nev

I'm disappointed, no Big Blue hotel bar panoramas? It had a pretty good capacity too

Right back at you man!

Not really, as soon as Australia gets knocked out everyone goes back to pretending they supported England all along

Me and the cool group made sure it was BALDER at Liseberg last week! Not a bad way to finish up a little coaster trip hey?

I'm sure one of the Queensland folk will be able to answer this better than me, but in the half dozen or so times I've been to MovieWorld this year it's always been up and running... I know it closed briefly after the busy summer period for some minor adjustments but you certainly don't hear about it closing for weeks. Certainly seems to be more reliable than many of the other rockets around. And as a sidenote, after seeing and/or riding Rita, Stealth, Kanonen and SpeedMonster on the UK Trip, I can honestly say our little rocket packs more punch than any of them Cheers Rich

Coaster and hammers are all through Aussie customs.... yay! Wrapped up our trip with a day in London (thanks Bill for the AvenueQ pointer - I laughed till I could laugh no more) and a whirlwind sightseeing trip before flying out on Thursday lunchtime. Got a chance to look at the lovely Heathrow tarmac for a scenic THREE HOURS while they bolted bits of our plane back together, and Clint and I just got off the plane after enduring just over 20hrs of traveling.... so once again to all you whinging yankees going on about your 8hr flights - spare a thought for us down under! Had an absolute ball... best holiday ever thanks to an awesome bunch of people that I won't forget anytime soon.... I have new friends who i'm definitely going to make an effort to see before the next trips and everyone on the bus was great in their own ways. I've never had so much fun on a trip before and I hope this is the start of a great tradition. Will collate my thoughts for a trip report soon... but cheers to everyone, and never forget that the Aussie A$$Holes will be back.... Richard

Easily the Giant Drop @ Dreamworld, the only ride I've been on that gets me genuinely scared every time I do it. To yet again try to give you guys some perspective, we're talking a free feall drop ride that's only 10m shorter than Top Thrill Dragster. It takes almost 90 agonising seconds to get to the top and hang around waiting to drop, the last 2m or so of which is done at such a pace that you don't even feel like you're moving. You can see the ocean about 30km away from top - it's so high as you go up you can't believe that something can go up that high. Add to the fun the fact that the earth-shaking tower of terror (Superman clone from SFMM) roars up the other side of the tower and you have a pretty terrifying experience as the whole structure shakes. Oh, and this is all just before you drop! The actual drop is like something out of a cartoon, where you pretty much yell, and then have time to take another breath, and then yell some more. Australia has some pretty pissweak rides, but this one makes up for a lot of them! Photo here (I hope Richo from RC doesn't mind too much!) Scary stuff...

Valleyfair, Minnesota... I only know cause I saw a similar ground photo on a site the other day! Here's a slightly harder one for you guys... From rcdb.com

When I was 6 my dad put me on a roller coaster telling me it was going to be like a little train. Needless to say it was a rather harrowing experience riding a woodie, so I got scared. I didn't go on any coasters again till I was about 15 or 16, when I was at Wonderland in Sydney, and I plucked up the courage to just get in the queue for the Demon (Vekoma boomerang) with some mates I was there with. When the gates opened, I freaked out and headed for the exit, where upon my friends pointed me out to two ride attendants, who promptly manhandled me into the carriage and closed the harness on me! From there on, the love began... but like any love, the first time hurts (even more than necessary on a Vekoma!)

Funny what you guys are saying about cost... SeaWorld on the Gold Coast in Australia has built its last two dark rides "in house" - where SeaWorld engineers designed and built the attractions themselves. The first ride, Lassiter's Lost Mine, was re-modelled in 1994 and re-opened as the Bermuda Triangle. LLM costed only $AU3mil to build, and Bermuda Triangle, if I remember correctly, was only a few million more. Bermuda Triangle is an excellently themed dark boat ride, featuring two drops inside huge volcanoes, a reversing section through a flooding room much like the subway sequence at USH's Studio Tour, and some rather cool illusions, animatronics and pseudo-launch sections throughout the ride. The ride is great value, lasting around 8 minutes. You can see some photos here - http://www.roller-coaster.com.au/gallery.php?gid=20 Dark Rides are unique in the way that the mechanics behind propelling a boat down a channel of water, along a conveyor boat or along a short rail section doesn't require as much engineering and scientific know how as building a coaster. As is the case with most dark rides I've been on - it seems that there's no limits as to what you can do with fibreglass, UV lighting and a little hill at the end! Cheers Richard

I think adding coaster company names would make the process a lot more complicated in the real world - can you imagine the legality of making Vekoma rides rough by default and other brands, such as B&M, more smooth? If that's not an invite to a slander-based law suit from Vekoma I don't know what is! Maybe a better option would be to have a "ride source" location - for example, when you build a coaster, you could have two options: 1) Build locally - this would be the cheapest and quickest to create, but would be more intense due to a less refined ride quality. 2) Build at best location - this option would be more expensive, but would be more reliable and more enjoyable for peeps to ride on. This way, you're not getting into the whole naming companies thing, the general public might be able to understand what the heck they're buying, and those of us in the know can sit back and laugh quietly, knowing exactly what locally and overseas built means in reality Other things I'd like to see (and some may have already been mentioned) - The ability to visit your park as a guest (this might actually cut back on resources if developers created a separate mode of gameplay (eg: Sandbox / Career / Guest mode. This way, all the ride controls wouldn't need to be accessible. You could visit the park as a guest with a certain amount of money, and have to queue and walk like every other guest. - For it to actually be dark inside enclosed structures (my mine ride only works at night time at the moment!) - Ability to do powered launches at various points on the track, not just from the stations. - Addition of an Intamin drop ride (Giant Drop, Space Probe, etc) - Implementation of the fly through video functionality, so you can create video files of park fly throughs. - More scenery that can be triggered by passing rides. I love the existing stuff, but more would be even better. - Tunnels (goes without saying, and how hard can this be really?) - Ability to run the game in real time mode (would be boring a lot of the time, but would be great if you could build hotels and see everyone go home, as well as the morning rush, etc) That's all I can think of at the moment.... Cheers Richard