CURSE OF DARKASTLE: The Chilling Tale of Busch Gardens’ Legendary Lost Dark Ride and the Rise of DarKoaster

“Long ago, in the deepest heart of the Black Forest, a young prince lived – unloved – in a dark castle…”

Once upon a time, Curse of DarKastle was an almost-unbelievable technological showcase – well ahead of what guests would expect from a seasonal, regional theme park. This 21st century haunted house infused with a custom-created story of a Mad King hellbent on trapping guests in his icy palace did the unthinkable in attempting to repurpose Universal’s greatest ride system with Disney’s signature storytelling. It was a Modern Marvel; a testament to the newfound power and accessibility that technology afforded even to “in-between” parks… But of course, it was doomed.

Though DarKastle brilliantly headlined Busch Gardens Williamsburg’s park of myths, legends, and adventures from “The Old Country,” it ended up a ghost story itself… at least until a spirited return to DarKastle thawed the castle’s gates once more, creating a spiritual sequel few saw coming… Do dare cross the threshold into Mad King Ludwig’s Black Forest fortress, forever frozen in time…?

Hauntings

People love to be scared. And for more than a century, amusement parks have been trying to find new ways to do it.

Some of the earliest themed ride-through attractions were born in the late 1800s, when guests would climb aboard boats and drift through “Old Mills” or “River Caves” driven by waterwheels. There, riders might sail past scenes dimly lit by the brand new electric lightbulb. An excuse to hold frightened dates close in the prudish Victorian times, these “dark rides” earned their title… and their frequent nickname, “Tunnels of Love.”

As the 20th century continued, the scenes (and scares) in dark rides became more elaborate. Soon, gravity-driven carts were rolling over switches that sent caged props shaking as strobe lights flashed; then, the electrically-powered bus-bar created a generation of “Pretzel” dark rides, humming along as riders whipped to and fro through startling scenes. Haunted houses, ghost trains, funhouses, and Noah’s Ark walkthroughs spread across the world, becoming mainstays of boardwalks and picnic parks.

Of course, perhaps the most famous “Haunted Mansions” on Earth are those found at Disney Parks, beginning with the original in Anaheim in 1969. Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion surely benefitted from the rapid advancements in ride technologies that Imagineering had developed through the ’60s (like Audio-Animatronics figures and the high-capacity, continuously-moving Omnimover ride system). But secretly, most of the Mansion’s cleverest moments were surprisingly low-tech – tricks of the light pioneered by showmen of the prior century.

It wasn’t really until the 1980s that the pioneers at Disney got serious about adapting new ride technologies once more, with 1987’s Lost Legend: STAR TOURS acting as a pivot point. The novel idea of a motion simulator synced to projected media served as the jumping off point for not just the cinematic “Ride the Movies” era, but the “Age of the Simulator” – kicking off an arms race in technological advancement that the industry is still in the midst of all these decades later.

Speaking of which, eager to break into the Orlando market themselves, Universal set to work developing its own starring ride technology, powering a similar simulator – the Lost Legend: Back to the Future – The Ride.

Increasingly ambitious, Disney countered with the Modern Marvel: Indiana Jones Adventure, whose “Enhanced Motion Vehicle” positioned guests atop a motion base attached to a rolling, powered ride chassis, simulating rough terrain, steep turns, and sudden drops as it advanced through physical sets.

And for Universal, the EMV served as a wake-up call. To best it, they’d need to think big about the technologies that powered the theme park they had in development… and invest in something no one had ever done before.

The Amazing Advancements of Spider-Man

The “Ride the Movies” era of the late ’80s and early ’90s had seen unimaginable advances in ride technologies – and in the scale and expense operators were willing to invest to create blockbuster “E-Ticket” experiences. An era of innovation, the ’90s could only have been bookended by the opening of Universal’s Islands of Adventure.

