King Arthur's Challenge
- Thread starter Zachary
- Start date
Vividly remember loving the hell out of this ride - but I was 3-7 years old when it was out.
Lord Robert said:
Why would you want to torture yourself and kill brain cells from watching a disaster?!
Lord Robert said:
I'd like to point out that KAC didn't even last close to three seasons (heck, it didn't even last two full seasons). The ride opened June 1996 and by the end of 1997, it was never seen or heard from again (Thank God!). So it lasted about 11 operating months between the 1996 and 1997 seasons.
I can't think of another major attraction at the park that had such a short life.
Not sure if this has been posted before but here is a link to an article about the ride from 1996. Here
Interesting read, thanks @Gameboyzee.
Whatever demo the Busch execs saw at that conference must have been light years beyond the eventual product they received in KAC. A handful of years after Terminator 2 wowed everyone, and on the heels of Jurassic Park, I can hardly imagine their disappointment upon seeing that KAC CGI for the first time. Surely they didn’t expect Hollywood quality at a regional theme park simulator price point. But in an era when the public knew what computers could do, the grade-E beef that was KAC must have had Busch sitting with head in hands, wondering what they had done.
Mid-90s CGI in low-to mid-budget settings was like the ridiculous overuse of mismatched fonts in mid-90s print ads. The novelty factor outweighed common sense attention to quality far too often. Just because one could do it...
Whatever demo the Busch execs saw at that conference must have been light years beyond the eventual product they received in KAC. A handful of years after Terminator 2 wowed everyone, and on the heels of Jurassic Park, I can hardly imagine their disappointment upon seeing that KAC CGI for the first time. Surely they didn’t expect Hollywood quality at a regional theme park simulator price point. But in an era when the public knew what computers could do, the grade-E beef that was KAC must have had Busch sitting with head in hands, wondering what they had done.
Mid-90s CGI in low-to mid-budget settings was like the ridiculous overuse of mismatched fonts in mid-90s print ads. The novelty factor outweighed common sense attention to quality far too often. Just because one could do it...
I don't think I've ever seen this King Arthur's Challenge logo before...
Has anyone found the King Arthur’s Challenge promotional song yet?
Does anyone have any pictures/video/anything of the ride when it operated? The more I read about it, the more curious I get.
Sadly other than a picture of the outside facade there is nothing else about this dang ride. If the videos containing the pre-show elements and the ride itself are out there, I would love to see them in a heartbeat.
I often come back to this thread and reread the same article over and over and try to think and research more about this ride. I'm pretty sure the convention the Busch executives went for this ride was the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA) convention in 1995. I used the wayback machine to go back in time on the conventions web site and found a list of manufacturers around this time. Going through the list will sometimes give a description and tell what year the company was joined into the IAAPA. After looking a bit, Chameleon technologies inc looks promising, but then again it could be for a different type of simulation. Do we even know any companies involved with King Arthur's Challenge?
Coming back from researching more, I found this company called Miziker Entertainment. Their description reads "Miziker Entertainment designs and creates CGI content on all platforms for clients around the world." Using the wayback machine I went to their credits and found they were involved with BGW. Scrolling down is a credit for "BUSCH OLD COUNTRY Williamsburg, Virginia Swiss Village Show Consultant `96" Now this could not be for this ride, but I can't think of what else they could have done for BGW in 1996. Lemme know your thoughts.