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Underused Ride Systems

Tim

TS Member
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Air / Blue Fire
I fancied starting a Matt N style of thread!

While watching some of the amazing rides people have come up with in Planet Coaster I was thinking 'wow I wish there was a real ride like that'. In most cases the ride type exists and has existed for 10+ years but looking at RCDB they are mostly simple standard models or clones of the original. Which got me thinking, there's some untapped potential in some of these ride systems.

Here's a few that I noticed:

Mack Water Coaster and Supersplash
There's so many interesting tricks that can be done with a Coaster Boat Ride hybrid. Journey to Atlantis (Sea World Orlando) was Macks first and does a really good job of showing off the ride system. But every ride that's come after it has stuck to a very basic layout:
- 1 curved drop (finishing with a block break on small models or a splash down on larger ones)
- 1 big straight drop with an airtime hill
- a watersplash and a standard boat section (2 on the larger models).
There are a few with lift sections as well but only really as a way to save space.
The Supersplash model is even more generic with almost all of them being a clone.
I'd love to see some more interesting uses of the ride. For example an indoor roller coaster (the car design isn't too dissimilar to Disneylands Space Mountain) with a surprise splash down, boat ride finale. Or a layout like a bobsled (the track already resembles one) that starts high up and slow but keeps building up speed.

Mack Suspended Power Coaster
Another Mack ride and I can see why this is underused as it has to be a fairly expensive ride system. But there's so much untapped potential. Of the 3 that exist I've been a little underwhelmed by all of them. Arthur is a good ride but I found the 'powered' element to be underused. As soon as the ride speeds up it slows down again. Dragon Gliders looks quite good but is restricted to being inside and so doesn't have much room for Coaster sections either. Universal Beijing's Jurrasic Flyers got me really hyped, especially seeing the huge mountain they've built the ride into. But early reports (I don't think it's actually opened yet) suggest it's just a high capacity version of the Pteranodon Flyers ride at IOA. No dark ride section just a medium speed suspended Coaster. I hope not because if so what a waste of a ride system!

Flying Theatres (any manufacturers)
Simply put there are too many 'site seeing' types of Flying Theatre. I'd love to see more Flight of Passage and Sky Lions that actually try to tell a story. Why not a Flying Theatre equivalent of Star Tours?

Those are the ones on the top of my head right now. I'm sure there's more. What ride system do you think are underused?
 
Ooh nice I idea for a thread @Tim
It's a difficult one but there are some I can think of.
  • Chance Rides Hyper GTX - only one of these has been built but it gets rave reviews and it's very cheap. There is another one suspected to being built but I hope some more of these do get built as I feel there's a lot you could do with layouts for these mini hyper coasters. I feel there's so many cool options for these and I really want to see what chance rides can do with it.
  • Mach powered coaster - A strange one but I think if Mack updated this moddle a little bit I think they could really do some cool things with it. I'm thinking backwards sections and other trick track parts,
I do also agree with your suggestions so it made it hard for me to come up with some.
 
Great topic idea @Tim!

In terms of some of my suggestions; I’ll agree with your own suggestion of the Mack water coaster (I honestly think launches and inversions could be done on a water coaster with how tech has progressed since the first model in 1998!), and I also agree with @JAperson’s suggestion of the Chance Hyper GT-X (with the low price point and rave reviews, I’ve always been surprised that only one has ever been built, and I reckon Chance could shape up the model to be a rival to Vekoma’s new-gen sit downs if they wanted).

I also came up with a few ideas of my own:
  • S&S El Loco - I’ll admit I’m always surprised that S&S never made this model more versatile, as if they’d pushed the boat out a little more with the El Loco layouts, and included some more interesting elements (e.g. launches) we could have had a worthy competitor to the Gerstlauer Euro-Fighter!
  • Mack Mega/Hyper Coaster (non-launched) - I know this model, especially the Mack hyper coaster, is in its relative infancy, but thus far, we surprisingly haven’t really seen a Mack hyper with a sole airtime focus. Flash has more twisty sections and inversions, and is almost like a huge looping coaster, while DC Rivals looks to focus more on the rapid transitions. I’m also surprised that we haven’t yet seen a Mack hyper breaching the height range of 200ft or so. I’d love to see Mack try a hyper in the 250ft or so height range, or possibly even a giga coaster, as I think it could have a lot of potential!
  • Intamin Pre-Fabricated Wooden Coaster - I know this one seems like a bit of a blast from the past, as Intamin’s last pre-fab opened in 2008, but I genuinely think that a lot could be done with this ride type! I’d argue that these woodies were the precursor to RMC, and with 13 years of technological advancements that have occurred since T Express, I genuinely think a new one of these would give RMC a run for their money! Especially now that RMC have seemingly stopped selling ground-up wooden coasters, I think Intamin could do a hell of a lot with a new, big woodie using the prefab tech!
  • Intamin Mega-Lite/Ultra Coaster - Similarly to @JAperson’s suggestion of the Chance Hyper GT-X, I’m always surprised that the Intamin Mega-Lite never had more done with it. The 5 sold are all clones of one another, and only 2 of them were not sold to the OCT Group (Happy Valley owners). In a very similar vein to the pre-fab arguably setting up RMC, I think Intamin’s Mega-Lite walked so that many of today’s compact airtime machines could run, and I think Intamin’s Mega-Lite could really be used to rival Vekoma’s popular new sit-down coasters! In fact, from looking at the Intamin website, I think Intamin may have had the same idea!
  • S&S Free Fly - This may seem like an odd choice, but I think the tech looks to have a lot of potential! I reckon it could work really well as an enclosed coaster with dark ride sections; it reminds me a lot of how the Gringotts bank carriage ride looks in the Harry Potter films, and while I’m not suggesting a Harry Potter-themed S&S Free Fly, I do think the tech has a lot of potential within the dark ride coaster scene!
 
