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World's Biggest Roller Coaster 171

Posted by CmdrTaco from the get-ready-to-hurl dept.
jplan34 writes "Cedar Point made the official announcement today that they are going to build the world's tallest coaster, set to open in 2000 at 310 feet tall with a 300 foot 80 degree 92 mph first hill. " Cedar Point already has my 2 favorite coasters- the Magnum and the Gemini. Both are fab- I guess summers are that time when you want to think about being hyper accelerated and spun after eating excessively greasy food. Mmm. Grease.
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World's Biggest Roller Coaster More

World's Biggest Roller Coaster

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  • Site with diagrams, a movie, etc. (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Check out Coasterhost [coasterhost.com] for some good info on Millenium Force. Also has links to another really cool coaster for next year called Project: Stealth.
  • The mean streak is one evil ride alright...
    big, wooden, fast, and a really really long ride.
    It will beat the crap out of you indeed.
    It also typically has nice short lines so
    you can get right back on!
    I can only imagine it has structural
    problems because of what it is.
  • Maybe, but the weather sucks (unless of course you like gray skies all year round).

  • Heh... (Score:1)

    by Tim ( 686 )
    Yeah...slightly darker or lighter depending on the time of day =)
  • Nope, the Gemini's always been a steel track on a wooden structure -- at least it was in '78/79, when I first rode it...
  • The 80 degrees refers to the incline of the first drop, not to banking. If you are freely accelerating down an 80 degree incline, the force you are experiencing is somewhere between 0g and 1g (assuming we ignore the effects of air resistance, which would ultimately lead you to attain terminal velocity---the track is not long enough for that).

    So the table would be:

    0 degrees (level): 1.00 g
    45 degrees: 0.71 g (~ sqrt(2)/2)
    60 degrees: 0.50 g
    80 degrees: 0.17 g
    90 degrees: 0.00 g

    Basically, the g's correspond to the cosine of the angle. Switch your calculator to degrees, punch in the degree of inclination and hit the COS button. That's the amount of force that you experience.

    The 80 degree drop will feel nearly weightless.
    Also, the force you will experience will be normal to the seat. As you enter the drop, the change in the direction and magnitude of the force you are experiencing will feel like you are being lifted off the track.

    Of course, you will experience some serious g's greater than 1 at the bottom of the drop. That's a matter of gravity, the speed at which you are going and the curvature of the track.

    The sheer length and steep angle of that drop is going to make this one scary rollercoaster.
  • Are you sure you aren't thinking of the kid falling from the Timber Wolf (also a coaster at WoF)?

    The articles in the Star praised the kids remaining in the fallen car for being calm during the rescue...

    Besides, how can screwing with the safety harness make the coaster cars fall off the track?
  • I imagine that the max speed a roller coaster will be allowed to travel will more or less depend on the max speed that people can manage to stay secured on the ride,
    ie. if a person goes flying from their seat when this roller coaster hits a corner at 6 g's, then the roller coaster designers will make the next one only hit 5.9 g's.

    yeah it's dumb, but so what.
  • Dammit, I have never been so proud to live in Ohio. Cedar Point definitely already rocks the block party, oh yes. And this coaster is just more gravy.

    -- adr
  • I gotta take the kids. Too bad he's only five, and short for his age... he can't ride so many things.

    ---
  • They said it is going to be right in the middle of the park.

    --
    Scott Miga
  • The whole reason for the tiered seating is to _not_ block the view of people.

    --
    Scott Miga
  • I don't know the exact height, but the brand new roller coaster @ Six Flags in Darien Lake called "Superman, Ride of steel" is huge. The biggest ride I have _ever_ seen.

    --
    Scott Miga
  • Of course it's a roller coaster. There aren't any loops or anything, just fast speeds and huge drops. It is a 100% roller coaster, and it couldn't be anything else. Are you talking about the Superman @ Darien Lake NY? What is the freefall?

    --
    Scott Miga
  • Woah, woah, I think we are talking about a different ride here. I am talking about "Superman - Ride of Steel" at Six Flags Darien Lake NY.

    As for the not being a roller coaster, it has a track, long train of 15+ cars, many hills, and lots of ups and downs. There are at least 5+ hills. What does the ride do that you are thinking of? You _have_ to be thinking of a different ride because this is a 100% roller coaster.

