This program unpacks Playstation 3 Theme files (.p3t) so that you can touch-up an existing theme to your likings or use a certain wallpaper from it (as many themes have multiple). But remember, if you use content from another theme and release it, be sure to give credit!
Download p3textractor.zip from above. Extract the files to a folder with a program such as WinZip or WinRAR. Now there are multiple ways to extract the theme.
The first way is to simply open the p3t file with p3textractor.exe. If you don’t know how to do this, right click the p3t file and select Open With. Alternatively, open the p3t file and it will ask you to select a program to open with. Click Browse and find p3textractor.exe from where you previously extracted it to. It will open CMD and extract the theme to extracted.[filename]. After that, all you need to do for any future p3t files is open them and it will extract.
The second way is very simple. Just drag the p3t file to p3textractor.exe. It will open CMD and extract the theme to extracted.[filename].
For the third way, first put the p3t file you want to extract into the same folder as p3textractor.exe. Open CMD and browse to the folder with p3extractor.exe. Enter the following: p3textractor filename.p3t [destination path]Replace filename with the name of the p3t file, and replace [destination path] with the name of the folder you want the files to be extracted to. A destination path is not required. By default it will extract to extracted.filename.
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The film is regarded as a classic of independent film and a cult film[4] and was named "Greatest Independent Film of All Time" by Empire. Although controversial at first for its depictions of violence and heavy use of profanity, Reservoir Dogs was generally well-received, and the cast was praised by many critics. Despite not being heavily promoted during its theatrical run, the film became a modest success in the United States after grossing $2.8 million against its scant budget. It achieved higher popularity after the success of Tarantino's next film, Pulp Fiction (1994). A soundtrack was released featuring songs used in the film, which are mostly from the 1970s.
Eight men eat breakfast at a diner. All but the boss, Joe Cabot, and his son, "Nice Guy" Eddie Cabot, use aliases: Mr. Brown, Mr. White, Mr. Blonde, Mr. Blue, Mr. Orange and Mr. Pink.
The men carry out a diamond heist. White flees with Orange, who was shot during the escape and is bleeding profusely in the back seat of White's car. At their hideout, White and Orange rendezvous with Pink, who believes that the job was a setup and that the police were waiting for them. White informs him that Brown is dead, Blue and Blonde are missing, and Blonde murdered several civilians during the heist. White is furious that Joe, his old friend, would employ Blonde, whom he describes as a psychopath. Pink has hidden the diamonds nearby and argues with White over whether to get medical attention for Orange, and the pair draw guns on each other. They stand down when Blonde arrives with a kidnapped policeman, Marvin Nash.
Some time earlier, Blonde meets with the Cabots, having completed a four-year prison sentence. To reward him for not having given Joe's name to the authorities, they offer him a job. Blonde is grateful but insists that he wants to get back to "real work", and they recruit him for the heist.
In the present, White and Pink beat Nash for information. Eddie arrives and orders them to go with him to ditch the getaway vehicles, leaving Blonde in charge of Nash and Orange. Nash denies knowledge, but Blonde ignores him and resumes the torture, cutting off Nash's ear with a straight razor. He prepares to set him on fire, but Orange shoots Blonde dead. Orange reveals to Nash that he is an undercover police officer, and that the police will arrive when Joe comes to the warehouse.
When Eddie, Pink, and White return, Orange tries to convince them that Blonde planned to kill them all and steal the diamonds for himself. Eddie shoots and kills Nash and accuses Orange of lying, since Blonde was loyal to his father. Joe arrives with news that the police have killed Blue. He is about to execute Orange, who he suspects is the traitor behind the setup, but White intervenes and holds Joe at gunpoint, insisting that Orange is not a police officer. Eddie aims his gun at White, creating a Mexican standoff. All three fire. Both Cabots are killed, and White and Orange are hit.
Pink takes the diamonds and flees. As White cradles the dying Orange in his arms, Orange confesses that he is a police officer. White presses his gun to Orange's head. The police storm the warehouse and order White to drop his gun. Gunshots sound and White collapses.
Rich Turner played Sheriff #1. Nina Siemaszko played police officer Jody McClusky; her scenes were deleted from the theatrical release.[5] There is an unseen accomplice of Joe and Eddie who speaks to Eddie on the phone. His name is Dov Schwarz, named after the sound editor on My Best Friend's Birthday.[6]
Quentin Tarantino had been working at Video Archives, a video store in Manhattan Beach, California, and originally planned to shoot the film with his friends on a budget of $30,000 in a 16 mm black-and-white format, with producer Lawrence Bender playing a police officer chasing Mr. Pink.[7] Bender gave the script to his acting teacher, whose wife gave the script to Harvey Keitel.[8] Keitel liked it enough to sign as a co-producer so Tarantino and Bender would have an easier job finding funding; with his assistance, they raised $1.5 million.[2] Keitel also paid for Tarantino and Bender to host casting sessions in New York, where the duo found Steve Buscemi, Michael Madsen, and Tim Roth.[9]Jon Cryer was asked to audition for the role of Mr. Pink, but he backed out at the last minute.[10]Viggo Mortensen and George Clooney also read for roles,[11][12] while Tim Roth's agents originally wanted him to be Mr. Pink or Mr. Blonde, but he preferred Mr. Orange because he would "be an English actor pretending to be American playing a cop pretending to be a robber".[13]
The film contains multiple homages to other films.[14] Tarantino himself has said that Reservoir Dogs was influenced by Stanley Kubrick's 1956 film noir The Killing: "I didn't go out of my way to do a rip-off of The Killing, but I did think of it as my 'Killing', my take on that kind of heist movie."[2] The film's plot was also inspired by the 1952 film Kansas City Confidential.[15] Additionally, Joseph H. Lewis's 1955 film The Big Combo and Sergio Corbucci's 1966 Spaghetti WesternDjango inspired the scene where a police officer is tortured in a chair.[15][16] Having the main characters named after colors (Mr. Pink, White, Brown, etc.) was first seen in the 1974 film The Taking of Pelham One Two Three.[17] The film also contains key elements similar to those found in Ringo Lam's 1987 film City on Fire.[18] Tarantino praised the film City on Fire and mentioned it as a major influence.[19]
Tarantino said that everybody hated Lawrence Tierney by the end of the first week of production.[20]
The warehouse scenes were filmed in an unused mortuary filled with coffins, funeral equipment, embalming fluid, and a hearse. Mr. Orange's apartment was a room on the second floor of the mortuary, set to look like living quarters. The building has since been demolished.[21]
Tarantino's decision not to film the diamond robbery was twofold: for budgetary reasons, and to keep the details of the heist ambiguous. By not showing the robbery and having the characters describe it, Tarantino explained, the film is allowed to be "about other things", similar to the way in which the burglary in Glengarry Glen Ross and its film adaptation is discussed, described, and debated, but never shown.[2] Tarantino compared the technique to the work of a novelist, and said he wanted the film to be about something not seen and to "play with a real-time clock as opposed to a movie clock ticking".[22]
Reservoir Dogs premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 1992. It became the festival's most talked-about film, and it was subsequently picked up for distribution by Miramax Films.[23] After being shown at several other film festivals, including in Cannes, Sitges, and Toronto,[23]Reservoir Dogs opened in the United States in 19 theaters on October 9, 1992, with a first week total of $147,839.[1] It was expanded to 61 theaters on October 23, 1992, and totaled $2,832,029 at the domestic box office.[1] The film grossed more than double that in the United Kingdom,[24] where it did not receive a home video release until 1995.[25] During the period of unavailability on home video, the film was re-released in UK cinemas in June 1994.[26]
Reservoir Dogs is regarded as an important and influential milestone of independent filmmaking.[27][28] Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 90% based on 81 reviews, and an average rating of 8.9/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Thrumming with intelligence and energy, Reservoir Dogs opens Quentin Tarantino's filmmaking career with hard-hitting style."[29] On Metacritic the film has an average score of 81 out of 100, based on 24 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[30]Empire magazine named it the "Greatest Independent Film" ever made.[31]
At the film's release at the Sundance Film Festival, film critic Jami Bernard of the New York Daily News compared the effect of Reservoir Dogs to that of the 1895 film L'Arrivée d'un Train en Gare de la Ciotat, when audiences supposedly saw a moving train approaching the camera and ducked. Bernard said that Reservoir Dogs had a similar effect and people were not ready for it.[28]Vincent Canby of The New York Times enjoyed the cast and the usage of non-linear storytelling. He similarly complimented Tarantino's directing and liked the fact that he did not often use close-ups in the film.[32]Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times also enjoyed the film and the acting, particularly that of Buscemi, Tierney and Madsen, and said "Tarantino's palpable enthusiasm, his unapologetic passion for what he's created, reinvigorates this venerable plot and, mayhem aside, makes it involving for longer than you might suspect."[33] Critic James Berardinelli was of a similar opinion; he complimented both the cast and Tarantino's dialogue writing abilities.[34] Hal Hinson of The Washington Post was also enthusiastic about the cast, complimenting the film on its "deadpan sense of humor".[35]
