T-Rex

That's Sky Flyer. It's the biggest Wave Swinger we have here in Australia. Well, it's a tower Wave Swinger, but still. I still go to the RES even if the Rainbow's not there. The word must be spread anyway.

I know so many people seemed uninterested in discussing classic rides, but this is something I feel I should bring up because the showgrounds are missing on some of the most important rides in amusement history. Now this is partly a talk, but partly a rant because I had to complain about the Ali Baba replacing the Rainbow, perhaps the most dumbest and retarded move anyone could ever do. Why you may ask, because the Ali Baba is a pile of putrid vomit! Call that a successor to the Rainbow? Successor my ass! It's more of a suckass version of the Rainbow! Before some of you can complain, let me make an analysis of the two rides, starting with Ali Baba. Like the 1001 Nachts, it is a ride duplicating the Rainbow. True, it runs a bit faster than the ride it tries to duplicate, but for some reason, it doesn't have the same thrill factor. Here's the 3 main reasons why. 1. Not many passenger seats. 2. Doesn't go as high as the Rainbow. 3. Not enough weightlessness and air-time sensation. This sums up what makes the Ali Baba a poor excuse for a Rainbow successor. What a piece of sh*t. A big round of applause to that ride for being a spectacular failure. Congratulations! Now compare it to the Rainbow. It may not run as fast as Ali Baba, but I learn that speed ain't everything. Three things that makes the Rainbow a noteworthy ride. 1. Up to 40 riders can go on it. 2. Takes you up at least 25m in the air. 3. Weightlessness and thrill factor is top notch. Considering that it's by HUSS, it shows that they really know how to manufacture rides, and what they try to accomplish with it. Additionally, the feeling that you'll get thrown off if you don't hold on to the lap bars really adds more to the thrill factor. This is what makes the Rainbow an interesting, fun, and timeless ride. Nothing, not even the 1001 Nacths could top it off. True that one of the reasons the Rainbow isn't showing up in showgrounds is because of the Liseburg incident 2 years ago, but even so, other Rainbows across the globe are still running as normal. My point is, why replace a gold nugget with a dog turd? The Rainbow is an instant classic, and it should never be replaced by cheap duplicates. If some of you riders prefer Ali Baba over Rainbow, then I don't care. It's your preference. This is just my preference, and I stick with it. To me, the Ali Baba is for those who are diehard riders. True riders like myself, will know which rides are great and which rides suck. Let's hope the Rainbow will return to 2011's RES to knock off its crappy duplicate Ali Baba off its pedestal. It must return as soon as possible. That's all I have to say. See you next time. Please don't make any flaming comments. T-Rex

No, it's not a Halloween themed festival. It's just an event where Campbelltown City celebrates the ghost of Fred Fisher. It occurs every early November and lasts for about a week. During that weekly period, there's a street parade taking place at Queen Street including a street fair, and there's the carnival which takes place at Bradbury Oval where's the Saturday night fireworks. There's also competitions and stuff, so it's more than just an annual carnival. I dunno what rides were at the carnival back then. All I know is that the some of the rides that come to the Royal Easter Show are presented at this carnival every year. The lineup changes every now and then, so I dunno what rides will be presented this year. For more information on the Fisher's Ghost Festival, check out this link. http://www.fishersghost.com.au

All theme parks have something for everyone. My suggestion is take a look at the rides your kids can be able to go on first and decide if that ride is for them. Don't bite off more than you can chew. It's much safer for kids to start with the tame rides first, then when they're a bit older and feel that they're well adjusted to amusement rides, they might be able to take on the more mature (thrill) rides. Sea World has more shows than rides, so if your kids are into entertainment, then that's the park to go. If they like fun and excitement, then Dreamworld, Wet n Wild, and Whitewater World will do, and as GoGoBoy suggested, if you're staying at the Gold Coast for over a week, try all the parks. Not all at once, mind you. Find the best days to go to each park. There are no definite musts, all of them are worth checking out. Hope that helps. T-Rex the Dino-Dragon

