ReBoot: The Ride

Imax Corporation and Mainframe joined forces to produce a pair of Ridefilm exclusively for IMAX® Ridefilm™ simulators.  The first, "ReBoot™ - The Ride," opened at Sega City@Playdium in Mississauga, Ontario on October 17, 1997. Viewers sit in an 18-passenger vehicle mounted on an orthagonal motion base. (Translation - that sucker really makes you feel like you're moving!) The film is projected at 48 frames per second onto a 180° spherically curved screen. (That may not sound like much in print, but it sure makes it feel a lot more real than if you were looking at a flat screen.)

The four minute ride starts out as a routine exploration of the Internet with Maxine, a Search Engine. (Remember her from "The Episode With No Name"? And remember the 18-seat vehicle she was mopping out?) However, as luck would have it, we get sucked into Mainframe. Hack and Slash play tug-of-war with the vehicle, then Megabyte wants a ride into the Net with us.

Of course, Bob zips in to save us. What follows is a chase through Mainframe in which there are so many details you can never catch them on the first go. (A Bob Dobbs binome, a statue of Bob fighting Gigabyte, and the Smalltown Binomes are a few of the things that flash by.) The vehicle even goes bumping down a flight of stairs and is swung around at the end of something like a giant rubber band, and... well, I was glad the seats had handles to grip onto, and wished it had seatbelts as well. Eventually we reach safety, but not before seeing Megabyte do an impression of a bug on the windshield.

Yes, I know, this isn't a very detailed synopsis. That's because the last time I saw it was several years ago. I'm hoping to refresh my memory, if I can just get my ASCII to Las Vegas!

To make up for the lack of detailed description, here are the ridefilm credits and some nice little images. Click on the thumbnails to get larger images, suitable for printing out and papering your office or locker with. The color images are fairly large files, over 100K each.

	Dot appears on video with directions to lead us to safety. (I have no idea what's up with Dot's hair.)
	Megabyte hovers over the cybercity of Mainframe. (Actually, he's standing on the front of the vehicle. Yipes!)
	Bob comes to the rescue! (And, as he seems to be demonstrating, just in the nick of time.)
	The ridefilm poster. (Third season Dot, second season Bob. Hmm!)
	The top part of the back of the ridefilm mini poster. (I think I got it. Dot went to Princess Amidala's hairdresser! Um, no...)
	Bob and Dot arrive to tow you to safety. (You've got to depend on Bob's Crappy Car for your rescue? Lucky you.) Available as a regular image, or as 800x600 or 1024x768 desktops.
	Dot appears on video with directions to lead us to safety, now in color. (I still have no idea what's up with Dot's hair.) Available as a regular image, or as 800x600 or 1024x768 desktops.
	Megabyte tries to take control of your vehicle. Available as a regular image, or as 800x600 or 1024x768 desktops.
	A quick sqing by Dot's Diner, no time for energy shakes. (Dig that rubber band.) Available as a regular image, or as 800x600 or 1024x768 desktops.

A great big thank you goes out to Sean Black, the kind soul at IMAX® who supplied me with the press kit and miniposters from which all of these lovely images, and much of the information on the first ridefilm, came from! Images are copyright © Mainframe Entertainment, Inc. and Imax Corporation.