Roger Ebert was less enthusiastic, as he felt that the script could have been better and said that the film "feels like it's going to be terrific", but Tarantino's script does not have much curiosity about the characters. He also said that Tarantino "has an idea, and trusts the idea to drive the plot." Ebert gave the film two and a half stars out of four and said that while he enjoyed it and that it was a very good film from a talented director, "I liked what I saw, but I wanted more."[36]
The film has received substantial criticism for its strong violence and language. One scene that viewers found particularly unnerving was the ear-cutting scene. Madsen himself reportedly had great difficulty finishing it, especially after Kirk Baltz ad-libbed the desperate plea "I've got a little kid at home."[37] Many people walked out during the film. During a screening at Sitges Film Festival, 15 people walked out, including horror film director Wes Craven and special makeup effects artist Rick Baker.[38] Baker later told Tarantino to take the walkout as a "compliment" and explained that he found the violence unnerving because of its heightened sense of realism.[38] Tarantino commented about it at the time: "It happens at every single screening. For some people the violence, or the rudeness of the language, is a mountain they can't climb. That's OK. It's not their cup of tea. But I am affecting them. I wanted that scene to be disturbing."[2]
Reservoir Dogs has often been seen as a prominent film in terms of on-screen violence.[27][39][40] J. P. Telotte compared Reservoir Dogs to classic caper noir films and points out the irony in its ending scenes.[41] Mark Irwin also made the connection between Reservoir Dogs and classic American noir.[42] Caroline Jewers called Reservoir Dogs a "feudal epic" and paralleled the color pseudonyms to color names of medieval knights.[43]
A frequently cited comparison has been to Tarantino's second and more successful film Pulp Fiction,[22][42] especially since the majority of audiences saw Reservoir Dogs after the success of Pulp Fiction. Comparisons have been made regarding the black humor in both the films, the theme of accidents,[22] and more concretely, the style of dialogue and narrative that Tarantino incorporates into both films.[45] Specifically the relationship between white people and black people plays a big part in the films—though underplayed in Reservoir Dogs. Stanley Crouch of The New York Times compared the way the white criminals speak of black people in Reservoir Dogs to the way they are spoken of in Scorsese's Mean Streets and Goodfellas. Crouch observed the way black people are looked down upon in Reservoir Dogs, but also the way that the criminals accuse each other of "verbally imitating" black men and the characters' apparent sexual attraction to black actress Pam Grier.[45]
In February 2012, as part of an ongoing series of live dramatic readings of film scripts being staged with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), director Jason Reitman cast black actors in the originally white cast: Laurence Fishburne as Mr. White; Terrence Howard as Mr. Blonde; Anthony Mackie as Mr. Pink; Cuba Gooding Jr. as Mr. Orange; Chi McBride as Joe Cabot; Anthony Anderson as Nice Guy Eddie (Joe Cabot's son); Common as both Mr. Brown and Officer Nash (the torture victim of Mr. Blonde), and Patton Oswalt as Holdaway (the mentor cop who was originally played by Randy Brooks, the only black actor in the film). Critic Elvis Mitchell suggested that Reitman's version of the script was taking the source material back to its roots since the characters "all sound like black dudes."[46]
In the United Kingdom, release of the VHS rental video was delayed until 1995 due to the British Board of Film Classification initially refusing the film a home video certificate (UK releases are required to be certified separately for theatrical release and for viewing at home).[25] The latter is a requirement by law due to the Video Recordings Act 1984.[25] Following the UK VHS release approval, PolyGram released a "Mr Blonde Deluxe Edition",[54] which included an interview with Tarantino and several memorabilia associated with the character Mr. Blonde, such as sunglasses and a chrome toothpick holder.
Region 1 DVDs of Reservoir Dogs have been released multiple times. The first release was a single two-sided disc from LIVE Entertainment, released in June 1997 and featuring two versions of the film: the original letterbox 2.39:1 widescreen version and an open matte 1.33:1 full screen version.[55] Five years later, on August 27, 2002, Artisan Entertainment (who changed their name from LIVE Entertainment in the interim) released a two-disc 10th anniversary edition on DVD and VHS featuring multiple covers color-coded to match the nicknames of five of the characters (Pink, White, Orange, Blonde, and Brown) and a disc of bonus features such as interviews with the cast and crew.[56] However, the full screen version on the second disc was a pan and scan transfer from the 2.39:1 widescreen version, as opposed to open matte like the 1997 DVD.
For the film's 15th anniversary, Lionsgate (which had purchased Artisan in the interim) produced a two-disc anniversary edition with a remastered 16:9 transfer and a new supplement, but not all of the extra features from the 10th Anniversary edition.[57] In particular, the interviews with the cast and crew were removed, and a new 48-minute-long feature called "Tributes and Dedications" was included.[57]
Lionsgate Home Entertainment celebrated the 30th anniversary of Reservoir Dogs with a 4K Blu-ray release, which was released in the U.S. on November 15, 2022.[58]
The Reservoir Dogs: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack was the first soundtrack for a Tarantino film and set the structure his later soundtracks would follow.[59] This includes the extensive use of snippets of dialogue from the film. The soundtrack has selections of songs from the 1960s to '80s. Only the group Bedlam recorded original songs for the film. Reasoning that the film takes place over a weekend, Tarantino decided to set it to a fictional radio station 'K-Billy' (presumably KBLY)'s show "K-Billy's Super Sounds of the Seventies Weekend", a themed weekend show of broadcasts of songs from the seventies. The radio station played a prominent role in the film.[60] The DJ for the radio was chosen to be Steven Wright, a comedian known for his deadpan delivery of jokes.[61]
An unusual feature of the soundtrack was the choice of songs; Tarantino has said that he feels the music to be a counterpoint to the on-screen violence and action.[62] He also stated that he wished for the film to have a 1950s feel while using '70s music.[62] A prominent instance of this is the torture scene to the tune of "Stuck in the Middle with You".[63]
A video game based on the film was released in 2006 for PC, Xbox, and PlayStation 2. However, the game does not feature the likeness of any of the actors with the exception of Michael Madsen. The game was received unfavorably, with GameSpot calling it "an out and out failure".[64] It caused controversy for its amount of violence and it was banned in Australia,[65] Germany and New Zealand.[66]
Another video game, Reservoir Dogs: Bloody Days, was released in 2017.[67]
On December 14, 2017,[68]Overkill Software added a heist to Payday 2 inspired by Reservoir Dogs in which the player is contracted to rob a jewelry store in Los Angeles with the Cabot family. It is unique in that the heist is played in reverse order, with day two occurring prior to day one, similar to how the film's plot is out of chronological order.
Kaante, a Bollywood film released in 2002, is a remake of Reservoir Dogs, combined with elements of City on Fire.[69] The film also borrows plot points from Heat and The Killing. Tarantino has been quoted as saying that Kaante is his favorite among the many films inspired by his work.[70] Tarantino later screened Kaante at his New Beverly Cinema alongside Reservoir Dogs and City on Fire.[71]
Tarantino revealed in June 2021 that he had at one point considered remaking Reservoir Dogs as his tenth and final directed film, though he quickly iterated that he "won't do it".[72]
This program unpacks Playstation 3 Theme files (.p3t) so that you can touch-up an existing theme to your likings or use a certain wallpaper from it (as many themes have multiple). But remember, if you use content from another theme and release it, be sure to give credit!
Download p3textractor.zip from above. Extract the files to a folder with a program such as WinZip or WinRAR. Now there are multiple ways to extract the theme.
The first way is to simply open the p3t file with p3textractor.exe. If you don’t know how to do this, right click the p3t file and select Open With. Alternatively, open the p3t file and it will ask you to select a program to open with. Click Browse and find p3textractor.exe from where you previously extracted it to. It will open CMD and extract the theme to extracted.[filename]. After that, all you need to do for any future p3t files is open them and it will extract.
The second way is very simple. Just drag the p3t file to p3textractor.exe. It will open CMD and extract the theme to extracted.[filename].
For the third way, first put the p3t file you want to extract into the same folder as p3textractor.exe. Open CMD and browse to the folder with p3extractor.exe. Enter the following: p3textractor filename.p3t [destination path]Replace filename with the name of the p3t file, and replace [destination path] with the name of the folder you want the files to be extracted to. A destination path is not required. By default it will extract to extracted.filename.
This program unpacks Playstation 3 Theme files (.p3t) so that you can touch-up an existing theme to your likings or use a certain wallpaper from it (as many themes have multiple). But remember, if you use content from another theme and release it, be sure to give credit!
