Rai Fox

I tend to be a bit hesitant to post much in the line of "furry" art outside of websites meant for it, with the way some people react to it, but this is too good for this thread to pass up. First off, this might be cheating a bit in this thread; this was created -for- me but certainly not by me; I don't have the artistic skills to manage a convincing stick figure. This one was commissioned art, painted by the amazing Kacey Miyagami. My friends and I, as our fuzzy selves, at Lake Compounce

Ooh, I like the look of this so far! The track editor looks almost miraculous. Easy to use like RCT's, but much more flexible by the look of it. Is this going to be just a roller coaster builder, or will we be able to build and run entire parks (flat rides, food stalls, etc) as in RCT? I'm sure I'll enjoy it either way, but if it's the latter, this could be really amazing.

It's going to depend on whether I get promoted to a salaried position or not this April, as I'm hoping to, since that will be a raise and double my vacation time. At a minimum, assuming no disasters before then, I'll be doing my annual PA trip, which will certainly include Knoebels and Kennywood, and most likely Lakemont part. If I have time, Dorney is fairly likely too. I'll also be hitting my local parks; Lake Compounce and Canobie Lake, and possibly SFNE, since I haven't given that one a try in a while. I'm hoping, if I have the extra vacation time and money, to be able to extend a weekend trip to Virginia to visit friends into something a bit longer, and get back to BGW and KD while I'm there. There's a faint possibility of heading further west from PA after that trip and getting the big parks in Ohio as well. I've still never made it to Cedar Point and KI, and that has to be fixed.

It's not exactly a rollercoaster game, but...I found this while I was playing around on the iOS marketplace on my work iPad >.> Thought a few people here might appreciate this! https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fascination/id446055668?mt=8 It plays very, very close to the real amusement park Fascination games; the ball behaves just right. Should bring a smile and a bit of nostalgia! Only downside to it, at least for me, is that it's making me want to walk away from the game and go for a ride on Phoenix...

Lots of them. I'll go on pretty much any dry ride out there, but water slides tend to push my limits. I've always been a little bad with water...I don't even like having my face underwater. I panic very easily in that kind of situation, so even moderately "scary" waterslides often absolutely terrify me. Topping that off, I'm weird about heights. I'm perfectly fine with any ridiculous height when I'm strapped into something. Give me a lap bar or shoulder harness and I'll ride the first coaster to break the 500 ft barrier without a second thought. But if I'm standing, or worse, having to walk or climb stairs, ohhellno. I get horrible vertigo and end up scared half out of my mind. Tall waterslide towers are just -bad. Of course, neither of those stop me from going on most of them. I might be scared of them, but I still have my pride! I've never convinced myself to do Summit Plummit yet, but pretty much anything short of that, I've forced myself on, and usually enjoy, at least once I'm on the ride and not the stairs tower. There are a few exceptions in slides, usually body slides, where I end up with a lot of high-speed water in my face, convincing me I'm going to drown. Peppermint Twist was definitely one of those.

Right, I did see the map of phase 2. I wasn't sure if there was the possibility of it going any further than that. A little disappointing that it doesn't sound likely, but still, it's going to be great as is with both phases done.

I'm curious; how much more land around the park is there, beyond this expansion? I've been there, a few years back, but I can't say I paid that much attention to that detail then. I'm just wondering it this is as far as it'll go, a nice little miniature amusement park with one really good coaster, or if this is just the beginning and we're looking at the beginnings of a "real" park here. Given how popular the place seemed to be when I was there and how well run, and how this project seems to be being received, it seems quite possible. I had a great time there even when it was just go-karts and a few little flats, so I'd love to see the place just take off.

The popularity of Angry Birds just baffles me. I don't have any problem with it, but it's just a halfway decent little casual game, fun to play for a few minutes at a time; one of an endless glut of similar games. I could sorta understand the game becoming popular; some games just have an inexplicable appeal. But Angry Birds clothing, candy, soda, games at theme parks, now miniature theme parks of their own... It's not like they're even memorable characters...or real characters all all. Just colored cartoon birds without personalities or anything. I mean, if you enjoy it, great! But...out of all the things to have become such a craze...nope, don't get it at all.

Definitely Fascination. It's somehow just one of the most universally addictive games out there. I've dragged so many friends to play there, almost all of them have looked more than a bit skeptical at the old game at first, and every single one of them has loved it.

