Not so much a low-budget CGI DTV take on TRON as a low-budget stab at the "virtual reality" film craze of the early nineties, ARCADE would have aged badly even if the digital imagery had been state-of-the-art thanks to music video style of director Albert Pyun (CAPTAIN AMERICA) and the forgettable scoring and sound design of John Carpenter's scoring collaborator Alan Howarth (not to mention some emo rock music muffled in the sound mix). Depressed since her mother's (Sharon Farrell, IT'S ALIVE) suicide, high school student Alex (Megan Ward, TRANCERS II) reluctantly accompanies her school friends - including boyfriend Greg (Bryan Dattilo, TV's DAYS OF OUR LIVES), nerdy Nick (Peter Billingsley, A CHRISTMAS STORY, bully magnet Stilts (Seth Green, TV's FAMILY GUY), and pretty Laurie (A.J. Langer, ESCAPE FROM L.A.) - to local "hole in the wall" video game arcade to test out the new virtual reality game ARCADE being test marketed by Vertigotronics executive Difford (John de Lancie,THE HAND THAT ROCKS THE CRADLE) who tells them that the game is alive and can change strategy as it learns about its opponents. Greg tries out the game and mysteriously disappears while the others are given portable home versions of the program. Alex becomes convinced that the Greg is trapped in the game, the "brain" of which (voiced by CASTLE FREAK's Jonathan Fuller) is goading Alex into playing it herself. When others in their group mysteriously disappear, Alex and Nick realize they must enter the game - armed with its schematics by programmer Albert (Norbert Weisser, JOHN CARPENTER'S THE THING) who is just as afraid of his creation - in order to rescue their friends and destroy its brain.