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Vekoma has built two roller coasters (to my knowledge) on the scale of larger rides from B&M and/or Intamin. One is Millennium located at Fantasy Island in the U.K., and the other is Black Hole Express located in Kumdori Land in South Korea. These coasters are massive mega-loopers. They're not as large as a hypercoaster would be, but their continued existence definitely shows that Vekoma has the capability to be a part of the "massive roller coasters" club. Don't forget the Ouch Express coaster in Parc Asterix. (even that one wouldn't be that bad with a little TLC.)

The reason why there is no Vekoma Hypercoasters is probably the same reason why there are no full-out B&M LIM launched coasters (Hulk dosen't count). They simply don't have to. Vekoma already made themselves known by making two types of roller coaster that are portable, affordable and (depends on which one) fun. The SLC and the Boomerang ("LOL HE THINKS THAT VEKOMAS ARE FUN" go ahead, laugh at me). Arrow wanted so badly to one-up everybody in 1989, that's why Magnum was built. Vekoma at this point really have nothing to prove.

July,2000 Kelly's Coasters: Post 2 TENNESSEE'S GREAT AMERICA PHOTO TRIP REPORT!!!! <3 I DID IT!!!! I convinced my Mom and Dad to take us to Tennessee's Great America for a few days! Today, we spent our first day in the park! The drive was not that bad leaving Knoxville and entering Lynchburg, only about 3 hours and there wasn't much traffic either. Now lets skip the boring stuff and get to the good part of my trip! The park was mildly crowded when we came, but it wasn't too bad, waits for rides were 30 minutes or less. The first roller coaster we went on was the Screamin' Eagle wooden out-and-back coaster! It looked like a ton of fun!! However, no sooner do we reach the loading dock after waiting 20 minutes, Sara starts to have second thoughts. Dad took her off the ride and comforted her. Sara didn't know what she was missing! Me and my Mom thought that Screamin' Eagle was a TON of fun!!! Surprisingly, Sara apologized to us because she freaked out on the coaster! Something I didn't expect a 6 year old (that can be a bit of a spoiled brat at times) to do. It seems like now she wants to put on a brave face and try some bigger roller coasters. The next roller coaster was Steel Savage, an absolutley MASSIVE Bolliger & Mabillard Inverted coaster! I've never been on a B&M roller coaster before but the people over at Coasters4U.com said that B&Ms and Intamins are the best kind, so why not give it a try!? This time, Sara WANTED to go on with me, but lo and behold, she wasn't tall enough to ride. It's weird, she freaked out about a medium sized out-and-back woodie, but a menacing B&M invert with many inversions? She was willing to tough it out. Kids, am I right? Mom vouched not to ride and waited at the exit with my sister. They were right, those guys at Coasters4U, Steel Savage is AWESOME!!! Smooth, exciting, forceful....an all around good ride! Mom found a good roller coaster for Sara to ride. Super Looper, a smallish Schwarzkopf looping coaster. An interesting fact about this ride is that it was Anton Schwarzkopf's FIRST portable looping coaster built in 1977. It was a precursor to the Looping Star and SliverArrow model, but despite it's portability, it managed to make TGA it's permanent home. However, the one loop was kind of bothering Sara. But she ended up loving Super Looper! So thank you Mr. Anton Schwarzkopf for making Sara realize that roller coasters are nothing to fear! But you're never gonna guess what her favorite ride is. Twister, the park's Vekoma Boomerang. I don't know HOW she loves this ride so much because it absolutley beat the hell out of me and my parents. The Hampton Inn we're staying at is very close to the park and we had a beautiful view of Tennessee's Great America from our room!

