Remember back in the late 80s / early 90s when simulator rides were all the rage? Heck, it seems that almost every theme park had one. I wanna say that it all started with Star Tours in the magic kingdom, but honestly I think it may have started with crappy sim rides at state fairs. You know the type, you sit in a tube shaped like a rocket and take an imaginary trip to Mars or through someone's GI tract. Maybe not the later, but you get the point.

Every major movie franchise had them; Star Wars, Back to the Future, Terminator, and even our beloved Star Trek with the Klingon Encounter & Borg Invasion 4D. Not to be left out of glorious profits, 20th Century Fox licensed a sim ride based on the Alien / Aliens franchise. We ran across this little gem strolling through the slums of Youtube. After the first minute or so we could see that it was mostly cobbled together from movie clips, but then something magical happened... Jeffrey Combs fell out of an escape pod and everything got a whole lot more awesome.

According to Alienlegend.com: Aliens: Ride at the Speed of Fright was produced by the company Iwerks and launched 1996. It used scenes from Aliens mixed in with new footage starring Jeffrey Combs as Colonial Marine Hyer. The ride could be found at two locations: Pier 39's TurboRide Simulation Theatre in San Francisco and Granada Studios in Manchester, England.

The video at the top is actually lead in footage to the ride, which you can see a video of below. It's the little things in life that bring a smile to my face. Jeffrey Combs in the Alien universe is like finding chocolate in my peanut butter...