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A choice of trains for each track wouldn't be realistic. NoLimits is all about realism. Why would having a wooden PTC train on Arrow track be cool? As for the obscure rides like Miesho and Miller, I doubt those will make it in. NoLimits seems to go for popular ride styles that actually still are built or have lots of coasters still around. If Miesho style is included, there'd only be four or five people using it. I'm really looking forward to NL2. I just hope my computer can handle it. It might be time to upgrade my video card.

I went to Wonderland with a co-worker, Hilary, to get in the few rides I didn't get to ride in April. A new section called the West End opened in June with three rides: Hornet, Fiesta Swing and Drop of Fear. I didn't get a wristband this time. I got 10 tickets for $15. Hilary hung out just to take pictures. And eat a funnel cake. She had to have that. I started off on Texas Tornado. It cost me two tickets. The train left before I got in the station, so I had to wait. The station is odd because there are a couple of extra rows of queues. I wonder if that means there were one or two more cars on the train. The train came into the station, everyone got out, and I got in. The gates are controlled much like Twister II's at Elitch Gardens. They're manual, and the ride host pulls a lever to open and close them. I got in the back seat. I buckled my seat belt and pulled my restraint down. Texas Tornado's train is a PTC, and I believe it's the only steel train PTC has made. Texas Tornado is a Hopkins ride. It's poorly designed, which is to be expected of a Hopkins ride. But it's not too bad. There are some bumps and bad spots, but it doesn't crash around like Desert Storm at Castles n Coasters. The bottom of the first drop has high G-forces and really slams down. But the two loops aren't awful like Desert Storm's. Immediately after the first drop, the track turns slightly left but doesn't bank. It's not too bad. The turnaround has high G's, and the pullout of the second loop is pretty bad. After that second loop, it immediately enters an underground tunnel. In that tunnel, there's a quick, unbanked turn to the right. Then it rises into a section before the brakes. Another unbanked turn! Then the brakes. It's better than Desert Storm, but it's still not too great. It's also upsetting that you can't get a wristband to ride. It costs two tickets ($3) a ride. Though the ride host didn't take my tickets to ride! Ha. He just let me get on. That was cool. 5/10. We went to the West End next to ride the new rides. We started on Hornet, a coaster that moved here from Six Flags AstroWorld in Houston, which closed in 2005. Hornet used to be an indoor ride. It was all right. I got in the last car, and Hilary got in the next to last car. The train's pretty long. This ride's pretty fun. It's tame. For most of the ride, I was wondering if we'd ever make a left turn because it's just right, right, right. But a turn toward the end goes left (the only left turn on the coaster) before a right turn and the end. It's got magnetic brakes, which I thought was cool. It's good that more rides are getting these. One thing that's unusual is the ride doesn't have an exit ramp. Everyone has to move to the side to let the riders exit. 4/10. Then we went to Drop of Fear. Hilary stood by, and I dropped two tickets to ride. It was pretty fun. I was the only one on the ride, and it was over pretty quick. The drop is fast, and there's not too much airtime, but that's OK for a 150-foot-tall drop tower. 6/10. Next I went to Fiesta Swing and rode that. It's a typical Yo-Yo. Some kid kept kicking his shoes off while we were riding. 4/10. One thing that's odd about the West End is that it doesn't seem ready. It's a small expansion to the park, and there's an open area with stuff just sitting around. I could just walk up to all that junk. We left the West End and went to Fantastic Journey, the dark ride. The vehicles have no restraints, which I thought was unusual. There's also a pretty funny sign warning people not to ride if they're offended by darkness. It's a decent, cheesy ride. It begins with lots of blacklight-lit doors the vehicle bangs open. It's got a few scenes of people getting tortured or something. One part startled me. You enter a black room after a spinning wall (those confuse my brain so much), and a man in an electric chair is shocked out of nowhere. It's loud and unexpected. 3/10. Then we went to Scrambler. It ran for a decent amount of time. I thought it was fun. I had two tickets left, and I wanted to ride another coaster, so I went to Cyclone. I really like these rides. I think they're fun and intense, and the turns are pretty crazy. I used my last ticket on Rainbow. As the ride host was putting the restraints down on the ride before mine, he also was playing with his cell phone. Great. This ride was surprisingly good. The first rotations were OK, but when it reversed direction, it was wild. Airtime and wild side-to-side movements. I liked it. A girl sitting in the seat next to me unbuckled her seat belt, so when the ride went into the second half of the program, she slid all over the place. That seemed a bit crazy. The seat belt was keeping me from sliding into each side of my seat. I liked that it was there. There also was some weird art on the backdrop. 7/10. Because my tickets were used up, I went back to Texas Tornado and took a few pictures of it. It was a quick trip, which really seems to be the only way to do Wonderland. It's a decent sized park for the size of Amarillo. It's pretty fun too. I'm glad I got to go this time and ride what I missed last time. July 26, 2009 This guy on Rainbow was playing with his cell phone. My last ride was Rainbow. Cyclone's a great coaster. The darkness on Fantastic Journey offended me. Fantastic Journey vehicle. No restraint! Fantastic Journey is a cheesy dark house. You can walk right up to this stuff in the West End. It doesn't seem ready yet. Fiesta Swing. Hornet. It's got Drop of Fear. We went to the new West End next. The second loop. It's like that because the train couldn't make it through the loop. So they kept the structure and moved the track. First loop. Note supports at the bottom of the rails. It was modified there. First drop. Check out those restraints. Yep. PTC. PTC steel train!? Extra queues. It looks like it had two or three more cars. I started on Texas Tornado. My co-worker was there to take pictures. I went with tickets this time. A little cheaper than a wristband.

