h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

There was a movie that came out in the 80's called "Tron" that featured a variation of jai alai. In the movie, which takes place literally inside a computer system, "programs", played by human actors, were forced to play games, most of which were to the death. Our hero, a programmer from the real world, attempts to hack into his companies computer system from a terminal in a lab where they are expirimenting with digitizing matter and downloading it into a computer. In self defense, the computer downloads him and he finds himself in the computer world, mistaken for a common program. At one point, he is forced to play a game against another program where two players face off on two small platforms, divided into concentric circles. They are armed with cestas, and our hero is given the ball. The game commences as follows: the ball is thrown, with as much force as possible, at the ceiling of the arena. it bounces back down towards the platform of his opponent. If either player misses the ball and it strikes the platform, then that circular section of the platform vanishes. When a player finally falls due to a slip of the foot and diminishing area to stand on, he dies. Needless to say out hero wins, though not before refusing to finish off his opponent who was hanging from the edge of his platform.