Sir Clinksalot

Today is my little girls birthday....

From MiceAge:

Finally got around to voting (we had to coordinate who was going to use which computer. I got stuck using the work 'puter). While I am a proponent of good sportsmanship and such...yeah, I voted for my own video... As for the recipients of my second and third votes...your checks cleared the bank. Pleasure doing business with you. \any guesses yet on when those results are going to be announced? I don't want to sound whiny about it, but... No, I am being whiny about it.

It would seem like they could include Poseidon's Fury and still have it in both parks though. It would just mean maybe extending the borders of what areas are involved to include a small portion of Lost Continent (though it'd be nice to have the Dragons running as well). I'm all for incorporating some of that show stuff into a house. There's some great stuff they can do in that area (same for the Dragon's queue, though it'd be a complete logistical nightmare).

Yeah, that's hard. I'm gonna go with the above formula: Best Inverted: Top Gun @ PGA - Santa Clara, CA Best Floorless: Superman: Krypton Coaster @ SFFT - San Antonio, TX Best Stand-Up: GA Scorcher @ SFOG - Austell, GA Best Hyper: Goliath @ SFMM - Valencia, CA (Pretty much by default) Best Woodie: GASM @ SFOG - Austell, GA Best Launched: CA Screamin' @ DCA - Anaheim, CA Best Rocket Coaster: Xcelerater @ Knott's - Buena Park, CA (Also by default, but it's still a good ride) Overal favorite: Superman:Ultimate Flight @ SFOG - Austell GA

Wow, GASM is a water ride!!! Knott's would be closed for a year if that happened.

I've seen folks saying on other boards that it's only going to be at IOA this year. No actual verification until Universal decides to let it all out. Personally, I thought last year was a bit of a mess. Way too spread out, and I was extremely hateful of the designated "scare zones." In previous years, you could be anywhere and have a scareactor jumping out at you (I witnessed one waiting patiently outside a ladies restroom in Jurassic Park - fun stuff). The houses themselves, with the exception of the Vampire one, were kinda "meh" as well. The overall theme seemed to be "we don't have a theme, so we're mashing up all our old stuff." The TVs in the queues were a nice touch, although we used Express Passes and rarely watched much of what was on it. The only problem with just IOA is that the pathways are too narrow, and that's going to be miserable on a sold out night (oh, and that also kills the parade). I hope what I've heard is wrong.

Yeah, I must admit I've never used the Stormrunner because of that particular oddity...... I think they added a few pieces to the Stratacoaster too, I can't be certain, it's easy to blur between pre-and-post-soaked once you have soaked installed. Oh yeah they also added Terrain Pieces (for when you make tunnels so you can cover exposed pieces of track) which include Tunnel Entrances too. Oh and I forgot to mention Waterfalls too

Here is a list by category of my fave RCT sites:- Fireworks (RCT3 + Soaked) http://www.rctpyro.com/ http://www.rct3beat.com/ General http://www.rctmart.com/ - All content is structured via messageboards but pretty good site. (RCT2 and 3) http://www.rct2.com/ - Slightly bizarre site layout but quite good forums. Messageboards Official RCT3 Boards at Ataricommunity Mods Modding is still in the early phases for RCT3, mostly because the 3D formats are hard to figure out, JonWil is doing a great job of deciphering them though. He has made the scenery import tool which the community is using. It's still definitely in the experimental stages (we can pretty much only make static scenery and no ride stuff at all yet, but it will come in time) but some people are making some really neat stuff, notably Marnetmar, Pumper and Klinn. The only real place to find mods is the Exchange forum at Ataricommunity here To find out more about the importer itself, search for jonwil's posts in the General Discussion Forum. Videos made in RCT3 There is quite a big fan-community for RCT3 that solely make videos, whether that's music videos, straight coaster vids or vids with a story. The best sites for these are: Bitter Jeweler Films Vodhin's RCT3 Pages Sorry about the size, I tend to rant a bit in posts hope these contribute to what you are looking for !

