Roller Coaster Enthusiast thread

[Thundershock 310]

i love roller coasters! even though i don't really go on the ones that go upside down or in a loop.I know,im a wimp,i get scared easily. :/

Edited February 6, 2013 by golden felix

[HeartOfSilver 41]

Best wooden coaster has to be El Toro at Six Flags Great Adventure! My boyfriend worked there this past summer and he got us in for free on his day off. But I heard nothing but awesome things about El Toro and it didn't disappoint! You get MASSIVE airtime in the back of the train and it goes so freaking fast that you don't know what's going on! It's one of those coasters you need to ride in your lifetime. 

 

Unfortunately, beyond some decent coasters (Nitro, Bizarro and Skull Mountain), there's not much in the park. It's very bare and basic and lacks good flat rides, so it's not worth going to frequently if you don't have a way to get in for free.

Man i loved Roller Coaster Tycoon 1+2 but just couldnt get on board with #3. It just seemed like a completely different game. I built som many great coasters through those.

 

Biggest issues with coasters is that too many parks make them just too intense these days, either i won't want to ride them or they may end up hurting some one eventually. I still think the best ideas are trying to get them partially underground or coming perilously close. The Disneyland coasters are pretty great even if a little tame (ok not the Ca Adventure ones which was spot on)

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08VwtYdoBhM

 

This does look pretty awesome and certainly thinks outside of the box.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=US3Px2sePWk

Expedition Everest is an awesome coaster! So well thought out and creative. I got to ride it a month after it opened and it's one of Disney's best rides in Florida.

[Freewave 1,145]

You got to ride El Toro? That sounds like a fantastic coaster! Luckily there's a lot of shows now highlightlighting coasters on the Discovery or Travel channel and i get to hear about some of the amazing new and classic ones around the states.

 

All we have in Denver these days is Elitches Six Flags which is a shell of it's former self. The original park was so much fun (closed in 94) but once they moved it downtown it's been cramped, expensive, and missing any truly great rides. The remodeled Mister Twister is weak compared to it's awesome original design when it used to be the #3 coaster in the 80's.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lh4Iyh38t_w

 

Sadly our weather keeps any parks from being open more than through mostly just the summer so thats limits what we gets. We do have decent water parks though (Water World and Elitches has one too).

[Sonata18 105]

I didn't see this thread until today!!!  I used to be really into the coaster enthusiast world, but it's kind of lost my interest lately.  A lot of the other enthusiasts in my area are just plain annoying.  I worked at a park for 6 years and loved it, then started counting my coaster credits and going on trips all over the country.  I was an admin on a couple fansites for a while too.   It was fun... but now I'm lazy and power walking around parks in 100 degree weather just isn't as fun, lol.  My count has been at 237 for about a year.  I'll make it to more coasters eventually, but for now my vacations will focus on relaxing on the beach  

[MontagnaMagica 307]

@@Freewave,

I've been to Elitch Gardens, and I actually went there a lot in my childhood when I lived in Colorado. I miss the place, because even though it's very cramped, it's managed to keep some beauty and charm to it somehow. I like to call it clone land, because almost all their coasters are cloned models. Boomerang is my favorite coaster there, and I care not what the "coaster geeks" have to say about that! Vekoma Boomerangs rock!

@@Sonata18,

 

That's really cool! I've been an enthusiast for almost my entire life, but my count is just a measly 55. Which sites were you an admin on? I may have already interacted with you before; having been all around the coaster world of the internet!

[Sonata18 105]

@MontagnaMagica

 

I'll send you a PM.    I live right in the middle of the east coast, so I've taken road trips to pretty much every park from Maine to Florida, then out a little west to the Ohio, Tennessee, and West VA parks.  I've been out to California and Vegas a couple times too.  

 

My favorite coasters are the simple old wooden ones.  Jack Rabbit at Kennywood, Comet at Hersheypark, Ghoster Coaster at King's Dominion.  Nothing like a smooth woodie with airtime.  Massive crazy tall wooden coasters typically don't turn out as well, IMO.  I've ridden Mean Streak at Cedar Point and Son of Beast at King's Island.  OMFG the pain.  Not good, lol.  El Toro at Six Flags Great Adventure is the exception to that rule, though.

Probably the coolest park I've ever been to was an abandoned one in Pennsylvania.  It used to be Williams Grove, but it was shut down and nature has taken over the coaster.   I took so many pictures... it was crazy! 

