Dark Rides
parkworld-online.com
Thor’s Hammer Tusenfryd, Oslo
It’s the Holy Grail of the theme park industry – to find “the next Spider- Man or Transformers”. Most parks of course do not have the budget of players like Universal, but the falling cost of technology and media production means 3D dark rides can be done for a fraction of the cost. At the Norwegian park Tusenfryd, owner Parques Reunidos has invested “just” a few million in the new attraction Thor’s Hammer, thrilling guests at the Oslo park since late June. The attraction was produced on a turnkey basis by the Dutch company P&P Projects in just eight months from design to completion and features the first of a new generation of ride vehicle from ETF Ride Systems. The 11 track- bound six-seater Multi Mover vehicles feature added 2-DOF pitching and rolling movement, synchronised in time with the action on screen. Yet, unlike Spider-Man, the ride also features physical scenery, plus a stunning cave setting that only adds to the ambience. P&P’s Philipp van Stratum explains the storyline behind Thor’s Hammer: “It is a prequel to Ragnarok, a tale from Norwegian mythology. Thor’s half-brother Loki has stolen his hammer, and without it he cannot fight the final battle. Passengers on the ride must help Thor get the hammer back. Along the way they are assisted by more mythical characters including Fenhir the wolf, Surter the giant, and Midgard the snake.” As they pass trough the attraction, the vehicles move at varying speeds, up to 1.8 metres per second. The passenger cabin can rotate at up to 10 rpm and tilt to plus or minus 8°. With just 200-metres of track, Thor’s Hammer is smaller than some major dark rides, but clever use has been made of both the media content and scenery.
“Because of space and limitations we did not want to use animatronics,” explains van Stratum, “however we do have some mechanical effects and shadow effects. The integration of the theming and the 3D/CGI content together with special effects and the movement of the ride vehicle has turned out even better than we could have hoped for.”
Here Tusenfryd CEO Bjørn Håvard Solli, tells us more about Norway’s newest dark ride...
Apart from Nightmare, a 3D cinema with a rotating platform installed [by Alterface] in 2008, Tusenfryd has had no real dark ride until now, yet 75% of our visitors are families with children. For this reason the log flume remains one of the most popular attractions in
32
the park, however the time had come to increase the capacity of rides which both kids and adults could enjoy together. We already had space available inside the mountain/cave after closing an old simulator attraction called Toktet five years ago. We knew that an indoor ride would encourage families to visit us even on not so sunny days, which was important with the rather unsteady weather we have experienced over the last few summers.
There are several reasons why we chose a 3D dark ride. Although the cave is quite spacious, at 1,200 sq metres it is not so big as a dark ride facility. To be able to get the most out of the space, we wanted to use the screens and CGI projection to create the illusion of more room inside the attraction and fit in more scenes. We wanted to make a ride that did not have any obvious “transit” sections, and I’m quite pleased with how this has turned out. And we wanted to offer something more than a “standard” ride vehicle or people moving unit, which is why we went for a type with simulation platform, which tilts in all directions, as well as rotating through 360°. There are not that many established suppliers out there, but when ETF came up with their proposal, we were keen to pursue it. The 3D footage just seemed like a natural selection in order to enhance the movements of the motion base (and vice versa). The use of such media also makes it easier in future to provide updates to the ride content. My personal highlights are the two sequences where we make full use of the ride in “simulator” mode. The two largest 3D screens and the movement of the vehicles really makes a difference to watching the projections on their own. We wanted to avoid making the ride and the environment too “cartoonish”. In Norway, Norse mythology has a quite a solid base and remains a key part of the school curriculum, so this was why we wanted to use this as the main theme for the ride. The feedback we have received so far is that the experience seems to be well received by both boys and girls. There are differences in what parts of the ride they like the most, but in general both genders enjoy it.
The project was done in an extremely short amount of time, and called for a lot of adjustments, especially programming the movement of the vehicles and the synchronisation of the show/cinematic elements. It’s important to work with flexible suppliers, and this proved to the case with both P&P and ETF. If we had three more months, I am sure we would still be tweaking, however we believe that finished product is of a very high level and gives a good experience to the guests.
tusenfryd.no AUGUST 2013 Physical
scenery sits side by side with media content
The new ETF ride vehicles feature added 2-DOF movement
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48