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Future of Video Games Outside the Home, DisneyQuest
gatzke writes "Some interesting developments have been coming online with new technology being developed that may lead to new and exciting gaming outside the home. DisneyQuest in Orlando mixes classic / modern video games with virtual reality and interactive games. MagiQuest in Myrtle Beach is an immersive interactive treasure hunt environment with a simple wand interface."
Background
I am a thirty-something engineer that grew up with personal computers. When I was in elementary school, I was learning BASIC while playing Atari games like Asteroids, Pong, and Night Rider at the arcade in the mall. Games improved around middle school, Pac-man, Centipede, Galaga, Spy Hunter, Donkey Kong and others were available at the local arcades. At that time my favorite dinner destination was the pizza place with animatronic animals and a huge arcade. My buddies and I even played games at the mall arcade in high school: altered beast, time warriors, and others. At college in the 90s, I would frequent the local gigantic bar / restaurant / pool hall / arcade that had a good variety of games, especially the linked Daytona Racing games where you could drink and drive safely.
I fell off he map for quite some time. Arcade games did not hold my interest. I blame the many Street Fighter variants, with all the buttons and secret moves. No longer could any idiot walk up to a game and have a good time. You had to dedicate a lot of time and effort to get anywhere in those games. The economics changed as well. Games started hitting two or three quarters, not just one. On the home front, I had first person shooters on my PC that were tons of fun and interactive. Why go pay a dollar per game just to get stomped on in public when I have a SLI Voodoo card at home that can run Quake at 1600x1200 on a 21 inch CRT? The home and console technology was outpacing what you could get at the arcade. The arcades dried up in most places, with a few games lingering here and there.
Recently, my wife and I discovered a couple of places that give me hope for the future of gaming outside the home again. DisneyQuest and MagiQuest.
DisneyQuest
A few years ago, my wife and I were at a conference in Orlando. We took an extra couple of days to see some of Disney. We happened across DisneyQuest in Downtown Disney near the Cirque du Soleil theater. Admission was expensive at over $30 per person for the day, but it ended up being worth it to me. Inside, you enter one of the best arcades ever, an arcade by Disney. All games are totally free after you pay admission. They had recent games like Crazy Taxi and Top Skater (note, on a recent return trip they have not added many obvious new games). They also had classic games like Asteroids, Moon Patrol, Space War, and BattleZone.
The real outstanding section for me were the VR games. They had an Aladdin type game with a motion sensitive visor where you fly a magic carpet with intuitive controls. They had a superhero game where you get a motion sensitive visor and sword to swing at bad guys. If you have tried out recent VR helmets, you know the resolution is quite lacking and the motion sensing is not the best, especially technology from around 2000. Overall, these were fun but could stand some improvements in the basic helmet technology.
They had other VR / immersive games that did not require a helmet. They had a pinball game where you stand on a giant puck and try to direct your video puck into a goal by leaning left and right, while you play with others on a giant screen. They had a river rafting ride where you and others are on a rubber raft paddling in front of a projection screen while you get bumped around. They had Mech Assault type game where four people get in a pod and try to rescue some colonists while shooting aliens. One of the better games was a pirate game where you wear 3D glasses and man the cannons of a pirate ship surrounded by a few large projection screens. The design-you-own VR roller coaster made me sick, since I thought stacking as many loops and barrel rolls in a row was a good idea. The best game was the bumper cars, which was totally not electronic. You and a partner are in a Plexiglas enclosed bumper car. One drives while the other mans a cannon to shoot nerf soccer balls at other cars. If the sensors detect a hit, you spin around for a few seconds. This was loads of fun, and you can usually run around and get on again if the crowds are light.
My overall impression was favorable, but I was not as enthusiastic after my more recent visit. The technology had not changed in four years, so you still had the old 3D visors. Some video game controllers were not getting the requisite repairs. Things were not as "Disney" as they could have been, but it was still fun.