 

Edited February 3, 2013 by Sonata18

[Freewave 1,145]

@@Freewave,

 

I've been to Elitch Gardens, and I actually went there a lot in my childhood when I lived in Colorado. I miss the place, because even though it's very cramped, it's managed to keep some beauty and charm to it somehow. I like to call it clone land, because almost all their coasters are cloned models. Boomerang is my favorite coaster there, and I care not what the "coaster geeks" have to say about that! Vekoma Boomerangs rock!

 

Boomerang is my favorite coaster there too! I mean it's your basic there and back coaster but it's got great loops, great suspense, smooth ride, and packs it all in a short ride. If you don't mind it not being a complete circuit it's still a lot of fun.

 

[MontagnaMagica 307]

Speaking of Boomerangs, at Magic Mountain, where I frequently visit, they used to have a "Giant Inverted Boomerang". Basically, the manufacturer Vekoma took their "Boomerang" and super-sized it. Déjà Vu was the name. It was simply amazing; especially hanging vertically on the towers at nearly 200 feet, and the unexpected and massive drops!

I was (and still am) bitter about them moving it to Six Flags New England! It's called "Goliath" now. Edited February 3, 2013 by MontagnaMagica

[Sam 30]

if you have RCT 3 Installed with Both expansion Packs, Download my Custom made (sandBox) park here.

 

from Straight flatland to a massive unfinished park.  spent about 3 months on this and its still not finished.

 

 

warrning : depending on system hardware and graphic setting this may lag. 3000+ peeps in park..

 

place files in x:\users\(username)\Documents\RCT3\Parks (x being drive letter)

 

Open RCT3 > sandbox > load > Twisted

You just reminded me I still have RCT3 + all expansion packs on steam.

 

I used to play it on an old PC, but when the park go so big it started to run terrible. It should run a lot nicer on my new desktop. I'll check out your park once it's installed.

 

EDIT: Seems RCT3 was already installed XD. Your park looks awesome, although I'm not sure I'd want to ride any of the rollercoasters though. They seem just a little too intense for me

Edited February 3, 2013 by Sam

[MadDoggyca 710]

You just reminded me I still have RCT3 + all expansion packs on steam.

 

I used to play it on an old PC, but when the park go so big it started to run terrible. It should run a lot nicer on my new desktop. I'll check out your park once it's installed.

 

EDIT: Seems RCT3 was already installed XD. Your park looks awesome, although I'm not sure I'd want to ride any of the rollercoasters though. They seem just a little too intense for me

If u found the underground coast it was a designer joke, IN RC3 they removed the option to build under ground but a quick edit in the .cfg file you can re-enable it. so I said why not use under the ground for a massive coaster that makes no senses at all. also I wanted to see if there was a gravity vs coaster  max speed limit

 

its been about 6+ months since I last worked on it.. I did one to finish it one day.

Edited February 4, 2013 by MadDoggyca

[Sam 30]

If u found the underground coast it was a designer joke, IN RC3 they removed the option to build under ground but a quick edit in the .cfg file you can re-enable it. so I said why not use under the ground for a massive coaster that makes no senses at all. also I wanted to see if there was a gravity vs coaster  max speed limit

 

its been about 6+ months since I last worked on it.. I did one to finish it one day.

Didn't notice that coaster unti you mentioned XD, but wow..... Also I never knew about the .cfg edit. I thought it was always possible to build underground.

 

I'm really tempted to start working on a park again now though. A few years ago I started working on making a copy of the Alton Towers theme park. I got about 4 or 5 rollercoasters fairly accurately made including custom scenery, but had to give up when my PC couldn't handle it anymore. I might try again someday to see how much further I can get.

 

The reason for Alton Towers is because there's a lack of good theme parks here in the UK, and that's the only one I know well. Someday I really want to travel to America to try some of the bigger rides, although being a student doesn't make that easy.

[MadDoggyca 710]

Didn't notice that coaster unti you mentioned XD, but wow..... Also I never knew about the .cfg edit. I thought it was always possible to build underground.

 

I'm really tempted to start working on a park again now though. A few years ago I started working on making a copy of the Alton Towers theme park. I got about 4 or 5 rollercoasters fairly accurately made including custom scenery, but had to give up when my PC couldn't handle it anymore. I might try again someday to see how much further I can get.

