Theme Park

[Lasse D]

Back in 1994, Bullfrog Productions created the video game Theme Park. Since 2016 I have been working on recreating the game... using LEGO. It has now been 6 years, and I am not yet done, so what is taking so long? Well. I want the visitors to try out the rides when possible - not just stay inside of a single ride.

Rather than continuing posting a new thread for each module, I will use this thread for all the content regarding this project.

This first post will contain an index of presentations, and will be updated as new rides and other content is finished.

Presentations of Rides

Bouncy Castle in separate topic

 

Plane Flyer in separate topic

 

Merry-Go-Round in post #5

 

Observation Tower in post #5

 

Big Wheel in post #5

 

Space Shuttle in separate topic

 

Haunted House in post #7

 

Parasol Chairs in post #7

 

Roller Coaster in separate topic

 

 

 

Shops

Mr Walley Ices in separate topic

 

Duck Shoot in separate topic

 

Big Time Fries in post #5

 

Coconut Shy in post #5

 

Coffee Shop in post #5

Pokey Cola in post #5

 

Race Track in post #9

 

Balloon World in post #13

  

Saloon in post #16

 

 

Features

All, but the Fountain in this post:

Outhouse

 

Boggy Crapper

 

Super Toilet

 

Apple Tree

 

Birch Tree

 

Castle Wall

 

Lake

 

Lamps

 

Oak Tree

 

Orange Tree

 

Palm Tree

  

Private Hedge

 

Rose Bush

 

Spooky Tree

 

Tree Stump Fence

 

Tropical Bush

 

Weeping Tree

 

White Fence

 

Fountain in separate topic

 

 

Edited February 13, 2024 by Lasse D
Added rides, shops, features and thumbnails.

[emielroumen]

Amazing, enormous amount of effort you put into this ! Happy x-mas and holidays!

[Good old Lego builder]

This is a very remarkable project. Very intresting and well done. Never seen something like this.

[Davidz90]

Now that is unusual! Amazing engineering with conveyor belts and their logic.

[m2fel]

Played the game back in the days and totally admire your build. The details and technics used are awesome 

[Lasse D]

Thanks all of you! I'm happy that it is finally starting to get together.

 

Here are a some additional presentations:

Merry-Go-Round

Here is a short 30 seconds video to show you how it works:

This is my very first module to use Spike Prime. It has 4 motors: One for the two tract sections (as always), one for spinning the ride, and two for the lifting mechanism, which can both move back and forth, as well as lift.

The coffee cups turn a single rotation counter to the main platter due to 20 tooth gears rotating around 2 levels of 40 tooth gears with the middle gear being stationary, and all others being pulled with the plate:

Here you can also see the 40 tooth gear being driven by the Angular XL motor. Power is transferred to the 40 tooth gear over a series of 24 tooth gears below the motor.

Finally, the yellow catch is used to reset the ride when the module is started up.

These rides have a tendency to eventually break down when running at events. For this reason I have tried to make the model serviceable by having removable panels.

Here you can see the normal clicker mechanism in the right side, but originally I tried to achieve this with a dual-clicking mechanism:

This was unfortunately quite unreliable, so I reverted to what works. Here is a full presentation video where I show all the details in action, including how the module can be adjusted and reset:

 

 

Observation Tower

This ride is unlike all the others... the passenger are stuck inside.

Here is the 30 seconds presentation video showing the movement inside:

The people move around inside. Most of them simply rotate, but two of them dance, while another couple move back and forth:

For the roof design I turned to BrickShaper, which is able to handle 3D shapes and project onto pictures.

Since the module was initially constructed, I have reduced the height with one section (6 bricks), added a sticker on the booth and a motor to power the module.

In the video game the whole window section rotates. I went for moving people inside instead, which might be a bad choice, since people have a hard time seeing inside of the ride. A future update might add lights, or perhaps trans clear windows to show what is going on inside.

The full presentation video:

 

 

Big Wheel

"Big Wheel" is the ferris wheel of Theme Park. It has 6 gondolas and a big flower as decoration.

