It has been exactly two years since we opened the Dark Ride Database. On 1 April 2020 we presented the database of European Dark Rides. Since then, we’ve expended to the Americas and last year we celebrated our first birthday with the “Worldwide Expansion”. Today we open the last phase of our database, the archive with over 500 closed, rethemed or relocated dark- and show rides!
From the moment we started working on the DRdb it was our goal to create the most complete database of dark rides. To reach this goal we have set some mayor steps over the last year. We expended the team with Jim, Quintus, Alan and Steven, had interviews with a great array of different professionals and added more detailed information on all the rides in the database. All these steps now culminate in this last expansion, the archive, or defunct rides as we used to call them.
We also took this opportunity to make a few changes to the way the site works. There are now two explore the world pages. One is still the same as always, while the other bring you to the archive of dark rides. The explore page itself has also changed. We have added two functions: “Search as I move the map” and “compare dark rides”.
We also worked on implementing a new gallery/photo viewer. The new photo viewer is able to properly show copyrights and dates for each individual photo. This enables us to credit each picture individually to our users, and enables all website visitors to see when each picture was taken.
Finally, we have also added a new search option, which you can find in the header of the site, “advanced search”. This offers all the same search options as the explore page, but without the longer loading time of the map all the while offering more space so view your selection.
We cannot celebrate our second birthday without a new special for you to read. In our latest special, The Dawn of the Dark Ride, we take a look at the origins of the dark ride. The article describes the development of the world’s very first dark rides from 1890 up to 1910, including the first tunnel of love and Blackpool’s River Caves. A worthwhile read, we hope you enjoy it!
