Showing posts with label Thrill Rides. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thrill Rides. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 21, 2017

YouTube Tuesday #20: Ultimate 10 Thrill Rides (2000)


Top 10 lists are REALLY fickle. Especially when we’re focusing on the theme park industry, which has a new “best thing” du jour every year and twice on Sundays. This little gem comes to us from the far-off land of the Year 2000. These were the coolest thrill rides (well, at least according to TLC) in the world at the time.

It’s interesting to see which ones would still make a Top 10 list today (I’m thinking probably the top 2, maybe still #4 as well) now that we’ve been privy to the flowing sands of time and a thousand new paint jobs. It’s also interesting to play Joe’s favorite game with specials like this, “guess which rides are still standing!” Or at the very least, which rides are still in their original incarnations. Some rides have been taken down. Some have been moved to other locations, some have new paint jobs, some kind of run backwards or whatever. It’s another worthwhile nostalgic look at the past.

In all seriousness, how would you structure a Top 10 thrill ride special? The structure presented here is not bad: they try to have as much variety as possible, so there’s one stand-up, one water coaster, two inverted (both very different), one flyer, one hyper, one giga, one Woodie, one freefall, and one reverse freefall. Besides being a Rollercoaster Tycoon fan’s wet dream, that’s a good amount of variety for a Top 10 list.

Or, would you stack your favorite rides on it, regardless of what kind? I’m sure there would be more than one giga or Woodie, right? But then you have to push out some quirky rides that might bear mentioning. Would you include themed non-coasters like Spider-Man or Tower of Terror? Certainly they would qualify as thrill rides, yes? And what’s the deal with having Buzzsaw Falls rather than Atlantis? I guess Buzzsaw is more roller coaster-y, but it wasn’t really that interesting of a ride.

This special is also noteworthy for the whacked-out elements it has to try and keep the material entertaining, as if the Top 10 thrill rides on the planet weren’t interesting enough. Among the more bizarro elements are the insane desire to have the feature riders be as random as humanly possible (we go from a team of ACE-ers in the first segment to, I’m not kidding here, the American Superstars female dance troupe. Aesthetics?) as well as the straight-out inexplicable tags and adjectives they give to each ride (Volcano is dubbed the “ultimate hot coaster.” Not sure how big the field is in that category). (Thinking more about the feature riders, I have this hilarious image in my head where all the feature riders come together at the end of the show and perform a finale number, Country Bears style, with Ric Turner doing a chorus line with the American Superstar dance girls). Also, take a shot every time the narrator makes a terrible pun. Here’s the hit parade:

“The Riddler STANDS for Revenge!”
“This water ride delivers a helping of H2-WHOA”
“Volcano is the hottest ride in Virginia”
“If you don’t roll with this ride, you’ll come up snake eyes”
“This is the coaster you’ll love the most-er”

It’s unfortunate that TLC went through a cringing “hip and edgy” phase at the same time that Disney decided to flog that horse. Seldom it works. But next time, how about letting the “ultimate 10 thrill rides” speak for themselves, huh TLC?

--ParkScopeJeff (@ParkScopeJeff)


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Tuesday, November 14, 2017

YouTube Tuesday #19: The Greatest...Thrill Rides


Now we’re getting serious. In week two of our three week roller coaster not-exactly-holiday-themed marathon, we present one of the classic roller coaster documentaries of all time. “The Greatest…” was a very popular (for TLC) series of “best of” documentaries at a time when people just loved them some cable documentaries. In this installment, we get to see the roller coaster installment of the series, since we knew for darn sure we were going to get one.

The Greatest Thrill Rides is an all-time classic coaster doc. It is very much the “thrill ride” version of the all-time classic Funhouse. Like its dark ride compatriot, this doc seeks to comprehensively take the viewer on a journey of discovery (…and awareness?...) though the past, present, and future of thrill rides. Like the best cable docs, watching a show like The Greatest Thrill Rides is like adventuring through a thrill ride museum, studying the best of the history and excitement of thrill rides the world over. It’s one of those features that you would show someone if you could only pick one thrill ride show, because it covers all the bases in the limited time it has to thrill you (blah blah blah!).

The past is covered through the occasional references to Russian ice slides and switchback railways. The present is explored through a whirlwind “best of” tour of the greatest thrill rides on the planet circa late-1990s. To be fair, the top of the lists are pretty bad (I won’t spoil them for you, but woof), but of course they cover all the late-1990s crazes, from inverted coasters to woodies to stand-up to hyper. Each one is given a quick feature and an obligatory post-ride interview with the Ric Turners of the world.

The next segment is focused on the creation of the coasters, and the construction. These features will be familiar with those of you who have been keeping up with our weekly YouTube output.

