Join the fight at the Alamo with visit to ‘Battle for Texas’

Using theme-park technology, museum exhibits and 22,000 square feet in the basement of an old Joske’s building, a new attraction near the Alamo attempts to re-create the famous 1836 siege and battle.

“Battle for Texas: The Experience” opened April 29 inside the Shops at Rivercenter in downtown San Antonio, adjacent to Alamo Plaza.

Though unrelated to an Alamo area master plan being crafted by the city, state and nonprofit Alamo Endowment, the new attraction developed over 18 months by entertainment industry experts seeks to complement visits to the state shrine.

“This is where you can experience history in a different way,” said David Weiss, creative producer-director of the attraction, a venture of BASE Entertainment, an international company, and The Gold Group of Boston.

“Battle for Texas” takes visitors on a journey that explains early settlement under Spanish rule, the hardships of frontier life and political unrest under Mexican rule that led to the 1835-36 revolution. Graphics in English and Spanish and about 200 uniforms, weapons and other artifacts from 11 lenders provide context.

“We don’t pick sides. Basically we say that all of these groups came together at this moment in history,” Weiss said.

Average visits last about an hour. Children can use a touch screen to create their own revolutionary flag. Each room has its own soundtrack.

“We’re trying take you back to that time, hearing the voices of settlers, because you are now one of them,” Weiss said.

Visitors will see a red flag of no quarter over San Fernando church, as a bugle call of deguello is sounded. David Kneupper, a composer from San Antonio, said many had speculated what the call sounded like before Mexican archives revealed the melody he used.

“It was this haunted bugle call used to intimidate the people of the Alamo,” said Kneupper, whose work focused on orchestral music with a “big sky Western” flavor.

Artifacts include silver spurs believed to have been worn by Sam Houston; a long knife linked to David “Davy” Crockett; and Santa Anna’s bed and uniform. Alamo artist Gary Zaboly created renderings of the battle, including one showing Mexican troop positions in the morning assault of March 6, 1836.

To get a feel for the physical demands, visitors pull a rope to try to advance a cannon weighing several hundred pounds up a ramp. They enter a dark hallway with flashes of light, the sound of explosions, a sulfuric gunpowder smell and visions of Mexican soldiers running through the haze of smoke at the height of the battle.

The battle scene ends with a haunting musical score, a list of names of the fallen defenders and the voice of a woman reading the names.

The attraction attempts to take visitors “out on a high note” with a 12-screen video presentation of images of the Lone Star State.

“So there’s a transition point where basically we tell the guests, you’re now the defenders of this great state,” Weiss said. “What are you going to do to make it great?”

This story was originally published May 11, 2016 at 11:16 AM with the headline "Join the fight at the Alamo with visit to ‘Battle for Texas’."