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"They are in there and you have to get them back home," Barcz said. "It's not only doing things together, but psychologically you're trying to get the astronauts home. I think this going to create that," he said. "There is a dynamic that happens when a group of people come together to work on a common problem and arrive at a solution. Now that it is ready, Barcz hopes that the "Houston, We've Had a Problem" game delivers his guests a real sense of accomplishment, not unlike that experienced by the real Apollo 13 team.
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"We had hoped to have done this in the last year, but it's taken longer because we were struggling with how to get that look we wanted with the command and lunar modules," explained Barcz. To achieve that experience took more than a year of planning and building, leading up to a number of late nights and long weekends to be able to begin taking public reservations on Thursday (July 6). We want them to be wowed and see the connection to the real Apollo mission." "When guests come out, I want them to feel like they've never been through anything like this before, that they can see the complexity of this - this is not an escape room that has locks on things - this is real technology. "We're calling this the 'most realistic escape room in America,'" Barcz said. The Apollo 13 room is unlike anything attempted at the more than 30 Escape Hunt game centers around the world.Įscape Hunt Houston’s Apollo 13 command and lunar module panels, fabricated by Historic Space Systems, are full-size and feature the same layouts as the real spacecraft.
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Recognizing the potential for the social activity, he not only opened the Escape Hunt in Houston, but became a master franchiser for the international brand. We didn't use them all, but there will be some authentic representation there." Failure was not an optionĪ former executive at a defense satellite communications firm, Barcz went into the escape room business after retiring and taking part in the experience on a trip to see his family. "I used the mission's original checklist to figure out which switches had to be in the right position. "I did the research on what position the toggle switches should be in at launch," Fongheiser told collectSPACE. Everything is accurately depicted."įor the purposes of the game, Fongheiser worked with Barcz to integrate buttons and lights that were not part of the original spacecraft, but they also found ways to incorporate some of the real controls, too. "How many people get to sit in an Apollo command module or stand in a lunar module? I think they will appreciate stepping into it. "I can never get over how big these things actually were," Fongheiser said. Working initially from his office in Ohio, Fongheiser employed VR modeling to ensure the full-size spacecraft panels he was fabricating would fit into the Escape Hunt room. In addition to commissioning prop makers in New Jersey and Indiana to fabricate the Mission Control consoles and equipment, Barcz sought the expertise of John Fongheiser, president of Historic Space Systems, who creates spacecraft exhibits and simulators for space museums nationwide. Escape Hunt Houston's Mission Control, modeled after NASA's historic room, has consoles for the Flight Director, EECOM, CAPCOM and more.
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