Well, now that September has just begun, it's just two months to go until November. And we all know that it means that the big annual Fisher's Ghost Festival is well on its way. The carnival boasts a number of rides each year, rides for kids, and big thrill rides for everyone. I'm pretty curious to know what rides will be presented for the Fisher's Ghost Carnival, because much like the Royal Easter Show, the carnival presents different rides each year. If anyone has some ideas of what rides are going to be presented this year, please comment. See you next time. T-Rex the Dino-Dragon

On second thought, guys, don't worry about that. I've checked out good places on videogames like GameFaqs, and read that the best Konami titles for the Super Nintendo are Super Castlevania 4, and TMNT: Turtles in Time. I've got the Batman & Robin game for the console, so I'm satisfied with having the next 3 titles in my SNES collection. Topic closed. No need for anymore comments. See you next time. T-Rex

Funny how you brought that up, Gazza, because I'm just remebering something about the Ranger. This may sound pretty dumb, but when I was little I misread the name of the ride as "Banger", because the letters coupled with it colored bright yellow played with my eyes. I was like "WTF do they mean by that?" Still, good point on why the ride is called "Ranger". I guess that's what the Germans decided to call it. All the same, they could have called it "Space Looper", or something along those lines.

*sigh* if only that could happen. They should've kept Wave Swinger as a permanent addition to LPS. I really wish they could add Rainbow, KMG Experience, and Mondial Swinger, let alone a bigger and thrilling rollercoaster. That would've been awesome. Well, let's hope for the best in the future.

Oh yeah, I remember that. I used to watch a lot of documentaries on astronomy when I was kid, and that's where I've seen that footage of the moon with the telescope in its eye. One thing I hope is that will make the Ranger run in its full potential. The first time I rode the Ranger it stopped at the top, so I was upsidedown for a few seconds. Pretty fun and thrilling experience. In that case of the new backdrop, the Ranger will now be referred to as a starship than a pirate ship. Wait a minute, don't we already have a space theme for Flying Saucer?

Okay, so it's not the LPS smiley face painted in the new backdrop for the Ranger. Glad to hear it's reopening next week.

Well, I can't say which is my fave ride because I've never been to EKKA, but I know that some of the rides that were at this year's RES have been at EKKA, like Rock n Roll and Sky Flyer for instance. Rock n Roll has to be one of my favourites. Now that I mention the RES, I'm still wondering when will O'Neill's Rainbow finally return to the showgrounds. It's another favourite of mine, and I can't wait until next year's RES to go on Rainbow and XXXL (if they do appear at the 2011 RES that is).

Hmm, so they repainted the backdrop, eh? Looks alright, though they should've kept the rainbow backdrop, since it does give hints that they originally were planning to have Rainbow. I hope they'll have one soon. BTW, what's with the moon in the backdrop? Is it gonna have the famous smiley face of the Luna Park entrance? It sure looks like it.

What a BRILLIANT idea! That would teach the residents to butcher LPS into a lifeless borefest-of-an amusement park. Rainbow and KMG Experience do induce a lot of noise (mainly from the screaming riders apart from the machine operating sounds), and let's make them build a big rollercoaster for good measure. I really like the sound of that.

Looks cool. I only hope that Ranger will be fully operational soon since it's an awesome upsidedown ride. Still, we need another upsidedown ride in LPS, and I vote for a KMG Experience, considering that Australia needs one. I also vote for LPS to add a Mondial Swinger (Dutch rides FTW!), and a HUSS Rainbow. Maybe they could add a Chance Chaos if there's room for one more ride. A small coaster sounds cool too, perhaps Jobe's suggested S&S El Loco, though the Maurer Sohne coaster looks even better.

