DaptoFunlandGuy

Ok - Yes, Movie World is a Big Letter T. No denial here. What I was saying is that at Movie World, the paths are very wide. All of the "streets" could fit 4 cars parked side by side. there is a massive walkway (wide and long) heading to Wild West. Another massive walkway to Looney Tunes Village. And its not wide, but the path to Lethal weapon is pretty large as well. Movie World is not a circuit, but who said a theme park had to be a circuit to work well? and who said a circuit in a park DOES work well? IMHO, Dreamworld's design does NOT work well. You illustrate some very good points about dreamworld, BUT they are only good in theory. Because everything is a circuit, you have people coming from every possible direction. Dreamworld doesnt have one way signs, or lanes clearly marked, so in the narrow laneways (tiger island exit to ToT, Exit from GD, walkway past the claw, pathway to cyclone) it is very difficult to walk through, its like being in a crowded marketplace, not a spacious theme park. Comparing the two, I believe Movie World's design is better. You are on the Main Street T junction. where do you want to go? Kids Rides? turn right. when you're done, come back. Water Ride? turn left, follow path to end. when you're done, come back. Lethal weapon? go back a bit, turn left, when you're done, come back, Scooby? turn left, walk straight. when you're done, follow the same path you did from Wild West, and come back.Batman? go back to the entrance. when you're done, come back. Movie World's design is similar (but not the same) to the Disneyland Design. Disneyland was designed like the spokes of a wheel. Everything converged on a central point. when you are at the central point, you can get anywhere you want to go. Kenny, you said you have to track back to police academy to get anywhere. True, but its a better reference point. Disneyland has the spoked wheel down pat. they also have links in between the adjoining worlds along the spokes. Movie World doesnt have this, although there are some attempts. In the Lethal Walkway, there is a way to get to Scooby, without coming back to main street. Wild West has a cut around near the hogwarts express through the police academy queue area to get to main street. I do not deny that movie world needs a few extra paths to allow people through when the main street shows are on. But I think their design system works much better than Dreamworld.

ok ok Rich... Alex did bad. did you have to delete the whole post? I had meaningful stuff in there in reply to Kenny.... and now i can't remember it! Can i have that part of it back.... please?

Attached are two images. the first is Movie World, the Second is Dreamworld. The big Yellow area with a Camera on it represents the land held by each park, according to UBD maps. Now the Movie World land area does include WetNWild, but I think it is safe to say that they have enough land to build numerous themed lands. Dreamworld on the other hand....?

dont forget Popstars...blech!!! seems really strange though, that wonderland could terminate a contract for those reasons..... very strange.

again thanks for the pics buzz. keep them coming please.... it looks so alien to me to see the entryway without the retail plaza in it. i had forgotten what it looked like. i knew there was a time when it wasn't there, but i just forgot how it looked......

1) At least movie world HAS street parades. I don't deny that the Main Street shows do clog the park at its epicentre. it DOES need another method of crossing over to the other side, but that is not hard. 2) Persons feeling claustrophobic need to take into account that the parade will be there, and as Adam says, queueing for rides can't be much better than an OPEN AIR street parade. its all about where you choose to stand to watch the show too, and, if it affects you that much, the show times are clearly posted in innumerable places around the park. If you know that sort of thing will affect you, make plans to be elsewhere. queue for multiple rides on wild west, or lethal, or scooby, or the looney tunes river ride..... go into the buffet restaurant to enjoy a quiet peaceful lunch while the parade is on. (we did when we were there last.) the place was about a quarter full, and the experience was still wonderful, because a lot of the characters came into the restaurant. Porky, Tweety, Austin Powers and company, a few others as well. (see... movie world dont forget about you if you're not a thrillseeker unlike another gold coast park i know). Movie world's parades happen a few times a day, and they provide ample notice of the times and places of these parades. but until i see a sign out the front of Dreamworld that says "Due to poor planning of our predecessors, further messed up by our own designs, our inadequate staffing and ride designs, as well as the overall makeup of our park, you may find it difficult to navigate, ride a major attraction more than once, or walk freely through some areas of our park today. Dreamworld apologises for any incompetence." Then I have to say, Movie World has it here.

