Technabob » amusement park

“Inception Park” in Buenos Aires: One Wild Ride

Hazel Chua — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:00:16 +0000

Inception was both an eye-opening and mind-opening movie, although it was mostly and obviously fiction. Floating people and objects will never become a reality unless somethings gone awry with gravity. But then again – is it possible?

It apparently is, at least in the mind of film director Fernando Livschitz of Black Sheep Films. He created this captivating video called Inception Park where you’ll see a rollercoaster “flying” on an exhilarating ride through the streets of Buenos Aires, Argentina – completely untethered. Watch the video below for a truly trippy ride:

How Livschitz did it, we can only guess. (Sure, we know he did it using video editing software and by adding lots of effects, but exactly how to do it is what I meant.)

[via Pop Up City]

LEGOLAND Star Wars Upgrade Coming

Shane McGlaun — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 19:47:58 +0000

I have never been to LEGOLAND, but it has to be one of the things geeks need to see before they die. I thought I had a sweet gig getting to sit at home and write about gadgets all day, but these dudes at LEGOLAND California building up a massive Star Wars area all day make me jealous.

The two model makers you see in the pic above are building up a gigantic Millennium Falcon replica. The Star Wars area is set to open on March 31st, and will have 2,000 LEGO models that walk visitors through important scenes in the saga of films chronologically. That is to say starting with episode one, which is a newer flick in the saga leading up to Return of the Jedi and there will be some models from the Clone Wars cartoon too.

They don’t have any pics of these characters, but there will be life-size LEGO sculptures of Chewy and other characters from the flicks too. Nothing says geek like life size LEGO statues. I really want to go to LEGOLAND now! Once complete, the characters, landscapes and spacecraft in the exhibit will have used 1.5 million LEGO bricks.

[via LA Times]

Skycoaster 3d: iPhone Pocket Roller Coaster Makes You Dizzy Anywhere, Anytime

Technabob — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 13:00:18 +0000

Looking for a cheap thrill (ride)? Why not avoid paying the $50 admission and standing in endless lines at your local theme park and instead ride a tiny roller coaster that you can keep in your pocket?

Ziconic’s SkyCoaster 3D puts a miniature roller coaster simulator inside your iPhone. The application lets you take a ride on countless insanely impossible twisty and turny coasters. Thanks to a procedural track-generation engine, each and every trip is unique. And if you manage to stop hurling your virtual lunch as you ride the rails, you’ll notice that you’re surrounded by beautiful panoramic backdrops. You can also adjust settings to your own ride preferences, tweaking track length, complexity of corkscrews, loops and coaster acceleration among other things.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Ziconic says their upcoming 1.1 version (due the week of 2/23/2009) will include the ability to ride on suspension coasters, lets you adjust your point-of-view, and adds a nighttime backdrop among other things. Unfortunately, there aren’t any plans to take advantage of the iPhone’s accelerometer, so you’re at the whim of the coaster’s own acceleration and virtual gravity. Stupid laws of physics.

You can find SkyCoaster 3D over at the iTunes App Store for just 99 cents.