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Luke_A

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Posts posted by Luke_A

  2. Your Plans for 2013

    in Your Planned Trips and Reports

    Posted

    Ooh. Well I plan on making it to as many meets this year as possible at UK parks and other attractions too.

    Then in May I'm going to La Pineda (little town not far from Salou) with the family and that means PortAventura! This would be my first Theme Park visit that's abroad, very much looking forward to Shambhala, I feel like this could end up being my favourite rollercoaster; also intrigued to find out what Furius Baco really is like. :P

  4. Vortex

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Unlikely that it would ever get any integrated lighting, as this would mean more would have to be changed than it would be worth. (You find that most KMG rides with integrated lighting systems have about 1/2 of the control panel for lighting control and only a small portion for actual ride functions.)

    I think the only time we'd see any variation from what Vortex is now would be if they ever decided to have the ride retro-fitted with the new Lap-Bar seating arrangements, only 1 Afterburner has ever been fitted with them to this day so I'm unsure of the cost... They look great though! Some images below from KMG and Theme Park Review; these lap bars are so tiny, I think they would greatly improve the experience!

    199385_355369317884832_1782337426_n.jpg

    310519_355369477884816_1821037782_n.jpg

    57961_355369357884828_1576775460_n.jpg

    wildwood_016.jpg

    wildwood_013.jpg

  5. Walking in a Winter Wonderland

    in Your Planned Trips and Reports

    Posted

    Air is £6 at Winter Wonderland, I love it and it felt really forceful when I rode it for the 2nd time! Also Blizzard is £7 and although it is an amazing ride, I feel the price is too high! Just wondering, if you went to a normal funfair what is the price you would pay for these?

    £4 is usually the standard price for Air, although once both sides of it's queue channels are up to the payboxes another £1 or so is usually added onto the price.

    Blizzard aka Booster is usually £3 sometimes £4, although many owners of Booster's (both Fabbri & KMG ones) can easily charge anything up to £10 at high attendance events such as Festivals where people WILL pay it and it will still have a small 5-10 min queue. Beacon / spectacle (tall) rides often draw good crowds at fairs and therefore can charge higher prices than some others. Then again atmosphere is another thing key to a fair, Air has a mighty Discosmash sound system which is somewhat left to rest at Winter Wonderland, at a street fair it usually has people crowding round the front of the ride simply because of the atmosphere created by mic work & good music (lots of Showtek, Laurent Wolf & Steve Aoki)! ;) So many factors come into what they charge though. :P

    example: *own video plug* ;)

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

  7. Parks, Rides And Coaster News

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    News is going around that Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach have purchased Whirlwind from Camelot.

    From others' reviews I've heard it's a bit of a naff coaster, but I think it'd do the Pleasure Beach good. I visited the Pleasure Beach in August and it's got a nice selection of fairground classics with a few familiar theme park rides there too with the Wooden Coaster, Tivoli Orbiter and Fabbri Evolution being their strongest rides at the moment, in my opinion.

    The Evolution is one of those love it or hate it rides, lots of time spent hanging upside down or laying on your front or back. Unusual experience. Unsure where Whirlwind is going to go at the moment? I did notice there was some space near the south end of the Pleasure Beach by the Waltzer and back of the Wooden Coaster, could be going there...

  8. Next Big Thing - 2016 Development ?

    in The Future

    Posted

    If they get a woodie, please make it be an Intamin prefab such as Balder, El Toro or T Express. No gimmicks. Just pure ejector airtime awesomeness. It's what Thorpe lacks in my opinion, a non-launched coaster with no inversions with plenty of airtime. It wouldn't have to have a massive footprint (e.g, Balder...). Maybe Rocky Mountain Construction could come up with something similar though if they do want a gimmick, with what they've done with Outlaw Run I could see them thinking up more new elements in the future too.

    I think it's too early to put any solid guesses in but meh speculation is always fun! :P

  9. Theme Park and Rollercoaster Simulation Games

    in Stuff

    Posted

    So, NoLimits 2 is in the pipeline as many may know, and updates have been far and few between. The developers have recently released an update on the progress of the next generation NoLimits 2 simulator.

    In this update we see a video of the Dive Coaster splashdowns, addition of new track design tools, more work on the rendering of aged/worn track, the addition of the B&M flying coaster, improved shadows on objects, addition of B&M switch tracks and finally the addition of the S&S/Arrow 4D coaster.

    This looks very Newton 2 inspired... ;)

    nl2mc2012pic1.jpg

    Kumba with aged track. All-round graphic improvements such as support bolt details too.

    nl2mc2012pic3.jpg

    B&M Flying Coaster, Tatsu?

    nl2mc2012pic4.jpg

    B&M switch track.

    nl2mc2012pic5.jpg

    S&S 4D Coaster.

    nl2mc2012pic6.jpg

    All images and info sourced from the official NoLimits sim website: http://www.nolimitscoaster.de/index.php?page=news

    And finally a quote from the developers, it seems NL2 won't be coming soon, but I'm sure it will be worth all the waiting. It's good to see this progress!

    What you see on the screenshots above: Radius comb in editor before and after hand smoothing, catwalks and rusty track, improved shadows for objects close to viewer, switch tracks for dual stations, 4D track.

    The radius comb is a very powerful tool for hand smoothing out a track, the blue points control the track spline and the green discs are roll points that control the banking. Both points are completely independent from each other and allow very flexible editing. The new catwalks can be added to every piece of track. In NL1, they were limited to brakes, lift and transport sections. The improved shadows are more blurry and look more realistic. The special switch tracks were added to make dual stations, they can also be used for other applications such as storage tracks. The 4D track is quite detailed, please notice that the position of the extra rails that control the 4D rotation will vary along the track depending on the 4D rotation angle.

