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Tallest Roller Coaster in the World 295

Posted by michael from the wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee dept.
Coaster Art Guy writes "Cedar Point amusement park unveiled the tallest roller coaster in the world today. Top Thrill Dragster launches you from 0 to 120 MPH in 4 seconds via a hydraulic launch. The dragster looking like cars take you straight up a 420 foot tower, into a top hat element, and twists you 270 degrees straight down. All in about 20 seconds from start to finish. How about that one? Also check out the POV video here Quicktime or here Windows Media Player."
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Tallest Roller Coaster in the World More

Tallest Roller Coaster in the World

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  • I see whjy (Score:2, Insightful)

    by neo8750 ( 566137 )
    but I don't see why they are so short i mean sure its faster but why not make the damn thing longer??

    • Re:I see whjy (Score:5, Funny)

      by moertle ( 140345 ) on Thursday January 09, 2003 @09:48PM (#5052219) Homepage
      ... because if it was any longer you would piss your pants ...

    • Re:I see whjy (Score:5, Informative)

      by EggplantMan ( 549708 ) on Thursday January 09, 2003 @10:04PM (#5052314) Homepage
      Probably because at 120 MPH you need to add 176 feet to the rollercoaster for every imperial second you want to add to the ride.

    • why? revenue, of course (Score:4, Insightful)

      by djupedal ( 584558 ) on Thursday January 09, 2003 @10:05PM (#5052318)
      The more bodies they can run thru the gate, the more income they can grab to help pay for the next model. Just like turning over tables at a restaurant, fares in a taxi or Johns on the street.

      Want a longer ride? Buy another ticket...it's all about money, after all.

      • Re:why? revenue, of course (Score:5, Informative)

        by SplendidIsolatn ( 468434 ) <splendidisolatnNO@SPAMyahoo.com> on Thursday January 09, 2003 @10:16PM (#5052372)
        Cedar Point is a one admission fee-for-everything in the park (ridewise) It doesn't matter if the cycle 100 or 10000 people through an hour.
        • You think more space, bigger rides, with more breakdowns, don't cost more money? Or how about longer rides, taking longer, creating longer lines, and more people leaving the park with memories of 2 hour waits, instead of 30 minute waits.

          I'd guess it's an attempt to find the shortest possible thrill that still leaves people feeling they had a good time, while taking as little space as possible, and moving people through it as quickly as possible.

          • ROI...return on investment.... I can imagine that there is tremendous cost in making these things. Just getting one into operation has to be hard enough. If I were a backer, I'd want some sore of guarantee that a second one would be busy full time before I'd approve it.

      • Longer ride != faster lines (Score:5, Informative)

        by JackL ( 39506 ) on Thursday January 09, 2003 @10:38PM (#5052480)
        The millenium force gets 1600 riders/hr. This one is predicted to get 1500. Usually the turnover is dictated by the size of a train and how fast you can load/unload them. There will be a train going up the hill, one on the track and one in the house loading/unloading. When they are going 70-120 mph, you'd need an awfully long track to change this model. Since this coaster is so fast, there will only be one train going up the hill or on the track. All the others will be loading/unloading and keep the line moving that way.

        I think the reason it is short is twofold. 1) Cedar Point is on an peninsula and space is getting scarce. 2) No one really cares what comes after the first hill.

        I don't believe it is as simple as some of the "screw the customer and move 'em along" remarks would lead you to believe
        • ...as a theme park owner/operator, I take it?

          Or simply an engineering approach, perhaps?

          At least we agree that it's not a simple answer. Spending and making money never is, or we'd all be rolling around in it, wouldn't we. In this case, rather than speed up the line, we'll wait to see if they increase the fare instead. Any doubt the TTD costs more to ride than the MF? And that increase has to do with what? ...right...making money...
          • There is no "fare". This was covered in a different post. It is a one time fee to get into the park. There is no per-ride cost. Both TTD and MF cost US$25 million to build (according to rcdb.com), and both take roughly the same riders per hour.

            I still maintain that it is a quick ride because they realize there is only so much space on the peninsula, and that to make the thing long enough to impact the riders/hr would have taken all the space the park has. So now you get a rather intense 20 second ride. Which is really what you came for. No one remembers the second hill.