MagiQuest
My wife and I also went to try out MagiQuest at Broadway at the Beach in Myrtle Beach. We really did not know what to expect from their advertising. You get a "magic wand" for $11 and then buy time in the game at $8 per hour with discounts if you do two hours on the same day. The wand appears to be some combination of RFID, IR in the tip, and motion sensor. You pick a character class and a name, then go through training where they show you how to cast at items to evoke a response. Chests will open, lights will flash, or some event will be triggered by your wand. After training, you enter the game area which is a large room with different areas. At the center is a stone-henge type place where you go to choose a quest from a touchscreen and watch a related video. The first twelve quests are relatively simple treasure hunt type tasks that have you exploring the environment looking for different items. They have a castle with a few rooms, a dungeon area, a pixie treehouse, a crypt, and some other areas.
There are items all around that you can use the wand to interact with. Cast at a picture and it lights up, even if it is not on your current list of items to be found. Chests open and show jewels or gold. Some statues will talk to you. The first set of quests are fairly simple, with explicit locations and descriptions of the items, but it can still be tricky to find all the items. The game tests your memory, since you will have seen some objects while working on other quests. After you complete the basic quests, they have a series of adventures to work on. My wife and I completed the twelve quests in two hours working together. I would encourage you to do it on your own, but we were dragging a two year old and my wife is seven months pregnant.
The technology is pretty robust. Some sensors required a few casts to activate, but overall it was not frustrating. Most items are static and respond with sound and light. There are around fifteen different stations with projection screen, LCD, or CRTs that are more detailed with some video. Some of these are end locations for quests where a character gives you a rune as reward for a completed quest or someone tells you a story. Some of these stations are apparently part of the more advanced adventures where you have more involved games to try out. They have a dragon and a goblin in the dungeon, but they also have lighter fantasy creatures like a unicorn and a fairy princess.
The environment is fairly immersive. The interactive items are generally embedded pretty well into the environment. The dungeon was my favorite, as you get the feeling of a realistic dark environment. The castle was pretty good, but it was mostly open to the gaming area with only a few rooms. Most of the game is wide open, where you can see all around, including the false sky. This is probably good for the general population, but it does not throw a gamer completely into the fantasy world (which may not be a bad thing). I would like to see a dark forest with shaded canopy and a main street with some interactive stores to explore and lower player density. Overall, it was never crowded, and things were smooth even with a large number of people running around.
There are other details to the game if you really get into it. They keep track of your gold and award you crappy prizes if you want. You get experience and levels, but I am not sure how that helps you. They have a dueling station where you can battle other Magi by choosing spells to use. They have extra crap you can buy to decorate your wand. They also have some extra tokens (compass and key) you can buy to increase your take of gold or give you clues in the game. The game is fun for both adults and kids, both serious gamers and those looking for something other than mini golf. It could be costly if you have a few kids to take in, but not bad after you get past the wand purchase. They also have parent spectator discount cards (first hour full price, second half off, free after)
I tried to search online for information, but it took me a while to realize I was searching for magicquest / magickquest / magic quest, not magiquest. You are a Magi in this game, and I have not seen how your character class influences your game.
Overall, we had a great time and want to go back soon. It is rough to take away beach time to go run around waving a plastic wand at treasure chests, but the game gets to you.
Conclusions
If you are in Orlando or Myrtle Beach, you may want to try these games out. Maybe the economics will work out and they could put them in local malls to get kid out running around again. It certainly is more complicated than buying a space invaders box and harvesting money from kids, but maybe the market is there.
I am a thirty-something engineer that grew up with personal computers. When I was in elementary school, I was learning BASIC while playing Atari games like Asteroids, Pong, and Night Rider at the arcade in the mall. Games improved around middle school, Pac-man, Centipede, Galaga, Spy Hunter, Donkey Kong and others were available at the local arcades. At that time my favorite dinner destination was the pizza place with animatronic animals and a huge arcade. My buddies and I even played games at the mall arcade in high school: altered beast, time warriors, and others. At college in the 90s, I would frequent the local gigantic bar / restaurant / pool hall / arcade that had a good variety of games, especially the linked Daytona Racing games where you could drink and drive safely.
