California Great America (CGA) Discussion Thread

Cool, thanks for sharing! That turn does look like its going to be pretty big. And hooray for more food-shaped slabs! The Donut looks like that final turn (elephant turn?) before heading up to the brake run.

Club Blood... Is that a CarnEvil tent sitting there?

Thanks for the update! Glad to see the coaster is making a lot of progress. Poor Club Blood it is the Woodstock Express of Haunt mazes, with it being changed every year.

Looking at the bents lying there, the banking looks like it's going to be awesome in the turnaround. Really excited to have a new quality woody in NorCal.

Club Blood... Is that a CarnEvil tent sitting there?

They dragged out the Carnevil 3D glasses booth, which was sitting behind the Pictorium all season. Maybe they're planning a Club Blood-Carnevil crossover maze? Kidding, although that would be kind of awesome.

^

"Welcome to ClubEvil...Allow one of my vampires a moment to indroduce themselves..."

Back to the GCI, the banking on that looks pretty sweet, can almost anticipate the train's speed as it hugs those turns. I'm not sure how high up that turn's going to go, or if it's going to be kept lower as many of the GCI coasters I've been watching lately seem to stay low to keep a higher speed/quick pacing throughout the ride.

Lastly, today is what I like to call "Au13" since it's August 13 This was the initial day I thought Au13 would be officially revealed.

Switching gears here, I'm actually going to CGA this Saturday, though it's not going to help in terms of avoiding crowds. I am instead going to Waterworld Concord Sunday as I have some free tickets I had won that need to be used. But that will all be in another TR. Anyone down to hit up CGA this Sat?

Yay new food shaped pads! I'm down as always, I haven't been to CGA on a Saturday in a long time....

Throwback Tuesday: Found these on youtube flashback to 1993 & 1994

Commercial in 1993, the first year Paramount took over...:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOUy6znPa-s

From 1994, from the VHS tape America's Greatest Roller Coaster Thrills..

Mmmmm...more new GCI wood...*drools*

I'd like to hit up CGA on Saturday, too! It's only been a day since my family and I came back from Austria (jet-lag included), but I am already "bent" on heading over to the park to see the construction and meet a few TPR members! Look for me in my Wodan Timbur Coaster shirt.

Love the old videos. What ever happened to shows showing a full unedited POV? Now they are these awfully edited messes that really don't show off the rides like they should.

^Roller Coasters in the raw fills that void quite well!

Yay new food shaped pads! I'm down as always, I haven't been to CGA on a Saturday in a long time....

 

Throwback Tuesday: Found these on youtube flashback to 1993 & 1994

 

Commercial in 1993, the first year Paramount took over...:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOUy6znPa-s

 

From 1994, from the VHS tape America's Greatest Roller Coaster Thrills..

You know, I actually remember that 1993 'film strip coaster' commercial! Now I'm on the hunt for a 1996-97 era map, when Drop Tower was new. I know the map artwork appeared to be an enhanced version of the maps from the earlier 90s.

And I'm glad for TPR coaster footage as they provide only the best of the best POVs available...often when searching for a POV, I usually tend to favor the TPR POVs as they tend to get the entire ride, shake-free and no "GP" antics (like turning the camera to record their friends who are halfway in the frame and the sky in the other half).

Blue Fire Guy:

I'll be in a TPR shirt (my typical theme park attire) so I should be easy to spot...will probably look exactly like I did a few pages back on my TR

I have the maps from '93, '96, '97, '04-'08 hiding in a drawer somewhere, when I find it I'll scan them, though I did a google search and found some great sites:

Linky's:

http://www.themeparkbrochures.net/mainmaps.htm

PGA 1993 Park Map

http://www.themeparkbrochures.net/maps/1993/pga1993.html

PGA 1996 Park Map

PGA 1997 Park Map

PGA 1998 Park Map

http://www.themeparkbrochures.net/maps/1998/pga1998.html

PGA 2000 Park Map

PGA 2001 Park Map

PGA 2003 Park Map

^ Great finds you have there! I see Joey's favorite ride in the '93 map as well as some Anton goodness up until the '98 map. I wish that Tidal Wave/GL was still here today, but it's still really awesome that TWO of His flats (including one of the last remaining Bayern Kurves) still remain in the park.

^Make that 3: Orbit, Centrifuge, and Berserker.

Since we seem to be in a little "Throwback" theme this week, I'm finally getting around to scanning my (extremely beat up, taped together) 1999 PGA map. The 1999 map is the first of what the CGA maps look like today, style-wise. It is pretty beat up so I did what I could trying to get rid of some of the hard creases. Also, some spots may appear out of focus since my scanner doesn't like scanning documents that have 'dimension' to them.

Welcome to 1999 guys!

And if anyone cares to see how banged up it was (this does not do it justice), here's my almost raw scan...I had to piece it together from 2 scans.

Seeing all the old maps is awesome! I enjoy collecting maps a lot and this makes a map nerd happy!

It is pretty beat up so I did what I could trying to get rid of some of the hard creases. Also, some spots may appear out of focus since my scanner doesn't like scanning documents that have 'dimension' to them.

It actually looks pretty good! I love me some good "Old Hotness".

Here are the scans I got:

2004 PGA FRONT MAP

PGA 2004 MAP

GA 2007 FRONT MAP

GA NEW FOR 2007

CGA 2008 FRONT MAP

CGA NEW FOR 2008

CURRENT 2012 FRONT MAP

Since we're sharing old maps and stuff... Sometimes I'm glad I was an annoying kid. I ordered brochures in 2003 from all of the Paramount Parks (and, interestingly enough, Cedar Point). Here's what I got from PGA:

PKI and PKD had the largest packages because they also included accommodations, though PKI's slightly larger as the map I got was a larger brochure like you'd find at a rest stop.

I was just thumbing through my TPR-stamped envelope that I decided to put to use (storing all of my park maps) and came across a fair-condition 1999 brochure to go along with that map. I scanned the contents on that, hope you enjoy!

And I apologize for the sideways page spread, not sure how else you'd really be able to view it on here.

And the 2003 map...I scanned one of these (cover only) at work a few months ago when I was scanning some customer's photo albums. I couldn't help it though but open the map and look at it for a few minutes.

Was Raging Waters an affiliate with GA or something?

Sorry for it being sideways, you may have to tilt your head but at least you can read the content

I have maps from 2003, 2004, 2008, and 2011, (Thought I had more). I'm rather curious as to what next years map is going to look like though. It should be interesting.

^^ & ^^^, Can one of you scan the park map and give it to Larry? I would really like to see a PGA park map w/ Stealth on it on the Park Index. Thanks.

I have maps from 2003, 2004, 2008, and 2011, (Thought I had more). I'm rather curious as to what next years map is going to look like though. It should be interesting.

I hope they won't make the park map ugly like what happened to Kings Island & Carowinds, I like the current map style.

I actually suggested mine earlier when I shared it. Would be neat to see the other ones (1996/97/98/00/etc) make it on there...though some of them aren't our images...perhaps a TPR member who owns these can scan it and submit?

More nostalgia:

Construction of Drop Zone Stunt Tower (Drop Tower Scream Zone)!

Linky:

http://jbrown.best.vwh.net/dropzone/drop18.gif

^hmmm, cool.

2001

Here's the scanned versions of the pictures I posted yesterday. My scanner wasn't big enough so I had to scan in several pieces and they didn't line up that well...