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Your First Upside Down Coaster?


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Still wish someone would open a Chaos clone. The wait always made me nervous with all the ticking clocks and such.

I miss Chaos! I was so upset when Cedar Point took it out. I don't remember any ticking clocks though...

Wait, what? That's a different Chaos? Oops, my bad, carry on! :D

And I really enjoyed that Chaos as well... Hmm more rides should be named Chaos.

Diamondchaos, Chaoshee, Chaos The Ride, the possibilities are limitless.

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My first inverting roller coaster was Vortex back in 1992. I was 8 at the time, and I had waited years to reach that 48" mark. I think that fact is why my sister decided to ride with me that first time, despite being pregnant at the time. Certainly an ill-advised decision.

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Still wish someone would open a Chaos clone. The wait always made me nervous with all the ticking clocks and such.

I miss Chaos! I was so upset when Cedar Point took it out. I don't remember any ticking clocks though...

Wait, what? That's a different Chaos? Oops, my bad, carry on! :D

And I really enjoyed that Chaos as well... Hmm more rides should be named Chaos.

Diamondchaos, Chaoshee, Chaos The Ride, the possibilities are limitless.

Son of Chaos? :)

that SoC is no where to be found now...

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Mine was Son of Beast in 2001 during a school trip. The ride broke my fear of coasters, and I went on to ride many more that day. I missed King Cobra due to it being closed. Also, I still wasn't brave enough to conquer Vortex of FoF, but those were done on my next trip in '03.

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This.

madcobralayout.jpg

Or this. I dont remember.

vortex_slide_2.jpg

On FOF, there was no line, and my friend told me that it didnt go upside down and that it didnt launch. He explained it to me in the queue area, (so that i didnt hear the launch) and then took me in. Of course i thought that it just slowly rolled out of the station, but noooooo... I ended up hating him that day. But it was fun, and i was nervous, and that pushed me over the nervousness edge.

On Vortex, (It might have been first, i dont exactally remember which one i did first). I knew it went upside down. and my friend, (Same friend, same day) had told me that it felt like you were going up and then you just kept going up untuil you were down again. But then, i remember not feeling like that on the corkscrews. And not on the batwing either. He was very much hated that day. :P

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^Yes, we are still the best of friends. But, i was 9 years old and VERY nervous that day. And he was my most reliable source because usually i trust him. And he had been on Flight of Fear and Vortex before me. Now i love those rides as well.

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  • 2 weeks later...

My first was Corkscrew at Cedar Point.

Here's an interesting thought: for many of us, our first looping coaster was an Arrow or Schwarzkopf - one of their simpler ones with a single loop, double loop, corkscrew, or double corkscrew. A lot of the rides people have listed here are classics that are basically one hill, an inversion or two, and the brakes.

And those coasters are slowly dying... As Arrows and Schwarzkopf creations disappear, it begs the question: will someone else step in and begin producing these very basic, medium-intensity, entry-level coasters? Premier or Zamperla could squeeze in and take over, but I can't see parks paying the premium pricing of B&M or Intamin or even Vekoma, and that's IF those manufacturers would even be interested in using manpower and resources on simple hill-hill-loop-loop-brake coasters...

I can't imagine a park saying "New for 2015 - Corkscrew!" or "Double Loop!" or "Super Duper Looper!" Seems they're disappearing more than they're appearing, and eventually that'll have to change, right? Aren't parks stronger for having those double-loop coasters, even if they're not headlining attractions anymore? Just a thought!

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^I've raised that question as well. The big thing I see is that the gap between family friendly coasters and the huge thrill rides is starting to widen a great deal. However, I see a few contenders.

Mack has a train design which is family friendly but isn't afraid to do inversions. Those also only have a height requirement of 1.3 meters (4.2 ft) which could easily fill in for an Arrow or Schwarzkopf.

Gerstlauer has made trains for Sooperdooperlooper at Hersheypark, which they could probably design something to use those trains themselves. They certainly aren't afraid of inversions seeing they have a coaster which holds the inversion record.

Zeirer and Zamperla are kind of unknowns to me. Premier probably could if they made something with a launch that isn't too intense.

B&M is starting to delve into family coasters now. They also have trains for Steel Dragon 2000 with a height requirement of only 122 cm (4 ft). They might be able to pull that off.

You could bring RMC into the equation as well. Either the Topper Track or the Iron Horse would be ideal and I'm guessing it wouldn't be too hard to ask them to tone down the intensity a tad.

As of right now, I wouldn't trust Intamin with building a merry-go-round as they are seemingly finding ways to screw up rides (Shoot the Rapids for instance, how do you screw up a log flume?!)

Vekoma has kind of fallen of the face of the Earth. I haven't seen any new rides from them in quite a while aside from a few of their new family Boomerangs popping up. They're supposed to have new train designs as seen on their Battlestar Galactica ride (which is now SBNO). Their other standard looping models are pretty rough from what I hear. S&S would probably be a no-go, mainly because other than a sub-par capacity El Loco model, their rides are are all super intense launchers or 4D coasters (I'm surprised they didn't pick up on Arrow's other designs).

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What is categorized as a "family coaster" has gotten more intense. For example, 20 years ago, Woodstock Express would be a thrilling family coaster, but now rides like Cheetah Hunt are considered "family coasters".

Yeah, that's what I mean. Used to be (as evidenced here) many folks got their first "upside down" ride on a Corkscrew, Double Loop, a shuttle loop, or something of that scale. Now, those kinds of simple coasters are disappearing and there is no equivalent that's taking their place. Maybe it's an okay thing! Kids of this generation will doubtlessly fondly remember rides like Backlot, Verbolten, and Cheetah Hunt as their first "big" coasters. It's just different!

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