    Check out the site and click on the Superman ride [sixflags.com]

    --
    Scott Miga
  • Well, the history of Darien Lake goes a long way back to when it was a small little park and there were some rides there. Since it has been bought by SixFlags, and just before that, they started getting more rides and I guess more is on the way. So in the future it should develop into a really big theme park. Now if they can make it so it dosen't take 20 minutes to walk to your car. :)

    --
    Scott Miga
  • Yah, I like Darien Lake even though it is 2 hours away, opposed to 4 1/2 to Cedar Point. Yah I heard about that accident as it was huge news around here(and obvisously where you live). On all the news stations and such. Wasen't there another accident on Superman also? I think I remember hearing something about another one, hrm.

    --
    Scott Miga
  • Well I don't think they are going to be building it already; I think they said sometime in the year 2000-2001+.

    --
    Scott Miga
  • That's ok, I was thinking I might be crazy as I just visited the park and saw it. :) And I was actually going to go to to a concert(offspring and lit), but the wonderful thing called work stopped me going. :)

    --
    Scott Miga
  • According to Darian Lake's site, the hill is about 208 feet, and speeds are about 70mph.

    Personally, I've been on everything at Cedar Point, and Superman is just as good as Magnum. Unfortunately, the rest of Darien Lake is leaving a little to be desired.
  • Unfortunately, a few years ago, Cedar Point put steel tracks in for Gemini, so now it's just a steel coaster with a wooden superstructure.
  • I am so pleased to see all these people defending our wonderful state. We have so much to offer, and there are a lot of clueless people out there.

    I am thinking that our state should have a special "best place for rollercoasters" license plate or something. I am sure it would be a big seller.
  • With respect to clueless people, I think we can generally say that Ohio has clueless people just like any other state, but I like to think that there are proportionally fewer than some other less habitable states...
  • The day a Honda CRX with anything short of a rocket engine can do 0-92 in under 4 seconds is the same day my Pentium spontaneously changes into a Cray. Then again, maybe you meant meters per hour. Are you European?
  • Forgive my ignorance, but, let's see...

    I went to a site that seems to be about drag racing foreign cars.

    You pointed me to a list of race winners.

    They were all foreign cars, or course. Some were CRXs.

    What's your point?
  • i like only roller coaster in wood... there's a little in Montréal called "The Monster"
    --
    http://www.beroute.tzo.com

  • Re: (Score:2)

    by Ether ( 4235 )
    1- The lake freezes. Ice is not easy on structures. See the engineering that went into the bridge connecting the UP and LP in Michigan.

    2- They could take out Disaster Transport (like space mountain, but lamer) and Iron Dragon (a thrilling 45 mph in what appears to be a "yugo-of-the-future-circa 1987" without anyone complaining. Also the wildcat, which is redeemable only for it's sheer ghetto-value, but not enough to stand in the way of progress ;).
    However, It sounds like they're gonna take out the Matterhorn (?), the gondola ride. From the description [center of the island] it sounds most likely that it's gonna be the victim, but then again, I could be wrong.

    It's bad living (relatively) near Cedar Point. It raises your expectations too high.
  • Firebirds, Camaros, and Mustangs are fine until you, well, want to take a turn... or stop.

    Ah, who needs to stop, best to just mash that pedal to the floor and have an automatic shift for you in mindless splendor. And how often do you turn anyway?

    If you want to experience REAL horsepower, get a 60s muscle car. The few surviving members of that era are pathetic oxymorons of performance, not as good as they once were at straight line, just as lousy on a road course.

    Of course if you want to experience extreme G's, you should go race open-wheel cars on a closed road course. Nothing like pulling over a G... sideways...

  • Razzmataz wrote:

    've heard that the Ohio Department Of Agriculture is the governmental body that inspects and certifies rollercoasters as safe.

    Actually, having the Department of Agriculture for a state inspecting rides isn't that terribly weird if you think about it (especially if you think how amusement rides started in a lot of states)...

