ATARI QUEST

Introduction

The Atari Art Museum is housed in the most simplistic building in Digital Frontiers being inspired by the low resolution sprites of Atari 2600 games. Just as clouds resemble different things to different people, the appearance of the building resembles a Roman temple to some, a jail cell to others, and a white guard rail to still others. On the top of the building is a red Mount Fuji Atari logo serving as a clocktower. Some say the art inside is so inspiring that it may spur someone to go on a quest perhaps, an Atari Quest.

Queue and Boarding Station

Entering through a 4 bit styled facade, guests first see what appears to be an ordinary art museum with art taken from sideart on Atari arcade cabinets and Atari 2600 box art and, of course (since this is Atari), a ton of wood grain. But slowly the walls seem to melt away, the check-marked floors become grey, and fantastical gadgets appear. This is now the world of Marble Madness.

Instead of being a hallway like the previous museum section, it’s a wide-open room. Tubes go across the ceiling and the outer walls that don’t go all the way to the ceiling each have different bright colors suggesting different obstacle courses. The Marble (on a track) goes throughout the room popping out of different tubes giving some kinetic energy to the queue. There’s an incline throughout the room that gives the room even more of an obstacle course feeling. At the end of the room, checker-marked flags hang above the doorway and transitions guests back to the museum.

This stint of the queue back in the museum is short. Mostly just a few switchbacks and you’re at the boarding station. A mural on one end has more fantasy-like artwork depicting environments from Crystal Castles and Adventure and on the other end sci-fi artwork depicting Asteroids and Tempest. In the center is Mount Fuji. Vehicles enter into an opening themed to the woods labeled with a sign “Pong Forest” and the opening that the vehicles exit out of is themed to a demolished city is similarly labeled “New Clear City.”

Ride Vehicles

Using a similar single rail ride system to Disneyland’s Fantasyland dark rides, the key differentiator are the vehicles having three rows instead of two. The shape of the vehicle is reminiscent of the shape of the side panels to many early 80’s Atari cabinets (like Centipede, Star Wars, Dig Dug, etc.) with Row 1 having a bit extra legroom due to the front of the vehicles sloping away from the riders. Artwork on the side can be best described as a mix between the Asteroids Deluxe and Tempest side panel artwork with it depicting an epic starship battle in a meteor field.

Scene 1-The Pong Forest

Vehicles go through the entryway to the Pong Forest, and go through a brief bit of darkness. Synthesized voices are heard saying “HELP MEET AT CASTLE”. Guests go through the first crash door of the ride and immediately see a tree with Pong projected on to it. It may seem like a cop out, but as the vehicles move forward there’s two physical Pong paddles playing a game of- what else, but Pong. The ball is also physically done using a giant robotic arm that is unseen due to the sheer darkness of the room and being painted black like the walls.

As the vehicles turn a corner once again they now see that every inch of the room is covered with paddles (Some 3D objects that move bit if they're on a wall, others 2D)- even the floor! A white light representing the ball goes around the room, with the iconic beep sound effect being constant. We have to escape the forest, thankfully a nearby jailbird holding a red marker points out a sign that reads Prison THE CASTELE pointing to a part of the wall that looks like any other covered with paddles. But once the vehicles go towards it, it’s revealed to be a crash door that serves as an escape to the forest. Freedom at last!

Scene 2- Breakout Prison and Night Driver Highway

The vehicles enter, not into a castle, but a prison. That seemingly kind prisoner lied to the guests! There are cells with prisoners all along this hallway, but they’re all upside down! The prisoners can be heard shouting, worried about what will happen next. Above the guests are colored tiles and disappear suddenly as a ball hits them (through the use of a screen) causing the room to audibly crumble as if it’s falling apart. The vehicles escape the room just in time through a brick door looking crash door as the room crashing down can be heard. Escaped just in time!