Mack Mega/Hyper Coaster (non-launched) - I know this model, especially the Mack hyper coaster, is in its relative infancy, but thus far, we surprisingly haven’t really seen a Mack hyper with a sole airtime focus. Flash has more twisty sections and inversions, and is almost like a huge looping coaster, while DC Rivals looks to focus more on the rapid transitions. I’m also surprised that we haven’t yet seen a Mack hyper breaching the height range of 200ft or so. I’d love to see Mack try a hyper in the 250ft or so height range, or possibly even a giga coaster, as I think it could have a lot of potential!
I think the reason we haven't seen a sole airtime one is because Mack had to differentiate from B&M who make the best standard airtime based hypers.
 
I forgot the S&S Free Fly. That's a perfect example. Although the newer wingrider inspired model that never got built might have more long term potential.

The Mack Megas are so versatile I think we will see what you've suggested, we just havn't yet. It's a shame that over half the launched Megas that have been built are just a copy of Blue Fire. But given the model ranges from Slinky Dog Dash and Storm all the way to something as insane as Helix and DC Rivals its fair to say its getting the full use.
 
Arrow/S&S 4D coasters are incredible. Absolutely should be far more prevalent. If someone stuck one in a UK park it would instantly be one of the best rides in the country, and insanely marketable too.


Arrow/Vekoma suspended swinging coasters are so much fun as a family ride, far better than the far more prevalent fixed inverted coaster. While some of the earlier models are on deaths door it's a huge shame they are not being replaced with new ones.
 
I can't find this on the HUSS website have you got a picture? Just wondering what it actually is.
Here we go. You might recognise it from RCT3 or Planco... :p

05ef2389f44b0797a907190da6c08799.jpg
 
I think it's a maintenance nightmare though, which could explain why it's the only one ever built.
Aren't all HUSS rides maintenance nightmares? Look at Towers HUSS rides. Enterprise goes down at least one a year for extended downtime and it's often down for just a few hours. The blade also often has extended periods of downtime.
 
I quite like some flat rides, but I didn't enjoy the HUSS Jump2. There's something about shooting up while spinning that slams your head into the OSTR. It might be fun with some kind of modern lap restraint, but I didn't find the one at Canada's Wonderland very enjoyable.
 
I quite like some flat rides, but I didn't enjoy the HUSS Jump2. There's something about shooting up while spinning that slams your head into the OSTR. It might be fun with some kind of modern lap restraint, but I didn't find the one at Canada's Wonderland very enjoyable.
Interesting. It does seem polarising. Perhaps one of the reasons none more have been built along with the fact it's really unreliable.
 
Aren't all HUSS rides maintenance nightmares? Look at Towers HUSS rides. Enterprise goes down at least one a year for extended downtime and it's often down for just a few hours. The blade also often has extended periods of downtime.

This is an age issue, not an underlying Huss issue. That these are still (just about) running after all these years is a testament to their high, not low, quality.
 
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I never realised a ride so prominent in video games is actually so rare. Then again Frontier used to have an office in Canada which might explain that.

I have to admit its always looked like an unrealistic ride type due to how bulky and high up the support structure is. I can imagine it is a maintenance nightmare.

Similar suggestion I wish we'd seen more S&S Sky Swatters. I know first hand they were not the most pleasant rides but it was such a bizarre structure it used to be an icon on Thorpe Parks skyline.
I wonder if a miniature one, built inside on an elevated platform (to avoid the height change) would make an interesting dark ride. With no idea you are suddenly going to swat.
 
+1 for more Sky Swats. I loved Slammer. Such a bizarre and unusual sensation.

I also think the world needs more Intamin Gyro Swings. Yes, as a concept they’re ten-a-penny and found in many parks, but of all the ones I’ve ridden, I still feel like Maelstrom packs the biggest punch. You can really feel it ramping up and powering you through the platform. I am basing all of this on the experience of only one installation, mind you. I couldn’t say if the same experience is present on other Intamin builds.
 
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