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There’s that water park that is now a desert oasis between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. I feel so bad for the palm trees there. I don’t think they were meant to be in that environment. I guess the place was supposed to have a hotel and people could go to have fun and get wet. Like a raging waters.
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Jul 29, 2022 21:05
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Zero One posted:I worked that ride in 2006. Even then there wasn't much to see with the lights on. Maybe not, but all the "preservation" we have of the ride now is that video, and one other one that's near pitch black and maybe 360p tops, that give almost nothing to imagine the ride itself. There may not have been all that much to see, but seeing the motion at least allows imagining the ride at all, even if it's not "authentic" that way. There's not much to see in a lot of these dark coasters with the lights on... except the ride structure, which is the point of interest. e: the Sharps one is better recorded than I remembered, but still pretty unclear in a lot of places. SkyeAuroline fucked around with this message at 21:13 on Jul 29, 2022 |
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Jul 29, 2022 21:07
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SkyeAuroline posted:Maybe not, but all the "preservation" we have of the ride now is that video, and one other one that's near pitch black and maybe 360p tops, that give almost nothing to imagine the ride itself. There may not have been all that much to see, but seeing the motion at least allows imagining the ride at all, even if it's not "authentic" that way. There's not much to see in a lot of these dark coasters with the lights on... except the ride structure, which is the point of interest. This is what the ride looked like without the building: https://twitter.com/cedarpoint/status/1231941914137677826?s=21&t=HABVkK5XlKlG_qmaZcyoHw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4IhTXLhc30
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Jul 29, 2022 21:33
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SkyeAuroline posted:Convenient timing for this to go up, since today is the 10-year anniversary of Disaster Transport closing. Got linked to an old vacation video that includes a POV with the early effects around 6 minutes in earlier today. To pull my thoughts from that thread: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9WySUEwgH8
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Jul 29, 2022 21:35
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I remember the 20,000 Leagues submarine ride at Disney World being awesome. I'm sure I'm looking back at it through some severe nostalgia fog, but old footage makes it look like something I'd still get a kick out of thirty-whatever years later. Cool Defunctland ep. about it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nICWXlssFQ8 And there's a VR recreation of it here that I haven't experienced yet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQgLOzVkNVU I rode and tried to record the Alien Experience back then too; the result was just screaming and epileptic flashing. Just horrifying all around. Great poo poo for a developing mind.
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Jul 29, 2022 21:37
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SheepThrowinBoy posted:I remember the 20,000 Leagues submarine ride at Disney World being awesome. I'm sure I'm looking back at it through some severe nostalgia fog, but old footage makes it look like something I'd still get a kick out of thirty-whatever years later. It also has a wonderful classic website at 20kride.com.
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Jul 29, 2022 21:46
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Nanomachine Son posted:Man, I loved that ride as a kid. I was so disappointed when I went to Knotts in the early 2010s and couldn’t find it because they’d closed it just a few years back. This is a really good vid, all the concept art they include is terrific and it's cool they found lots of shot-on-film footage of the ride design. I do actually remember the T-Rex that looked like he had jaundice. It's interesting because Cedar Park taking over is always something talked about as a positive, but the only time I went was during
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Jul 29, 2022 22:05
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Roth posted:Don't think we can have this thread and not have Alien Encounter brought up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9FmFnMbcgk My dad mentions this ride every time we've gone since the one time he and I went on it (my mom had to stand outside and watch my 2 brothers who were too young to ride). I think it traumatized him. gently caress, that ride ruled. Went on the Stitch version a few years back and it's alright but it's just not the same. You can't be truly scared of a cutesy little character like Stitch.
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Jul 29, 2022 22:07
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I rode alien encounter in 99 or 2000 with my mom and it was awesome because she was scared shitless. She thought an audience member was actually going to get kidnapped - I think because part of the show mentions trying the teleportation on the audience. She was also convinced someone was running around breathing hard on everybody. I feel sorry for whatever cast member drew the short straw for that. I also miss the Great American Scream Machine at Six Flags. It wasn’t a particularly great coaster , other than it stopped in the middle of the track then started running again. There were three coasters built like it, but the only one still standing doesn’t have sudden the stop in the middle.
