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2005's Tallest Roller Coaster
MacBrave writes "MSNBC has a short story about a new roller coaster, named 'Kingda Ka' that is set to open at Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey in the spring of 2005. This coaster will beat the current world record-holder, Top-thrill Dragster at Cedar Point."
we call it 'great adventure', *not* 'six flags' like the rest of the world.
Why? Because we freaken like it like that... got it?
Worlds highest ride is Taipei 101 (also known as Taipei Financial Center), but you only get the ride when an eartquake hits Taiwan.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Kingda Ka? When did they start using pig latin to name rollercoasters?
Take a look at the "Virtual Tour". Certainly it appears to be a high peak. The faux clouds are a nice touch. But the ride amounts to one climb, a twist as you come down and a small hill as you return to the station. Might be less than 25 seconds once you sit in the car.
How does that compare to other high rides?
Kingda Ka is Hyperborean for "Spine snapper."
Or, if pronounced with emphasis on the "da," its Lemurean for "Flinger of Unrestrained Toddlers."
You get it on with your partner. There is anxious anticipation as you start. You start slowly, climbing your way to the top.
There are smiles exchanged, and giggles, maybe even caressing or hand holding. The excitement builds and builds. It nears the top. The expressions on faces become wondrous and excited. Then as it hits the pinnacle, things move very fast. There's a quick motion, the heart races with complete excitement; faces are all in total pleasure. Arms are flailing, heads are bouncing, and there is some noticeable screaming going on.
The rest of the ride is up and down, twisting and turning, lots of bumping, sometimes in the light, sometimes in the dark, sometimes there's a surprise, and sometimes it becomes all too familiar but always...always...at the end, there's a big smile on the face, hair is all messed up and everyone is talking about how great it is while some of them say, "I wanna go again"...
What am I? The Kingda Ka Roller Coaster of course! Sheesh... You pervert.
Gee, lets see how unoriginal we can get. While I applauded Cedar Point for their interpetation of a "RollerCoaster" I don't think the term fits these beasts.
To me a Rollercoaster involves more than going up one incline, no matter how tall. It is all about the flow of the machine. Some wild machines are just a royal pain to ride as they thrash or feel disjointed from seemingly "just thrown in" hills and curves.
The Great American Scream machine in Six Flags over Georgia is representative of a classic rollercoaster. CedarPoint has many REAL roller coasters. These new things remind me of railed free fall machines. Boring...
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
If you go on this thing, look around at the other people, and choose somewhere smart to sit. See video here while it lasts.
yo.
Because geeks care about more than just the new Linux kernel. Yes this may be a bit on the mundane side, but hey, roller coasters are cool.
It's over in about 50 seconds. Wow! It really is just like sex!
I've riden a ride like the one buing built. It's the kind that uses a horizontal track to send the train into the first incline. Believe me, there's nothing like it. One I rode (StormRunner (?), Hershey Park, PA) went from a near dead stop to 70+ MPH in under 3 seconds, into a 90 degree first climb 12 stories high. You move so fast your eyes water from all the wind whipping past you. So fast the forces throw your head back against the headrest. So fast, it's all done with in about 27 seconds.
One big word of advice if you ride something like this: Before the ride starts, keep your head against the headrest. Your neck will thank you.
The One Rule Of Chess You'll Ever Need: Don't play someone who carries a kit in their bookbag.
Top Thrill Dragster had an unfortunately large amount of down-time (mostly due to the cables and hydraulic system). Last year, when it premiered, it was down for nearly an entire month. It actually became prevalent enough that the ride's running status was put online. TTD is an amazing ride, though, and downtime was to be expected on a ride whose design was revolutionary.
It'll be interesting to see if Intamin has worked the bugs out of this one; I'm sure they've learned much from Dragster.
At any rate, it's very exciting to see the 500 mark being approached so rapidly!
This ride is completely weak in that it is almost an exact copy of Cedar Point's ride. only 8 mph faster (ooohh) and 30 odd feet higher (aahh). I went to Cedar Point a few weeks back and passed on the dragster. You are literally on the ride for 30 seconds, if that. And this is what you get for standing in line for an hour? two? I think not. We opted to go on Millenium Force and that was much more of a ride, it topped out at a "lousy" 390 feet, but the ride lasted for nearly 2 minutes. No thanks 6 flags, I'm gonna pass.