I agree. Both Evilution and Plutonia were excellent wads and had better level design than Doom and Doom 2, mainly because the majority of the levels in the first two Doom games were designed by Sandy Petersen. The levels by Sandy Petersen were not that bad in terms of gameplay, but the architecture in most of them was virtually nonexistent when you compare them to the levels by John Romero and American McGee. Even the levels by the uncredited level designer Tom Hall were not that shabby, though they were revamped by Sandy Petersen. Even so, Final Doom had better levels since they were designed by mappers who were getting a grasp on making excellent level design. Plutonia was probably the best wad out of the two. In fact, if you've played Hell Revealed, Alien Vendetta, and Scythe, you can clearly see that they were heavily influenced by Plutonia in terms of design and gameplay.

While searching for good games for my game consoles (I'm already done with collecting games for my Sega Master System and Mega Drive, and I'm planning to get Spyro: A Hero's Tail for my Gamecube), I decided to look for some Super Nintendo games. I don't pay much attention to who designed the games, but thanks to the Angry Video Game Nerd, I manage to have an insight of which games are worth trying and which are just horrible (LJN games for example). I heard that Konami designed some pretty decent and good-quality games for the SNES, even if some of the games are hit-and-miss, so I thought about adding a couple of Konami titles to my list. I saw bits of the Adventures of Batman and Robin game from AVGN's Batman review, and I thought it looked like a great game, so I might add that. I also read some good reviews of Super Castlevania 4 (another game by Konami). That's all I could think of, so if anyone know some that are worth cashing in on ebay, please reply. Peace out. T-Rex

If I were to create a theme park, the first five rides/attractions I will add are the following: 1. B&M hypercoaster/gigacoaster 2. Traditional woodie coaster 3. HUSS Rainbow 4. KMG Experience 5. Mondial Swinger That's my two cents.

T-Rex's Gaming Corner - Final Doom: The Plutonia Experiment Doom, a game released by id Software in 1993, was one of my favourite games and was one of the best first-person shooter games of all time. Other fun first-person shooter games of the 90s included Duke Nukem 3D, Blood, Quake, and Half-Life, but Doom was the most popular game of them all, with fast-paced levels with different themes from futuristic high-tech bases, dark, creepy gothic castles, and the fiery lava pits of Hell. In 1994, id Software released Doom 2, which had more challenge with more deadly monsters to face. Two expansions were made for Doom 2: the Master Levels for Doom which was released in 1995, and Final Doom in 1996. Both were third-party expansion packs, but the most memorable one would be Final Doom. The game consisted of two megawads: Evilution and the Plutonia Experiment. I'll be taking a look at the Plutonia Experiment, because this wad was regarded as the hardest wad during the time it was released. The levels were designed by the two famous wad designers Dario and Milo Casali, who contributed a couple of levels for Evilution and designed standalone wads and levels for other Doom projects of the 90s, most notably Memento Mori and Requiem. The Plutonia Experiment was unique from other wads of its time in style and theming. It had excellent level design with top-notch quality and great architecture. Some levels were inspired from the levels of Doom and Doom 2. Map 7 had the same concept of Doom 2's Map 7 (Dead Simple), Map 18 reminded me of Doom 2's Map 14 (The Inmost Dens), Map 22 had Doom's Episode 1 written all over it, Maps 24 and 27 had the style of Doom 2's Map 29 (The Living End), and Odyssey of Noises (Plutonia Map 29) was a hellish version of Doom 2's Maps 13 and 15 (city levels). What really brings Plutonia to fame however was the gameplay - it's insanely difficult. The first time I played Plutonia, I never saw such hordes of monsters. 32 levels with armies of imps, fleets of cacodemons, and dozens of revenants, all in just the easiest skill level. It's so hard, that I can only beat the levels in god mode. Plutonia may pale in difficulty nowadays since there are more wads with greater difficulty, but it has its place in history. There's also a sequel (Plutonia 2) which started back in 2000 and was finally released on December 31st 2008. I must admit, if Plutonia wasn't created, we wouldn't have these hard megawads like Hell Revealed, Alien Vendetta, Scythe, and other wads similar to it in terms of gameplay. For you Doomers who enjoy playing megawads with beautiful level design and extreme difficulty such as Huy Pham's Deus Vult 2, don't forget that it was Plutonia that started it all. Hats off to Dario and Milo Casali for creating the Plutonia Experiment. That's it for my game talk. Hope you enjoyed it. T-Rex

I guess we're just unlucky to live in Sydney. To look at something like that is so depressing. I only hope that LPS won't share the same fate as all the other parks including this one. I never knew that a theme park in Warragamba ever existed.