Excellent points Rich, but other parks who have the smaller, simpler rides, who do not fly the Disney Flag, seem to have capacity issues when they get a reasonably large crowd. Both Dreamworld and Wonderland suffered this problem on their showcase attractions when any load was placed on the infrastructure. I agree that it is a pity Movie World is removing old attractions at the cost of adding new ones, but given that Movie World's capacity as it stands at the moment is light years ahead of, say, dreamworld for example. Yes they're packing in the 5-20% increase in crowds on the same footpaths they had 5 years ago, but the point is, the park was designed with that in mind. Movie World's only obvious choke point is the entry way to lethal weapon, however, since that leads to only one ride, it could be considered more of an extended queue than a transitway. all of the main arterial paths in Movie World are wide. look at the walkway down Wild West. From the Hogwart's Express all the way to the start of the queue, its a wide open walkway, a few amenities, shopfronts etc, but overall, a huge pathway. Dreamworld chopped up some of it's path to put Claw in. they reduced the width of the path to fit the ride in, and that is now a heavy chokepoint (im talking 3 days after the ride opened. the crowds were made up of people heading into Ocean Parade, people heading out, AND people queueing for the claw. thats 3 different groups going in three different directions on a path that I'm pretty sure was only about 3 metres wide MAX. Personally, I would like to see Movie world expand out, build their ride on virgin land, and build a themed world around it. But with 12 Million to spend, I'd prefer they spend it on the ride itself, and put it into existing infrastructure to save time and money, rather than spend half of their funds on small issues such landscaping and set design of a new themed land to fit in a lower valued and lower experienced coaster. i'm all for the quality over quantity. at present, with 2 or 3 rides on my favourites, I can make a day of Movie World. Not 2, but 1. Dreamworld, if i were to see and do everything would take me 2 to 3, but probably closer to 3 days. others could probably do it faster, but I am taking the same approach to both parks, in my own style. I have been to dreamworld 3 times in my life. I am yet to see the tiger island show, see captain sturt in any form of working order, visit blue lagoon, or ride Cyclone more than once in a single day. i've ridden thunder river once, and the mine train once. I have ridden ONE flat ride, other than Wipeout and Claw, and all the others (reptar, wipeout, ToT, GD,) I have been on once per visit to the park. I could never do dreamworld in one day and I am not prepared to spend money on another ticket in the same week to visit it again. Movie world balances it's capacity very wisely IMO. they balance their shows, attractions etc, so that, with a little forethought prior to 10am, you can see all the shows you want to, ride all the rides you want to at least once, and still have time for lunch, shopping, and drying off after wild west. I think movie magic was the last legacy to go. all they have left now is the cream of the crop. while most people would argue over Batman, I still think it gives a lot to the park experience for those who have never been on it, and is invaluable. Scooby, Wild West, Road Runner Roller Coaster, Lethal, Tunes river ride, and the small kiddie flats they have are the foundations to build from. Now that movie magic is gone, the base attractions in the park will remain for quite a while yet, and movie world will use it's next budget allocation to develop new attractions, and new themed areas with which to house them. Superman is just the beginning.

almost black is actually navy blue. the light blue is royal blue. not sure if they've ever been painted differently, but i always recall those colours on those trains.