I'm gonna put the blame for that one about 10% on the park, 40% on the insurance companies, and 50% on the piece of half-sentient trash that though it would be amusing to throw rocks at people on the other coaster and cost someone their eye. It's definatly 100% the riders fault. The park can't control it when guests decide to bring objects on the ride, and throw them. What is so fun about hurting people?, I just can't beleive someone actually brought rocks on the ride, and THREW them!!, that's terrible. The park should not be blamed when someone irresponsible was trusted to go on a roller coaster by themselves. They can't check rider's pockets for rocks before the ride, and they couldn't control what happened either. If someone stab's someone at a grocery store, is it at the fault of the store owner?, no, it's not. Same thing applies to this situation, when someone throw's rocks in the middle of a ride, the park couldn't control it, and it's not their fault. To prevent anything like that from happening again, it occured to them they had to discontinue dueling the coasters because not everyone is mature enough to handle dueling coasters, which furthermore does not make it a stupid move, the stupid move was the move the rider made. I agree with the vast majority of what you're saying, but I'm not blaming the park for what happened. I put some blame on the park because I don't think stopping the rides from dueling was the way to handle the situation. It was the rider's fault; that was assault ending in serious injury. But it wasn't the coaster to blame, and they didn't stop any other dueling coasters from dueling when it could have happened just as easily on any one of them. The coaster was the scene, nothing more. Sick people that want to hurt someone else are going to do it no matter what; the only thing ruining the coaster accomplished was to take away one of its best features from its fans; almost certainly done to appease the ridiculous US insurance companies (which, to be fully fair, shifts some of the blame to the public as well, because the insurance agencies are partially so insane because of the sue-crazy US mindset...).

Wild Beast, underrated? Really? I came here to post Grizzly myself, but the two of them are not the same coaster, built off the same plans or not. Grizzly isn't quite what it once was thanks to so much of the woods around it being torn down, but it's also far better than it was a few years ago; I believe it was retracked 2-3 years ago, and last time I rode it a few years back, it was remarkably smooth and fast, really a great ride, and still amazing after dark, if a little less so than a decade ago. Wild Beast though, I've never heard anyone that's ridden it and didn't feel like it was trying to kill them. I rode it for the first time earlier this summer, and I think it was the second worst coaster I've ever been on (beaten only Hercules at Dorney before it was improved by being turned into firewood). I could not believe how rough it was, it felt like it was completely coming apart. Hard to imagine how two "identical" coasters can ride so much differently, apart from a horrific lack of maintenance on WB, and that seems odd since most of CW seems quite well taken care of.

I'm gonna put the blame for that one about 10% on the park, 40% on the insurance companies, and 50% on the piece of half-sentient trash that though it would be amusing to throw rocks at people on the other coaster and cost someone their eye.

Maybe. Maybe not. We -are- talking about Knoebels here. If a ride wants to live forever, that's the park for it. Really, really weird though...

Coaster Expedition. While you guys do get some of the best pov footage of coasters, you're not the only ones doing it, and a POV is, for the most part, a POV. The coaster expedition videos are simply more TPR. There's a lot more uniqueness, a lot more of the group's personality shown in it, with the random craziness in the parks, the humor, even the music. Roller Coasters in the Raw are great POVs, and fun to watch, but it's the stuff filmed in the coaster expedition videos that makes TPR what it is.

My favorite breakdown was this summer at Kennywood, on Phantom's Revenge; one of my favorite coasters, quite possibly my favorite. I finished one as-always great front seat ride on it early in the day, the train pulled into the station, and everyone started pushing up their restraints and leaving...except for me. My restraint, and the one of the guy seated behind me, would not unlock. The attendants came over and played with them for a bit, but just could not get them to release. They called the mechanics over, who said they'd need to partially disassemble the car to get them to release, and it would take a bit, so they wanted to unload the other car first. The restraints were still safe on my train, so they wanted to send us around again to pull the second train into the station and unload it. So the attendants come up to me and the other rider stuck in the car, and...they're polite and friendly and trying to be helpful and comforting, they're being all apologetic... "Are you alright? We're sorry, but we need to send you around again so we can unload the other train. Are you comfortable enough, would you be alright with going around again?" And they sound like they really mean it, like they're notifying me that I'm going to have to spend the afternoon in chinese water torture or something. So I tell them that, yes, -somehow- I'll manage to survive another front-seat ride on one of my favorite rides anywhere. The guy behind me doesn't sound too upset either. So we get another ride out of it, then when we get back into the station, the mechanics start working on the train, while the attendants check up on us every 30 seconds to make sure we're not dying, sitting in one of the most comfortable coaster trains on the planet... Finally they manage to get us released, and now we're getting stopped by the attendants before we leave. "We're so sorry about this, we'll be glad to make it up to you! Stop by the guest relations booth, we'll tell them you're coming and explain what happened, they can give you free food or gift cards..." I told them it -really- wasn't needed, and they kept going "...or maybe a free ticket, anything you want!' They actually did say "anything I want," too. I admit, I was more than a little curious to see just how much I could have gotten as reparations for being forced to sit through a second front-seat ride on a world-class coaster, how far I could have pushed that "anything" if I wanted to try, but...I couldn't possibly bring myself to take advantage of the park when they were trying to go so far beyond what could possibly be called for, so I never did even bother going by guest relations. I did get back on Phantom again a couple hours later, though ^^