    In many states, there aren't formal amusement parks and rides primarily are set up during church fish-frys and...state fairs. (Kentucky's state fair--which is supposedly the second largest in the nation--has HUGE midways and Kentucky Kingdom was actually part of the midway during the fair till Kentucky Kingdom got bought out by Six Flags. Also, just as an aside--the one state with a (supposedly) larger state fair happens to be Ohio.) State agriculture departments are usually quite involved in state and county fair inspections anyways.
    A lot of states actually have their Weights and Measures departments (basically state bureaus of standards) under their Department of Agriculture. (It's actually the Weights and Measures guys who inspect the coasters and other rides, btw--basically to make sure they're within safe tolerances.) Weights and Measures departments have historically been associated with agriculture departments anyways; pretty much they determine stuff like fuel standards, standardised loads, etc.

    Considering that most Weights and Measures departments in most states are under the state Department of Agriculture *anyways*, and further considering that most rides in states aren't at amusement parks but rather in state and county fairs and church festivals, it isn't weird that the Department of Agriculture inspects rides at Cedar Point. :)

    (And to think that me going to the fair every year--both to see the crops-n-critters and to get myself disgustingly dizzy on the midway--would ever pay off in a Slashdot post. Maybe there ARE advantages to living in a semi-rural state. :)

  • Yeah, too bad the Iron Dragon is incredibly lame. The idea was kinda neat, but the execution was bad. There weren't any big hills or turns, and what turns there were had the impact actually lessened by being under the track (it made the turns wider). I never got an adrenaline rush out of it, and I was 11 when I rode it. Now the raptor -- that's under-track done RIGHT.

    IMHO, of course. :)
  • Columbus, Ohio, the only great place to live. Lots of jobs, cheap housing, and cheap electronics ;)
  • I'd just like to let everyone know that Cedar Fair also runs Worlds of Fun here in Kansas City, and I was wondering if anyone had heard about the accident on the Orient Express Rollercoaster. I worked for Cedar Fair for 1 year, and They aren't the greatest company IMHO to be running the World's largest Coaster.
  • It did fall off of the track. How that could be caused by any of the kids on it misbehaving? Besides, Like I said above, I worked there and They check those seat harnesses pretty good. And They are hard to get out of until they're unlocked... You have to be a 99 lbs weakling like me to fit through them... :)
  • Ohio is a great place to live. I'm from Mount Vernon, Ohio - small farming community of 15,000 in the middle of nowhere. Only about an hour's drive from Columbus, also a great place to live. And Cedar Point is great - the most roller coasters in the world, the biggest, the fastest, the best - if you haven't been there, book yourself a trip to go see it.

    However, I'm currently living near Boston, MA, on the north shore, where I attend school during the year. The disadvantages of this area include crazy drivers, whacked-out streets (cow-paths), high prices on *everything*, and a silly law that college students are eligible for jury duty, even if they're from out of state. Also, there are no really cool amusement parks of the likes of Cedar Point.

    Advantages are: high-tech jobs abound, tons of historic and cultural stuff to do, BOSTON, commuter rail systems, BOSTON, the ocean & beaches, BOSTON, Newbury Comics, MIT, home of the free software foundation, Seiji Ozawa and the BSO, BOSTON, oh and did I mention that great town called BOSTON?

    Ok.

    But it still doesn't have CEDAR POINT. Plan? Transport CEDAR POINT to Connecticut, strike a deal with the Native American folk and transplant it next to Foxwoods, problem solved!
  • And they've got the Power Tower now which gives a bigger (and, IIRC, faster) drop than the Demon Drop. Unfortunately, a thunderstorm started when I was about to go on the ride, causing the park to close; so I can't give a real evaluation of the ride. But it *looks* pretty damn cool! And yes, the Magnum and Demon Drop rock too :)

    Iron Dragon looks cool but is too tame, the Raptor is a more exciting ride, IMHO.

    Overall, a great park.
  • Darien Lake rocks. One little story about the Superman ride (which I haven't had a chance to go on just yet. Though it's like a half hour drive from my house, so I really ought to go give it a try). There was a minor accident on the ride. Some guy got thrown from the ride and flew a short distance through the air. Superman indeed! What happened was that this 300+ lb. man rode the thing, and when the ride was almost over, and quickly slowing, the combination of his weight and abrupt slowing caused him to fly out of the safety restraints. He's okay, though. I don't remember if this was a manufacturing defect of the coaster, or if the guy's weight exceeded whatever specs the restraints had. But it that was when it first opened, and they've fixed whatever it was.
  • I'm sure whatever they run (probably a proprietary embedded OS, but who knows), there must be redundancy like you wouldn't believe. After all, we wouldn't want a computer crash to create a coaster crash.
  • Most 4's that start to put out REAl horsepower, are tweaked to within a inch of their life. A 2 liter engine with 400hp is nothing more than a very expensive hand grenade.

