The cake isn't a lie, and it tastes good

  So we just sat through both The Last Starfighter(1984) and Tron(1982), in that order.  In each movie I think there were two focuses:
        
        1. The methods of identifying and the transfer of our hero to another fantastic place, or plane of existence, whichever the case may be.
        2.The consequent social situations.  Including how the situation was handled in each movie and what that handling said about the heroes.

  Considering the time period, I'd say they chose right. The first was needed to provide a plot and story that it was plausible for a gamer hero to emerge and succeed in.  The second adds another dimension to the gamer hero and ironically makes the hero more human, a motif that still persists today.
  1.  The gamer hero was a relatively new concept for mainstream culture and it was necessary for the story to be interesting yet maintain incredibly abstract situations' "acceptability" in pivotal moments.  The introduction in Tron of the laser that turned objects into code and spat them back out again as real made the entire story possible.  Without it, Flynn(Jeff Bridges) would've never been able to explore the crazy, logical, and digital world of programs and data, much less had a chance to drop some major pwnage on the MCP.  Without the sweet arcade game Starfighter(that was apparently free since Rogan needed a loan for school yet played it all the time) in the middle of nowhere from The Last Starfighter, Alex Rogan(Lance Guest) would have never been able to prove himself worthy to some seemingly benevolent opportunist named Centauri who apparently only wants to obtain the reward for finding "the one" as it were. The madness needed a method and those that were utilized made the madness imaginable, grabbing a tangible spot in our conscience. 
  2.  The other thing I noticed was that there were two different social situations that evolved around each protagonist.  In the Last Starfighter, Centauri used a Beta Unit to clone Rogan and take his place at home so that no one would know whats going on. They even used this fact for comic relief with Rogan's brother and girlfriend.  It was comically ironic with his whole community in the dark yet the maintained presence of his family and friends also served to create more suspense by the time the resolution third of the story arc came around.  With Tron, however, there were two gamer heroes: Flynn as himself and Tron who was seen as a hero vicariously  through his user, Alan.  In addition, the two heroes were as physically and figuratively dissimilar as can be, yet they were foils for each other til the end as they worked together.  This not only depicts the gamer hero as a possible future mainstay, but simultaneously suggests two ways that a gamer hero can originate from and assume their role as such.  It should be interesting to see in December if(and I expect how) Tron: Legacy will continue to mark milestones in the evolution of the gamer hero.

p.s.: What do you think is the meaning of the "messenger" or guide that aids in the transfer in the protagonists' reality?  There was Centauri the benevolent mad hatter of military recruitment in Starfighter and there was the MCP doing the transfer and RAM doing the guiding in Tron, but I'm asking in general, not just them.