A.J.

Thanks. It's not that it was "bad", the color combination (255Red on 255Blue) was just polarizing. Try some other colors and it might look better. I'd suggest a darker blue with white text. The park is looking better with every update though. Keep it up.

You should really consider changing that logo image or removing it from your last update post. It seared my eyes the first time I saw it.

Here's the link from parkz.com.au - CLICK! I wonder why they went with KumbaK trains as opposed to the new Vekoma trains. There are also some great photos of Green Lantern construction.

RCT2day's post has been moved to the already-created topic. This one will be LOCKED! Honestly, you need to use the search function to make sure you're not creating a duplicate topic. IN FACT...all you needed to do was SCROLL DOWN and you would have seen it! You wouldn't have even had to search! Ain't that amazin'?

In the original all-enclosed slide, the ten panels of the drop are translucent (NOT transparent), while the rest are solid. This is done on purpose because the drop is supposed to be startling and unexpected. The two slides are exactly the same with the exception of the drop - the first slide is entirely enclosed, and the second has the open-air drop. The only modifications that were made between the two were the replacement of the first slide's drop's upper panels with fringes. The height and length are completely unchanged. The premise of the ride is as follows - as soon as you lose vision inside the first curve, the slide takes off. You don't realize how fast you are actually going until right before the drop - giving a startling pop of waterslide airtime. You pick up great speed at the bottom of the drop before being flung almost NINETY DEGREES briefly against the wall of the tunnel. The slide loses a small amount of speed before making the splash in the pool. As for flat rides, I had showcased some original flat rides in the past using an old seating system, which I have since revised. SPOILER ALERT - the new seating system is what I'll be showcasing next. Oh, and by the way, AJClarke - I have started working on a "crazier" slide...

I thought the whole reason Cedar Fair went with Windseekers as opposed to Starflyers was because Windseekers could run in higher wind speeds.

Why are trims on that drop such a bad thing? If El Locos didn't have trims over their drops, you wouldn't be feeling airtime - you'd be feeling PAIN.

In case you've forgotten - Walt Disney World celebrates its 40th anniversary today.

WARNING! NERDY FLASHBACK ALERT! That barrel roll ride reminds me of the hamster wheel from Family Double Dare.

I'm using Autodesk Inventor Professional 2012. I'm not particularly fond of how SolidWorks...works, and I like the ribbon interface in Inventor (as well as Microsoft Office 2011) a lot. On the subject of a moving camera, I have considered it - however it would be incredibly complex modifying the speed and the acceleration of the camera to create a realistic point-of-view video. I have a development! I have replaced the enclosed panels of the drop with fringes. I have chosen 30-degree arcs so that the overhead view is not obstructed as much, with an exception. The very top fringe on the left side starts at 45 degrees and lofts down to 30 degrees. Check it out.

This thread has been locked per RC98's request.

Don't feel bad. Studying my [censored] off for an exam kept me away from Phunfest last year.

This is where being an engineer is a bad thing. I have no common sense. When I created this model in December of 2010 for my engineering design class, I didn't think I would showcase it anywhere else - so I created the platform and stairs as single parts. All the stairs and landings are one part, and all the supports and railings are one part. That's not saying that I won't create something else modularly, however. It's just that each part has to be individually constrained in the assembly, and at the time it was just faster to create them as single parts.

I haven't made any modifications yet, but a potential problem is the turn before the drop. I designed the turn before the drop so the tube would be rocking back and forth as it went down the drop. The banking panels would have to be 45 degrees on either side to be safe, only leaving a 90-degree opening above (although, I might be able to get away with 30deg on either side). You might not get that "open" feeling you want. I'm still going to try though. On the subject of "wilder" waterslides, those are a possibility, but I may only end up doing the slide layout with an exit pool and a platform with no stairs. Those railings on the stairs were really a pain in my [censored], and I realize that's part of the design process, but I probably wouldn't include them. The nice thing is that if I decide to create another tube slide, I can re-use a great deal of these panels. I do have some neat ideas floating around though.

It's getting to be that time. The kiddies (and the cash-deficient bigger kids like myself) are back in school, and it seems like traffic in the games forum is down across the board. We have no entries for this week's contest, we only had two for last week. Traffic in the exchange itself seems to have also started to spiral downward. Would this infer that Track of the Week should be a summer-only thing, or should we go back to the original plan of not having any specific type at all, and just include every track uploaded that week in the pool?

