Ring Game

The Ring Game is a game played on the Game Grid, usually by programs in gladiator-style matches. The game is also known as Hyperball.

Each player stands on a platform made of concentric energy rings; the object of the game is to derezz the other's platform by striking it with an energy ball, which must be hurled at the ceiling from a cesta before rebounding at the other player. If the energy ball hits one of the platform rings, the ring disappears; a careless step or the loss of too many rings causes the player to fall to their deresolution. The game is very similar to Jai alai, although with the ball thrown to the ceiling instead of a wall.

Crom derezzing after falling during the Ring game

During the dictatorship of the MCP, the ring game was used to eliminate  programs who still believed in the users. In a cruel twist, Sark ordered that Flynn's first match be against "one of his own kind" -- Crom, another conscript. Though nervous, Crom succeeded in derezzing some of Flynn's rings, but Flynn, his competitive nature roused and unaware that the match was to the death, rallied and derezzed two of Crom's rings at once, and Crom fell through the gap, barely managing to cling to one of the remaining inner rings of his platform. Flynn refused Sark's order to finish the game by killing the helpless program, so Sark did the deed himself by deleting the rest of Crom's platform. Flynn, watching in horror as Crom fell and derezzed, never knew how close Sark came to killing him too, but the MCP had ordered differently and in the end Sark simply ended the match, resetting the two platforms as guards marched Flynn away. In TRON: Uprising, sentries were seen practicing an updated version of the ring game. Cestas were once again standard equipment, but the ball used for the game was not made of energy and persisted even when the game was over.

In video games

Programs competing in Hyperball.

The ring game appears in TRON: Evolution - Battle Grids under the name Hyperball, which in some versions use hexagonal-tiled platforms that derez after a few hits instead of a series of rings.

Trivia

• In an early version of the script for TRON, Sark is first seen defeating a much smaller, less experienced opponent in a ring game. The same script features a training montage in which Ram teaches Flynn and other new conscripts how to face combat in this and other games.