I fell off he map for quite some time. Arcade games did not hold my interest. I blame the many Street Fighter variants, with all the buttons and secret moves. No longer could any idiot walk up to a game and have a good time. You had to dedicate a lot of time and effort to get anywhere in those games. The economics changed as well. Games started hitting two or three quarters, not just one. On the home front, I had first person shooters on my PC that were tons of fun and interactive. Why go pay a dollar per game just to get stomped on in public when I have a SLI Voodoo card at home that can run Quake at 1600x1200 on a 21 inch CRT? The home and console technology was outpacing what you could get at the arcade. The arcades dried up in most places, with a few games lingering here and there.
Recently, my wife and I discovered a couple of places that give me hope for the future of gaming outside the home again. DisneyQuest and MagiQuest.
DisneyQuest
A few years ago, my wife and I were at a conference in Orlando. We took an extra couple of days to see some of Disney. We happened across DisneyQuest in Downtown Disney near the Cirque du Soleil theater. Admission was expensive at over $30 per person for the day, but it ended up being worth it to me. Inside, you enter one of the best arcades ever, an arcade by Disney. All games are totally free after you pay admission. They had recent games like Crazy Taxi and Top Skater (note, on a recent return trip they have not added many obvious new games). They also had classic games like Asteroids, Moon Patrol, Space War, and BattleZone.
The real outstanding section for me were the VR games. They had an Aladdin type game with a motion sensitive visor where you fly a magic carpet with intuitive controls. They had a superhero game where you get a motion sensitive visor and sword to swing at bad guys. If you have tried out recent VR helmets, you know the resolution is quite lacking and the motion sensing is not the best, especially technology from around 2000. Overall, these were fun but could stand some improvements in the basic helmet technology.
They had other VR / immersive games that did not require a helmet. They had a pinball game where you stand on a giant puck and try to direct your video puck into a goal by leaning left and right, while you play with others on a giant screen. They had a river rafting ride where you and others are on a rubber raft paddling in front of a projection screen while you get bumped around. They had Mech Assault type game where four people get in a pod and try to rescue some colonists while shooting aliens. One of the better games was a pirate game where you wear 3D glasses and man the cannons of a pirate ship surrounded by a few large projection screens. The design-you-own VR roller coaster made me sick, since I thought stacking as many loops and barrel rolls in a row was a good idea. The best game was the bumper cars, which was totally not electronic. You and a partner are in a Plexiglas enclosed bumper car. One drives while the other mans a cannon to shoot nerf soccer balls at other cars. If the sensors detect a hit, you spin around for a few seconds. This was loads of fun, and you can usually run around and get on again if the crowds are light.
My overall impression was favorable, but I was not as enthusiastic after my more recent visit. The technology had not changed in four years, so you still had the old 3D visors. Some video game controllers were not getting the requisite repairs. Things were not as "Disney" as they could have been, but it was still fun.
MagiQuest
My wife and I also went to try out MagiQuest at Broadway at the Beach in Myrtle Beach. We really did not know what to expect from their advertising. You get a "magic wand" for $11 and then buy time in the game at $8 per hour with discounts if you do two hours on the same day. The wand appears to be some combination of RFID, IR in the tip, and motion sensor. You pick a character class and a name, then go through training where they show you how to cast at items to evoke a response. Chests will open, lights will flash, or some event will be triggered by your wand. After training, you enter the game area which is a large room with different areas. At the center is a stone-henge type place where you go to choose a quest from a touchscreen and watch a related video. The first twelve quests are relatively simple treasure hunt type tasks that have you exploring the environment looking for different items. They have a castle with a few rooms, a dungeon area, a pixie treehouse, a crypt, and some other areas.
There are items all around that you can use the wand to interact with. Cast at a picture and it lights up, even if it is not on your current list of items to be found. Chests open and show jewels or gold. Some statues will talk to you. The first set of quests are fairly simple, with explicit locations and descriptions of the items, but it can still be tricky to find all the items. The game tests your memory, since you will have seen some objects while working on other quests. After you complete the basic quests, they have a series of adventures to work on. My wife and I completed the twelve quests in two hours working together. I would encourage you to do it on your own, but we were dragging a two year old and my wife is seven months pregnant.