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Jul 29, 2022 22:17
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BaldDwarfOnPCP posted:When I was a kid they had a park called Paramount's Great America. Great America changed hands 2? 3? times. Latest news is that a developer has scooped it up and it's closing in 2-3 years. I'll miss the hallowen fright stuff, that's usually a good time, but i also have fond memories of doing a bunch of water ride stuff as a kid. https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/Great-America-Bay-Area-theme-park-to-close-17269722.php
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Jul 29, 2022 22:29
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man, the entire park of Geauga Lake in Ohio. so many awesome rides in a really just weird location. i have so many good memories of going there as a teenager and just basically being a young moron, rip https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geauga_Lake
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Jul 29, 2022 22:43
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Flytitle posted:Great America changed hands 2? 3? times. Latest news is that a developer has scooped it up and it's closing in 2-3 years. I'll miss the hallowen fright stuff, that's usually a good time, but i also have fond memories of doing a bunch of water ride stuff as a kid. Yeah this one is up in the air. Santa Clara wants to try and do something to save it, but there may not be much it can do. (Also the park is a pain in the rear end to run...land is at a super premium so adding new stuff is very difficult, plus it's close to San Jose International Airport, so the FAA gets final say on ride locations). The land the theme park sits on is zoned specifically for theme parks, so I'm not sure if the new buyer will be able to actually build what they want to build there. https://www.laughingplace.com/w/news/2022/07/08/mayor-gilmor-great-america-sale/
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Jul 29, 2022 22:46
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A bizarre "ride" that I liked a lot as a kid is Yosemite Sam's Sierra Falls at Magic Mountain, CA. Now I know what you're probably thinking, "That just looks like a normal water slide?" and yeah, it is - one of the ones you go down on a rubber mat. The bizarre part is hinted at by the employee visible - notice how they're not wearing anything even resembling a swimsuit? Yeah, neither are 99% of the riders - this was at Magic Mountain. A park well known for its roller coasters. So you'd just go down this regular rear end water slide in your regular rear end clothes and get soaked. It was also tucked away in the corner of the kid's area of the park, so pretty much nobody rode it or knew it existed. It opened in 1993, so two years before water park Hurricane Harbor opened connected to Magic Mountain. Which makes the ride even more confusing - Six Flags had to have had plans to open up Hurricane Harbor at that point, construction and planning takes a long time, so why open up a water slide in Magic Mountain itself knowing it'd almost immediately become obsoleted? It lasted a long-rear end time too, staying open until 2010. Despite being weird, it was nice on hot summer days and I liked it a lot growing up. Being tucked away in a corner of the park, it was always very quiet and had no line, and the abundance of nearby trees made for a lot of shade. RIP Sierra Falls, nobody remembers or cared about you.
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Jul 29, 2022 22:51
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The (original) Bat at King's Island is a neat tale about an engineering firm getting out ahead of the technology and modeling capability. Seems like it would have been fun though. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbSgLW_MjW0
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Jul 29, 2022 22:53
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When I was a kid the park we went to most summers was Kings Island, outside Cincinnati, and starting around noon everybody wanted to go on The Smurfs Enchanted Voyage. Because it was thrilling and exciting? Well, maybe, but mostly because it would be 80-90 degrees and sunny outside, and dimly lit and like 65-70 inside. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTzPysmfJag Shockingly long lines to sit in a boat and look at animatronic Smurfs, just because it was the best way to cool down a bit that didn't involve going to the water park. In '91 they replaced it with Phantom Theater, a somewhat cheap Haunted Mansion knockoff that I just adored because I was a kid who loved anything spooky and this was just perfectly my speed. Note the music which includes such tunes as "legally distinct from Danny Elfman's theme to Tales From the Crypt" and "legally distinct from Danny Elfman's theme to Beetlejuice". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcPAC0-JehI That's a really good POV they shot with a light and a good camera. This next video has pretty bad quality since it's shot without a light and clearly on a cheaper camera, but it's bookended with some really neat promotional stuff and concept art. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9M1wC1bqys I think they replaced it with some kind of interactive laser game attraction? I wouldn't know since I haven't been in close to 25 years. e: oh neat, apparently this year they did a show version of the old ride along with a lobby display of various bits and pieces. Very neat! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKMKcKuaszM Pope Guilty fucked around with this message at 23:23 on Jul 29, 2022 |
