Space Probe - The Early Days

[DisneyDoll]

Great shots, thanks for posting them

[MARK28]

Yeah that would be one of the only freefalling rides in the world that actually had that sort of theming for it. Almost Disney standards I reckon..from what I've seen of Disney anyway. When I first saw it with the lasers coming out of it and the ship blowing up, I thought whoa, that can't be Space Probe....it's a pity that lighting didn't last though.

[nev]

Unfortunately, it's like any number of lighting or technological installations at theme parks - as soon as they realise these sorts of things cost money to maintain and run, they're left to run. When fog machines aren't given a few dollars worth of fluid a day, they can literally burn themselves out in a few hours, rendering them useless. The experience at Space Probe died, just like the LCD monitors and beacons in the Cyclone queue, the small number of effect in the Tower of Terror, the themeing of the public areas at Sega World.... the list goes on.

[mnemo]

Been thumbing slowly thru the various topics and arrived at this one and HAD to add my 2 cents to this. SP7 was my first foray into ride theming and along with David Ward-Fear and Roger Cameron we were put in charge of the design and construct for the queue entry, launch pad and top-of-ride special effects. David and I came up with the storyline for the entrance over coffee in the AWL canteen (anyone remember Cheryl?) one morning and once the marketting dept got hold of it and then Seven got involved it grew to bigger than Ben wos'name very quickly.... A few bits of triv... .. the storyline that evolved (after being belted around by various boffins on the project) involved three seperate 'news' items being transmitted in the three tunnels as you entered. Tunnel 1 was a 'breaking news' item about the SP7 being compromised.. Tun 2 was a more urgent transmission about the 'invasion'... and Tun 3 was a desperate warning to evacuate the Probe and the only way to do that was via the escape pad. The riders were then rushed into an 'Evac' area where a video instructed them on how to evacuate (this sound familiar Qld parkies??) and from then on the riders where scrambled into the launch area and off they went.... All of this was scuttled when the queue lines started extending down into Transylvania and unfortunately the whole 'evac' experience was scrapped in favour of bums on seats. Couple of audio bits... .. The rides A/V system was controlled by 5 PC's , 3 for the tunnels, 1 'Evac' room and 1 the Launch Pad/Tower. .. there were 2 12:8 Mixing consoles routing the audio. The Tunnels, Evac and Tower were run stereo while the Launch Pad had 12 Martin EC10's circling the room in a 6 stereo pair config plus 4 Martin Subs in the corners. We could crank about 115 dB outta this system at full kick.. (sigh) .. only did it once .. we had 16 monitors ground level, 12 monitors in the tower (and weren't THEY fun to repair!) .. the Launch Pad A/V was a custom designed by a mob that I can't remember.. except that the guys name was Thaddeus.. with a name like that he was destined to be a geek..sorry Thad if your out there.. ...i digress.. the cool bit about Thads program was we could time the Midi triggers that ran the audio track and the Lighting control with the sensors on the ride.. as in when the evac doors opened the 'show' kicked off and ran at ground level until the carraiges left the pad.. then the show switched to the tower. One feature that was quickly - and in my li'l ol' opinion - harshly removed from the system was a random timer that I requested on the Tower 'Countdown' sequence. Basically it selected when the sequence would begin - meaning sometimes the release happened at '0'.. sometimes at plus 2 secs.. or even minus 2! or 3.... this was fun I thought! but apparently the paying public wanted more control over their bowel movements.. wimps! Things I personally saw fall into the Launch pad... .. A camera.. multiple thongs/shoes... a variety of hats and sunnies and .. get this one.. (never made the news but shoulda) a 4 foot piece of 6x2 timber. Luckily it was at ride-check and no-one got hurt.. but whoa!! Anyway enuff from me.. I'm gonna go read some more of Daniels posts.. they're fun! !!!.. i nearly forgot!!.. there was a worlds first on the Probe - the Neon around the Launch Pad. This stuff was specially built for us and we called it 'Crackle' Neon.. imagine a really fat stick of neon wound into a spiral.. and then filled with broken chunks of like windshield glass... then filled with whatever they fill neon with (don't say it!) and voila! we had 'Crackle!.. great effect but ferociously expensive!..... i'm going now. Cheers RN

[Guest wonderland_sydney]

Mnemo, I am in the process of building a wonderland rememberence site. http://wonderland.octiva.net/ I would realy LOVE some pictures and info for the Space Probe section. Do you have any pictures of inside the hat, from ontop of the hat, the 3 lift motors, plc, servers, mixers, amps, etc.. etc.. Discriptions on what equipment what where, like plc was here.. compressor was there, X was up in the hat... Discription of inside the hat and on top, and how you got in and up etc.. etc.. and as many pictures as you can get your hands on. It would realy realy help, as The Space Probe is no longer there. You can use the anonmous upload section on my site to upload whatever you want, pics, text.. or you can drop into the chatroom and have a chat when i am there or somthing., or here or whatever is confitable for you. Can you help me at all Mnemo? Thanks for your time. Kind Regards