The technology is pretty robust. Some sensors required a few casts to activate, but overall it was not frustrating. Most items are static and respond with sound and light. There are around fifteen different stations with projection screen, LCD, or CRTs that are more detailed with some video. Some of these are end locations for quests where a character gives you a rune as reward for a completed quest or someone tells you a story. Some of these stations are apparently part of the more advanced adventures where you have more involved games to try out. They have a dragon and a goblin in the dungeon, but they also have lighter fantasy creatures like a unicorn and a fairy princess.
The environment is fairly immersive. The interactive items are generally embedded pretty well into the environment. The dungeon was my favorite, as you get the feeling of a realistic dark environment. The castle was pretty good, but it was mostly open to the gaming area with only a few rooms. Most of the game is wide open, where you can see all around, including the false sky. This is probably good for the general population, but it does not throw a gamer completely into the fantasy world (which may not be a bad thing). I would like to see a dark forest with shaded canopy and a main street with some interactive stores to explore and lower player density. Overall, it was never crowded, and things were smooth even with a large number of people running around.
There are other details to the game if you really get into it. They keep track of your gold and award you crappy prizes if you want. You get experience and levels, but I am not sure how that helps you. They have a dueling station where you can battle other Magi by choosing spells to use. They have extra crap you can buy to decorate your wand. They also have some extra tokens (compass and key) you can buy to increase your take of gold or give you clues in the game. The game is fun for both adults and kids, both serious gamers and those looking for something other than mini golf. It could be costly if you have a few kids to take in, but not bad after you get past the wand purchase. They also have parent spectator discount cards (first hour full price, second half off, free after)
I tried to search online for information, but it took me a while to realize I was searching for magicquest / magickquest / magic quest, not magiquest. You are a Magi in this game, and I have not seen how your character class influences your game.
Overall, we had a great time and want to go back soon. It is rough to take away beach time to go run around waving a plastic wand at treasure chests, but the game gets to you.
Conclusions
If you are in Orlando or Myrtle Beach, you may want to try these games out. Maybe the economics will work out and they could put them in local malls to get kid out running around again. It certainly is more complicated than buying a space invaders box and harvesting money from kids, but maybe the market is there.
Another reason to spend an entire day in the park.
No disrespect to tfj - it was well written, but perhaps a better title than "Gaming outside the home" when gaming outside the home has been going on for ages :-)
There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
Jeez. Slashdotted already. Here's TFA:
gatzke writes "Some interesting developments have been coming online with new technology being developed that may lead to new and exciting gaming outside the home. DisneyQuest in Orlando mixes classic / modern video games with virtual reality and interactive games. MagiQuest in Myrtle Beach is an immersive interactive treasure hunt environment with a simple wand interface."
Background
I am a thirty-something engineer that grew up with personal computers. When I was in elementary school, I was learning BASIC while playing Atari games like Asteroids, Pong, and Night Rider at the arcade in the mall. Games improved around middle school, Pac-man, Centipede, Galaga, Spy Hunter, Donkey Kong and others were available at the local arcades. At that time my favorite dinner destination was the pizza place with animatronic animals and a huge arcade. My buddies and I even played games at the mall arcade in high school: altered beast, time warriors, and others. At college in the 90s, I would frequent the local gigantic bar / restaurant / pool hall / arcade that had a good variety of games, especially the linked Daytona Racing games where you could drink and drive safely.
I fell off he map for quite some time. Arcade games did not hold my interest. I blame the many Street Fighter variants, with all the buttons and secret moves. No longer could any idiot walk up to a game and have a good time. You had to dedicate a lot of time and effort to get anywhere in those games. The economics changed as well. Games started hitting two or three quarters, not just one. On the home front, I had first person shooters on my PC that were tons of fun and interactive. Why go pay a dollar per game just to get stomped on in public when I have a SLI Voodoo card at home that can run Quake at 1600x1200 on a 21 inch CRT? The home and console technology was outpacing what you could get at the arcade. The arcades dried up in most places, with a few games lingering here and there.
Recently, my wife and I discovered a couple of places that give me hope for the future of gaming outside the home again. DisneyQuest and MagiQuest.