In my opinion I think Soaked! is a great expansion pack. The addition of Waterpark features is a really cool new dynamic and is really well fleshed out. Improved Peep AI and Peep interactions (mostly for the pool stuff but there are a few new non-pool interactions too) are really cool as well. Peeps paddling and using inflatables as well as running, bombing off highdives and diving from scarily high dives are fun to watch. All the new pool rides are pretty cool, although they can look odd depending on where you place then (they don't get supports if above pool tiles, they do if there is room on an outside tile though). Body Slides, Raft Slides, Improved Water Rapids, H2O Bowls and Lazy Rivers are all pretty well done. New coasters like the Roller Soaker, Stormrunner (although it's slightly odd how they've implemented it, most inversions are only on diagonals ? having not seen one in Real-life it's hard to tell whether that's realistic or not it seems a bit limiting though), Giant Flume (which you part-submerge) are good too. There are some other new rides, Aquariums, a couple of Hershey-themed rides (Kisses Tower ? and Reese Cups Ride... nothing to write home about) all in all there are over 50 new rides including a few new coaster car types. Then there are the other features like Underwater paths, TUNNELS, Dolphin and Whale shows, Laser shows with an improved MixMaster (so you can link fireworks, lasers and Dolphin shows all together) and some rather nice looking Water effects with proper caustics and refraction (the water droplets that get splashed onto the "camera" are pretty cool.). The fact they altered the CTRL key to make scenery/building pieces jump to the last height is a godsend too! These all tie together to make Soaked one pretty impressive expansion as it adds SO much to the original RCT3 (admittedly you could argue that Tunnels and a lot of the bugfixes should have been in the original game but still). I wouldn't hesitate in recommending Soaked!, it has a few faults, nothing showstopping, it's a BILLION times faster and more stable than regular RCT3 as well. Mmmmm that came over really positive seriously though, it's a good expansion, I can't imagine you'd be disappointed.

Most other enemies will make it in, Bullet Bill, Goomba's, Koopa Trooper and Paratrooper, Boomerang Bros, Bowser (King Koopa) and even Chain Chomp (not sure how to do the chain yet ) should make it in. I don't think I'll do the individual Koopa Kids though. As for other pieces, blocks that aren't shown on that WIP are the Musical Block, assorted platform blocks, the background bushes etc. I still have to finish making all these pieces then start the long process of getting them all ingame and slotting together nicely...

Soaked is cool! Buy it now!

Do a Chain Chomp! I love Chain Chomp! I think Chomp was in Mario 3, but even if he wasn't he is really cool and you should do him anyway

Just to let you know that I've started working on some Nintendo scenery. I decided my first set should be based on Super Mario Bros. 3 as I felt the chunky NES 8-bit style would make for some interesting theming. Here is a work in progress render from inside Maya, showing the pieces I have modelled so far. There are many more to come and if anyone has any ideas for pieces, be sure to fire them at me ! I haven't decided exactly how some of the pieces are going to work in game, at the moment I think most of the block pieces will be quarter-tiles, which would allow 2 per tile edge allowing you to make a continuous platform/floor. But almost everything about hte set is up in the air, so any ideas would be great Here is a pic of the only model that has made the transition to the game, the Super Mario model. I'll keep this post updated as I add bits and pieces. You could also follow the thread on the Atari RCT3 Exchange forum here

The RCT3 section of www.ataricommunity.com is pretty good!

Mini pies rule!

Happy Birthday USRoadTripper & Amanda!!!!!!

mmmmmmmmmmmmmm cake!

At first I thought it looked like a new version of the "Salt N' Pepper Shaker". But after review it does look cool, but definately upcharge.

I actually thought the whole thing yesterday was a joke. I kept clicking the "Magic Mountain" update and getting the message that that section of the site was down for "at least two hours" or something along those lines. I just thought you guys were making a sly little statement about how Six Flags runs their parks... But hey, the site runs hella fast now.

Nice TR Brian. Glad you guys got on Deja Vu ... We missed it by a week when we were there ...

Why would you start the same topic in 2 different forums? http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=17441

Well, I know she doesn't post ... but happy b-day to my Amanda who turns the big 9 today!!! And happy b-day to USRoadTripper, you share a b-day with a cool kid.

Yeah, just want to echo Ted's sentiments. It really wasn't that hard being as there wasn't anything to delete. And I think the only reason there were so many duplicate posts was because the boards were slower. I think the fact we didn't have anything to do is a tribute to the awesome community here.

We saw "War of the Worlds" today. It was ok. I was expecting much more I think. It seemed to drag in a few places. It had some good action at times, but overall I think it could have been better. I woud give it a 5/10