besides, I think its safe to say that ALL of MW's attractions can be considered MAIN attractions... excepting loony tunes village, they have - Blockbuster Flume Ride Blockbuster DarkWild Mouse Ride Blockbuster Coaster Ride Blockbuster Simulator (old but still impressive if you've never been on it) Blockbuster Stunt Show TWO Blockbuster Street Shows Countless street entertainers Now - not counting Nick Central, the same way i didnt count LT village, Mediocre water ride x 2 Mediocre Flat ride x 3 Reasonable flat (wipeout) Blockbuster Flat (claw) Blockbuster record setting free fall and shuttle Old but still good darkwild mouse ride Mediocre 2nd Hand Coaster No permanent show of any kind to speak of little to no street show few street entertainers a recent bandwagon revenue maker introducing sideshow games IMHO, Movie World goes only for the best of the best. they have few attractions, but what they do have is of superb quality. they're not in it to money grub and make as much money as they can (sideshows - see sunway for details), and they pride themselves on the "experience" that one has at their parks. Dreamworld was born similarly to Wonderland. an idea and a vision, and a lot of rides that were readily available, with one big drawcard (Wonderland had Bushbeast, and innumerable flats and 2 water rides, Dreamworld had Thunderbolt, innumerable flats and 2 water rides... sound familiar?). While planning, care, vision, and experienced people in the know designed and constructed Movie World, I see Dreamworld as a bit of a "where do we put this ride? - just stick it over there" kind of design. WBMW can expand in every direction for every part of their park, whereas Dreamworld has limited expansion opportunities, because of geographical (or otherwise man made) obstructions. they have a river as one big barricade for them to expand behind the main body of the park. yes they can build a cacophany of paths, ramps tunnels etc, like at the entrance to giant drop, but it gets annoying and confusing. AWE also restricts growth out to that side. Blue lagoon and big brother prevent expansion to the north. unless the BB house is relocated, they cannot build further towards the house as it would ruin the experience within the house. To the south is tiger island, and the old Thunderbolt site. the TB site can be developed, but Tiger Island is still a big spot on the map, and of course, expanding west is a bit difficult because of parking lots (i know disney has done it, but they had room elsewhere) and of course the main highway. Now before everyone pipes up about the shopping centre development and such, bear in mind that the shopping centre does not require a great amount of connection with the park. for development of in-park attractions, it needs to be readily accessible, with wide open paths to fit many people. this is where the pathways to Big Brother and Blue Lagoon let the park down, the same way that the paths to the Beach, as well as the path to Hanna Barbera Land (past the Zodiac) became chokepoints at wonderland. And while im talking about cacophanies of pathways, and poorly designed paths being chokepoints... what of that little pathway area leading to ToT? im not talking about the path in from Tiger Island, but rather the one accessible after you walk under the track itself, and come down by the charles sturt. yet another example of poor design. anyhow. enough waffling... who else wants a say?

Very Awesome Bren. So WONDERful to see the park through the ages. I have an Aerial (Black and White) of HBL (which you know about bren), but alas, at the moment, no scanner. How many photos of the park, no matter what or where, do you have Buzz? That is definately something I would like a copy of and be willing to pay for... also, I believe Judy's Jetliners was gone long before Silly Stix was, and most definately before 2000. I believe it more closely co-incides with the opening of the wildlife park, as, you stated correctly, they used the land for keeper sheds etc for the animals. So went Judy's Jetliners along with Bam Bam's Ball-Bash. What else have you got Buzz? what can you show us? do you have high quality copies you might be able to pop onto cd?

he makes some very good points about the studio tours and losing the magic. he does seem to love himself a bit though i see. It is a good point. a Movie theme park doesnt need to have backlot effects like the movie magic show. Scott. stop sitting on your mouth, and talk through it, instead of the other way around. Movie World has looney tunes rides up the yin yang, wild west which has substantial "movie set" theming, as does the rest of the wild west area. Rides based on movies which go a long way towards reliving it (SDSC emulates the movie's coaster quite a bit)... With hope, Movie World will use the recently vacated sound stage to produce a heck of a lot of theming towards this new ride. It would be very nice to see a new movie effects show, which showcases the latest technology, like the "matrix" anti gravity moves, wire fights etc. On a trip to Universal Hollywood, I recall seeing their effects show, which at the time simluated a scene from the original Psycho, and showed a person falling from the Statue of Liberty. their foley studio was done to a scene from Harry and the Hendersons, but was still essentially the same as WBMW. An updated effects show would be good, the current one is outdated, but losing it entirely is not such a great loss, if Movie World make better use of the space towards creating the "Immersion in the Illusion". I guess we just have to wait and see what they come up with....

