Nationality British citizen Occupation Attraction designer | Name John Wardley Role Amusement Ride Designer | |
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Born 6 June 1956 (age 67) ( 1956-06-06 ) Known for The Smiler, Air, Nemesis, Oblivion, Vampire, Dragon Khan, Professor Burp's Bubble Works, The Haunted House Rides | ||
John wardley q a featuring the smiler hd
John Wardley (born June 1950 in Harrow, Middlesex) is a British developer for theme parks in the UK and Europe; an innovator of special effects, dark rides and roller coasters in the themed attraction industry.
Contents
- John wardley q a featuring the smiler hd
- John Wardley QA Nemesis20 Alton Towers Resort
- Career
- Video games
- Publishing history
- References
John Wardley Q&A - Nemesis@20 - Alton Towers Resort
Career
Wardley started his career as a stage manager at Windsor's Theatre Royal, then moved on to the film industry creating special effects. This included effect designs for five of the James Bond movies. He was later hired by the Tussauds Group due to his experience in designing animated figures and rides for amusement parks. His first project was the creation of the animated show "60 Glorious Years" for Tussauds Royalty and Empire exhibition at Windsor. This led him to meet Elizabeth II.
After this he was employed by the Tussauds Group to transform the declining Chessington Zoo in London to become the Chessington World of Adventures theme park. There, Wardley oversaw the production of attractions including The Vampire suspended coaster, constructed by Arrow Dynamics and Dragon River (now Dragon Falls) log flume. In 1990, Wardley collaborated with influential attraction designer Keith Sparks to produce the popular Prof. Burp's Bubble Works dark ride at Chessington World of Adventures, which ran for 15 years. Following this, he worked again with Sparks to produce a second large dark ride, The Haunted House at Alton Towers, in 1992.
Working for the Tussauds Group, John went on to produce famous attractions such as Nemesis, Oblivion and Air roller coasters. He also produced several of the developments at Thorpe Park from its acquisition by Tussauds in 1998.
One of his other accomplishments was that he, along with the late businessman Geoffrey Thompson, created a magic show called Mystique at Blackpool Pleasure Beach. The show ran successfully for nearly 20 years.
Wardley also worked with Chris Sawyer and Frontier Developments for RollerCoaster Tycoon 3, a game about amusement park management. His name is also a secret cheat code in the game - when visitor's title is named after him all height restrictions are removed, alluding to the severe height restrictions that his most well-known work at Alton Towers was required to comply with.
From 2000 to 2007, when the Tussauds Group was owned by Charterhouse and DIC, Wardley went into semi-retirement. However, in May 2007 Merlin Entertainments took over the company and he was asked to become actively involved in the group's theme park developments. He was employed as a technical design consultant for rollercoaster projects, such as SAW - The Ride at Thorpe Park, TH13TEEN at Alton Towers, Raptor at Gardaland, The Swarm at Thorpe Park and The Smiler at Alton Towers.
On 22 January 2013 John announced his retirement. In April 2013 he published an autobiography entitled Creating My Own Nemesis.