Download p3textractor.zip from above. Extract the files to a folder with a program such as WinZip or WinRAR. Now there are multiple ways to extract the theme.
The first way is to simply open the p3t file with p3textractor.exe. If you don’t know how to do this, right click the p3t file and select Open With. Alternatively, open the p3t file and it will ask you to select a program to open with. Click Browse and find p3textractor.exe from where you previously extracted it to. It will open CMD and extract the theme to extracted.[filename]. After that, all you need to do for any future p3t files is open them and it will extract.
The second way is very simple. Just drag the p3t file to p3textractor.exe. It will open CMD and extract the theme to extracted.[filename].
For the third way, first put the p3t file you want to extract into the same folder as p3textractor.exe. Open CMD and browse to the folder with p3extractor.exe. Enter the following: p3textractor filename.p3t [destination path]Replace filename with the name of the p3t file, and replace [destination path] with the name of the folder you want the files to be extracted to. A destination path is not required. By default it will extract to extracted.filename.
Insomnia, also known as sleeplessness, is a sleep disorder where people have trouble sleeping.[1] They may have difficulty falling asleep, or staying asleep for as long as desired.[1][9][11] Insomnia is typically followed by daytime sleepiness, low energy, irritability, and a depressed mood.[1] It may result in an increased risk of accidents of all kinds as well as problems focusing and learning.[9] Insomnia can be short term, lasting for days or weeks, or long term, lasting more than a month.[1] The concept of the word insomnia has two possibilities: insomnia disorder (ID) and insomnia symptoms, and many abstracts of randomized controlled trials and systematic reviews often underreport on which of these two possibilities the word insomnia refers to.[12]
Although their efficacy as first line treatments is not unequivocally established,[13]sleep hygiene and lifestyle changes are typically the first treatment for insomnia.[5][7] Sleep hygiene includes a consistent bedtime, a quiet and dark room, exposure to sunlight during the day and regular exercise.[7]Cognitive behavioral therapy may be added to this.[6][14] While sleeping pills may help, they are sometimes associated with injuries, dementia, and addiction.[5][6] These medications are not recommended for more than four or five weeks.[6] The effectiveness and safety of alternative medicine is unclear.[5][6]
Between 10% and 30% of adults have insomnia at any given point in time and up to half of people have insomnia in a given year.[8][9][10] About 6% of people have insomnia that is not due to another problem and lasts for more than a month.[9] People over the age of 65 are affected more often than younger people.[7] Women are more often affected than men.[8] Descriptions of insomnia occur at least as far back as ancient Greece.[15]
Feeling tired or having low energy during the day[18]
Trouble concentrating
Being irritable, acting aggressive or impulsive
Sleep onset insomnia is difficulty falling asleep at the beginning of the night, often a symptom of anxiety disorders. Delayed sleep phase disorder can be misdiagnosed as insomnia, as sleep onset is delayed to much later than normal while awakening spills over into daylight hours.[19]
It is common for patients who have difficulty falling asleep to also have nocturnal awakenings with difficulty returning to sleep. Two-thirds of these patients wake up in the middle of the night, with more than half having trouble falling back to sleep after a middle-of-the-night awakening.[20]
Early morning awakening is an awakening occurring earlier (more than 30 minutes) than desired with an inability to go back to sleep, and before total sleep time reaches 6.5 hours. Early morning awakening is often a characteristic of depression.[21] Anxiety symptoms may well lead to insomnia. Some of these symptoms include tension, compulsive worrying about the future, feeling overstimulated, and overanalyzing past events.[22]
Poor sleep quality can occur as a result of, for example, restless legs, sleep apnea or major depression. Poor sleep quality is defined as the individual not reaching stage 3 or delta sleep which has restorative properties.[23]
Major depression leads to alterations in the function of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis, causing excessive release of cortisol which can lead to poor sleep quality.
Nocturnal polyuria, excessive night-time urination, can also result in a poor quality of sleep.[24]
Some cases of insomnia are not really insomnia in the traditional sense, because people experiencing sleep state misperception often sleep for a normal amount of time.[25] The problem is that, despite sleeping for multiple hours each night and typically not experiencing significant daytime sleepiness or other symptoms of sleep loss, they do not feel like they have slept very much, if at all.[25] Because their perception of their sleep is incomplete, they incorrectly believe it takes them an abnormally long time to fall asleep, and they underestimate how long they stay asleep.[25]
In August 2018, Sleep Science and Practice published a systematic review and meta-analysis of 19 studies comprising 253,904 adolescent subjects that found that excessive technology use had a strong and consistent association with reduced sleep duration and prolonged sleep onset latency for adolescents 14 years of age or older.[26] Also in August 2018, Sleep Science published a systematic review of 12 studies investigating associations between exposure to video games, sleep outcomes, and post-sleep cognitive abilities that found the data present in the studies indicated associations between a reduction in sleep duration, increased sleep onset latency, modifications to rapid eye movement sleep and slow-wave sleep, increased sleepiness and self-perceived fatigue, and impaired post-sleep attention span and verbal memory.[27] In October 2019, Sleep Medicine Reviews published a systematic review and meta-analysis of 23 studies comprising 35,684 subjects that found a statistically significant odds ratio for sleep problems and reduced sleep duration for subjects with internet addiction.[28] In February 2020, Psychiatry Research published a systematic review and meta-analysis of 14 studies that found positive associations between problematic smartphone use and poor sleep quality and between higher levels of problematic smartphone use and elevated risk of poor sleep quality.[29]
Also in February 2020, Sleep Medicine Reviews published a systematic review of 31 studies examining associations between screen time and sleep outcomes in children younger than 5 years and found that screen time is associated with poorer sleep outcomes for children under the age of 5, with meta-analysis only confirming poor sleep outcomes among children under 2 years.[30] In March 2020, Developmental Review published a systematic review of 9 studies that found a weak-to-moderate association between sleep quantity and quality and problematic smartphone use among adolescents.[31] In October 2020, the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health published a systematic review and meta-analysis of 80 studies that found that greater screen time was associated with shorter sleep duration among toddlers and preschoolers,[32] while the Journal of Behavioral Addictions published a systematic review and meta-analysis of 40 studies with 33,650 post-secondary student subjects that found a weak-to-moderate positive association between mobile phone addiction and poor sleep quality.[33] In April 2021, Sleep Medicine Reviews published a systematic review of 36 cross-sectional studies and 6 longitudinal studies that found that 24 of the cross-sectional studies and 5 of the longitudinal studies established significant associations between more frequent social media use and poor sleep outcomes.[34]
In June 2021, Frontiers in Psychiatry published a systematic review and meta-analysis of 34 studies comprising 51,901 subjects that established significant associations between problematic gaming and sleep duration, poor sleep quality, daytime sleepiness, and other sleep problems.[35] In September 2021, BMC Public Health published a systematic review of 49 studies investigating associations between electronic media use and various sleep outcomes among children and adolescents 15 years of age or younger that found a strong association with sleep duration and stronger evidence for an association with sleep duration between the ages of 6 and 15 years than for 5 years of age or younger, while evidence for associations between electronic media use with other sleep outcomes was more inconclusive.[36] In December 2021, Frontiers in Neuroscience published a systematic review of 12 studies published from January 2000 to April 2020 that found that adult subjects with higher gaming addiction scores were more likely to have shorter sleep quantity, poorer sleep quality, delayed sleep timing, and greater daytime sleepiness and insomnia scores than subjects with lower gaming addiction scores and non-gamer subjects.[37] In January 2022, Early Childhood Research Quarterly published a systematic review and meta-analysis of 26 studies that found a weak but statistically significant association with increased smartphone and tablet computer use and poorer sleep in early childhood.[38]
In May 2022, the Journal of Affective Disorders published a meta-analysis of 29 studies comprising 20,041 subjects that found a weak-to-moderate association between mobile phone addiction and sleep disorder and that adolescents with mobile phone addiction were at higher risk of developing sleep disorder.[39] In August 2022, the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health published a systematic review and meta-analysis of 16 studies comprising 8,077 subjects that established a significant association between binge-watching and sleep problems and a stronger association between binge-watching and sleep problems was found during the COVID-19 pandemic than pre-pandemic.[40] In October 2022, Reports in Public Health published a systematic review of 23 studies that found that excessive use of digital screens by adolescents was associated with poor sleep quality, nighttime awakenings, long sleep latency, and daytime sleepiness.[41] In December 2022, Sleep Epidemiology published a systematic review of 18 studies investigating associations between sleep problems and screen time during COVID-19 lockdowns that found that the increased screen time during the lockdowns negatively impacted sleep duration, sleep quality, sleep onset latency, and wake time.[42] In March 2023, the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine published a systematic review and meta-analysis of 17 studies comprising 36,485 subjects that found that smartphone overuse was closely associated with self-reported poor sleep quality, sleep deprivation, and prolonged sleep latency.[43]
In April 2023, Sleep Medicine Reviews published a systematic review of 42 studies that found digital media use to be associated with shorter sleep duration and poorer sleep quality and bedtime or nighttime use with poor sleep outcomes, but only found associations for general screen use, mobile phone use, computer and internet use, internet, and social media and not for television, game console, and tablet use.[44] In July 2023, Healthcare published a systematic review and meta-analysis of 16 studies that established a correlation coefficient of 0.56 between nomophobia and insomnia.[45] In September 2023, PLOS One published a systematic review and meta-analysis of 16 studies of smartphone addiction and sleep among medical students found that 57% of subjects had poor sleep and 39% of subjects had smartphone addiction with a correlation index of 0.3,[46] while Computers in Human Behavior published a meta-analysis of 23 longitudinal studies comprising 116,431 adolescent subjects that found that adolescent screen time with computers, smartphones, social media, and television are positively associated with negative impacts on sleep health later in life.[47]
While insomnia can be caused by a number of conditions, it can also occur without any identifiable cause. This is known as Primary Insomnia.[48] Primary Insomnia may also have an initial identifiable cause, but continues after the cause is no longer present. For example, a bout of insomnia may be triggered by a stressful work or life event. However the condition may continue after the stressful event has been resolved. In such cases, the insomnia is usually perpetuated by the anxiety or fear caused by the sleeplessness itself, rather than any external factors.[49]
Symptoms of insomnia can be caused by or be associated with:
Restless legs syndrome, which can cause sleep onset insomnia due to the discomforting sensations felt and the need to move the legs or other body parts to relieve these sensations[53]
Pain:[55] an injury or condition that causes pain can preclude an individual from finding a comfortable position in which to fall asleep, and can also cause awakening.
