Grandstand Tron
_VFD_LSI_Game.jpg) | |
| Tomy's own Tomytronic Tron at the Goodwill Computer Museum, Austin. Grandstand's version has "GRANDSTAND" on the bezel in place of "TOMYTRONIC" (Jeff Keyzer, CC BY-SA 2.0) | |
| Specifications | |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Tomy (made in Japan); distributed in the UK by Grandstand (Adam Imports Ltd, Harrogate) |
| Type | Tabletop electronic game, three games in one |
| Released | 1981 or 1982 (sources differ; see History)[1][2][3] |
| CPU | Hitachi HD38800A88 4-bit microcontroller (HMCS40 family)[2] |
| Memory | — |
| Storage | — |
| Display | NEC FIP10AM24T vacuum fluorescent display, cyan, red and green[2] |
| Sound | 1-bit, from the microcontroller[2] |
| Input | CONTROL disc (up, down, left, right), SPEED/SHOOT button, ON/OFF switch[3] |
| Power | Four C cells, or a 7.5 V DC centre-negative adaptor[3] |
| OS / Firmware | — |
| Model no. | Grandstand code no. 11266; Tomy no. 7601[1][3] |
Grandstand Tron is Tomy's Tomytronic Tron, a tabletop game with a vacuum fluorescent display (VFD) based on the Disney film, distributed in the UK by Grandstand.[1][4] It has three games in sequence: the Light Cycle game, the Ring game and the MCP game.[3] A Hitachi HD38800A88 4-bit microcontroller runs it.[2] Tomy's case is smoked clear plastic, so the inside of the game can be seen, with large imitation circuitry at the back.[5]
History
[edit | edit source]The Handheld Museum records Grandstand as the UK distributor of Tomy's Tron and photographs the Grandstand version and its box: the bezel reads "GRANDSTAND TRON", the base still says "TOMY", and the box carries both names with "Code No. 11266" and the line "Three electronic games in one".[1] A dealer's museum page also describes Grandstand as the UK distributor of this Tomy game.[4] MAME's notes for Tomy Tron list no other releases, so the Grandstand connection rests on these collector sources and the photographs.[2]
The date is given as 1981 or 1982. The Handheld Museum and the dealer's page give 1981.[1][4] MAME's chip list dates the HD38800A88 to 1982, and Tomy's leaflet carries a 1982 Tomy copyright beside a 1981 Walt Disney Productions copyright for the Tron name.[2][3] The "1981" printed on the game's bezel is that Disney copyright line.[6]
Hardware
[edit | edit source]| Part | Detail |
|---|---|
| Main board | Marked THN-02 2E114E07; made in Japan |
| Microcontroller | Hitachi HD38800A88 (HMCS40 family) |
| Display | NEC FIP10AM24T no. 2-8 1 VFD, cyan, red and green |
| Sound | 1-bit output from the microcontroller |
| Controls | CONTROL disc (four directions); SPEED/SHOOT button; ON/OFF switch |
| Power | Four C alkaline cells; Tomy's adaptor rating 7.5 V DC, 200 mA, 2.1 mm plug, centre negative |
| Case | Smoked clear plastic, with imitation circuitry at the back |
Board, microcontroller, display and sound from MAME's driver notes;[2] controls and power from Tomy's leaflet;[3] case from the Handheld Museum.[5]
Of the three Tomy tabletops Grandstand is known to have sold, Tron is the one on a Hitachi microcontroller; Grandstand Munchman and Grandstand Caveman use NEC uCOM-43 chips.[2][7] The HD38800 is the same Hitachi HMCS40 family as VTech's chip in Grandstand Cosmic Invader (an HD38750) and Coleco's in the Coleco Galaxian Mini-Arcade (an HD38800A70).[2] The FIP10AM24T is an NEC tube with ten grids, going by the NEC naming that MAME explains.[7]
The game program is mask-programmed into the HD38800A88, the chip MAME's dump was read from, and MAME lists no other game with that chip.[2] A replacement microcontroller can only come from another Tron, Tomy's or Grandstand's.
The game
[edit | edit source]Switching on plays a fanfare while a pattern crosses the screen. The first screen shows four Tron figures on the left, four Sark figures and three enemy light cycles on the right, and the MCP at the far right.[3]
Light Cycle game
[edit | edit source]The CONTROL disc steers Tron's blue light cycle; holding SPEED/SHOOT accelerates it, and it slows when released. Both cycles leave walls behind them. The aim is to make the red and green enemy cycle crash into a wall by cutting it off at least two cycle lengths ahead. Scoring: 5 points for every five wall bars, 100 for each enemy cycle destroyed.[3]
Ring game
[edit | edit source]Sark throws a disc; Tron moves up and down to catch it and throws it back with SPEED/SHOOT. Each miss costs a ring beneath the player who missed. Scoring: 5 per catch, 20 per enemy ring destroyed, 200 for destroying all the rings.[3]
MCP game
[edit | edit source]Tron throws discs at the moving MCP barrier, timing the throw to break through and destroy the MCP. The number of timing bars equals the rings Tron kept in the Ring game. Scoring: 200 for the MCP, plus 50 for each timing bar left.[3]
Levels and scoring
[edit | edit source]The skill level rises after all three games are completed, up to six times. An extra Tron is given at 2,000 points, up to five at a time. The score display reads up to 1,995; each 2,000 points shows as a green bar at the top of the screen, to a maximum of 15,995, after which the score returns to 0. The game ends when all the Trons are lost.[3]
Batteries and power
[edit | edit source]Tomy's leaflet asks for four C alkaline cells and recommends an AC adaptor of 7.5 V DC, 200 mA, with a 2.1 mm coaxial plug, tip (centre) negative.[3] Four C cells make 6 V nominal, so Tomy's adaptor rating is higher than the battery voltage. No Grandstand leaflet for Tron has been found to say which setting to use on the Grandstand Universal Mains Adaptor; a modern supply should match Tomy's centre-negative polarity.
