You have read the cartoons (comics :D) seen the action-packed special effects extravaganza spider-man movies
you have even been on the ahead of its time innovative action-packed dark ride 'The Amazing
Adventures of Spider-man at Universal's Islands of Adventure
This could be the most dangerous night of my life and yours!
Perhaps you're even excited about the interactive spider-man web
slingers attraction at the disneyland resort
Spiderman! Spiderman! Does whatever a spider can
this latest spidey attraction offering is not the first ride letting you sling webs at spider-man's foes no no no.... there was another
an attraction that combined a dark ride interactive shooting and spider-man one
that was called the ultimate ride. Was it though? No not really.
hey spidey friends it's your old pal
spider-man here and i need your help. It appears that the city's biggest villains are all on the prowl!
[Expedition Theme Park Intro Music]
Niagara Falls isn't on the list of the seven natural wonders of the world, however many consider
it to be one. Drawing visitors from all over the world to see the three waterfalls on the border
between Ontario and New York visitors to the attraction steadily increased throughout the 20th
century until, over 20 million visitors would head to the site each year, With so much footfall to the
area one industry would boom. Tourist attractions.
the sonorous thunder of niagara falls bids welcome good neighbor to almost 3 million visitors every year.
The first boom will come in the 1920s on a street called clifton hill, many more visitors were coming to the falls due to the increase
of vehicles hotels and campgrounds would pop up all over to meet the demand this would continue
throughout the 50s. During the 60s clifton hill would see more and more unique museums built
such as the hollywood wax museum, ripley's believe it or not, house of frankenstein and basically any
type of tourist attraction that you could think of. Located just a short distance from the waterfalls
the area would become known as the street of fun, jam-packed full of chain restaurants and
tourist offerings. Attraction changes came thick and fast on the street with many being renamed
or rethemed throughout the years becoming the second busiest tourist destination in the city.
It is important to note that Marvel at this time was a completely different company than it is
today. Their rival DC dominated the film industry with successes like Superman and Batman.
Marvel on the other hand had attempted to find success but ultimately failed with multiple botched attempts
to license marvel in the 90s. By 1995 marvel were heavily in debt and were only saved by
merging with toy company ToyBiz because of their financial troubles they would package up
and sell off the rights to their characters to different companies, one being universal pictures
"In the adventures of spider-man we literally get dropped into the pages of a comic book."
"Trick or treat! Smell my feet. Time to blow you off the street! Hahaha!
In 1996 Universal began creating a brand new state-of-the-art attraction for its upcoming
Islands of Adventure theme park. After a deal fell through to gain the DC rights to use in the park
they would turn to Marvel. What would come would be the highlight attraction
of marvel superhero island, an attraction that was estimated to cost around 100 million dollars
the amazing adventures of spider-man would open with the park in 1999 and be based on the comics
of marvel spider-man. The motion-based 3D dark ride received critical acclaim as one of the
best attractions ever created. Universal would once again use their theme park rights to the character
to create spider-man rocks in 2002. yeesh my spider senses are tingling this one was a stinker....
During the early 2000s Marvel would continue to sell the rights off for tourism usage
in countries outside the US. 2003 saw spider-man come to the UK with a spider-man stunt show at
Thorpe Park. What would come to canada though would be completely different.
"Okay this I like."
in 2000 marvel would publish a new comic based around Peter Parker. Ultimate spider-man. This new version of the story would modernize the long-running series as the first of the ultimate marvel lineup
that will go on to cover many classic characters each retelling and expanding on their story and
it would be this version of the character... kinda... That would head to niagara falls. Two years later
it was announced that the first ever Marvel Adventure City would come to that touristy street
near the falls. Located at Clifton Hill and Falls Avenue would be a brand new 30 000 square foot
retail and entertainment complex featuring marvel comic based rides, arcades, food and merchandise.
This will be announced as the prototype for the first of many similar ventures that will
be scheduled to open around the U.S. It was hoped that within the next three to five years
the new marvel attraction would find further homes in Los Angeles and many other top US locations
"welcome to the creative world of dark rider the amusement industry's most innovative dark
ride company. Founded in St Louis, Missouri a company called halloween productions began
business by constructing haunted houses. Firstly for themselves before others requested that
they would do the same and began creating full walk-through attractions, hayrides and live shows
Some notable examples of their work include the haunted mansion, not that one, the one on 192 and
skull kingdom in Orlando, as well as multiple haunted houses for theme parks such as busch
gardens tampa, paramount parks and six flags.
After their success the company would split and start another division called Dark Rider.
They would be the first amusement company to market black light based attractions. The company would do everything from design, storyboard,
model and fabricate attractions. The first of which would be the Haunted Mansion dark ride at Casino
Beach Pier in New Jersey shortly followed in 2003 the majority of what awaited inside the new
marvel super heroes adventure city. As you entered this building spider-man hung from
the roof facing off against green goblin. Inside would be five main attractions.
These would be, the spider-man and friends fun house which was an area for the little superheroes, advertised as even
spider-man the hulk and x-men were kids at one time, who would want to play in this playground
featuring slides, ball pits and climbing equipment Daredevil obstacle challenge allowed visitors to
see if they had what it took to be a superhero. To do that you would have to race each other and
the clock for an obstacle course. Only one would have the stuff of heroes. X-men bumper carts ask
riders to strap in and get ready for combat. You were able to shoot your opponents or bash them
with your car to earn points, again proving you had what it took to be a hero and defeat evil.