Now Now Slick... this is a RUMOR remember??? and remember.... not everyone shares the same opinion of dreamworld that you do. its not a bad thing, or a wrong thing... just different... and theres no need to get your back up over it. let each man (or woman - Clairey etc..) have his (or her) own opinion!

You missed one Bussy. I took the liberty... And Scott, you may now stop waiting. "To Assume the Crash Position, place your head between your knees and KISS YOUR ASS GOODBYE!"

LMAO. i spent five minutes laughing at my own post about the ice cream. while im on it, while they were handing out brains, all neb had to carry it in was a thimble... while they were handing out common sense (cents) , neb changed it for a dollar coin so he didnt have so much to carry. Well..... when i joined these forums, everyone poured crap on Shifty. More recently, it was Steve$ and Ausnrl. Now... it seems its Nebuchanezzar... that boy is way too attached to the matrix. Join me bussy?

indeed someone did tell me fibs on exactly how much they had bid...

Neb, when they were handing out stupidity, you thought they said "ice cream" and you asked for a double scoop... Both of these threads were created LAST YEAR by Shifty. You really dont read very well do you?

Alex wonders why idiots talk of themselves in the third person.... but still and all - that area is really publicly accessible, or at least it was in november. it is down behind carparks 2 and 3, and any idiot can get that close... so... since that is the case, why don't you try Neb?

I have never been near that ride and had an operator cue it off at the correct time. it should usually be run during the time it takes an operator to go down the length of the train, after closing the queue gates. I believe it was originally timed to be as long as 2 operators needed to secure the train and dispatch... generally meant to alleviate the boredom of riders and queue'ers in the time it took to secure and dispatch. at least thats how it came from one op i spoke to. but of course in usual wonderland fashion, it was never hit off at the right time, and rarely were there two ops on it, so the time naturally took a lot longer. Whatever happened to the little "golf putters" they used to use to lock and unlock the OTSR's? surely using your foot can't be considered "OHS" safe?

The Tron - you have been through every thread on this forum in the last 24 hours like a whirlwind.... try reading the entire thread before you post. Also, before you endeavour to make any future posts, might I also recommend that you read the COMMUNITY GUIDELINES in regards to the language and grammar that you post.

originally when it opened, it was fairly good. the most recent vid was a bad cut designed simply to erase the channel 7 part of the preshow. it was a poor job. Originally when it opened, it had a lot of lighting effects that did work well with sound effects going off at different times. a lot of thought went into its original design, its just unfortunate that it wasn't kept at its opening quality.

I agree on this one Gazza. Ill use my most recent visit to the gold coast and the times i spent on rides and in queues. In particular ill focus on the core rides at each park. As far as shows, the only show that dreamworld had while i was there was tiger island, and we missed it because we were.... in a queue. Ok, so DW has a magic show, but how long is that gunna last? length of the holidays as far as i know, because im sure they're gunna wanna refocus the studios towards Big Bro for the 2005 season (which is also losing popularity me thinks...). So as far as shows, Movie World has got it. Police Academy, Movie Magic (soon to close - why? to make way for soemthing better), loony tunes revue as well as two street shows (matrix and batman)... MW is winning in shows, as a movie park should. RideWise- To compare water rides - Wild West Falls Vs. Rapids and Log Rides. Wild West Falls was a walk on. we had two boatloads in front of us, and got straight on. there was always a queue, but it was always flowing steadily, you never got bored. there is no queue entertainment system... because it is simply not needed. Rapids and Log - Rapids we waited a good 40 minutes for. loading times were slow, and holding the boat at the dock to take a photo of the boat, rather than snapping it maybe on the "return" conveyor, ate up more time. Log waiting time was a bit better, but it still took us a good 30 minutes to board it. the fact that the boats are low capacity, and that they were only running one loading dock on a ride obviously designed for two, it slowed everything up for what was at best a mediocre ride. Compare the coasters - Cyclone and Lethal - lethal has a queue entertainment system, but i never see it used. it is always a walk-through straight to the queue lines in sight of the track. at most, out of the 4 separate holidays i've taken to WBMW, i've never waited more than 20 minutes to board Lethal Weapon. Cyclone on the other hand... this is a ride designed to duck and weave and twist through buildings, that is smack band in the middle of a vacant block of land, with a poorly designed queue system. I have never waited less than 1 hour to ride cyclone. never. i seriously think MW has it in them to beat DW. if they keep up the pace they have set for 2005 with all their parks, DW could be left behind. their only problem is they have one budget, and 3 parks to work with, soon to be 4...DW has one budget, one park.. the only thing in MW's favour there is that the parks were designed with capacity in mind, and they continue to do so. DW has a bandaid holding a broken arm with their existing attractions, and until recently, have done nothing to correct the problem with either their new rides, or modifications to existing ones..