DisneyQuest
A few years ago, my wife and I were at a conference in Orlando. We took an extra couple of days to see some of Disney. We happened across DisneyQuest in Downtown Disney near the Cirque du Soleil theater. Admission was expensive at over $30 per person for the day, but it ended up being worth it to me. Inside, you enter one of the best arcades ever, an arcade by Disney. All games are totally free after you pay admission. They had recent games like Crazy Taxi and Top Skater (note, on a recent return trip they have not added many obvious new games). They also had classic games like Asteroids, Moon Patrol, Space War, and BattleZone.
The real outstanding section for me were the VR games. They had an Aladdin type game with a motion sensitive visor where you fly a magic carpet with intuitive controls. They had a superhero game where you get a motion sensitive visor and sword to swing at bad guys. If you have tried out recent VR helmets, you know the resolution is quite lacking and the motion sensing is not the best, especially technology from around 2000. Overall, these were fun but could stand some improvements in the basic helmet technology.
They had other VR / immersive games that did not require a helmet. They had a pinball game where you stand on a giant puck and try to direct your video puck into a goal by leaning left and right, while you play with others on a giant screen. They had a river rafting ride where you and others are on a rubber raft paddling in front of a projection screen while you get bumped around. They had Mech Assault type game where four people get in a pod and try to rescue some colonists while shooting aliens. One of the better games was a pirate game where you wear 3D glasses and man the cannons of a pirate ship surrounded by a few large projection screens. The design-you-own VR roller coaster made me sick,
Journal of gatzke (2977): I am a thirty-something engineer that grew up with personal computers. When I was in elementary school, I was learning BASIC while playing Atari games like Asteroids, Pong, and Night Rider at the arcade in the mall. Games improved around middle school, Pac-man, Centipede, Galaga, Spy Hunter, Donkey Kong and others were available at the local arcades. At that time my favorite dinner destination was the pizza place
You must have started writing this story just after you joined!
I prefer the sound of 'La Fuga' (The Escape) myself.
Mother, do you think they'll like this sig?
DisneyWhats?
It certainly is more complicated than buying a space invaders box and harvesting money from kids, but maybe the market is there.
I'm afraid not. WDW's DisneyQuest is set to close in 2008 to become yet another ESPNZone. DisneyQuest was supposed to be a worldwide chain, but they bailed on it after opening two locations, and closing Chicago's after a little over two years. Disney has sunk hundreds of millions of dollars into DQ since 1994, and they're done.
Maybe Dave & Busters and Jillian's are the future of outside-the-home gaming, although the latter went bankrupt and was absorbed by the former. And Brunswick walked away from its D&B wannabe, US Play, after opening two locations (Atlanta and Minneapolis).
I've been to Broadway at the Beach at Myrtle Beach many times, and have never seen this. I'm sure it was probably because "Magic Wands" don't typically grab my attention, but its nice to see a story involving my favorite beach on /.
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I remember that DQ had Timecrisis, and some 3d shootemup with atari-like controls (one jostick, one buton) the coolest thing there by far was this: one floor had a maze in it, all clear plastic. the maze was full of rc trucks, and there werearcade cabinets where you had a first person view from the truck and could drive it around in the clear floor under your own feet.
We had one of those in Chicago about 5 years ago. It was a decent idea, but the problem was that they allowed you to buy a card that could be used unlimited times over the course of the day or cards that would run on credits but you could use them later. It's a good idea, but the reason I call it a problem, we have an ESPN Zone that survived because it didn't do that. Furthermore, we had a few stores that knew too much about magnetics and you could go in with a card and get it recharged for $5 instead of $35. DisneyQuest closed and shortly thereafter the store I'm refering to had a sheriff's notice on the door saying that they shutdown. I'm not entirely sure that there's a corelation there, but I know they closed DisneyQuest in Chicago because it was unprofitable.
"Don't meddle in the affairs of a patent dragon, for thou art tasty and good with ketchup." ~ohcrapitssteve
The problem with out of home gaming is they chose bad names.
The need more dimly lit rooms with names like "Wizard's Castle" and "Frodo's Palace"
Call it retro.
