The gravity portion of Tron is a minute long while Space Mountain at Disneyland, HKDL and TDL is 1:15-1:16 from the top of C lift to the final brakes. Track length wise, TRON is 3159 feet long while those three Space Mountain are 3459 feet long. Space Mountain at WDW is 3196 feet/3186 feet long for each track and the gravity portion is around 1:15-1:16 as well.
Where TRON has the upper hand over the current batch of Space Mountain is story, sets inside and the brilliant effects inside the Grid portion of the attraction. Some of you make it sound like its a Six Flags indoor coaster where you go around in circles in a "dark building" with massive light intrusions and its far from that! The storyline is that your team of 14 lightcycles is taking on the orange team in a battle of Lightcycle and the goal is to pass the blue gates before the orange team does so. Once inside the grid portion, you will notice that next to every blue gate, you will find an orange gate and coming off the second block brake, the blue lights on the cycles turn to orange for a brief moment to simulate the orange team coming at you using a large mirror. Classic dark ride gag and its very well executed here. Coming off the third block brake, you're in the middle of the giant wraparound screen set and your cycles "jump" to cause an orange team cycle to explode.
Compare all that with the other Space Mountain. You're all familiar with the one at WDW so I will describe the regular show situation at the other parks. For Disneyland, once you're off C lift, the only thing you will look beside darkness is the starfield effect. Worst, they went to the trouble of installing a red meteorite between B and C lift and they never turned it on for public operation. The Stargate on the drop is only used during makeover. At Tokyo Disneyland, there is a green matrix feel to the lift portions of the ride and again, once you crest B lift... starfield.
Tim Delaney did an interesting job with Space Mountain at HKDL. He used a different approach to the station area and the large space station loading area at DL and TDL was replaced by a small waiting line where both load and unload are on the same side. He even went as far as raiding the closed Chicago Disney Quest for various props that he placed in the station so he could spend more money DURING the attraction. A lift is dark and the tunnel between A and B lift has black light illuminated flashing gate. B lift is quite claustrophobic and the effect here is an hyperspace like lightning effect around. Meanwhile, Disneyland Spiral Galaxy effect is present and the same red meteorite is active and quite nice here between B and C lift. Paris Supernova projection is at the top of C lift. During the gravity portion, in addition to the starfield, the hyper gates on the drop work very well and the last block before the final brakes has various meteorites that you avoid. Those are of the lighted up board style, but a nice addition to accentuate the feeling of speed.
Space Mountain in Paris is a sad case. Space Mountain: De la Terre a la Lune was Tim Delaney masterpiece and what he did here was beyond any other Disney coasters and legendary e-tickets. The cannon was a work of art, featuring turning gears and a sun that would rotate when a train "was loaded inside". The trapdoor would open and reveal the train going up to the launch position. Then, the whole thing would recoil back when the train was launched through a blast of fog. Then, onlookings would look at the top of the mountain and see the flashing green rings and a strobe effect on a curved rack that made it look like the train had dissapeared in the sky.
Once inside, forget the starfield effect: you had many sets, physical meteorites and amazing interactions with the Stellar Way waiting line/observation gallery. After the Sidewinder inversion, you'd get sucked into the Moon Sweeper, complete with moving brooms and then rise into the block brake. Originally, there was a fog effect inside the "Mother of Meteorites" (MOM) and when combined with the strobes and red light, it felt like the train was passing through a melting rock. More meteorites are present as the train dives under the waiting line and into the corkscrew. After the corkscrew, the train rise into the B lift and the music took a triomphant note...
The moon smiles at you as it rotates but like in the novel... you never reach it and fall back to earth. The music turn dramatic and the train race at the bottom of the mountain, passing through the Spark Trench. What was the spark trench? A smashed up asteroid... with an industrial spark generator on each side! It was not easily visible from the train, but guests in the Stellar Way would see tons of sparks shooting around every time a train went through. Then, the Tongue Loop had a unique light package that made it look like you were in the middle of a galaxy. The ride concluded with the lightspeed tunnel where it reached 44 mph and then rised into the Electro de Velocitor. In a loud bang, the train is slowed next to the waiting line and guests can see the whole thing.
Alas, a lot of those effects did not last very long. For example, the rotating gears and sun effects only worked a month or two before permanently breaking. The recoil was always problematic and I recall it being fixed for a long time, working for a short time and then breaking again. The Spark Trench effect was too expensive to run and the spark generators not made for that kind of use, so it only lasted a few months.
In 2005, they enclosed the waiting line and pre cannon segment. They covered up all the physical meteorites and removed the Moon Sweeper set. They added many screens and a starfield effect for the lukewarm "Mission 2". they sadly removed the original soundtrack for a Michael Giacchino creation is just there I guess. TRON as it is in Shanghai is a much better attraction currently than Space Mountain in Paris. They had the perfect Disney coaster and WDI and park management just had to go ruin it.