That's strange, because when I was at Rutgers (about an hour away from Jacksonville where the park is), everybody I know of called it nothing but Great Adventure. Plus it a number of students just called it GA (as in 'Gee Ay') for short and everybody knew what they were talking about.
Of course, every summer a number of students would buy a season pass and go everyday untill they were bored to tears of it.
It looks like GA is getting some new rides, which is good, especially since rides like Robin was kind of short (as in 10 seconds!! WTF). Too bad longer rides are not able to justify the price it costs to build for profit. *sigh*
It's been a number of years since I've been to GA, but I seem to recall they had a little paintball field nearby (which a number of us geeks also used to frequent), but that's getting offtopic. :-)
It's sometimes great living in the Northern Ohio area. Cedar Point is the greatest park EVER. With great, world-record rides like the Magnum XL200 (puny by today's standards), Millenium Force, and the Top-Thrill Dragster, how can anyone really do better here in the U.S.?
I do have a concern though. With the Dragster, the ride uses a cable driven mechanism to pull the car at 120 MPH. There was an incident this past summer where the cable shredded and shards of cable covered in hot oil injured a many of the riders. The local news coverage showed people having first-degree burns and embedded wire pieces on their face and arms (yikes!). I agree that this is an isolated incident, but this ride has been closed a lot because of the high winds from Lake Erie. Being 420-something feet, I would not like to be stuck on top of the hill for any reason. So, I hope the designers are prepared for this new ride.
Coderz 4 Life
These rides are more like "quick thrills" than a traditional roller coaster.
;)
I had a season pass to Cedar Point last year and went quite a few times, and while the Top Thrill Dragster was fun, it doesn't compare to their other tall coasters, Millennium Force and Magnum.
Reason being, as you ride to the top of the MF or the Magnum, you anticipate dropping straight down 300/200 feet and there's more suspense.
With Top Thrill Dragster, the ride is seriously over before you know it. It's much harder to enjoy because it goes so fast. Don't get me wrong, it is fun, but calling these the fastest/tallest coasters is like saying the Ripcord (bungee/slingshot type ride) is the highest ride ever made. Yeah, technically it is, but it shouldn't count.
I'd much rather ride to the top of a 400/500 foot hill while anticipating the drop back down - seems much more thrilling.
It also sucks waiting 2/3 hours in line for a 10 second ride
We have secretly replaced these Slashdot mods' sense of humor with a rusty nail. Let's see if they notice!!
I had an opportunity to go to Cedar Point over the summer and ride TTD, and to be honest, the fact that it shuts down on occasion worked to our advantage. First, we waited in line for about an hour before it broke down. They said it would be a long wait and encouraged us to visit the rest of the park. We did, but once we saw it was back up, we came back. When we got back in line, it looked long as hell; however, since they were obviously expecting more problems, they intentionally kept the line short, but made it look long (the snake line is actually hidden on the other side of the coaster, so when you get in line, the most rationale thought is to assume that if you are one one side of the coaster, the other side must be full). Needless to say, we waited less than an hour the first time, and less than 45 minutes the second time. Both times, well worth the wait. It is a short ride, but when you get shot off the first time, the thrill is amazing. Also, definitely a lot less scary the second time!
the needed velocity to put the cart over the top of the hump - say if something goes wrong during the 'launch' of the vehicle? What type of safeguards are there to prevent a catastrophe?
Lets say the vehicle must achieve 115 mph to reach the summit but during the 'launch' the hydraulic mechanism fails and the vehicle hits only 110 mph - the vehicle will go near the top of the summit but then WILL START GOING BACKWARDS - and then what? Do they have some kind of track they can run off onto (remember that the seats are not meant for this).
Any ideas on how best to deal with this?
That's strange, because when I was at Rutgers (about an hour away from Jacksonville where the park is), everybody I know of called it nothing but Great Adventure.
There's no Jacksonville in NJ. The town is just called Jackson.
The More You Know (TM)
...and that's all there is to it.