“Atari Playland was canceled before the game was fully designed, but Taylor said the gameplay would have involved floating superimposed ghosts for players to shoot. A player’s view would follow on-rails routes, filmed using a complex, pre-programmed series of camera movements and a rotating platform supporting elaborate sets that could stretch over 40 feet long, Taylor said.
Everything was planned to work in a system designed by Pacific Data Image (which would eventually become part of Dreamworks); every movement was mapped out in advance. “We made little vector models in their system and were able to preview those moves and then figure out exactly how we needed to build the models to make it all work,” said Taylor.
Matt Paprocki 