            • I see.

              And I agree with your logic about extending the ride being perhaps counterproductive to the experience. They way this thing is marketed is time to speed...this means short...the only way to make it last longer is to go faster (not practical from a health and safety point of view?)...and faster would mean taller. I think even a little more speed would add a lot more height...they might simply be at practical limits all the way around.

              Do we know what the average modern coaster ride time average is? How long is MF?
        • But this two ride thing makes me wonder...since they use a dragster theme, why didn't they put two tracks next to each other? Thus doubling the capacity, while expanding on the drag race theme?

          The tracks could twist inside each other on the downrun, and add even more thrill...wonder if they thought about this and rejected it?

          Was it safety or money that held them back?

          • Re:two rides (Score:2, Interesting)

            by JackL ( 39506 )
            Now that would have been cool! The Gemini at Cedar Point is a twin coaster. Back in its hayday the riders would be shouting for their car to "win". The atmosphere was incredidble. I'm still a die hard red train rider to this day.

            Interesting you brought up safety - on the Gemini you can actually give high fives to the people in the othter train. And when you are a little kid, it seems like they can almost pull you out!
            • Riding the Gemeni was always a blast. I remember during the early 80's, that people in one of the trains would yell "Tastes great" and the other train would yell "Less filling" and everyone would be be giving high fives to people on the other train when they were rounding the corner on the second hill.

              Another great thrill at Cedar Point was the blue streak. Perhaps just a boring there-n-back coaster, but when the attendants came by to push the lap bar down, you would raise your knees as high as you could. When the ride took off, you had about four inches of play in the bar. When you would crest a hill and go down the other side, you would fly out of your seat and your knees would catch the bar to keep you from flying out of the car. In hindsight, this was pretty stupid, but as a teenager, it was a blast.

    • Re:I see whjy (Score:5, Informative)

      by srmalloy ( 263556 ) on Friday January 10, 2003 @12:59AM (#5053031) Homepage
      but I don't see why they are so short i mean sure its faster but why not make the damn thing longer??

      Because this type of coaster is still in its infancy. This is clearly an evolution of the Thrust Air 2000 [ridewarrior.com] coaster invented by S&S Sports Power, and it follows the same basic design -- a catapult launch, a 90 pitchup, a 180 pitchover to nose down, and back to the launch point, throwing in a 360 roll during the descent to heighten the thrill.

      The selling points of this type of ride are the catapult launch -- instead of the long, slow crank up the lift hill, you're shot off the mark, reaching maximum speed almost immediately -- the vertical climb and dive, and the 'hang time' spent in free fall. You come out of the dive at close to the 120mph at which you entered the climb; at that speed, any of the fancy track elements you see on slower coasters would create unacceptably huge G forces on the riders -- if you look at the other 'gigacoasters', they have one or more secondary hills after the first drop to bleed some of the speed off the coaster train before they start any serious turns, and these coasters use speed and drop height as their selling points, not inversions, while the coasters that are known for their inversion count are all much slower than the gigacoasters. Top Thrill makes its mark from its height; adding more hills detracts from the purity of the single vertical hill (and the attraction of rides like SFMM's 'Superman: The Escape', which is nothing but a shot out, up, down, and back), and slowing the coaster train down enough so that inverting track elements are survivable detracts from the ride's speed. And, as another poster has pointed out, Cedar Point is running out of space to put new coasters.

  • First Post (Score:3, Funny)

    by gulfan ( 524955 ) on Thursday January 09, 2003 @09:41PM (#5052180)
    And it's already down, I guess there right about that 20 second from the start to the end :)

  • Yuck, Flash. (Score:4, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 09, 2003 @09:41PM (#5052181)
    non flash front page [cedarpoint.com]

  • First puke (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    520 feet??? Bleah! First puke!
    • 520 feet??? Bleah! First puke!

      Being a skydiver, 520 feet is way too low an altitude for me to be freefalling from. Higher please!

  • Cedar Point rocks (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Flounder ( 42112 )
    Truly an awesome coaster park, one of the best, if not the best, coaster park in the country.

