Seafari
	Location: Porto Europa - Wakayama Japan
	Venue: Theatre-style
	Motion Base: Hughes 4-DOF
	Programming Software: Hughes Training
	Film Production: Rhythm & Hues
	Director: Mario Kamberg
A daring undersea mission to rescue a missing sub. (The fact that we don't actually rescue it shouldn't be held against us.)

Director Mario Kamberg called me one day to ask if I was available to program his new ridefilm project. Since he was the man who got me started in this bizarre business with the Hanna-Barbera ride, well, how could I refuse?

As a result, I spent almost a year programming a test simulator for this project while the film was in production - excluding a two-month interruption while I was in South Korea to install the Kia Motors and StarQuest Adventure rides - and almost immediately thereafter traveled overseas for another two months to install this ride in Wakayama, Japan.

At one point, all three projects had test simulators installed in the L.A. area and I traveled from one to the next as needed - sometimes all in one day. Three different types of bases, three different programming systems - and each was thirty miles away from the other two. Well, at least it kept me busy.

Watch for: director Mario Kamberg making three cameos in a single four-minute ridefilm. First, he's the technician who launches you on your journey. Second, his face appears on an undersea rock formation. Finally, a shipwrecked freighter bears the name the "Mariosa". Move over, Hitchcock!

We explore the wreck of the Mariosa and discover...

...something very nasty.

Trivia: If the TV series SeaQuest had been a bigger hit, a quick redubbing of this film could have turned it into a fine SeaQuest attraction for Universal Studios. Don't tell me they weren't considering this...

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Videos:
Seafari appears on the SIGGRAPH Video Review #99 tape, available by mail order.
Books:
Digital Illusion contains several chapters about the making of Seafari and other attractions as well.