In my fairly large collection of Disney Park CDs, there is one which always brings a smile to my eye. It has only ten tracks on it, and they are almost random in their disassociation from each other. That disk was created on November 21st, 1999. The CD is 8 years old now- and it's been through so much that it now skips and pops uncontrollably when played. I've kept it-though, because it is completely unique in the world. It is my copy of Disneyland Forever.
Disneyland Forever was my first experience with Disney Park "source audio". I discovered for the first time that, just by listening, I could be transported to the Magic Kingdom. The one track in particular that always took me away (and still does) was "Zip-a-dee-do-dah" from Critter Country, a very familiar piece of music to anyone who has ever ridden Splash Mountain.
But, unfortunately, less than two years later the Disneyland Forever kiosks were gone, along with their counterparts at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. Though Disney would release many more official Disneyland albums, even increasing the size of the sets from 1 to 2 disks, and updating it every year, nothing since attempted has ever come close to the brevity of Disneyland Forever. The expansive (and expensive) A Musical History of Disneyland set, while certainly a treat for Disneyland audio fans, focused more on attraction ridethroughs than on individual sounds- the bread and butter of Disneyland Forever.
Even with advances in legal digital music downloads, Disney has made no attempt so far to offer park music for sale beyond the official albums sold in the parks. And given the various legal issues that plagued the original Disneyland Forever, they likely never will.
However, the work of several dedicated fans had brought about a complete collection of the Disneyland Forever tracks. While many of the tracks had technical issues, and were usually offered in the compressed MP3 format, seeing the entire collection again rekindled my interest in Disneyland Forever.
Perhaps, I wondered, it would be possible to recreate the Disneyland Forever kiosks on the computer. Such an experience could be offered online, as a tribute both to Disneyland and the system itself. Perhaps, even, an updated Disneyland Forever 2.0 could be created. With no reference material to work from however, such a project was not possible.
Fast forward a few years again, to August of 2007. Thanks to the work yet again of dedicated Disneyland (and Disneyland Forever fans), high quality FLAC versions of the entire Disneyland Forever collection were made available. That was not all though- also included were many tracks never offered for sale- and original user interface files from the kiosks.
Now a recreation of the kiosk experience is finally possible. While I have not yet had a chance to look over the files (the collection is still downloading, and should be finished within the day), all indications would seem to point to there being enough there to recreate the system.
Just because it's possible, however, doesn't mean it will be easy. In order to create a working system that will be suitable for a web browser, the entire system will have to be recreated using the original files as a guide. suspect Adobe Flash is the best way to do it, as it provides the easiest way of combining audio and video into a seamless experience.
And there are still many questions left to be answered. The purpose of the original kiosks was the creation of a physical CD- something not possible with a website. There are, furthermore, many technical challenges yet to come.
But it should be an adventure nonetheless! I will be posting updates here with regard to my progress as I attempt to recreate the Disneyland Forever system. I'll also be relying on feedback from the comments to make decisions I feel should be left to the users, so comment!
Here's something to do in the meantime: If you have a Disneyland Forever CD, post your track listing!
Here's mine (text copied verbatim):
1. Mickey's ToonTown Area Music "Little Toot"
2. Mickey's ToonTown Area Music "Steamboat Willie"
3. Enchanted Tiki Room "Tiki Room War Chant"
4. Carousel of Progress "Opening 1"
5. Swiss Family Robinson "Christmas Medley"
6. Carousel of Progress "Speed Ramp March"
7. it's a small world "Danish Drum and Bugle Corps"
8. Fantasyland Band Organ "Mickey and Friends"
9. Critter Country Area Music "Zip-a-dee-do-dah"
10. Disney Gallery "Love is a Song"
5 comments:
One of the important items missing from the files in the DL Forever music files is a database. What database program do you usually use when you program? I might be able to help some if you need any help.
Hmmm. I haven't done a lot of work with databases (a part from some proprietary stuff I worked with as a programmer), but for my site I usually use MySQL.
It seems to me that being the system wont actually need to keep track of any purchases, and since the music collection won't be changing (at least not very often) that a full-on database is not necessary. If I do feel the need to store all of the track info in one place were it can be referenced, I'll probably use a text file.
But thanks for the offer; we'll see what happens.
The torrent should be done downloading sometime tonight; work will begin tomorrow. Any progress I make will be reported here...with pictures/screencaps were appropriate.
No Problem. I think what you are taking on as a project is awesome!
Well, the torrent is downloaded (over 4 gigs in one afternoon...at one point my download rate was 300kB/s!) and so I will begin work as soon as I get home.
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