I don’t know about you, but I always find that mixing technology and gaming together makes everything better. Heck, I’m typing this article on a keyboard based on the Sega Saturn! We’ve covered lots of exciting gaming crossovers here at Retro Dodo over the years, the most recent being the fact that BMW has recreated the iconic car from the front of the Need For Speed: Most Wanted game case, and now designer Evgeniy Vakulich has come with a concept that combines two of my childhood loves together in an e-bike that looks like it should have shipped with the NES back in the 80s.
Meet the TRONTENDO, an e-bike that any self-respecting nerd reading this article will know is a mash-up of Tron and Nintendo. I was too young to enjoy Flynn’s adventures in Tron when they first released, but by the time I got into gaming, I was well aware of The Grid and the awesome Light Bikes that I wished were real (I still do, obviously!). When Tron Legacy came out I was completely hooked on it too, especially the soundtrack by Daft Punk, and it’s no secret that I’ve always been a lifelong Nintendo fan too, something that anyone who has even read a snippet of one of my articles before will know all too well.
Designer Evgeniy Vakulich has created this concept to marry his love of the film and gaming worlds together, including interactive features such as indicators for the level of charge still available, a central console that looks like it’s come straight from an X-Wing, and graphics that take you back to meeting Tron for the first time. It manages to capture the ‘feeling of the future’ that Nintendo championed back in the 80s with peripherals like R.O.B the Robot and the Power Glove, looking both retro and futuristic in equal measure and giving every rider the chance to star in their own fantasy adventure every time they set off from their front door. The graphic on the front looks like it has been taken straight from the top of the Power Glove box, come to think of it!
I would love to see the TRONTENDO in the next series of Stranger Things with Eleven riding it away from a Demagorgan or some other terrible creature from the Upside Down, a Konami Laser Scope on her head instead of a helmet. This thing oozes 80s design, with its NES grey colour scheme twinned with contrasting flowing lines of colour that still manage to feel blocky and angular like the consoles of old. It’s one of those designs that reminds me of something different every time I look at it, which I suppose is what all good art should do!
Am I sad that it’s just a concept? Yes, of course I am, and while I don’t think I would be able to pull off driving this thing down the street to get a pint of milk, I would certainly love to see some of them out there in the wild, driving through the city while I’m sat on a bench listening to the Tron Legacy soundtrack. Now that would definitely be a day to remember!