Well, I'm not sure about the Gold Coast theme parks, but if I were to give some ideas for them, I'd say some parks need some improvement. All of them seem okay, though I can't give any real feedback on them because I haven't gone to them before, but I do feel they need more thrills. For one, I feel that Dreamworld/Movieworld needs a new coaster, most likely a B&M coaster since it could be Australia's first coaster. Perhaps we could have two B&Ms, one for Movieworld and one for Dreamworld. One coaster could be a standard sit-down hypercoaster/gigacoaster, and the other could have a different form, like a stand-up, floorless, or whatever. A new Movieworld coaster would need to be themed though, maybe after one of the Batman villains or something. The only thing I could say is that NSW needs another park. With Sega World and Wonderland gone, LPS is the only park NSW has to offer. I already gave my opinions about LPS and how it needs more thrills such as keeping Wave Swinger, bringing back Ranger, and adding a Rainbow, KMG Experience and Mondial Swinger as new and permanent additions for the park. Yes, LPS seems to focus more on entertainment than rides, but to me, most people go to amusement parks for the rides that are on it, and that's exactly what LPS needs to understand. Even so, NSW does need another park. I think someone ought to resurrect Wonderland, or at least construct an amusement park bigger than LPS. That's my two cents. T-Rex

Glad to hear you had fun. I dunno why Sea World is going downhill, but it sure does suck to hear that.

Sounds like a great idea! Now that you mentioned about recoloring a KMG Tango for either Dreamworld or Movie World, I did mention earlier about theming a KMG Experience and Mondial Swinger for LPS. Pretty similar to what was suggested above, and it did give me some ideas. For a KMG Experience, I suggest it to have a blue, aquamarine, green and yellow colour scheme. The backdrop could have a futuristic setting. I was going to include the choice of a space setting, but the Flying Saucer already has that. All it needs now is a name: something related to the setting, but at the same time sounding like a genuine Luna Park ride. I was thinking of "The Spinner" or "Mega Spin," but maybe there are better names for a ride like that. Suggestions, anyone? As for a Mondial Swinger, it wouldn't be difficult to give it the perfect theme, because Mondial designed some models with a circus theme under the name "Flying Circus." Surely LPS could have a Mondial Swinger model with that theme constructed exclusively for the park.

Exactly. The two rides are similar in terms of rocking back and forth while spinning around, the only exception is that the Disk-O coaster falls into the thrill ride category. LPS has Rockin' Tug during the holidays sometimes. So Australia has several Miami rides. I'm surprised that the Dominator is the only Miami ride Australia has which was manufactured by KMG, and I was beginning to think that XXXL, Sky Walker, and Speed were the only KMG rides here in Australia. Still, it would be great if we get more of them like the KMG Experience.

Okay, I was probably a bit unclear about what I was saying about the Disk-O Coaster being similar to Rockin' Tug. True it is bigger, more intense and the gondola is different from Rockin' Tug, but it goes back and forth a singular track. Just take a look at this link. It backs up my argument, well almost. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disk-O The link also points out that there are travelling models of the Disk-O coaster, so it would make a pretty good addition for Australia's lineup of rides. I might not say that it should be new addition for LPS, but Australia definitely needs one. I agree with that Jobe. Although I stated what needs to be added to LPS, what I support more closely is the park to keep Wave Swinger, bring back Ranger, and replace some of the unpopular rides with Rainbow, Mondial Swinger, and KMG Experience.

The ranger isn't exactly a bigger version of a pirate ship. Yes, it swings up and down like it, except that it inverts like Wonderland's Bounty's Revenge (Intamin Looping Starship) as we all know that.