JoshC.

Thread resurrection! So, with 2016 seemingly being the year of VR, thought it might be interesting to keep more of a track on what's going on around the world virtually. At the very least, it could be an interesting thing to look back on in a few years time, and see either the development of the future of theme parks, or yet another passing fad in the industry. Anyways, a list of coasters that have VR... -Galactica, Alton Towers. Samsung The world's first fully dedicated virtual reality roller coaster. Free to use, but not compulsory. Opening 2016. -Alpenexpress, Europa Park Samsung, VR Coaster Buy a ticket to use VR headset at a cost of 2 euros. Opened 2015. -Pegasus, Europa Park Samsung, VR Coaster Buy a ticket to use VR headset at a cost of 2 euros. Opening 2016. -Kyary Pamyu Pamyu XR Ride, Universal Studios Japan VR Coaster Opening 2016. -Dinolino’s VR-Ride, Erlebnispark Schloss Thurn, Germany VR Coaster Free to use. Opening 2016. -Revolution, Bobbejaanland Samsung Planned to operate so that it's only VR for part of the day, and no VR for the other part of the day, since the VR stuff will be quite scary apparently. Free to use. Opening 2016. And of course, there's non-coasters using VR too, namely... -Derren Brown's Ghost Train, Thorpe Park HTC Vive. Free to use. Presumably compulsory. Opening 2016. And, for all you trivia geeks out there, there has already been a full dedicated, compulsory VR coaster in the world before. Unfortunately it closed about 12 years ago and was apparently a bit naff... http://rcdb.com/1901.htm So (as far as I know), whilst VR has popped up in a few places, only one place seems to have bitten the bullet and gone for a ride where it's compulsory for you to wear VR goggles, and indeed where it's seemingly been designed with VR in mind to some degree. So it's still a slow roll out at the moment. But it will be interesting to see whether this does pick up more within the industry, and indeed how the masses respond to it.

An image posted on Coaster Park Klub: Obvious camera angle, heat, compression and more can have an affect on the picture, but even taking that into account, I really do think the actual track itself is a bit wonky.

Given that Thorpe have said in the past that the peening date would be announced in February, and tomorrow is the last day of February, I wouldn't be surprised if the opening date is announced tomorrow. A bit of trust and logical thinking can sometimes go a long way.

Thorpe seem to make reasonably noticeable design changes to the map every 2 years, and it would indeed be due one of those this season. Given how there will be a big focus on the centre of the park for Ghost Train and no Loggers this season, they'll need to make big changes anyway I think.

The joke sort of fails given the other work we've already seen the park do...

This opens on the 24th March, if anyone is interested / making plans.

The pictures were removed following a request from Thorpe Park I believe. Whilst we can't stop people sharing them between friends, we (TPM) ask that you don't post them on the forums, or elsewhere online. Many thanks.

Can someone with a better understanding of the legal system than me (ie: anyone who vaguely understands the system) spell out what this could mean for Merlin as a company, and / or any affects this could potentially have on the operations of Towers / other Merlin parks?

At about £580 a headset, I can't see Thorpe selling them at the park to be honest...

Seems like a similar logic to Swarm backwards and the billboard. Add a new gimmick and push that, whilst also adding something else to help improve the general area and non-gimmick experience. I've no problem with it, especially if it helps the overall feel of the area. Interesting to note also that the plans did state the portal would be on the lift hill. So I assumed the original idea would be that the VR would have the station and part of the lift hill as a 'launch hub' of sorts, then show a portal in the VR world taking you to outer space and whatnot. Maybe a similar idea will happen, but with the 'launch' sequence being longer?

It'd be great if they saw some new themed features (especially the maze), but I wonder how keen they'd be to push a full year horror attraction so soon after Ghost Train, what with the family push too.

The portal has lights too. Though it does look a bit like it belongs in Lego Dimensions from that photo? I think it'll be a neat little thing for an off ride effect; seeing the trains fly through that will be quite pleasing I reckon.

https://www.thorpepark.com/faqs/ Nothing new really, but this does confirm that the park are (hoping to be) reopening Loggers in 2017.