Original File Found - www.gws.org.au/pdf/1031738068_3.pdf Even more proof wonderland owners sunway lied through their teeth. this document shows planning for the development of wonderland's business park was due to start in 2002. Future Technology – Higher Order Employment Parks of Sydney Name LGA Jobs Value ($m) Start Date Completion Date Newington Business Park Auburn 600 $28 2003 Chullora Technology Park Bankstown 1500 $1,300 2003 Westmead Millennium Institute Parramatta 200 $37 2003 2004 Austool Business Park Campbelltown 2000 $100 2003 2005 International Broadcast Centre (The IBC) Auburn 3000 $300 2002 2006 Werrington Innovation Precinct Penrith 1000 $32 2003 2006 Homebush Bay Business Park Auburn 2000 $850 2003 2007 Norwest Business Park Baulkham Hills 20,000 $1,500 2007 Sydney Olympic Park Auburn 10,000 $1,000 2003 2010 Rhodes Precinct Auburn - Rhodes 3000 $2,160 2002 2010 Wonderland Business Park Blacktown 5000 $750 2002 2010 Westmead BioHub Parramatta 1500 2003 2010 Wallgrove Business Park Blacktown 4,000 $500 2004 2008 Greystanes Business Hub Holroyd 10000 $1,000 2002 2011 Moorebank International Technology Park Liverpool 10000 $1,000 2004 2015 Erskine Park Employment Area Penrith 10000 $1,000 2004 2015 TOTAL GWS 83800 $11,557

