It's been kind of sleepy around the DB boards lately, so I'm going to resurrect an old topic, partly because (1) we are all expecting a high-tech revision to the HHG mirror effect sometime in the (hopefully) near future, partly because (2) the original discussion has long fallen off the cliff at the end of page 20 into limbo, partly because (3) I've got some new evidence to share, and partly because (4) I just feel like it.
Two years ago (2/1/05), I posted this:
Board member happyghoul had joined the conversation at this point and mentioned an early blueprint of the HM he got off ebay, which showed a different set-up behind the mirror than the oval track for these HHG figurines:

Eventually, I got a copy of the blueprint from happyghoul, who was quite generous. I've decided to post the relevant section for you curious doombugs. But first, here's a print of the trackroom behind the mirror, showing the set-up as it is now. Notice the oval track in the large room behind the mirrors:

(Hat tip to GRD for the above print) Now here's the print from happyghoul:

Notice that there is no track but instead a wavy screen with three projectors behind it. There is also a curious, boxy-looking humanoid drawn on there that I can't explain at all. Sorry for the poor quality. It's a photocopy of a photocopy, and you can't read much even on the original copy, according to happyghoul. The word "curved" seems to be there in the description of the wavy screen.
There is no doubt that the current effect, with the oval track and the HHG figurines, was the original plan. A blueprint from Feb-March 1969 plainly shows it and refers to the effect:

Plus, the very shape of the room obviously was designed to house the oval track. IMO, that means that the screen-and-projector effect in happyghoul's print was likely a temporary substitute or backup plan.
The date on the happyghoul print is mostly illegible, but seems to be March or May 11. The year is probably 1969, since it is an "effects" blueprint and it seems unlikely to me that so many of the details of interior effects were already so fully blueprinted in the spring of 1968. That makes this layout fairly late in the game. I note that it has a more accurate rendering of the wall area where the big "Exit" sign is located than the other blueprint, but GRD cautions me that this may not be too significant, since they are different kinds of blueprints.
Anyway, there it is. I thought this was pretty intriguing stuff.
Two years ago (2/1/05), I posted this:
Quote:Two days later I added this:
I'm throwing this out there in the hope that some real old-timey doombuggers may shed some light (or I guess, "shed some dark"?). Been buggin' me for a long time.
One of the things I remember from my first ride on the HM, opening week 8/69, was that the HHGs did not reappear in the mirrors. Yeah, they were standing there as always as you entered the crypt, but that was it. Instead, in the mirrors there were wispy ghosts much like the graveyard wraiths surrounding the buggy as you moved along. The very next visit (a couple of months later) I was startled to see that this was changed to the familiar effect we all know.
Since learning more about the history of the HM (thanks in large measure to this site), I've speculated that that since the HHG were actually a last-minute creative addition, perhaps this very elaborate effect was not quite ready to go opening week, and they threw up a scrim behind the mirror with some ghostly slides playing on it as a quickie until the HHG's were set to go.
It is always possible that my memory is wrong, of course, but I was 14 and, fwiw, it is a clear memory. Anyone got anything about this?
Quote:
[T]hey were emphatically NOT projections of the HHG. They were wispy, wraith-like ghosts, much like the graveyard scrim types, except that they were animated. They sorta undulated and moved about the buggies in the mirror.
Board member happyghoul had joined the conversation at this point and mentioned an early blueprint of the HM he got off ebay, which showed a different set-up behind the mirror than the oval track for these HHG figurines:

Eventually, I got a copy of the blueprint from happyghoul, who was quite generous. I've decided to post the relevant section for you curious doombugs. But first, here's a print of the trackroom behind the mirror, showing the set-up as it is now. Notice the oval track in the large room behind the mirrors:

(Hat tip to GRD for the above print) Now here's the print from happyghoul:

Notice that there is no track but instead a wavy screen with three projectors behind it. There is also a curious, boxy-looking humanoid drawn on there that I can't explain at all. Sorry for the poor quality. It's a photocopy of a photocopy, and you can't read much even on the original copy, according to happyghoul. The word "curved" seems to be there in the description of the wavy screen.
There is no doubt that the current effect, with the oval track and the HHG figurines, was the original plan. A blueprint from Feb-March 1969 plainly shows it and refers to the effect:

Plus, the very shape of the room obviously was designed to house the oval track. IMO, that means that the screen-and-projector effect in happyghoul's print was likely a temporary substitute or backup plan.
The date on the happyghoul print is mostly illegible, but seems to be March or May 11. The year is probably 1969, since it is an "effects" blueprint and it seems unlikely to me that so many of the details of interior effects were already so fully blueprinted in the spring of 1968. That makes this layout fairly late in the game. I note that it has a more accurate rendering of the wall area where the big "Exit" sign is located than the other blueprint, but GRD cautions me that this may not be too significant, since they are different kinds of blueprints.
Anyway, there it is. I thought this was pretty intriguing stuff.