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Jul 29, 2022 23:14
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Roth posted:Don't think we can have this thread and not have Alien Encounter brought up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9FmFnMbcgk I think Alien Encounter may be unique in that it's legitimately the only cult classic attraction I can think of. Has anything else come out, been a giant flop for completely understandable reasons, gotten closed quickly, and then lived on in the minds of those who rode it as it grew and grew in their memories and in the retellings of it? I rode AE. (I got a hat. I think I may still have it?) It was loving terrifying. And context matters. It was in the Magic fuckin' Kingdom. People have a baseline for what they expect based on their surroundings, and MK is the park where Snow frigging White had to get her ride rebranded as Snow White's Scary Adventures. You can put up all the HEY NO THIS ONE IS ACTUALLY NO FOOLING A SCARY RIDE signs outside you want, people are going to assume you mean MK scary, which we've already established is Snow White levels of scary. And then they're gonna take their 8 year olds on it. So I get why it closed. I really do. But. Context mattering can cut both ways, and these days, Disney owns Fox. I really think if you took the ride, put it in Hollywood Studios, and rebranded it as Alien Encounter -- the xenomorph from the Aliens franchise, that alien -- it would be a massive success. The bar for extreme rides in HS has been set much higher by Rock 'n Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror, and putting the branding of an R-rated horror franchise is an unambiguous signal. People will know what to expect. Plus, the original plan for the ride was in fact for it to be the xenomorph! That was always the intent! Put Star Tours in Galaxy's Edge where it belongs, take the space you freed up and slap it with Weyland-Yutani branding. It would work.
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Jul 29, 2022 23:23
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CapnAndy posted:Hell yes, let's talk about Alien Encounter. It is fascinating. The Great Movie Ride did have an Alien section part of it, and I think that was my first experience with the franchise riding it as a 10 year old. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlizaFi6O40
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Jul 29, 2022 23:36
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IIRC every time I visited Alien Encounter there'd be some kid outside screaming and freaking the gently caress out
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Jul 29, 2022 23:38
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Roth posted:The Great Movie Ride did have an Alien section part of it, and I think that was my first experience with the franchise riding it as a 10 year old. I miss TGMR too but it was not aging gracefully at all
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Jul 29, 2022 23:45
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CapnAndy posted:Hell yes, let's talk about Alien Encounter. It is fascinating. Agreed, all around. It could use a reboot. Shoot new footage, do something very similar to the original, but with the branding better aligned, and expectations appropriately calibrated, and it would have fans right away.
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Jul 29, 2022 23:56
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Allegedly Alien Encounter happened because Michael Eisner's son* thought Disneyland/Magic Kingdom was for babies and not cool. Eisner told Imagineers to come up with an attraction to make the park more grown up. Originally it was supposed to be the Xenomorph alien but the licensing with Fox fell through. They were also going to build a version in Disneyland but it was canceled after the MK version didn't get the reaction they wanted. *I believe this was the same son who years earlier picked Splash Mountain as the next new attraction to be built when they were touring Imagineering. He thought it looked coolest vs. whatever else was on display. Eisner told them to build it.
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Jul 30, 2022 00:07
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My brother screamed his head off the first time he rode Alien Encounter so much that they let him out in the middle of it lol Today he has https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWKTpBBqVGc these guys on his desk
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Jul 30, 2022 00:17
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Roth posted:The Great Movie Ride did have an Alien section part of it, and I think that was my first experience with the franchise riding it as a 10 year old. I rode this ride to see the Alien. As a kid I loved the movies. It scared the crap out of me because they didn't have the alien hissss, it ROARED. Wtf!?? Lol. But it was awesome.
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Jul 30, 2022 00:24
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Cedar Point rides that I miss:
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Jul 30, 2022 00:34
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CodfishCartographer posted:A bizarre "ride" that I liked a lot as a kid is Yosemite Sam's Sierra Falls at Magic Mountain, CA. Nearly every memory I have of Magic Mountain (which there are few, we didn't go much, even from the IE it's a lot faster to get to Disneyland or Knotts) is being soaking wet so this all tracks.