Original File Found - hsc.csu.edu.au/sdd/core/solutions/case_study2/space_probe_7.pdf AUSTRALIA'S WONDERLAND Sydney, Australia Tool — Borland Delphi Developer Industry — Entertainment Application — Space Probe Seven OVERVIEW Thrill-seeking visitors to Australia's Wonderland, just outside Sydney, will find a challenge with the park's newest ride, Space Probe Seven. Plunged into a nightmarish scenario revolving around a futuristic alien invasion of earth, the ride hoists brave-hearted visitors up a 210-foot pole, where they are given several seconds to gather their wits before plummeting straight down the pole at speeds of up to 120 km/h. • Using actors and sets, a design studio filmed video footage of real-life news' readers from Channel Seven (which co-sponsored the ride), covering the worsening disaster. They then worked on creating an atmosphere to go along with the storyline. People waiting in the ride queue pass through bunker-like tunnels filled with smoke machines, air cannons, buzzing neon signs, fans, hazard and strobe lights, and even a simulated laser scan of their body before they reach the point where they can actually get into the ride's carriage. The video and effects are all controlled by an application created with the Borland Delphi application development environment. "We were trying to create this feeling of anxiety that something's gone wrong," said Pollard Productions' Director Roger Cameron, whose background in theatre and special occasion's lighting made his firm an easy choice for Wonderland officials designing the ride. "Our job was to play the video and make sure that certain things could happen at certain points in the movie," said Bold PC software engineer Kieran Sharp, who wrote the Delphi application synchronizing the video and real-world events. "Whenever the movie didn't need processor time, we queried it on its time and checked it against a list of events. If an event was due to happen, the program would flick switches," he said. Once the events had been linked with the video, a second application allowed them to be played back. Throughout the ride, six Digital Venturis 486/66-based computers running a number of event-synchronized videos control the multimedia experience from start to harrowing finish. The Delphi application had a strict set of design guidelines. "We had to be able to remember the state of up to 16 switches for each frame of the video, which runs at 25 frames per second, and we had to be able to insert and delete events," said Bold technical director Thaddeus Robertson. SITUATION Cameron realized that the easiest way to design the multimedia experience and to ensure it would be the same for every visitor was to investigate the implementation of computer-based control systems. "We'd moved away from the idea of using too sophisticated a control system," Cameron said. "We basically wanted to use straight on-off contactors to turn lights and other effects on and off as visitors progress through the tunnels." Cameron wanted a way to synchronize the video that had been shot with the barrage of lights and other effects rigged among the tunnels through which the ride's queue passes. He was referred to Sydney-based multimedia developers Bold Pty Ltd, who specialize in developing corporate demos and other multimedia projects. "I gave them a written breakdown of what I wanted to see happen in the tunnels," Cameron said. "They put it in very quickly." The team at Bold first converted the video footage to MPEG format. Then, using the Borland Delphi development tool, the team at Bold built an application that let producers link real-world events to the MPEG video footage. Incorporating Apple Computer's QuickTime for Windows video software, the Bold tool allowed producers to pause the footage and insert events linked to specific points in the video. SOLUTION The choice of Delphi to develop the application was easy, Sharp said. "We'd been using Delphi for some of our presentation software in the past. It was fairly easy to use, and we thought it would be quick to get this project going in Delphi." He said the Delphi interface allowed the developers a high level of flexibility in designing the system. "The interface makes the work a lot quicker because you can just shove the components around until they look right. The only thing you have to worry about is the logic of the programming behind it." "The interface we were using was largely standard Windows components," Sharp continued. "The components that come with Delphi were largely sufficient for the job." Sharp said the only custom programming that was required came in while the team optimized the interface between Delphi and QuickTime for Windows. Robertson said that the company chose Delphi over Visual Basic for several reasons. Most importantly, he said, "Delphi allows us to get the bare bones of an application very quickly. You can get an application with about 4 mouse clicks, then customize it from there. You spend less time working on how to wrap up an application and more time on functionality and content." Robertson said that the built-in database support of Delphi made it an excellent choice for data-intensive programming projects. "Object Pascal is nicer than BASIC," he said. "You can do more with it." He also noted that, while Visual Basic applications need a separate .DLL file on the client computer to run, Delphi distributes all application components in a single .EXE file -- a "major, major advantage." "It's a much neater solution," Robertson said. Signals to control the special effects devices were sent through I/O boards linked to momentary on-off switches. As well, an analogue interface card allowed a number of lights to be dimmed "in sync with the lights dimming on the video, to give the impression of a Sydneywide blackout," Sharp said. This type of interface requires hardware-level addressing, a task that Delphi handled without difficulty. "Delphi allowed us to easily incorporate assembler code into the application," Sharp continued. "It was really useful considering we were using I/O boards. Delphi handled the assembler code just like any other procedure." The Space Probe Seven project was a new type of venture for those involved. "We've all learned things that we would incorporate if we were doing the same thing again," Cameron said. He thinks this type of computer-based multimedia show will become more common as rides -- and audiences -- get increasingly sophisticated. CUSTOMER COMMENTS "We couldn't have done it without the computer control. The degree of reliability and the ability to repeat the same queues at the same point in time was crucial to the project. I think it's the way things will move. These days, to just get on the merry-go-round is not enough. They need to keep people entertained all along the way. And the best part of the project? In the last week when we were frantically debugging, they let us go on the ride as many times as we wanted." Adapted from Borland @ www.borland.com

lol. Wonderbuzz, how much stuff do you have with the OLD wonderland logo on it - "Australia's Wonderland" ?

not sure if this is the right one, but i came across this on ABC's Dr Karl. Pages. it might be the right vid, but it could be something else as well. my media player isn't working so i can't tell. www.abc.net.au/science/experimentals/stories/s1170691.htm