fraroc

Sometimes, in a small fall, a good solid blow to the head is all that it takes

This is horrible....Prayers go to the family of the poor kid... Any word from the Intamin coasters here in the states? Is Maverick and Stormrunner closed?

Hey guys. I'm back with another RCT3 creation! This time, it's not going to be a long winded timeline park starting from 40 years ago to the present. It's just going to be a quick presentation of what I managed to create in a matter of a few days. I'm not going to do another full scale story park until Theme Park Studio fully comes out. I really hope you guys like this and without further ado, I'd like to present to you..... (Segment from fictional Wikipedia article, circa 2006) Gateway Park is an amusement park owned and operated by Cedar Fair Entertainment Company and located in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The park features seven major roller coasters and other rides for adults and children. The park features several prominent attractions, including Golden Lion, which at the time it opened in 1995, was the tallest roller coaster in New England and currently the tenth longest steel roller coaster in the world at 5,495 feet; and Valkyrie which currently is the tallest and fastest inverted roller coaster in New England and the only one with a Sea Serpent inversion. In the summer of 2006, a blogger named Ellen Merridew published a guide on how to visit and get the most out of Gateway Park with photographs and detailed stats for all the coasters. HOW TO GET THE MOST WHEN YOU COAST AT GATEWAY PARK! Hi there! so, you're planning a trip to Gateway Park in Bridgeport, CT? Awesome! Gateway Park is a very thrilling, clean, easy to get to, and family friendly park. However, there are some tips that you should know in order to really get your money's worth when you visit. I think I should introduce myself first, my name is Ellen Merridew, I'm 22 years old and my family and I have been going to this park since I was just a little girl! First of all, the park doesn't open completely until 10:30, but Gateway Park does this pre-opening thing with season pass holders where they can go inside the park at 8:00 and get a head start on riding roller coasters. Four out of the eight coasters are open during pre-opening and it varies every year. This year, I believe it's King Kobra, Mad Mouse, Rumbler, and Valkyrie. The oldest roller coaster in the park is....well.....Roller Coaster! (I'm not kidding you, that's the name.) It was built by William Cobb in 1972 (The same builder who built Judge Roy Scream at Six Flags Over Texas and the smaller Screamin' Eagle at Tennessee's Great America.) The layout is very similar to JRS at SFOT and is VERY fun to ride and isn't that rough at all! Name: Roller Coaster Built: 1972 Manufacturer: William Cobb Type: Wood track Out and Back Height: 85 feet Length: 1,991 feet Top Speed: 48mph Height Requirement: 40 inches Inversions: None Right next door to Roller Coaster is Mad Mouse, a normal, everyday MACK Wild Mouse coaster. I'm not a big fan of Wild Mice. They usually give me major whiplash and the lines are always long for this one, but I know a lot of kids like this coaster, so who am I to judge? To each his own, I guess. Name: Mad Mouse Built: 2000 Manufacturer: MACK Type: Steel track Wild Mouse Height: 50 feet Length: 1,230 feet Top Speed: 28mph Height Requirement: 40 inches Inversions: None Just a quick pro-tip, ride these roller coasters last in your day at the park. The lines for these coasters are always ASTRONOMICAL in the mornings, especially if Roller Coaster is only operation one train, but they dwindle as the day goes on. Gateway Park is not just roller coasters! They have some VERY good flats too, like the critically acclaimed Pirate Ship and the exhilarating and terrifying MaxAIR, both manufactured by Huss of Bremen, Germany. (Fun Fact: MaxAIR was built a year before the ride of the same name and same make at Cedar Point.) Next on the coaster agenda is King Kobra, a small to medium-sized Arrow Dynamics looping coaster! Unlike most Arrows which have become rough and unbearable in their later years, King Kobra is as smooth as an Intamin! (Fun Fact: King Kobra wasn't named King Kobra until this year actually. From when it was built in 1982 to 2006, it was known as Rattlesnake. It wasn't until Cedar Fair acquired Paramount Parks that it was named what it is today.) King Kobra has four inversions which give plenty of hang-time and is an all-around good ride! Name: King Kobra Built: 1982 Manufacturer: Arrow Dynamics Type: Steel track Looping Height: 85 feet Length: 2,684 feet Top Speed: 48mph Height Requirement: 48 inches Inversions: Two loops, two corkscrews However, with some good flat rides, there are also some not-so-good ones. This being one of them. This is Fear-The Ride, the new ride for 2006 along with the rebranding of Rattlesnake to King Kobra. It is a Huss Topple Tower, which after riding, is an INCREDIBLY overrated ride. I found it to be incredibly boring and forceless. The gondola spins at a snail's pace, the toppling of the tower does not give me a sense of impending danger whatsoever and I just think it falls flat compared to the other spinning rides in the park. Also the horror theming of Fear-The Ride is just cheesy as all hell. I wouldn't mind the ride if it was advertised to kids and the schmaltzy "Fear" moniker was removed. The ride that was once in this spot, a Huss Condor that was removed in 2004, was MUCH better than the Topple Tower. Now THIS is a