[mnemo]

Hey wonderland_sydney.. would love to help .. I'll hustle around the old workmates and see what they've got.. unfortunatley I don't have a great deal of stuff due to the quick exit I made when I left. Can provide plenty of inside knowledge however so feel free to send any questions my way.. I'll answer what I can.. also.. Any plans on including a look at the entertainment side of AWL in the site? Most of my years at AWL were involved in the production side of the shows and events that we held around the place... eg the Dinosaur exhibit we built in HB theatre, Halloween etc Cheers RN

[Guest wonderland_sydney]

Hey Mnemo, Thankyou. Ok well here is a bit... Any plans on including a look at the entertainment side of AWL in the site? Sure if i had content i would LOVE to, have you any pics and info to offer? 8 Space Probe Questions. 1) Where was the plc and do you know the make and model? 2) Describe what its like to climb the inside of the tower to the top. 3) Describe what is at the top in the hat. 4) In the hat the three lift motors where horz or vert mount? 5) Was there compressed a air line going up to the hat? 6) Was there lights up there in the hat so you could see? 7) Describe how you got onto the actual very top, there is a small man hole? 8) How did the PC's interface with the plc? Thanks for your time regards

[SP7Queen]

wow mnemo, you remember the all the good stuff. i knew that whole sequence word for word from the queue to tunnels 1, 2 & 3, plus the whole evacuation routine. I did it non-stop for 2.5 years when it first opened. as for things falling off the probe, a young man from maintenance i was mates with left a crow bar on the back of cabin 2, luckily enough, during morning ride check, which came crashing down into the launch pad. also i was the loader when the cable broke, still have the special certificate for "Excellence in an emergency situation" and a cut out from the newspaper the day after it happened. (nerd). the days of the doors above the launch pad with loads of smoke - unbelievable (had a call from base asking if there was a fire once because we kept pressing pre-show door open, so much smoke people tripped over when they couldn't see where they were going!!! oh the fun). i was told at the time that the reason the numbers up the top in the hat didn't match with when cabins dropped, was because in the first year when they changed the motors to faster ones' they wouldn't pay for the countdown to be redone.

[astro]

amazing stuff about the space probe.i really want to know how it the world you would fix those damn countdown monitors??? must have been a scary moment

[mnemo]

Hey Mnemo, Thankyou. Ok well here is a bit... Any plans on including a look at the entertainment side of AWL in the site? Sure if i had content i would LOVE to, have you any pics and info to offer? 8 Space Probe Questions. 1) Where was the plc and do you know the make and model? 2) Describe what its like to climb the inside of the tower to the top. 3) Describe what is at the top in the hat. 4) In the hat the three lift motors where horz or vert mount? 5) Was there compressed a air line going up to the hat? 6) Was there lights up there in the hat so you could see? 7) Describe how you got onto the actual very top, there is a small man hole? 8) How did the PC's interface with the plc? Thanks for your time regards

Okies.. u ask .. i try.. 1).. there were 5 electrics/hydraulics control bays in the control room opposite our audio gear.. name and model i have no idea.. sorry. They took up the entire wall which I'm guessing was about 8 or 9m long. The front panel controls showed stuff like current draw and analysed the motor temps and revs and stuff.. (jeez i'm techo huh?!) I do remember there was trouble with this when the first motors were installed.. they were tripping the breakers due to excessive amps and a new set of motors was installed. 2).. it was tiring.. completely energy zapping!.. there were 7 ladders with resting platforms in between.. ( they shoulda put a lift in.. but hey!.. ) Each ladder had a fall arrest system and all climbers wore slings and the usual saftey gear. I remember a particular guy from maintenence who could get to the top in some ridiculous 2 or 3 minutes.. i'm sure he was part monkey but always got the breakdown calls 3).. the 'Hat' had was a beautiful fibre-glass monstrosity that I reckon DWF designed outta some Trekkie dream he had the night before... This sat above the central 'tube' framework and covered the motors and electronics, and as well supported the theming aspects AND the most coolest bit of the ride! ( hey I'm not biased!!) anyways.. There were three work platforms extending out between each carraige to the rim. We mounted our speakers to the guard rails - pointing in at the carraiges. ( astro ! heres your answer ! ) The monitors were mounted on a rolling rail that encircled the inside rim. By unlocking positioning pins we could roll the whole set of monitors around until the offending unit was above a platform and yibbada u could get the thang out and into a sling for a gentle descent to earth.... Except!! some genius who shall remain un-pointed at.. (sigh).. forgot to allow for the roll on the signal feed cables.. which meant someone had to climb out around the rim of the hat and disconnect the DA before rolling the monitors around. Sounds ok except there were no safety cables around the rim. I think OH&S woulda had a field day with me in them days 4).. if I remember correctly they were vertical.. and bloody noisy as well. 5).. not that i remember, coulda been, don't know.. u got me there. 6).. there was half a doz skimpy flood lights that would light up the inside of the hat.. the effects lighting was kept simple .. like REALLY simple ... we had 2 rotating beacons mounted on each bank of monitors! I don't think people were looking at the lights at that moment 7).. yup.. that simple.. I recall there was a barrel-bolt style latch to stop intruders from getting at you while you were up there.. strangely.. I was never intruded upon once... 8).. they were via contact closures. actually the only PC interfaced to the ride PLC was the Launch Pad/Tower.. the tunnels ran constantly and the Evac room (originally) was triggered by the Op. The Launch sequence was actually triggered by the Evac door opening and then sensors on the tower gave us the trigger for the Countdown sequence. btw.. there was also a hatch above the motors that allowed you to get up onto the top of the hat. Man oh man the view was INCREDIBLE!! Pretty much 360 Sydney.... Howard and Sons mounted their fireworks canisters up there for the Grand Opening Spectacular. And yup..not surprisingly... left them there... hmmm. that reminds of the Laservision lads.. but thats another story...... anyways ...hope this helps.. & i gotta say.... its been fun remembering all this stuff!! Cheers RN

