kcarroll@utzoo.UUCP (Kieran A. Carroll) (06/09/85)
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Are you interested in space travel?
How about science fiction movies?
How about Douglas Trumbull's new "Showscan" process?
How about amusement park rides?
How about motion-base flight simulators?
If you're interested in any of the above, you may be interested
in a project that's going on here in Toronto, Ontario.
A private company has rented room underneath the
CN Tower here to put together a unique attraction.
Called something like "Ride into the Universe,"
it comprises a motion-base (like the ones airline
and military pilots are trained to fly airplanes in)
with a cab holding 40 (!) people, decked out to look
like the inside of a futuristic passenger rocket.
There are sound-effects and lighting controls to
help set mood. The operators have commissioned
a movie from Douglas Trumbull (the special-effects
genius behind 2001, Silent Running, Brainstorm, etc.),
using his new Showscan process (where the film is shown
at a much higher frame rate than normal, resulting
in much greater realism (I'm told)).
The movie will be shown on a screen at the front of the cab.
The movie depicts the launch of a spacecraft,
seen from the inside, from the Earth's surface to the orbit
of Jupiter. While this goes on, the cab will lean back 45
degrees, and start shaking and vibrating, with sound effects
to simulate rocket noise. The whole process is
computer controlled, and sounds mucho impressive to me.
I can hardly wait! The opening date for the thing
is sometime in September of this year.
(and no, I don't work for the place.)
I learned about this in the "L5 Talk" at the
Ad Astra SF convention here in TO, this weekend.
Similar attractions to open soon are (a) the Photon
Impact (or Splat, or Great Canadian Adventure,
or KAOS, or whatever; you and your friends get
guns, and run around shooting at each other) type
game, using optical guns, and computer-controlled
sensing of hits and scoring, inside an old roller
rink converted to look like the set of a
science-fiction movie, and (b) the new IMAX movie,
The Dream is Alive, photographed during various
space shuttle flights, due to open here at Ontario
Place this September. For SF/Space/film/gaming
enthusiasts, it looks like TO will be a good place
to be in the near future!
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The opinions expressed above are entirely my own.
You can't have them.
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Kieran A. Carroll @ U of Toronto Aerospace Institute
{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!kcarroll