    And last but not least: It is done when it is done, it is that simple.

    There is not much left to do, I am working on the station building right now. I need to transfer a couple of older coaster styles to NL2 yet, and there is some small stuff to be done like creating the manual etc. Since this will be a completely new software product that has not much in common with NL1, basically everything is different, it will not be a simple update. Releasing the product requires more planning, so I cannot give you a release date at this point, even if it would be done right now.

  10. The Smiler

    in Alton Towers

    Posted

    Alton Towers said on their official Twitter account that "this account is not connected to Alton Towers or Merlin in anyway" ... It just looks so well done though. Could Towers be trying to convince everyone that this isn't related to them, when in fact it possibly could be?

    Leaves me in the middle tbh, in some ways I think it could be real but now Towers have said that it could not be. Hmm. I suppose only time will tell with this if more media appears.

  11. Flamingo Land

    in UK Attractions

    Posted

    Rumours going round from Screamscape as well as e-mail's sent out to some season pass holders suggest that Flamingo Land are to get three new rides in 2013.

    Apparently a Zamperla Volare is possible on either the old Corkscrew spot or in the spot of Wild Mouse as a replacement, maybe they have got a three ride deal with Zamperla... Although it does leave the question of why go with a Volare (http://rcdb.com/9205.htm?p=35974) as they are supposed to be horrendous, when they could have got something much more exciting like a ZacSpin.

    If they are getting three Zamperla rides, then a Power Surge and Air Race 6.4 or 8.4 could make up with the mehness of a Volare. ;) Remember, all rumours though and they've confirmed nothing yet, so let's wait and see what they have to say for 2013...

  13. Hyde Park Winter Wonderland

    in UK Attractions

    Posted

    Went to Winter Wonderland yesterday with Marc & Ricky. The event is very good this year, we did Power Tower (£6 each), Wilde Maus XXL (£6 each), Air (£6 each) and the Showtime Afterburner (£5 each). It was fairly busy and most rides were walk on, Wilde Maus had about a 10 minute queue but it moves so quickly and it's partly a fun house.. So you don't really mind that. :P Didn't do Star Flyer, which was also at £6 but giving pretty short rides due to it having a queue, also fascinated me how this has an on ride photo camera attached to the central hub which takes your photo right at the top! The Booster was £7, again didn't do that as well... It's a booster and why would you pay £7 for that when Air is there for £1 less eh!? ;)

    The Bavarian Village is also very cool. (Huge German Beer/food house) it's amazing to think that these buildings travel! We then went to Waterloo for lunch, London Eye had a large queue so didn't worry about that but did 4D.

    I then went back to Winter Wonderland for about 30 mins after the others left in the evening as my train was another hour to go, didn't ride anything else, it was very busy, a struggle to move really due to the crowds, nearly everything had a queue, although nothing more than 10/15 mins I should imagine. The atmosphere is brilliant though, it feels like a proper German fair, it's all covered with plastic panel flooring this year too so no mud! Lots of effort goes into this event every year and the quality of it justifies the prices, let alone it being in central London so of course it's going to be expensive.

    Overall a great event, awesome day, I look forward to the TPM London Meet! :D

  14. The News

    in The Real World

    Posted

    I saw this image earlier and it just goes to show how America seriously need to bring in some sort of law to make it harder to obtain guns, although in a country where they're already so readily available it's gonna be tough for them to enforce much in my opinion anyway.

    Posted Image

  16. Parks, Rides And Coaster News

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Haven't seen anything about this around here. But Gerstlauer opened their first inverting, indoor, launched (24mph... wow ;) ) spinning coaster in late July this year in Japan, it's located at Tokyo Joypolis. The launch is tire propelled although the ride does also have a standard chain lift too. The inversion is an in-line twist.

    The ride has Over The Shoulder Restraints, surely lap bars would have been possible too... :P

    (This is in Japanese)

  22. Alton Towers Ride Game 2012/13

    in Nonsense

    Posted

    Air (5)

    Battle Galleons (5)

    Berry Bish Bash (5)

    Charlie & The Chocolate Factory (5)

    Congo River Rapids (5)

    Driving School (5)

    Doodle Doo Derby (5)

    Duel - The Haunted House Strikes Back (5)

    Enterprise (5)

    Frog Hopper (5)

    Galloper's Carousel (4)

    Haunted Hollow (5)

    Heave Ho! (5)

    Hex - The Legend Of The Towers (5)

    Ice Age The 4D Experience (5)

    Marauders Mayhem (5)

    Nemesis (6)

    Nemesis: Sub-Terra (5)

    Oblivion (8)

    Old Macdnalds Singing Barn (4)

    Ripsaw (7)

    Rita (5)

    Riverbank Eye Spy (5)

    Runaway Mine Train (5)

    Twirling Toadstool (3)

    The Blade (3)

    The Flume (5)

    The Gardens (5)

    The Towers (5)

    Th13teen (5)

    Sonic Spinball (5)

    Sharkbait Reef by SEA LIFE (5)

    Skyride (5)

    Squirrel Nutty Ride (5)

    Oblivion +1

    The Blade -1

  23. Hyde Park Winter Wonderland

    in UK Attractions

    Posted

    Here's a list of the main attractions just in the Alpine Adventure area this year. Report credit to Steve Gould on All The Fun of The Fair Forums.

    Alpine Adventure:

    (Avalanche) Waltzer - William Thurston Jnr

    (Blizzard) Booster - Bridget Burton

    (Alpine) London City Roller Coaster - Nico & C. Buwalda (The Netherlands)

    (Penguin Party) Dodgems - Joseph Manning Jnr

    'Showtime' Afterburner 24 - Joseph Manning Jnr

    (Snowboard) Deep Impact Miami - Joseph Manning Jnr

    + catering units & side stalls etc.

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