Mind Eraser
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Posts posted by Mind Eraser
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If you really appreciate speed, then Millennium Force is good for you. If you love air, then it's a toss up between GeForce and Superman. EGF and SROS have the same type of harsh air, with different types of layouts. EGF is more compact than SROS. I thought both were amazing, but I was a little soured by EGF cuz the seat belts were small and the airtime was lessened. But, now all three Supermen have a bunch of retarded seatbelts and bars around your legs (after the dude got kill on SFNE's). It sorta feels like your lower body is in a straight jacket.
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T2 is Version 2 of the SLC. If you think T2 is rough, try Version 1 at Walibi World (formerly known as Six Flags Holland, and before that Walibi Flevo). El Condor is even rougher than T2. They look exactly the same, but T2 was ironed out a bit to be smoother (haw haw). Version 3 is the general SLC - Mind Erasers, Kong, Hangman, etc.
Personally, I love all three versions. El Condor reminded me of riding a bull, sorta. You're body is just thrown around like a ragdoll. Same with T2. GOD, I love them! So much fun.
Edit: I've found that El Condor and T2 basically didn't bang your head at all. They beat your body; whereas, the later SLC's seem to bang your head, but they're easier on the body.
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It's not the engineers who have the problem. These parks wants big, mean, aggressive coasters. The manufacturers deliver what what the parks want, and then the parks can't run the coasters how they were designed because USA is such a litigious society.
Look at Fiesta Texas, they kept going back to John Pierce and saying "We want it taller...faster...steeper..." etc. John Pierce designed the amazing Rattler just how Fiesta Texas asked for it. Then they open it and it's too intense for the average rider.
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Soeren wrote:
the last time you visited Heide Park, Scream was an observation tower? But now it is the highest Giro Drop Tower (110 meter) worldwide. I like the tower so much, and I think Elissa will like it, too.I have to argue that fact. You shouldn't count the massive needle into the freefall's height, in my opinion.
What Now wrote:
OMG! That was the scarriest thing ever. Why did Knott's remove their's?...because the towers tended to snap and fall over
Well nobody has mentioned my home park's Giant Drop aka "Tower of Doom" - probably cuz it is the second shortest Giant Drop in the world (at about 150 feet, cars rise to 140). The only Giant Drop smaller is Gardaland's tower which comes in at a whopping 121 feet!
Tower of Doom (at Six Flags America; Largo, MD) may be small, but it's quite a rush because the length of brakes is very small. It feels like you just stop like 10 feet off the ground. While it's a great freefall, it's not my favorite, however.
Edit: Tower of Doom was originally planned to be 180 feet, but the height had to be shortened due to the county's restriction in 1996. The height restriction has since been raised for SFA (obviously, as they now have the 200 foot Superman)
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This picture was taken by Joe Schwartz. Visit his website and see his beautiful pictures at http://www.joyrides.com
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Most people didn't give a sh*t about Starliner when it was running at Miracle Strip. Everyone said it was a mediocre coaster. Now it is "saved" and everyone is acting like its the Crystal Beach Cyclone. I think it's funny.
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I think some people were disappointed with the B&M floorless coasters because they expected a revolutionary new ride, when in fact, the floorless trains were simply a new approach to the sit-down looping coaster.
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I don't think Big Bad Wolf is the best, that honor goes to Top Gun or Ninja. BBW has a good beginning, but it's totally effed up with a long boring lift leading to ONE BRAKED DROP. The lift totally kills the adrenaline rush.
But, in general, I love suspendeds. One of my favorite genres. I don't think we'll be seeing anymore though.
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Look at the people struggling to carry those massive innertubes up the stairs. That is funny!
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Mikalah has an outstanding voice, in my opinion. It's very strong, especially for someone who is only 17 years old. But, she does really need some fine tuning. I find her gorgeous. I can totally see Mikalah taking over when Britney retires and goes "Mommy". She has the look, the voice, the presence, etc.
$.02
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So that is how Robb lost his weight, I guess?
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Oh, the M&V list makes me sad, because PKD's Grizzly isn't on there. Every woodie should be (re)tracked by M&V!
Wild One hasn't had to have any retracking since Martin & Vleminckx did it SIX years ago, and it still runs like it's brand new. I think Wild One the epitome of how a woodie should run.