    This one sounds cool, but I prefer traditional style coasters.

    • Re:Cedar Point rocks (Score:5, Insightful)

      by bleckywelcky ( 518520 ) on Thursday January 09, 2003 @10:09PM (#5052335)

      Truly an awesome coaster park, one of the best, if not the best, coaster park in the country.

      Correction: the best coaster park in the world.
      • Truly an awesome coaster park, one of the best, if not the best, coaster park in the country.

        Correction: the best coaster park in the world.

        For sheer density of coasters per unit area, Blackpool [bpbltd.com] has to be tough to beat...

  • Pretty short... (Score:5, Funny)

    by sean23007 ( 143364 ) on Thursday January 09, 2003 @09:43PM (#5052190) Homepage Journal
    20 seconds is pretty short. The only thing I can hope is that the extreme rating this thing would get in Roller Coaster Tycoon would keep the crowds away so that the lines never get too long. I could spend an hour going up and down that thing! Unfortunately, if they change the name to something such that "extreme" contains a capital "X" in the form of "eXtreme" or "Xtreme," everyone and their mom will want to ride it. After all, it's Xtreme!!!

  • And the server goes (Score:4, Funny)

    by MrScience ( 126570 ) on Thursday January 09, 2003 @09:44PM (#5052199) Homepage
    from 120mph to 0mph as soon as Slashdot hears about it.

  • Multimedia links on /. front page (Score:3, Funny)

    by Znonymous Coward ( 615009 ) on Thursday January 09, 2003 @09:44PM (#5052200) Journal
    I'll bet there servers are going for a roller coaster ride right about now.

  • So Happy (Score:5, Funny)

    by OldMiner ( 589872 ) on Thursday January 09, 2003 @09:45PM (#5052208) Journal
    Yes, it's exciting, but something about this guy's expression [cedarpoint.com] on the diary page [cedarpoint.com] makes me think he's got more than a coaster blueprint hiding behind that paper.

  • In case /. effect does not wane: (Score:4, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 09, 2003 @09:48PM (#5052221)
    Taken directly from http://www.cedarpoint.com/public/inside_park/rides /thrill/_ttd/specs/diary/index.cfm

    Date: January 09, 2003
    Entry: Catching Up
    By: Monty Jasper
    Vice President of Maintenance and Construction

    You have no idea what a relief it is to finally be able to talk about Top Thrill Dragster. It's the most exciting project I've ever worked on, and keeping it a secret for more than a year has been tough! So far, we've met our milestones, but there are still some big ones up ahead. Overall, I'm pleased with how well things have gone.

    I'm sure you've been keeping track (no pun intended) of the ride through the webcams. As you can see, about 90 per cent of the ride is up, and we're well on schedule for the steel erection portion of the work. Our biggest challenge on Top Thrill Dragster was to put up the steel as soon as possible so winter didn't delay the project. We really needed to beat the clock on this one, and despite the winds in November and December, and the recent snow, we're doing okay on the track work. The crew did a great job under some major adverse conditions.

    A few sections of track and support columns still need to be put in place once all the heavy equipment is removed from the infield. We're keeping one of the cranes for a little bit longer to install the elevator that'll go to the top of the tower, put catwalks in place, to allow us to torque the bolts on the track and inspect it all.

    The foundation for the station is done. The station has an incredible clamshell design, and I predict it will be magnificent.

    Work on one of the electrical rooms is 40 per cent complete, and the hydraulic room is about half-finished. The electrical work overall is about 20 per cent complete, and the electrical component of the project is extremely important. Top Thrill Dragster will require a lot of power, because it's taking roller coasters to a whole new level of energy and speed.

    Because we'll be dealing with heat and speeds no one has ever contended with before, we're going to need a lot of time to deal with these issues, and Top Thrill Dragster will undergo extensive testing. I'm shooting to have it fired up so we'll have everything resolved in plenty of time for Opening Day, May 4. Testing will include a partial pull-through, and sending a train with a clearance template attached.

    That's it for now. I'm looking forward to riding it, how about you?

  • Cedar Point's Millenium Force coaster is 310 feet high.

