An indoor roller coaster or enclosed roller coaster is a roller coaster built inside a structure. The structure may be unrelated to the ride, or it may be intended solely or primarily for the ride. Many indoor coasters are custom made and placed in amusement parks or shopping malls. LaMarcus Adna Thompson, who pioneered the construction of the first simple roller coasters, initially built "scenic railway" rides including "indoor tableaux, panoramas, and biblical scenes illumined by car-tripped switches and flood lamps".[1] A "completely enclosed roller coaster" called the Twister was built as early as 1925.[2] Walt Disney World's Space Mountain was one of the first rides considered to be an indoor roller coaster,[3] and was "the first indoor roller coaster where riders were in total darkness for the length of the ride so they couldn't tell where the drops or turns would occur".[4][5]
^Terence G. Young, Terence Young, Robert B. Riley, Theme Park Landscapes: Antecedents and Variations (2002), p. 246.
^Robert Cartmell, The Incredible Scream Machine: A History of the Roller Coaster (1987), p. 145.
^Life Magazine Editors, LIFE Inside the Disney Parks: The Happiest Places on Earth (2018), p. 82.