^ I rode in the front seat. Next time, I'm trying the back right seat.

I don't know if I've posted this before, but Montu does it for me. It's such an impressive looking coaster, and it did nothing for me. I got one ride in and just went back to Kumba and rode that the rest of the day. Montu's elements seemed too spaced apart. The brake before the batwing killed what probably would have been the highlight of the ride. Then after that killjoy, the block brake practically stops you. The second half of the ride was a bore because we crawled through the elements. Totally forceless. I don't like hangtime on inverted coasters. I don't like forceless inverted coasters. Montu was filled with that after the first brake. I'd love to go back and try it again, but I don't know when that will be.

Next time, you should have two contests. One for Photoshopped works and another for clean, untouched photos. I think touching a photo up in Photoshop should be a different category and not compete against people like me who go for the pure look.

Yup. http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2009/06/15/six-flags-at-half-staff.aspx http://www.thrillnetwork.com/boards/parks-3/54042-six-flags-nj-really-zero-flags.html#post792107 http://www.travelpost.com/hotels/Super_8_Atlanta_Near_Six_Flags/r1145274 ..and that last one is posted on a review of the Super8 motel near SFoG (you know the one that everyone is scared of!) Troll indeedy. (ain't Google clever these days!) That's pretty much evidence this person's not coming back. This person had a bad day, posted about it wherever it seemed convenient and just bolted.

Bump. Your voting page is broken, and apparently it's been broken for a couple of days. Get it fixed! Or move your voting deadline back.

Ogg? Seriously? Can anyone put that in a format that actually is used? I can't figure out how to view that video. Edit: OK. I downloaded a program to be able to play it. It looks incredible. I'm not sure how I feel about the footsteps and walking around (especially on the track), but it looks great. Turn up the rain, and the drops actually hit the track. That's cool. Now I want to see a train!

I'm probably in the minority, but I can't stand this meme. Aw haw haw haw haw. Look. It's Hitler. Let's change the subtitles to something hilarious. That's from the movie "Downfall," which is an amazing film depicting Hitler's last days as seen from one of his secretaries. You should check it out. It might change your mind about these idiotic videos.

It looks like he had a smudge on his lens. You should check that out. Clean it. Pretty good TR. I love reading first-timers' visits to CP and learning their opinions. Raptor's my favorite ride there, followed by Maverick, so I agree with you. Too bad you didn't ride TTD. It's a pretty good rush if you've never ridden it before.

