Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin
Wikipedia
Disneyland History for Middle School Readers
Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin is an interactive shooting dark ride attraction located in the Tomorrowland area at Disneyland.
The backstory of the ride revolves around the attempts of Evil Emperor Zurg steal the batteries used to power the space vehicles of the "Little Green Men". Participants are "Star Command" raw recruits sent to defeat Zurg. The queue area is awash in the chartreuse, white, and bright blue hues of Buzz Lightyear himself. Since Buzz Lightyear is a toy, the attraction is cleverly scaled to give the illusion that one has just been reduced to the size of an action figure, featuring such detail as giant, exposed Philips screw heads and an explanation of the interactive phase of the ride that resembles a toy's instruction sheet, only on a gigantic scale. An Audio-Animatronic Buzz Lightyear figure and giant Etch-a-Sketch provide explanation of the "mission" to destroy Zurg's secret weapon with your blasters. While his body is audio-animatronic, Buzz's face is actually a screen with a projection of computer animation, allowing better lipsync and more expressive features, making him look like a more realistic representation of the character from the films.
"Space Ranger Spin" are equal parts shooting gallery and dark ride. Visitors board an Omnimover space vehicle featuring two laser pistols and a joystick. The pistols are used to shoot laser beams at targets of varying point values. Targets that are hit while lit up will produce much higher scores. A digital readout on the dashboard shows the player's score. The joystick allows full 360-degree rotation of the vehicle to assist in aiming. During the ride, if the ride slows down or completely stops (this is a result of either a handicapped guest or a ride breakdown) during the ride, this allows for "bonus points" as the pistols and targets do not turn off. There are 4 different shaped targets which are worth different numbers of points: round (100 points), square (1,000 points), diamond (5,000 points), and triangle (10,000 points).
At the conclusion of the ride, the digital score flashes L1-L7 displaying the ranking or level achieved for the below scores: Level 1 Star Cadet 0 – 1,000; Level 2 Space Scout 1,001 – 10,000; Level 3 Ranger 1st Class 10,001 – 100,000; Level 4 Planetary Pilot 100,001 – 300,000; Level 5 Space Ace 300,001 – 600,000; Level 6 Cosmic Commando 600,001 – 999,998; and Level 7 Galactic Hero 999,999+
The backstory of the ride revolves around the attempts of Evil Emperor Zurg steal the batteries used to power the space vehicles of the "Little Green Men". Participants are "Star Command" raw recruits sent to defeat Zurg. The queue area is awash in the chartreuse, white, and bright blue hues of Buzz Lightyear himself. Since Buzz Lightyear is a toy, the attraction is cleverly scaled to give the illusion that one has just been reduced to the size of an action figure, featuring such detail as giant, exposed Philips screw heads and an explanation of the interactive phase of the ride that resembles a toy's instruction sheet, only on a gigantic scale. An Audio-Animatronic Buzz Lightyear figure and giant Etch-a-Sketch provide explanation of the "mission" to destroy Zurg's secret weapon with your blasters. While his body is audio-animatronic, Buzz's face is actually a screen with a projection of computer animation, allowing better lipsync and more expressive features, making him look like a more realistic representation of the character from the films.
"Space Ranger Spin" are equal parts shooting gallery and dark ride. Visitors board an Omnimover space vehicle featuring two laser pistols and a joystick. The pistols are used to shoot laser beams at targets of varying point values. Targets that are hit while lit up will produce much higher scores. A digital readout on the dashboard shows the player's score. The joystick allows full 360-degree rotation of the vehicle to assist in aiming. During the ride, if the ride slows down or completely stops (this is a result of either a handicapped guest or a ride breakdown) during the ride, this allows for "bonus points" as the pistols and targets do not turn off. There are 4 different shaped targets which are worth different numbers of points: round (100 points), square (1,000 points), diamond (5,000 points), and triangle (10,000 points).
At the conclusion of the ride, the digital score flashes L1-L7 displaying the ranking or level achieved for the below scores: Level 1 Star Cadet 0 – 1,000; Level 2 Space Scout 1,001 – 10,000; Level 3 Ranger 1st Class 10,001 – 100,000; Level 4 Planetary Pilot 100,001 – 300,000; Level 5 Space Ace 300,001 – 600,000; Level 6 Cosmic Commando 600,001 – 999,998; and Level 7 Galactic Hero 999,999+