Timeline (TRON)

The following is the TRON Universe Timeline, which features both confirmed and unconfirmed dates. TRON and TRON: Legacy are on the same canon, but TRON 2.0 is a different canon.

Please note that several sources are contradicting each other with dates. For example, ENCOM's website states that development of TRON started in 1980, which contradicts with the IGN Interview with Alan Bradley, who states that TRON was written in 1982.

Timeline of TRON motion pictures and the Evolution games.

Late 1970s

It is during this decade that the Master Control Program, an administrative program that oversees ENCOM's mainframe, and its Game Grid, is developed. Ed Dillinger, a programmer at ENCOM, secretly begins to write codes into the MCP that tells the program to steal functions from other programs.

1978

• Kevin Flynn, one of ENCOM's brightest software engineers, codes "Space Paranoids", "Matrix Blaster", "Vice Squad" and two other high profile video games.
• Ed Dillinger steals Flynn's programs and presents ENCOM with five video games that he claims as his own.
• Ed Dillinger gets promoted among the ranks of ENCOM. He soon reaches as Executive V.P. of the company.

Between 1978 and 1982

• Flynn and Lora Baines meet and become lovers.
• Kevin Flynn is fired by Mr. Dillinger.
• Alan Bradley, also a programming engineer, starts coding Tron, an independent security program that monitors all contacts between ENCOM and other systems.
• Flynn and Lora end their relationship.
• Alan and Lora get together in a relationship.
• Flynn writes his best program yet, Clu, with the purpose of breaking into security systems.
• Lora begins 'Matter Transform' tests using a laser that dismantles the molecular structure of objects in a process called digitization.

1980s

1981

• June 3rd: Flynn opens his own arcade, Flynn's. (From Home of TRON )

• Flynn starts using Clu to hack ENCOM's system and periodically tries reading the different mainframe's memory modules to reconstruct the file he needs as solid evidence to prove he's the one who programmed the video games.
• The MCP has gotten 2,415 times smarter since Ed Dillinger wrote it.

Sep. 22

• Mr. Dillinger shuts down access to all Group-7 personnel. Alan is denied access to his Tron program.
• Lora, working together with Dr. Gibbs, finish yet another 'digitizing' test. Her theory of a scanned U-V laser beam being superior to single pulse exposure is a success.
• Flynn sets an all-time world record in 'Space Paranoids' with 999,000 points.
• Alan, Flynn and Lora use a terminal from within ENCOM to forge a Group-6 access, planning to get into the system to activate Tron and use it as a means of shutting down the MCP and retrieve the evidence.
• Flynn gets digitized into the Game Grid by the MCP while trying to access the mainframe. He succeeds in retrieving and printing the file needed as evidence after derezzing the MCP with Tron and Yori's help. He also becomes ENCOM's CEO.

1982 (TRON 2.0)

(TRON 2.0)

• Lora marries Alan; Jet Bradley is born.

1983

• Kevin Flynn is reinstated as an employee of ENCOM and gets promoted as V.P. Creative Development. (Source)
• Flynn redesigns the Grid to his own specifications.
• Flynn creates Clu 2 to watch over the Tron system in his absences, which began to anger Clu whenever he needed Flynn's permission to make major changes to the Grid, making him think he's been set up to fail his function of perfecting it. Over time begins to declare himself the creator of the Grid and decides to create his version of "the perfect system" by ruling over the Tron system without Flynn's permission. He intends to imprison Flynn after he refuses Clu's wish to destroy self-created programs called ISOs.
• Sam Flynn is born.

1984

(TRON 2.0) August

• Flynn has Alan abandon his TRON: Legacy project, stating that the program is useless without the ability to digitize (due to the MCP being destroyed).

1985

• Flynn publishes a book about "a digital frontier that will reshape the human condition." (Source)
• Flynn retires from ENCOM to take care of Sam, leaving Alan in charge.
• Jordan Canas dies in a car accident.
• The Grid begins to experience power failures.

1989

November

• Kevin Flynn creates Anon, a System Monitor.
• Anon defeats Abraxas.
• Anon is derezzed after falling from Clu's warship, the Regulator.
• Flynn is trapped in The Grid by Clu.
• Clu commits mass genocide against the ISOs.
• Flynn disappears, leaving Sam as a orphan but shareholder of ENCOM's stock. (Source)

1990s

1990

(TRON 2.0) June

• Kevin Flynn resigns from ENCOM; Walter Gibbs Jr. replaces him as Senior Executive VP.

1994

(TRON 2.0) October

• Lora Bradley killed in digitizing bay at ENCOM by a digitizing laser misfire.

2000s

2010

• Sam Flynn is told by Alan Bradley that he had received a page from Flynn's Arcade. Sam goes to investigate and gets digitized into the Tron System.

References

1 According to the events seen in TRON.

TRON 2.0 E-mails List

81 - Sep 22 - MCP suspends access to Level 7 after CLU program identified.

82 - May - Lora pregnant - asks Flynn to be the godfather.

82 - Dec - Jethro Eugene Bradley born.

84 - Feb - Lora still having problems with digitizing without MCP.

88 - Mar - Ma1a compiled.

90 - Jun - Flynn leaves Encom. Gibbs Jr. takes over.

94 - Oct - Lora dies in freak LASER misfire. Jet was 11.

96 - Jun - Ma2a - Exhibits traces of Lora - Meghan Gabrielle discussed in email.

98 - Mar - Jet having problems at school. Attitude issues.

98 - Aug - Jet not heading home. Staying out.

99 - - Flynn worried about Alan

99 - Feb - Jet getting bad reports.

02 - Jun - Jet starts on SP3D (Space Paranoids 3D).

02 - Aug - Correction Algorythms finally fixed.

02 - Dec - Encom sold to FCON. 03 - Mar - Jet lead programmer at Encom.

03 - Mar - Digital Pal award to Alan for Ma3a.

External links

The Completely Unofficial TRON Timeline - v.1.0 sources include: TRON, TRON 2.0 and TRON: The Ghost in the Machine.