Doesn't look like it - they look like they've only been repainted. The big yellow cover on the back of Swamp Thing's seats is now grey-silver-ish.

Oh no, not the whole "mini Intimidator" thing again. The only way (IMO) Skyrush will resemble Intimidator305 is in the lift and track style. There are obviously going to be intense positive forces at work, which is why the double-spine track is used. If it wasn't, they would have to spend so much more money supporting the thing. As for the layout, this seems to be more like Intamin's previous mega/hyper coasters than anything else, because it all just flows. There really aren't any insane transitions, and the airtime hills are long and exaggerated.

I actually prefer the round tail lamps of the old one. I would have liked the design better if they had taken the round lights and exaggerated them backward like the headlights on Porsche's new 991.

What you're looking at here is a slide designed for single tubes. The slide is large enough around such that if a wipeout occurs, you can still safely make it through the rest of the slide in an upright sitting position. As for the drop, I'll make a modification and check it out. I kept it shut all around so people wouldn't be tempted to put their hands up.

There's someone on Theme Park Review who's really interested in theme park engineering. He's particularly active in the Walt Disney World discussion thread, partially because he really likes Walt Disney World. He's also planning on going to IAAPA this year. If you think I'm talking about The_SETGO_Guys, you're wrong. I'm not talking about him. I'm talking about myself! Even though The_SETGO_Guys is interested in the same sort of thing! I was blessed in high school with a drafting instructor who nailed Autodesk Inventor into the students' heads. I learned the basics of Inventor very quickly, and now I'm going on four years of sporadic experience. This has given me a way to create rides and attractions completely from scratch, the way I want to create them. I'm going to use this thread to showcase my sch-tuff from now on, as I have moved away from only creating flat rides. Feel free to comment, criticize, or worship. Sep 29 2011 - Basic waterslide model (scroll down) Oct 01 2011 - Modified waterslide model (open-air drop) Oct 03 2011 - The "Un-OTSR" OTSR Oct 07 2011 - Contoured Seat with Restraint I start with my second-most recent creation - a waterslide. I created this waterslide panel by panel, rotating panels at different angles to make changes in height. Check it out.

Hopefully the lap bars will still keep the height restriction down. One of the things that makes the S&S two-part restraint system great is that 48" kids can ride those rides.

The systems that Vekoma and Mondial use are exactly like what Intamin uses. The X-car system wouldn't work because those restraints open laterally outward, which would obstruct entry to the seats behind. Even though the outer seats on Skyrush are placed backward, all four seats are still placed evenly horizontally across the train. Judging by the 4-across X-car train concept art, the outer seats are pretty far away from the inner two. Personally, the only reason I think Intamin uses the over-the-shoulder straps/restraints is because the lap bar portion isn't large enough to anchor the safety belt to. If the lap restraint was more bulky like the Windseekers', I'd bet that they wouldn't have to use an OTSR. Honestly though, I am truly excited about this ride on its own merit and I don't see a problem with the OTSRs being used. I have never felt my shoulders press against the shoulder restraints on an Intamin ride, as far as I'm concerned they're not even there. [someonepleasestopmeiamtiredofbeinganerd]

Hersheypark really doesn't care what we think. It was said that the restraints would be Intamin overhead lap bars with shoulder straps, like on the ZacSpins and now Intimidator305. I really don't think this is a liability issue (though I do enjoy watching the sue-happy United States with a nice hot bowl of popcorn). The way the trains are set up, you really can't have lap bars, as the two staggered seats per row have no anchor in front of them to attach a lap bar to. Having the two staggered seats with OTSRs and the center seats with lap bars really doesn't make sense and makes the train as a whole more difficult to design and assemble.

The worst part is that they kept the color scheme of the trains exactly the same. Or, maybe Six Flags will do this to every coaster whose train has a "Stride Shift" wrap. That would be absolutely vulgar.

I'm a hee-uge fan of documentaries nowadays, especially the ones that the presenters from BBC's TopGear do (James May's Toy Stories, Richard Hammond's Journey to the Centre of the Planet). I also like Adventure Time with Finn and Jake for some reason.