From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. This article has been tagged since January 2007.

Simulator rides are a type of amusement park ride, where the audience is shown a movie while their seats move to correspond to the action on screen.

Until recently, constructing simulator rides was an expensive, high tech business. The first simulators were built to train military pilots. Long before the days of virtual reality, the view through the cockpit came from remote video cameras which moved on gantries above physical model landscapes. These model landscapes were huge, often the size of aircraft hangars. By the mid-nineties, computer virtual reality graphics replaced most physical models in simulators. Today's flight training simulators, like NASA’s, have virtual landscapes projected on multiple screens giving a 180 degree view. Much simpler simulators, running fixed video synchronised to the movement of the 'cabin', were introduced in funfairs in the same period. They seat about 12 people and require an operator.

More recently, one to two person simulator rides have appeared. These run unattended and some types are interactive, like the original military flight training simulators. Unlike the military, however, most civilian similators are totally passive and have a choice of rides from which the user selects. The most advanced simulators are in totally enclosed capsules giving a much more immersive ride and allowing the person to be fully engaged in the simulation. The more recent two seaters, produced in 2005, have special effects added. These include fans which blast wind on the rider's face as the simulation goes faster, and heaters which heat the cabin when there is a virtual explosion or fire or a similar heat source is displayed on screen. Other effects include vibrations which add to the ride's realism. Due to the exclusivity of this type of simulator ride, there are only a few two seater simulator manufacturers in the world.

The first truly low-cost simulator is perhaps the £5k "Kidicoaster," which swings up and down in sync to a video of a roller coaster. For the first time it is becoming practical for amateur enthusiasts to develop their own simulator ride.

• Star Tours
• Body Wars
• Back to the Future: The Ride
• Curse of Dark Castle: The Ride
• The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera
• Gundam the Ride: A Baoa Qu
• Ed, Edd n’ Eddy’s big ED-venture
• New York Skyride at the Empire State Building
• Paramount Action FX Theater