Kings Island Tomb Raider Media day and other old pictures

[Vortex]

Found some old pictures and thought everyone would like to see them. If I have time I post some more.

Found this one of the King Cobra line was not much left of the ride.

[CedarPointer]

I like the randomly placed red lightposts in the King Cobra line.

[rsipus13]

the ride had a line???? every time i rode it... (twice) i just walked on it....

[BoddaH1994]

I like the randomly placed red lightposts in the King Cobra line.

I think that was a holder for a QTV.

[flightoffear1996]

How i don't miss qtv

[CedarPointer]

I like the randomly placed red lightposts in the King Cobra line.

I think that was a holder for a QTV.

You can see the domed top of the one covering part of the Eiffel Tower. It's the same type they used in the rest of Action Zone in 1999.

[Oldiesmann]

the ride had a line???? every time i rode it... (twice) i just walked on it....

TR:TR was quite popular, particularly in its early days, when it was still playing off the popularity of the film and the video games, both of which are all but forgotten now.

TR:TR was also a much different ride than The Crypt. This video gives you a good idea:

[DeLorean Rider]

the ride had a line???? every time i rode it... (twice) i just walked on it....

TR:TR was quite popular, particularly in its early days, when it was still playing off the popularity of the film and the video games, both of which are all but forgotten now.

TR:TR was also a much different ride than The Crypt. This video gives you a good idea:

Haha, wow, I posted that video years ago with my old youtube account. I cant believe its still up; I would have thought it would have been removed since it was a direct rip from the travel channel. 264,000 views! I posted it at the same time as I posted the "Cincinnati Kids" Brady Bunch episode which was very quickly removed.

"kind of like a peanut butter cup!"

[TombRaiderFTW]

^ That was you?! I've always been curious who thedoorsfan71 was. That Solid Edge giant top spin model looks like a real pain the butt to create and animate.

[DeLorean Rider]

^ That was you?! I've always been curious who thedoorsfan71 was. That Solid Edge giant top spin model looks like a real pain the butt to create and animate.

Wow yea, I forgot about that. That was actually a video I made for a solid modeling project 5+ years ago. Not even sure I still have that file anymore; I've since completely switched to SolidWorks.

[jdawg1998]

thumbs up if you think Cedar Fair was the worst thing to ever happen to Kings Island.

^One of the comments. LOL, all because of TR:TR. Really?

[PhantomTheater]

Carl Linder and CBS were way worse for the park, if CF didn't buy the park there may not be a KI.

[CoastersRZ]

I remember the season pass preview night (evening before opening day) and Tomb Raider the ride never opened due to technical difficulties with the show elements. After waiting nearly an hour, I left the line to ride some rides that were open. My brother stayed in line for another hour and finally got to see the preshow room, but were not able to take a spin on the ride.

[bkroz]

I'd like to think that that may have been part of the "mystery" by maintaining a closed ride until opening day, but if they let people into the line it sounds more like a technical problem... Something the ride would be all too used to in later years.

[TheKlockster]

Here's a photo of the ride outside of a box.

http://www.geering-engineering.com/images/content/KI-GTS1.jpg

[kingsrattler]

^ I don't know if I have ever seen a picture of it outside of the "box". If does definitely fall into the "giant" category when compared to the likes of the top spin at Kings Dominion.

[bkroz]

Whenever I see that picture, I think the exact same thing. Seeing it operate outdoors (especially to visitors standing on ground level) would've been really truly amazing.

[KIBOB]

Yet it is kind of ironic that although the ride was not designed to stand against the elements, the ride was at some point or another outdoors, with internal components exposed for that matter. I could be wrong, but I'm sure that this is our Crypt. I really don't think that this is a picture of a prototype.

[bkroz]

It's our Crypt alright, and a picture of a prototype. Ours was the only Giant Top Spin ever made, and obviously for good reason.

By the way, HUSS continues to offer Giant Top Spins on their products website. They've got moxy, I'll give 'em that!

http://www.hussrides.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=108&Itemid=168

[coaster_junky]

keep in mind, paramount took the cheap route while ordering the giant top spin. it could very well still be around today if they would have listened to huss' suggestions.

[KIfan73]

Is that a pic of it at Kings Island before the building was built?

[Gordon Bombay]

keep in mind, paramount took the cheap route while ordering the giant top spin. it could very well still be around today if they would have listened to huss' suggestions.

Cheap? The show elements and price of the attraction were far from cheap I bet. What were HUSS' suggestions?

[CoastersRZ]

Not to mention, I doubt that Paramount were the ones pushing for the Giant Top Spin. They likely sent out a request for proposals to various ride manufacturers for a ride that could deliver certain motions, within a set space with a specific capacity. I don`t think that Paramount influenced the design of the ride that much.

