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Six Flags New England (SFNE) Discussion Thread


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Now, with these changes, I think they could really work well if some careful thought was given in putting them together as a cohesive whole.

 

I mean, on X2 they just put a bunch of 'edgy' things in together (Fire, rock music, black and red paint etc) and this was probably good enough because X2 doesn't really have a specific theme to uphold.

 

But I don't think such a random approach would be as good on a ride based around a Licensed character. Clearly it would be disappointing if they just chose some random famous rock song, and put the fire effects in with no real logic in placement.

I also think that just solely playing the regular superman theme on the ride would be a bit of a cheap effort.

 

Personally, I'd like it if they thought of some sort of story, which would be communicated to riders in a re themed queue house. I guess the obvious (and stolen) answer is some disaster, or some sort of evil act by Lex Luthor, which Superman is involved in saving guests from, . The fire and fog effects could then be worked in to represent/be a by-product of this disaster (Rather than just having fire for the sake of fire)

 

Finally, the onboard audio would be a orchestral piece, composed to match the movements of the ride, while also helping to convey the story

 

I mean on California Screamin the soundtrack goes through very distinct changes that perfectly match what is going on (The 'setting off' music as you leave the station, frantic music during the high speed parts, anticipation music on the lift hill, 'finale' music as you pull back into the station) and it does all this with a custom piece of music rather than the HRP/hollywood dream/X2 approach of using licensed music.

 

A similar approach would be taken with SROS...eg the parts of the ride with fire effects going off would have very fearsome and perilous type music to convey the feeling of being caught in a disaster,

The famous Superman theme could be used at the moment when superman rescues you,

music at the end of the ride would convey a feeling that you had made it out alive (I guess like the music at the end of IOAs Spiderman)

 

I guess it would very much depend on what the story was.

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I would agree with this direction that SF is taking. Take for example, Space Mountain. Strip away all that theme, and your'e left with a decent, but not spectacular coaster. But, with all the theme, they have a few coasters that are crowd draws that last for decades. SF, in many ways, have coasters that are amazing frames to build stories/themes around. So, if they pursue the Disney model, theme out 3 to 4 coasters per park, they would be in pretty good shape for the future.

 

I also agree that a sense of story is important to the theme overlays that they are planning. Disney's themed coasters usually don't tell a literal story, with definitive acts/chapters, but usually the theme communicates a time/place. With the a character like Superman, however they can do a story arc in the queque line (from baby in Smallville to Superman in Metropolis) with lower cost props. They should also get Warner in on the act as part sponsor of the attraction, as it will help promote the Superman franchise as they move forward with their film projects.

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If SF does theming anywhere near what Gav is describing and the coaster's ride is as good as it was in 2005, then I'll be happy.

 

I don't think it's so strange that I'm nervous about any changes to one of my favorite roller coasters. Wouldn't there be some initial outrage or at least concern if there were enhancements made to the woodie legends out there. If this is the equivalent of a wooden coaster getting retracked then I'll calm down, but steel coasters don't have a standard rehab program that I know of. Hence the concern...

 

Also, if there's a consensus that most believe that the new trains won't hurt the ride then I'll try to be positive. My initial reaction was that they're tweaking with a near perfect ride. Imagine it was your favorite ride. What if they were going to put some new prototype trains on the Beast, Voyage, or Thunderhead (or Raven for those woodie fans I don't get)? Wouldn't you be concerned?

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IMO onboard audio on a coaster is kind of a gimmick...seriously, on California Screamin' and RNRC the roar of the wind is so loud you can't really hear the music.

 

Even though I haven't ridden this coaster, I can see why OTSRs in the new trains would really murder it. I read in one of ACE's magazines that one of the reasons Maverick has OTSRs (besides the presence of inversions), is to bring the ride to a wider range of audiences based on guest size.

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IMO onboard audio on a coaster is kind of a gimmick...seriously, on California Screamin' and RNRC the roar of the wind is so loud you can't really hear the music.

 

Really? I can remember the music for both rides quite clearly (And particularly with rides like CA Screamin' and Space Mountain I was blown away at how well they had worked it in)

Are you sure you haven't damaged your hearing at some point or anything?

I mean its not as if they would have speakers, and then not have them loud enough to overcome the ambient noise (wind, wheels etc)

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yeah, Im gonna have to say this is a stupid move!

 

the trains are going to be weighed down, which will increase stress on the train, which will make the ride SUCK, major suckage ahead! They are probably going to play dumb songs. It'd be great to hook up your iPod and play your own songs though, but that won't happen.

 

honestly why are they going to do this to something that is already good the way it is?

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I think this is great. I rode SROS for the first time this summer, and wasn't very impressed. The ride really didn't have as much airtime as expected, and the whole thing seemed slow. I thought rides like El Toro, Storm Runner and Nitro was far bether. Hopefully new trains may make it the coaster everyone raves about As it is now it is barely a top ten ride for me!