good ride! This is The Wasp, a Schwarzkopf Looping Star model roller coaster and it's just plain fun! In 1988, this ride replaced an old Pinfari "ZT-42" looping coaster with a much better looping coaster! The loop is a perfect circle which makes for a very forceful inversion and the twisty helixes just wrap the ride up nicely! This is perfect for a kid who is too old for kiddie coasters, but is not ready to brave the really big ones! Name: The Wasp Built: 1988 Manufacturer: Anton Schwarzkopf Type: Steel track Twisting/Looping Height: 80 feet Length: 1,942 feet Top Speed: 45mph Height Requirement: 40 inches Inversions: One loop AVOID THIS ROLLER COASTER LIKE THE PLAUGE. This is Rumbler, the second wooden roller coaster at Gateway Park and it's probably the worst roller coaster you can ever hope to ride. When it opened in 1990, it was critically acclaimed to have the steepest drop of any wooden roller coaster and at the time, it was probably a good ride, but it DEFINITLEY hasn't aged well. How bad is it? Lets just say that this coaster makes Manhattan Express, Viper at SFAGDV and Gouderix at Parc Asterix seem smooth. Hell, I'd even go as far as to say that Roar at Tennessee's Great America is smooth in comparison to Rumbler! After the first drop, you get jackhammered so badly in your back and your sides throughout the entire ride, and the lack of any MCBR or trims give you worse whiplash than ANY Wild Mouse can give you. I would not be surprised if this coaster gets removed someday and replaced with something better. Just please, do your self a favor, STAY AWAY FROM THIS COASTER! Name: Rumbler Built: 1990 Manufacturer: Charles Dinn Type: Wood track Twister/Oval Height: 130 feet Length: 2,949 feet Top Speed: 58mph Height Requirement: 40 inches Inversions: None This is Valkyrie (not "Valerie", Valkyrie lol ), the park's only B&M coaster and it's a damn good one too! It's the tallest and fastest inverted roller coaster in New England and it's the only one to have a Sea Serpent inversion. The first half of Valkyrie is very forceful with a near-vertical first drop and four inversions right off the starting gun. Speeding through the Sea Serpent! The supports were built specifically so no extra support was needed to hold up the half-corkscrew parts of the ride! The second half, however is a lot less forceful and kind of slow paced. It's still fun, nonetheless! (Fun Fact: Valkyrie is the third coaster at Gateway Park to have a "Figure Eight Helix" The others being King Kobra and Rumbler.) Name: Valkyrie Built: 2002 Manufacturer: Bolliger and Mabillard Type: Steel track Inverted Height: 140 feet Length: 4,045 feet Top Speed: 63mph Height Requirement: 54 inches Inversions: One Loop, one Zero-G Roll, one Sea Serpent inversion, one corkscrew This is it. The pinnacle. The baddest of the bad when it comes to coasters at Gateway Park. Golden Lion, a D.H Morgan hypercoaster. When it opened in 1995, it was the tallest and fastest roller coaster in New England. (Only to have that accolade taken away five years later by Superman- Ride of Steel at Six Flags New England.) The ride layout is very similar to Steel Force at Dorney Park with a 200 foot first drop with speeds reaching 72mph! Unlike Steel Force, the helix turns to the left, not the right. But both coasters have similar endings with a series of airtime-filled bunny hops! Name: Golden Lion Built: 1995 Manufacturer: D.H Morgan Type: Steel Track Hypercoaster Height: 202 feet Length: 5,945 feet Top Speed: 72mph Height Requirement: 48 inches Inversions: None This is an S&S Drop Tower named Dynamite. I'm not a huge fan of drop towers, but it's a popular and thrilling enough attraction to be worthy of a mention. And this is the children's area. Camp Snoopy, themed after Charles' M. Schultz's famous comic strip (and my favorite comic strip) The Peanuts! Kids will love the fact that the area has rides themed after their favorite characters like Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy, Linus, and Peppermint Patty! Camp Snoopy also has a Zamperla kiddie coaster named Woodstock's Express. Name: Woodstock's Express Built: 1999 Manufacturer: Zamperla Type: Steel Track Kiddie Height: 20 feet Length: 1,302 feet Top Speed: 18mph Height Requirement: Maximum Height 60 inches Inversions: None Gateway Park also has means of cooling you off during the dog days of summer with the Gateway Falls Intamin "Shoot The Chutes"! WARNING: Lines can get pretty long on this, usually longer than most the coasters. The stately Giant Wheel truly lives up to it's name! It's actually the largest Ferris Wheel on the entire East Coast of the U.S! It was erected in 1980 to replace an aging Ferris Wheel that was built in the '50s (Gateway Park was founded in 1956, btw.) And that's pretty much all you need to know about my home park, Gateway Park! If you're planning a long term stay in the area around the park, then you're in luck! Choice Hotels Inc. and Hilton have many of their hotels strewn throughout Bridgeport! This includes Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, Quality Inn, Sleep Inn, Clarion Inn, Cambria Suites, Mainstay Suites, EconoLodge, Rodeway Inn, Hilton Garden Inn, Hampton Inn, and Homewood Suites. There isn't any Marriott or Best Westerns, though... Have a nice trip! (I'm planning on doing one more update. What you see here is the park in 2006, the next and final update will be the park in the present day, 2014. I hope you like! PS, some of the pictures are smaller than others. Just click on them for full resolution.)