Next would be the incredible hulk encounter, a walk-through experience where the hulk had
escaped in a military base and destroyed the laps. Wearing 3D glasses, it was essentially
a haunted house walkthrough that the company had had many years of experience making. This time only
with the hulk in it. It offered multiple different routes throughout where you had to try and avoid
his destructive path. Finally the main attraction itself, the dark ride, spider-man the ultimate ride
Dark Rider got a big break when we were contracted to design and create spider-man's
ultimate ride. Which took the idea of a very modest budgeted dark ride to new levels. The
client demanded to see spider-man fight the green goblin, no one has ever done something
like this in a dark ride with a budget around six hundred thousand dollars but dark rider accepted
the opportunity and the challenge. Please behold dark rider's very first real dark ride creation
spider-man's ultimate ride. While mostly based on the ultimate comics it was somewhat of a
weird mix of classic and ultimate designs with a touch of sam raimi's trilogy thrown in for fun
designed and built by blacklight attractions part of haunted productions
inside was a shooting interactive dark ride, where you could battle spider-man's arch enemies in a
uh edge of your seat adventure...
it's your old pal spider-man here and i need your help!
paying 13 dollars each, the slow moving attraction would use 3D glasses. Not your usual theme park 3D
glasses however but the paper kind that you could often find given with comic books themselves
it began as spider-man who doesn't sound like the 15 year old kid from the ultimate comics
rather a 35 year old, informed you that the city's villains were on the prowl and to help you had
to shoot the coloured targets throughout the ride to defeat the enemies, with your web gun
"yeah yeah i hear those villains escaped well make sure parker gets me some pictures
i gotta go... Oh so you're the saps who are helping out spiderman huh? you know it's probably his fault
all those costume clowns are running around the city! Spider-man's just another criminal!"
Riders would find scorpion, lizard, electro, green goblin and of course dr octopus
quick shoot the bricks so they'll fall on top of them and bury them again
that ought to take the sting out of the scorpion!
as you went through the ride Spidey would inform you what you would have to do to defeat the villains
"it looks like electro is experiencing a major power outage "
the more targets you hit the safer the streets of New York would become.
"Mind if I tag along? Get off My glider! let's see how well you fly without these wires!"
for the ride itself the attraction's budget was just six hundred thousand dollars
quite the difference to the 100 million dollars used to create the universal studios attraction
dark rider would use every cent of that budget to try and create something fun
a small unique and Marvel based experience and in some ways they succeeded
i guess we found the right prescription for this doctor!
For those who visited the attraction though
it was... disappointing...it was expensive to ride and poorly maintained from the opening. The attraction
itself was not terrible, it could actually be kind of fun when fully working but it was just
too expensive to ride for what it was. The reviews were quite damning and the whole center was often
found having to give full refunds. The place's poor maintenance also affected the experience with the
guns often not working or the ride fully coming to a stop. They tried to remedy this in 2004 when the
attraction systems and effects were upgraded but what was inside though remained mostly the same
and it still did not help. The Hulk walkthrough only lasted two years until it was closed and
replaced with a blacklight Incredible Hulk Mini Golf, created once again by the same company.
In 2008, the very same year iron man would be released , and marvel would be set on its path to worldwide
success after multiple failed attempts and just one year before Disney would purchase the company
the signs for marvel superheroes adventure city were removed and all references to the comic
book characters were hastily covered over. The entertainment facility was heading for bankruptcy
and they were unable to continue paying the licensing of the comic book characters
losing the rights to use them. This once exciting idea would never get to become the franchise
around the US it intended to be. What remained open was a stripped-down version of the attractions
spidey and friends funhouse was now called spikey and friends, the Hulk was gone from the mini golf
and for a short time the spider-man attraction was just called 'the man ride'. It reopened shortly after
the comic book characters were removed and was now known as urban jungle. Surprisingly this attraction
still exists today now just called Adventure City, inside much of the experience remains very
similar to its former theme the Bumper Cars still battle, as traffic jam bumper cars, the
mini golf is a little less angry with a Wild Safari theme and most importantly you can still
battle villains on a ride now called Super Heroes Laser Ride. Very creative. Once again you fight the
forces of evil through the city streets using photon phasers to bring them to justice.
The ride is very much the same 18 years after opening only just a little less... Marvelous....
hey you really helped your old pal spider-man thanks to you we restored order and put those villains behind bars
but watch out you never know when i might need your help again thanks a lot spider friends
The small St Louis haunt attraction company would continue to grow after its first dark ride
they would go on to create other interactive dark rides around the world including the Garfield's
nightmare attraction at Kennywood, which is a fascinating story by itself. If you have been to a
3D Mini golf or blacklight escape room, is quite likely you have experienced one of their offerings
when it came to creating this Expedition on this weird Marvel attraction in Canada, I fully
expected to tell a tale of a terrible copycat attraction that was a rip-off, in the tourist
heart of Niagara Falls, however while it wasn't exactly good, dark rides are expensive and using
blackout cutouts, mixed with screens, was actually quite innovative with the budget they had to tell
a spider-man story. Especially for such a small attraction-based company from St Louis who
had only built haunted houses until that point. The real tragedy of this attraction was how the
adventure city was poorly run and maintained, even using the men in black images on their promotional
advertising of the attraction. A ride that would charge too much for what it was and leave many disappointed.
As a standalone attraction it could and to this day does kind of work, as long as your
expectations are not swinging too high. While many will see this as a knockoff Universal ride
it wasn't really.... It was an attraction that was created on an incredibly small budget
that haunted productions designed at a cost over 150 times less than the amazing spider-man ride
there are places in the world for cheaper attractions and for me the more dark rides
the better. Sadly this one just wasn't really the ultimate spider-man attraction....
Thank you so much for watching this episode of Expedition Extinct
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