• ℹ️ Heads up...

    This is a popular topic that is fast moving Guest - before posting, please ensure that you check out the first post in the topic for a quick reminder of guidelines, and importantly a summary of the known facts and information so far. Thanks.

PortAventura: General Discussion

Take this with as much salt as you like, but rumours are swirling that PortAventura may have purchased a Mack Stryker Coaster for 2027/28, to go in Polynesia:

This would be superb for PA if true!

I loved my visit there in 2024, but one thing I think the main park could use is another modern thrill coaster to complement Shambhala. A Stryker would fulfil that brilliantly, and if Voltron is anything to go by, it could also be very well received!

Although I find Polynesia an odd choice of area, as it’s currently quite green and secluded. I can’t quite picture a massive great Mack in that area of PortAventura…
 
Matt N said:
Take this with as much salt as you like, but rumours are swirling that PortAventura may have purchased a Mack Stryker Coaster for 2027/28, to go in Polynesia:

This would be superb for PA if true!

I loved my visit there in 2024, but one thing I think the main park could use is another modern thrill coaster to complement Shambhala. A Stryker would fulfil that brilliantly, and if Voltron is anything to go by, it could also be very well received!

Although I find Polynesia an odd choice of area, as it’s currently quite green and secluded. I can’t quite picture a massive great Mack in that area of PortAventura…
Click to expand...

Bloody hope not. Voltron is rough as hell. I think they've got enough with Baco, Stampida and Red Force. Id have loved to have seen either a Toutatis or Velocicoaster style coaster in Polynesia
 
Something like Veloicoaster in Polynesia would be the perfect fit. I think that, whilst 10 years ago PA’s coaster lineup looked impressive, it’s starting to look kind of dated now, especially since B&M are no longer the undisputed king of the manufacturers. A new signature coaster to compliment Shambhala would be perfect.
 
My only explanation for how Baco could possibly be that rough, is that most rides only vibrate on one or two axis at any one time. Baco somehow vibrates along all four axis of spacetime simultaneously, causing you to relive the same jolts you just suffered through, over and over again, out of phase with reality.
 
Jb85 said:
Are there any other models of Baco anywhere ? Be interesting to know if they fixed the issue on later versions
Click to expand...
Nope, Furius Baco is the only Intamin Wing Rider Coaster model that's ever been built.

The most similar model other than that would be the Wing Coasters B&M build.

There are Intamin Wing Coasters but they're more like Mack Big Dipper/Stryker seats. Only two have been built which is Flying Aces at Ferrari World Abu Dhabi and Skyrush at Hershey Park
 
DiogoJ42 said:
My only explanation for how Baco could possibly be that rough, is that most rides only vibrate on one or two axis at any one time. Baco somehow vibrates along all four axis of spacetime simultaneously, causing you to relive the same jolts you just suffered through, over and over again, out of phase with reality.
Click to expand...

There is actually an engineering reasoning as to why the shaking is so bad and why B&M went inline with the track to improve the ride experience. But it being so bad that space and time itself is affected is a far more exciting reason.
 
Had a cheeky trip the other day. First time I've been in forever. Luckily it was very quiet so didn't need to worry too much about the ops.

My thoughts:
- Shambala is an incredible ride. That first drop and ampersand turn feel amazing.
- Uncharted is a really cool ride system and a fun layout but really lacking in theming in the actual attraction.
- Furis Baco isn't too bad near the front, fun launch.
- Stampedia probably does need that titan track, the ride is fun but very rattly, I dread to think what that section would be like if it was like the rest of it.
- Hurakan Condor was a nice enough drop tower (only did seated), but didn't pack as much of a kick as I'd hoped.
- Not really sure what was going on with the money train ride. There was a definitely a hill lift into a hill lift.
- Dragon Khan was being retracked, from memory it was good fun but happy to avoid too much of a rattler if it needs work.

I had a really good day and really liked the park. I would say that I felt like there could be more music being played in the stations and around the park the improve the immersion of the place.
 
It's interesting that PortaVentura are still using Windows 7 for Red Force (see link below at the 27-second mark).

I realise that it's not uncommon for old and offline machines to still use old versions of Windows, though (I think Oblivion still uses old operating systems and monitors, although I am not 100% certain).

Interestingly, Windows 7 was already somewhat out of date by the time that Red Force opened in 2017 (although it was still supported by Microsoft at the time), as Windows 10 had been out for nearly 2 years by then - although perhaps Windows 10 was unavailable when design and construction began?

(It also shows how bad Windows 8 was that nobody went near it)

I'm surprised that rollercoaster manufacturers don't just use Linux!

The laptop also has a German QWERTZ layout rather than the Spanish QWERTY layout - possibly because Intamin uses the Swiss / German layout?


From: https://youtu.be/jBGGMsdt5Lc?t=27
 
Last edited:
Secret Weapon said:
It's interesting that PortaVentura are still using Windows 7 for Red Force (see link below at the 27-second mark).

I realise that it's not uncommon for old and offline machines to still use old versions of Windows, though (I think Oblivion still uses old operating systems and monitors, although I am not 100% certain).

Interestingly, Windows 7 was already somewhat out of date by the time that Red Force opened in 2017 (although it was still supported by Microsoft at the time), as Windows 10 had been out for nearly 2 years by then - although perhaps Windows 10 was unavailable when design and construction began?

(It also shows how bad Windows 8 was that nobody went near it)

I'm surprised that rollercoaster manufacturers don't just use Linux!
Click to expand...
It does take a while for new versions of OSs to be adopted in corporate production environments. At the time I don’t think I was using Windows 10 at work either - it wasn’t until a year or two after 2017 it got rolled out. Plus, as mentioned, it’s almost certainly in an air-gapped, offline environment so it doesn’t really matter.
 
In all of the companies that I've ever worked for, they stick with their existing OS until support ends and they are literally forced by Microsoft to upgrade.

Even new computers were downgraded to the version used by the other machines.

We would probably still be using Windows XP if it was still supported (not that this is a bad thing, as it is still my favourite version of Windows!).
 
You're right. And the beauty of Windows 7 is that it can probably still be installed on brand new Windows 11-era hardware (with some tweaking) if the old laptops failed, anyway.

(I know that companies still using floppy disks for their old machines are having trouble finding replacement disks, though, and so they may need to upgrade at some point)
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top