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Hypersonic was open, we just didn't ride it. We saw it rollback (which I see at least once per visit), so we knew it wasn't running 100% under control. I guess we all telepathically agreed to skip it because no one mentioned it all day, which was weird. I am normally very pressed to ride it - I think it's an outstanding piece of crap. I love it and think it's so intense; but, it is a really sh*tty coaster. One more thing I forgot to mention:
Our huge group was riding the antique cars. We hear a commotion and look back at the car behind us. My friend somehow managed to derail the car and drive it into the bushes. He eventually got it back on the rail. We were almost in tears.
P.S. Robb, thanks for the edit info. Don't blame me, I'm blonde!
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Dammit! I completely made a typo in the post header. Can I fix it?
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TOMB RAIDER FIREFALL
Okay, so we have Firefall theming and Firefall ride.
The theming is outrageous and what I would consider "on par" with
anything at Disney or Universal. It's a gorgeous attraction. Fire
everywhere, mist, water fountains shooting up, and a *custom-written*
musical score (which sounds somewhat Cirque Du Soleil-ish). There
were hundreds of people gathered in front watching all day; in fact,
I'd say there were more people (families) watching than riding. It
really is a fantastic attraction. That is until....
You ride it. I didn't particularly care for it. Well, it wasn't
*bad* by any means, but I wasn't planning on going around for another
ride. My beef: I think a floorless Top Spin is the first "floorless
concept" that went wrong (in my opinion, of course). Without a floor,
you can't use your feet to stabilize your body and as you flip, you're
left to sort of bounce back and forth and all this weird stuff.
Honestly, it hurts my balls. I couldn't figure out why some people
were complaining about Knotts' floorless Top Spin, but now I know.
The cycle is actually quite long and there is a wide variety of
gymnastics performed. Some swinging, lots of rapid flipping.
However, PKD (or HUSS) hasn't quite got the hang of how to operate the
ride yet. Today, I would say the ride temporarily broke down every
third cycle or so. It broke down while we were in line, they gave us
Exit Passes (awesome!), and then when I finally got on, about halfway
through the ride, it just...stopped, and they told us to exit and wait
while they fix the problem. They "fix it", let us back on, and again,
about halfway through, it stops. Only this time, they were just like
"Hope you enjoyed Tomb Raider Firefall!" So, I guess I got two "half
rides".
VOLCANO THE BLAST COASTER
Still an all-time favorite of mine. Definitely in my Top Tier.
Volcano is beautiful once again, it got repainted. Well, at least the
parts visible to the midway. Haha. We noticed that the chunks of
track hidden behind the mountain didn't get painted. Haha, again.
REBEL YELL
Forwards, front seat. It was actually sort of violent - in a great
way! They need to work on the top of the hills because every time the
train goes over the top of each one, it bounces about three times.
HURLER
I'll admit, Hurler is in desperate need of refurbishing. But, I
always ride in the front car and I enjoy it. Some pretty good air
too.
What's with all the crap, er... theming in the station? It looks like
a junkyard now.
GRIZZLY
Closed for what appears to be a retracking of the entire coaster?!
Boo to not riding it today! Yay to riding it in May!
RICOCHET
Yeah, it's braked; but, so what? It's so fun the way it is. Not as
good as, say, Myrtle Beach Pavilion's Mouse or Hershey's, but PKD's is
just so effing fun.
ANACONDA
Front seat! Awesome view. Brutal. Loved it. Fabu.
DROP ZONE STUNT TOWER
Meh. It's a great ride, but it looses some appeal after tons of
rides.
Okay, I think that covers the rides. The weather was gorgeous, my
friends made it a blast, a great time was had by all. Paramount's
Kings Dominion is such a wonderful park. I wish I lived a little
closer, but 2hrs isn't that bad of a drive.
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FYI-
Kings Dominion's Grizzly will not be opening until May. It looks like it's being retracked and refurbished.
In my dreams, they're going to tear up that first flat, slow turn and replace it with a swoop turn or a swooping double down. Probably not, but it's fun to imagine, eh?
I can't wait to ride in in May; and, it'll be all ready in time for Grizzlyfest (which should be an AMAZING night/dark ERT!)
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FYI-
Kings Dominion's Grizzly will not be opening until May. It looks like it's being retracked and refurbished.