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Being a ride attendant at SFNE (hence the name "VinTheAttendant") I thought this would be a good idea for Superman. But I do have to agree that Mind Eraser (my ride) needs a bit more attention. After hearing about Great N'or Eastern getting new trains, I asked a higher up if they knew ME would get them too. Unfortunately, he said no. Nonetheless, it's almost like SROS is getting an award for being so awesome. Can't wait until next season.

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yeah, Im gonna have to say this is a stupid move!

 

the trains are going to be weighed down, which will increase stress on the train, which will make the ride SUCK, major suckage ahead!

So you don't think the engineers will take the added weight of audio equipment into consideration when designing the new trains?

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yeah, Im gonna have to say this is a stupid move!

 

the trains are going to be weighed down, which will increase stress on the train, which will make the ride SUCK, major suckage ahead!

So you don't think the engineers will take the added weight of audio equipment into consideration when designing the new trains?

 

no Im saying the ride already feels slow, so the added weight is gonna slow it down more. Besides those trains are already kinda "bare-bones"..... see where Im getting at? we don't want a "new" Son of Beast issues with an Intamin do we?

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I am sure that they will find a way to balance it all out. If it was really going to add so much weight to the train that problems with them or the track would occur due to stress, they probably wouldn't even think about doing it. Besides, they took the extreamly heavy X trains, and made them lighter, and they even added the audio equipment. Granted there was a lot of room for improvement on the weight of the X trains, I would assume they have been figuring out a way to make the added weight have as little an impact as possible.

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Not really too excited about this...

 

Looking back at the X2 transformation I have to say i was disappointed. I'll admit that no I have not seen the ride in person, but from the pics, what what was really gained in this transformation? Certainly X had a whole slue of mechanical issues, but I don't think that's an issue with Superman so I'll skip over that. But as for themeing, what did X2 really gain? The tunnels and lighting seemed to have been jettisoned, one cool paint scheme was exchanged for another one that wasn't really any better, on-board audio was added (which I don't think adds anything at all and is never really noticeable on rides so I'm discounting it), some edgy signs were put up, and a fire effect was assembled. And the fire is awesome, but even that effect looks somewhat cheap and not disguised at all. So in essence, as someone said earlier, they put up a more edgy atmosphere around X and called it a day. While I think that worked for X because of its lack of theme, Superman, having a theme, will require a bit more to be noticeable / impressive.

 

Don't get me wrong. I love it that SF is investing money in older rides, especially coasters, and am not complaining. I'm just not getting hopped up about it, because frankly, I don't think it will end up being all that good.

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Look at it this way. No one in marketing for any park anywhere is a coaster enthusiast. I'm sure sure theme will be looked at, but it's not marketing's job to theme rides. That's up to the GM. Marketing is only focused on getting people to ride it. So when corporate looked at X's line going from "the longest line in the park because the rides capacity sucked", to "The longest line in the park because they're cool new effects and new sleeker trains", of course they are going to try to repeat it. According to ridership and boosted park attendence, it was a success. Will guests care that the Superman theme get trampled? They will about as much as Tatsu took over the garden in Samuri Summit, or Silver Bullet took over the ghost town church or DCA took over closer parking.

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I think a reason Six Flags is not adding these changes to Mind Eraser is that the general public will probably think that it is the same horrible ride with fog and fire effects. Six Flags would have a hard time trying to explain that the ride has been modified to run smoother if they did any track work or added new trains. Superman: Ride of Steel is a popular ride where the general public will notice/care about the changes made. I'm sure that Six Flags would work on Mind Eraser if they knew it would boost its popularity, but they probably figured that it wasn't worth it. Who knows, maybe they'll buy new trains for Mind Eraser as next year, and hope people give it a chance.

 

Now, I've never been to Six Flags New England, so I don't know how well Mind Eraser Runs(sounds bad), or the crowds it gets. I'm just going by experiences at other parks.

 

They never had a problem with it when they upgraded the Premiere LIM coasters(JJ/Poltergiest etc.) with lap bars 7 years ago now did they? so the same can be said for this modification as well.

 

So what if SFNE goes two seasons without a major new ride? I know of a certain MD. park that has to wait a good FIVE years between new ride installations.

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Hey everyone!

I just registered but have followed these forums for a long time now.

 

I’ve been following SFNE for a long time now and I’m pretty sure that this Superman project was a direct result of the trouble that the park is having with local town officials. I’ll get into the details about the issues facing the park in just a minute because I’d like to share with you all what I know first.