May, 2000 Welcome to Kelly's Coasters! a blog about......well, ROLLER COASTERS!! Post 1 Hello fellow coaster freaks! My name is Kelly Ducharme and welcome to my blog! I'm 13 years old and I just LOOOOOVE roller coasters!!! I don't know how anyone can be afraid of coasters because they are just too darn awesome! I recently joined a roller coaster forum called Coasters4U.com and there you can find me under the name KellyCoasterGurl!!! I live near Knoxville, Tennessee and me and my family take occasional family outings to a theme park named Dollywood and Dollywood just built a totally rad steel looping coaster called Tennessee Tornado which was built by Arrow Dynamics! (I know a thing or two about roller coasters, believe me.) They also have a cool indoor roller coaster called Blazing Fury and Thunder Express which was a mine train coaster that was removed last year, unfortunatley. However, there is a park in Lynchburg that I have been just DYING to go to! Tennessee's Great America! A large theme park with nine (count 'em) NINE! roller coasters! Including two state of the art Top 10 steel roller coasters named Vampyre and Steel Savage! For weeks, I have been persuading my parents to take a short trip to Tennesee's Great America this summer! Especially now that RAGE is open! However, if my parents say yes, I'll be forced against my will to bring my little sister, Sara. She's currently six years old and currently scared of roller coasters, in fact Thunder Express before it got taken out was the only one she'd ride. Mabye if we go to TGA over the summer, we can help her conquer her fear of coasters! My parents, Daniel and Maria have done plenty of X-Treme things in their lifetime such as motocross and skydiving. I highly doubt that they would be bothered by roller coasters.

Come to think of it, the same thing happened with my RCT2 disk, I re-installed the game and put in backup files of everything and the game is right as rain.

I just bought a new RCT3 cd after my original copy broke in peices, and every time I put the new cd in click on the RCT3 icon, it says "Please Insert the RCT3 disk" even though the disk is in it. Help me before I kick my computer.

I'm stuck between Hades and Voyager...

The LIM Horror Movie Scream on Intamin impulse coasters

Joker's Jinx!! "I was born in 1985. I was owned by two certain theme parks, but they both abandoned me over time...In 1992 a certain theme park in California took me under their wing and changed my name. But 11 years later, they too left me for dead. I died in 2003, but my lifeless husk was displayed promeniently for four years, raising hopes that I would return from the ashes, but the hopes were lies. I was finally laid to rest in 2007. Who am I?"

May 1999 Hey, It's me, Debra Caldwell! This will be my absolute last time I'll ever enter Tennessee's Great America as a member of team Cedar Fair, so I decided to take my PR trip on opening day to display this park's huge sucsess! The park was so crowded today, all three trains were running on Steel Savage yet there was still a 30 minute wait to get on the ride! Sadly as I expected, Rage is not open. It is currently listed as "SBNO" which is an acronym for Standing But Not Operating on the Roller Coaster Database website. There are hopes and rumors that the new coaster will be open late in the season but there is no way I can confirm. There is a large sign underneath the supports of Steel Savage's "bridge" that says "RAGE: COMING SOON". The park quickly became crowded as soon as the day camps arrived with busloads of young kids! Sadly, the time has come at last to bid my final "adieu" and "arrevaderchi" to Cedar Fair and Tennessee's Great America. I will miss you so much!!! (This is not the end of my park, there will be more updates!)

Volaire? I am blue and white. One might think I'm a Schwarzkopf but I am not. Only a few of my kind still exist. One of my brothers was removed from a certain park in California and I have a cousin in Texas who dwells in the shadows and looks just like me from the inside. I reside in the only theme park on a certain island in the state of New York. Who am I?

I guess for me, Laser at Dorney. I know it's entertaining people in Germany right now, but Dorney was never the same to me after Laser came out of the picture. Even now that Stinger is in place, there is still an emptiness in the park, I loved that ride's eerily B&M sounding roar as the train went through that double loop. Stinger is a pretty good coaster, NOT a good replacement for Laser. If Cedar Fair did decide to get rid of Flight of Fear in 2008 and it went to Dorney, that would have been a MUCH better replacement.

