Adam

Glad to see we are still commemorating the anniversary of this memorable and community-defining occasion. I actually received an email notification (bringing me here) saying my post from 2005 had been quoted - what a delight! To be fair - there are less grammatical errors than I was expecting, but the content is somewhat painful. May it sit there as a lesson for the ‘new’ younger generation - always question what people tell you, just maybe not in the company of AlexB. Cheers to an amazing 15 years! I don’t have much involvement in theme parks anymore, but I still credit my interest in them and my time on this site as the reason I got started in engineering. Plus some great friendships have come from this site. 🙂👍

That's a really good idea Gary86! It would simplify things greatly. Given the number of rides that prohibit loose items, Movie World has as much need for lockers as a water park. To improve on Gary's idea slightly, you could use a smartphone to unlock the lockers (using barcode scanners), which means you wouldn't need additional staff to sell the wristbands.

Just noticed this in my inbox this morning (from SAGE Automation):

The initial outlay is cheaper. Not sure how it compares in the long run when you incorporate the price of batteries. It's really exciting to see this type of ride come to the Gold Coast. I've been dreaming about a Sally Corp dark ride in Australia for years. Fantastic to see it happening for real. Disney faced some fairly interesting technical issues with Midway Mania. Unlike Buzz Lightyear, the position of the guns is determined by rotary position encoders at the base of each gun. The article highlights some of the obstacles they had to overcome to get accurate positions with this type of system.

I wouldn't be too concerned about this. Many rides have built-in mechanisms to detect whether lapbars and harnesses have been secured. You'll notice on Scooby-Doo that ride operators push down the lapbars on empty seats. The operator console won't allow a vehicle to be dispatched until all lapbars have been lowered a certain level. I once saw a bulky person having to exit the ride because his lapbar wouldn't come down enough.

Glad to see that my legacy lives on. One day all roller coasters will have these lights and then who will be laughing.

An Alpine Coaster would be a perfect fit for Aussie World. I haven't been to the park in a while, but I don't see why capacity would be much of an issue for a park of that size. I would think it would be better to have a larger number of low capacity rides than one or two big expensive rides. That style of ride would also encourage repeat visits (much like luge rides do). I wonder what price they go for.

Interesting. I've always thought the rails on Superman were not very secure. They seem so fragile. You think they'd spend a bit of money to secure them properly instead of putting in signs.

The ride is really starting to shape up. I'm loving the track colour. It'll be interesting to see what sensation a drop/inversion of this style creates. It certainly looks impressive.

I really don't think that WVTP are shortchanging themselves by selling $99 triple park passes. I'd say most Queenslanders are unlikely to visit more than one theme park in a year when paying full retail price. These passes keep people coming back - driving up in-park spending and word of mouth advertising. If this wasn't the case then we wouldn't be witnessing the third return of the VIP pass - I'd say it's doing wonders for their bottom line.

Yeah Bermuda has really gone downhill. They either need to refurbish the whole ride or replace it. It's currently only a fraction of what it once was.

I'm going to miss that coaster!

Totally agree. It's an incredible ride.

Does it currently require an operator to press a button at the exact same time that an actor fires a gun?

This to me looks like nothing more than a feasibility study. Having said that, it's still exciting to see them seriously looking at Australia as a location for a Disney park (if the JPI website is correct). I wouldn't start getting exciting about this until Disney mention something officially. None of the other projects on that page seem to exist. 'Planet Sony' seems like a VERY early concept design of a Sony-based theme park. I doubt we'll see anything become of this news.

My idea is that they should get a new thrill ride before Christmas.

Yeah that is a good idea. The PHP code to make such an addition is trivial. ---- OFF TOPIC ---------------------------------- I think Facebook is so brilliant just for this reason. Every little intricate detail has been worked out and logic applied in the smallest of places. For example, if someone comments a photo of you, and you've already left a comment, you'll receive an email saying 'someone has posted a comment after yours on a photo of you'. Amazing. It not only knows that I'm in the photo but that I have left a comment. MySpace on the other hand only notifies you of comments on YOUR photos (i.e. not tagged photos) and the text is very generic. ---- END OFF TOPIC ---------------------------

C'mon, we all loved that conspiracy theory. It may have been far from the truth, but it brought us all closer together, didn't it? As nev said, anything that requires a whole heap of automation is prone to failure, especially when there's fire involved. Scooby-Doo is nothing without the smoke effects. P.s: Do they really use fans to move the smoke around? The buildings at my uni have magnetic door latches that automatically release doors (allowing them to close) when there is a fire to stop smoke spreading. I guess the warehouse environment is different. Since fire sprinklers etc are not replicated at lower "fake ceilings". Is this correct? P.s.2. I know someone who works in an aircraft maintenance hangar, and their fire protection system consists of two massive foam cannons that automatically activate and spray copious amounts of foam. They are essentially guns, each aimed at different ends of the hanger. I have seen them up close and they are pretty impressive.

My most interesting experience is that I got free sauce at Movie World a few months ago. I will never forget that day. My second most interesting experience is that I saw an obese child rejected from the Scooby-Doo Spooky Coaster. "The computer won't let me press start," the ride op remarked awkwardly. Other than that, mostly, everything and everyone has been working as you'd expect with a couple of breakdowns here and there.

Interesting developments! I definitely think the Intamin Aquatrax would give a superior ride experience than any motorbike-style ride. I have not had the pleasure (or displeasure) of riding the motorbike coaster at Dreamworld but I do know that nothing is more frustrating than a ride with slow dispatch times. Still, a Mack Water Coaster would've been better. What Sea World doesn't have one these days?

The site is looking good Richard! Remember that you can never have enough padding. I am loving the Lightbox login form, it's very Coaster 2.0. I think it would look better if the background faded to black upon opening. jQuery is a great Javascript library. I especially like the subheading backgrounds in the contribution centre.

Thanks for the review mattcrombie. How would you rate it in terms of scariness? I've always thought that the perceived scariness of the attraction would be its major drawcard; given the obvious budget and experience considerations, a great story with amazing theming would be pretty hard to pull off successfully. The price seems pretty reasonable.

Obviously as a Roller-Coaster.com.au moderator I am keen for this event. It would be great if we could get 50 members to come along for a day. Maybe we need some kind of registration of interest form? Something along the lines of Wufoo could be used.

LOL @ Moe's. Nice explanation too.

Thanks for the photos superman. I think that's the first time I've ever seen the lift mechanism up-close. Superman Escape photos would be lovely.