Disturbances of the circadian rhythm, such as shift work and jet lag, can cause an inability to sleep at some times of the day and excessive sleepiness at other times of the day. Chronic circadian rhythm disorders are characterized by similar symptoms.[51]
Sleep studies using polysomnography have suggested that people who have sleep disruption have elevated night-time levels of circulating cortisol and adrenocorticotropic hormone.[66] They also have an elevated metabolic rate, which does not occur in people who do not have insomnia but whose sleep is intentionally disrupted during a sleep study. Studies of brain metabolism using positron emission tomography (PET) scans indicate that people with insomnia have higher metabolic rates by night and by day. The question remains whether these changes are the causes or consequences of long-term insomnia.[67]
Heritability estimates of insomnia vary between 38% in males to 59% in females.[68] A genome-wide association study (GWAS) identified 3 genomic loci and 7 genes that influence the risk of insomnia, and showed that insomnia is highly polygenic.[69] In particular, a strong positive association was observed for the MEIS1 gene in both males and females. This study showed that the genetic architecture of insomnia strongly overlaps with psychiatric disorders and metabolic traits.
It has been hypothesized that epigenetics might also influence insomnia through a controlling process of both sleep regulation and brain-stress response having an impact as well on the brain plasticity.[70]
Alcohol is often used as a form of self-treatment of insomnia to induce sleep. However, alcohol use to induce sleep can be a cause of insomnia. Long-term use of alcohol is associated with a decrease in NREM stage 3 and 4 sleep as well as suppression of REM sleep and REM sleep fragmentation. Frequent moving between sleep stages occurs with; awakenings due to headaches, the need to urinate, dehydration, and excessive sweating. Glutamine rebound also plays a role as when someone is drinking; alcohol inhibits glutamine, one of the body's natural stimulants. When the person stops drinking, the body tries to make up for lost time by producing more glutamine than it needs.
The increase in glutamine levels stimulates the brain while the drinker is trying to sleep, keeping them from reaching the deepest levels of sleep.[71] Stopping chronic alcohol use can also lead to severe insomnia with vivid dreams. During withdrawal, REM sleep is typically exaggerated as part of a rebound effect.[72]
Like alcohol, benzodiazepines, such as alprazolam, clonazepam, lorazepam, and diazepam, are commonly used to treat insomnia in the short-term (both prescribed and self-medicated), but worsen sleep in the long-term. While benzodiazepines can put people to sleep (i.e., inhibit NREM stage 1 and 2 sleep), while asleep, the drugs disrupt sleep architecture: decreasing sleep time, delaying time to REM sleep, and decreasing deep slow-wave sleep (the most restorative part of sleep for both energy and mood).[73][74][75]
Opioid medications such as hydrocodone, oxycodone, and morphine are used for insomnia that is associated with pain due to their analgesic properties and hypnotic effects. Opioids can fragment sleep and decrease REM and stage 2 sleep. By producing analgesia and sedation, opioids may be appropriate in carefully selected patients with pain-associated insomnia.[55] However, dependence on opioids can lead to long-term sleep disturbances.[76]
This program unpacks Playstation 3 Theme files (.p3t) so that you can touch-up an existing theme to your likings or use a certain wallpaper from it (as many themes have multiple). But remember, if you use content from another theme and release it, be sure to give credit!
Download p3textractor.zip from above. Extract the files to a folder with a program such as WinZip or WinRAR. Now there are multiple ways to extract the theme.
The first way is to simply open the p3t file with p3textractor.exe. If you don’t know how to do this, right click the p3t file and select Open With. Alternatively, open the p3t file and it will ask you to select a program to open with. Click Browse and find p3textractor.exe from where you previously extracted it to. It will open CMD and extract the theme to extracted.[filename]. After that, all you need to do for any future p3t files is open them and it will extract.
The second way is very simple. Just drag the p3t file to p3textractor.exe. It will open CMD and extract the theme to extracted.[filename].
For the third way, first put the p3t file you want to extract into the same folder as p3textractor.exe. Open CMD and browse to the folder with p3extractor.exe. Enter the following: p3textractor filename.p3t [destination path]Replace filename with the name of the p3t file, and replace [destination path] with the name of the folder you want the files to be extracted to. A destination path is not required. By default it will extract to extracted.filename.
The game is played from a third-person perspective and its world is navigated on foot and by vehicle. Throughout the single-player mode, players control Niko Bellic. An online multiplayer mode is also included with the game, allowing up to 32 players to engage in both cooperative and competitive gameplay in a recreation of the single-player setting.[b] Two expansion packs were later released for the game, The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony, which both feature new plots that are interconnected with the main Grand Theft Auto IV storyline, and follow new protagonists.
Development of Grand Theft Auto IV began soon after the release of San Andreas and was shared between many of Rockstar's studios worldwide. The game introduced a shift to a more realistic and detailed style and tone for the series. Unlike previous entries, Grand Theft Auto IV lacked a strong cinematic influence, as the team attempted an original approach to the story. As part of their research for the open world, the development team conducted extensive field research in New York, capturing over 100,000 photographs and several hours of video. The developers considered the world to be the most important element of the game; though not the largest map in the series, they considered it comparable in scope due to its verticality and level of detail. The budget climbed to over US$100 million, making it one of the most expensive video games to develop.
Grand Theft Auto IV was released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles in April 2008, and for Windows in December. Upon release, the game received critical acclaim, with praise particularly directed at the narrative and open-world design. Grand Theft Auto IV broke industry sales records and became the fastest-selling entertainment product in history at the time, earning US$310 million in its first day and US$500 million in its first week. Considered one of the most significant titles of the seventh generation of video games, and by many critics as one of the greatest video games of all time, it won year-end accolades, including Game of the Year awards from several gaming publications. It is among the best-selling video games with over 25 million copies sold by 2013. The game generated controversy, with criticism directed at the game's depiction of violence and players' ability to drink-drive. Its successor, Grand Theft Auto V, was released in September 2013.
