Legends of the past...
Image: Neuschwanstein
King Ludwig II of Bavaria (sometimes called der Märchenkönig – the Fairy Tale King) was indeed an unusual – but very real – figure. After a deadly three-day illness killed his father, Ludwig ascended to the throne in 1864 at only eighteen years old. Ill prepared to be King (as most teenagers would be), Ludwig was nonetheless popular for his youth… and his brooding good looks.
Consequently, he made little effort to reform policy or precedent, avoiding social gatherings and public speaking altogether. Instead, Ludwig kept to himself, concealed in his palace as he contemplated fine arts, music, and architecture. His mother even noted that she feared for her son, given his “insurmountable shyness” and creativity.
Original Photocrom print, 1900. Reproduction number: LC-DIG-ppmsca-00179 from Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
While the reclusive king’s popularity soared with the people, Ludwig’s eccentricities created great tension in his government… Especially when he hoarded personal funds to finance pet projects, like the lavish Neuschwanstein castle (famously, the inspiration for Disneyland’s Sleeping Beauty Castle), bankrupting the King. Still, he continued ahead with still more lavish projects, seeking loans from European royalty.
When Ludwig’s ministers got wind of Ludwig’s plan to dismiss them, they acted quickly to remove the king from the throne.
Image: Neuschwanstein
His advisors sought to have him declared mentally incompetent to rule (even without any examination). They succeeded, and Ludwig was declared “hopelessly insane,” earning the nickname Mad Ludwig that’s followed him through history.
The day after his deposition, Ludwig was found floating in a pond on the castle grounds, dead… though it was ruled a suicide, no water was found in his lungs. He was only 40 years old…
... Technology of tomorrow
Image: Falcon's Creative Group / Super 78 Studios
The legend of "Mad Ludwig" was the perfect inspiration for a 21st century haunted house that would be right at home among Busch Gardens' European hamlets inspired by myths and stories of the old country. Curse of DarKastle was announced and a 2005 opening was set. Busch Gardens assembled an all-star team that would work to create the second ever installation of a 4D roving motion-based dark ride.
Image: Falcon's Creative Group / Super 78 Studios
Oceaneering International (as their name suggests, a sub-sea research equipment manufacturer) had created the original SCOOP system used on The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man, and returned to the business to do the same for DarKastle... with a slight change. Spider-Man's twelve-person SCOOPs used hydraulic pistons to control six-degrees-of-freedom motion bases. For DarKastle, the system would downsize for a regional audience, holding eight guests with four-degrees-of-freedom supplied by pneumatic air bags.
Image: SeaWorld Parks
Ride manufacturer Falcon’s Creative Group was brought on board to develop the ride system while Super 78 Studios developed the ride footage that would tell the story of a legendary mad king and his eternal quest for power.
Neither had worked on Spider-Man, which meant that they needed to essentially re-invent an astounding process developed for Universal's ride thatr had been called "squinching." Essentially, before Spider-Man, 3D had never been designed to be seen from a moving point-of-view. If guests moving alongside a screen were meant to think that screen was nothing more than an extention of the real world, they'd need the perspective in the scene to shift naturally, just as it would if you looked down a hallway as moving past.
Easier seen than said, the result is that if you were to stand in place in front of one of the ride's screens, the image would appear to squish, stretch, and slide. However, from the precisely-calculated point-of-view of a moving vehicle, the perspective appears natural, merely extending the scene.
Curse of DarKastle opened May 1, 2005… but what guests found inside didn't last long before being reimagined… Ready to go for a ride on the original Curse of DarKastle? Read on…
Comments
Typical, Falcons took a project and could not maintain a budget or a concept to full potential as they would not of profited as much… Signing contracts and not delivering for $$ reasons!
I rode DarKastle every year of its existence. While I couldn't pinpoint the all of the differences, I remember getting off it in Spring '06 and saying, "They changed the storyline!"
Your great article missed other large DK problems. 1) The acoustics weren't sufficiently tuned to the demands of the ride. The large, boxy, switchback entrance hall echoed and collected the waiting crowd noise and heat! The doors separating the hall from the preshow anteroom weren't enough to block the spillover sound. The preshow and ride audio was spotty. If you weren't in the correct spot, you couldn't always decipher what was being said...even in the 2005 opening season.
2) BG didn't train their employees well enough in how to handle a very restive crowd. There also weren't enough employees per guest for a slow loading ride. The BG employees did their best, but couldn't match the irritation or ire of a crowd tired of the cheek-to-cheek squeezing of the entrance hallway. Trying to get the crowd to be quiet and watch the preshow was a wasted effort.
3) The preshow was graphically gorgeous, but not captivating. Unlike the Haunted Mansion which uses the whole room, DK only used 1 wall. Again, you had to be in the correct place to see it. I don't think most of the crowd ever knew why they were being delayed (again) from riding.
4) The queue line and the VA humidity. The winding garden path was usually in full sunlight. The pavement was light colored and reflected the heat. The path did not have any shade coverings like the Haunted Mansion tents. You then left the garden for the boxy entrance hall that had little ventilation. VA summers are full of 90+ degree days with high humidity. The DK queue line set up potential riders to be overly hot and tired before even boarding. Misting fans were installed all throughout the park in later years. However, they were too little too late for DK.
Thanks for explaining the full reasons why I never recaptured that 2005 DarKastle feeling. I knew there had to be more than the changes I noticed.