Ride Archive, an experience that enables guests to try out now defunct rides in VR, is gaining traction online with a pitch asking Disney to set up such an attraction at one of its parks.

"Anyone who's been to a theme park has a favourite ride. But what about all the rides that went away before their time and still linger in the childhood memories of grown-ups today?”

A video pitch explaining the concept, hosted at RideArchive.com, has been viewed 620,000 time on Facebook.

“Anyone who's been to a theme park has a favourite ride. But what about all the rides that went away before their time and still linger in the childhood memories of grown-ups today?” said the founder and creator of Ride Archive, Jay Kristopher Huddy.

In the concept, the attraction is like a hub where VR footage of historic rides can be experienced. Guests enter the attraction, choose which ride they want to try – say Disneyland’s Captain EO, Tomorrowland’s old Skyway or Epcot’s Horizon – and experience a virtual simulation of how that would have been.

Once a guest has done a ride, the VR content can be sent to their mobile device, so they can relive it again at home.

Huddy is asking people to sign an online petition – which currently has almost 2,000 signatures – asking The Walt Disney Company to make the ride a reality.

“The dark ride is mechanical performance art. We preserve art in so many forms, whether it’s paintings, literature, sculpture, music, or architecture. All of these are singularly embodied in a theme park ride and yet no one seems concerned with preserving that unifying cultural experience,” said Huddy in a recent interview with DCTC. “I want to change that.”