    The best sports car for the money is a TVR. There is not even a choice about this. The only problem is they're not available in the states.

    And they're better looking than anything that GM, Ford or Dodge made in the 70's. Don't get me started on the cookie-cutter looks of Japanese cars (except the Dastun Fairlady, and the Toyota 2000 GT :)

    www.tvr-eng.co.uk

    Look them up and weep for joy. Then do the math. The Cerebra has four seats and a 0-60 in 3.9 seconds... stock. No blower, no NOS, nothing special.

  • But it'll be all ready for when the new millennium starts in 2001. Assuming they have electricity to run it with, *chuckle*
  • One more semester till I graduate, and then off to Christchurch :-)

    *starts circulating his resume*

    BTW, how hard is it to get a New Zealand drivers licence if I already have a US license?
  • Skydivers usually freefall somewhere between 100 and 120 mph, and it takes them about 1000 feet to reach terminal velocity. These numbers are for horizontally positioned humans with about 25lbs on their backs. So, 92mph in 300ft is really fast acceleration.

  • Why educate when you can just redefine?

    Think about it: we are billing people now for last-minute fixes to Y2K bugs. (I love charging for fixing my bugs. :-) Those people we are billing would be extremely pissed off if the millenium didn't start at the same time as Y2K. I figure: hey, throw 'em a bone! Therefore, the next millenium starts in about 5 months.

    Oh, and maybe once next year gets settled in, then we can explain, "Oh no, the millenium begins in 2001. Now is the time to start budgeting for your millenium rollover mods." Hey, I bet a at least a few will fall for it.

  • I'm from KC -- if you read the articles the kids involved were deliberately disobeying practically
    every single safety regulation (don't stand up,
    make sure your seat bar is down and locked, etc, etc, etc)

    Can't blame the company for stupid customers.
  • Probably not, until someone's head gets whacked off by a pidgeon at 300 mph or something...
  • 9) You know it's cool when they use "newfangled" in the press release.
  • ...that no one can get this whole digits thing right.
    a HUGE stand of book sin bookstores,
    preparing you for the "millennium",
    all a year off. (or 3, but i'm going with our current numbering system).
    and now a misnamed roller coaster.
    won't stop me from riding it, even for a second,
    i just think SOMEONE needs to educate these people.

    i guess you have to figure,
    some of them know,
    but know it wouldn't be accepted by the (m)asses,
    and the money is all that matters.

    *sigh*

  • This brings back harsh memories. I was supposed to work there in the summer of '93 (I live in the UK). Except 2 days before my summer uni exams I fell through a garage roof. Broke my ankle and f***ed up my digestive system and ended up with a 6 month colostomy bag (don't ask). So, I never made it. You bastards - I thought I was over the experience .....
  • I couldn't agree more.

    ... A happy Michigander :-)
  • They're moving the Giant Wheel. Take it from a former CP employee (I still have the issue of BTL that I was on the front cover of to prove it! woo hoo!) there is LOTS of room around the Giant Wheel, particularly if they cut down a few trees.

    Ooops, now I'm going to get flamed by environmentalists...



  • You didn't miss much. I worked there in the summer of '92 and I'll tell you that it was HARD WORK and the management there is totally out to screw you out of the bonus you're supposed to get if you stay till your target date...

    OTOH, I would have to say that other than that, it was a total blast and was the best summer I ever had.... Compared to falling through a garage roof, I'd have to say it was more enjoyable.. Sorry, I didn't mean to say anything mean... :-)



  • While all the other coasters in Magic Mountain are fairly-good. (Nothing insanely awesome.) Viper and Superman: The Escape need mention here. Viper is possibly one of the best metal coasters I've seen. When it was built, it was the loopiest rollercoaster in the world. (Anyone know if it still is?)

    And now for the part that y'all need to hear talkin' about a 300ft, 92mph coaster. While Superman: The Escape isn't exactly the longest ride, it is 415ft tall and does 0-100mph in 7 seconds. (Yay for electromagnetic acceleration!) Did you all hear that? 100mph and 415ft tall. Oh, and you get to experience about 6 or 7 seconds of weightlessness (a.k.a. free-fall) on the way back.