 

The reason for Alton Towers is because there's a lack of good theme parks here in the UK, and that's the only one I know well. Someday I really want to travel to America to try some of the bigger rides, although being a student doesn't make that easy.

if you want, you can tell me what native screen resolution your run at and I can build you a cfg file for your pc, and tell you were to place it

[Scootalove 10,689]

The Rollercoaster Tycoon games were the bomb, I always wanted to create an amusement park on that game. Always playing the Six Flags Rollercoaster Tycoon just to dump customers that hate the park, into the pond. Ahh, memories.

[Dusty Soul 2,611]

Jeez your gone for 3 months and your thread is bumped XD.  

 

The Rollercoaster Tycoon games were the bomb, I always wanted to create an amusement park on that game. Always playing the Six Flags Rollercoaster Tycoon just to dump customers that hate the park, into the pond. Ahh, memories.

The RCT games were amazing.  Especially the second one.  The speeds were actually realistic compared to others.  

[An Old Head 4,816]

How have I only just discovered this thread? I absolutely LOVE roller coasters. I think they're just such a brilliant thing to have. Finances bind me to European coasters, but the thrill you get from some rides...

 

Dragon Khan, in Spain's Port Aventura theme park, is sensational. The smoothness and magnitude of the track, the absolutely thrilling inversions, and the height & fright aura. I'll never forget my ride on Dragon Khan. Followed closely by Alton Towers' Oblivion, another enormous thrill.

 

I'm also super surprised - and very glad - that there's still a relatively large amount of enthusiasm left for RCT, a game that I thought must have been under a foot of dust by now. I've only recently installed it, but I remember now the reason I spent hours on it as a child, and ended up building roller-coasters out of my K'Nex set Wonderful game. I'm in the process of building a fully-themed sandbox park, I've a storm runner coaster called Soarin' to tribute the series actually.

 

I'm definitely putting this thread on my followed content.

Edited March 18, 2013 by Flipturn ツ

[MadDoggyca 710]

ok so here is the RCT 3 option.txt file.

 

any one with RCT3 with or with out the expansion packs can use this option.cfg

 

How to use  and Edit file to match your system Resolution before the 12xx settings

 

Windows 7 / 8 / vista
copy options.txt to C:\Users\(user name)\AppData\Roaming\Atari\RCT3

Right click, Open with , Word Pad

 

very top line is the Screen Resolution. Ajust according to you system's native resolution, Save (do not edit any thing else)

open game, go to options and ajust video setting according but do not touch the screen size (it should show up black)

 

 

EDITED

btw you made me want to reload my park up, I spent 5 hours on it again.  Added a lot more , Tress, benches, trash cans, bathrooms, workers of all type and a hand full of more rides..

 

btw if u haven't tried it and if the game lags to much with my park. make peeps invisible defiantly speeds it up

another nifty  thing to check out with my park, Set it to night, open up the fireworks editor and play the 2 fireworks shows I did by hand, (hint) each fireworks show is near water fall(s) for the  water reflection effect, Im assuming you have it turned on in the video options

 

options.txt

Edited February 4, 2013 by MadDoggyca

[Sam 30]

ok so here is the RCT 3 option.txt file.

 

any one with RCT3 with or with out the expansion packs can use this option.cfg

 

How to use  and Edit file to match your system Resolution before the 12xx settings

 

Windows 7 / 8 / vista

copy options.txt to C:\Users\(user name)\AppData\Roaming\Atari\RCT3

Right click, Open with , Word Pad

 

very top line is the Screen Resolution. Ajust according to you system's native resolution, Save (do not edit any thing else)

 

open game, go to options and ajust video setting according but do not touch the screen size (it should show up black)

 

 

EDITED

 

btw you made me want to reload my park up, I spent 5 hours on it again.  Added a lot more , Tress, benches, trash cans, bathrooms, workers of all type and a hand full of more rides..

 

btw if u haven't tried it and if the game lags to much with my park. make peeps invisible defiantly speeds it up

another nifty  thing to check out with my park, Set it to night, open up the fireworks editor and play the 2 fireworks shows I did by hand, (hint) each fireworks show is near water fall(s) for the  water reflection effect, Im assuming you have it turned on in the video options

Is the main difference for building underground the variable AttractionSceneryAllowTerrainIntersect 1? If so then I'll just copy that across since a lot of the other settings are rather different for my config.