I LOVE Kings Dominion so much, but the entire Congo area just seems messy. Avalanche, Flight of Fear and I305 have absolutley NOTHING to do with Africa. I say what they should do is re-theme Anaconda to a NASCAR theme and call it something like "The Test Track" (Ideally, brand new Vekoma built trains with more comfortable OSTRs like on Sidewinder at Hershey that look like little DeLoreans, but that's just my idea of a perfect world.)

In comparison, Hershey because it's more of a popular family park gets most of the major foot traffic, that's why lines can sometimes get really bad over there.

I go here every year (Dorney is basically my home park) and all the times I went (summer, fall, dosen't matter) lines have been non-existent. Even on Talon, Hydra and Steel Force. You'll be fine.

It's really good! I figured that you complimented and gave me advice on my park Tennessee's Great America, I might as well compliment and give advice to yours! It is very good, but here is a tip to make pictures so much better! Rename a peep "David Walsh", press Ctl and U and your menus go away, pressing ctl and U again will make them reappear. I look foreward to seeing more of Hallaway Amusment Park!

February 1999 Hello, It's Debra Caldwell again. I have some good news and some bad news to tell you. One peice of good news is that Rage's construction is complete and is currently running test runs! Overall, the prototype floorless coaster looks short, but very very sweet and I anticipate that popularity will be through the roof when it opens! But here's the bad news, there are some problems with the saftey features of the ride's train that are a lot more serious than B&M thought it would be. The upshot, Rage's grand opening has been officially delayed and will not be open when the park opens in May. There is currently no sign of any tenative opening date for Rage, which means that Medusa at Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey which is the second and larger B&M floorless coaster built will be the first to open. We hope that this will not take a hit on Tennessee's Great America. Also, I regret to inform you that pretty soon, I'll no longer be working for Cedar Fair. I just found out the other week that I'm one month pregnant and I'm due in September and I'm quitting my job really want to be there for my future son or daughter! After the 1999 PR trip, I will no longer be documenting TGA's progress. It's been a pretty good time and I'll miss my job, but such is life....... Rage doing another test run. Hopefully they'll fix these problems soon....

Memorial Day, 1998 Hello everybody! Happy Memorial Day!!! I hope that all of you are having a safe and fun holiday, because I spent my memorial day at Tennesee's Great America! You see, as the PR girl I'm allowed by Cedar Fair a few days per season to visit the park as a guest rather than an employee. However, my TGA experience was a little less up to snuff becuase they picked the WORST day for me to go to the park. Memorial Day weekend. 2 words, CROWDS and LINES. The first ride of the day was Screamin' Eagle. Despite the fact that I literally RAN like Ben Johnson to the ride's entrance, there was still a 25-minute wait. I enjoyed the ride though. A little rickety, but fun nevertheless. The second coaster I rode is my personal favorite, Steel Savage! The best B&M Invert EVER! (in my opinion, of course!) However, I waited 1 1/2 hours to ride even though they were operating all three trains! I walked to the back of the park after having lunch to ride the rides back there. I discovered that Twister, the Vekoma Boomerang was a walk-on and I was more than happy to oblige! However, riding it I discovered WHY it was a walk-on. It was pretty intense, but during the cobra roll, my head kept slamming against the restraints! Giving me a horrible headache! I guess part of the reason is because the ride uses Fireball's rarely-used third train instead of it's own. This ride would be so much better if Vekoma would give Twister one of their own trains. Speaking of Fireball, that was next on the agenda! It's gotten a little rougher over the years (considering that it's eighteen years old), but it's still a very good ride! However before I knew it, it was 10PM! All of the coasters closed and park security began to scream at people to get the F out of the park. It just pissed me off that most of my day was waiting on line instead of riding roller coasters. Oh well, etter luck next time!

I really don't think that TPS is technically a "game" like the Roller Coaster Tycoon series or the Thrillvilles were, but more of a tool to make virtual amusement parks that you build and you control. Granted, coaster construction looks ten times easier than No Limits (and even Newton) but ten times more detailed than RCT3. I figure it's kind of a combination between Hyper-Rails and Ultimate Ride Coaster Deluxe, which I absolutley loved as a kid. (I really wish that TPS has an editable soundtrack where I could add those really spacey "Build Mode" soundracks from URCD ) But by any name, I'd say that I would consider Theme Park Studio to be more of a "Roller Coaster Tycoon 4" than i'll even consider ThrillVille to be.