    Yum. I think I'll go chow some fried lard and head over.
    -Robby

  • According to my HP48gx, if I pushed you off a 300 foot cliff, you would be going aproximatly 94.4755 miles per hour when you went splat. Given friction losses, and the 80 vs 90 degree slope, 92 mph is in the ball park. Might be a bit high, but not much.
    ****************************
  • Hmm. . .
    Give us a century or two. Build a "Beanstalk"-type Space elevator structure, Surface to Geosynchronous Orbit, with a balancing mass out beyond GeoSynch. . . And use THAT, in an evacuated tube, as the biggest drop for a roller-coaster in the Solar System. . .say, a 85 degree drop, from 10 miles up. . . .

    For the Kiddie Coaster. . .
  • (speaking as former USAF Aviator)

    The muscle and leg flexes, also known as the "M-1" manuever, start being useful at around 3G's. Much beyond 5G's, anti-acceleration garments, better known as "fast pants", automatically inflate to cut off circulation to the legs and lower abdomen.

    Reclining also helps: the lower the vertical distance between the brain and the heart, the higher G-resistance a given person has. Physical strength also helps: fighter pilots and WSO's are encouraged to pump iron, and encouraged NOT to run: an ectomorphic body shape/type also handles G's better than a tall, thin endomorphic type. .

    Given all that, I wouldn't want to put a coaster out there with more than a sustained 2.5-3G's for any period, and bursts not more than 4.5G's: more and you risk injuring people who just aren't in shape for it. . .
  • I'm forgetting my physics, but is that free fall speed? If you dropped 300 feet, would you reach 92 mph? I ask because the best rollercoasters are the ones that just let you drop and don't force you down at a faster rate. Freefall always gives you that "stomach in your throught" feeling, whereas being rocketed down and incline simply feels like going really fast. I have to admit though, those are impressive numbers.
  • How will I ever live through another trip to Cedar Point? There's the Raptor, possibly the most thrilling rollercoaster ever invented, the Mantis, which nearly made me black out, the Magnum, which is so much fun to ride on a windy day, and of course the (two) greatest wooden rollercoaster(s) ever built, the Gemini.

    Let's not forget how huge the Power Tower seems now, at only *cough* 240 feet tall.

    Do rollercoasters make use of computers for safety/administraion/maintenance? If so, the Millenium Force should be running Linux, or some derivative of it. I can't imagine being on the coaster when a M$ product decides to crash.

    Josh
  • How long until we see this thing modelled in Rollercoaster Tycoon :-)
  • The Steel Phantom at Kennywood in Pittsburgh, PA initially had a speed of ~92 mph when the ride first opened. After complaints of sore necks, the speed was attenuated several miles an hour slower.
  • how about the initial velocity term in the equation? the body is not originally at rest ...

    I think that you're referring to
    d = v(0)t + 1/2 at^2
  • well, the car won't start out at 0 mph, it will be moving forward along the track, while will be translated into downward velocity since the cars are bound to the track
  • The difference between counting the anniversaries of your birth and counting the current year is that birthdays count total years at the end of the completed year (1,2,3 years old) while New Year's Day 2000 will be the beginning of the last year of the second millenium A.D.

    But, who cares? The media has trained the masses to believe that 2000 begins the new millenium, and anyone you try to convince otherwise will look upon you as some sort of crackpot.

  • Info (Score:1)

    by LLatson ( 24205 )
    The link seems to be broken, so to put this
    in perspective: Cedar Point had the tallest and
    fastest roller coaster in the world when the
    Magnum was built ten years ago. It has a vertical
    drop of just over 200 feet. So this adds another
    *100* feet of vertical drop.

    I just can't imagine where they are going to put
    this enormous roller coaster on that small
    island...

    LL
  • That's King's Island outside Cincinnati OH.
  • Since we are on the subjects of rollercoasters, I'd thought I'd point out the true rollercoaster of the world, Kennywood. Located in Pittsburgh, Kennywood boasts _two_ of the top five roller coasters in the world, voted on by the National Roller Coaster Enthusiasts. They have the #1 Roller Coaster in the world, the Thunderbolt, which is a classic wooden rollercoaster unlike any other. They also have the #4 rollercoaster, The Steel Phantom, which held the Guiness records for tallest rollercoaster and fastest rollercoaster.

