netdvn

7:05 Video 1 Corey is the first person to call Chad Miller absolutely nuts for making the High Five element.

Is Robb conducting the interview?

6:34 Video 6 - New Vekoma trains coming to an old ride at Efteling.

1:16 seconds into Video 4 (interview with Walter Bolliger) Gardaland's Raptor B&M's had show models before, but not this year.

Is there a model involved anywhere with this "coaster"?

Does it have anything to do with capacity and dealing with it?

Does it have anything to do with a coaster?

Does it involve a company that starts with A?

EDIT: Damnit too slow.

Was some sort of new vehicle design introduced in the interview?

Does it involve models of some kind?

Does what you're thinking of involve riding prototype rides?

Does it have anything to do with a coaster?

Hopefully I can stay online to play this contest since my network's been acting up after it was changed. Best of luck to everyone.

Google Maps just implemented a beta test of their new Maps GL system. It basically makes zooming in and around the map much smoother. If you have a birds eye view of the area, you can basically change the angle of the image so that you're facing a different direction (sorta like what Bing already implemented). You can also get 3D visuals of famous landmarks (sorta like Google Earth) but I haven't found any yet. It's fun hovering over different cities and seeing them at different angles if you're lucky enough to grab one. So far I've found LA (so you can get the LA-area parks), Tucson, Phoenix, San Diego, and San Francisco have the aerial view from what I've seen.

Combating software piracy has never been a successful model for the entertainment/recording industry. Chances are, this new law really won't make it any more difficult to stop people from pirating material on the internet (using the IP address or using a proxy to get around the block). Doing some research, it seems that the new law gives entertainment companies the right to take down any websites that host copyrighted content. This means sites that host user-generated content, search engines, social networking sites, blogs, image hosting sites, message boards, etc could all be taken down if there is a trace of copyrighted content (and if you think about it, that's a pretty huge chunk of the internet right there). Even a site like TPR is at risk for being taken down if this bill passes.

^ Interesting, if CGA is one of their top performing parks, then chances are the it's the city's fault the park hasn't gotten a major investment under CF. That makes me wonder why Paramount stopped investing in the park after Boomerang Bay or why CF/Paramount didn't invest in smaller additions like Italian Job clones or more family attractions during the 2000s.

Did CF really help the park much? I don't remember them making many investments outside of Firefall and Planet Snoopy and even then, CF not only removed a ride, but pretty much dropped the park altogether. Compare that to all the stuff SF's pumped into not only SFMM, but SFDK. Hell, compare that to the stuff CF's pumped into every single other former Paramount park. Most of them received B&M Hypers and all of them received Windseeker towers/Planet Snoopy expansions. CW got a hyper AND a giga while KD managed to score a nice Floorless coaster and a giga coaster. It seems that CF is treating the other Paramount parks better than some of the older CF parks like WOF and Knotts.

Rasta animals? Rasta animals make everything even more awesome than it already is. Today was a good day to feel under the weather. I feel slightly better seeing all the cool footage. Splinter FX looks pretty cool too.

I just got caught up on all the footage. Rocky Mountain, GG/M&V and GCI had some real interesting stuff to show off. The two proposed Rocky Mountain projects (a Topper Track coaster being built from the ground up and a full-fledged Iron Horse coaster (could it be Rattler?). Then GCI and the Big Fun coaster concept (if BGW doesn't get one of those, maybe Go Karts Plus can snag one ). Can't wait to see more parks building those things. The model of Mythos was the icing on the cake for the GCI interview. Lastly the High Five coaster and the other two proposed Chinese projects, it would be interesting to hear more about those projects in the future. The coaster trains on display are awesome as always. Both Manta and Green Lantern trains look sick. The Mini Hu ride is pretty cool looking as well. I'd love to see more of those sick Proslide concepts making their way into more parks. Maybe Water Country or KD could pick one of those fancy LIM slides up in the near future. Thanks for all the footage. I learned quite a bit from watching all the interviews.

Something I've noticed is that NYC traffic can be very hit-miss depending on when you go. Rush hour can obviously be a bad time to catch traffic, but having visited on multiple occasions, traffic can be really light or extremely heavy. Just be sure to watch out for the drivers as they can be aggressive at times. DC traffic is similar to NY traffic but with more construction projects and less aggressive drivers. The roads do get fairly busy during weekends as well, so plan accordingly. Watch out for tolls. Practically every major road in the northeast is a toll road. EZ Pass (as mentioned before) is a good idea to have. Boston is a really nice city too. If you're willing/able to squeeze a side trip into Boston, I'd recommend it. Try to get a hotel close to Williamsburg if you're doing BGW. That way you aren't driving back and forth for 2 1/2 hours on your KD/BGW days. Richmond is a good stopping point. If you're willing to pay a bit extra in tolls (and are staying closer to BGW/Hampton Roads), the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel cuts your travel time and is way more scenic/less traffic-filled than taking I-95. The price to get across the bridge is a bit steep though. You can take a ferry into Jersey as well, but that's even more expensive. I'd love to do a BGW meetup with you. Hopefully this helps.

Go-Gator

Speaking of outdated maps Hersheypark still has their double arm Ferris wheel in place and Storm Runner hasn't been built yet. I can see Lightning Racers and Roller Soaker, so this was probably taken in 2003.

^They are operating Alpengeist and Mach Tower (as a drop tower). Clicky Here's a link to Alpengeist Clicky

How is the knockoff SLC ride? From the video, it looks pretty rough (and the pacing is awful). I'm not surprised that more of those things don't stall very often (and if they do, we don't really hear about it much). The layout itself doesn't look that bad though. How did the knockoff flats fare compared to the real flat ride models? The park overall looks nicely themed in some places and not so well-themed in other places. Thanks for posting these.