Twister seems to be a temperamental ride. The banking hasn't been changed, but you just get much better rides some days than other on that coaster, more so than almost any other wooden coaster I've ridden. I love the ride, but I've had absolutely spectacular rides on it, and some pretty mediocre ones, too. As for my own...CW takes a lot of spots in this list since it's still fairly fresh in my mind... Pleasant- Skyrider @ CW: I hate hate HATE Shockwave at King's Dominion, so I was dreading this credit, but it's a whole different coaster than it's near-twin. Much smoother and more comfortable, and genuinely enjoyable. I ended up hitting it three times while I was at the park. Phoenix @ Knoebels: I'd heard the reviews, I'd been told what to expect, but I could not really believe that that modest looking coaster could possibly be one of the best in the world. Of course, if you're ridden it, then you know perfectly well that yes, it -is-. Twister @ Knoebels: I'd also been told that compared to Phoenix, Twister wasn't anything special. It was running incredibly well the first year I got to ride it though, and ended up instantly being one one of my favorite wooden coasters, especially after dark. Then, it could also count as an unpleasant surprise when, the next year, it wasn't nearly as good. And after that, it was amazing again, so back to this category. Hydra @ Dorney - One of the smallest floorless coasters, yes, but such a unique layout compared to the others I've been on, easily beating out much bigger cousins. Non-coaster pleasant surprise - Shockwave @ CW. It wasn't one of the top rides I was waiting to get on, but it ended up being my favorite flat at the park, and better than most of the coasters. So wild and disorienting. Unpleasant - Wild Beast @ CW. I love Grizzy at King's Dominion, and they look almost identical, so they must ride similarly, right? Uh...no. Ouch. Racer @ Kennywood - Supposedly such a legendary ride. Why? It feels so slow, it just drags...always feels like it's struggling to even make it around the track. Hercules @ Dorney - Good riddance. And it looked so impressive, too...

I imagine they could do it with a decent high-end 3D printer setup.

Also on that note. Arms UP, not OUT. Rode Boulder Dash recently next to a very large, very excitable gentleman, who rode with his arms straight out, right across my face, so most of my view for the ride consisted of his arm flab, and every time we hit a hill, he was smacking me in the face.

Reaaaally looking forward to this...I think it might just put some of the magic back in Christmas for me, after decades of retail and advertising nonsense bludgeoning it to death. ^^

Big Bad Wolf is an easy #1 for this one, for me, but Drachen Fire's not too far behind.

No votes for Flight of Fear, or Joker's Jinx? There's a reason they're referred to as Spaghetti Bowls. Also, Twister at Knoebels, with that awesome split lift.

Pittsburgh isn't, but unfortunately most of the rest of the state is, and the state sets the regulations, not the city. Pittsburgh is really an anomaly in a mostly -very- conservative state. I love PA's natural beauty, it has some truly wonderful areas, and Pittsburgh is by far my favorite city I've ever been to, but I recently heard the center of the state just referred to as Pennsyltuckey and I can't stop using that term now. I vacation there every summer (a couple days at Knoebels, a couple days for other parks, then on to Pittsburgh for a convention), and this year a part of my group of friends stopped for lunch at a McDonalds just outside of Altoona. The place looked like a bad parody of the deep south, and one of my friends was harangued while she waited at the counter by a three-toothed woman for carrying "one'a dem Obumma spy-phone tings!" around (her cell phone). Could not get out of that area quickly enough.

Kinda strange to hear that, since the times I've been to LC this year, Boulder Dash has been running the best it has in a decade; unbelievably fast and smooth. I hope it's in a better shape in two weeks when I'm there again...

FYI; apparently all has not gone well. I was at the park today; Equinox is not yet open. It was running all night, but only test cycles, and apparently for staff to train on; no riders actually on it. What a tease...the ride looks amazing though! I'm going to have to wait until next year to get on it now though, sadly =/