    Cedar Point may be bigger and have a larger budget, but if you are looking for a true rollercoaster thrill, stop by in Pittsburgh and check out Kennywood.
  • God my sides hurt from laughing at the mental image of some dork dropping a blower into a little sh*tbox Honda CRX. Reminds me of the lard-ass jerk who works in my building with a Mitsu Eclipse that thinks he is Mario F-ing Andretti with his little pip-squeak 4-banger rice-propelled POS.

    Get a Mustang or a Firebird that has some real displacement if you want to feel some acceleration torque (and not have all the girls laugh at you as you peel out of the parking lot at Denny's at 2am!)

    :-p
  • Who said I have a mustang?

    '70 Camaro Z28 (when real men had real cars) :P
    Its real cool that you can quarter that fast, that way you can't hear the hysterical laughter as you leave the line. :P

  • I would think the G forces would be more of a limiting factor? This thing drops 300 feet at an 80 degree angle (I assume this is where the 92mph top speed is reached), how many G's are exerted on the riders when that thing bottoms out?

    I have no real information about what current coasters dish out, but I would guess its in the 2-3 G range, no? I've felt 4.5 G's when in a friend's private plane, I can pretty much guess that most thrill-seeking coaster riders would be satisfied with that G Load (read, not ready for much more :-) ). A fighter pilot can supposedly stand 9G in a sustained turn, but they have to do special breathing and leg muscle flexes to keep from blacking out.

    So, the sensations that thrill a rider are the weightless drop (300 feet has to be one *hell* of a rush, I like the last car the best!), and then the G forces as you bottom out, turn and loop. I would guess that you wouldn't have to build a coaster too much higher than 300 feet before you start getting speeds and G loads that are going to be too much for the average coaster rider to enjoy.

  • >Actually, I'm surprised I haven't been moderated down as flamebait yet...

    That's because all the moderators used up all their points on the bad Kennedy jokes in the Katz thread. =)

  • The Summer of 2001 will also bring us (no kidding, I warn you) "Son of the Beast," as in Son of (say it all together now) the "Biggest, Baddest, Longest, Fastest Roller Coaster in the world."

    Not only is it allegedly the highest hill and steepest downfall ever, it is also the first time a wooden coaster will go upside-down ....

    I usually hit both parks (Cedar Point @ Sandusky, OH, and Kings' Island near Cincinnati, OH) every Summer, but have not yet made it to Cedar Point. AAA Members get tickets to each for only $18.

    Kings' Island's new Coaster this year "Face/Off" (as in the Travolta/Cage film, and NO, I do not understand the tie-in) -- hangs you beneath the track while you stand up (kinda) and goes upside down twice, and then over the entire track backwards again. My wife and I waited in line for nearly two hours for a 48-second ride, and yet it was worth it: you have absolutely no sense of direction (partly because your eye-view is rather limited), and then you stop, hang, then go backwards ....

  • Here's the spec's for Face/Off:

    http://www.pki.com/Rides_Attractions/ActionZone/Ac tionZoneHome.html#FaceOff

  • Yup, this plus Kings Island's new coaster that's being built right now. It's going to be called Son of Beast after the legendary Beast on the other side of the park. Son of Beast will break almost all wooden coaster records (The Beast will still be the longest). Check it out here [pki.com].

    Man, I love having Cedar Point and Kings Island so close. Now, if only I could convince my wife to take a day off to go to Cedar Point.
  • When it first opened, there were no brakes at it went through one of the final loops, so when they finally came into the station at the end, the shock of the sudden stop as it pulled into the station gave a few people whiplash. That is why you now hear a massive screech of the brakes as they go through one of the final loops. It slows it down enough that there is not quite so much deceleration as it pulls into the station.

    For a while there were rumors that on a hot, humid day when the grease on the track would melt and get really slippery (or "slippy" in Pittsburghese), the top speed of the coaster approached 110 mph.