Grand Theft Auto IV is an action-adventure game played from a third-person perspective.[2] Players complete missions—linear scenarios with set objectives—to progress through the story. It is possible to have several active missions running at one time, as some require players to wait for further instructions or events. Outside of missions, players can freely roam the game's open world and complete optional side missions.[3] Composed of the fictional city of Liberty City, the world is larger in area than most earlier Grand Theft Auto series entries.[4] At the beginning of the game, players can only explore the first island—composed of Dukes and Broker—with all other islands unlocking as the story progresses.[5]
Players use melee attacks, firearms and explosives to fight enemies, and may run, jump, swim or use vehicles to navigate the game's world. There is a first-person perspective option when using vehicles. In combat, auto-aim and a cover system can be used as assistance against enemies. Should players take damage, their health meter can be fully regenerated by consuming food or drinks, using medical kits, or calling for paramedics.[6] If players commit crimes, the game's law enforcement agencies may respond as indicated by a "wanted" meter in the head-up display (HUD). On the meter, the displayed stars indicate the current wanted level (for example, at the maximum six-star level, efforts by law enforcement to incapacitate players become very aggressive). Law enforcement officers will search for players who leave the wanted vicinity. The wanted meter enters a cool-down mode and eventually recedes when players are hidden from the officers' line of sight.[7]
Combat in Grand Theft Auto IV was reworked to include a cover system.[6]
The game's cover system allows players to move between cover, to fire blindly, aim freely, and target a specific enemy. Individual body parts can also be targeted.[8] Melee attacks include additional moves, such as dodging, blocking, disarming an opponent and counter-attacking. Body armour can be used to absorb gunshots and explosive damage, but is used up in the process. When health is entirely depleted, gameplay stops, and players respawn at the nearest hospital.[6]
The single-player mode lets players control an Eastern European war veteran, Niko Bellic. During the story, Niko meets and befriends various new characters. They can then perform favours for Niko whenever he asks; for example, his cousin Roman, who owns a taxi service, can send one of his cabs to take Niko to any destination around the city. Cabs are always available during gameplay for quick travel to a destination. Throughout the course of the game, players are also faced with morality choices, which alter the storyline appropriately depending on the player's choice. While free roaming the game world, players may engage in context-specific activities such as bowling or darts. Other available activities include a vigilante mini-game, and in-game television programming.[9][10][11] Niko has a cell phone for contacting friends and starting activities.[12] The cell phone is also used to access the game's online multiplayer mode, and to enter cheat codes.[13] To access the in-game Internet, which allows Niko to send and receive emails and set up prospective dates with potential girlfriends, Niko can use Internet cafés located around the city.[14] The game also features a subway system, allowing players to quickly traverse through the game's world.[15]
The online multiplayer mode for Grand Theft Auto IV allows up to 32 players[b] to freely roam across the map. Players decide which game mode they wish to play, including deathmatches and street races. Both cooperative and competitive game modes are available, split into ranked and unranked matches.[16] For players to level up through ranks, in-game money has to be earned. The game also features a Free Mode, in which players have the entire map open to explore, with no end goal or mission to complete. Hosts of the game can control many variables, such as police presence, traffic, and weapons.[17] The multiplayer mode was discontinued on Windows in 2020.[18]
Grand Theft Auto IV takes place in 2008, within a redesigned version of Liberty City. The design of the city focuses on a recreation of four of the boroughs of New York City: Broker (based on Brooklyn), Dukes (Queens), Bohan (The Bronx), and Algonquin (Manhattan). The setting also includes the neighbouring state of Alderney (based on New Jersey).[19] Initially, bridges are locked down due to a terrorist threat, and police constantly pursue players if the bridges are crossed. The blockades are lifted as the story progresses, allowing the player to traverse between islands safely.
Grand Theft Auto IV is set in the fictional "HD Universe", which mirrors and parodies the real world. The previous games formed fictional universes of their own,[c] which despite having many similarities with the HD Universe, are considered to be different continuities. Hence, the Liberty City depicted in Grand Theft Auto IV is different from its previous renditions, and the game itself serves as a reboot for the series. The new timeline established by Grand Theft Auto IV would continue with two expansion packs, The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony, and a sequel, Grand Theft Auto V, as well as its online component, Grand Theft Auto Online.[21][22][23] The handheld game Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is also considered part of the HD Universe, because it features the same map as Grand Theft Auto IV, except for Alderney.[24]
Niko Bellic, an Eastern European ex-soldier,[25] arrives in Liberty City aboard a cargo ship, the Platypus, to escape his criminal past, pursue the American Dream, and search for the man who betrayed his unit to an ambush during a war ten years prior. Reuniting with his cousin Roman, he discovers that his tales of riches were lies concealing his small, dirty apartment, unprofitable taxi company, gambling debts, and disputes with loan sharks. Niko begins assisting Roman with his problems, which leads him to make his first criminal contacts in the city. He befriends Yardies second-in-command Little Jacob and is forced to work for Vlad Glebov, Roman's Russian loan shark, whom Niko eventually kills upon learning he had slept with Roman's girlfriend, Mallorie.
In retaliation, Niko and Roman are kidnapped by Russian mobsters on orders of their boss Mikhail Faustin and his lieutenant, Dimitri Rascalov. Indifferent to Vlad's murder, Faustin releases them and employs Niko as a hitman, eventually ordering him to kill the son of Russian crime lord Kenny Petrović. When Petrović threatens retaliation, Dimitri convinces Niko to assassinate Faustin. However, he then betrays and brings Niko to his former employer, Ray Bulgarin, who accuses Niko of stealing from him during a botched human trafficking job years earlier. Niko denies the allegation and a firefight ensues, allowing Dimitri and Bulgarin to escape.
Dimitri's men burn down Niko and Roman's apartment and taxi company, forcing them to flee to Bohan. While Niko finds work with several local drug lords, Dimitri kidnaps Roman in a failed attempt to lure Niko into a trap. Later, Niko discovers that his romantic interest, a woman named Michelle, is a government agent, who then entraps him into working for her agency. In exchange for the murders of several known or suspected terrorists, the agency clears Niko's criminal record and assists him in searching for the traitor he seeks. Niko and Roman's fortunes improve when the latter receives a large amount of insurance money from his destroyed business, which he uses to rebuild it and buy an apartment in Algonquin. Roman also proposes to Mallorie, who accepts.
While working for the Irish Mob, Niko befriends gangster Patrick "Packie" McReary and helps him and his brothers carry out various jobs, including a major bank robbery. Niko is later hired by Ray Boccino, a caporegime in the Pegorino crime family, to oversee a diamond deal, which goes awry. Boccino repays Niko by helping him find his ex-comrade Florian Cravic, now known as Bernie Crane, who claims he was not the one to betray their unit. Niko concludes that the traitor was Darko Brevic, the only other survivor. Niko continues working for the Mafia in Liberty City and eventually earns the trust of Don Jimmy Pegorino, who orders Niko to kill Boccino after suspecting him of being a police informant. Niko also helps Packie kidnap Don Giovanni Ancelotti's daughter to ransom her for the diamonds, but Bulgarin intercepts the exchange. In the ensuing firefight, the diamonds are lost.
Eventually, the government agents find Darko in Romania and bring him to Liberty City for Niko to decide his fate. Afterwards, Niko is summoned by Pegorino for one final favour: to help with a highly lucrative heroin deal in collusion with Dimitri. Niko must either agree to work with Dimitri or exact revenge on him.[26] If Niko goes through with the deal, Dimitri betrays him again,[27] kills Pegorino,[28] and attempts to kill Niko via an assassin at Roman's wedding, but accidentally kills Roman;[29] Niko retaliates by tracking and murdering Dimitri.[28] If Niko chooses to exact revenge, he kills Dimitri aboard the Platypus,[30] prompting a furious Pegorino to target Niko but accidentally kill Packie's sister Kate, whom Niko had been dating, at Roman's wedding;[29] Niko retaliates by tracking and murdering Pegorino.[31] Later, either Mallorie or Roman tells Niko that Mallorie is pregnant.
