A.J.

Hey guys! So, I just finished my newest NoLimits project (Nerd, right?), and I was planning on uploading a video to CoasterTube. The problem I had was that when I would browse to the file using Safari 5, select it, and "upload", the "uploading" bar would appear for a split second before disappearing. The video wouldn't be uploaded. Curiously, flipping over to Windows and using Internet Explorer 9 let the video upload just fine. I'm not sure whether it just doesn't play nice with Safari, or if the system doesn't know how to get the file path on an OS X machine. Or, it could be something completely different! Mac OS X 10.7.2, Safari 5.1 Windows 7 Professional 64-bit, Internet Explorer 9

Oh, for sure. It's been emergency-stop-tested and tunnel-tested everywhere as well. The speed is about 20-or-so miles per hour upon entering the brake run, so it doesn't take a terrible amount of effort to stop it. The trigger is center car, near the beginning of the section, and it stops A-OK. Release tomorrow.

When it comes to roller coasters, there's really only one way you can go when you reach the top of a lift hill - and that's down. Usually, roller coasters are designed so that their largest drop happens directly after the lift hill, or with a small slow section in between. When I designed this ride, I took a little bit of inspiration from Hersheypark's Great Bear. I designed the ride with an intense spiral directly after the lift, and followed it with its largest drop. It makes you focus on the spiral for that split second - "That's pretty intense" - and as soon as you come to grips with the spiral, you're already halfway down the largest drop.

The thing with mid-course brake runs is that they control a ride. Just when you think the first half of a ride is fantastic, you end up on a mid-course brake run that seems to slow it down to a screeching halt, and it ruins the rest. What happens if you want to design something that feels out of control all the time? I designed this ride so the mid-course brake run does not affect what follows it. As such, there is no loss of speed on the mid-course brake section, and hard braking is only applied if an emergency stop is required. If you've ridden a great deal of roller coasters, you would be riding this coaster and expect the brake run to slow the train - but it doesn't - and an OH SHI--- moment would inevitably occur afterward, especially in the back row of the train.

But, with Fear Factor beginning to air on NBC again, you'd think that they would still want to use the Fear Factor arena.

The trains are (probably) double the weight of the trains on Steel Hawg and Mumbo Jumbo. So, it's going to take more opposing force to keep them at bay going over the drop. So, the small bump was probably added at the top to slow the trains down enough such that all the brakes have to do is keep them at that speed as opposed to slowing them down from a higher speed.

See, here's the thing - I used Newton's disadvantage to my...advantage. Does that make sense? I make rides in two distinct styles. My "compact" rides are just that, stuffing as much track into as little space as possible by any means necessary. My "large" rides (like this one and my mega coaster Frenzy) are designed exclusively with straights and curves, much like an electric slot car track. With this style of design, hills are hills and turns are turns. The style is extremely clean and extremely simplistic (the designs I like most wherever I go are the clean, simple, organic designs).

ZING! I thought my roller coaster puns were terrible...

Holy thorough, Batman! Sometime this weekend I'll have to sit down and read the whole blasted thing. Excellent work, from the minute I took to skim through it at this moment. One logistical thing though - make sure you have your link approved by a Games Forum moderator before posting it. Unfortunately, as long as you've been a member, you still don't have 50 posts. I'll give you an exception this time though, because you obviously have put a lot of work into this excellent piece of engineering. EDIT: Or, if I'm being completely ignorant and you got it approved already, that's cool too!

OMG GIV ME MOAR BBW PLZ!!!!1!1 Verbolten is actually one of the rides I'm most looking forward to, even more so because I can actually go ride it without going halfway across the country. Anyway, if I absolutely had to pick one, I'd say Superman Ultimate Flight. I'll never stop making fun of Leviathan's brake run though.

Maybe the Big One had the same sort of re-tracking done to some of the sections of Steel Phantom/Phantom's Revenge? You know, having Morgan come in, etc etc...

That's a tight fit. Did anyone run a clearance envelope through that tunnel? If Leviathan or X-Flight would win the award for "least interesting B&M", this would definitely win the award for "most interesting". Maybe I should learn French.

I'd say I'm probably least impressed with two attractions - Superman Ultimate Flight at Discovery Kingdom, and X-Flight at Great America. But, then again, I'm not counting relocations. Apocalypse at SF America and Goliath at New England would be tops if I were.

It's amazing that I've missed so many of the "little things" around the resort. I definitely need to take more time and poke around. Of course, actually having a car this time will definitely help...

I'm glad they went back to the original train design for Leviathan. IMO, the staggered seating is a huge waste of space. You could fit three rows of 4-across seats in the space two of the staggered cars use. I know they would have been heavy, but the very tiny ginger soul inside me wishes the trains would have been at least 10 cars long.

This is a bad idea. The two "Magic Kingdom"-style Disney parks have some big differences with each other, and are separate enough that (MOST) guests can tell the difference between Disneyland and Magic Kingdom. Having a carbon-copy Wizarding World be built in Hollywood (if you'll pardon the expression) spoils the magic. Now, if that Wizarding World WON'T have Hogwarts and the other attractions that Florida has, and INSTEAD have different locations that you couldn't see in the Florida area, then they might be on to something.

24 new credits! In all honesty, I don't think so, because the layout is staying exactly the same and only certain sections are getting the re-tracking.

Me obsessing over park- and/or attraction-themed Vinylmations is bad enough. Well, I think I know where the extra money from my seasonal work will end up going now...

I'm sure most of us are aware that our favorite ride manufacturers design layouts based on what parks want in a coaster in an attempt to get a sale. This makes each manufacturer's individual style of design very recognizable to us as coaster enthusiasts. So much so, that we love most if not all rides made by a manufacturer because they all have the same design style. The big question is - what if the manufacturer only provided the track and train system, and the park designed the actual layout of the ride? The specific question is - what would happen if A.J. designed a B&M? Please welcome the Coral Snake. More to come very soon.

5.1 on the bottom of the largest hill, 4.4 at the bottom of the second hill, 4.1 --> 3.0 through the helix, 3.5 through the second helix, 4.4 through the next turn, and 3.2 through the last two helices, if I remember correctly. Not exactly Schwarzkopf material, but still properly strong. As for the train length, I want this ride to be a capacity monster. Three trains, 36 per train.

I found that crowds weren't exactly "light" in January of last year, but they weren't heavy either. In that part of the year, it's really sort of "hit or miss". When my first day of work was over, my friends and I went into Magic Kingdom in the evening. Standby for Space Mountain was 180 minutes! We ended up waiting about 150 though. The only reason we even waited that long was because we really had nothing better to do. The day afterward though, when I went in by myself during the day, I only waited 15 minutes. Like I said - hit or miss.

That's also sort of what they did with the park in general, right? Get rid of all the surrounding theming from the old park and re-do it, keeping the rides exactly the same as they were (Project X, Aquazone, etc not included)?

4G helix? Yes please. Coming soon, from AJ.

See, if you uploaded your images to Theme Park Review as attachments, you wouldn't lose them...

That "Splash Rally" looks really interesting. Double tubes racing would be awesome.