with the street-racing set, Sam introduced a different element all together: customization.
For the first time on any Grid, programs were encouraged to personalize and modify their light cycles in ways that reflected them as individuals. Sam gave them access to a simple interface that allowed them to tweak parts to their heart's content before digitizing it into being. Sam taught the first four programs how to digitize the parts using the interface and then build the cycles from them, as opposed to Sam simply creating each bike fully-formed. His four initiates - Stix, Sab, Linx, and Tether - took to the cycle-building the same way Sam had taken to it in the Real World when he'd decided to fix up Flynn's old Ducati. It was amazing to watch them take the basic Gen-5 blueprints, make personal modifications, obtain the parts and then put them together.
Sam worked alongside them, building a cycle that was a little more Real World racing cycle than true light cycle. When Stix asked about the design model Sam was using, the program's eyes went wide; a combination of Sam's and Flynn's bikes in the Real World mixed with the vintage 2nd-Gen Flynn had built and the current Gen-5 pattern, the projected result was interesting, to say the least. What was even more interesting was how it had inspired first Stix and then the others. The four programs grew frustrated with the limitations posed by their lack of knowledge of motorcycles and the various models outside of Sam's blueprints; they felt it was unfair that Sam had access to an entire realm of bikes and they didn't. Sam promised them he'd fix that in the next Grid update, and his next stint in the Real World was spent compiling all he could about the world of motorcycles.
With the new information, it didn't take long for the programs to revamp their Gen-5 modifications to include elements from the Real World. As the cycles neared completion, Sam wondered what Alan would say if he asked his friend and mentor to look into possible licensing options from the manufacturers so Sam could turn this experiment into a marketable game. This thought led to another, and with the next update Sam had added a complete vehicle database, recruited four more programs to his cause and expanded the light cycle street racing to encompass a light runner/sports car category.
As Linx, Stix, Sab and Tether began test-runs, the newbies - Askey, Daisy, Doc, and Scuzzy - began work on their own vehicles. It took an entire cycle for both groups to make it to a point where they could actually begin racing each other. Sam installed all the information he could find on street racing culture, taught his eight disciples how to read, and from there the entire thing took on a life of its own. Stix and his crew taught Askey and her group how to design and build the bikes; Askey and the others taught Stix's group the finer points of building a car. And from there, it began to spread by word-of-mouth, until it was just as popular as the standard light cycle grid.
The initial group of eight turned into sixteen, and sixteen quickly turned into thirty-six. Nine teams of four set up race schedules and used a map of the area to form different races; soon a solid set of circuits and point-to-points were formed and named, and the rules from lap-knock-outs to timed runs to straight-up races had been agreed upon and documented.
As Sam straddled his cycle, revving the engine as he waited for the green flag to indicate the start of the race, he had to smile. The user-program collaboration of a section of the Game Grid had turned out well, and as far as experiments went, it was definitely one of the more fun ones.