You're correct; it does not make it more difficult to understand what they are trying to so. However, it doesn't mean that people shouldn't take care in what they are typing. Especially on things like online forums, a person's posts, and the way they post, is the key way of gauging what sort of person they are. If you don't care about things like your spelling or grammar to a reasonable degree (and don't bother to make sure you're using the correct homophones), then it can negatively reflect on the person in my opinion. Regardless of what the person is like off the forums, the opinion you form of them on the forums is likely the first one you make of them. I'm not saying people should point out every mistake every time, nor that everyone should be perfect every time. But a little bit of care to make sure that the quality of a person's post is reasonable takes no time at all and makes a lot of difference. As for the video you link, that is completely different to this case. The video is talking more about grammar and how it should be used, not spelling. The there / their / they're problem is much more a spelling issue than a grammatical one in my opinion. On a different note, it's kind of sad to see just how watered down this thread is with comments about short rants and whatnot. Kind of cheapens the thread, which is usually more for serious issues (see the last post on the previous page).

The HTC Vive does sound very exciting. I've been looking at some reviews of the pre-release version and they've all be largely positive, and it does sound like it is one of the best VR systems available at the moment. It'll be interesting to see just how much the VR will be part of the attraction. It's been stressed that this isn't a VR experience, but instead VR simply plays a part. But just how big a part? Just the pre show? A section between pre show and main show? That's what's got me curious. Whilst it's true about the large amount of online media, it's still nowhere near the scale of marketing of which a major attraction should be receiving less than a month before the park opens. And that large amount of online media doesn't help get guests through the gate if there's no opening date set.

Totally called it In all seriousness though, I had been expecting a spinner for a while now, so this is a pleasant surprise. The things I've heard of Skyrush have all been ridiculously positive, so a Mack take on that, seemingly crossed between a Eurofighter, has the potential to be incredible. Really looking forward to this! Also, Mack have said over Facebook that these cars are their 'BigDipper' cars. Will no doubt be seeing a few of these spring up soon I'm sure.

Great to see! There were some clear work on it at the beginning of last season, so this had obviously been in the works for a while; maybe they needed to wait for something before they could operate it again? Does anyone remember how often it used to drop water back in the day? Every 15 minutes? Every 30 minutes? Hopefully that's the time they've set for this season

My point was more I don't really care that much about the themed design of the trail, but more the practicality of accessing it. Since I'm normally all for little details of theming, it was meant to show how big a deal the removal of that step was to me. But ah well

Theme parks of course

Just to try and get people using Chat again, would anyone be interested in a form of Chat Quiz / Game sometime soon? Would be happy to run one some time next week say if there's any interest...

On a completely different note, who likes themed bins? EVERYONE OF COURSE

Out of context, it comes across as some people saying that they don't like to see the parks busy. And to reiterate, I've nothing against people not visiting in busy periods, but it's when people make it sound like they hate the parks for being busy that grates me. However, I don't feel like Thorpe have pulled a fast one or anything. No where did they say that it was returning this year, and all events are subject to change. And they're certainly under no obligation to announce what events aren't returning each year. It's only because someone asked Thorpe via Twitter if it's returning, and they replied it wasn't. So personally I feel like Thorpe are at no fault here. I don't think they ever sold out a Summer Nights? I believe they got very high numbers on some nights, but they never actually sold out.

Interesting. Do you mind me asking your source for that? It's just, from what I've been led to believe, some of those figures seem...wrong, to be frank.

But why? Ferrari Land / PA are wanting a launch coaster that goes very high. Why go with B&M, who have only made one launch on a coaster, when they can go with Intamin, who had a proven track record in building exactly what they wanted?

Last season, a summer event was always advertised, though it was never clear if it was a replacement for Summer Nights, or an addition to it. Thorpe did seem keen to mention that whatever it would be called, it would follow the SN pattern of opening for a few hours in the evening with a selected line up. It seems that once they decided on how to market Island Beats, they decided to keep the Summer Nights name too. This year, they haven't advertised any particular summer event, so it seems unlikely that there will be one at all. A real shame, but not necessarily surprising. @Coaster Jamie: I was more trying to say how I hate people moaning about parks being busy. If a regular visitor doesn't want to visit when it's busy, then that's fine, but don't complain that the park is busy, thriving and doing well. Should have made that clearer.