[mnemo]

wow mnemo, you remember the all the good stuff.

(sigh)...yup.. twas my fav place... didn't seem like a job.. and all I wanted to be was the weird old dude from the audio dept. in 2040..... ah well... maybe Disney will see the light and come down-under!! Cheers queenie.. RN

[taronga]

Disney to build a park downunder - i'd like to see that!!

[SP7Queen]

(sigh)...yup.. twas my fav place... didn't seem like a job.. and all I wanted to be was the weird old dude from the audio dept. in 2040..... i had a thing for one of the audio guys for a while, but alas, he was with a balloon girl.

Edited December 14, 2005 by SP7Queen

[Bussy]

as for things falling off the probe, a young man from maintenance i was mates with left a crow bar on the back of cabin 2, luckily enough, during morning ride check, which came crashing down into the launch pad. also i was the loader when the cable broke, still have the special certificate for "Excellence in an emergency situation" and a cut out from the newspaper the day after it happened. (nerd).

This happened on several occasions. I remember the last one where one of the maintenance guys left a shifter on one of the seats of cabin 3 and again it came off during the test run by the operator. It left a crater about 10cm long and about 1-2cm deep in the concrete, it also left a brown mark in the operator’s pants.

i was told at the time that the reason the numbers up the top in the hat didn't match with when cabins dropped, was because in the first year when they changed the motors to faster ones' they wouldn't pay for the countdown to be redone.

The reason that the cabins would drop at fairly random times (ie not when the countdown got to zero) was because if one cabin reached the sensor near the top earlier that the other cabins it would trigger the countdown. This happened for various reasons, mainly due to weight. If two cabins were sent up, one with 4 kids the other with 4 adults, the one with the kids would get up faster and trigger the countdown so that when the other cabin got there it might already be a 4 and by the time the cabin is in release position the countdown has already finished. Being and operator it was always good fun to hit the effects button as the cabins got to the top, this turned off the countdown and usually made the people think the ride had broken down. Usually we would make comments like "please remain calm and we will have you down soon" just before the cabins released. The other funny thing was to hit the effects button just before launch so that the air cannons (when they worked) went off just as the cabins started moving. "The Bus is now leaving for Australian Counter Disaster College, Victoria"

[Flasher]

This happened on several occasions. I remember the last one where one of the maintenance guys left a shifter on one of the seats of cabin 3 and again it came off during the test run by the operator. It left a crater about 10cm long and about 1-2cm deep in the concrete, it also left a brown mark in the operator’s pants.

Not to mention the Final Warning Letter which was left in that maintenance guy's Employee Record!

[astro]

im trying to picture who SP7Queen is but i cant picture it.I remember seeing the usual people who got assigned to space probe a lot.and those black jumpsuits they wore.hehehe janines on was a small one.i think her name was janine

[mnemo]

SP7Queen... "i had a thing for one of the audio guys for a while, but alas, he was with a balloon girl." Hehe.. that woulda been Dan.. he married her. They split a few years ago. You want me to call him for ya??

[SP7Queen]

SP7Queen has lots of memorabilia, which usually resulted in a warning of some kind, a wizards' e-stop, a dodgems seatbelt, a 360 extension belt, down tape and zodiac "please remain seated at all times" on my commode, on my furniture, the list goes on... feel free to pm me astro if you really want to know, if you knew me, you knew spacenugget as well yes, daniel, that was him, i remember when he dropped his mobile in the lake. but then, then there was the maintenance guy with the hot legs in footy shorts, sorry, back to the topic.............

[thetron]

Any updates what happened to the probe. Was it sent to the scrap heap or did someone buy it?

[djsupersleuth]

Any updates what happened to the probe. Was it sent to the scrap heap or did someone buy it?

Sunway Lagoon, KL Malaysia last time I heard, not sold but remove it or it will be removed for you type of situation.