[MadDoggyca 710]

copy and past these's into the options

 

Resoultion xxxx xxxx (change this to your native screen size if its higher then 12xx xxxx

 

GuestsHaveFixedHealth 1
GuestsIgnoreRideIntensity 1
GuestsIgnoreRideNausea 1
GuestsIgnoreRideCost 1
GuestsRideUnratedRides 1
AttractionSceneryAllowTerrainIntersect 1
 

[Sam 30]

copy and past these's into the options

 

Resoultion xxxx xxxx (change this to your native screen size if its higher then 12xx xxxx

 

GuestsHaveFixedHealth 1

GuestsIgnoreRideIntensity 1

GuestsIgnoreRideNausea 1

GuestsIgnoreRideCost 1

GuestsRideUnratedRides 1

AttractionSceneryAllowTerrainIntersect 1

 

Thanks. I actaully left off the guest options. It's more interesting imo to try and design rides that are exciting but not intense. Then you have to concentrate on things such as air time, lateral/vertical G forces etc. The end result is actaully funner to ride in 1st person than an insane ride.

[MadDoggyca 710]

the reason for the Guest Options is when RCT3 got released  there is a bug that causes peeps to not want to ride anything from kids rides, thrill rides and coaster. the statement and fix they gave  was the above. you could put the ride as free and they still wont ride them... this is still present to some extent, Load my park and check out the monorail for a example.. free and no on wants to rid it... there a few other rides that suffer from this still. and there will be no fix for this ether

 

 

ever since RCT3 Soaked came out the easies way to win any scenarios  was to build Food and Pool right away the rest was just wait it out time consuming effort

 

FTI when your in a park click on a guest and rename them To

 

James Hunt (with the caps) the dune buggy will drop and u can drive it around the park in 3rd/1st person

 

FPS - and in game FPS counter will show up

 

Guido Fawkes - Gives access to the advanced Fireworks editor

 

John Wardley -  Removes height restrictions when building coasters

 

David Braben - Unlimited launch and chain lift speeds (only works after update #1)

 

Andrew Thomas - Decreases track friction, which can help when importing some RCT1 or 2 coasters into RCT3. Only works after Update #1.

 

D Lean - Open the "Flying Camera" routes editor

 

Jonny Watts - PeepCam (see the world through the eyes of the guest who you just renamed)

.

these are in game options / Debugging options.. There are other names that give you money, peeps ride all rides, peeps never get sick and other cheats. u can hunt them down your self.

Edited February 4, 2013 by MadDoggyca

[Virulence 254]

I love this roller coaster at Knott's Berry Farm. I like it because your feet dangle which makes it more exciting. Also they even have a couple loopdy loops

 

http://www.coastergallery.com/ga/SilverBullet11.jpg

[SweetJeans88 408]

Carowinds keeps renaming their 'coasters. :/  the intimidator is rather epic, though short lived.  i adored the borg when it first came out. laying down your back, plunging headfirst into a mini barrel roll is incredible.  i think they call it the nighthawk now though.  and topgun (afterburner now)  is nice too, i like passing under the bridge :3

[Crutch 898]

Just got back from my trip to Houston. Got a bunch of onride as well as offride videos from Kemah Boardwalk and the new Galvestion Pleasure Pier. So I'll start off with a pleasure pier pov:

 

 

Here is another one: 

 

Edited March 22, 2013 by Crutch

[Dusty Soul 2,611]

Just got back from my trip to Houston. Got a bunch of onride as well as offride videos from Kemah Boardwalk and the new Galvestion Pleasure Pier. So I'll start off with a pleasure pier pov:

Nice video, I actually rode my first dive coaster this last summer.  It's amazing how disorienting it is to be on these things. 

 

 

James Hunt (with the caps) the dune buggy will drop and u can drive it around the park in 3rd/1st person

This is the only one I actually do, as I love mowing people down with the buggy. 

[Dolphanatic 298]

That was directed at how off topic and inactive this thread keeps getting.

 

Anyways, some of you should recognize me from COASTER-net.

 

Any ideas why Magic Mountain decided to remove Log Jammer for Full Throttle? Seeing that the coaster's design will be mostly linear, it seems that they could have easily avoided the log ride. Perhaps they though it would save money since they still have Jet stream. It probably does make for a big electric bill to pump all that water all day on two long water rides. Personally, I think if that was their objective, they'd remove Tidal Wave instead, seeing how short the ride is and how unpopular it has gotten over the years. What are your thoughts?

Edited March 30, 2013 by Dolphanatic