Rockstar North's former studio in Edinburgh, Scotland, where Grand Theft Auto IV's development was overseen
Preliminary work on Grand Theft Auto IV began in November 2004,[32] a month after the release of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.[33] Rockstar president Sam Houser felt that following up San Andreas was "a nightmare".[34]Rockstar North, the core 220-person team behind the game, co-opted studios owned by parent company Rockstar Games to facilitate development between a full team of over 1,000,[35] including 50 employees at Rockstar NYC, 40 at Rockstar Lincoln, 10 at Rockstar San Diego, and around 600–700 working part-time internally and externally.[36] Some key members of the development team worked 12-hour days during production, often without holidays.[35] The team decided to continue the numbering scheme absent from the previous two main games to represent the same leap in production as Grand Theft Auto 2 (1999) to Grand Theft Auto III (2001).[33] Development of Grand Theft Auto IV ceased by 21 April 2008 when the game was submitted for manufacturing.[37] Producer Leslie Benzies estimated that the budget of the development efforts exceeded US$100 million, making Grand Theft Auto IV one of the most expensive video games ever made.[35]
The game's setting, Liberty City, is based on New York City. The team did not look at the previous renditions of Liberty City as inspiration, wanting it to retain the "general feel" but nothing else.[38] The map is roughly three times the size of Grand Theft Auto III's.[38] The developers originally considered using the entire state of New York, before restricting it to Manhattan, and then expanding it out again. They considered including more suburbs with woods, and would regularly vote on which areas to include.[39] Art director Aaron Garbut said that the team chose the setting because of the detail and variety it provided, describing New York as "an amazing, diverse, vibrant, cinematic city".[40] Writer Dan Houser added that the team "wanted to be somewhere where we had a foothold" due to the amount of research required for the world; Rockstar Games's main headquarters are located in New York.[41] The team consciously avoided a precise recreation of New York City to allow for more enjoyable game design,[32] selecting the areas that they felt "characterised it the best".[40] Garbut wanted to capture a caricature of the city as he felt that most people were familiar with "the highlights" from film or literature but did not need to know the areas precisely.[40] The city was not built with specific missions in mind; the area was created first, and missions implemented later.[42]
To achieve a realistic environment, 60–70 employees from Rockstar North travelled to New York for research: first at the beginning of the project in March or April 2005 for a week and a half,[39] and a smaller trip in 2007.[38] Police officers who previously worked the beat drove the team around Washington Heights.[39] A full-time research team based in New York handled further requests for information, such as the ethnic minority of a neighbourhood or videos of traffic patterns. Videos shot in New York were played on televisions at the Rockstar North offices "so while they worked they could look up and there was New York".[39] Benzies claimed that the team took over 100,000 photographs on location in New York,[35] though Garbut estimates that they took around 250,000.[38] They also studied architectural plans for apartments, used satellite images to determine city block layout, researched sales figures for models of cars, and read books that detailed the city's infrastructure, including its subways, sewers, and garbage disposal.[43] Hove Beach is based on Brighton Beach, which Sam Houser found "pretty incredible" and unusual; the name is based on the English city Brighton and Hove, made up of the former neighbouring towns Brighton and Hove.[44] Houser appreciated that Brighton Beach was home to several Eastern Europeans due to the nature of the game's characters.[44]
Dan Houser described Liberty City as "the biggest character" of the game.[40] The Grand Theft Auto IV rendition of Liberty City is more detailed and larger in size than most earlier entries in the series; although smaller than San Andreas, the setting of the previous main game, the developers considered it comparable in scope due to city's verticality, number of buildings, and level of detail.[45] The team wanted less dead spots and irrelevant spaces, such as the wide open deserts in San Andreas.[32] They wanted the game to be "a more focused experience" than San Andreas, and Dan Houser felt that the limited activities of New York allowed this.[33] The team felt that the addition of Niko's mobile phone added to the immersion of the world and represented society's shifted focus on phones.[33] The in-game brands and products are designed over several years; the billboards were implemented in the game around six months prior to release.[38]
Benzies produced the game. Dan Houser co-wrote the story,[35] while his brother Sam executive-produced the game.[34]
The game's script, written by Dan Houser and Rupert Humphries, is about 1,000 pages.[35] Approximately 660 actors provided voices for the game over 80,000 lines of dialogue.[39] After conceiving the character and setting, Dan Houser spoke with his brother Sam Houser and Leslie Benzies to bounce story ideas before writing a rough synopsis, a six-paged, detailed document. Once the synopsis was reworked, the designers broke it into missions, represented by a large flow document demonstrating each section. The writers then work on the introductions to the missions; the gameplay dialogue comes much later.[41] Unlike previous Grand Theft Auto games, Grand Theft Auto IV does not have cinematic influences. "We were consciously trying to go, well, if video games are going to develop into the next stage, then the thing isn't to try and do a loving tribute or reference other stuff," said Dan Houser.[41] He said that the writers wanted something "fresh and new and not something that was obviously derived from [a] movie".[41] Dan Houser felt that the quality of the writing had to improve alongside the advancements in graphics and technology. He noted that the improvements in facial animation allowed for slower-paced cutscenes.[40] The unique dialogue that plays when a mission is retried was to ensure that the gameplay felt "less canned and less like Groundhog Day".[40]
Dan Houser described Niko Bellic as "a more rounded character" than those in previous games.[40] He felt that his dual personality—often saving innocent people, while also being a "cold-hearted killer"—made him more relatable.[40] He also felt that Niko's unfamiliarity with Liberty City allowed for the player to relate to him more, only driven by his vague past and relationship with Roman. When deciding on Niko's background, the writers felt that being an immigrant could lead to more dangerous situations, and therefore more enjoyable missions; after discussions with criminal experts, Dan Houser found that "the real scary characters are not born in America anymore".[40] He felt that Niko's outsider view of American culture was "fun".[40] The team wanted Niko to be "more of an anti hero than a hero, capable of making positive actions within his criminal world".[46] They wanted his demeanour to reflect the weight of his past and choices.[46]
Niko's design underwent a few changes, but was finalised early in development.[47] His outfit underwent several changes based on Eastern Europeans, particularly photographs of men fighting in winter wars in Yugoslavia and Chechnya. The primary motivation for the design was a face to convey the appropriate emotions and a body that could move nicely with the new animations.[40] The in-game purchasable outfits were also designed to fit with the character.[33] The team ensured that the gameplay choices presented to the player were not too extensive, as they still had to make sense to the character, who is driven by the people around him. Dan Houser felt that the missions in San Andreas had become too linear, and wanted to present choices to the player in Grand Theft Auto IV.[40]
The writers found that Niko needed a motivation to come to America, so they created his cousin, Roman. Dan Houser felt that the two could not be brothers as there would be a deeper level of familiarity than necessary. He described the two as a double act, with Roman's fantasist charm playing off Niko's tough cynicism. The team gave other non-playable characters (NPCs) more definable behaviours and dialogue to make them feel more alive. The writers initially considered having a smaller group of characters, but found that the story became boring and that players were less likely to explore the world. The stranger characters found in the game world were based on the "crazy people" that populate New York, according to Dan Houser, which in previous games were only able to be captured through radio stations or mild pedestrian behaviours.[38] The team based the ethnicities, clothing, and behaviours of the NPCs on the photographs and videos that they captured around New York, divided into different areas;[40] they created mood boards for each location.[38] The NPCs also converse in different languages.[39]
Grand Theft Auto IV sees a shift in the series to a more realistic and detailed style and tone, partly a result of the transition to consoles which offered high-definition graphics and the new and improved capabilities of such consoles. The development team worked to represent the upgrade in quality across all design aspects while maintaining the coherence of the previous games.[32] The team took the game's development as an opportunity to "strip things back and start again", refining the art style without losing the style of the series;[40] they distanced the game from the "cartoon-like style" of its predecessors while creating a new style that was consistent across all aspects of the game.[48] Garbut found the increased demand of detail brought on by the advanced technology daunting.[49] A technique used to make the visuals look real was to avoid harsh edges, instead blending surfaces together to make the world look dirty and lived-in.[50] The props department created multiple variations of different objects to make the world more interesting and unique.[40]G
The inspiration for Tron dates back to 1976, when Lisberger became intrigued with video games after seeing Pong. He and producer Donald Kushner set up an animation studio to develop Tron with the intention of making it an animated film. To promote the studio itself, Lisberger and his team created a 30-second animation featuring the first appearance of the title character. Eventually, Lisberger decided to include live-action elements with both backlit and computer animation for the actual feature-length film. Various studios had rejected the storyboards for the film before Walt Disney Productions agreed to finance and distribute Tron. There, backlit animation was finally combined with the 2D computer animation and the live action.
Tron was released on July 9, 1982. The film was a moderate success at the box office, and received positive reviews from critics, who praised its groundbreaking visuals and acting but criticized its storyline as being incoherent. Tron received nominations for Best Costume Design[2] and Best Sound[3] at the 55th Academy Awards. It was however disqualified from the Best Visual Effects category because at the time the Academy felt that using computer animation was "cheating".[4][5]Tron spawned multiple video games (including an arcade tie-in released shortly after the film), and as it became a cult film, a multimedia franchise including comic books. A sequel titled Tron: Legacy, directed by Joseph Kosinski, was released in 2010, with Bridges and Boxleitner reprising their roles and Lisberger acting as producer. A commercial success, it was followed by the XD animated series Tron: Uprising in 2012, set between the two films.[6]
Kevin Flynn is a leading software engineer, formerly employed by large technology corporation ENCOM. He now runs a video game arcade, and attempts to hack into ENCOM's mainframe system; however, ENCOM's Master Control Program (MCP) halts his progress. Within ENCOM, programmer Alan Bradley and his girlfriend, engineer Lora Baines, discover that the MCP has closed off their access to projects. When Alan confronts the senior executive vice president, Ed Dillinger, Dillinger says the security measures are an effort to stop outside hacking attempts. However, when Dillinger privately questions the MCP through his computerized desk, he realizes the MCP has expanded into a powerful virtual intelligence and has been illegally appropriating personal, business, and government programs to increase its own capabilities. As Dillinger rose to the top of ENCOM by presenting Flynn's games as his own, the MCP blackmails Dillinger by threatening to expose his plagiarism if he does not comply with its directives.