Well, I think all Towers of Terror at all the Disney parks are a joint project of both Intamin and Disney Imagineering.

Adventureland LI's Zierier Tivoli (Ladybug Coaster) was originally located in Japan.

I agree, I love Maverick, but I swear, on one of the overbanks my jaw kept getting hit by the restraint.

If you think Parrot coaster is rough, you are not ready for Baco! I heard Furius Baco in the back seat is worse than Manhattan Express...is that true?

Nobody wants to be Peter Criss. Not even Peter Criss.

I would undoubtly do something about the weird helix on Anaconda at KD. The rest of the ride is really good, but I really hate that helix.

This is just my observation from my last vacation. Kings Dominion is an amusement park. Busch Gardens Williamsburg is a theme park.

HOW TO ENJOY A STANDUP COASTER IF YOU'RE A GUY. When life gives you lemons, tuck 'em!

Especially if they are not a GP and they just weren't informed properly. If someone says that Cobra at La Ronde is a B&M, PLEASE for the love of God don't cause a scene by going "NO IT'S AN INTAMIN GET IT RIGHT!"

Oh believe me I have and I'm a big, big fan. His work is as realistic as you can get with RCT3 but I think RCT2 is much, much more realistic and much more fun to play. With RCT3 you need to take pictures from very specific angles for them to look right, and usually photoshop is a must. No RCT game was ever known for it's transitions but if you play RCT2 properly they look pretty smooth where in RCT3 they always look amazingly jerky when you're using the coaster building tool that comes with the game. It's a matter of preference I guess but I think RCT2 is the better game. That doesn't mean I don't appreciate good RCT3 work though. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the parks that some people have made with RCT2, but for some reason after playing RCT3, I could not get used to the Isometric 2.5D view. I much prefer the full 3D now.

I agree with you. I really do believe it is something to do with Cedar Fair because CP is the flagship park. The B&M's don't have big-boy seats even though they do at every other park. If you are just SLIGHTLY overweight, you probably won't be able to ride TTD, Millennium Force, and Wicked Twister. Hell, the only fat-friendly ride over there is probably Maverick. And it can't be a coincidence that if you search Cedar Point in complaint sites, you'll get a lot of "CEDAR POINT DISCRIMINATES AGAINST PLUS SIZED PEOPLE" complaints. I have yet to see any about Busch, Kings Dominion or Dorney.

I'm looking at all the YouTube comments on Blackfish related videos and OH MY GOD....This whole thing just brought out some of the most irritating whiteknighting social justice warriors I have ever seen on the internet. They think that they're doing this great service to the world and that they're making a difference, but guess what? THEY'RE NOT. Their entire foundation of anti-SeaWorld hate was borne on a foundation of lies and distortion from a documentary.

I have one. The last two rides of the day should be the biggest water ride the park has followed up by a spinning ride to spin-dry you This unwritten rule is the BEST on hot days!

http://rcdb.com/1604.htm Spiral Coaster at Al-Sha'ab Leisure Park in Kuwait has been SBNO for nine years. It's the only Intamin AG "Spiral Coaster" model which is the closest thing we got to an Arrow Pipeline coaster being built in real life.

Wow. That's all I gotta say.

RCT3 was pretty unrealistic, but RCT2 can be very realistic with all of the custom rides and objects we have now. Just look at some of the recent work coming out from the RCT community. If you're willing to dedicate enough time to the game you can make some ridiculous things. Starpointe by Pacificoaster (link to TPR thread) Thorpe Park by Airtime (over at New Element) RCT3 Unrealistic? I beg to differ. Look at some of the work here, look at Coasterdude5's works. If that's not realistic then I don't know what is. Yes, it's not as realistic as Theme Park Studio or the No Limits series, but compared to Bullfrog's Sim Theme Park and Sim Coaster, RCT3 is DEFINITELY realistic.

Soaked and Wild definitely went back to the true meaning of an "expansion pack". Adding totally new things. For Soaked, we got something that has been requested for a long time since RCT2 was released, realistic water slides. Wild added lots of good flats and new coaster designs like the "Intamin" splitting coaster and the ZacSpin, but if you want to manage a zoo, buy ZooTycoon. It's much more realistic than what we got in Wild.

I wouldn't be surprised if the whole coaster gets relocated.

You gotta admit, it's not every day that you see an ancient Rome themed battle re-enactment next to a Vekoma Flying Dutchman.

For a park, I'd rather have a B&M Giga or Hyper over nothing at all.

Yeah, I was bummed out too, but now that I think about it. This spinning coaster is a great edition for Adventureland. As much as I would like a compact coaster with inversions like a small Eurofighter or a smaller Anubis-The Ride type thing, It's ADVENTURELAND we're talking about, not Cedar freaking Point. It's a park for families, not really for thrill-seekers.

Isn't the Tickler at Luna Park a spinning coaster on long island? Long Island isn't the whole island. It's only Suffolk County and Nassau County, Coney is in Brooklyn so It's part of the five boroughs.