When Universal boldly asserted that its new park would be like none built before, they were right. Sure, there’s all the classic praise heaped on the park, like its bold breakaway from Universal’s then-established aesthetic of backlots, studios, and interchangeable intellectual properties; there’s also the park’s unique position having gone all in on a brand new concept – the “IP land” – that’s now industry standard.

But beneath all of that, concealed under the immersive set dressings and the timeless, literary stories Universal optioned for the park was its notable claim to be “The World’s Most Technologically-Advanced Theme Park.” There were cutting edge special effects; astounding animatronics; launched and dueling coasters before such technologies were common… But without a doubt, one ride served as the park’s thesis…

When Universal first acquired the exclusive rights to build attractions based on Marvel superheroes in the mid-’90s, it was always clear that Spider-Man would star in his own attraction. Even from the earliest concepts – when it would’ve used an Omnimover-like chain of slow-moving vehicles passing looping scenes – designers intended to use 3D screens embedded in physical sets to bring Spider-Man’s comic book world to life…

… But after the EMV, designers working on the Spider-Man attraction knew they had to go bigger, and Universal was willing to open their wallets to make it happen. Collaborating with Oceaneering – an engineering service company that typically specializes in aerospace, defense, and deep-sea technologies – a new ride system was born.

Set within the comic-book-come-to-life streetscape of Marvel Super Hero Island, The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man was singlehandedly responsible for putting Islands of Adventure on the map – and before Marvel and the superhero film craze swept the country, mind you. (Sam Raimi’s first Spider-Man film wouldn’t be released until 2002!)

Here’s the big deal: Spider-Man debuted a ride system colloquially known as the “SCOOP.” First-time riders watch as these lumbering, twelve-passenger SCOOP carts slowly pull up to the Daily Bugle’s loading dock and then, with guests aboard, crawl away and turn the corner into the streets of a comic book New York.

What queuing guests don’t see is that – as soon as they’re out of sight of the loading area – the SCOOP springs to life, becoming one of our Seven Modern Wonders of the Theme Park World. In actuality, the large “news-gathering, off-roading” vehicle is the functional heart of this comic book adventure.

Once around the corner, those twelve-person cabs are attached to motion base comprised of six hydraulic pistons providing six-degrees-of-freedom motion and a pinion gear. That multi-factor motion array then sits atop the bus-bar powered wheeled base that physically advances through the dark ride along a track.

The result is that each SCOOP is can rumble, buck, turn, sway, lift, fall, pivot, and spin in circles as it moves through the dark ride showbuilding. Fluid, forceful, and frantic, the carts take on a life of their own, tossed to and fro and they climb rough terrain, float, and even fall. This ultra-complex ride system is impressive in and of itself; but it’s the way Universal Creative and the Goddard Group applied it that made all the difference.

Most incredibly massive, rear-projected screens are present throughout the ride, perfectly blended into the physical, dimensional sets they’re embedded into. Those screens act as “windows,” extending scenes through an animation process dubbed “squinching” – anticipating and correcting for the shifting perspective as a moving vehicle moves past a screen.

Set out into the unknown as wet-behind-the-ears reporters, riders unintentionally find themselves in the crosshairs of the Sinister Syndicate, sailing through the sewers, racing through warehouses, and climbing skyscrapers as we help Spidey himself recover the Statue of Liberty from the villains’ evil grasp. The ride’s highlight? It ends with a 400-foot finale freefall that would convince even the most grounded realist that they’ve just taken a dive. Spider-Man is so incredible, we told the web-slinging story of its creation in its own entry in our in-depth series – Modern Marvels: The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man.

The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man opened in 1999, taking the theme park industry by surprise. Groundbreaking in every way, Spider-Man is unanimously renowned and undeniably remembered as the spark that ignited a new generation of theme park innovation. This is a big ride; a brash new technology; and a blockbuster budget… So who could’ve imagined that the SCOOP ride technology would ever be adapted outside of Orlando… much less at a seasonal, regional theme park…?