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Jul 30, 2022 01:02
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I made a specific thread for defunctland appreciation but there's pretty obvious crossover. https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=4008666 With the talk of Horizons, anyone ever see this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rfh7A0lH1ac of people sneaking out of the ride in Horizons? Really awesome footage and it goes somewhere you will not expect.
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Jul 30, 2022 01:34
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Star Trek: The Experience in Las Vegas had hands down the two best attractions I've ever gone on. The first one had you get beamed onto the Enterprise D while taking a tour of the Trek museum. It was so cool because it had a quickchange room where you were standing in a hallway, the lights went out, the transporter whine blared, and when the lights came on you were standing in Transporter Room 3. You got taken through the bridge of the Enterprise D, and ushered into a shuttlecraft to help you avoid a Klingon assassination plot. The other attraction was a Borg 4D experience. You were running through a starship where Starfleet officers were engaged in phaser fights with Borg drones. You then got taken to a shuttle to help you escape, but the Borg caught you in a tractor beam and shot you with nanoprobes (mist). The chairs in the theater had little motors and moving parts in the back and the seat so it felt like wires were sprouting from you. Both attractions had actors dressed in the outfits and were part of the experience. I miss that place so much. They had a mock-up of Deep Space Nine's Promenade, and actors in character walking the floor and manning the stores. Ferengi ran the stores, of course. They begrudgingly offered plastic bags for free with each purpose, blaming Humans on making them far too generous.
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Jul 30, 2022 01:36
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Bogus Adventure posted:Ferengi ran the stores, of course. They begrudgingly offered plastic bags for free with each purpose, blaming Humans on making them far too generous. I remember the Borg Sphere fondly, and the other cocktail served in a bowl. Anything with dry ice and is as big as my head was perfect for Vegas, the bonus was to get drunk while hanging out in a Star Trek themed bar reveling in our adventures in space. That was back when the Excalibur was still cool, with the dragon show out front. 2000s Vegas was the best Vegas.
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Jul 30, 2022 08:27
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VorpalBunny posted:I remember the Borg Sphere fondly, and the other cocktail served in a bowl. Anything with dry ice and is as big as my head was perfect for Vegas, the bonus was to get drunk while hanging out in a Star Trek themed bar reveling in our adventures in space. That was back when the Excalibur was still cool, with the dragon show out front. 2000s Vegas was the best Vegas. All of this is true, but especially this.
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Jul 30, 2022 11:08
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BaldDwarfOnPCP posted:When I was a kid they had a park called Paramount's Great America. This ride still exists. It's called Flight Deck but the finale over the lake is still as good as ever It's easily the second best coaster in the park (Gold Striker can bite me). What I will truly miss when Great America closes is the weird Mass Effect Ride.
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Jul 30, 2022 14:02
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BlueBayou posted:What I will truly miss when Great America closes is the weird Mass Effect Ride. I know it will be a guilty pleasure, but I want to give that ride a shot since it was added after I moved away from the bay. And ride Flight Deck one last time. Maybe in 2024 when I’m planning on going to Santa Cruz for the 100th anniversary of Giant Dipper
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Jul 30, 2022 16:41
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Another vote for Horizons. Loved that ride. I was also crazy as a kid about the fun house in Busch Gardens Williamsburg, which I believe was in their “England” area but have no idea what the name was. I’m sure it wasn’t especially impressive for adults but at the time it was brilliant. Stretching the words “cool” and “attraction” a bit: anyone else remember Six Flags Powerplant in Baltimore? No actual rides and very little content, but it was heading in a steampunk direction before that really took off. Big animatronic stage show with robots wasn’t so hot, but I remember liking the 4D movie in “The Sensorium” (which had scents and sprays of water and other stuff along with the 3D). I regret as a kid not lingering in one of the walkthrough areas where they had mystic artifacts which had voiceovers or effects or shows of various sorts attached. Kind of like walking into Warehouse 13 or that kind of show, only well before any of them aired. Lots of items with 5-minute loops that I suspect people just walked past after 10 seconds.
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Aug 10, 2022 02:03
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