    The current highest out and back coaster, according to Guinness, is the Steel Dragon [dhmorgan.com] in Japan.

    • It really depends how you measure it. If you measure the distance between the highest point and ground (as they might do to inflate the numbers a bit) I think they got all beat. You know the Vegas Stratosphere tower, right? Didja know there's a rollercoaster on the roof of that thing?

      I only went to Vegas once and didn't notice it there, but I saw it after I processed my films. Happened to take a telephoto of the tower from the car on our way home...

      To bad they didn't spiral it all the way down, lol

    • I went to Nagashima Spaland a couple of years ago and the best coaster they had then was a piece of crap kiddy-coaster. I guess I'll have to go back, now.

  • Hey girls (and guys), read to not bleed. (Score:5, Informative)

    by $$$$$exyGal ( 638164 ) on Thursday January 09, 2003 @09:50PM (#5052229) Homepage Journal
    When you are going to ride in a super-fast and bone-jarring rollercoaster, make sure you take out your earrings. One time I didn't, and it was bloody. Since my head got banged from side to side so much, my earrings banged my head over and over again. After the ride was over I had two earring size holes underneath my earlobes. It bled, and it hurt. I'm all better now ;-).

    --more naked [slashdot.org]

  • cedar point... (Score:2, Informative)

    by djroute66 ( 43321 )
    Cedar Point is one of the nicest amusement parks in the world. It is clean, they have a lot of good rides, the audience is very well behaved, and the lines are short (in relation to other theme parks). Last two years I went during the weekends of fall, and on Sunday we were able to ride every ride on the park twice in 4 hours.
  • Your puke may actually make it into space.

  • More info, press release, pictures (Score:4, Informative)

    by Krellan ( 107440 ) <(moc.nallerk) (ta) (nallerk)> on Thursday January 09, 2003 @09:54PM (#5052254) Homepage Journal
    In case Cedar Point's servers are going for a ride, here is more information:

    Stats [rcdb.com]
    http://www.rcdb.com/installationdetail1896.htm


    Press Release [rcdb.com]
    http://www.rcdb.com/document82.htm


    Pictures [rcdb.com]
    http://www.rcdb.com/installationgallery1896.htm


    Now, go slashdot rcdb instead. :)

  • Another name ... (Score:3, Funny)

    by LoudMusic ( 199347 ) on Thursday January 09, 2003 @09:55PM (#5052262)
    They could just as easily call it the "Barf-O-Matic" ...

  • And that's fun? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by unfortunateson ( 527551 ) on Thursday January 09, 2003 @09:55PM (#5052265) Journal
    Ok, 20 seconds to ride,
    60 seconds to load and unload
    7014 seconds in line...

    Not for me.
    Give me an entertaining ride that lasts a couple minutes at least. Millenium Force was down when we were there, but they've got some great rides.

    Mantis -- Woot!

    Just avoid the indoor dark bobsled-style coaster on days when it's 90 degrees out -- the AC in the building can't keep up.

    • Re:And that's fun? (Score:3, Informative)

      by jdkane ( 588293 )
      Short rides aren't necessarily bad. For example, the Drop Zone [iconnect.net] (see third row of pictures) at Paramount Canada's Wonderland is very short but very exciting. In fact Theme Park Critic [themeparkcritic.com] gives it a high rating of 8.1 out of 10. The ride doesn't do much ... just pulls you up and then drops you. Simple, short, yet elegant enough to be one of the more popular rides for thrill seekers.

    • Ok, 20 seconds to ride,
      60 seconds to load and unload
      7014 seconds in line...


      Don't tell me I'm not the only person making comparisons to some other form of, shall we say, more intimate entertainment....

    • Re:And that's fun? (Score:3, Informative)

      by Rew190 ( 138940 )
      Having worked at Cedar Point as an area supervisor, it surprises me that you're disappointed with the long waits that'll probably go with this ride but bring up Mantis.

      Mantis was actually one of the longest waits. Since it's a stand up coaster and the restraints are such a pain in the ass, we can typically only run two trains at a time on that track.