    It's been several years since I've been to Duquesne, or even PA, so I don't remember all of the details, but I'm pretty sure this is all accurate, can anyone confirm?
  • Only if Fabio rides the damn thing.....
  • Well, as one person puts it: If you don't like Columbus weather, wait an hour and it will change. Good or bad, it WILL change.
  • We don't have a Hash Bash, but we do have a Hemp Fest. When I went once, they tried to sell me "cookies" as a fund raiser.... Hmmm.....
  • I know people who would claim that the only good things to come out of Michigan are Henry Ford and Slashdot...
  • Even more off-topic, the oldest coaster at the local park (Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom), the Vampire (which has been having problems lately) was built by the same company (I think... at least they are both Norwegian or something?) and has the same exact layout, only the Vampire is a normal sit-down coaster and Face-Off is an inverted Face-to-Face coaster.
  • Cool... yeah roller coasters.

    I wonder if there will ever be a limit as to how tall a roller coaster will be made, and as to how fast they'll make the drops (or simply, if they'll begin to designate maximum speeds for the rides).
  • > ALl you pansies who think that is exciting.

    Heh.. Who are you kidding? Motorcycles sucks. Come
    Skydiving in NJ on Saturday.. You don't know
    what a rush is..

    (and yes I love roller coasters, just hate trolls:)

    malice95
  • > Can't blame the company for stupid customers.

    And the American Legal System is what? A nightmare I had after 14 Taco's and the too many rides on a rollercoster? (See I'm not off topic!)
  • You forgot to mention that previous to Magnum being the tallest, Gemini was opened as the tallest coaster in the world when it opened in 1978, 11 years previous to Magnum. I'm glad it's only a 3 hour drive there from here in Indiana...
  • If you read the article more carefully you'll note that they're using an elevator CABLE, not an entire elevator :)

    Right now most coasters just hook into a chain which drags you up... but its noisy and jerky.

    Doug
  • When I was in seventh grade I used to draw roller coasters all over the plain dividers between the sections in my notebook. Many of them had extremely tall heights and steep downgrades (for some reason, I drew them as wooden coasters, something that wouldn't work) - I always imagined the riders heads popping off (and drew them that way!) as they went down the hill...

    One of the last ones I drew that year had the track way up above the clouds, the riders all wearing oxygen masks (like jet pilots), and the last car on the train had a rocket engine firing...

    Crazy - damn near seems the way things are headed...
  • Fuck that - I wanna see it modelled in Disney's Coaster! The data file will have to be tweaked by hand, however...
  • They went with this probably because people are chicken - the clackety-clack of the chain, the slight jerking back and forth, the slow lift...

    They want to get you up there and down before you even know what happenned. I think the lift portion is half the fun - though I can see problems:

    1. People screaming "Let me off!!!" as the ride near the top...
    2. Rollercoaster junkies like me falling asleep due to long lift times...
    3. Lines that take a year to get through because of the wait for the lift...

    So I guess this whole thing with the cable system isn't too bad.

    As far as the jumps in height being small between new coasters - I wish they were larger - I would happily go on a 600 foot tall coaster right now...
  • I don't really consider this a roller coaster - not that it isn't fun (though I don't know - haven't been on it yet) - but to me, it just seems like a tall version of FreeFall...
  • Why the hell are they doing the loop that way - it looks like a metal loop in a wood structure!

    I would be more impressed if they built the loop out of wood - making a structure around it similar to the latticework that makes up the hills, etc (perhaps even incorporating the loop under a hill)...

    Would this work? Or am I just spitting in the wind? IANAE...
  • No, I am speaking of the one at Magic Mountain - FreeFall used to be something a Magic Mountain - except they lifted you up, elavator style, to the top of a tower (it was like 150 feet or something), then dropped you down the rails, which curved down and you slid on you back...

    Anyhow, I don't consider Superman to be a rollercoaster, simply because it it doesn't have the historical requirements of a coaster - track, long train, curves, hills, ups and downs (ok, maybe ups and downs, but I mean hills, not a one time thingie).

    Just because it rides on rails and was made by a coaster company does not make it a coaster - just a ride that uses coaster technology. That isn't to say it isn't fun, or that I wouldn't ride it - just that I don't believe it is a coaster in the true sense of the word...
  • Something right now is wrong with the site - couldn't get in, but no matter...

    I went back and reread the original post, and I made the mistake of thinking the Superman ride being talked about was the one at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, CA (north of LA). After rereading the post - I relized that I was completely off base here. I apologize.

