Abandoned Ghostbusters Video Game Theme Park Ride Revealed
August 15, 2014
Ghostbusters used to have a stage show presence at Universal Studios theme parks, but it's been years since the old firehouse has been home to a special effects spectacular. As it turns out, the old stunt show wasn't the first attempt at bringing the franchise to theme parks. Blastr (via a longer interview at 2600 Connection) has a look at the aborted Six Flags video game-based theme park ride featuring the Ghostbusters property combined with interactive shooter mechanics and a riff on Walt Disney World's Haunted Mansion attraction.
It was another 'first' of its kind as it was the first interactive theme park game/ride, giving its riders a ghost busting gun mounted in front of them, and a variety of sophisticated "ghost" targets to shoot at, and receive a score and prizes. In this way, it was a huge game that required many plays to learn and master. The target ghosts were a combination of physical animated props with CG displays that were combined through mirrors, and they reacted/exploded when hit. The guns were a combination of laser pointer and IR emitter that kept track of hits and displayed the player's score. The whole thing was created, designed, engineered, and prototyped at Sente, and the ride system was in the hands of a prominent roller coaster engineering company, Intamin.
Plans for the ride were scrapped thanks to business dealings and management changes. It just sort of fell into the void, apparently. Blastr has concept art of how the ride would have worked and some designs for ghosts and it looks like fun. I'd have gone for a ride. Such a shame for it to have been dropped.