Skot Nelson music is my saviour / i was maimed by rock and roll
I own a small arcade in Higgins Lake, MI I know of 8 michigan arcades closing last year and a handfull closing this year. The problem is people are cheap and games are getting expensive. I try to mix a collection of the classic remake machines with some of the novelty machines such as big mouth where you use an aircompressed rubber ball gun to knock out teeth, I also have some of the newer games. However there is just little money in the arcade aspect. I mean 50cents a game after taxes, bills, and employee expenses that is nothing. New games are now costing over 20 grand. I think arcades are going to die so enjoy them while you can. :( Minimum wage is going up to $8 an hr and therefore I am forced to charge 1.50 for a game of pool and a buck to play some 90's shooting game. it sucks. The icecream store next door is raising the cost of all there cones $1 to afford the employees.
http://gonewengland.about.com/od/bostonattractions /fr/frtombboston.htm It's sort of like an interactive game show. I'm just wondering if anyone has ever tried it before because it's right near Fenway Park. Heheh.. Anyway, that is something to do in my spare time.
Ooo man the floppy drive is broken. No wait. The computer is just upside down.
DisneyQuest has been a miserable failure. The last one in Orlando is closing in 2008.
I already play in the world's biggest consensual out-of-the-home game. Nothing for me here, I'll move along...as soon as the traffic breaks.
>>"My wife and I also went to try out MagiQuest at Broadway at the Beach in Myrtle Beach. We really did not know what to expect from their advertising."
I was down in Myrtle about 2 months ago...and while the MagiQuest advertising was everywhere, and looked mildly interesting (for a person like me who loves fantasy lit, not sure about the general public), it was like pulling teeth to find out exactly what the attraction was. I didn't even get a real good explanation at their website. And I wasn't about to throw down $80+ (for me and three kids) to experiment with some unknown attraction. And besides, the kids were liking catching lizards in Brookgreen Gardens...so why mess with a good thing.
Anyone else think "time to grow the hell up?" You're in an amusement park and are "dragging" a two-year old?
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dream_Park)
Is everyone ripping off the Wii these days?
I'm a level 20 slashdotter. Who wants to group for a raid on BSD?
Seriously, the gloomy article completely ignores stuff like LaserQuest (you have that in the US, right?) / paintball / crazy golf / karting / snowboarding which are all mainstream activities but are outdoor videogames in character (yeah, I know crazy golf was before computers).
"when I have a SLI Voodoo card at home that can run Quake at 1600x1200 on a 21 inch CRT?"
I had no idea that the SLI technology was that old. I doubt you'll ever hear nVidia admit they weren't the first.
in the future we will go to gaming centers outside the home where we pay to play games that could never run on our home consoles. The machines will probably accept direct payments in return for your chance to play, like a vending machine!
I'm in Myrtle Beach, and MaqiQuest is one of our favorite things to do, if you feel like fighting your way through throngs of little kids during the summer. You have no idea how busy this place is. the desire to squeeze as much money as possible out of the place interferes with the experience. I hear a lot of people leaving unhapppy because it was just too busy there to really have fun.
Me fail English? That's unpossible!
It was the fact that when I turned my head, the game turned too! It was so cool to look over and see my fellow players right there. It was so natural. It was sweet. The helmet wasn't a 3D viewer, it was Virtual Reality. I was hooked.
Google: "All your data are belong to us."
I'm not a gamer at all (at least not since I kicked a really bad addiction to the original Half-Life), so for all I know there are places similar to the following already out there, and have been for ages.
... actually running around and around for hours, clambering though the occasional stretch of ductwork, all the while working with a team over radio in an effort to foil the bad-guys, fragging a few of them when convenient.
... reading this ... that's your cue...)
I wish that there was a really, really immersive gaming environment out in the real world somewhere, spanning 5+ acres (2+ hectares). I'm talking about something on par with a high-budget Hollywood set, only on a huge scale. Partly outdoors, partly indoors in mock laboratories or whatever, partly underground in mock bunkers, etc. If there was a real complex set up somewhere to look as impressive as your average Half-Life map, I'd be in to gaming again. And as a result getting some serious, serious exercise
I'm trying to imagine what it would be like to have a capture-the-flag or deathmatch game between multiple teams in a really detailed real-world environment like that. There would be a host of challenges to overcome (avoiding actual deaths would be one of those challenges). But it seems to me as though, with today's extreme sports and interest in Fear-Factor-esque physical challenges, there has to be some way to provide a level of real risk to the participants while still making survival likely.
