In Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, ETF Ride Systems and Jora Vision are presenting a brand new product for Family Entertainment Centres (FEC’s): “Pirate Mania” at the Saudi Entertainment and Amusement Expo, running through February 5.
Pirate Mania is developed as a product for indoor venues with a limited footprint who are looking to add an interactive family experience with a high repeatability factor. Currently high class family dark rides are mainly affordable for Theme Parks. Pirate Mania is the first high class interactive dark ride developed especially for the FEC market or smaller parks, events etc. The space needed for this ride is only 250 m2.
ETF Ride Systems, specialized in developing and manufacturing ride systems, will be the turnkey supplier of the ride and will provide the ride vehicles and interactive system. Jora Vision, experience specialist, is responsible for design and build of theming. A total of six projects of Jora Vision, from which three with ETF Ride Systems, have received a Thea award, the “Oscars” of the themed entertainment industry.
In the story of the ride, the pirates have set up a training course, so guests can learn to become pirates themselves! They board a pirate themed vehicle, take a gun and have to find the pirate skulls scattered around the training course. New in this ride is the use of animated targets. You are not just shooting at a target with a LED effect, but at an actual small screen integrated within the show-sets, which makes the ride state-of-the-art. One of the scenes takes place in a blacklight lighted box.
Ruud Koppens, CEO of ETF Ride Systems explains: “For Pirate Mania we are using the Mystic Mover system, which is the smart smaller member of the ETF trackless family. It follows a mounted wire in the floor, so visitors will not be distracted by a track. The vehicle has a double bench and a capacity of 4 guests. The track path is also extraordinary: we added fancy movements such as 90° turns and a 360° on-the-spot rotation, in the middle of a sunken pirate ship. An on- board sound system will be integrated. We are proud to work with Jora Vision to launch this new product into the market.”
Jan Maarten de Raad, CEO of Jora Vision adds: “Many theme parks value dark rides as a type of attraction. If it is made well, it is an immersive family experience which involves music, lighting, show-sets and integrated media. However we strongly believe there is another market for dark ride experiences: the smaller FEC’s usually placed in shopping malls or commercial areas. Because of the small footprint and budget friendly concept, we hope to convince FEC’s that such dark rides are a great investment to diversify the entertainment offer. Of course with an excellent theming and story.”