Here is a 30 seconds presentation video of the original design:

Since the video, I have updated the design, so that it resembles the original more closely (see the right side of the screenshot above)

The lifting mechanism has two sections: The section under the gondolas lifts without tilting, while the section connected to the outer tracks tilts:

The yellow parts lift up to grap the gondolas, so that the passengers can be pushed in without tilting the gondolas:

If there is one thing I would like to improve on this ride, it would be to add braces for the gondolas, so they are not open:

The module is NXT powered. Since the NXT only has 3 motor ports, some motors had to take on multiple tasks:

- One motor simply turns the ride.

- The second motor lifts the two track sections and closes the yellow "gondola grabbers"

- The third motor runs all the tracks and uses the following one-way mechanism to ensure the outer track only moves forward:

I will make a new presentation video once the module has been upgraded to have braces on the gondolas. For now, this is the long presentation video:

 

Big Time Fries

This was the very first shop in this project. The choice of 30 second videos was not made yet, so it is a full minute:

It is fully mechanical with two pressure-activated buttons: One for the employee to move, and one for the parasol to turn

The module uses an M-motor, which is quite loud, so I will replace it with a more silent XL-motor.

This is also currently the only shop to have building instructions:

The instructions can be found here: https://brickhub.org/i/597

 

Coconut Shy

This is an interactive shop like Duck Shoot. Unlike Duck Shoot, it used a distance sensor to detect interaction.

It uses two motors: 

- One for the trigger mechanism.

- One for the outer track when turning in one direction, and to restore the coconuts when driving the other way.

Since the module only uses 1 of the 4 sensor ports, and 2 of the 3 motor ports, it can be used to power a second module, such as one with an XL motor, NXT Motor, and even a shop like Coffee Shop.

I keep calling these things modules. This is because all modules can be put together as you want. As an example, here is a layout consisting of shops and features:

Here is the full module presentation:

 

 

Coffee Shop

The Coffee Shop is an NXT-powered module... without an NXT. It requires to be placed near either Duck Shoot or Coconut Shy for the ports and speaker needed for the effects.

There is a single light sensor inside to detect visitors, and a single NXT motor to run the two track sections using the standard one-way-mechanism.

What is special about this module is how the intersection of the tracks lifts and lowers in order to antagonise the visitors, and invite some, but not all, inside.

Full presentation video:

 

Pokey Cola

This shop is what I call a "7 x 16 gadget". It can be moved around and placed wherever there is a fitting gadget slot, like this:

The white clutch gear interacts with the gray 16 tooth gear below:

The movement is all in the top where both straws, as well as the ice cubes bob around slowly.

Full Presentation:

 

Edited December 25, 2022 by Lasse D
Added shops

[Ivorrr]

Loved the game! Love the project!

[Lasse D]

Thanks Ivorrr! 

I am glad when people can recognize where this is all from.

Here are the last couple of finished rides, which I had not yet presented:

Haunted House

This module has been under development for most of this year. The top has been revised multiple times in order to get the window right. I ended up using the opening design from the official Haunted House set. Here is the 30 seconds presentation video:

The window when closed:

Ans when opened, the second light sensor provides a light effect:

The top now uses a tilting mechanism to open the window when activated by the lift:

The previous version, which I brought to Bricking Bavaria in November had the window opening inwards. This was unfortunately not as visible for visitors.

In the base there are doors, which are also activated by the lift, a light sensor to detect visitors, and now also a touch sensor to detect when the lift is in the lower position.

Here is the full presentation of the ride:

 

 

Parasol Chairs

This is the wildest ride of the Theme Park layout so far!

It uses 3 motors: One for the two tract sections (like always), one for spinning the ride, and the last for the lifting track section:

Full presentation where I also show how a second light sensor is used to adjust the ride:

 

[Frequenzberater]

That is such an crazy (in a positive way), impressive and well executed project. 

I also played the original game a lot back in the days and I loved it. 

Any plans or ideas for the iconic rollercoaster? 

[Lasse D]

Thanks. The roller coaster is going to take me some time to complete, as I want to make it as cool as possible... and I am not sure what people consider "cool".

Meanwhile I have a new interactive shop ready:

Race Track

 

This module has 65 gears and 3 motors for the functions where it allows guests to boost their favourite horse to the finish line (detected using the color sensor).

I am using the following setup with standard corner modules when testing a new module like this:

 

 

The horses are pushed using crossing minifigures that push the "pushers", somewhat reflecting how the real game works.