Lora deduces that Flynn is the hacker, and she and Alan go to his arcade to warn him. Flynn reveals that he has been trying to locate evidence proving Dillinger's plagiarism. Together, the three form a plan to break into ENCOM and unlock Alan's "Tron" program, a self-governing security measure designed to protect the system and counter the functions of the MCP. Once inside ENCOM, the three split up, and Flynn comes into direct conflict with the MCP through a laboratory terminal. Before Flynn can get the information he needs, the MCP uses an experimental laser to digitize and upload him into the ENCOM mainframe cyberspace. There, computer programs are living entities appearing in the likeness of the human "Users" (programmers) who created them. The space is ruled by the MCP and its second-in-command, Sark, who coerce programs to renounce their belief in the Users and force those who resist to compete in deadly games.
Flynn is put into the games and plays well; between matches, he befriends two other captured programs, Ram and Tron. The three escape into the mainframe during a round of Light Cycle (an arcade game Flynn created and is skilled at), but Flynn and Ram become separated from Tron by an MCP pursuit party. While attempting to help a badly injured Ram, Flynn learns that he can manipulate portions of the mainframe by accessing his programmer knowledge. Just before Ram "derezzes" (dies), he recognizes Flynn as a User, and encourages him to find Tron and free the system. Using his newfound ability, Flynn rebuilds a broken vehicle and disguises himself as one of Sark's soldiers.
Tron enlists help from Yori, a sympathetic program, and at an I/O tower receives information from Alan necessary to destroy the MCP. Flynn rejoins them, and the three board a hijacked solar sailer to reach the MCP's core. However, Sark's command ship destroys the sailer, capturing Flynn and Yori and presumably killing Tron. Sark leaves the command ship and orders its deresolution, but Flynn keeps it intact by manipulating the mainframe again.
Sark reaches the MCP's core on a shuttle carrying captured programs deemed powerful or useful. While the MCP attempts to absorb these programs, Tron, who is still alive, confronts Sark and critically injures him, prompting the MCP to give Sark all its functions. Realizing that his ability to manipulate the mainframe might give Tron an opening, Flynn leaps into the beam of the MCP, distracting it. Seeing a break in the MCP's shield, Tron attacks through the gap and destroys the MCP and Sark, ending the MCP's control over the mainframe and allowing the captured programs to communicate with users again.
Flynn reappears in the real world, rematerialized at the terminal. Tron's victory in the mainframe has released all lockouts on computer access, and a nearby printer produces the evidence that Dillinger had plagiarized Flynn's creations. The next morning, Dillinger enters his office to find the MCP deactivated and the proof of his theft publicized. Flynn is subsequently promoted to CEO of ENCOM and is happily greeted by Alan and Lora as their new boss.
Boxleitner also portrays Tron, a security program developed by Bradley to self-monitor communications between the MCP and the real world.
David Warner as Ed Dillinger, the Senior Executive Vice President of ENCOM and former coworker of Flynn's who used the MCP to steal Flynn's work and pass it off as his own, earning himself a series of undeserved promotions
Warner also portrays Sark, a command program developed by Dillinger to serve as the MCP's second-in-command.
Cindy Morgan as Dr. Lora Baines, Bradley's co-worker and girlfriend, as well as assistant to Dr. Gibbs on the digitization experiment.
Morgan also portrays Yori, an input/output program developed by Dr. Baines and an ally of Tron.
Barnard Hughes as Dr. Walter Gibbs, a co-founder of ENCOM running the company's science division, who creates the SHV 20905 digitizing laser with Dr. Baines's assistance.
Hughes also portrays Dumont, a "guardian" program developed by Dr. Gibbs to protect input/output junctions in the mainframe.
Hughes also provides the uncredited portrayal of the Master Control Program's original incarnation.
Shor also portrays Ram, an actuarial program possibly developed by Kleinberg to sort out connections between ENCOM and an unnamed insurance company, who is a close ally of Tron and Flynn.
Peter Jurasik as Crom, a compound interest program matched against Flynn on the Game Grid
The inspiration for Tron occurred in 1976 when Steven Lisberger, then an animator of drawings with his own studio, looked at a sample reel from a computer firm called MAGI and saw Pong for the first time.[7] He was immediately fascinated by video games and wanted to do a film incorporating them. According to Lisberger, "I realized that there were these techniques that would be very suitable for bringing video games and computer visuals to the screen. And that was the moment that the whole concept flashed across my mind".[8] The film's concept of entering a parallel game world was also inspired by the classic tale Alice in Wonderland.[9]
Lisberger had already created an early version of the character 'Tron' for a 30 second long animation which was used to promote both Lisberger Studios and a series of various rock radio stations. This backlit cel animation depicted Tron as a character who glowed yellow; the same shade that Lisberger had originally intended for all the heroic characters developed for the feature-length Tron. This was later changed to blue for the finished film (see Pre-production below). The prototype Tron was bearded and resembled the Cylon Centurions from the 1978 TV series Battlestar Galactica. Also, Tron was armed with two "exploding discs", as Lisberger described them on the 2-Disc DVD edition (see Rinzler).
Lisberger elaborates: "Everybody was doing backlit animation in the 70s, you know. It was that disco look. And we thought, what if we had this character that was a neon line, and that was our Tron warrior – Tron for electronic. And what happened was, I saw Pong, and I said, well, that's the arena for him. And at the same time I was interested in the early phases of computer generated animation, which I got into at MIT in Boston, and when I got into that I met a bunch of programmers who were into all that. And they really inspired me, by how much they believed in this new realm."[10]
He was frustrated by the clique-like nature of computers and video games and wanted to create a film that would open this world up to everyone. Lisberger and his business partner Donald Kushner moved to the West Coast in 1977 and set up an animation studio to develop Tron.[8] They borrowed against the anticipated profits of their 90-minute animated television special Animalympics to develop storyboards for Tron with the notion of making an animated film.[7] But after Variety mentioned the project briefly during its early phase, it caught the attention of computer scientist Alan Kay. He contacted Lisberger and convinced him to use him as an adviser on the movie, then persuaded him to use real CGI instead of just hand-animation.[11]
Bonnie MacBird wrote the first drafts of Tron with extensive input from Lisberger,[12] basing the original personality of Alan on Alan Kay.[13] As a result of working together, Kay and MacBird became close and later married.[12] She also created Tron as a character (rather than a visual demo) and Flynn.[12] Originally, MacBird envisioned Flynn more comedically, suggesting the then 30-year-old Robin Williams for the role.[13] Besides many story changes after the script went to Disney, including giving it "a more serious tone with quasi religious overtones",[12] and removing most of the scientific elements,[12] none of her dialogue remains in the final film,[14] and there was a "rather bitter credits dispute."[14]
The film was eventually conceived as an animated film bracketed with live-action sequences.[8] The rest involved a combination of computer-generated visuals and back-lit animation. Lisberger planned to finance the movie independently by approaching several computer companies but had little success. However, one company, Information International Inc., was receptive.[8] He met with Richard Taylor, a representative, and they began talking about using live-action photography with back-lit animation in such a way that it could be integrated with computer graphics. At this point, there was a script and the film was entirely storyboarded, with some computer animation tests completed.[8] He had spent approximately $300,000 developing Tron and had also secured $4–5 million in private backing before reaching a standstill. Lisberger and Kushner took their storyboards and samples of computer-generated films to Warner Bros., Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and Columbia Pictures – all of which turned them down.[7]
In 1980, they decided to take the idea to Walt Disney Productions, which was interested in producing more daring productions at the time.[8] Tom Wilhite, Disney's vice president for creative development, watched Lisberger's test footage and convinced Ron Miller to give the movie a chance.[15][16] However, Disney executives were uncertain about giving $10–12 million to a first-time producer and director using techniques which, in most cases, had never been attempted. The studio agreed to finance a test reel which involved a flying disc champion throwing a rough prototype of the discs used in the film.[8] It was a chance to mix live-action footage with back-lit animation and computer-generated visuals. It impressed the executives at Disney and they agreed to back the film. MacBird and Lisberger's script was subsequently re-written and re-storyboarded with the studio's input.[8] At the time, Disney rarely hired outsiders to make films for them, and Kushner found that he and his group were given a chilly reception because they "tackled the nerve center – the animation department. They saw us as the germ from outside. We tried to enlist several Disney animators, but none came. Disney is a closed group."[17] As a result, they hired Wang Film Productions for the animation.
