A game inspired by the light cycle game from the original 1982 movie, Tron.
Tron Light Pods is a game demo written in 1999 to attract VC capital for a new game studio. The project ultimately never got off the ground, but the demo remains.
Requires a C++20 compiler, CMake 3.20 or newer, and Ninja. On Windows, MSYS2 or MinGW-w64 both work. The renderer is Win32 and WGL, so the game is Windows-only.
cmake -S src -B build -G Ninja
cmake --build build
That produces build/tron-light-pods-1-9.exe. It compiles clean under -Wall -Wextra.
build\tron-light-pods-1-9 [--opponents N] [--grid N] [--seed N] [--window WIDTHxHEIGHT]
You are in a cubic arena, riding a light pod that never stops. Turns do not take effect immediately, they are queued, and commit when the pod reaches the next grid node, which is what the arrow indicator in the HUD is showing you. Everyone leaves a solid trail behind them, including you. The goal is to block opponents so that they collide with your light trail, until you are the last player remaining.
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| Arrows / numpad | Navigate the menu; steer in play. |
| Enter | Activate the selected menu item. |
| Esc | Back out to the menu from play, and to Exit Game at the menu. |
| Shift / Ctrl | Accelerate and brake (numpad + and − also work). |
| N | Toggle the proximity sensor. |
| L | Show your own trail in the chase view. |
| F1 / F2 / F3 | Cockpit, third person chase, and spot-plane views. |
| F12 | Debug view. Orbit the arena from a distance, with the player removed. |
All rights reserved, 1999
This code is published for reference and study, not for reuse. It is not open source. See LICENSE for the full terms.