    Regarding why I went on and on, though - Superman @ Six Flags Magic Mountain is like this long track that goes out of the station and then shoots straight up 400 ft or so. Then the riders plunge back down backwards - experiencing something like 5-6 seconds of free fall - then back to the station. The thing gets up to a very high speed (100 mph?) in short time using a magnetic linear motor system.

    I haven't been on it yet - haven't had time to go there...
  • People in the U.P. never counted anyhow... Should have given them to Wisconsin long ago.
  • Holy crap that looks awsome. I'm going there for vacation in about a week, I wish I could go forward in time and do this next year : ) It'll be the best thing since sliced bread!
  • That's the problem, some people think Superman is a roller coaster, some think it's some other type of thrill ride. I'm more inclined to go with the "not a coaster" since it has no real lift hill, no real drop, just go up and go down. And of course the PR guys aren't going to count it as a coaster. I'll be riding the Viper in about 4 days, and I am really looking forward to SFMM.

  • If that roller-coaster has a remote administration software installed (a.k.a NetBus), it will be fun!
  • I'll second that. I was at Cedar Point a few weeks ago. The Raptor was by far my favorite ride. And the lineups weren't so bad, either. Took only about a half hour or so to get on! Much better than the 1.5 - 2 hour lineups up here at Canada's Wonderland.
  • And Kennywood's cheaper. Although they are up to (I think) $21.95 for ride all day on weekends, it's still only $17.95 weekdays. Of course, I still think that *paying* to get into an amusement park is weird. I grew up five minutes from Kennywood; my dad works there and I worked there for two years (in Lost Kennywood) so I've never paid to get in.
    As I pointed out earlier, I think Kennywood is much nicer than Cedar Point. I've not been to both parks with anyone who disagrees, either. Of course, I'm probably partial -- not only did I grow up there, I'm getting married there next fall. (No, not on a ride...)
    If you can get it, check out Kennywood Memories (a PBS show) or Great Old Amusement Parks (which I haven't seen yet but supposedly features Kennywood as well as Cedar Point and others). I think GAOP is on PBS this Sunday at 5am ;)
  • Thank you, paled. I'm sorry, but Kennywood kicks Cedar Point's butt any day. I'm half scared to go on the rides at Cedar Point -- the grounds aren't nearly as well maintained and the rides are sometimes in poor shape at least by sight. Example - whatever that roller coaster is that's inside a building and works like a water slide. Looks like they just got tired of keeping it up so they removed half of the pretense of the stupid thing and gave it 1/4 of the staff. Nothing like walking through what looks like an abandoned buliding but is obviously supposed to tell a story, boarding your train, getting off at the other end and hearing "Welcome to Alaska".
    I'm sure there's some REASON they say you're in Alaska, but it's not part of the ride anymore.
  • Actually, I'm surprised I haven't been moderated down as flamebait yet...

    And MSU *does* suck; the only reason to go there is if you enjoy getting in drunken riots and having tear gas shot at you. (lets see if I can get two posts in a row moderated down as flamebait) I know people from MSU who consider bruises from tear gas canisters to be status symbols...

    OSU is a pretty decent school, but the U of M (where I go) is in-state tuition and the hockey games are more fun to watch. (okay, not the real reasons for my choice) Plus, OSU doesn't have such wonders as the Hash Bash and the Naked Mile.
  • I should hope that (though I'm probably wrong) any rollercoaster would be built in such a way that, even if whatever was controlling it crashed, it wouldn't fly off the tracks....Of course, coming back to the station would be rough if the brakes didn't fire....

  • Cedar Point (Score:3)

    by qmrf ( 52837 ) on Friday July 23, 1999 @09:21AM (#1787271) Homepage
    Ah, one of the best reasons to live in Michigan...(yeah, I know it's not in Michigan, but who wants to live in Ohio, anyways?)
  • Cedar Point, by the way, is the best friggin' roller coaster park in the world. Just get up and GO. Well, without further ado...

    1) The Magnum is the best roller coaster ever made. PERIOD.

    2) Why sit in the comfort of your own homes when you can get up and wait in line for hours on end?

    3) It's in Ohio. I mean, how cool is that?!?!?!?! No explanation necessary, I should think.

    4) The music the new rides play on speakers while you're waiting on line really sucks^H^H^H^H^H rocks.

    5) There's NOTHING like puking upside down.

    6) ...and catching it on the way down!

    7) RimRod's been there.

    8) It's a mass gathering of white trash from around the country.

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