And then halfway through, the show does a complete 180. Because it’s not about roller coasters anymore. We’re going to the malls and arcades, and to the Vegas strip, and to Universal. Because we’re going to talk about the thrilling simulators which are just the bees knees these days (how many times do you think I can use the words “thrill” or “thrilling” in this article? I think at least a few more times). These, we are reminded, are called “immersive thrill rides.” Cue the Gary Goddard cameo appearance.

What’s cool about this segment is I have absolutely no idea what most of these rides are, or were. Were these simulators in malls or traveling exhibits? The narrator says there are more than 70 of these exhibits around the country…I don’t even remember this being a thing. Was this a feature at large malls like South Coast Plaza or the Irvine Spectrum back in the day? Did they have changing movies? If so, how often did they change? Did you get to choose your adventure like that enormous POS basement bench simulator at the Excalibur in Vegas? Over the course of a few seconds, we see simulator movies of: riding Revolution at SFMM, traveling through a collapsing mine, driving down a Mad Max-style desert road, a haunted cavern, a funhouse, a giant roller derby obstacle course thing (I don’t even know how to describe that one except to say it looks like a first-person view of a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time sewer level), a trench, a large building, a pleasant Calabasas side road, a “street race,” a mountain, a pre-Spider-Man drop off a building, and Days of Thunder at Kings Island.

But when we get introduced to simulators, of course we have to explore the 1990s Vegas simulators! That’s right, for the first time on a theme park doc, we get an extended sequence featuring In Search of the Obelisk, Race for Atlantis, and Star Trek: The Experience! This has to be my favorite segment of the show, since I love love love me some Vegas simulators. My brother and I spent many a vacation visiting these rides constantly, since we weren’t yet old enough to gamble this was the next best thing. And we actually get to see some behind-the-scenes action! The IMAX camera for In Search of the Obelisk, some real 3D models and a feature for the HUGE 3D glasses for Atlantis (with an interview with Rhythm & Hues!), and a tour of the bridge and the simulator cabins for Star Trek! This makes me happy, since Star Trek: The Experience was one of the most mind-blowing attractions anywhere in the world when it opened in 1998, Disney or otherwise. I always wished they could have moved it to Universal after it closed. It’s that cool. And the Star Trek museum! Absolutely fantastic. The Transporter Room to this day is one of the greatest-ever pre-shows of all time.

And lastly of course, we get the future. And the future is not only Universal Studios but video games. And I’m not just talking about Sega Rally Championship or another one of those you’ve seen a million times. Ladies and gentlemen, I present….Vertical Reality. That’s right. Vertical Reality. At 43:12.

How many of you remember this one? It’s a 25 foot-tall freefall tower in front of a giant shooter game. When you shoot someone else, you go up. When you get shot, you drop. WHERE HAS THIS BEEN?! What happened to this idea besides the predictable number of lawsuits?

We end the show with an exploration of what this show considers the “ultimate thrill ride.” I don’t know what TLC’s obsession is of going out into the real world and saying the “future of thrill rides” is something we’ve been able to do for decades (like bungee-jumping and sky-diving). But anyway, this particular show’s idea of the ultimate thrill ride is Air Combat USA, a really for-real Top Gun simulation where participants actually get to shoot at each other. In real planes. Driven by Air Force pilots. That’s cool. I wonder if it’s still around? *Does a quick Google search* Hey it’s still around! And it’s in FULLERTON??!! How did I not know this when I was living in Anaheim? And it’s only…$1,700! And you save $50 when you book two people! That’s so cool!

And FYI, Alan Schilke (the guy who always interviews with Arrow D) just wants to throw out there at 51:30 that the “ultimate thrill ride” or roller coaster is one that can turn you independently in the car in any position at any time along the track. Direct quote: “if you can change the rider’s position relative to the car, it’s almost like a fourth dimension.” These words are actually said. In 1997. Isn’t that spooky? Nay, isn’t that…thrilling? (ha! I did it!)

Tune in next week for the conclusion of our three-week roller coaster fest, and one of my favorite all-time thrill ride specials!

--ParkScopeJeff (@ParkScopeJeff)


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Tuesday, September 26, 2017

YouTube Tuesday #12: Thrill Rides: Designing Fear



How extreme do you think roller coasters can get?

We’ve been grappling with that question since 1989. That was the year that Magnum XL-200 broke the hypercoaster 200-foot barrier. Up until then, when coasters got taller, they also gained more loops. That was pretty much a given for aspiring scream parks. Corkscrew changed the game when it debuted in 1975 at Knott’s Berry Farm by adding inversions to a roller coaster, something that hadn’t been seen since the circle-loops of the turn of the century. From 1975 to 1989, roller coasters getting “more extreme” meant they were taller or they had more inversions. Usually both.

