Entertainment

Donkey Kong Barrel Bash Stunt Show

Guests enter a circular theater (similar in size to the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular) with a stage that holds a massive replica of the platforms and ladders of the classic arcade game, Donkey Kong with the title character yet to appear on the stage itself.

As guests take their seats, a cast member walks onstage and announces to guests that they will soon be taking part in a safety demonstration at the new factory by 8-Bit Industries, a barrel manufacturing company. Hints of an escaped Gorilla start to appear (crashing sounds/banana peels) as select guests participate in some games to test the newest line of barrels.

All of a sudden, an audio-animatronic Donkey Kong appears at the top of the platforms and starts throwing barrels as one of the chosen guests (secretly a stunt actor in disguise) hops over barrels and climbs the ladders as things start to explode and ladders start to unhinge causing the actor to “dangle” over the edge.

After the stunt actor reaches the top, he pushes Donkey Kong back as he disappears within a cloud of smoke. The cast member hops back on stage and tells guests to have a great rest of their day.

TRON: End of Line

Streetmosphere

In TRON: Legacy, the End of Line Club was a digital nightclub specializing in live DJ electronic music. That hectic atmosphere now comes to Digital Frontiers in the form of a roaming streetmosphere dance party experience. Neon wireframe dancers bring the Grid to life with pulsing tunes and athletic dance moves.

Thanks to a controlled indoor setting, the stage is always set for the End of Line troupe. Ambient lighting fades. From the digital darkness emerge abstract, multicolored performers. Twin DJs travel with their mobile spin table. Live-spun music ranges from Daft Punk's score to original house and synthwave compositions, all of them heavily respectful modern interpretations of the 1980s. Dancers are able to quickly form a performance space in the land's walkways. Guests are invited to join in and party on, or simply look on in wonder.

Walkaround Characters

Digital Frontiers is populated by an expansive menagerie of walkaround video game icons. Careful licensing agreements let Disney use mascots from a variety of arcade-era companies, from Atari to Bally-Midway to Namco. Disney's traditional felt costuming beautifully realizes characters such as:

Pac-Man
Ms. Pac-Man
Inky
Blinky
Pinky
Clyde

Bub
Bob
Donkey Kong
Jumpman
Pauline
Bomberman

While characters freely roam - often in areas themed to their games - guests may also find their favorite characters at our dedicated Character Select meet & greet location. Positioned in the heart of Digital Frontiers, and located inside of an oversized arcade cabinet structure, Character Select sees a regular rotation of mascots scheduled throughout the day. PhotoPass images come with stylized 8-bit overlays, to make your character photos look like screenshots directly out of your favorite arcade classic!

Arcade Hero

Presented by Flynn's Arcade

Arcade Hero is a live entertainment component of Flynn's Arcade. This is an arcade tournament, with live gameplay held on arcade cabinets and projected publicly onto massive screens visible from the main concourse.

For special seasonal events, Arcade Hero will feature invitation-only professional gamers. Fans of the documentary King of Kong will be familiar with this surprisingly high-stakes world. At other times, however, Arcade Hero functions on a daily first-come-first-served basis for all regular guests...using a similar sign-up process as Disneyland's Jedi Training Academy, only now favoring man-children over children. Day guests who opt to participate in Arcade Hero are allowed priority access to Flynn's Arcade to train and prepare for the gut-wrenching head-to-head Battle Royale to come!

Projection Walls

Scattered throughout Digital Frontiers are false facades which are designed as projection surfaces for immersive 2.5-D video game scenes. Such walls appear in all directions, fully encircling guests in a video game world.

One three-floor wall plays out a Tetris gameplay loop; giant square meter blocks constantly form a barricade before guests' eyes. Another wall depicts a game of Rampage. Gigantic monsters climb and destroy full-scale building facades. Additional uniquely-designed walls depicts additional games such as Galaga, Q*bert, and the original Mario Bros., all designed to feel like as real and tactile as possible.

The Video Game Champion

Hourly Projection Spectacular

Every hour, on the hour, the projection walls of Digital Frontiers glitch out. Their visuals collapse into video game static and scrolling columns of binary.

As the walls reboot, guests witness an hourly mini-spectacular called "The Video Game Champion." The fully enclosed setting, makes a regular spectacular very doable ... within reason. This is no show-stopping, crowd-gathering "Fantasmic!" Rather, think of it like the regular effects on the "small world" clockwork facade - a diversion which enriches its land.

"When the lights go down, this is more than a video game."

The 4-minute long "Video Game Champion" show owes its soul to the eponymous synthwave song by Gunship. This is a sweeping, nostalgic anthem of hope, one which brilliantly captures the youthful adventure of the Atari era! Newly projected imagery matches this upbeat tone. The projection walls burst with new life through a fabulous montage of vintage video game visuals.

See arcade history played out in a few minutes' time, beginning in the digital dawn of 1972's Pong, and continuing onward through the Golden Age of Arcades. The concludes in the futuristic year of 1983, when innocence ended in the Great Video Game Crash...not that viewers will sense this loss. Instead they will bear witness to a vibrant progression of gaming technology, evolving from the single white pixels of Pong to the amazing full animation of Dragon's Lair. (While the video above doesn't convey the exact content of this projection show, it otherwise matches the show's tone and energy perfectly!) Along the way, there are 3D vector graphics, 4-bit sprites, pixel art, and other nostalgic wonderments.

The journey concludes will the imagery vanishing into blackness - like a period tube television being shut off - and replaced with simple flashing block text. "INSERT COIN TO CONTINUE." The sound of a quarter entering a coin slot echoes throughout Digital Frontiers...and the land returns to normal.

CONCLUSION

The earliest years of video game history, that neon-drenched era when the arcade was king, truly were the Digital Frontiers. No matter how much gaming continues to advance and evolve, this pioneer period shall always remain timeless. All of the nostalgia, the thrill, and the fun of that era is perfectly captured by Digital Frontiers. Whether guests fondly recall their youthful days in the arcade, or if they only know of this time indirectly, Digital Frontiers will be equally transporting. Stylized visuals, interactive attraction experiences, and countless vintage details combine to bring the arcade era to glorious 4-bit life! Everyone who visits is a winner!

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