After exiting the prison, the next portion is based on the Atari 2600 version of Night Driver. It takes guests to a racetrack at night through a black void where they almost hit blocky single colored trees, fire hydrants, and cars. Inevitably the vehicles crash into a house at the end, transitioning into the next scene.

Scene 3- The Adventure Maze

Based on the world of the Atari 2600 game Adventure, this scene starts off with guests going past solid yellow blocks representing the fortress’s walls. The hedge maze’s bushes start out as green blocks but transition into incredibly lush rose bushes more suggestive of the box art than the in-game graphics of Adventure. The main castle can be seen above the garden walls. The vehicles go straight towards a silver key that will open the castle, but then the vehicles turn towards a Yellow Yorgle!

Instead of looking like a dragon like most would expect, it takes a more fully realized version of the Atari 2600 sprite looking like a giant bird who stands on its tail! Angrily it glares at guests for daring to breach the sacred castle grounds. It’s open mouth glows red, getting ready to flame the guests, but just in time they escape into the castle whose gates open for them.

Scene 4- Haunted Castle

Now they’ve reached our destination, what’s next? Inside the castle, a scratchy electronic sound echoes. Lightning flashes every 3 seconds giving brief glimpses of bats and maybe even a brief glimpse of spirits(?). The only thing that can be seen when the room is dark are the spinning eyes of a person who is scared out of their mind exploring this castle too. Near the end of the scene, there’s a cauldron that slightly lights up the room with a variety of colors on a balcony above. A witch (named Berthilda) appears and disappears (using a Pepper’s Ghost illusion) close to the cauldron.

Black crash doors are under the balcony.

Scene 5- Y.A.R. Teleporter and Tempest Toobin'

A short room about one turn long that’s meant to represent guests teleporting to space. The projection effects are based on Yar’s Revenge’s Neutral Zone with it’s somewhat “glitchy” multi colored appearance. As the next set of doors open an Atari 2600 style “Warp” sound effect plays.

As the vehicles move into the darkness of space, the synthesized voice from earlier is heard saying “You came, Please help”. Going into a projected speed tunnel based on the iconic blue vector tubes of Tempest. The shots from the Super Zapper can be seen and heard shooting at the Flippers and Spikers going around the tube. The tube’s visuals are projected on to the screen at a faster speed than the ride vehicles giving an illusion of the ride going faster than it really is.

Scene 6- Deep in Vector Space

Leaving the tube, go even deeper into space into an asteroid field surrounded by stars. The asteroids are bright white frames hanging from the ceiling. There’s also a UFO represented in a similar fashion who “shoots” the asteroids and when they hit they become dark for a second and reappear as smaller asteroids.

Then after a turn the vehicles suddenly end up in the trench of a green.. planet? Red vector turrets are on the side wall and the vehicles nearly hit 2 sets of red guard towers blocking the main path. A simplistic music loop that heightens the tension plays and it ends with a set of crash doors that looks like part of a dead end wall at first.

Then the vehicles go towards the… Death Star? Yep, guests were on the Death Star, not a planet in the last scene. Strangely as guests get closer to the Death Star, the further it gets (also being on a set of rails itself). The Death Star blows up (done in a similar way to neon light signs) making for a pretty light show. The vehicles then head towards the earth (painted on a crash door). There’s a small crash transition room to represent the landing.

Scene 7-Missile Command

Guests now find themselves in a city in the midst of war. Buildings are crumbling, explosions can be heard, and fire on the streets. Tanks based on the one ones from Battlezone are in the midst of the roads. A small orange light can be seen in the distance, a sign of a missile! The vehicles move the opposite direction away from what will be sheer destruction. But in a second guests realize somehow it ended where the guests are now as can be seen by the city being covered in a flashing orange light and getting incredibly warm.

Making one final turn is a giant missile with an orange light at its tip pointing right at the guests. Beeping signaling the final moments, the doors to the sewer open and there's a boom! Now in a final black room on the final crash doors before the boarding station reads:

BONUS CITY POINTS 0

GAME OVER

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