A century of virtual amusement

At the turn of 20th century the whole of America was talking about Coney Island—New York’s famous entertainment district was booming, and sported attractions like none other. Coney Island’s most famous amusement park was Steeplechase Park, there you could experience the latest technology at prices the working class could afford. George Tilyou was the enigmatic owner of the park and he knew how to woo a crowd—by adapting technologies that he had seen in the military and employing them in rides like the Dew Drop, the Barrel of Love and the Human Roulette Wheel. The park employed these incredible technologies with two goals in mind: to create physiological thrills and for people to share in compromising and hilarious interactions. Today we see the beginnings of a new media space that combines innovations from military and engineering with effects a century old. While the amusement spaces of the 1900’s have mostly disappeared we now see virtual reality entertainment zones appearing in most major cities, occupied not just by arcade gamers but families, couples and co-workers of all ages. We also see the melding of “traditional” theme park rides like rollercoasters and even waterslides with VR experiences, to the thrill of some and the chagrin of the hardcore enthusiasts who don’t see these new hybrid experiences as “real”. This paper links the current VR revolution with the ride experiences that evolved from the traditional amusement park. Malcolm Burt and Joel Zika compare the revolution of the 20th century with the impending boom of VR technology in the 21st.