There are 61 entries? That seems like the one with four votes will win.

"Practice makes perfect." I'd have to practice a whole different method because I've been using NoLimits since 2001. Can you link to me these 3-D objects and perhaps send me a PM with this segment-dividing method you're referring to? Because this still doesn't make much sense to me. Why would you delete a node, only to replace it and then add more? A track can have tons of nodes, but if it's crap, it's still crap.

YouTube shouldn't count. YouTube's notorious for idiots on any subject. Roller coasters, the moon landing, a music video, a train crash. It's all an open forum for stupidity.

Haha. "Fake enthusiast." Screw that guy!

What do you mean 3-D objects to place my track? How would those help? Is it anything like circle building? I do that sometimes. I have no clue how to make more segments to create a smoother ride. Because more segments means more bumps. I can't hand build six segments in a turn or two because you can feel every node. Do you mean just splitting the longer segments? If that's the case, then aren't more segments only really for banking purposes?

See, I know all that already. As for the supports, I think they're adequate. They are a little spacy, but the ride's not going to tumble over if stopped in the block brakes. With the pumping, what techniques are there? Because if it's a tool or Ctrl+G, that's not going to help me. I try, but I just can't get rid of some pumps. I try my hardest to reshape pieces, but before I know it, the helix is shaped like crap, and I just have to live with the mess.

All right. You've persuaded me. I uploaded Copper Mine. You can check it out here.

After much persuasion, I'm uploading what I believe is my first ride on TPR. I'm well aware of the faults in it, so what you tell me won't be anything new. But I guess since all I do is dish it out, I might as well show you what my build technique is like. So here's Copper Mine. It's supposed to be a coaster built in and around an old mine. That's why the terrain is so rugged and there's a large body of water next to the hills. The wooden tunnellike things are unfinished or decaying tunnels and mine structures. The big structure in the middle of the helix is some sorta mine thing too, I guess. So enjoy. Maybe I'll upload something else I'd been toying with. Copper Mine.nltrack The ride. The prelift helix.

I don't upload rides.

Yeah. The ride's done. The tunnels are to simulate an abandoned mine. Some tunnels are complete, some are falling apart.

All right. I was persuaded to at least post something I'm working on. This ride is called Copper Mine. It's a Vekoma mine train built into a couple of giant hills and next to a body of water. You know, like a mine. Sorry for the quality. For some ridiculous reason, these pictures were more than 500K in size, so I had to kill the quality. The first drop off the lift hill. A ridiculously shaped helix following the block brake. That helix comes before the lift. Above is the block brake. An overview of this mess.

What the hell? I'm out.

I'm too much of a perfectionist, but I'm also too short-tempered to get things right. I can't use tools because I can't take the time to learn how to do them, so I hand build everything. Actually, I take that back. I use the Prefab Purgatorium but only to make a helix or turn. That works out fine, but I can't make anything else with it. I've tried to use the AHG, but it makes absolutely no sense to me. I want good heartlines, but I have to settle with doing it by hand. I can make fairly smooth tracks, but there's always one giant bump or pump in the track that I just can't fix. But what I can do well are supports and realistic braking systems. It's a shame, really. I've got a lot of rides sitting around "finished" (in the sense that I can't figure out anything else to do to get rid of the pumps and jolts) that look good but aren't that good. Does that make me a hypocrite? I don't think so. Your rides will get better because I rate them. I certainly can help you out. But I don't think you can help me out.

I just put this in my folder and rode a ride I've been building. It's really odd seeing what used to be yellow vertical G's stay green. Woo. Now I feel better about that pullout. And also some negative G's that were yellow are red. Hmm. Is -1.8 too much? DBru: Why am I never uploading a ride here?

When my G-forces spike at 1,549.6, I'd want to see red. If it's yellow, I'm not going to dock as many points. Ha. Naw. The colors just give me a general idea of when to adjust a part of a ride in the building process. But it doesn't matter to me. I'm never uploading a ride here.