If this is in the wrong forum, feel free to move it or close this topic. The Kickstarter campaign was sucsessfully funded so that means Theme Park Studio will be a dream turned into a reality! Out of sheer curiosity, I must ask, what do you plan to make with this new game? My offical plan for Theme Park Studio is to completley remake my first major RCT3 park, King's Paradise. I feel like TPS will give me the oppurtunity to do things with Kings Paradise (or any park really) that we can't do with RCT3 despite all the cool Custom content that people made. So, what are your plans for TPS?

Well, if you count the one travelling in Saudi Arabia/Oman/Yemen (of all places, man), there is still one last Katapult in operation, hopefully there are more in storage.

1998 Wow, this announcement was totally out of left feild. I didn't get ANY word from the big dogs at Cedar Fair. Either way, it seems weird that they would announce a new coaster two whole years in advance, we'll see what will happen! (NOTE: Rage is not actually the first B&M Floorless to open. It was built first, but Medusa at Six Flags Great Adventure was the first to open, Rage opened second.)

71 grand.....6 more days....almost freakin there....

June 1997 Sorry for being absent for the unveiling of the new park plaza for TGA, I was away on business purposes for Knotts Berry Farm. But now I'm back in Lynchburg and I'm ready to show you all of the cool new additions in the renovation of the park! A very regal-looking fountain was added in the middle of the path which I think makes a GREAT centerpeice for the park, and two new thrill rides were added! Lets get the lowdown on each one! This is STRATOSPHERE, a brand new S&S Space Shot/Turbo Drop tower complex! At almost 200 feet, Stratosphere is now the tallest ride in the park! Riders get a choice as soon as they board the queue line, Violet launches you up while Blue launches you down! This vomit-inducing monster is called the Top Scan! Riders get into a star-shaped gondola attached to a giant mechanical arm that rotates while you get spinned all around! It was built by a company named Mondial Rides, based in Denmark. If Top Scan is a sucsess, we at Cedar Fair might go back to Mondial in the future (hint, hint...) Not only was the park plaza redone, KidTown USA was COMPLETLEY revamed into "Camp Snoopy", bringing to Tennesee's Great Adventure familiar names such as Charlie Brown, Sally, Marcie, Peppermint Patty, Linus and Lucy! Not only that, but we added a brand new family coaster built by Vekoma named Fireball Jr., a kiddie version of Arrow Dynamics' Fireball! In place of the Cafe Americana which was removed last year, three different themed resturaunts were added to a prestigious food court! Coaster's Drive In, Texas Roadhouse, and SweetZone!

October, 1996 Hey, It's Debra Caldwell again. I'm here to announce that the recently postponed 1996 Halloweekends for Tennessee's Great America has now been officially cancelled. We are duly sorry for any inconviencence for all of you late-season coaster freaks and we at Cedar Fair PROMISE that there will be a 1997 Halloweekends! The reason why TGA is closed while all other Cedar Fair properties are having Halloweekends is because we are right now in the middle of a major renovation of the park's main plaza. I have some pictures. Here is a picture taken from the controlled demolition of the Parachute Drop. It's sad to see a peice of TGA/Elmwood Lake's history die like that. When I returned to the park, I was shocked to see how much they tore apart. So many old attractions from the old Elmwood Lake Park days were shamelessly leveled. Not only did they get rid of the Parachute Drop, they also got rid of Twist And Shout, the Wave Swinger, AND the Cafe Americana! None of the roller coasters were damaged (Thank God), and we currently have no idea what the powers that be have in store for the park's plaza. We'll just have to play the waiting game again.... I took this picture from the top of Super Looper. It's almost like a scar...