A fox might be terrified of heights, but foxes are really made to be flattened with extreme G-forces (or a steamroller).
Here the fox introduces some lesser-known amusement rides that are still around!
Thought to be the only one in the UK now, this is a highly unusual travelling coaster.
You squeeze yourself into the absolutely tiny little cars, and the entire roof is closed down over you and locked. Then you go straight up the middle of the spiral on a vertical lift in the dark!
Once at the top, you simply pop out and spiral your way down. A couple of hills at the end and the ride is done. Short and sweet!
This is NOT a ride for the claustrophobic! There's only barely enough room for a single adult in the car, and even then your head will touch the roof. There isn't even a seat as such, you sit on the floor of the car with your legs stretched out in front of you. The lap bar pins you into your seat so tightly it makes your legs tingle. Fortunately the bar and floor of the car are well-padded, so it doesn't hurt much.
The vertical lift itself isn't as scurry as it looks. Because it's in the dark, you don't really know how high you're going. Nowhere near as scurry as a vertical lift coaster out in the open. Where things do get a bit scurry is when it pops out the top. You're suddenly confronted with quite a view. The sharp turn to one side makes you wonder if it'll stay on the tracks!
Once it's actually spiralling down, it's quite boring. Not much sense of speed, and very few G-forces. The hills at the end don't give you any air time, you're pinned too tightly into your seat for that. But they do give you a bit of pain! Extremely bumpy and unpleasant.
Overall I rate it 5/10. It's worth a ride for the sheer novelty factor. And the experience of being trapped so tightly in a tiny box. But those hills are pretty unpleasant. It'd make for a very uncomfortable experience if the ride broke down for a prolonged period while you're half way up the lift hill!
You're probably familiar with the common Twister ride. But this one has an unusual twist.
On the South Coast of England, you can find a little town called Brighton. This absurd place has been taken over by art students and turned into a Marxist commune in recent years. But despite this, its historic Palace Pier still carries the traditional seaside town feeling - that is, if the students will let you drive your car anywhere near their socialist city!
Avoid running over homeless people on the way in. It's the homelessness capital of the UK. This is what happens when the Marxist students move in. They drive the house prices up so far the natives become homeless.
And then they go onto Twitter and moan about repressed natives in Hawaii or something.
Face paw.
Anyhow, pier has a modest collection of amusement rides as well as two arcades. But where it gets strange is what they decided to fit VR headsets to.
There are two coasters on this pier. Coasters with VR are pretty common. But no! They decided to fit VR to the twister ride!
What the hell?!
I blame the art students.
I'll let them off just this once however. It is a pretty fun ride.
I cannot get any photographs of the ride without shoving a camera into the VR headset while spinning around. So instead, check out the Enigma Demo for the Commodore Amiga, released in 1991. The graphics are about the same!
You're basically just swooshing around a surrealist landscape made of polygons. But the interesting part is how the sensation of movement works.
You'd think that the VR world would have to mimic the movement of the ride. But although it starts off like this, there's lots of forward movement in the VR experience. Somehow, the sideways G-forces from the ride map into forward acceleration forces in your brain when presented with the right visuals.
Very strange!
It's not really something you'd re-ride. Especially not at the prices they charge! But definitely worth a go if you've not tried it before. Such a strange thing. Luckily, there is no nausea involved. The motion is very well synchronised to the visuals so you don't feel ill. Actually less nauseating than a twister ride without VR. And definitely less nauseating than VR without any real-life motion.
Overall I rate it 7/10. Mostly because of the sheer strangeness!
These used to be everywhere, but they are slowly disappearing. If you see one, jump on it! Might be your last chance.
This ride is about as simple as they come. You stand inside a metal drum, the drum spins, and you get stuck to the side. Then the floor lowers a couple of feet leaving you and your pals plastered to the wall.
It's not as dizzying as it sounds, and it's not scurry. That is if you're prepared for the G-force. If you're not, you might find your first ride a surprising and shocking ordeal!
You and your Plastered Pals are pinned to the wall with about 4G. That's a higher G-force than an astronaut experiences during takeoff, and it's sustained for a good minute or so.
Yiiiiiiikes!!!
But that's also why it's so fun! It's a sensation like nothing else. Even moving your arms is nearly impossible. Breathing in becomes difficult because of all the weight on your chest. You can feel your neck changing shape under the G-force, as well as the skin on your face being pulled back slightly.
It's as uncomfortable as it sounds.
But the sheer novelty makes up for the discomfort! As long as you remember you're not going to come to any harm, you can relax and enjoy what feels like a huge invisible paw squashing you mercilessly into the wall with half a ton of weight.
The best part? You can get all your buddies on there at once. Everything rotates together, so you can stand facing each other and watch. They will create some very memorable expressions as they are flattened to within an inch of their lives! Even if you're riding alone, there is often banter and amusing reactions from strangers.
You might think that spinning around at high speed in a metal cylinder would cause you to get extremely dizzy and throw up. But no! As long as you keep your head completely still and look straight ahead you don't even feel the rotation. The force pushing you back overwhelms any sense of spinning. Just keep your eyes open, look at the person opposite and don't move your head an inch. Even the most weak-stomached should tolerate it well.
I rate this ride 9/10. An all-time favourite, just a pity the cycle doesn't last longer. 10/10 if you're riding with pals!
A classic ride from the 80s and 90s, one you don't see much any more. It's possible this could be the last of its kind in the UK?
You climb into one of the seats inside the cage, and it rocks back and forth like a pirate ship. Unlike a pirate ship, it eventually goes all the way around! Luckily it's not as scurry as it looks.
The G-forces on the ride are disappointingly small. The end of the arms have counter-weights, so you don't get any stomach butterflies on the way down. But the ride makes up for it with the amazing sensation of looping. There is nothing more fun than looping vertically like this! And because the loops are large, you don't feel much nausea.
The tight over-the-shoulder restraints, and the cage all around makes you feel very secure. Visibility out one side is blocked by the clouded perspex. Visibility out the front is reduced (but not eliminated) by the seats in front of you. That makes it a good ride for those who're scared of heights.
Half way through the cycle you get some upside-down hang time. It lasts just long enough to be fun! You feel the blood starting to rush to your head, but not so long you get a headache.
It's a crap-shoot which way you will loop at first. Looping backwards is much more disorientating, and much more fun!
I rate this one 10/10. Could be the best ride travelling the UK!