The leaflet warns that weak batteries make the display dark and the game act incorrectly, and asks for the game to be turned off when not in use and the batteries removed for storage.[3] Cells left in the box leak; see Battery Explosion, Capacitor or Corrosion Damage.
Repair
[edit | edit source]Tron has its own repair guides:
- Grandstand Tron General Maintenance: the battery box, the adaptor rating, the controls, and cleaning the smoked case.
- Grandstand Tron Troubleshooting Guide: what a working game does, the known figures, a symptom table and what is not a fault.
No capacitor guide has been written for Tron: no photograph of its THN-02 board, parts list or schematic has been found, so no capacitor values are known. The one Tron-specific fault on record is battery leakage. An owner who left cells in a Tomytronic Tron for over twenty years found the terminals so corroded that the game would only run from an adaptor.[8] The whole case is smoked clear plastic, and the large circuitry visible at the back is imitation, part of the styling.[5] A replacement microcontroller can only come from another Tron (see Hardware).
Documentation
[edit | edit source]- Tomy Tron instructions (Tomy Corporation, 1982, no. 7601; six pages). Tomy's US leaflet: batteries and adaptor rating, controls, the three games, scoring and care. Grandstand's own leaflet has not been found.
Related pages
[edit | edit source]- Grandstand Tron General Maintenance
- Grandstand Tron Troubleshooting Guide
- Grandstand Universal Mains Adaptor
- Grandstand Munchman and Grandstand Caveman: Grandstand's other Tomy tabletops, with the same adaptor rating
- Grandstand Cosmic Invader: VTech game on another Hitachi HMCS40 microcontroller
- Coleco Galaxian Mini-Arcade: Coleco tabletop on an HD38800
- Category:Grandstand
References
[edit | edit source]- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Handheld Museum, "Grandstand Tron" (retrieved 2026-10-18): 1981, VFD, four C batteries, model 11266; "Grandstand was the distributer for Tomy's Tron in the U.K."; photographs of the Grandstand-branded game ("GRANDSTAND TRON" bezel, "TOMY" base) and its box ("Code No. 11266", Tomy, "Three electronic games in one").
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 MAME source, hh_hmcs40.cpp (retrieved 2026-10-18). Driver notes for Tomy Tron: made in Japan; PCB label THN-02 2E114E07; Hitachi HD38800A88 microcontroller, 1-bit sound; cyan/red/green VFD NEC FIP10AM24T no. 2-8 1; no known releases listed. Chip list dates the HD38800A88 to 1982 and lists it for Tomy Tron only; it also lists the HD38750A45 (VTech Invaders) and HD38800A70 (Coleco Galaxian). ROM taken from the HD38800A88.
- ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 Tomy Corporation, Tomytronic Tron instructions, no. 7601, copyright 1982 Tomy Corp., Carson, California, and MCMLXXXI (1981) Walt Disney Productions; printed in Japan. Hosted here as File:Tomy Tron Instructions.pdf: p. 2 (four C alkaline batteries; AC adapter 7.5 V DC 200 mA, 2.1 mm ID coaxial plug, tip (centre) negative; object; controls; first screen), pp. 3-5 (Light Cycle, Ring and MCP games and their scoring; six speed increases), p. 6 (scoring limits, extra Trons, care: weak batteries make the display dark and show incorrect action; copyright lines).
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Retro Games, "Grandstand" museum page (dealer's collection page, retrieved 2026-10-18): "Tron - 1981. Inspired by the Disney film, Grandstand was the UK distributor for this Tomy game."
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Handheld Museum, "Tomy Tron" (retrieved 2026-10-18): 1981, VFD, four C batteries, model 7601; "the entire case is made of a smoked clear plastic so you can see the inside of the game (and it has some large, simulated circuitry in the back...)"; released by Grandstand in the UK.
- ↑ Jeff Keyzer, File:Tomytronic TRON (1981) VFD LSI Game.jpg (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0): Tomy's Tron; bezel printed "(c)1981 Walt Disney Productions".
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 MAME source, hh_ucom4.cpp (retrieved 2026-10-18): Tomy Pac-Man (D553C 160) and Tomy Caveman (D553C 209) on NEC uCOM-43 microcontrollers; file header explains NEC VFD names (FIP = fluorescent indicator panel, first number = number of grids).
- ↑ Keeper1st, "TRON hand-held electronic game (Tomytronic, 1982)", YouTube, 19 December 2010 (video description, retrieved 2026-10-18): "I had left the batteries in it. The batteries since had expanded and leaked, making a big mess and corroding the battery terminals to the point where batteries cannot power the game anymore. But thankfully it has a jack for an external power supply!"