I can attest to the fact that quite a bit of time and money was spent on designing the theme and building that housed the ride. Its too bad that the ride has suffered this fate. When it opened, it was a really unique experience. But upkeep and the problems with the ride unit itself were just too much.

[coaster_junky]

keep in mind, paramount took the cheap route while ordering the giant top spin. it could very well still be around today if they would have listened to huss' suggestions.

Cheap? The show elements and price of the attraction were far from cheap I bet. What were HUSS' suggestions?

obviously not cheap, didn't paramount pay over $20 million for the entire ride. what i meant was the cheaper route. i've read on here multiple times that for starters, they didn't want to pay the extra for the ride to be weather proof, which basically led to the demise of many of the show elements (mainly the water ones.).

i also read on here that paramount went against huss' recommendations on which type of braking system to use, they went with the cheaper one that failed often and caused significant downtime around once a season.

[DeLorean Rider]

keep in mind, paramount took the cheap route while ordering the giant top spin. it could very well still be around today if they would have listened to huss' suggestions.

Cheap? The show elements and price of the attraction were far from cheap I bet. What were HUSS' suggestions?

obviously not cheap, didn't paramount pay over $20 million for the entire ride. what i meant was the cheaper route. i've read on here multiple times that for starters, they didn't want to pay the extra for the ride to be weather proof, which basically led to the demise of many of the show elements (mainly the water ones.).

i also read on here that paramount went against huss' recommendations on which type of braking system to use, they went with the cheaper one that failed often and caused significant downtime around once a season.

Well if you heard it on here it must be true! Since you seem to be an expert, can you please elaborate on the way in which the ride was supposed to be braked compared to how it was actually braked?

This is BS.

Let me lay it out for you. For KI's purposes, the HUSS design was flawed from the beginning. Not because HUSS's design was bad, it was bad for what KI wanted it to do. Topspins are supposed to be free moving and operate within a wide window of acceptable movement; almost to the point where as long as it homes at the end, the ride is fine. When KI decided the ride needed to sync with a show within a tiny margin error, the weight was simply too much to control. Ever notice how when you watch a normal topspin, they rarely come to a complete stop during the cycle? The ride suffers significantly more fatigue when its expected the be braked 100% (ie, abrupt full stop at the ice field, post topspin, pre lava pit, etc). Add the fact that the ride is twice the size and you're going to have problems. It's like trying to stop a freight train on a dime.

The braking was simple. The gondola used a large locomotive brake disc on each side (this is the orange circle inside the arm in TheKlockster's photo) with 11 brake calipers around it (11 at the end; the number of calipers was slowy increased in an attempt to brake more, if I recally correctly it originally only had 8 calipers each arm). The arms were braked by running the 3 motors on each side backward (relative to the instantaneous direction of motion). When the kinetic energy from the ride fought the motors, the motors became generators, turning the excess kinetic energy into electrical energy. This electrical energy was then fed into the giant bank of variable resistors behind the building, and the energy was converted to heat. Because these variable resistors are essentially switches actuating at high frequency, when this huge amount of energy was channeled into them, the actuation could actually be heard. This is the loud screech that could be heard behind Tomb Raider during the cycle.

The arms and gondola were loaded with encoders, and if the positioning wasn't correct for a given rung in the logic, the ride faulted. In addition the excessive size and simple fact that it was a prototype often meant that if something did not fall into place exactly as it should, things would break (most often the arm motors while trying to overcompensate.) Arm motors were very expensive and difficult to acquire.

The removal rows and closing off seats obviously expresses the idea that the reduction of mass would reduce the kinetic energy and decrease the load on the motors. In the end it still wasn't enough and all the changes to the ride significantly reduced the popularity. Now the simple fact is that the land is worth more as storage or a future attraction, than as a big box to burn money in.

[bkroz]

The "wrong braking style" thing has been conjecture for many of us. There are people here who actually know how that ride worked (as evidenced above). I am not one of them.

As DeLorean Rider said, this Giant Top Spin was basically used as a moving theater for the first part of its life. It was just a vehicle that allowed an audience to view show scenes from positions other "theater-style" systems couldn't have allowed (looking up, hanging straight down, lifting in front of the goddess, etc) but that seems to have gone against the very purpose of Top Spins. When more flips were added later in its life as Tomb Raider (NOT when it became The Crypt), it balanced those "show scene stops" with greater thrill, too, and the result seems to have been so counterintuitive from the ride's mechanics that it just failed.