      Dragster has 6 trains (and yes, they will all be up and going), and as you mentioned the ride time is short. I'm sure we're going to see some huge lines, but they will move quickly. Keep this in mind before you pass it up. I'm very excited about this one.
      • It was certainly an exaggeration. It was more of a complaint about how short the ride is. I was at Cedar Point two years ago in late August, and the lines were not bad most places. I really prefer coaster with more entertainment value than just quick thrill. Favorites include Seaworld Orlando's Kraken, Rock N Roller Coaster at MGM/Disney, Viper at Six Flags Great America. The Mantis rating is actually based on my family's response: stand-up and suspended coasters do not support 6'7" tall people.
    • Thanks for the hints - haven't been to Cedar Point yet (yeah, I know, take away my rollercoaster badge).

      But to be honest, this does amazingly little for me. At 6 Flags Over Texas, we have two coasters that are similar to this thing: Mr. Freeze and Titan. Mr. Freeze uses linear induction, and shoots you up to 80 miles an hour in 3-4 seconds. You then shoot outside (the actual "catapult" is done in a tunnel), have long enough to see what's coming, then you go into a top hat, hit a big curve coming around, straight up for a while (frickin' scary - depending on where you sit, you can actually pass the magnets that stop you at the top), then you fall backwards, through the whole thing. Ride lasts something like 30-45 seconds. A blast if you like linear accelerators.

      Picture: http://www.vicbilson.com/coasters/graphics/freeze0 1s.jpg

      Then there's Titan. A hypercoaster (300+ feet). Nice long drop, but then an actual ride. Again, a blast.
      http://www.rcdb.com/full/six-flags-over-te xas/tita n2.jpg

      This new one almost sounds like Superman (6 Flags Magic Mountain) - cool concept, but almost a tech demo. (IMHO, Mr. Freeze actually turned the linear induction idea into a real ride.) Cool, and more power to them, but barely a coaster.

      Now all this being said, I want to go ride it. Once.
  • Granted Cedar Point is running out of room (being on an island and all) so they're finding ways to push the envelope, thrill the riders and still fit it in between last year's tallest and the year before's fastest but c'mon, isn't this a little ridiculous? Do I really want to wait in line behind some cellulite ridden, fanny pack wearing tourist for 20 seconds of high-g, whiplashing inducing, 120 mph fun? Hell yeah I do. But honestly, the Mean Streak, Gemini and Mantis are still the park's main attractions IMHO. They simply don't build them like they used to.
  • All in about 20 seconds from start to finish.

    And if you act now, they'll throw in 4 hours of waiting in line absolutely free!
    • Nope. Cedar Point wins awards for best capacity (keeping lines to a minimum) for a reason.

      6 trains on this thing coupled with only a 20 second ride is going to be a pretty quick moving line. Besides, what else do you expect when you're talking about the world's tallest/fastest coaster?

      Of course there will be long lines, but this means you can hit Millenium or Wicked Twister this year without the lines being quite as bad.
  • That one is just too high for me. :)
  • I can see my house from here !
  • ... rocks! It's gotta be one of the best amusement parks in America. I went there while in Ohio for a family reunion a couple of years ago and I had a great time. The lines sucked (as they do in all of these places) and stuff was overpriced (again, as they do in all of these places), but that's pretty much expected. The great thing was the variety of rides (unexpected) and the location (Sanduski, Ohio) of the place (also unusual). All I know is that I had a great time there and you could do worse for finding a day of rides.
    • Compared to the "commericial" amusement parks like Disney and Six Flags, Cedar Point is quite affordable.

      I took a tour of three different parks in Ohio last summer in a week for coaster riding (Cedar Point, Six Flags Ohio and Paramount's Kings Island), and prices at Cedar Point were the cheapest. It was also the best operated park from a staffing standpoint.

  • Cerebral Hemorrhages (Score:5, Interesting)

    by (eternal_software) ( 233207 ) on Thursday January 09, 2003 @10:10PM (#5052343)

    There have been a lot of reports of people getting neurological injuries on coasters [ama-assn.org] already.

    I wonder how much more they can push these things before the human limits are reached (at least the human limits the insurance companies will allow!).

