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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