If those flexible, transparent OLED displays ever become a reality, that would also provide an option for true HUDs, allowing for augmented reality to be blended into the environment. And if you wanted to practice with your team beforehand, a truly virtual version of the complex could be made available so that you could practice before meeting up to face your chosen competitors. I can't help but think something like this would rock, although I'm sure there are a slew of people out there who are going to tell me all the reasons why it wouldn't. (You there
Whoever designed level 61 in Frozen Bubble is a sadistic bastard.
I have seen many entertainment complexes come and go over my lifetime. The ones that are surviving seem to be targeted to adults, like D&B, while the others, that just provide indoor distrations to kids, are failing. This seems expecially true of the places that require parents to stay and supervise. If you can't get rid of the kid, might as well just play video games at home.
On a high note, I am happy to report, that the afternoons and weekends find all our parks full of kids and parents, and even the museums full of patrons. I do hope that someone can figure out a way to make money on a large scale from the indoor electronic games, especailly in the hot summers, but I can't help but wonder if a problem with the business model is that kids just appreciate being outside and together in unstructured activity.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
I live in Celebration, Florida. It's about 10 minutes from Disney Quest. As has been posted before, it is closing in 2008 to become an ESPN Zone.
I go to "Downtown Disney" almost every weekend for one reason or another. Downtown Disney is where DisneyQuest is located. What it comes down to is that DisneyQuest is awesome, but theres no replay-ability. You go once and experience everything there is in one day, and all that's left to do is play the regular arcade games. At $30 a day, it's not really worth it to just go and play regular arcade games. While there used to be lines outside DisneyQuest, the initial shock reaction of "ohhh virtual reality" has worn off.
Since it opened the only real new thing I can think of that has been added is...nothing. They replaced the Hercules ride with the Pirates of the Carribean ride, which is the only real new content added. They also switched from the credit system of giving out cards to people with credits on them to play games and ride rides to a one-fee for the day theme park style admission. None of my friends have been motivated to go back anytime recently, all of the tech is outdated. All the other Disney parks add stuff and give us reasons to go back. Examples are Epcot's mission space, Epcot's test track, Animal Kingdom's mount everest, MGM'S rockin roller coaster, Epcot's Soarin, etc.
The biggest reason DisneyQuest is dying is Disney's lack of innovation and new content. Why go to DisneyQuest when you can just go to a regular arcade and pay to play the games you want instead of paying to get in?
-Glitch "We all know Linux is great...it does infinite loops in 5 seconds." - Linus Torvalds
But the RetroActive store across the boardwalk is better, 'cause they have a Pac-Man machine and Jolt Cola :-)
Creative misinterpretation is your friend.
So DisneyQuest stunk it up because they didn't handle it properly, BUT it's still a good idea. The video game market is now exclusively at home. I remember when the Sony Metreon in SF first opened, and the video game area was pretty neat, except that the fun Quaternia game was simply a FPS, and the immersion game where you sit in a pod and drive around and shoot things was poorly implemented. Now no one gives a rats a$$ about the games at Metreon.
I think it's sad that these games like the ones at DQ have not evolved. I don't think they have because the demand is low, and the demand is low because people don't know how fun this kind of stuff COULD be.
There is (was?) a chain of high-end VR and immersive games playground here in Canada (not sure if it is in the States as well) called Playdium. One of the coolest games I ever played was in the West Edmonton Mall called "Combatica". Essentially, you and your opponent played a DoA-style deathfest game BUT you actually did the moves while a camera/laser scanned your movements. Absolutely amazing and very, very tiring. My sister ended up literally tearing my head off in a best of three. So cool.
Immersive pod based VR gamming in the Battletech universe started aver 10 years ago. They even had international competitions and tournaments on ESPN2.
www.virtualworld.com
---In a time of Chimpanzees I was a Monkey.
