FUN PARKS
THRILL RIDES
· Highest roller coaster now
takes you even higher
Perched on top of the 350-m-high (1,149-ft) Stratosphere Tower in Las Vegas, USA, is the world’s highest roller coaster, the 277 m (909 ft) High Roller. Another thrill ride, the Big Shot, at 280 m (921 ft), is a vacuum ejection seat into which you are strapped facing outwards and then shot up another 48 m (160 ft) in about 40 seconds, experiencing up to 4 Gs of pressure.
· Rail flying on the
Skytrack solocoaster
Set to open at Granada Studios in Manchester, UK, is the Skytrack solocoaster, as riders get a chance to ‘fly’ solo along a single rail track. Horizontally strapped into a flight pod and suspended below a single ride rail, thrill seekers plunge down the tightly curved 15 m track, experiencing a variety of G-force pressures.
· Oblivion takes the mind and
body to the absolute limits
Alton Towers in Staffordshire, UK, opened “the world’s first vertical drop coaster” Oblivion in March 1998. The ride is just over three minutes of pure fear as it takes you on a thrilling 87°, 60-m (196 ft) plunge, headfirst into a dark, smoke filled hole at up to 4.5 Gs of pressure.
· 3-D alien ride is coming
to South Korea
Everland Park at Yong in, South Korea has a new attraction in 1999- Alien movie saga, complete with powerful special effects, theatre stunts and 3-D novae technology.
THEME PAPKS
· 360ยบ Futuroscope uses
nine synchronized films
The European Park of the Moving Image at Futurescope near Poitiers, France, boasts the first ever 360° cinema, using the latest in simulation technology and nine synchronized films to create the effect.
· Cybertainment dogfights
over virtual landscapes
Japanese games company Namco’s Magic Edge centers in Tokyo, Japan, and Mountain View, California, USA, feature multi player networks where users are strapped into seats to engage in dogfights over virtual landscaped.
· Tomrrowland takes
you beyond the planets
In 1998, Disneyland in California USA, opened the revamped Tomorrowland. It includes the Astro Orbitor, which will allow visitors to fly their own spaceships through an animated whirl of planets.
· Islands of Adventure
bring the film sets to you
A Universal Studios project, the islands of Adventure, that is billed as “the most technologically advanced park ever”, opens in mid-1999. The Islands, which cover 44 hectares (110acres), include the Lost Continent and Jurassic Park.