Every other year, it seemed, some coaster somewhere in the country would either add another 10 feet to the height record, or just one more inversion than the previous record-holder. In fact, many of the new coaster designs took a back seat to the thrill of going higher, faster, and upside-down more often.

Different extreme designs like the stand-up coaster, the suspended coaster, the bobsled coaster, and the heartline (Ultra-Twister) coaster were fun, but they often did not make top headlines. The allure of the stand-up King Kobra at Kings Island was soon forgotten when the park added the record-setting Vortex. The suspended Iron Dragon quickly gave way to Magnum at Cedar Point.

Then 1989/1990 gave us the dual whammy of Magnum and Viper at Six Flags Magic Mountain. Viper opened as the second-tallest in the world (after Magnum), but pulled a ridiculous seven inversions out of its hat. At this point, it seemed that a pendulum began to swing the other way. Only once over the next decade would Magnum’s height record be topped: by the Desperado at Buffalo Bill’s casino (of all places, I know. It’s like Elton John performing live at the Katella Avenue Seven-Eleven). Though, it should be noted that Magnum’s drop height record would also be broken by Steel Phantom at Kennywood.
And Viper had nary a challenger over the next decade to its inversions record, being outpaced only by Dragon Kahn at Port Aventura in Spain.

Suddenly, starting in 1990, amusement parks seem to want something different, not just the same old “add ten feet for the height record and call it a day.” Throughout the 1990s, we certainly got our fair share of hypers and many, many inversion, but the 1990s was also when we started seeing a wooden coaster renaissance, and B&M’s stand-up, inverted, and even floorless designs. We started seeing flying coasters in 2000. And perhaps most important of all, we experienced the glory of Linear Induction Motors.

Launched coasters added an extra dimension to roller coasters. It was no longer even necessary to have a lift hill, yet still be among the most exciting coasters on the planet! One could be launched into giant inversions or straight up lift hills, with nary a chain in sight. And the launches could happen at any time!

When the launched coaster came to us in the form of Discovery Mountain/Space Mountain in 1995, and then to the states as Flight of Fear in 1996, it was dynamite for our imaginations. We knew roller coasters had pushed beyond their pre-defined limits, almost like they suddenly gained super-powers. You could launch tom 70 mph at any time! And this was something only 200-foot+ coasters were allowed to do!

This is where TLC’s Thrill Rides: Designing Fear picks up. It’s another in a long line of ubiquitous 2000-era roller coaster specials. But this is the only one, at least in my archive, that dives right into the consequences of roller coasters being too extreme. Yes, I have to admit, this show is very uncomfortable.

We’re releasing this show in deference to the 2017 Ohio State Fair Tragedy, when we all were reminded how dangerous amusement rides can be. These really are scary machines. One loose bolt or one failed brake can seriously injure passengers. It’s not a pleasant topic of discussion.

I do like that Designing Fear chooses to bring up a topic that nobody likes to talk about. In a way, it’s like an amusement park episode of 60 Minutes. However, Joe and I feel the presentation style of the show could have been handled better.

The topics of the show itself run the gamut, from how a coaster is designed, to the effects that g-forces have on the body, to the future of extreme rides. Even a biodynamics engineer is interviewed at multiple points to offer her take on the coaster’s effect on the spine and the brain. We talk to coaster fans, writers, designers, military engineers, and maintenance engineers. It jumps topics frequently, sometimes without any warning or buildup. But the worst is when the show randomly introduces tales of death and horror at the amusement park faster than a scare-actor at HHN. An interview with a coaster maintenance manager is followed by an upturned rapids vehicle incident. It doesn’t hang together. I think the big miscue in Designing Fear is that they were really making two shows: a show about thrills and g-forces and a show about maintenance and safety. One show plays on the excitement one gets for the amusement park, the other is a warning to be careful when playing at the park because disaster can happen at any time. The viewer gets emotionally frazzled when both are packed together.

But even with its flaws, in the wake of the Ohio State Fair tragedy, I believe this show is just as relevant as ever. Maintenance and safety continue to be main topics of concern today, even with ever-advancing technology. And as we continue to push the envelope in how extreme rides can be, we have to ask ourselves, what is the line we’re not willing to cross? How extreme does a ride have to be for us to hesitate and walk away? It’s an interesting topic of discussion, and I think one that speaks to our base desires and psychology. How extreme is too extreme for you? Answer the question honestly and you’ll find out a lot about yourself.

--ParkScopeJeff (@ParkScopeJeff)


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