Many of us (myself included) have suggested that Cedar Fair should have replaced the Giant Top Spin with a Suspended one and have it repeat the cycle intended for Tomb Raider. DeLorean Rider's post seems to imply that even that wouldn't do any good - it's just the wrong system for that style of experience. Very interesting and it seems 100% correct.

[coaster_junky]

obviously not cheap, didn't paramount pay over $20 million for the entire ride. what i meant was the cheaper route. i've read on here multiple times that for starters, they didn't want to pay the extra for the ride to be weather proof, which basically led to the demise of many of the show elements (mainly the water ones.).

i also read on here that paramount went against huss' recommendations on which type of braking system to use, they went with the cheaper one that failed often and caused significant downtime around once a season.

Well if you heard it on here it must be true! Since you seem to be an expert, can you please elaborate on the way in which the ride was supposed to be braked compared to how it was actually braked?

This is BS.

i never said i was an expert, i'm going by a story that sob_tom, i believe*, told about the ride in a thread that was deleted almost immediately after he had posted it. the story, by someone that was at least in maintenance, talked about how there were two types of brakes available for the giant top spin model. both 'worked' in doing what the ride needed to do, but the second option would have worked better, paramount chose the first option due to price.

*if it wasn't you sob_tom, i'm sorry for my memory mistaking me.

Let me lay it out for you. For KI's purposes, the HUSS design was flawed from the beginning. Not because HUSS's design was bad, it was bad for what KI wanted it to do. Topspins are supposed to be free moving and operate within a wide window of acceptable movement; almost to the point where as long as it homes at the end, the ride is fine. When KI decided the ride needed to sync with a show within a tiny margin error, the weight was simply too much to control. Ever notice how when you watch a normal topspin, they rarely come to a complete stop during the cycle? The ride suffers significantly more fatigue when its expected the be braked 100% (ie, abrupt full stop at the ice field, post topspin, pre lava pit, etc). Add the fact that the ride is twice the size and you're going to have problems. It's like trying to stop a freight train on a dime.

The braking was simple. The gondola used a large locomotive brake disc on each side (this is the orange circle inside the arm in TheKlockster's photo) with 11 brake calipers around it (11 at the end; the number of calipers was slowy increased in an attempt to brake more, if I recally correctly it originally only had 8 calipers each arm). The arms were braked by running the 3 motors on each side backward (relative to the instantaneous direction of motion). When the kinetic energy from the ride fought the motors, the motors became generators, turning the excess kinetic energy into electrical energy. This electrical energy was then fed into the giant bank of variable resistors behind the building, and the energy was converted to heat. Because these variable resistors are essentially switches actuating at high frequency, when this huge amount of energy was channeled into them, the actuation could actually be heard. This is the loud screech that could be heard behind Tomb Raider during the cycle.

The arms and gondola were loaded with encoders, and if the positioning wasn't correct for a given rung in the logic, the ride faulted. In addition the excessive size and simple fact that it was a prototype often meant that if something did not fall into place exactly as it should, things would break (most often the arm motors while trying to overcompensate.) Arm motors were very expensive and difficult to acquire.

The removal rows and closing off seats obviously expresses the idea that the reduction of mass would reduce the kinetic energy and decrease the load on the motors. In the end it still wasn't enough and all the changes to the ride significantly reduced the popularity. Now the simple fact is that the land is worth more as storage or a future attraction, than as a big box to burn money in.

thank you for explaining this, i love gaining more knowledge about Kings Island and its attractions, i was just relaying what someone from maintenance said on here.

[TheKlockster]

Thanks the info DeLorean rider. Very interesting read!

I'll miss Tomb Raider. It really isn't harder for me now though. It died to me when they made it the Crypt. The last time I rode it was in early 2006, when it was still epic.

[DeLorean Rider]

Thanks the info DeLorean rider. Very interesting read!

I'll miss Tomb Raider. It really isn't harder for me now though. It died to me when they made it the Crypt. The last time I rode it was in early 2006, when it was still epic.

I agree. As soon as the techno music came along, rows were removed, the vertical door gone, and it because a HUSS ferris wheel, I was done. I never once rode it as the Crypt. Every time I went to the park in the last few years, I would just watch the cycle, and just say forget it.

I'll never forget the first time I rode it in 02, seeing that ultra-violet paint and having the eyes burning at you. I remember once in 02, buying a shirt at one of the stores to wear over my uniform so I could ride it on break. On that ride I ended up getting nailed by one of the water jets and had to go back to work soaked. Memories

My favorite year working it was 05 (last year with the boiler and all steam effects). When they decided to shut down the boiler in 06 we knew it was a bad sign. From there it was just a downhill slope.

[magnumchris]

Here are all the audio files the ride used as tomb raider. You can listen to the in ride music and relive the ride.

http://db.tt/9W9YeOga