Desperados debuted last season at Bobbejaanland in Belgium and Fraispertuis City in France and takes players on a wild romp through a western city recreated on a screen in front of them.

Players must free the city from the bad guys, as they sit on moving saddles and shoot at a succession of targets. Throughout the game, players are chosen by the computer-animated host and their images/scores projected on screen.

Half the fun is playing along with your friends and family and making fun of them as they singled out for ability, or lack of it, by the host. The game has recorded average satisfaction ratings of 90 per cent.

At the two venues it already runs, the Desperados has operated as part of the park admission price, but equally it could run as a pay attraction, “perhaps with a photo given to the winner as a prize.”

And, adds Chatelain, “we’ve developed a lot of new features since.” Customers will be able to select new animation, for example. Possible themes include a haunted house, magic/wizards and other fantasy/storybook characters. New seats will be offered, allowing players to sit ‘inside’ the saddle, and new guns are being developed with a recoil action to add to the interactivity.

Many of these features will also be available to existing Desperados customers looking for a change of theme. “We want to offer a package that protects people’s investment.”

Desperados is available in a variety of configurations and capacities, the 30-player version entertaining around 300 guests per hour.

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