    • Re:Cerebral Hemorrhages (Score:5, Interesting)

      by or_smth ( 473159 ) <tdimson@gm a i l.com> on Thursday January 09, 2003 @10:16PM (#5052369)
      You bring up an interesting point. As one could expect, an injury/death in a theme park is the absolute worst thing for business possible. While a lot of people think theme parks are safe, and they are (to an extent), there is a lot more going on then they might not know about. I'm pretty sure every park basically wants a NDA from anyone who got hurt on a ride.

      So, we are reduced to the employees (myself included, I work at a Canadian theme park) and rebellious victims to give us any information. Try this site [themeparkinsider.com] if you want to see more or don't believe me.

      Just something to watch out for.

      • Re:Cerebral Hemorrhages (Score:4, Funny)

        by ayjay29 ( 144994 ) on Friday January 10, 2003 @07:02AM (#5053849)
        >>As one could expect, an injury/death in a theme park is the absolute worst thing for business possible.

        I heard that the reverse is true. Sounds morbid but after there's a death on a ride, everyone wants to go on it. I remember as a kid at a park friends were saying "Someone died on this last year, it must be good!".

        A friend of mine worked at a sky-diving school and whenever there was a fatal accident in the press the courses would be fully booked for weeks.

  • I'm still trying to load that Quicktime video from their /.'ed server but I believe this was the same type of coaster mentioned in this WiReD Magazine article [wired.com] a couple of years ago.
  • Dang! One look at that thing and I'd be headed for the bummper cars. It's more like a Demon Drop that just gets you to the top REALLY FAST than a roller coaster. Guess it's got all the parts to be a roller coaster, but still...

  • Eh (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I know I'm going to get flamed for this, but frankly I'm sick of seeing people excited over this coaster. What makes a good coaster is pacing. Millenium force is considered a great ride because it reamins exciting thoughtout the entiure duration of the ride. Antipation builds up on the lift, the frist drop is amaizing, the campelback is nice the overbanked turns are unique and the bunny hops are great. It stays varied.

    Here, anticipation builds for probalby about 15 seconds. You launch and go though the ride in 15 and then you wait for the train to unload. It's not much of a ride. There's no pacing and no variety.

    Anohter thing that bothers me is the wait time for this ride. MF has a capacity of 1600 people per hour and suffered waits of upto 4 hours when it was new. These people waited for a 2:45 ride. The wait/ride second=1:30

    TTD has a capacity of 1500pph and the ride only lasts what I exect to be about 30 seconds of actual coaster. Its lines should be longer than MF's when it was new and the wait should be a little more to factor in the lower capacity (about 4:15). The wait/ride second=8.5.

    I'd much rathter go to Six flags magic mountain next year and ride Scream! - it's a full ride with a higher capacity.n I'd wait less and leave the ride happier. The longer ride will produce more adrenaline which is the whole point of coasters anyway.

    Thanks for reading my rant
    • What makes a good coaster is pacing.

      Not necessarily. This ride is simply about pure, raw speed and height. Millenium Force was also based on this; if it was only half as tall, would it be such a classic ride to you?

      Here, anticipation builds for probalby about 15 seconds.

      Gotta disagree with you here. Anticipation builds for rides like these as soon as you enter the queue lines. With Millenium Force it really starts when your train leaves the station. With this, it's going to be the same thing. You'll see a light that goes from red to yellow to green, that's obviously for anticipation.

      Have you ever been on Power Tower or Wicked Twister? Half of the anticipation on those is just watching the look on those folks' faces before the ride launches. I find it more effective than just the lift hill.

      Anohter thing that bothers me is the wait time for this ride

      This simply can't be helped more than Cedar Point already has. It's running 6 trains. I'd also speculate that ride capacity on this will be higher than that number (think PR insurance).

      I'd much rathter go to Six flags magic mountain next year and ride Scream!

      ... assuming it's up and running. It's not very often that SFMM has all of their coasters running at the same time, and their capacity doesn't compare to CP's. I was disappointed when I visited their park. Great potential, though, if they got their act together.

  • 20 seconds? (Score:3, Funny)

    by core plexus ( 599119 ) on Thursday January 09, 2003 @11:02PM (#5052565) Homepage
    That's all? I can think of dozens of things that are way scarier, and last much longer. Try ice climbing, rapelling, free-fall parachuting, open-ocean diving, (and diving under the ice), camping beside a salmon stream in bear country, etc. etc.

