By David Ponce

A lot has been made lately of this robotic arm ride. It’s about these guys who strap themselves up to a robotic arm (the kind that you find in car assembly lines), and fling themselves about the room. Looks like fun, but it also looks dangerous, with the guy’s head nearly scraping the floor several times.

Well, guess what? It turns out this is pretty old. There’s a real ride like this, for random people, in a mall in Dubai.

I went there over the Holidays, and got some footage of the beast in action. It’s called “Robo Coaster”, and features a large robotic arm, with double chairs at the end. When you get in, you tell the operator just how crazy you want your ride to be. He then dials it in, and the flailing begins. Anything from old-people-sedate to brain rattling. A two minute ride costs 15 Dirhams, which is about $3.5US. It’s completely safe, and looks fun as hell.

It’s in Magic Planet, in The Emirates Mall, in Dubai… if you feel like looking it up. The video you see above was shot with a Nokia N93.

And man… I wish we had this sort of stuff over here.