In my dreams, they're going to tear up that first flat, slow turn and replace it with a swoop turn or a swooping double down. Probably not, but it's fun to imagine, eh?
I can't wait to ride in in May; and, it'll be all ready in time for Grizzlyfest (which should be an AMAZING night/dark ERT!)
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Elissa-
What year did you hit Australia's Wonderland? Was the Anal Probe freefall tower built yet? I heard that was wild! I wonder if they scrapped it or sold it? I'm sorta irked that they changed the Demon's colors. I thought an all-black Boomerang looked sweet! Yellow and Green and going to fade so quickly.
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I think it's awesome. Regardless of what some jaded "enthusiasts" think, Boomerangs are major crowd pleasers. Zoomerang is just what the dying Visionland needs.
BTW, it will have yellow track and green supports.
P.S. Anyone else find it odd that Visionland is being so open about building a used coaster?
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Yoshifan:
Comet at Hershey Park. It has lots of air time and a good layout, but it gets ignored with Wildcat and Lightning Racers in the parkWhat coaster have you been riding? Comet has NO airtime. It's severely braked and the entire (supposed) air-filled ending is just akward. The train crawls.
Looking at the coaster, and knowing it's a Schmeck, it's clear that Comet is underperforming due to the sh*tty brakes.
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I don't want to grow up! In fact, I wish I was 9 years old, living with Michael Jackson.
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Do we even really want a 300+ foot B&M? Granted, I loved Apollo and Raging Bull; but, I thought Nitro was pretty boring, and Silver Star was - dear god - that ride sucked. The best part of Silver Star was actually the turn into the final brakes! It was all twisty and neato.
I dunno, I'm exhausted. I'll shut up now.
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My guess is that this coaster will have a lot of side-to-side action (maybe even eject another person? ) and a handful of air pops.
It should be interesting, at least. As it looks now, I would say that would definitely drive a good length to ride Rita, but I wouldn't necessarily book a plane trip.
That's my $.02
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^Oh, so B&M just refuses to build a foot over 299 ft? Gimme a break. That sounds like crap. If a park threw, say, $200M at B&M for a launched coaster, they sure as hell would get crackin on the designs. Only thing I've ever heard Claude say about launchers is that 'LIMs are unreliable'.
Money makes the world go round, baby!
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^I wanna play
What is wrong with Zonga?
in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
Posted
Little Zonga info I've gathered...
Zonga opened at the European fairs as Thriller. It only had lap bars. Eventually, someone bitched enough and they added the "accordian"-style shoulder harnesses. Something of note: often the back car or two were roped off because the coaster pulled 6.5 G's (in the back)
Thriller was sold to Six Flags and placed at Astroworld. It was renamed Taz's Texas Tornado. It ran for awhile with the same accordian shoulder bars. Many people complained that the heavy positive G's compressed the spine and it was painful. I lucked out on my visit to SFAW in 1999 and Taz was open, I got about five rides. I thought that if you tried to hold your back up, it was fine. The coaster was clearly a masterpiece and now a legend. SFAW dropped the Taz namesake and it was eventuallty just dubbed The Texas Tornado.
Sometime around 2000 or 2001, SFAW decided to change the restraints. They sent the trains back to Weiland Schwarzkopf (Anton's son), and he retrofitted the trains with the new massive and hard shoulder restraints (think FoF, pre-padding, but much bulkier). Texas Tornado opened with the new restraints, and it either ran about a day with the public, or it didn't even open at all - terrible headbanging!
Texas Tornado also had an accident back when it was "Taz", where the train slid back down into the station and "bumped" another train. So, SFAW had constant trouble with the lift hill. Everyone claimed it was too hot in Houston for the coaster (I dunno ).
Texas Tornado closed for awhile and was finally moved to Six Flags Marine World in Vallejo, Ca and renamed Zonga. Somewhere between SFAW and SFMW, the actual TRACK got reprofiled. From what I've heard, the first drop was shortened and the first loop or two was redone. Experienced riders say Zonga is now missing some of the best parts of Thriller/Taz/Tornado. In addition to the track reprofile, SFMW has apparently been playing with the restraints, adding different types of padding and what not. It's been said that the new restraints on Zonga also disallow your arms from being able to be raised.
There you have it folks. That is my interpretation of Zonga's history. This post is just info I've gathered over the years. Don't shoot me if some details are wrong or whatever.
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