 

I had to place the hub above the base this time due to the large amount of mechanical components in the base. The door can be opened to start and stop the hub, and the whole section can be removed for servicing (such as attaching the power cable)

 

 

There is a full video with me explaining all the details here:

 

[Axadder]

One of my favourite childhood games done with Lego. I suffered from retro-Stendhal syndrome.

[A_Forest_of_Lego]

They all look so amazing!

[KirTech LAB]

This project is absolutely mind-blowing! You must have infinite patience. Just don't stop :)

[Lasse D]

Thanks, all of you. The project has just completed a milestone: All 19 features are now in the park. The next 2 milestones are going to be much tougher, though: There are 15 shops and 27 rides! ... and so far I average 1 ride per year!

In this video I show each of the 19 features, as well as the 2D and the 3D versions of them inside of the game (where available).

The features generally fall into some categories:

"Feature features" which are purely decorative. These are:

Apple Tree 

Birch Tree

Oak Tree

Lamps

Orange Tree

Palm Tree

Rose Bush

Spooky Tree

Tree Stump Fence

Tropical Bush

Weeping Tree

White Fence

Lake

Of these, the lake, white fence and tree stump fence are "modular", and can be easily changed to fit a changing layout.

 

Then there are three toilets, which are "7x8 gadgets" that can be placed on modules with gadget slots. This allows the base of the gadgets to be included when moving them around:

Outhouse

Boggy Crapper

Super Toilet

 

There are two features, which hide 9V train power supplies. These are:

Castle Wall

Private Hedge

And finally there is the Theme Park Fountain, which has its own thread, linked in the first post.

In time I will improve and duplicate features, as they help make the park look much better than with only shops and rides.

 

[Lasse D]

 

As you could see in the video, this is the latest shop in the Theme Park layout. It is a LEGO Boost Hub-powered version of the Balloon World shop from the video game.

The illusion consist of swapping minifigures in order to make it appear as if they purchase balloons inside of the shop.

 

The building itself is filled with strange angles and I have tried to go overboard with building techniques to make this happen: There are two different ways of making the angled walls, and the upper roof uses strings with bars to create the sunken effect.

 

 

On the backside there is a much more structured construction, which makes it easier to lift and repair the model: The woodwork and strange angles all over the facade is not exactly robust.

Here it can also be seen how the Boost hub has been included to power the module.

 

In this picture you can see how hinges are used to angle the walls.

 

[2GodBDGlory]

Impressive work! I always like seeing your progress on this project.

[LawrenceWalker]

That attention to detail is what sets apart a good project from a great one.
Honestly, I've always admired people who can create amazing things with LEGO. Me? I was never that creative with them as a kid. I mostly just followed the instructions and built whatever was on the box. But seeing your dedication and passion for this project is inspiring.
By the way, if you ever need a break or some fresh inspiration, I've been on a quest lately exploring the top amusement parks in the United States. Each park has its own unique vibe and attractions that could spark some cool ideas for your LEGO project.

Edited February 8, 2024 by LawrenceWalker

[Lasse D]

Thanks. I should perhaps consider such a visit for research 

 

Meanwhile, here is the latest shop. It is the:

Saloon

 

The video shows the building process. If you do not have time to skim through it, then here are some details:

As seen in the video "thumbnail", there is a bar and bartender inside:

In the video I show how the bar and interior is built. The largest challenge was to have the bartender hold a cloth for cleaning the glass. It took me around 6 minutes to make it work. it is a "Minifigure Bandana / Scarf" from the old LEGO Western figures.

 

The module is interactive. Visitors can activate the "hand wave" sensor to have their favourite minifig visit the saloon.

 

The black inner track lifts and lowers to help people either enter or pass by the saloon.

 

Since the module is powered by a Technic Hub and uses 2 ports for sensors, only 2 motors can be used. A red differential is used to multiply the functionality of one motor, so that the inner track can both run and lift/lower.

In the video I try to demonstrate the motor multiplication technique with a separate build. I do not know if this is the best way to demonstrate the principle without speaking. Please tell me if you have better ideas. The next 2 planned modules will have even more motor multiplication going on.

[vascolp]

Your video is very cool! It’s incredible the amount of work behind the scenes.