    That's Just a Burglar Alarm -- Ignore It! [xnewswire.com]

    • My favorite extreme ride was in the Julian Alps. Some crazy friends and I had spent the week climbing and sky diving, well one brilliant soul decided to combine the two activities and another extreme sport, skiing! We climbed up a mountain then put on some cheap skis we had purchased and skied down a scree field. At the bottom of the field was an ~4K foot cliff, we went off the edge and immediately deployed our sails, what a rush!
  • Since the sight is slashdotted (it's painfully slow in the middle of the off season before /. hit it anyways), here are some more details that I gleamed off the site earlier. I guess my write up wasn't good enough :(

    -Each car will have tiered seating, similar to stadium seating in a movie theater. Everyone should have a good view of the ground as the are dropping straight towards it.

    -The track is basically an oval. You come straight out of the garage, immediately go up, peak, then come back down. On the trip down, you do a 270 degree twist. Then you just ride out on a straight track.

    -The cars will be launnched via a cable (similar to the Millenium Force) as oppose to a LIM. Braking will be provided via magnets.

    -CP is expecting a car goes through the station every 40 seconds for about 1500 people/hour.

    Anyways, if you want to see two representations as to what the track will look like, check out here [guidetothepoint.com].
  • Is this really a roller coaster? I'd think a roller coaster would go in some sort of loop, not straight up, a twist and then straight down. I'm sure it's a thrilling ride, but not really a roller coaster.
    • Tricky question. Does one call Superman: The Escape at Six Flags Magic Mountain a coaster? Is Demon Drop a Coaster?

      The only way I can "tell" is to have a look at the thing. I would say that a Coaster has to be closed circuit and such, but impulse coasters such as Wicked Twister have put a spin on that for me as well.

  • This is actually something I'm familiar with. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Xnone ( 561232 ) on Thursday January 09, 2003 @11:33PM (#5052712) Homepage
    Cedar Point is certainally a great park. They care for their employees, and run a great place. I have had much experience with many people involved with the park over the years, living just a stones throw away. I did some computer work in the past for the head mainframe analyst there a while back. I saw some pictures from their data rooms back in the mainframe days, as well as some more current ones. It certainally is an impressive sight, especially being an amusement park. The park is built in fact on a peninsula, not an island, so they have more room then you would think to expand, as well as hotels, and marinas which can be used for future expansion. They outdid themselves with the Millennium Force in my opinion. There is nothing like watching your favorite lady (or man) in the seat next to you as you scream down a 310 foot drop in the front seat. I can only hope this coming attraction will hold a candle to its predecessors. Cedar Point has several methods these days to cut down on the time to wait in line, such as hand stamps, and such, for those early to arrive. Hopefully this will cut down on the anticipation time, and increase the ride time on this. Anyway, this introduction is certainally thilling, and I can only hope my ride this coming May will live up to the immense hype.
  • Wouldn't it just kinda fall with you?
  • I certainly hope the ride isn't run by Windows CE. A BSOD half way up wouldn't be fun... Although, maybe CE could then stand for "Coasters Ejecting".
  • 420 foot towers, as if stoners didn't already have enough time to smoke on the way up...

  • 270 degrees ? (Score:3, Informative)

    by terrymr ( 316118 ) <terrymr@@@gmail...com> on Friday January 10, 2003 @02:37AM (#5053269)
    So if I'm going straight up and then getting twisted through 270 degrees how the hell am I coming straight down again ? I think you mean 180 degrees.

    • Re:270 degrees ? (Score:3, Informative)

      by LordKronos ( 470910 )
      Yes and no. What happens is that while you are going up you do a 90 degree rotational twist about a vertical axis. Then you go over a 180 hill (so you go from facing up to facing down). On the way down you do a 270 degree rotational twist about the vertical axis again.
  • Jeez, who encoded the video? Even the "High" stream looks like dog crap. Ugh. I bet they paid some outside media processing place a hefty sum too. Can't even watch the videos.

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