 

For seasonal parks August usually marks the very beginning of “construction” season as site markers and things of that nature usually begin to show up. So in late August I began to notice something peculiar going on alongside Superman on the access road that runs adjacent to the ride. A small crew of workers wearing hard harts was gathered alongside Superman with what looked like blueprints spread out on the hood of a truck. The crew spent a lot of time just looking and pointing at different things. I assumed it was for a new attraction until this announcement. Right now there is very little to indicate the plans for this transformation except for two white markings that have been recently made. One is the letter “X” with a square box around it that has been marked just alongside the turn around on the access road and the other is what seems like some numbers painted alongside the brake run. Unfortunately this is all that is visible right now but hopefully we will be able to find out a little bit more over the coming weeks.

 

Personally I don’t think this transformation is necessarily a bad thing because Superman Ride of Steel has been showing its age as of late. If you remember last season the lift broke and caused the ride to close for the majority of the last three months of the season. The park did replace all of the gearing as well as the chain for this season and Superman is running fantastic as a result. The track itself has caused the ride to become a little shaky in some areas but paint and hopefully new trains will help this.

 

Six Flags New England management is not blind to what the enthusiast world thinks of Superman so I highly doubt shoulder restraints are in the works for next season. Management is very proud that Superman has won 5 Golden Tickets and they know that shoulder restraints would kill it. Honestly I think that all they are doing is replacing the seats and lap bars with a newer design and installing sound. New trains form Intamin would be a stretch considering they are currently involved in a lawsuit with another SF park.

 

As to why this all happened I’m pretty confident that it all has to do with local officials not willing to cut SFNE any slack. For those of you who don’t know the park is currently fighting for a new law which would permit them to build attractions up to 200ft without s special permit. In the past, Six Flags would begin construction at their own risk while they waited for their special permit to be approved for new attractions. After what happened with The Dark Knight this season the park has stated they will not attempt to build any new attractions at their own risk and have been urging the town to pass this proposed law. The town of Agawam though is slow to act and has pushed the issue back on several occasions now and I’m sure the delays have resulted in a major coaster attraction to be put on hold indefinitely.

If I find out anything new I’ll be sure to let everyone know.

 

Thanks

 

-Jim

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IMO onboard audio on a coaster is kind of a gimmick...seriously, on California Screamin' and RNRC the roar of the wind is so loud you can't really hear the music.

 

Really? I can remember the music for both rides quite clearly (And particularly with rides like CA Screamin' and Space Mountain I was blown away at how well they had worked it in)

Are you sure you haven't damaged your hearing at some point or anything?

I mean its not as if they would have speakers, and then not have them loud enough to overcome the ambient noise (wind, wheels etc)

 

No I haven't damaged my hearing, as far as I know. I run my iPod a lot, and I've had to listen to many loud people at school, but I passed the hearing test the last time I took it.

 

I really like the music on Space Mountain and California Screamin' too, and I could follow it on Space Mountain pretty well, but on California Screamin I just remember the music they play while you're waiting on the launch track, the thumping bass on the lift hill, and some ambient rock at the midcourse brake sections, but I wasn't even able to make out the "Daa daaaa daaaa da da da da daa DAAAA" until I listened to the soundtrack on headphones.

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Well I got some information today that I'm sure everyone here will be happy to hear.

 

Superman will be receiving new trains with a lap bar design similar to that of El Toro at SF Great Adventure. The trains were ordered way back in the spring and will include the onboard sound.

 

The ride is indeed being painted and crews have already begun the process of cleaning the track with heavy duty chemicals to remove the grime and grease.

 

Finally the 3+ minute ride length indicated in the press release includes loading and unload time, the track itself will not be altered in any way.

 

Here is a link to some photos...

 

 

 

 

-Jimhttp://sfneonline.com/superman.html

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Superman will be receiving new trains with a lap bar design similar to that of El Toro at SF Great Adventure. The trains were ordered way back in the spring and will include the onboard sound.

 

When I rode it this summer I really got the feeling that it needed new trains, because it was running awfully slow for being a world-class coaster. Like my friend said on the previous page, it was barely a top ten coaster. Hopefully they wont staple the riders so bad with the new restraints, because the ride-ops on Superman were doing their best to kill the fun this summer. I cant remember experiencing any bad stapling on El Toro.

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  • 1 month later...

I don't know whether it deserves it's own thread or not, but it looks like SFNE is pulling a "nantimi" and starting a viral marketing campaign to promote SRoS^2.

 

Representatives from "Clawshun" industries, as well as protesters objecting to the changes, were at SFNE this past weekend handing out literature. Supposedly, "Clawshun" is responsible for the changes to S:RoS.

There are youtube videos of this here and here.

 

Clawshun has a website at http://www.clawshunindustries.com/

 

That website links to both http://www.metropolisstockexchange.com/ and the phone number (877) 895-3755

 

Looks like things will start up tomorrow when the Metropolis stock exchange opens.

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The Metropolis Stock Exchange is now open, and you can register for a free share of Clawshun stock at http://www.metropolisstockexchange.com/

 

There are only a limited quantity available according to the graph at http://www.clawshunindustries.com

 

I don't know how this will play into the game, but it's at least a way to get on their email list.

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