I am a 38 year old past gamer. And the first game I visited after paying my $30 something to get into DisneyQuest last fall was Alladin. What a mistake! I got so motion sick! My eyes were telling me one thing, but since there is *no* movement required at all my ears were telling my brain something different. I almost puked!
So for the next hour or so I walked around with cold sweats feeling really ill, playing tame games to get some of my money's worth, many of which were really really cool! Eventually my ears and eyes got back in synch and I ventured onto the VR rollercoaster. Man, that thing was really cool. They assign a score to your design and mine was off the chart because of all the jumps and loops I put in. Nevertheless it was a real blast!
It is a shame that DisneyQuest is going to close. I can only imagine it was because the games are all rather old and the admission is frightfully expensive. I recently visited Dave and Busters for the first time outside Atlanta and it was a blast, though there were not nearly enough games. I think I dropped $20 in tokens and ended up spending most of the time playing Need For Speed Underground.
I really do miss the arcades, but then again it is a lot cheaper once you have a PC to go out and buy a new game than to blow the money required for an evening or two at the arcade. The games are all $1 or more apiece now.
This post brought to you by your friendly neighborhood MBA.
The developers who created the "Aladdin" and "Pirates of the Caribbean" games at DisneyQuest have spent the last few years making MMORPGs. They created Toontown Online in 2003, and they're now working on a Pirates of the Caribbean MMORPG that is scheduled for a 2007 release. That probably explains why DisneyQuest hasn't gotten any new, original games in a long time.
I went to DQ for 4 hours on a multi-day disney trip. It was pretty lame, considering that Disney was supposed to be the "best" as far as theme parks go. I might as well have gone to Cedar Point and then a gaming center or arcade.
After an hour of 1990's-style VR games, I spent the rest of the 4 hours watching a DDR maniac play the hardest levels of Exceed 2 on double-controller mode. It was the most amazing thing i've ever seen, so it was definitely worth going to the park. The guy must have had an arcade at home, because he was A-AAA scoring on levels so hard that I could barely even read all of the symbols (I am a DDR player). He was completely soaked in sweat, and kept leaving every 3 songs or so to wipe off in the bathroom.
Being able to play on 3 DDR machines, a percussion-like DDR game, and watching a bunch of idiots try to play DDR made it worth the admission.
I went there too. The problem to me seemed that it had to be somewhat affordable. So the "rides" had to be scaled back from regular Disney stuff.
So the whole thing played as extremely low-rent. It had none of the magic and wonder you expected of Disney. You ended up seeing computer graphics and stuff you could see at home instead of animatronics and large-scale dark rides.
The ESPNZone was right next door, and altough it was completely Dave & Buster's knockoff, it worked because you didn't expect so much.
At least that was my experience.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
There are some augmented reality things being developed, where you impose images on top of what is reality.
I saw one where you have to shoot aliens, but can't find the link now.
http://wearables.unisa.edu.au/projects/ARQuake/ww
This magiquest could be modded / homebrew for ren fairs. Pay $20 to get a wand and cloak to wear, then wander around in the woods looking for clues the same way. A single quest could not be that hard to develop. The wand basically was some sort of IR device with a motion sensor inside. You could just go with a remote, point and shoot. Sensors and devices can be simplistic, and you could link them with WIFI if you need networking...
I thought SLI Voodoo cards were 1024x768 max, at least for 12 MB Voodoo 2s...
This is not surprising. In many ways, MMOs are the spiritual offspring of the theme park.
What I think is even more interesting is moving in the other direction, theme parks based on popular MMO franchises.
Quest-based, exploration-based, rides and virtual experiences that build upon the familiar geography of popular MMO worlds, with cross-promotions that build the core audience on both sides of the fence.
What were you expecting?
Title should have been more accurate. I meant to consider video games outside the home, the classic arcade.
The ones you mention are all normal activites, except lazer tag, which we don't see too often in the states for some reason.
The units are fun-as-hell to play but the type of people that has the interest and money to play them is too damn busy playing WoW or on XBL.
Maybe somebody could get them to work, but I've hired some smart people and they sure can't figure it out...
Spell cheek you've failed me four the last thyme!