Because of the many special effects, Disney decided in 1981 to film Tron completely in 65-mm Super Panavision (except for the computer-generated layers, which were shot in VistaVision and both anamorphic 35mm and Super 35 which were used for some scenes in the "real" world and subsequently "blown up" to 65 mm).[18] Three designers were brought in to create the look of the computer world.[8] French comic book artist Jean Giraud (also known as Moebius) was the main set and costume designer for the film. Most of the vehicle designs (including Sark's aircraft carrier, the light cycles, the tank, and the solar sailer) were created by industrial designer Syd Mead. Peter Lloyd, a high-tech commercial artist, designed the environments.[8] Nevertheless, these jobs often overlapped, leaving Giraud working on the solar sailer and Mead designing terrain, sets and the film's logo. The original 'Program' character design was inspired by Lisberger Studios' logo of a glowing bodybuilder hurling two discs.[8]
Tron was one of the first films to make extensive use of any form of computer animation, and it is celebrated as a milestone in the industry, although only fifteen to twenty minutes of such animation were used (mostly scenes that show digital "terrain" or patterns, or include vehicles such as light-cycles, tanks and ships).[19] Because the technology to combine computer animation and live action did not exist at the time, these sequences were interspersed with the filmed characters. One of the computers used had only 2 MB of memory and no more than 330 MB of storage. This put a limit on detail of background; and at a certain distance, they had a procedure of mixing in black to fade things out, a process called "depth cueing". The film's Computer Effects Supervisor Richard Taylor told them "When in doubt, black it out!", which became their motto.[20] Originally the film was meant to use white backgrounds like in THX 1138 inside the Grid, but it would require such huge amounts of lights that it was decided to use black backgrounds instead.[21]
The computers used at the time could not perform animation, so the frames had to be produced one by one. In some of the more complex sequences, like the Solar Sailer moving through metal canyons, each frame could take up to six hours to produce. There was no way to digitally print them on film, either; rather, a motion picture camera was placed in front of a computer screen to capture each individual frame.[22][23][24]
Most of the scenes, backgrounds, and visual effects in the film were created using more traditional techniques and a unique process known as "backlit animation".[8] In this process, live-action scenes inside the computer world were filmed in black-and-white on an entirely black set, placed in an enlarger for blow-ups and transferred to large format Kodalith high-contrast film. These negatives were then used to make Kodalith sheets with a reverse (positive) image. Clear cels were laid over each sheet and all portions of the figure except the areas that were exposed for the later camera passes were manually blacked out. Next the Kodalith sheets and cel overlays were placed over a light box while a VistaVision camera mounted above it made separate passes and different color filters. A typical shot normally required 12 passes, but some sequences, like the interior of the electronic tank, could need as many as 50 passes. About 300 matte paintings were made for the film, each photographed onto a large piece of Ektachrome film before colors were added by gelatin filters in a similar procedure as in the Kodaliths. The mattes, rotoscopic and CGI were then combined and composed together to give them a "technological" appearance.[17][25] With multiple layers of high-contrast, large format positives and negatives, this process required truckloads of sheet film and a workload even greater than that of a conventional cel-animated feature. The Kodalith was specially produced as large sheets by Kodak for the film and came in numbered boxes so that each batch of the film could be used in order of manufacture for a consistent image. However, this was not understood by the filmmakers and, as a result, glowing outlines and circuit traces occasionally flicker as the film speed varied between batches. After the reason was discovered, this was no longer a problem as the batches were used in order and "zinger" sounds were used during the flickering parts to represent the computer world malfunctioning as Lisberger described it.[26] Lisberger later had these flickers and sounds digitally corrected for the 2011 restored Blu-ray release as they were not included in his original vision of the film. Due to its difficulty and cost, this process of back-lit animation was not repeated for another feature film.
Sound design and creation for the film was assigned to Frank Serafine, who was responsible for the sound design on Star Trek: The Motion Picture in 1979.
At one point in the film, a small entity called "Bit" advises Flynn with only the words "yes" and "no" created by a Votrax speech synthesizer.
BYTE wrote: "Although this film is very much the personal expression of Steven Lisberger's vision, nevertheless [it] has certainly been a group effort".[27] More than 569 people were involved in the post-production work, including 200 inkers and hand-painters, 85 of them from Taiwan's Cuckoo's Nest Studio. Unusual for an English-language production, in the end credits the Taiwanese personnel were listed with their names written in Chinese characters.[17]
This film features parts of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; the multi-story ENCOM laser bay was the target area for the SHIVA solid-state multi-beamed laser. Also, the stairway that Alan, Lora, and Flynn use to reach Alan's office is the stairway in Building 451 near the entrance to the main machine room. The cubicle scenes were shot in another room of the lab. At the time, Tron was the only film to have scenes filmed inside this lab.[28]
The original script called for "good" programs to be colored yellow and "evil" programs (those loyal to Sark and the MCP) to be colored blue. Partway into production, this coloring scheme was changed to blue for good and red for evil, but some scenes were produced using the original coloring scheme: Clu, who drives a tank, has yellow circuit lines, and all of Sark's tank commanders are blue (but appear green in some presentations). Also, the light-cycle sequence shows the heroes driving yellow (Flynn), orange (Tron), and red (Ram) cycles, while Sark's troops drive blue cycles; similarly, Clu's tank is red, while tanks driven by crews loyal to Sark are blue.
Because of all the personal information about citizens which exist inside computer networks, such as social security number and driver's license, the idea was that each real world person has a digital counterpart inside the Grid based on information about them, which is why it was decided to use some of the same actors in both worlds.[29]
Budgeting the production was difficult by reason of breaking new ground in response to additional challenges, including an impending Directors Guild of America strike and a fixed release date.[8] Disney predicted at least $400 million in domestic sales of merchandise, including an arcade game by Bally Midway and three MattelIntellivision home video games.[17]
The producers also added Easter eggs: during the scene where Tron and Ram escape from the Light Cycle arena into the system, Pac-Man can be seen behind Sark (with the corresponding sounds from the Pac-Man arcade game being heard in the background), while a "Hidden Mickey" outline (located at time 01:12:29 on the re-release Blu-ray) can be seen below the solar sailer during the protagonists' journey. The film set also included the arcade games Space Invaders (1978), Asteroids (1979) and Pac-Man (1980).[30]
The soundtrack for Tron was written by pioneer electronic musician Wendy Carlos, who is best known for her album Switched-On Bach and for the soundtracks to many films, including the Stanley Kubrick-directed films A Clockwork Orange and The Shining. The music, which was the first collaboration between Carlos and her partner Annemarie Franklin,[32] featured a mix of an analog Moog synthesizer and Crumar's GDS digital synthesizer (complex additive and phase modulationsynthesis), along with non-electronic pieces performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra (hired at the insistence of Disney, which was concerned that Carlos might not be able to complete her score on time). Two additional musical tracks ("1990's Theme" and "Only Solutions") were provided by the American band Journey after British band Supertramp pulled out of the project. An album featuring dialogue, music and sound effects from the film was also released on LP by Disneyland Records in 1982.
Tron was released on July 9, 1982, in 1,091 theaters in the United States and Canada grossing USD $4 million on its opening weekend. It went on to gross $33 million in the United States and Canada[33] and $17 million overseas, for a worldwide gross of approximately $50 million,[1] which was Disney's highest-grossing live action film for 5 years.[34]
In addition, the film had $70 million in wholesale merchandise sales.[34]
Despite the gross and merchandise sales, it was seen as a financial disappointment, and the studio wrote off some of its $17 million budget.[35]
The film was well received by critics. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film four out of four stars and described it as "a dazzling movie from Disney in which computers have been used to make themselves romantic and glamorous. Here's a technological sound-and-light show that is sensational and brainy, stylish and fun".[36] However, near the end of his review, he noted (in a positive tone), "This is an almost wholly technological movie. Although it's populated by actors who are engaging (Bridges, Cindy Morgan) or sinister (Warner), it's not really a movie about human nature. Like Star Wars or The Empire Strikes Back but much more so, this movie is a machine to dazzle and delight us".[36] Ebert closed his first annual Overlooked Film Festival with a showing of Tron.[37]Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune also awarded four out of four stars, calling it "a trip, and a terrifically entertaining one at that...It's a dazzler that opens up our minds to our new tools, all in a traditional film narrative."[38] Each gave the film two thumbs up.[39]Tron was also featured in Siskel and Ebert's video pick of the week in 1993.[40]
InfoWorld's Deborah Wise was impressed, writing that "it's hard to believe the characters acted out the scenes on a darkened soundstage... We see characters throwing illuminated Frisbees, driving 'lightcycles' on a video-game grid, playing a dangerous version of jai alai and zapping numerous fluorescent tanks in arcade-game-type mazes. It's exciting, it's fun, and it's just what video-game fans and anyone with a spirit of adventure will love—despite plot weaknesses."[41]
On the other hand, Variety disliked the film and said in its review, "Tron is loaded with visual delights but falls way short of the mark in story and viewer involvement. Screenwriter-director Steven Lisberger has adequately marshalled a huge force of technicians to deliver the dazzle, but even kids (and specifically computer game geeks) will have a difficult time getting hooked on the situations".[42] In her review for The New York Times, Janet Maslin criticized the film's visual effects: "They're loud, bright and empty, and they're all this movie has to offer".[43] The Washington Post's Gary Arnold wrote, "Fascinating as they are as discrete sequences, the computer-animated episodes don't build dramatically. They remain a miscellaneous form of abstract spectacle".[44] In his review for
